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Join Us TOMORROW for Our October
“Bookaccino Live” Book Preview Afternoon Event
This is your last newsletter reminder to sign up for this month’s “Bookaccino Live” book preview afternoon event, which will take place TOMORROW, Wednesday, October 14th at 2pm ET.
The focus will be on titles releasing between October 13th and November 3rd, along with a few from December, plus January 2027, that we think will appeal to you. Those who join us live will be asked to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading and will be eligible to win a prize.
Last week, we shared info about our “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event with Kathryn Stockett on Wednesday, October 28th at 8pm ET.
This week, we are excited to announce that Sally Hepworth will be our guest for next month’s event, which we are hosting on Thursday, November 12th at 8pm ET. We will discuss Sally’s latest novel, MAD MABEL, an instant New York Times bestseller and a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. This twisty tale of justice and redemption is about an irrepressible woman who is not done breaking the rules just yet.
Carol Fitzgerald will talk to Sally for a bit before handing it off to readers who would like to share a question for her on screen (we have special sign-in directions for these attendees, and they will get to chat with Sally in our “backstage green room” before the program starts), followed by audience questions.
If you would like to ask Sally a question, all you have to do is fill out this form by Thursday, November 12th at noon ET. Remember to include your name, city, state, email address and phone number, as well as your question. And indicate if you prefer to be on camera or off.
Our latest Fall Reading prize book is THE BLUFF by Wade Rouse, which is now available. “Succession” meets The Family Stone in this humorous and sharply observant look at a family teetering on the edge of merry mayhem.
The 24-hour contest is now up, so be sure to enter for your chance to win one of five copies. The deadline for your entries is TOMORROW, Wednesday, October 14th at noon ET.
Our final Fall Reading contest for this year will go live on Wednesday, October 14th at noon ET. The prize book will be HOME FOR THE HOMICIDES by Elle Cosimano and Hannah Morrissey, which is now available.
When Special Agents Holly Frost and Mark Shepherd report to the idyllic town of Christmas to investigate a very less than idyllic murder, they’re in for more than the average whodunit.
Be sure to submit your entries by Thursday, October 15th at noon ET.
Let us know by Friday, October 23rd at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have a chance to win PARTITA by Barbara Kingsolver and WHALE HARBOR by Mary Beth Keane in our Word of Mouth contest.
PARTITA, which is October's “Read with Jenna” Book Club pick, tells the story of a brief, passionate, life-changing love affair, wrapped up in what might be the greatest romance of all: our eternal human longing for art and beauty.
Inspired by the author's own family history, WHALE HARBOR is a sweeping multigenerational saga that follows 11 brothers as they are set on different paths between Ireland, England, Montana and New York.
For those of you who shop online, if you use the store links that appear on our site for shopping, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop/IndieBound. As you read our reviews and features, we would appreciate your considering this as you buy!
This Week's Bonus News:
ReadingGroupGuides.com's Special Contest for
COME CLOSER by Dr. Galit Atlas
Enter to Win One of 20 Copies
What is the secret of emotional intimacy? How can understanding our childhood experiences give us the insights we need to be close to others in a truly satisfying, longer lasting and more meaningful way?
In COME CLOSER: Childhood Wounds, Adult Love, and the Secrets of Emotional Intimacy, Dr. Galit Atlas invites us inside the private lives of her patients --- and into her own --- to offer new, life-changing answers to these important questions.
We are giving 20 readers the opportunity to win a copy of COME CLOSER, which is now available and would be a great book to talk about with your book group or with your family. To enter the contest, please fill out this form by Wednesday, October 28th at noon ET.
COME CLOSER: Childhood Wounds, Adult Love, and the Secrets of Emotional Intimacy by Dr. Galit Atlas (Psychology/Personal Growth)
In COME CLOSER, Dr. Galit Atlas has identified six child archetypes --- the frightened child, the melancholic child, the ashamed child, the invisible child, the guilty child, and the chosen child --- and in these pages, she shows how each childhood wound plays out in our adult relationships.
In remarkably compelling and dramatic stories of both therapist and patient, Atlas illustrates how the child within us drives our love lives, forming patterns we repeat without awareness. Each narrative will have you on the edge of your seat, living the mystery alongside Atlas and her patients, uncovering roots, drawing parallels, and reaching insights and revelations just as they do.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here for the discussion guide on ReadingGroupGuides.com.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to visit Dr. Galit Atlas' website.
- Connect with Dr. Galit Atlas on Facebook and Instagram.
Click here to enter the contest.
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
Here are five upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.
Wednesday, October 14th at 2pm ET: “Bookaccino Live” Book Preview Afternoon Event: Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between October 13th and November 3rd, along with a few from December, plus January 2027, that we would like to get on your radar.
Wednesday, October 14th at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with Bonnie Garmus about her new novel, PECK & PECK, which is set in the publishing world of 1980s New York City. A young man's life is turned upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world: the renowned Peck & Peck.
Monday, October 19th at 7pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny for a live virtual discussion of MISS WOLCOTT'S GHOST, the 21st installment in her award-winning Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series. Louise will be in conversation with Rita Braver, the national correspondent for “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
Monday, October 19th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Walter Mosley will talk about his new King Oliver novel, HANGING AND BURNING. A dying gangster's plea sends Joe King Oliver on a quest for a missing woman across America's coasts --- unraveling a dark and violent family history along the way.
Tuesday, October 20th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda will talk about their upcoming book, TAKE BACK THE NIGHT. This mind-bending thriller is about three friends, one unfinished story, and a killer back from the depths to write his own ending. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at how three Killers wrote a novel together, along with news, games, and a giveaway or two.
On Sale the Week of October 12th in Hardcover
October 13th
BARK HUMBUG: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
This time, reluctant lawyer Andy Carpenter is serious about retiring. But when the local newspaper asks him to participate in their Christmas spread of local celebrities and their dogs, he brings Tara along for the ride. When the photographer comes to take pictures of Andy and the dogs, he instead opens the door to Sharon Lowery, who devised the newspaper story just to get his attention and beg him for help. Her brother, Jon, is wanted for murder and is on the run. However, if Andy agrees to hear Jon out, he'll turn himself in with the hope that Andy will represent him and reunite him with his dog. Andy decides to help Jon and slowly uncovers a web of conspiracies. Determined to keep him out of jail, Andy gathers the crew to investigate.
Minotaur Books | 9781250427830
THE BOOKSHOP: A History of Bookselling from the Dawn of Print to the Twenty-First Century by Andrew Pettegree (History)
Whether it’s a local indie bookshop, an online mega-retailer or a chain bookstore, the place we buy books is an essential part of our reading lives. Bookstores connect books to potential buyers and convert idle browsers into committed readers. Yet, as historian Andrew Pettegree reveals, it took more than five centuries after Gutenberg for bookstores as we know them to emerge. THE BOOKSHOP tells a sweeping history of the bookstore. It celebrates the ingenuity of booksellers, from the smugglers who carried contraband books across borders, to the innovators who created the global distribution networks that define books and bookselling today.
Basic Books | 9781541607279
D: HEAVY WATER by Neal Stephenson (Historical Thriller)
Europe, 1934. British journalist Owen Crisp-Upjohn is dispatched to Moscow, where his assignments quickly escalate from cultural reporting to international espionage. Before long, Owen finds himself pulled into the orbit of the enigmatic Earl of Suffolk, a maverick aristocrat, and Aurora, a curiously compelling woman with a shadowy past rooted in Soviet intelligence. Their mission soon becomes to secure the earth’s only supply of deuterium --- “heavy water” --- before it falls into Nazi hands. Over time, Owen evolves from a detached observer into a man forced to confront profound questions of honor, love and moral responsibility as loyalties are tested and allegiances shift in an ever-tightening web of science, intrigue and deceit.
William Morrow | 9780062839732
A DATE WITH SANTA by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
When her sister needs her help, single career woman Sage Madison volunteers to care for her five-year-old nephew, Ricky. Determined to give Ricky a memorable Christmas, she enlists help from her assistant and close friend, Erica, and her colleague, Ethan, who agrees to dress up as Santa --- if Sage and Ricky join him in holiday fun to get in the spirit. As Sage navigates the challenges of caring for her nephew and the prospect of romance with Ethan, she begins to discover the true magic of the season. Ethan’s bond with Ricky and his kindness toward Sage bring unexpected joy and new adventures. But when her old life threatens to interfere with the festivities, Sage must decide what she truly wants before the season’s magic slips away.
