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Lisa Gardner, author of Find Her

Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora Dane was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, she learned just how much one person can endure. Miraculously alive after her ordeal, she has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life. When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime --- a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him --- she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante?

Jhumpa Lahiri, author of In Other Words

Jhumpa Lahiri’s love for the Italian language first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery always eluded her. Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for “a trial by fire, a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. There, she begins to read, and to write --- initially in her journal --- solely in Italian.

Paul Kalanithi, author of When Breath Becomes Air

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away?

Editorial Content for The Bitter Season

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Tami Hoag has a reputation for writing suspenseful and realistic police procedurals. She brings readers into the twisted plots she creates and does a fine job of getting into the minds of her characters. In THE BITTER SEASON, Hoag brings back her two series characters: Detectives Nikki Liska and Sam Kovac. But she has reassigned Liska to the cold case files and left Kovac in homicide. This change means they have to adjust to new partners, as well as new surroundings for Liska. Read More

Teaser

Detective Sam Kovac is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a prominent university professor and his wife, bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Detective Nikki Liska’s case --- the unsolved murder of a decorated sex crimes detective --- is less of a distraction: Twenty five years later, there is little hope of finding the killer who got away. As the trails of two crimes a quarter of a century apart twist and cross, Kovac and Liska race to find answers before a killer strikes again.

Promo

Detective Sam Kovac is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a prominent university professor and his wife, bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Detective Nikki Liska’s case --- the unsolved murder of a decorated sex crimes detective --- is less of a distraction: Twenty five years later, there is little hope of finding the killer who got away. As the trails of two crimes a quarter of a century apart twist and cross, Kovac and Liska race to find answers before a killer strikes again.

About the Book

#1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag explores the devastating consequences of the secrets families keep in this powerful thriller.

As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless, already bored with her new assignment to the cold case squad. She misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter and the sense of urgency of hunting a killer on the loose. Most of all she misses her old partner, Sam Kovac. Kovac is having an even harder time adjusting to Liska’s absence but is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a prominent university professor and his wife, bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Liska’s case --- the unsolved murder of a decorated sex crimes detective --- is less of a distraction: 25 years later, there is little hope for finding the killer who got away.
 
Meanwhile, Minneapolis resident Evi Burke has a life she only dreamed of as a kid in and out of foster care: a beautiful home, a loving family, a fulfilling job. But a danger from her past is stalking her idyllic present, bent on destroying the perfect life she was never meant to have.
 
As the trails of two crimes a quarter of a century apart twist and cross, Kovac and Liska race to find answers before a killer strikes again.

Audiobook available, narrated by David Colacci

Editorial Content for Robert B. Parker's Blackjack

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

I learned to read via exposure to mystery and detective stories (Dick Tracy comic strips count), but I grew up in an era when westerns ruled television. I loved “The Rifleman,” “Cheyenne,” “Wanted: Dead or Alive”...they were all great. Westerns started coming back to television a few years ago, but western novels never really went away. They were/are generally relegated to a small genre section given over to a handful of paperback series. There is one important exception, though: Robert B. Parker’s Cole and Hitch series. Read More

Teaser

Appaloosa, the hometown of Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, continues to prosper, but with prosperity comes a slew of new trouble: carpetbaggers, gamblers, migrants, peddlers, drifters, thieves and whores. And there’s a new menace in town: Boston Bill Black, the owner of Appaloosa’s new casino who is wanted for a series of murders. As they set out to track him down, Cole and Hitch find themselves back in Appaloosa --- where one woman in particular may, or may not, prove to be the apple of Boston Bill’s eye.

Promo

Appaloosa, the hometown of Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, continues to prosper, but with prosperity comes a slew of new trouble: carpetbaggers, gamblers, migrants, peddlers, drifters, thieves and whores. And there’s a new menace in town: Boston Bill Black, the owner of Appaloosa’s new casino who is wanted for a series of murders. As they set out to track him down, Cole and Hitch find themselves back in Appaloosa --- where one woman in particular may, or may not, prove to be the apple of Boston Bill’s eye.

About the Book

Appaloosa, the hometown of Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, continues to prosper, but with prosperity comes a slew of new trouble: carpetbaggers, gamblers, migrants, peddlers, drifters, thieves and whores, all boiling in a cauldron of excess and greed. And there’s a new menace in town: a wealthy, handsome easterner --- and the owner of Appaloosa’s new casino --- Boston Bill Black.

