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Editorial Content for My Mrs. Brown

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jesse Kornbluth for HeadButler.com

When I met Billy Norwich, all those years ago, I thought: He’s much too nice to be doing that job. I thought that about his next job, and the next, and I waited for him to hit the wall. He never did. The New York Observer. Vogue. The Times. A great career. Read More

Teaser

Emilia Brown has spent a frugal, useful and wholly restrained life in Ashville, a small town in Rhode Island. She makes a modest living cleaning and running errands at the local beauty parlor. When the grand dame of Ashville passes away, Mrs. Brown is called upon to inventory her estate and comes across a dress that changes everything. It’s a simple yet exquisitely tailored Oscar de la Renta sheath and jacket --- a suit that Mrs. Brown realizes, with startling clarity, will say everything she has ever wished to convey. She must have it. And so she begins her odyssey to purchase it.

Promo

Emilia Brown has spent a frugal, useful and wholly restrained life in Ashville, a small town in Rhode Island. She makes a modest living cleaning and running errands at the local beauty parlor. When the grand dame of Ashville passes away, Mrs. Brown is called upon to inventory her estate and comes across a dress that changes everything. It’s a simple yet exquisitely tailored Oscar de la Renta sheath and jacket --- a suit that Mrs. Brown realizes, with startling clarity, will say everything she has ever wished to convey. She must have it. And so she begins her odyssey to purchase it.

About the Book

From William Norwich, the well-known fashion writer and editor, comes an unforgettable novel about a woman with a secret who travels to New York City on a determined quest to buy a special dress that represents everything she wants to say about that secret…and herself.

Sometimes a dress isn’t just a dress.

Emilia Brown is a woman of a certain age. She has spent a frugal, useful and wholly restrained life in Ashville, a small town in Rhode Island. Overlooked especially by the industries of fashion and media, Mrs. Brown is one of today’s silent generations of women whose quiet no-frills existences would make them seem invisible. She is a genteel woman who has known her share of personal sorrows and quietly carried on, who makes a modest living cleaning and running errands at the local beauty parlor, who delights in evening chats with her much younger neighbor, 23-year-old Alice Danvers.

When the grand dame of Ashville passes away, Mrs. Brown is called upon to inventory her estate and comes across a dress that changes everything. The dress isn’t a Cinderella confection; it’s a simple yet exquisitely tailored Oscar de la Renta sheath and jacket --- a suit that Mrs. Brown realizes, with startling clarity, will say everything she has ever wished to convey. She must have it. And so, like the inspired heroine of Paul Gallico’s 1958 classic MRS. ‘ARRIS GOES TO PARIS, Mrs. Brown begins her odyssey to purchase the dress. For not only is the owning of the Oscar de la Renta a must, the intimidating trip to purchase it on Madison Avenue is essential as well. If the dress is to give Mrs. Brown a voice, then she must prepare by making the daunting journey --- both to the emerald city and within herself.

Timeless, poignant and appealing, MY MRS. BROWN is a novel for every mother in the world, every woman who ever wanted the perfect dress, and every child who wanted to give it to her.

Audiobook available, read by Angela Brazil

Editorial Content for Collecting the Dead

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

Spencer Kope would be the most interesting guy in the room even if he hadn’t just published his debut thriller. His vocational past includes an extended stint in various areas of U.S. Naval Intelligence, while in his present day he is a crime analyst for the Whatcom County, Washington Sheriff’s Office. The latter gig has no doubt offered a target-rich environment for story fodder, and Kope has taken full advantage of that with COLLECTING THE DEAD, a novel that straddles the line between the mystery and (mildly) supernatural genres. Read More

Teaser

Magnus "Steps" Craig is part of the elite three-man Special Tracking Unit of the FBI. Called in on special cases where his skills are particularly needed, he works as a tracker. The media dubs him "The Human Bloodhound," since Steps is renowned for his incredible ability to find and follow trails over any surface better than anyone else. But there's a secret to his success. Steps has a special ability --- a kind of synesthesia --- where he can see the “essence” of a person, something he calls “shine,” on everything they've touched. When the remains of a murdered woman are found, Steps recognizes the shine left by the murderer from another crime scene with a physically similar victim.