Ballantine Books | 9798217091706
THE END OF EVERYTHING by M. John Harrison (Post-Apocalyptic Fiction)
Phillip Tennent makes his living at the tideline, collecting artifacts that wash up from the Channel. It's been years since the crisis changed everything, but its exact nature remains obscure. Government barely functions, the seas are full of new creatures, an entire continent has been mislaid. It feels like the end. Now Phillip has fished out of the water an object he can't keep. A creature that keeps changing. An artifact he must take inland before it destroys everything he thinks he knows.
Riverhead Books | 9798217438655
ETHEL KENNEDY: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy by Kerry Kennedy (Biography)
When her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, was killed in 1968, Ethel Skakel Kennedy --- then pregnant with their 11th child --- drew national attention for her grace, dignity and resolute commitment to furthering his work in human rights, even in her grief. But as her daughter, Kerry, witnessed, Ethel was so much more than a dutiful wife and keeper of Robert's legacy of service. She was courageous, curious, compassionate, boisterous and witty, always guided by faith and an instinct for speaking truth to power. In ETHEL KENNEDY, Kerry delves into her own memories, her family's recollections, and her mother's private papers.
HarperOne | 9780063454958
THE GAME by Peter King (Sports)
For 40 years, Peter King’s unmatched access, curiosity and passion have made him synonymous with the National Football League. He broke countless stories, giving us the human side of the sport and influencing countless reporters. Players trusted him; coaches and owners revealed information to him. He gathered it all into notebooks and columns that kept fans riveted. Now, in THE GAME, King has brought all his knowledge and insight together in one place to tell the story of the modern NFL as no one else could. Moving from the mid-1980s, when the league went head-to-head with baseball in popularity, to the present, when it dominates every other entertainment in America, King narrates the NFL’s explosive rise from the inside.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324123637
HOME FOR THE HOMICIDES: A Holly & Mark Mystery by Elle Cosimano and Hannah Morrissey (Romantic Comedy/Mystery)
Welcome to Christmas, a town so cozy and charming it could be the backdrop of a Hallmark movie. So when a tourist is found stabbed to death by an icicle ornament in the middle of the town nativity scene, the local police are out of their depth. Special Agents Holly Frost and Mark Shepherd are on thin ice after screwing up on the job. This assignment is their one shot at redemption, if they can put aside their bitter rivalry. And of course, it's not only their careers on the line, it's their hearts, too. Regrets of their holiday party hookup last year haunt them like ghosts of Christmas past, so they both want to wrap up this rom-com gone wrong as quickly as possible. But with just 12 days until the town's annual Jingle Bell Jubilee festival, the countdown to catch a killer --- without killing each other --- is on.
Minotaur Books | 9781250413352
I NEVER KNEW YOU AT ALL by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza (Fiction)
When Simone Hartwell’s college ex and first love, Kwame, resurfaces in her life, her carefully constructed domestic bliss threatens to crumble under the weight of old feelings and new dramas. Kwame, who built the journalism career Simone once dreamed of, is investigating a decades-old mystery of a young Black man who disappeared from The Tate School --- the same elite prep school that her husband’s family has attended for generations. When he discovers a startling connection to the Hartwells, it sets everyone on a collision course that will unearth long-held secrets, test loyalties, and force a major reckoning between the past and the future.
Atria Books | 9781668033258
LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN by Jason Rekulak (Supernatural Thriller)
Meet Penny Padgett, a 27-year-old cartoonist in Philadelphia who agrees to pet-sit a very peculiar cat named Godfrey in her home. At first, he’s a warm and affectionate companion who follows Penny all around the house and insists on sleeping by her side every night. But soon strange things are happening: Penny is haunted by disturbing and violent nightmares. There’s a terrible insect infestation in her basement. Her cute cartoon illustrations turn dark and surreal, as if influenced by some invisible hand. And her health starts failing, as if her mind and body are under attack by a sinister, malevolent force. Penny may be a cat person, but she’s starting to think Godfrey is no ordinary cat.
Flatiron Books | 9781250895875
LUNA, PHOENIX, QUEEN by Julie Orringer (Fiction)
Dava and Barr Pennington are professors at a Midwestern university. Dava is unhappy in their marriage and secretly in love with a colleague. Spurred by their complicated liaison, she spends her nights working on a novel about two women who run a domestic violence shelter. But the writing becomes increasingly difficult as her memory begins to fail. Tests reveal that she’s suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s. After a precipitous decline, Dava moves to a memory-care facility. Soon afterward, Barr discovers her hidden manuscript and extrapolates her affair from the relationship described in the novel’s pages. Over the next two years, he rewrites the novel and publishes it as his own. But persistent feelings of guilt lead him to confess his theft to an unlikely party, who leads others to the truth.
Knopf | 9798217207886
MUSIC AGAINST THE NIGHT by Yiyun Li (Historical Fiction)
In Dublin, as the 18th century nears its end, a young musical virtuoso comes of age. John Field is preternaturally gifted, and his family has visions of him becoming the next Mozart. His talent eventually takes him to Russia, where he becomes a famous pianist and composes dreamy, languorous melodies that enchant the night air. John calls them nocturnes, but the prodigy who immortalizes them is Chopin. Oceans away in Pondicherry, in French India, Adelaide Percheron is raised by her imperious, enterprising grandmother. Her cousins give her the name Percherette, an impish reminder that she is not one of the crowd. Without a connection to aristocracy or the luxury of riches, only marriage seems to offer prosperity --- until she sets her sights on a pianoforte.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374613051
MYSTERY PLAY by Elizabeth Kostova (Historical/Supernatural Thriller)
After his beloved mother passes away suddenly, Jay Turner returns to their Boston home to clear out her possessions and finds an unusual item: a partially burned scrap of newspaper bearing the name “Gael Brogan.” Soon after, a deliveryman leaves behind a package containing a small antique volume bound in leather --- and two bloody footprints. As a young scholar, his mother had been given the medieval book --- one of a set commissioned by Vlad ÈšepeÈ™, otherwise known as Dracula, just before his death in 1477. She had always warned Jay of the dangers associated with it and had donated it to a museum before she died. Yet here it is, back in his possession. Jay sets out to learn more about Gael Brogan, a prominent 19th-century actor, and uncovers the frightening story of a young actress who fell under Brogan's sway long ago.
Ballantine Books | 9781524799649
ODETTE RISING by Julianne Edwards (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1896 in Sèvres, France. From her bedroom window, Odette Huré watches a funeral procession carry her father’s coffin away. She is 21, and she has not left the house for 10 years. Odette looks on as her life passes, reading and soothing herself with food. But with the sudden death of her father, the walls she has built around herself begin to crumble. Forced into the world, she discovers to her horror that she is responsible for her father’s considerable fortune and his celebrated stockings factory --- renowned for its exquisite designs that adorn the slender ankles of Parisian femmes célèbres. Now Odette must try and navigate the world she has hidden from for so long. In doing so, she will unearth secrets left behind by her father and the shocking truth of her own identity.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593995518
OFF THE RESERVATION by Stephen Graham Jones (Horror)
Five years have passed since the massacre on the Blackfeet reservation in THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS. Nathan Yellow Tail, one of the survivors of the revenge murders, finds himself in the hospital after a terrible accident that should’ve killed him and that nearly killed his best friend, Sebby. Nate’s life is out of balance, so when he is given the chance to reset his life, and maybe save Sebby in the process, he steps up again. This time it’s into a camper van that is almost as run down as his broken body, filled with three older Blackfeet, to find the bones of the lone Blackfeet boy who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School --- where many Indigenous children were abused --- and repatriate this boy home. The problem is, when they get the bones, something terrible has escaped with them.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781668225127
PASSENGERS by Alexander Maksik (Dystopian Fiction)
Ivan is a solitary man in his 70s, set in his ways and haunted by the failures of his past. His daughter, Nina, is in the twilight of her 20s and has long kept a distance from her sentimental father. But when Ivan proposes a trip to Europe in hopes that it will bring them closer together, Nina reluctantly agrees. They meet at LAX, where their departure is delayed. And delayed again. And again. As the hours drag on, their sharp, caustic and wide-ranging conversation reveals a lifetime of misunderstandings, unhealed wounds and stubborn love. Soon more flights are canceled, security tightens, airport staff grow evasive, and it becomes clear to Ivan and Nina that something is wrong. At last, the surreal starts to overtake the mundane, and their need to escape --- and to protect each other --- turns increasingly urgent.
Europa Editions | 9798889661955
PECK & PECK by Bonnie Garmus (Fiction/Humor)
It’s 1982, New York City. Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, a recent college graduate, is worried about his future. While his friends have real jobs, he’s folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No. Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant he hears from all the time. But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane. Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two Editors in Chief, the famous Peck brothers --- twins and enemies --- as well as being privy to the private affairs of their 39 editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest. And by burn, they mean incinerate.
Scribner | 9781668251065
SAMANTHA: THE NEXT CHAPTER by Fiona Davis (Historical Fiction)
In honor of the 40th anniversary of the iconic American Girl brand, Fiona Davis was asked to write the first American Girl novel for adults. It’s 1920, and 25-year-old Samantha Parkington is working hard to educate women in New York about suffrage and encourage them to vote in their first presidential election that fall. But when Samantha’s large inheritance, including her childhood Mount Bedford home, is stolen in a shocking scheme, she goes from socialite to shop girl overnight and experiences a very different side of New York City living in a boarding house. Searching for clues regarding the theft of her inheritance, Samantha infiltrates the business of a notorious criminal in New York City. Determined as ever, she will do whatever it takes to find answers and save her family’s legacy.
American Girl Publishing | 9781683372653
SOLACE HOUSE by Will Maclean (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
For Alex Lane’s wealthy university friends, the summer break stretches out before them. But for Alex, broke as usual, going home is not an option. So when the university offers him an unusual summer job clearing out a dilapidated Victorian mansion, Solace House, he jumps at the chance. Alex joins an unlikely crew of students and is particularly drawn to mercurial, red-headed Ella. As the students begin sorting through piles of old newspapers and magazines, dusty antiques and esoteric junk, Alex and Ella become enthralled by the elaborate and eerie journals of the house’s former owner, Edwin Flayne. As the students gradually uncover the house’s secrets, the rift between those who want to delve further and those who believe they’ve already gone too far grows ever wider.
Grove Press | 9780802168689
SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN: Hope Is a Knife by James Tynion IV and Kiersten White (Supernatural Horror/Dark Fantasy)
As a Black Mask, Erica Slaughter has a very straightforward job: find the monster, kill the monster, then do it all again. But when she arrives in Badwater, Idaho, nothing is simple. She can’t determine whether the horrific killer of a 12-year-old was a bear, a person, or something much worse. Complicating matters is the charismatic doomsday preacher who is quickly leading the small town to the verge of hysteria. If Erica wants to save the surviving children, she has to figure out which kid’s fears might have summoned a monster --- and fast. Erica must get to the truth before the Order and the town come to the same conclusion: to stop the monster, you have to kill the girl.
Crown | 9780593799383
THE SPIRITS by Bonnie Jo Campbell (Fiction)
It is the night before Christmas in a small town in Michigan, and a young woman is haunted by her father’s death. She has been silently penitent for nine years, but her guilt and grief have estranged her from her community and her family. She has taken refuge in the natural world of the plants and trees she tends, but on this anniversary of the tragedy, the supernatural landscape is rattling its chains. When a surprise guest appears at the (dreaded) Christmas Eve dinner, the family begins to open up and reveal dangerous secrets and crimes nobody is willing to face. Within this darkest chaos, a sliver of light appears, showing a way to reclaim communion and even a sense of humor.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324130901
THE STORY BAKER written by Carsten Henn, translated by Melody Shaw (Fiction)
Though she only just started her temporary job at the village bakery, former ballet dancer Sofie already wants to quit from day one. Her career abruptly ended after an injury threatened any and all chances of success, and losing her most beloved passion has thrown her life off track. Yet there’s something about the rhythms of the bakery that captivates her. Fascinated, Sofie watches old Italian baker Giacomo at work and discovers that baking bread is almost like a dance. To her own surprise, she comes to see the little bakery as far more than just a place of work: it slowly transforms into a reprieve. It is here that she discovers the wisdom of a simple man, the joy of small things, and the courage to embrace change.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335000996
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WOMEN READ by Julianna Glasse (Memoir)
At the peak of her fame, Julianna Glasse seemed to have everything she wanted: a successful career as a Christian pop singer and author, a high-profile marriage, and a respected place in the evangelical community that had shaped her understanding of herself and the world. But beneath the surface, questions she could no longer ignore began to challenge everything she had spent decades learning, teaching and defending. The books she started to read opened doors she could not shut. The certainties she had inherited over her lifetime no longer felt certain. She came to see how fear had shaped so many of her choices, and how freedom often begins with a question. In this deeply personal memoir, Julianna writes of her very public and painful split from both the church and her husband.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781966302346
THE THRICE-BOUND FOOL by Christopher Buehlman (Fantasy/Adventure)
Professional thief and inveterate trickster Kinch Na Shannack has always enjoyed a good book. But now his life, and the future of all of Manreach, depends on deciphering a very bad book indeed. It’s a stolen, sentient tome that tries to kill him every time he opens it --- and often when it’s closed. Galva, veteran of the goblin wars and death’s sworn handmaiden, has vowed to protect Kinch while he mines the book for its dark magic and even darker secrets. She does so not for Kinch’s sake, but because the book is the key to stopping the shadowy tyrants out to kill the queen she serves --- and loves. The ruthless, all-seeing Taker’s Guild dogs their every step, and thief and knight must flee the known world entirely if they hope to succeed. But trouble finds Kinch wherever he goes.
Tor Books | 9781250621214
TRUTH TO POWER: A Luke Cage Marvel Crime Novel by S. A. Cosby (Thriller)
With advanced cybernetics showing up in the possession of low-level criminals, Luke Cage is hired to investigate a factory manufacturing medical devices in rural Virginia. Leaving Jessica Jones during a delicate moment in their relationship, he makes plans to travel south but is devastated to learn that a cousin who scoped out the plant for him has been found dead. The police report states it was an accident. But Luke has long known that official words are just that: words. Fueled by guilt and vengeance, Luke arrives in Virginia and promises his aunt that he will get to the bottom of things. But danger lurks in every living room, barroom and country road of Majestic, and the local sheriff’s barely concealed prejudices are ready to boil to the surface.
Hyperion Avenue | 9781368095372
THE TULIP POPLARS by Silas House (Historical Fiction)
Amos and Tom fall in love while working in the tobacco fields during the hot summers of the early 1900s, yet Tom cannot shake his strict religious upbringing nor the responsibilities of his family’s farm. His longtime friend, Maeve, also pines for a man she can’t have, lest she endanger his already tenuous life in a town and world shaped by racial lines. How do you live a life that feels untrue, and at what point do you risk everything?
Algonquin Books | 9781643756974
UNSPEAKABLE THINGS by Elizabeth Hand (Historical Thriller/Gothic Romance)
It's the 1920s, and the English countryside is quiet --- which suits Olivia and Tamsin. Their relationship is complicated. Unruly, working-class Tamsin was brought to Kerrith Manor to be tutored at Olivia's side, but the two quickly have found something more than friendship --- a bone-deep recognition that ignites an endless passion. But an unexpected visitor and an unexplained death disrupt their idyll, sending both women on the run. They find harbor at Ledges, the dazzling estate of ruthlessly wealthy and mysterious Rex de Voil --- and a favorite hangout for the bohemian “bright young things” eager to cut loose far from London’s prying eyes. Olivia and Tamsin revel in their newfound freedom…until they learn that nothing in Rex’s world is without cost.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316579056
On Sale the Week of October 12th in Paperback
October 13th
AFTER THAT, THE DARK: A Cameron Winter Mystery by Andrew Klavan (Hard-boiled Mystery)
After working up the courage to contact Gwendolyn Lord, Cameron Winter finds himself immersed in a heaven-sent passion. When Gwendolyn tells him about a true-life “locked-room mystery,” Winter is compelled to investigate. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Owen McKay suddenly went mad and killed his wife and child. Locked in a cell and monitored on video, he was discovered dead from a projectile fired into his head. Then another mysterious death, just like McKay's, takes place in Connecticut, and both murders seem linked to a sinister billionaire who once clashed with Winter's old mentor, the Recruiter. Winter's past and present are coming together in a dangerous conspiracy. And though Winter desperately wants to escape his career as an assassin, he will do anything --- and kill anyone --- to protect Gwendolyn.
The Mysterious Press | 9781613168431
ALL THE LITTLE HOUSES by May Cobb (Domestic Thriller)
It's the mid-1980s in the tiny town of Longview, Texas. Nellie Anderson, the beautiful daughter of the Anderson family dynasty, has burst onto the scene. She always gets what she wants. What she can't get for herself… well, that's what her mother is for. Because Charleigh Anderson --- blond, beautiful and ruthlessly cunning --- remembers all too well having to claw her way to the top. When she was coming of age on the poor side of East Texas, she was a loser and an outcast, humiliated and shunned by the in-crowd, whose approval she'd so desperately thirsted for. When a prairie-kissed family moves to town --- all trad wife, woodworking dad, wholesome daughter vibes --- Charleigh's entire self-made social empire threatens to crumble. Who will be left standing when the dust settles?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9798256500139
AS WE FALL THROUGH TIME by Claire North (Science Fiction/Romance)
Paperback Original
When Cal meets a soldier of the French Revolution, he knows his lover is destined to die. But what's the point of being a time traveler if you can’t make a few small tweaks to the course of history? A little paradox here, an alteration there --- nothing Cal can’t fix, to save the man he loves. When Fadimatu walks into a museum in 2018, she stumbles upon her own mummified corpse, setting her on the path to a betrayal that already has killed her, and a murder that has not yet come to pass. And when a sudden rupture in the fabric of history rips through the lives that Cal and Fadimatu have built, breaking both past and future, they must reckon with death foretold, love forsaken, and a secret that will shatter time itself.
Orbit | 9780316586467
THE BLUFF by Wade Rouse (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
The Chapmans do Christmas the way they do everything: impeccably, expensively, and with the unshakable belief that good lighting can conceal bad blood. Their annual Christmas card may look picture-perfect, but behind the polite smiles there’s a storm brewing. This year, at their grand lakefront cottage on Mackinac Island, a snowstorm traps generations of Chapmans --- and their schemes --- under one roof. As the snow piles up, so do the grievances. Chris and Kat’s children --- fiercely liberal Leah and conservative golden-boy Chip --- are locked in a battle of wits; Chris’ vaguely corrupt brother, Cormac, and his calculating trophy wife are stirring the pot; and Kat’s mother is holding onto a secret that could upend the entire game.
Mira | 9780778306221
BOG QUEEN by Anna North (Mystery)
When Agnes arrives in the peat bogs of Northern England to study an anthropological marvel --- an Iron Age body --- she isn't expecting the controversy. Peat-cutters are looking to profit from the bog, activists are demanding it be preserved, scientists are clamoring for the next discovery. And then there is the moss itself: a repository of artifacts, with its own dark stories to tell. Flashing between post-Brexit England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe, BOG QUEEN brims with ancient wisdom as it connects across time two gifted, farsighted young women learning to harness their strengths in a landscape more mysterious than either can imagine.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9798260200377
DETOUR by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart (Science Fiction/Thriller)
When Ryan Crane, a cop, spots a gunman emerging from an unmarked van, he leaps into action and unknowingly saves John Ward, a billionaire with presidential aspirations, from an assassination attempt. As thanks for Ryan’s quick thinking, Ward offers him the chance of a lifetime: to join a group of lucky civilians chosen to accompany three veteran astronauts on the first manned mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. As the ship is circling Titan, it is rocked by an unexplained series of explosions. The crew works together to get back on course, and they return to Earth as heroes. When the fanfare dies down, Ryan and his fellow astronauts notice that things are different. Some changes are good, but others are more disconcerting. Before the group can connect, mysterious figures start tailing them, and their communications are scrambled.
Random House Worlds | 9780593871393
FUTURE BOY: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry (Memoir)
In early 1985, Michael J. Fox’s days were already dedicated to rehearsing and taping the hit sitcom “Family Ties,” but then the chance of a lifetime came his way. Soon, he committed his nights to a new time-travel adventure film being directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg --- Back to the Future. Fox’s nightly commute from a soundstage at Paramount to the back lot at Universal Studios, from one dream job to another, would become his own space-time continuum. In FUTURE BOY, Fox tells the remarkable story of playing two landmark roles at the same time. Using new interviews with the cast and crew of both projects, the result is a vividly drawn and eye-opening story of creative achievement by a beloved icon.
Flatiron Books | 9781250866790
GOOD GUYS by Mindy Misener (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Georgie and Jo are sisters, but they aren’t close. The situation seems worse once Jo goes off to college, making it obvious that she’s happy about leaving Curtisville and Georgie and their disabled father behind. Then, Gary Clemmons dies in the Iraq War. Gary --- the son of their pastor, the hero of their hometown, and the brother of Georgie’s secret girlfriend --- was famous for being a good guy. But Georgie stumbles on a dark secret about Gary, and once Jo finds out, things begin to spiral out of control. The fallout will change both sisters' lives forever.
Melville House | 9781685892654
THE HITCHHIKERS by Chevy Stevens (Psychological Thriller)
It’s the summer of 1976, and Alice and Tom set out on the remote Canadian highways in their new RV, hoping to heal their broken hearts after a devastating tragedy. They’ve planned the trip perfectly and taken care of every detail. Then they meet two young hitchhikers down on their luck and offer them a ride. But Simon and Jenny aren’t what they seem. They’ve left a trail of blood, destruction and madness behind them. Now Alice and Tom are trapped, prisoners in a deadly game, with nowhere to turn. As the tension builds, the lines blur, and the question becomes: In whose heart does evil truly lie? What secrets are Jenny and Simon hiding? And who will live another day?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250133670
IT GIRL: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin by Marisa Meltzer (Biography)
Jane Birkin was synonymous with chic. Her effortless style and artistic legacy have been immortalized through her music and film career. And, of course, she was the inspiration behind one of the world’s most coveted bags, the Hermès Birkin. But who was the real woman behind the it girl? Now, Marisa Meltzer sheds new light on Birkin’s enigmatic life and explores her profound influence on generations in a rigorously reported biography unlike any other. IT GIRL paints a vivid portrait of Birkin and her profound legacy, from her early years in 1960s London to her rise as a beloved celebrity in France, detailing personal challenges, her relationships with creative powerhouses, and the duality of her public and private selves.
Atria Books | 9781668060292
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE MURDER by Ally Carter (Romantic Comedy/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Ella Chambers didn’t kill Liam Montgomery. If she had, she certainly wouldn’t have done it outside his family’s mansion during the Christmas party of the year. But now Liam is missing, and Ella is the only person who knows he’s still alive. So it’s up to her to prove it. Liam Montgomery didn’t want to die. But, it turns out, when you’re the sole heir to a billionaire, someone might want you dead. Luckily for Liam, being dead works for him. Now he’s on the hunt for a killer. Unfortunately, Ella is on the hunt for him. She’ll have to prove he’s still alive to clear her name, but that’s easier said than done in a quaint mountain town where everyone knows your story, but no one knows the truth. As the storm of the century blows in, every step will bring these two childhood rivals closer to a killer --- and each other.
Avon | 9780063387041
LOVE YOU TO DEATH by Jenna Levine (Paranormal Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Lucy McKenzie’s life has always been a disaster. So it should come as no surprise when one day she is hit by an inconveniently timed bus --- and dies. Unfortunately for the handsome grim reaper who shows up to take her to the afterlife, Lucy is not about to go quietly. Daniel is tired of his job collecting souls. While working for the Agency beats the heck out of going to Hell, he’s been doing this for literal ages. The drudgery has him yearning for more. Touched by Lucy’s plea for more time on earth, he convinces the Agency to make a deal: Lucy can have six more weeks of life if Daniel can observe her and report back on humanity. But as Lucy and Daniel navigate the chaos of life and afterlife together, they discover that a second chance at living might be their real chance at love.
Berkley | 9780593819937
MERRY SPOOKY LOVE: A Melody Bittersweet Novel by Josie Silver (Romantic Comedy/Paranormal Mystery)
Paperback Original
When Lucy Libertine, the namesake of the charming old-school department store Libertines, unexpectedly dies, the store goes to her deceased sister's three children: businessmen twins Francis and Tom, and their younger sister, Fleur. Despite Fleur and the local community protesting, the twins are excited to sell up. They hold all the cards as the majority shareholders --- that is, until Lucy Libertine herself decides to even the playing field, haunting the twins out of house and home (and department store). While the twins call in Melody Bittersweet's ghost-hunting ex to defend them, Lucy goes to Melody to represent Fleur and the deceased Libertine family. Melody is all too happy to take another job, save a beloved local store, and maybe knock her ex down a paranormal peg or two.
Dell | 9780593983041
MINOR BLACK FIGURES by Brandon Taylor (Fiction)
New York simmers with heat and unrest as Wyeth, a painter, finds himself at an impasse in his own work. After attending a dubious show put on by a collective of careerist artists, he retreats to a bar in the West Village where he meets Keating, a former seminarian. Over the long summer, as the two get to know each other, they talk and argue about God, sex and art. Meanwhile, at his job working for an art restorer, Wyeth begins to investigate the life and career of a forgotten, minor Black artist. His search yields potential answers to questions that Wyeth is only now beginning to ask about what it means to be a Black artist making Black art amid the mess and beauty of life itself.