Boston Bill is flashy and bigger than life. He’s a prankster and a notorious womanizer, and with eight notches on the handle of his Colt, he’s rumored quick on the draw. When he finds himself wanted for a series of murders, he quickly vanishes. Cole and Hitch locate and arrest him, but Boston Bill escapes once again. Another murder sets the duo on his trail, eventually taking them back to Appaloosa --- where one woman in particular may, or may not, prove to be the apple of Boston Bill’s eye.

Audiobook available, narrated by Rex Linn

Editorial Content for River Road

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Carol Goodman has been producing quality, complex and character-driven novels for many years now. She and her family reside in the Hudson Valley region of upstate New York and works as a creative writing instructor at SUNY New Paltz. Her latest effort, RIVER ROAD, uses all of this, and the result is a thriller that feels so real you literally will shiver along with the characters as they battle the harsh winter cold while trying to solve a murder. Read More

Teaser

Nan Lewis, a creative writing professor, hits a deer while driving home from a faculty holiday party. But when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is nowhere to be found. The next morning, Nan is informed that one of her students was killed in a hit-and-run the night before. And because of the damage to her car, Nan is a suspect. In the days following the accident, Nan finds herself shunned by the same community that rallied around her when her own daughter was killed in an eerily similar accident. When she begins to find disturbing tokens that recall the death of her daughter, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected.

Promo

Nan Lewis, a creative writing professor, hits a deer while driving home from a faculty holiday party. But when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is nowhere to be found. The next morning, Nan is informed that one of her students was killed in a hit-and-run the night before. And because of the damage to her car, Nan is a suspect. In the days following the accident, Nan finds herself shunned by the same community that rallied around her when her own daughter was killed in an eerily similar accident. When she begins to find disturbing tokens that recall the death of her daughter, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected.

About the Book

From the award-winning author of THE LAKE OF DEAD LANGUAGES comes a chilling new psychological thriller about a professor accused of killing her favorite student in a hit-and-run accident.

Nan Lewis --- a creative writing professor at a state university in upstate New York --- is driving home from a faculty holiday party after finding out she’s been denied tenure. On her way, she hits a deer, but when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is nowhere to be found. Eager to get home and out of the oncoming snowstorm, Nan is forced to leave her car at the bottom of her snowy driveway to wait out the longest night of the year --- and the lowest point of her life...

The next morning, Nan is woken up by a police officer at her door with terrible news --- one of her students, Leia Dawson, was killed in a hit-and-run on River Road the night before. And because of the damage to her car, Nan is a suspect. In the days following the accident. Nan finds herself shunned by the same community that rallied around her when her own daughter was killed in an eerily similar accident six years prior. When Nan begins finding disturbing tokens that recall the death of Nan’s own daughter, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected.

As she begins to dig further, she discovers that everyone around her, including Leia, is hiding secrets. But can she uncover them, clear her name, and figure out who really killed Leia before her reputation is destroyed for good?

Audiobook available, narrated by Madeleine Maby

Editorial Content for My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Bamberger Scott

When he died in 2013 of acute alcohol-induced cirrhosis, Andrew Offutt left his eldest son in charge of his bizarre legacy: almost a ton of paperback books. The books were written by Andrew over the course of more than 50 years, and the bulk was pornographic. Read More

Teaser

When Andrew Offutt died, his son, Chris, inherited a desk, a rifle and 1,800 pounds of porn. Andrew had been considered the “king of 20th century smut,” a career that began as a strategy to pay for his son’s orthodontic needs and soon took on a life of its own, peaking during the ’70s when the commercial popularity of the erotic novel was at its height. Over one long summer in his hometown, helping his mother move out of the house, Chris began to examine his deceased father’s possessions and realized he finally had an opportunity to come to grips with the mercurial man he always feared but never understood.

Promo

When Andrew Offutt died, his son, Chris, inherited a desk, a rifle and 1,800 pounds of porn. Andrew had been considered the “king of 20th century smut,” a career that began as a strategy to pay for his son’s orthodontic needs and soon took on a life of its own, peaking during the ’70s when the commercial popularity of the erotic novel was at its height. Over one long summer in his hometown, helping his mother move out of the house, Chris began to examine his deceased father’s possessions and realized he finally had an opportunity to come to grips with the mercurial man he always feared but never understood.

About the Book

In “one of the most sensitive, nuanced examinations of father and son relationships” (The Boston Globe), award-winning writer Chris Offutt struggles to understand his recently deceased father, based on his reading of the 400-plus novels his father --- a well-known writer of pornography in the 1970s and '80s --- left him in his will.

Andrew Offutt was considered the “king of twentieth-century smut,” with a writing career that began as a strategy to pay for his son’s orthodontic needs and soon took on a life of its own, peaking during the 1970s when the commercial popularity of the erotic novel reached its height. With his dutiful wife serving as typist, Andrew wrote from their home in the Kentucky hills, locked away in an office no one dared intrude upon. In this fashion he wrote more than four hundred novels, including pirate porn, ghost porn, zombie porn and secret agent porn. The more he wrote, the more intense his ambition became and the more difficult it was for his children to be part of his world.

Over the long summer of 2013, his son, Chris, returned to his hometown to help his now widowed mother move out of his childhood home. As he began to examine his father’s manuscripts and memorabilia, journals and letters, he realized he finally had an opportunity to gain insight into the difficult, mercurial, sometimes cruel man he’d loved and feared in equal measure. Only in his father’s absence could he truly make sense of the man and his legacy.

In MY FATHER, THE PORNOGRAPHER, Offutt takes us on the journey with him, reading his father’s prodigious literary output as both a critic and as a son seeking answers. He “enters the darkest and most mysterious of places --- the cave of a monstrous enigma named Andrew J. Offutt --- armed with nothing but his own restless curiosity. Spoiler alert: He makes it out alive, walking into the daylight to bring us a deeper, funnier, more tender and more heartbroken truth --- and his masterpiece” (Michael Chabon).

Audiobook available, read by Jonathan Yen

Editorial Content for Violent Crimes: An Amanda Jaffe Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

The Portland, Oregon law firm of Masterson, Hamilton is experiencing an unusual rash of bad luck. It started off when one of their paralegals, Tom Beatty, was arrested for assault. Tom has an exceptionally successful military record, which is why the charge is so serious. He also has a very quiet demeanor and a craving for peace. Plus, he loves and needs his job. He’s been working closely with Christine Larson, one of the firm’s partners, and she can’t believe he would do this, at least unprovoked. So she helps him out by recommending rival attorney Amanda Jaffe. Read More

Teaser

Dale Masterson has become wealthy and successful representing the interests of oil and coal companies. But when his colleague is found dead, his business practices are put under surveillance and a lower-level employee stands accused. The controversy surrounding the firm is magnified when Dale is found beaten to death in his mansion. His son, Brandon, confesses to killing him on behalf of all the people whose lives are being destroyed by his questionable clients. Veteran lawyer Amanda Jaffe is hired to represent Brandon, but what seems like an open-and-shut case quickly begins to unravel.

Promo

Dale Masterson has become wealthy and successful representing the interests of oil and coal companies. But when his colleague is found dead, his business practices are put under surveillance and a lower-level employee stands accused. The controversy surrounding the firm is magnified when Dale is found beaten to death in his mansion. His son, Brandon, confesses to killing him on behalf of all the people whose lives are being destroyed by his questionable clients. Veteran lawyer Amanda Jaffe is hired to represent Brandon, but what seems like an open-and-shut case quickly begins to unravel.

About the Book

In this mesmerizing tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin, attorney Amanda Jaffe --- star of WILD JUSTICE, TIES THAT BIND, PROOF POSITIVE and FUGITIVE --- becomes entangled in a murder case involving Big Oil, an estranged father and son, and the greatest ethical dilemma of her career .

Dale Masterson, senior partner in a large Portland, Oregon, law firm, has become wealthy and successful representing the interests of oil and coal companies. When his colleague, Christine Larson, is found dead, Masterson’s business practices are put under surveillance and a lower-level employee stands accused.

The controversy surrounding the firm is magnified tenfold when Dale is found beaten to death in his mansion. But this time Dale’s son, Brandon, is seen fleeing the scene. A dedicated eco-warrior obsessed with saving the planet, Brandon confesses to killing his father --- for revenge, he claims --- on behalf of all the people whose lives are being destroyed by his father’s questionable clients.

Veteran lawyer Amanda Jaffe is hired to represent Brandon, but what seems like an open-and-shut case quickly begins to unravel. If Brandon is really innocent --- a radical activist determined to martyr himself for his cause --- then who viciously murdered Dale Masterson? And what, if any, is the connection between his murder and the murder of Christine Larson? Smart, fierce and unafraid of the truth even if it puts her in danger, Amanda begins to look deeper. What she finds will force the seasoned legal pro to make the hardest professional decision of her life.

Audiobook available, narrated by Therese Plummer

Editorial Content for Arcadia

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

The latest release from British author Iain Pears is a genre-defying stunner that seeks to define the very nature of storytelling. Pears is best known for his classic international bestseller AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST, as well as a series of mystery novels set in the world of fine art. Read More

Teaser

In Cold War England, Professor Henry Lytten, having renounced a career in espionage, is writing a fantasy novel that dares to imagine a world less fraught than his own. He finds an unlikely confidante in Rosie, an inquisitive young neighbor who stumbles through a doorway in his cellar and into a stunning and unfamiliar bucolic landscape. There she meets a young boy named Jay, who is about to embark on a journey that will change both their lives. Elsewhere, in a distopian society where progress is controlled by a corrupt ruling elite, the brilliant scientist Angela Meerson has discovered the potential of a powerful new machine. When the authorities come knocking, she will make an important decision --- one that will reverberate through all these different lives and worlds.

Promo

In Cold War England, Professor Henry Lytten, having renounced a career in espionage, is writing a fantasy novel that dares to imagine a world less fraught than his own. He finds an unlikely confidante in Rosie, an inquisitive young neighbor who stumbles through a doorway in his cellar and into a stunning and unfamiliar bucolic landscape. There she meets a young boy named Jay, who is about to embark on a journey that will change both their lives. Elsewhere, in a distopian society where progress is controlled by a corrupt ruling elite, the brilliant scientist Angela Meerson has discovered the potential of a powerful new machine. When the authorities come knocking, she will make an important decision --- one that will reverberate through all these different lives and worlds.

About the Book

From the author of the international bestseller AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST, ARCADIA is an astonishing work of imagination. 

In Cold War England, Professor Henry Lytten, having renounced a career in espionage, is writing a fantasy novel that dares to imagine a world less fraught than his own. He finds an unlikely confidante in Rosie, an inquisitive young neighbor who, while chasing after Lytten's cat one day, stumbles through a doorway in his cellar and into a stunning and unfamiliar bucolic landscape --- remarkably like the fantasy world Lytten is writing about. There she meets a young boy named Jay, who is about to embark on a journey that will change both their lives. Elsewhere, in a distopian society where progress is controlled by a corrupt ruling elite, the brilliant scientist Angela Meerson has discovered the potential of a powerful new machine. When the authorities come knocking, she will make an important decision --- one that will reverberate through all these different lives and worlds.

Audiobook available, narrated by John Lee and Jayne Entwistle

Editorial Content for Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Stuart Shiffman

The American criminal justice system is undergoing a reevaluation at many levels. In recent years, drug prosecutions, imposition of the death penalty, wrongful convictions and the militarization of our police have all been placed under the microscope of public discontent. Inevitably these discussions lead to one fact that cannot be avoided: the realization that America imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. Read More

Teaser

Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, INCARCERATION NATIONS is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist and founder of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, Baz Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking of one of America’s most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex.

Promo

Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, INCARCERATION NATIONS is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist and founder of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, Baz Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking of one of America’s most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex.

About the Book

In this crucial study, named one of the Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction Books of 2016 and now in paperback, Baz Dreisinger goes behind bars in nine countries to investigate the current conditions in prisons worldwide.

Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, INCARCERATION NATIONS is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist and founder of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking of one of America’s most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex.

From serving as a restorative justice facilitator in a notorious South African prison and working with genocide survivors in Rwanda, to launching a creative writing class in an overcrowded Ugandan prison and coordinating a drama workshop for women prisoners in Thailand, Dreisinger examines the world behind bars with equal parts empathy and intellect. She journeys to Jamaica to visit a prison music program, to Singapore to learn about approaches to prisoner reentry, to Australia to grapple with the bottom line of private prisons, to a federal supermax in Brazil to confront the horrors of solitary confinement, and finally to the so-called model prisons of Norway. 

INCARCERATION NATIONS concludes with climactic lessons about the past, present and future of justice.

Audiobook available, narrated by Christina Delaine