Promo

Magnus "Steps" Craig is part of the elite three-man Special Tracking Unit of the FBI. Called in on special cases where his skills are particularly needed, he works as a tracker. The media dubs him "The Human Bloodhound," since Steps is renowned for his incredible ability to find and follow trails over any surface better than anyone else. But there's a secret to his success. Steps has a special ability --- a kind of synesthesia --- where he can see the “essence” of a person, something he calls “shine,” on everything they've touched. When the remains of a murdered woman are found, Steps recognizes the shine left by the murderer from another crime scene with a physically similar victim.

About the Book

Magnus "Steps" Craig is part of the elite three-man Special Tracking Unit of the FBI. Called in on special cases where his skills are particularly needed, he works as a tracker. The media dubs him "The Human Bloodhound," since Steps is renowned for his incredible ability to find and follow trails over any surface better than anyone else. But there's a secret to his success. Steps has a special ability --- a kind of synesthesia --- where he can see the "essence" of a person, something he calls 'shine,' on everything they've touched. His ability is known to only a few people --- his father, the director of the FBI, and his partner, Special Agent Jimmy Donovan.

When the remains of a murdered woman are found, Steps recognizes the shine left by the murderer from another crime scene with a physically similar victim. And he uncovers the signature at both scenes --- the mark of a sad face. At the same time, another killer, one Steps has dubbed Leonardo and has been trying to track for over ten years, appears again, taunting Steps. But while Steps tries to find a clue that will lead him to Leonardo, the case of the Sad Face Killer heats up. The team uncovers eleven possible victims: missing women who fit the same pattern. Using his skill and the resources of the Bureau, it is a race against time to find the killer before it's too late.

Audiobook available, read by P. J. Ochlan

 

Editorial Content for The Boy in the Shadows

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

THE BOY IN THE SHADOWS is terrific. It is this week’s primary entry in the Nordic noir genre, one that comes from a somewhat unsuspecting source. Carl-Johan Vallgren is by no means unknown in the United States, having published a number of books here that tend to defy easy or even studied classification. The common thread through all of them is the strong literary craftsmanship that he brings to the table. Vallgren is known as an author’s author, one who is studied by others to see how the job is properly done. Read More

Teaser

Joel, whose older brother was kidnapped years earlier, goes missing under suspicious circumstances. His frantic wife turns to Danny Katz --- an old friend with a troubled past --- for help. A brilliant computer programmer and recovering heroin addict, Katz is also the divorced father of two young girls. Before long, he discovers he isn't the only one trying to find Joel. The deeper Katz digs, the more upsetting the secrets he uncovers about the wealthy and powerful family at the heart of the investigation. Chillingly, the case takes a violent turn that reveals a disorienting connection to Katz's own troubled childhood.

Promo

Joel, whose older brother was kidnapped years earlier, goes missing under suspicious circumstances. His frantic wife turns to Danny Katz --- an old friend with a troubled past --- for help. A brilliant computer programmer and recovering heroin addict, Katz is also the divorced father of two young girls. Before long, he discovers he isn't the only one trying to find Joel. The deeper Katz digs, the more upsetting the secrets he uncovers about the wealthy and powerful family at the heart of the investigation. Chillingly, the case takes a violent turn that reveals a disorienting connection to Katz's own troubled childhood.

About the Book

An explosive debut thriller about the adult disappearance of a man whose brother had been spirited away as a child, never to reappear.

1970: In an overcrowded Stockholm subway station, a harried father and his two boys are late for their train. Joel, the youngest, is howling in his stroller and his seven-year-old brother, Kristoffer, refuses to take the elevator.

A woman approaches and helpfully offers to lead Kristoffer up the stairs. Reluctantly his father agrees, but when he arrives on the platform Kristoffer and the woman have vanished without a trace. The kidnapping becomes a national sensation, but the boy is never found.

Today: Joel, now an adult, goes missing in suspicious circumstances. His frantic wife turns to Danny Katz --- an old friend with a troubled past --- for help. A brilliant computer programmer and recovering heroin addict, Katz is also the divorced father of two young girls. Katz begins to dig behind the digital veil in search of Joel, even though the investigation quickly interferes with his duties as a parent. Before long, Katz discovers he isn't the only one trying to find Joel.

The deeper Katz digs, the more upsetting the secrets he uncovers about the wealthy and powerful family at the heart of the investigation. Chillingly, the case takes a violent turn that reveals a disorienting connection to Katz's own troubled childhood --- soon there will be no backing out of his unofficial investigation.

Audiobook available, read by Matt Bates

Editorial Content for No Good to Cry: A Rick Van Lam Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

NO GOOD TO CRY is the third installment of a very ambitious and well-written series about a community that exists nearly unnoticed in plain view. While these books are set in Hartford, Connecticut, the Vietnamese expatriate community that forms the bedrock of the the plots exists in many cities, particularly along the Gulf Coast. PI Rick Van Lam is what is known as bui doi (a “child of dust”), a term given to the mixed race offspring of native Vietnamese and American servicemen, children who were left behind at the close of the Vietnam War. Read More

Teaser

PI Rick Van Lam’s Vietnam-vet mentor and partner, Jimmy, and Jimmy’s old army pal, Ralph, are attacked as they walk down a city sidewalk. Ralph is killed, and Jimmy is struck by a car. While the battered Jimmy is under the care of Rick’s landlord and friend, Gracie, Rick finds himself in a quandary: He’s asked to clear the name of the two attackers named by the police. One is a boy named Simon Tran, known as Saigon; the other is Simon’s buddy, Frankie Croix. Working with Hank Nguyen, a young colleague who is now a state-cop-in-training, Rick tracks Simon to a Vietnamese gang in Little Saigon. How can he not strive to save Simon and Frankie, who refuse to be saved?

Promo

PI Rick Van Lam’s Vietnam-vet mentor and partner, Jimmy, and Jimmy’s old army pal, Ralph, are attacked as they walk down a city sidewalk. Ralph is killed, and Jimmy is struck by a car. While the battered Jimmy is under the care of Rick’s landlord and friend, Gracie, Rick finds himself in a quandary: He’s asked to clear the name of the two attackers named by the police. One is a boy named Simon Tran, known as Saigon; the other is Simon’s buddy, Frankie Croix. Working with Hank Nguyen, a young colleague who is now a state-cop-in-training, Rick tracks Simon to a Vietnamese gang in Little Saigon. How can he not strive to save Simon and Frankie, who refuse to be saved?

About the Book

On a sunny afternoon in Hartford, Connecticut, PI Rick Van Lam’s Vietnam-vet mentor and partner, Jimmy, and Jimmy’s old army pal, Ralph, are attacked as they walk down a city sidewalk. Ralph is killed, and Jimmy, backing up, is struck by a car. While the battered Jimmy is under the care of Rick’s landlord and friend, Gracie, where an improbable romance seems to be blooming, Rick finds himself in a quandary --- he’s asked to clear the name of the two attackers named by the police. One is a boy named Simon Tran, known as Saigon, the other, Simon’s buddy, Frankie Croix.

Rick himself is a bui doi or child of dust, meaning the child of a Vietnamese mother and an American GI father. Leading a life of disdain and torment in a Ho Chi Minh City orphanage as a child, a battered Rick turned on a newly arrived child of dust, a more despised case: a boy who was the son of a Vietnamese mother and a black GI. He’s still ashamed of how savagely pleased he was to have another boy become the new target for mistreatment, someone the Vietnamese community viewed as even lower than him.

Years later, in Hartford, Rick has to grapple with that troubling childhood memory because Simon is the son of the same bui doi, Mike Tran. Mike is a hard-working, decent man. Despite the difficulties of being Amerasian, he embodies the American Dream: a house, a loving wife and exemplary children --- students at prestigious private schools and colleges. Except for Simon, who seems hell-bent on a life of crime.

Working with Hank Nguyen, a young colleague now a state-cop-intraining, Rick tracks Simon to a Vietnamese gang in Little Saigon. How can he not strive to save Simon and Frankie, boys who refuse to be saved? And who may be facing not just murder charges but becoming victims in a vicious gangland war?

A unique investigator in a crowded field, Rick’s cases both surprise you, and wring your heart.

July 8, 2016 - July 22, 2016

Here are reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of July 8 - July 22.

What is the format of the book you are currently reading? Please check as many as apply, as we know many of you may be reading more than one book.

July 8, 2016, 838 voters

Ernest Hemingway

The only thing that could spoil a day was people. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.

Attribution

Ernest Hemingway

July 7, 2016

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we think is a great summer reading selection. Read more about it, and enter our Summer Reading Contest by Friday, July 8th at 4:59pm ET for a chance to win one of five copies of THE JAPANESE LOVER by Isabel Allende, which is now available in paperback. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!