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Editorial Content for Silent Bones: A Karen Pirie Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Not many writers can stand toe to toe with Val McDermid. For decades, she has put forth a catalogue of outstanding and cleverly plotted mysteries and thrillers that have been the force behind both bestselling novels and successful streaming series and films. Read More

Teaser

Scotland, 2025. When torrential winter rain causes a landslide on a motorway, it dislodges more than mud and asphalt --- it reveals a skeleton, concealed when the road was built 11 years prior. Sam Nimmo, an investigative journalist who’d been poking his nose into the murky politics of the Scottish independence referendum, had become the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his girlfriend when he vanished. Now he’s reappeared, buried under the motorway. It’s the perfect cold case for DCI Karen Pirie, chief of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit. What was Nimmo investigating that was worth killing over? Or was it revenge for murdering his girlfriend? Meanwhile, an allegation of murder has surfaced over the supposedly accidental death of a hotel manager. It may have links to another accident on a remote Highland road.

Promo

Scotland, 2025. When torrential winter rain causes a landslide on a motorway, it dislodges more than mud and asphalt --- it reveals a skeleton, concealed when the road was built 11 years prior. Sam Nimmo, an investigative journalist who’d been poking his nose into the murky politics of the Scottish independence referendum, had become the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his girlfriend when he vanished. Now he’s reappeared, buried under the motorway. It’s the perfect cold case for DCI Karen Pirie, chief of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit. What was Nimmo investigating that was worth killing over? Or was it revenge for murdering his girlfriend? Meanwhile, an allegation of murder has surfaced over the supposedly accidental death of a hotel manager. It may have links to another accident on a remote Highland road.

About the Book

The new installment in the “relentlessly engrossing series” (Wall Street Journal) finds Karen Pirie and her team investigating the murder of a journalist paved under a motorway. But was it his work or his private life that put him there?

Scotland, 2025. When torrential winter rain causes a landslide on a motorway, it dislodges more than mud and asphalt --- it reveals a skeleton, concealed when the road was built 11 years prior.

Sam Nimmo, an investigative journalist who’d been poking his nose into the murky politics of the Scottish independence referendum, had become the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his girlfriend when he vanished. Now he’s reappeared, buried under the motorway. It’s the perfect cold case for DCI Karen Pirie, chief of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit. What was Nimmo investigating that was worth killing over? Or was it revenge for murdering his girlfriend?

Meanwhile, an allegation of murder has surfaced over the supposedly accidental death of a hotel manager. It may have links to another accident on a remote Highland road. It’s a series of puzzles that tests Karen and her team to their limits. And possibly beyond.

A darkly propulsive thriller of secrets hidden at the core of a Scottish Highlands town, SILENT BONES reaffirms Val McDermid as a crime writer of inimitable power.

Audiobook available, read by Cathleen McCarron

Editorial Content for Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

It might seem superfluous to most visitors of this website to recommend a book intended to encourage more reading. But regardless of how avid a book lover you may be, don’t pass on Hwang Bo-reum’s charming EVERY DAY I READ: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books. In addition to scores of practical tips to keep one’s reading fresh, it’s a subtle exploration of all the ways books can bring more meaning to our lives. Read More

Teaser

Why do we read? What is it that we hope to take away from the intimate, personal experience of reading for pleasure? How often do we ask these profound, expansive questions of ourselves and of our relationship to the joy of reading? In each of the essays in EVERY DAY I READ, Hwang Bo-reum contemplates what living a life immersed in reading means. She goes beyond the usual questions of what to read and how often, exploring the relationship between reading and writing, when to turn to a bestseller vs. browse the corners of a bookstore, the value of reading outside of your favorite genre, falling in love with book characters, and more.

Promo

Why do we read? What is it that we hope to take away from the intimate, personal experience of reading for pleasure? How often do we ask these profound, expansive questions of ourselves and of our relationship to the joy of reading? In each of the essays in EVERY DAY I READ, Hwang Bo-reum contemplates what living a life immersed in reading means. She goes beyond the usual questions of what to read and how often, exploring the relationship between reading and writing, when to turn to a bestseller vs. browse the corners of a bookstore, the value of reading outside of your favorite genre, falling in love with book characters, and more.

About the Book

From the author of the international bestseller WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP, a heartfelt invitation to reflect on your relationship with reading and celebrate the joys of books.

Why do we read? What is it that we hope to take away from the intimate, personal experience of reading for pleasure?

How often do we ask these profound, expansive questions of ourselves and of our relationship to the joy of reading? In each of the essays in EVERY DAY I READ, Hwang Bo-reum contemplates what living a life immersed in reading means. She goes beyond the usual questions of what to read and how often, exploring the relationship between reading and writing, when to turn to a bestseller vs. browse the corners of a bookstore, the value of reading outside of your favorite genre, falling in love with book characters, and more.

EVERY DAY I READ provides many quiet moments for introspection and reflection, encouraging book-lovers to explore what reading means to each of us. While this is a book about books, at its heart is an attitude to life, one outside capitalism and climbing the corporate ladder. Lifelong and new readers will take inspiration from it, including a treasure trove of book recommendations blended seamlessly within.