Riverhead Books | 9780593332375
MOTHER MAY I by Harry Hunsicker (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When former CIA operative Meg Dalton finds a shocking clue that suggests her long-missing daughter might still be alive, she’s forced into a desperate, high-stakes search for the truth. Fifteen years after little Ivy vanished without a trace at a Texas fair, Meg has built a career as a covert “operator” --- a soldier-for-hire who takes on dangerous black ops missions for the government. But during a botched assignment in Los Angeles, Meg encounters a woman wearing her daughter’s distinctive butterfly necklace, and everything she believes unravels. As Meg defies her handlers and goes rogue to chase the lead, she’s thrust into a deadly conspiracy linking global espionage, human trafficking and her own past sins.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608096626
A MURDER IN PARIS by Matthew Blake (Psychological Thriller)
Olivia Finn is a memory expert at Charing Cross Hospital in London. One night, she receives an urgent call from the police at the Hotel Lutetia on Paris’s famous Left Bank. Olivia’s French grandmother, Josephine Benoit, has appeared at the Lutetia in a distressed state claiming she once committed a murder in the hotel at the end of the Second World War. Traveling to Paris, Olivia finds her grandmother confused. But Josephine insists it is a recovered memory from the past. More disturbingly, hotel records show that a woman did die in that room of the Lutetia in 1945. Could her story really be true? As people start dying in the present day, Olivia is plunged into a race against time to uncover the truth about Josephine and what really happened all those years ago.
Harper Perennial | 9780063314207
NEAR FLESH: Stories by Katherine Dunn (Fiction/Short Stories)
A woman invests in a series of sex robots to get her off and comes to terms with the limitations --- and real threat --- of automated companionship. A knowing young student pursues an affair with an older man, the poet in residence at the university where she studies writing, and weighs the benefits and costs of their arrangement. A mother moves to a farm with her family and must come to terms with the violence simmering beneath her skin. NEAR FLESH is the first and only collection of short fiction by Katherine Dunn, the author of the bestselling novel GEEK LOVE. These 19 stories are attuned to the spit and grit of tough living. They pulse with yearning for a more prosperous life, for sexual satisfaction, to escape abusive husbands and the disappointments of convention.
Picador | 9781250448231
ONE OF THEM by Kitty Zeldis (Historical Fiction)
Anne Bishop seems like a typical Vassar sophomore --- one of a popular group of privileged WASP friends. None of the girls in her circle has any idea that she’s Jewish, or that her real first name is Miriam. Pretending to be a Gentile has made life easier. As Anne, she no longer suffers the snubs, snide remarks and daily restrictions Jews face. But her secret life is threatened when she becomes fascinated by a girl not in her crowd. Delia Goldhush is sophisticated, stylish, brilliant and unashamedly Jewish. Knowing that her growing closeness with Delia would be social suicide if it were discovered, Anne keeps their friendship quiet. Delia seems to understand --- until a cruelty on Anne’s part drives them apart and sends them scattering to other corners of the world, alone and together.
Harper Perennial | 9780063352858
THIS IS THE ONLY KINGDOM by Jaquira Díaz (Fiction)
When Maricarmen meets Rey el Cantante, the beloved small-time Robin Hood and local musician on the rise, she begins to envision a life beyond the tight-knit community of el Caserío, Puerto Rico. But breaking free proves more difficult than she imagined, and she soon finds herself struggling to make a home for herself; Rey; his young brother, Tito; and, eventually, their daughter, Nena. Until one fateful day changes everything. Fifteen years later, Maricarmen and Nena find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation as the community that once rallied to support Rey turns against them. Now Nena, a teenager haunted by loss and betrayal and exploring her sexual identity, must learn to fight for herself and her family in a world not always welcoming.
Algonquin Books | 9781643757346
UNABRIDGED: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary by Stefan Fatsis (Linguistics/Cultural Studies)
Words are the currency of culture --- and never more than today. From selfie to doomscrolling to rizz, our hyper-connected digital world coins and spreads new words with lightning speed and locks them into mainstream consciousness with unprecedented influence. Journalist and bestselling author Stefan Fatsis embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America’s most famous dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, to learn how words get into the dictionary, where they come from, who decides what they mean, and how we write and think about them. As he recounts in UNABRIDGED, he discovered the history and fascinating subculture of the dictionary and of those who curate and revere “one of the most basic features of our collective humanity.”
Grove Press | 9780802168474
THE UNVEILING by Quan Barry (Literary Horror)
Striker isn’t entirely sure she should be on this luxury Antarctic cruise. A Black film scout, her mission is to photograph potential locations for a big-budget movie about Ernest Shackleton’s doomed expedition. Along the way, she finds amusement in the behavior of both the native wildlife and the group of wealthy, mostly white tourists who have chosen to spend Christmas on the Weddell Sea. But when a kayaking excursion goes horribly wrong, Striker and a group of survivors become stranded on a remote island along the Antarctic Peninsula, a desolate setting complete with boiling geothermal vents and vicious birds. As the polar ice thaws in the unseasonable warmth, the group’s secrets, prejudices and inner demons will also emerge, including revelations from Striker’s past that could irrevocably shatter her world.
Grove Press | 9780802168481
THE WANDERING STARS by J. D. Rasch (Fantasy)
Paperback Original
The Moment, the brief joining of minds that awakened compassion across Bracat, is fading from memory. Some still remember, but many have forgotten, while others never experienced it at all. As old fears return, the Great Council of Wizards resumes its relentless search for the Golden Tree, while the ruthless Thurmore embraces forbidden powers in pursuit of his dream. Haunted by the destruction he once caused, Malzus seeks redemption as he searches for the truth behind his father's death. Elsewhere, Alitheia and Rogi, separated by distant lands yet guided by the stars, seek one another --- and the Golden Tree --- not for power, but for the peace that comes through true understanding. As Thurmore's influence spreads, two futures emerge: one built on fear, the other on compassion.
Lamina Press | 9781962247092
WORKHORSE by Caroline Palmer (Fiction/Humor)
At the turn of the millennium, Editorial Assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. There’s just one problem: she doesn’t have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a “workhorse” surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected “show horses” who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis’ boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system --- or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top.
Flatiron Books | 9781250360106
YOU LET ME IN by Lucy Clarke (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Elle Fielding is floundering. Her once-perfect marriage is falling apart, and she’s on the verge of losing her book deal --- and, by extension, the dream home she’s poured her savings into. As her finances dwindle, Elle decides to rent out her Cornish home on Airbnb. Just this once. But when she returns home after a writer’s retreat away, nothing feels right. There’s a new coldness. A shift in the atmosphere. The prickling feeling that someone is watching her every move from the shadows. Maybe it’s all in Elle’s mind? And yet every threat seems personal. As if someone has discovered the secrets that keep her awake at night. As fear and paranoia close in, Elle’s own home becomes a prison. Someone is unlocking her past --- and she’s given them the key.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802168016
On Sale the Week of October 19th in Hardcover
October 19th
THE FAMILY CROSS: An Alex Cross Thriller by James Patterson (Thriller)
Alex Cross is a brilliant psychologist --- and a relentless hunter of killers for the FBI and DC Metro Police. To his beloved Nana Mama, he’s still the boy she raised. And every morning, as he straps on his service weapon, she’s reminded just how dangerous his world has become. But in Washington, DC, there are places even the police don’t go --- an unseen underworld where violence thrives and rules don’t apply. And this time, Alex is stepping straight into it. Each move pulls him deeper into the dark --- and closer to a case that could shatter the promise he made to Nana…and cost him everything he holds most dear.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316569743
October 20th
THE BISHOP OF DURHAM ATTEMPTS TO SURRENDER THE CITY by Susanna Clarke (Historical Fantasy)
During the conquest of Northern England, the fairy host sweeps across the countryside. The city of Durham finds itself surrounded. But the encircling forces are not fairies or even other humans, but trees that trap the city within an eerie wood. Ranulf, Bishop of Durham --- a consummate politician --- understands that the survival of the Northern English people depends on his finding a way to unite the two races, human and fairy. And he's not averse to improving his own position at the same time. With these aims in view, he sets off for the New Castle in search of the new King --- the leader of the fairy host, rumored to be a mysterious human boy, no more than 14 years old, who speaks no word of any human language.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639739813
CHAIN REACTION: A Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Thriller)
Jack Reacher is hard to find. But General Susan Turner, based deep inside the Pentagon, has the means and the motive to track him down. She needs his help. A member of her team has been brutally murdered on covert duty. She can’t trust anyone she works with, not even her deputy. She needs someone from the outside. Someone who solves problems and disappears without a trace. Reacher heads to Summertown, Colorado. A town as remote and bizarre as it gets. One diner, one motel, five massive data centers, two giant solar farms humming away in the dust. Total population: four people. And one of them is watching him. But Reacher isn’t built to run. He’s built to finish things. General Turner knows that if they come for Reacher, they’ll regret it --- all the way to the top of the chain.
Bantam | 9798217375158
DEATH ON THE ROYAL YACHT by SJ Bennett (Historical Mystery)
1966, Caribbean Sea. The Queen is touring the islands of the West Indies aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Her schedule is packed with official visits, but when her new diary secretary, young Pamela Sinclair, is found dead in her cabin, the whole trip threatens to be thrown off course. Pamela’s death from an overdose of prescription pills is surrounded by details that don’t add up. It looks as though she was afraid of someone on board, and Joan McGraw --- the Queen’s loyal sidekick and assistant private secretary --- is the leading suspect. With the whole world watching, the real circumstances surrounding her death must be uncovered, and quickly.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892427142
DOPPELGÄNGER by Sam Riviere (Fiction/Dark Humor)
At Northwick Author Development Academy, an elite incubator for the creative class, originality is both fetish and mandate. Its candidates arrive ravenous for distinction --- only to discover, after a year of carefully engineered “disorientation,” that their work has converged into something eerily uniform. When a student in the sophomore cohort, Carl Sample, announces his intention to provoke a stranger into punching him --- an act pitched as both personal exorcism and artistic experiment --- the action seems grotesque, comic and vaguely prophetic. Before Carl can enact his plan, another student is assaulted in town. This emerging crisis of coincidence binds the cohort in a tightening web of surveillance and mythmaking, as intention and event fall fatally out of sync.
Catapult | 9781646223466
HANGING AND BURNING: A King Oliver Novel by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
Joe King Oliver is the big man you call to solve the most delicate and dangerous of problems. Fresh off unraveling the mystery of his own parents’ fates, King finds himself accepting (again at his grandmother’s request) a case from Arman Babylon, a powerful Los Angeles gangster now dying from cancer. Babylon’s granddaughter, Twyla Mann, has been missing for years, and he’s desperate to find her before he passes. The search pulls King into the Babylons’ stained past and the cold case of Dalia Shorts, a torch singer who vanished without a trace and whom Arman was once suspected of killing. As King follows her trail from L.A. to New York and back, he’ll realize nothing is what it seems as he uncovers a pattern of violence that has targeted the women around Babylon for decades.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316573207
LADIES' MAN: The Careless Heart of John F. Kennedy by Laurence Leamer (History)
John F. Kennedy was a born leader --- bold, charismatic, and able to charm with nothing more than a witty phrase and a winning smile. He also was obsessive, manipulative and haunted by complex desires for shiny, remarkable women, collecting them voraciously and carelessly, then dismissing them summarily, on his rise to the White House. But these women were perhaps the only witnesses to the real JFK --- and it’s time their stories were finally told. Bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer knew three of Kennedy’s mistresses, and LADIES’ MAN reveals JFK’s harrowing, intimate life with unprecedented access.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217048403
A MARRIED LITTLE CHRISTMAS: An Illustrated Holiday Collection by Abby Jimenez (Romantic Comedy)
A MARRIED LITTLE CHRISTMAS is a collection of three feel-good novellas --- with bonus recipes and full-page illustrations. Anna thought only the food would be a disaster at her Christmas dinner --- until her high school ex shows up, and they quickly have to hatch a fake-dating scheme to save face with their families. For Matty, the idea of sitting in a diner all day dressed as a zombie Santa after losing a bet has zero appeal. But his cute and funny server just might make him change his mind. And finally, will Lauren be able to convince her best friend that getting married after a three-day relationship is absolutely ridiculous? Or will the town called Little Christmas pull her in with its happily-ever-after magic once she meets the best man?
Forever | 9781538780046
MERCY'S CHILD by Richard Paul Evans (Historical Fiction)
In 1874, Etta Wheeler leaves her quiet upstate New York farm town behind to follow her husband into the bustling and sometimes brutal world of Gilded Age New York City. Surrounded by wealth, power and ambition, Etta struggles to find where she belongs until a chance encounter in the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen changes everything. There she meets a young girl trapped in conditions no child should endure. What began as one woman’s determination to help a single child soon draws Etta into a battle against the city’s most powerful institutions, forcing her to discover a courage she never knew she possessed.
Gallery Books | 9781668264218
MISS WOLCOTT'S GHOST by Louise Penny (Mystery)
“There’s a body in Lost Nation.” “Where?” demands Armand as he scribbles on the pad by his bed. But the line goes dead before Chief Inspector Gamache can question the caller. The head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec has no idea where Lost Nation is, or who woke him in the small hours of the morning at his home in Three Pines. So Armand is thrust into the surrounding forests in search of the mythical Lost Nation. And a body. The unidentified dead man appears to be from an era more than a century old. Adding to the mystery, the early morning call appears to have come from Armand’s friend and neighbor, Clara Morrow. While she denies any knowledge of it, it becomes clear there is some connection between her, the Morrow family, and Lost Nation.
Minotaur Books | 9781250412607
THE PIANO TEACHER OF MONTPARNASSE by Heather Morris (Historical Fiction)
In 1942, the Nazis come for a Jewish family living in the Montparnasse area of occupied Paris. In the chaos of their arrest, 11-year-old Josephine runs to the only person she can trust: her piano teacher, Andrée Levallois, a secret French Resistance operative. Andrée takes her in as a member of the family, spreading their rations and risking everything to keep her safe. But soon the authorities close in, and both Andrée and Josie are caught in a desperate race to stay alive.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228808522
QUEEN OF LOMBARD STREET by Lisa Kleypas (Historical Fiction)
In Victorian England, no woman --- not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin --- is allowed to open her own bank account. Together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women’s bank, where women can manage their own financial security. But soon she is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective. He’s been assigned to investigate Farlow, who’s suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive that it could destabilize the British economy. Pembroke needs Reina’s expertise for a high-stakes nighttime heist to obtain incriminating evidence. Now she faces the agonizing choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything.
Avon | 9780063247635
REDEMPTION: Faith, Justice, and Sisterhood on Death Row by Lawrence Wright (Biography)
In the fall of 2014, Deacon Ronnie Lastovica visited a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas, and gave communion to the women on death row. Moved by the meeting, the Deacon vowed to return weekly, but he knew he couldn’t help these women alone. He called upon the Sisters of Mary Morning Star, a group of contemplative nuns in Waco, Texas, to visit the seven condemned women with him. What follows is an incredible story of a spiritual alliance between two groups of women who, though they couldn't seem more different, are living uniquely similar lives. Lawrence Wright takes us into the death row unit, laying bare their stories.
Knopf | 9780593805084
ROYAL WITCH by Philippa Gregory (Historical Fiction)
1420. Eleanor Cobham arrives at the court of Henry V. Pretty but not highborn, she hopes for nothing more than to marry well. It is a golden age for England, its royal family’s dynasty stretching across Europe. But chaos waits in the shadows. Betrayals and shifts of power change the flourishing world Eleanor has stepped into. Working in the household of a Countess who commands her own army, Eleanor begins to see for the first time what a woman is capable of…what men’s promises are truly worth. As the safe, comfortable future she’d envisioned begins to shift, Eleanor changes with it. Now she must use her wits to survive --- and to rise. Her newfound ambition will carry her further than any woman before has dared. But if she is to rule England itself, she will need to turn to darker arts.
William Morrow | 9780063439801
SIMPLY INA: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten (Cookbook)
Through her years of experience as a home cook, Ina Garten has learned that the best food is often the simplest. With just a little thought and a few good ingredients, you can make truly impressive dishes without spending hours in the kitchen. SIMPLY INA celebrates the delicious results of streamlined cooking, sharing Ina’s expert tips and tricks for achieving the best flavor with the least amount of effort. Whether you’re feeding unexpected guests, pulling together a Tuesday night dinner after work, or hosting a dinner party and don’t want to miss all the fun cooped up in the kitchen, you’ll be happy to have these simple, satisfying and completely doable recipes to turn to.
Clarkson Potter | 9780593234174
WHALE HARBOR by Mary Beth Keane (Fiction)
1960s, Ireland. In the wake of tragedy, a father makes choices for his 11 grieving sons. The older brothers will emigrate to England for work, while the younger ones will stay behind. The second eldest, Macdara, is offered a job on a Montana cattle ranch and sets off. His spirited younger brother, Rian, begs to come along, and Mac promises to bring Rian to America as soon as he’s old enough. But then one day Mac gets a call that Rian has gone missing. His disappearance will haunt Mac and his family across decades.
Scribner | 9781668224632
On Sale the Week of October 19th in Paperback
October 20th
AVIARY by Maria Dong (Speculative Mystery/Thriller)
Nineteen-year-old undocumented immigrant Hee-Jin lies on the floor of her cramped Seoul apartment, listening for footsteps. But the knock on the door isn’t the police finally coming to deport her to North Korea. Instead, sprawled on the doorstep is a disfigured, bird-like corpse --- and it has her eyes. Her younger sister, artist Hee-Young, is meant to be on an art program in America, not dead of a strange overdose. But in Hee-Young’s pocket is a plane ticket and US passport. Seeing her chance for freedom, Hee-Jin steals her sister’s identity and takes her place, determined to uncover what really happened to her. But the deeper she dives into the program’s strange workings, the closer she gets to the monstrous secret at its heart.
Severn House | 9781448319497
BIG KISS, BYE-BYE by Claire-Louise Bennett (Fiction)
Uprooted by circumstance from city to deep countryside, a woman lives in temporary limbo, visited by memories of all she’s left behind. The most insistent are those of Xavier, who has always been certain he knows her better than anyone, better than she knows herself. Xavier, whom she still loves but no longer desires, a displacement he has been unable to accept. An unexpected letter from an old acquaintance brings back a torrent of others she’s loved or wanted. The ephemera left by their passage --- a spilled coffee, an unwanted bouquet, a mind-blowing kiss --- make up a cabinet of curiosity she inventories, trying to divine the essence of intimacy. What does it mean to connect with another person? What impels us to touch someone, to be touched by them, to stay in touch? How do we let them go?
Riverhead Books | 9798217046652
THE BOOKSHOP BELOW by Georgia Summers (Dark Fantasy)
If you want a story that will change your life, Chiron’s bookshop is where you go. For those lucky enough to grace its doors, it’s a glimpse into a world of powerful bargains and deadly ink magic. For Cassandra Fairfax, it’s a reminder of everything she lost, when Chiron kicked her out and all but shuttered the shop. Since then, she’s used her skills in less ethical ways, trading stolen books and magical readings to wealthy playboys and unscrupulous collectors. Then Chiron dies under mysterious circumstances. And if Cassandra knows anything, it’s this: the bookshop must always have an owner. But she's not the only one interested. As Cassandra tries to uncover the secrets her mentor left behind, a sinister force threatens to unravel the world of the magical bookshops entirely.
Redhook | 9780316561938
DID YOU GET THE PACKAGE? by John Harrison (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
Mira and Kieran Carpenter are moving into their first home together, a run-down fixer-upper. It’s an opportunity for them to forget the betrayals of the past and restore their marriage along with this new home. But then a strange delivery is left by the front door. Neither Mira nor Kieran remember ordering it. There is no sender. No acknowledgment of its origin. Inside the package is an old wooden box. Then the messages start arriving. Anonymous texts, late-night phone calls and distorted voicemails: “Did you get the package?” Things start to go wrong. Around their new house. At work. In their personal relationships. Are they victims of some kind of horrific prank? Are they being tormented because of something they’ve done? Or are they gaslighting themselves into some kind of psychosis?
Seventh Street Books | 9781645061168
THE ELSEWHERE EXPRESS by Samantha Sotto Yambao (Fantasy/Romance)
You can’t buy a ticket for the Elsewhere Express. Appearing only to those whose lives are adrift, it’s a magical train seeming to carry very rare and special cargo: a sense of purpose, peace and belonging. Raya is one of those lost souls. She had dreamed of being a songwriter, but when her brother died, she gave up on her dream and started living his instead. One day on the subway, as her thoughts wander, she’s swept off to the Elsewhere Express. There she meets Q, an intriguing artist who, like her, has lost his place in the world. Together they find a train full of wonders. Over the course of their long, strange night on the train, they also discover that it harbors secrets --- and danger: A mysterious stranger has stowed away and brought with him a dark, malignant magic that threatens to destroy the train.
Del Rey | 9780593725047
EVERY EXIT BRINGS YOU HOME by Naeem Murr (Fiction)
As a financial crisis looms, Jamal “Jack” Shaban is trying to save his neighbors from bankruptcy. For his flight attendant colleagues, he’s an object of desire, even love, particularly for his sweetly bawdy Wisconsinite best friend, Birdy. Birdy knows nothing about Dimra, Jack’s traditional Muslim wife, with whom Jack is desperate to have a child. Nor does Dimra know about Jack’s attraction to Marcia: an angry single mom new to the building. The resulting tangle of love, desire and conflict returns Jack to the violence of 1980s Gaza, where a taboo affair nearly destroyed his life. A man of many sides --- adulterer, devoted husband, fixer, community leader, liar, and the survivor of human and cosmic cruelty in the past and the novel’s present --- Jack is a paragon of both desire and hope.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324134442
FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
Lady Georgiana “Georgie” Rannoch absolutely despises the strict nanny who was foisted upon her by her meddlesome sister-in-law. In search of a new nanny, Georgie travels to London to see her old friend, ZouZou, only to find her about to depart for a funeral, after the unexpected death of a young man in her social circle. It quickly becomes clear there’s more than one mysterious death around town. But when word arrives that the son of a family friend has also died tragically and unexpectedly, Georgie is certain it can’t be a coincidence. ZouZou shares Georgie’s suspicions that the deaths were not an accident and begs Georgie to solve the case. As Georgie delves deeper, she can’t help worrying that her own husband, Darcy, may be next. It seems likely there is a serial killer at work, and Darcy fits the bill to be their next victim.
Berkley | 9780593641408
THE GRACEVIEW PATIENT by Caitlin Starling (Psychological Thriller/Gothic Horror)
Margaret’s rare autoimmune condition has destroyed her life, leaving her isolated and in pain. It has no cure, but she’s making do as best she can --- until she’s offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial. The conditions are simple, if grueling: she will live at the hospital as a full-time patient, subjecting herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. The trial will essentially kill most, but not all, of her. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital. Unsure of what's real and what's just medication-induced delusion, Margaret struggles to find a way out as her body and mind succumb further to the darkness lurking throughout Graceview's halls.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250340771
THE HIDDEN CITY: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch (Historical Mystery)
It's 1879, and Charles Lenox is convalescing from the violent events of his last investigation. But a desperate letter from an old servant forces him to pick up the trail of a cold case: the murder of an apothecary seven years before, whose only clue is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. When Lenox finds a similar mark at the site of another murder, he begins to piece together a hidden pattern that leads him into the corridors of Parliament, the slums of East London, and ultimately the very heart of the British upper class. At the same time, Lenox must contend with the complexities of his personal life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250767189
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER: Stories and Essays by Harper Lee (Short Stories & Essays)
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER combines Harper Lee’s early short fiction and later nonfiction in a volume that offers an unprecedented look at the development of her inimitable voice. Covering territory from the Alabama schoolyards of Lee’s youth to the luncheonettes and movie houses of midcentury Manhattan, the book invites still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South, and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life. This collection comes with an introduction by Casey Cep, Lee’s appointed biographer, which provides illuminating background for our reading of these stories and connects them both to Lee’s life and to her two novels, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and GO SET A WATCHMAN.
Harper Perennial | 9780063460539
THE LAND IN WINTER by Andrew Miller (Historical Fiction)
December 1962: Deep in the English countryside, two couples begin the day. Local doctor Eric commences his rounds in the village, while his pregnant wife, Irene, wanders the rooms of their home. Across the field in a neighboring farmhouse, Rita is also expecting. Her mind swims with a past that her husband, Bill, prefers to forget. When the two women meet, a clock starts. Affection still lingers in both homes; neither marriage is over. But when the ordinary cold of December gives way --- ushering in violent blizzards of the harshest winter in living memory --- so do the secret resentments harbored in all four lives.
Europa Editions | 9798889662143
LAST LOOKS by Cate Holahan (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Ensconced in a fabulous apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower, Cécile Duval is anxious for a post-divorce makeover. Who is Nina Berry, an on-the-rise personal stylist in America, to say no to a career-making proposal from an older, wealthy étranger? Except Cécile has secrets. She already knows Nina. Nina was her husband’s mistress, or so she believes. And Cécile doesn’t want a glow-up. She wants revenge. Arriving in Paris with her fiancé, Jean, Nina is ready to absorb all the city has to offer and transform her new client’s closet, confidence and entire life. But she has no idea what’s coming. Neither does Cécile. Because she’s not the only one keeping secrets. As the line between predator and prey disappears, a guessing game of deadly deceptions has only just begun.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662538278
MISSING MOLLY by Natalie Barelli (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Rachel Holloway has built a quiet life in London. She has a daughter, a partner and a steady job at the local paper. Then the paper launches a true-crime podcast, and their first case is the disappearance of 12-year-old Molly Forster, missing since her family's brutal murder 12 years ago. But Rachel knows exactly what happened to Molly. Because Rachel is Molly. She's spent years hiding from the killer who destroyed her family, and now her own podcast is about to expose her and the truth she's buried. As the story goes viral, new evidence emerges that confirms what Rachel has known all along: The wrong man was convicted. The real killer is still free. And he's coming for Rachel.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464247514
NYPD RED 8: THE 11:59 BOMBER by Marshall Karp (Thriller)
It's 11:59. And the city that never sleeps is afraid to get out of bed. A bomb explodes in a crowded New York subway station at exactly 11:59am. The next day, a second blast rips through a busy department store --- again at 11:59. As the bombs go off with clockwork precision, the death toll climbs and businesses shut their doors as the city hunkers down in fear. NYPD Red Detectives Kylie MacDonald and Zach Jordan face their most twisted case ever, as they race against the clock in search of one man who has vowed "to destroy New York City the way it destroyed my family."
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228671843
THE PHOEBE VARIATIONS by Jane Hamilton (Fiction)
Seventeen-year-old Phoebe was never interested in her birth family. But on the cusp of her high school graduation, her adoptive mother, Greta, insists on a visit to meet her biological parents and siblings. The encounter is a jolt, a revelation that derails Phoebe. With the help of her best friend, Luna, Phoebe runs away --- as far as their friend Patrick O’Connor’s chaotic home, where she hopes to go unnoticed among his 13 siblings. What begins as an adolescent rebellion soon spirals into a whirlwind of transformation and self-discovery. As Phoebe grapples with her shifting identity, she must navigate the tumultuous road out of girlhood and chart a new and unknown course.
Zibby Publishing | 9798991140270
THE PILGRIMAGE OF PRIMROSE HONEYCHURCH by Laura Jensen Walker (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Primrose Honeychurch doesn’t really “get” people. Books, though, make perfect sense. At 70, the sharp-tongued recluse prefers to keep company with her own routines. But when a life-altering diagnosis leaves her worried she’ll never be missed, she decides it’s finally time to do something to leave her mark. Clutching her mother’s ashes and the book of her heart, Primrose hops on a plane, bound for Hay-on-Wye, the legendary Welsh “Town of Books.” Unfortunately, her literary pilgrimage just won’t follow the plot. After an accident derails her trip, she finds herself staying a while with estranged family. But she senses a kindred spirit in the niece she’s getting to know, who uncannily understands the world much the same as Primrose herself does.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662544637
THE PLACE WHERE THEY BURIED YOUR HEART by Christina Henry (Supernatural Thriller/Gothic Horror)
On an otherwise ordinary street in Chicago, there is a house. An abandoned house where, once upon a time, terrible things happened. The children who live on this block are told by their parents to stay away from it. But of course, children don’t listen. Jessie Campanelli dared her little brother, Paul, to go inside. But unlike all the other kids who went inside that abandoned house, Paul didn’t return. His two friends, Jake and Richie, said that the house ate Paul. Of course, adults didn’t believe that. They thought someone kidnapped Paul or otherwise hurt him. His disappearance broke Jessie’s family apart in ways that would never be repaired. Jessie kept living on the same street where the house that ate her brother sat, crouched and waiting. And darkness seemed to spread out from that house, a darkness that was alive --- alive and hungry.
Berkley | 9780593953976
THE QUEEN OF ROSES by Julia Kelly (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena’s last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. When Theresa arrives at mysterious Rosewood House, Miss Pearce proposes that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography. 1903: When Adele Pearce arrives in California, she discovers why her mother has called her there: her father has squandered his fortune, and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family. Adele’s only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele’s feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House. Meanwhile, in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself.
Gallery Books | 9781668032756
RACEBOOK: A Personal History of the Internet by Tochi Onyebuchi (Memoir/Essays)
When Tochi Onyebuchi realized that his acclaimed science fiction and fantasy storytelling career had been centrally preoccupied with race, it prompted him to consider his responsibilities as a Black writer in the internet age. Excavating the internet of the late 1990s and early 2000s, RACEBOOK explores how the writer and public intellectual Onyebuchi is today was formed in that crucible. Beginning with the current moment when everything, including personal identity, is a matter of dispute, and tracing his online persona in reverse chronological order back to Web 1.0’s promises of greater equality and a bright digital future, Onyebuchi deftly examines the evolution of internet culture and the ways that culture has shifted in the ensuing decades.
Roxane Gay Books | 9780802168504
SPLIT SCREEN by Lee Goldberg (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Erin Casey, the actress who plays LASD detective Eve Ronin on TV, is gunned down after a ride-along, the intended target is obvious: the real Eve. What isn’t obvious is why. As Eve hunts the shooter, her world fractures into more deadly reflections. The new sheriff forces Eve to exploit her fame to burnish his image --- or he’ll destroy her partner, Duncan. And a reckless half-sister Eve never knew she had pulls her toward a criminal conspiracy that’s already dumped a corpse in a Topanga Canyon ravine. To save Erin, protect her half-sister and survive herself, Eve must find the killers before they strike again --- and before her enemies inside the department finish the job for them.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662533648
SUCCUBUS: A Love Story by Kate Fox (Paranormal Romance)
Paperback Original
Tempest Dunlap loves romance novels, but she knows she’ll never have her own happily-ever-after. She is a sweatpants-wearing doula who homeschools her seven-year-old niece in suburban New Jersey. Unfortunately, she’s also a succubus: Every man she’s ever kissed has died. But Tempest is a good person who never intended to be a murderer, so she’s sworn off love forever. Then she meets Joel Tav, a gorgeous, gentle doctor who makes celibacy feel impossible. Tempest knows she can’t touch him --- or tell him his brother was the last man she dated and accidentally killed. Meanwhile, a vigilante is hunting people with dark powers, and Tempest is next. Should she keep hiding in her safe, lonely life, or should she embrace the darkness she fears and risk the ultimate forbidden romance?
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250429360
THE TEN YEAR AFFAIR by Erin Somers (Fiction)
When Cora meets Sam at a baby group in their small town, the chemistry between them is undeniable. Both are happily married young parents with two kids, and neither sees themselves as the type to engage in an affair. But as their lives continue to intertwine, the romantic tension between them becomes all-consuming --- until their worlds unravel into two parallel timelines. In one, they pursue their feelings. In the other, they resist. As reality splits, the everyday details of Cora’s life --- her depressing marketing job, her daughter’s new fascination with the afterlife, her husband’s obsession with podcasts about the history of rope --- gain fresh perspective. The intersecting and diverging timelines blur the boundaries of reality and fantasy, questioning what might have been and what truly matters.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668081457
TOM CLANCY: EXECUTIVE POWER: A Jack Ryan Novel by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (Thriller/Adventure)
Luanda, Angola. An American intelligence team on a routine mission is wiped out. The sole survivor: Kyle Ryan, the youngest son of President Jack Ryan. But the massacre of his colleagues is just the prelude to an even more devastating conflict --- a deadly military coup in the central African nation. The next step is a shocking escalation, the seizure of the American Embassy and the taking of numerous hostages, including the ambassador and the younger Ryan. As US forces fight insurgents street by street in the African capital city, Lieutenant Katie Ryan leads the effort to untangle the mystery behind the coup and the identity of the plotters. Is it the Chinese government? Is it a corrupt Angolan general? Or is there a darker force pulling the strings? In the White House Situation Room, President Jack Ryan and his National Intelligence Team anxiously await the answers.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593718087
THE WOMEN OF WILD HILL by Kirsten Miller (Fiction/Magical Realism)
There are places on earth where nature’s powers gather. Girls raised there are bequeathed strange gifts. Such a place is Wild Hill. For centuries, the ghost of a witch murdered by colonists claimed the beautiful and fertile Wild Hill…until a young Scottish woman with strange gifts arrived. Sadie Duncan was allowed to stay. Five generations of Sadie’s descendants called Wild Hill home, each generation more powerful than the last. Then, in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy, the last of the Duncans abandoned their ancestral home. Now Brigid, Phoebe and Sibyl have been brought to Wild Hill to discover their family legacy. The Old One, furious at the path mankind has taken, has chosen three powerful witches to turn the tide. The Duncans will fulfill their destinies --- but only if they can set aside their grievances and come together as a family.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063282865
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