Audiobook available, read by Rosa Escoda

Editorial Content for Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear: A. A. Milne and the Creation of "Winnie-the-Pooh"

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

One of the most recognizable and important characters in both fiction and popular culture, Winnie-the-Pooh came solely from the inventive mind of English author A. A. Milne, who was inspired by the stuffed bear he gave his son, Christopher, on the boy’s first birthday. Read More

Teaser

SOMEWHERE, A BOY AND A BEAR tells the remarkable story of A. A. Milne, a playwright, a bestselling crime writer, a poet, a polemicist, a humorist, and the man who created Winnie-the-Pooh. Gyles Brandreth explores Winnie-the-Pooh, a bear beloved by millions: his genesis, his life across a hundred years, his special philosophy, and the reasons for his worldwide popularity. Brandreth’s book is also the intimate biography of three generations of the fascinating and troubled Milne family, which knew fame and fortune, despising both for a time, but a family that ultimately found a profound reason to be grateful for the riches Pooh brought them.

Promo

SOMEWHERE, A BOY AND A BEAR tells the remarkable story of A. A. Milne, a playwright, a bestselling crime writer, a poet, a polemicist, a humorist, and the man who created Winnie-the-Pooh. Gyles Brandreth explores Winnie-the-Pooh, a bear beloved by millions: his genesis, his life across a hundred years, his special philosophy, and the reasons for his worldwide popularity. Brandreth’s book is also the intimate biography of three generations of the fascinating and troubled Milne family, which knew fame and fortune, despising both for a time, but a family that ultimately found a profound reason to be grateful for the riches Pooh brought them.

About the Book

For the 100th anniversary of the publication of WINNIE-THE-POOH, Gyles Brandreth chronicles the writing of this beloved classic and the life of its creator, A. A. Milne.

SOMEWHERE, A BOY AND A BEAR tells the remarkable story of A. A. Milne, a playwright, a bestselling crime writer, a poet, a polemicist, a humorist, and the man who created Winnie-the-Pooh.

Gyles Brandreth explores Winnie-the-Pooh, a bear beloved by millions: his genesis, his life across a hundred years, his special philosophy, and the reasons for his worldwide popularity. Brandreth’s book is also the intimate biography of three generations of the fascinating and troubled Milne family, which knew fame and fortune, despising both for a time, but a family that ultimately found a profound reason to be grateful for the riches Pooh brought them.

With an extraordinary cast list that includes Elizabeth II and Walt Disney, SOMEWHERE, A BOY AND A BEAR moves from idyllic childhood games in the English countryside to New York in the 1930s and the love affairs, litigation and heartrending family rifts that touched the life of one of Britain's most brilliant writers and his most famous creation.

Audiobook available, read by Gyles Brandreth

Editorial Content for The Red Scare Murders

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

THE RED SCARE MURDERS is told in pure noir fashion and introduces readers to Mick Mulligan, a private eye who has an office in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, and an apartment in Sunnyside, Queens. Mick had been a successful Hollywood cartoonist, but he had to reinvent himself as a PI after being blacklisted during a communist witch hunt. Read More

Teaser

July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a private investigator in New York’s sweaty Hell’s Kitchen. A former Hollywood cartoonist who was blacklisted during a communist witch hunt, Mick is in need of a paying gig to make his child support payments. But maybe not this gig. Last year, universally reviled cab company owner Irwin Johnson was murdered. One of his drivers, an African American Communist Party member named Harold Williams, was arrested, tried and found guilty, despite scant evidence. Now his execution date is two weeks away. New York City labor leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution. Lots of people might have wanted Irwin dead, but no one has any reason to help Mick exonerate Harold. Yet Mick can’t abandon a potentially innocent man to the electric chair. Can he pull off a miracle?

Promo

July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a private investigator in New York’s sweaty Hell’s Kitchen. A former Hollywood cartoonist who was blacklisted during a communist witch hunt, Mick is in need of a paying gig to make his child support payments. But maybe not this gig. Last year, universally reviled cab company owner Irwin Johnson was murdered. One of his drivers, an African American Communist Party member named Harold Williams, was arrested, tried and found guilty, despite scant evidence. Now his execution date is two weeks away. New York City labor leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution. Lots of people might have wanted Irwin dead, but no one has any reason to help Mick exonerate Harold. Yet Mick can’t abandon a potentially innocent man to the electric chair. Can he pull off a miracle?

About the Book

This wry, bighearted noir brings '50s New York to life --- from the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen to the mansions of Riverdale, from Sing Sing to City Hall --- with a gripping murder mystery laying bare the explosive conflicts between its big wheels, its working stiffs, its gangsters and its dreamers.

July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a private investigator in New York’s sweaty Hell’s Kitchen. A former Hollywood cartoonist who was blacklisted during a communist witch hunt, Mick is broke, divorced and in need of a paying gig to make his child support payments. But maybe not this gig. First off, it’s impossible. Worse, it’s liable to get him killed.

Last year, universally reviled cab company owner Irwin Johnson was murdered. One of his drivers, an African American Communist Party member named Harold Williams, was arrested, tried and found guilty, despite scant evidence. Now his execution date is two weeks away. New York City labor leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution.

Lots of people might have wanted Irwin Johnson dead --- anyone from his betrayed wife to his jilted mistresses’ jealous husbands to the mafiosi he was stealing business from. But no one has any reason to help Mick exonerate Harold Williams and some of Irwin’s former associates are happy to take a blunt object to the head of anyone asking awkward questions. Yet Mick can’t abandon a potentially innocent man to the electric chair. Can he pull off a miracle?

Audiobook available, read by Dan John Miller

Editorial Content for The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

With her debut novel, THE WONDROUS LIFE AND LOVES OF NELLA CARTER, Brionni Nwosu presents a stunningly beautiful story about a woman who makes a deal with Death. Read More

Teaser

Born enslaved in 18th-century Georgia, Nella May Carter still believes in the will to survive amid the most untenable of conditions, in the glory of life, and in the ultimate goodness of the human race. She asks that Death, doubtful and curious, allow her to live long enough to prove it. He’s giving Nella all the time in the world. Challenged, Nella embarks on an epic journey across the globe and centuries. Each new incarnation records the joys and losses, and the friendships and heartbreaks, throughout her lifetimes. When she meets handsome and passionate professor Sebastian Moore --- the first man to whom she has ever revealed her secrets --- Nella yearns for the mortality that escapes her. She can’t bear to leave this love behind. As Death keeps watch, has Nella’s journey come to an end? Or is a new one just beginning?

Promo

Born enslaved in 18th-century Georgia, Nella May Carter still believes in the will to survive amid the most untenable of conditions, in the glory of life, and in the ultimate goodness of the human race. She asks that Death, doubtful and curious, allow her to live long enough to prove it. He’s giving Nella all the time in the world. Challenged, Nella embarks on an epic journey across the globe and centuries. Each new incarnation records the joys and losses, and the friendships and heartbreaks, throughout her lifetimes. When she meets handsome and passionate professor Sebastian Moore --- the first man to whom she has ever revealed her secrets --- Nella yearns for the mortality that escapes her. She can’t bear to leave this love behind. As Death keeps watch, has Nella’s journey come to an end? Or is a new one just beginning?

About the Book

A young woman at the crossroads of life and death embarks on an extraordinary journey across time in an epic novel about beauty, hope, endurance and endless loves.

Most humans cower in the face of Death. Not Nella May Carter. She sees him. She doesn’t hide. Instead, she bargains.

Born enslaved in 18th-century Georgia, Nella still believes in the will to survive amid the most untenable of conditions, in the glory of life, and in the ultimate goodness of the human race. She asks that Death, doubtful and curious, allow her to live long enough to prove it. He’s giving Nella all the time in the world.

Challenged, Nella embarks on an epic journey across the globe and centuries. Each new incarnation records the joys and losses, and the friendships and heartbreaks, throughout her lifetimes. When she meets handsome and passionate professor Sebastian Moore --- the first man to whom she has ever revealed her secrets --- Nella yearns for the mortality that escapes her. She can’t bear to leave this love behind.

As Death keeps watch, has Nella’s journey come to an end? Or is a new one just beginning?

Audiobook available, read by Nicole Cash and Sean Crisden

On Wednesday, December 10th, we hosted our year-end “Bookaccino Live” event featuring eight Bookreporter reviewers: Sarah Rachel Egelman, Megan Elliott, Harvey Freedenberg, Pamela Kramer, Bronwyn Miller, Rebecca Munro, Norah Piehl and Stuart Shiffman. Each talked about two of their favorite books of 2025. Kate Ayers and Ray Palen, who have appeared on previous programs, were not able to join us live. But we showed Ray’s presentation on video, and we shared Kate’s picks, along with brief excerpts from her reviews of those books.

How many print books and e-books did you read in 2025? How many audiobooks did you listen to?

December 19, 2025, 459 voters

December 19, 2025 - January 9, 2026

Tell us about the books you’ve finished reading with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars. During the contest period from December 19th to January 9th at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM by Laura Dave and SKYLARK by Paula McLain.

We wrap up this year’s Holiday Author Blog series with Terah Shelton Harris, whose latest work of fiction, WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW, releases on February 17th. This poignant story of survival and redemption questions what it means to stop existing and start living. In 2023, Terah gave her friend a copy of her debut novel, ONE SUMMER IN SAVANNAH. Read on to find out why she considers it to be the best book she has ever gifted.

Terah Shelton Harris

Terah Shelton Harris is a librarian and freelance writer who now writes upmarket fiction with bittersweet endings. As a freelancer, her work has appeared in consumer and trade magazines, including Catapult, Women’s Health, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Backpacker, Minority Nurse and more. She is the author of the novels ONE SUMMER IN SAVANNAH, LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE and WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW.