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January 31, 2026

On Tuesday evening, we hosted our 40th “Bookaccino Live” Book Group program --- and it was our most attended event ever! Allen Levi joined us to discuss his New York Times bestselling debut novel, THEO OF GOLDEN. The audience clearly was mesmerized by the insight he gave into the characters and setting.

Allen talked about his inspiration for writing the book and expressed his appreciation for how it has resonated with so many people. He thoughtfully responded to a number of reader questions. Some were asked by attendees who appeared on the virtual stage, while I shared questions and comments from those who were camera-shy or weren’t able to attend. Allen also updated us on the project that he is working on now. And yes, it features Ellen!

Thrity Umrigar, author of Missing Sam

One night after a party, old grievances surface between married couple Aliya and Sam, and the night ends badly with a heated argument. Sam goes for a run early the next morning to clear her head --- and doesn’t come back. Aliya reports her wife missing, but as a gay Muslim daughter of immigrants, she can't escape the scrutiny and suspicion of those around her. Scared and furious, and feeling isolated as strangers and acquaintances alike doubt her innocence, Aliya makes one wrong choice after another. She must fight to prove her innocence in the public eye even as she is torn between her fear that Sam is dead and her desire to find and save her wife. But is safety ever truly possible for them?

Robert Dugoni, author of Her Cold Justice

In a quiet South Seattle neighborhood, a suspected drug smuggler and his girlfriend are murdered in their home. When a young man named Michael Westbrook is accused of the brutal double homicide, his uncle, JP Harrison, turns to Keera Duggan to defend him. The evidence is circumstantial --- Michael worked with one of the victims, drugs were found in his possession, and he bolted from authorities. Ruthless star prosecutor Anh Tran has gotten convictions on much less. With the testimony of two prison informants, the case looks grave. To free her client, Keera must dig deep before Tran crushes both of them. As the investigation gets more twisted with each new find, Keera is swept up in a mystery with far-reaching consequences. This case isn’t just murder. It’s looking like a conspiracy.

Douglas Preston, author of Pendergast: The Beginning

It only took six months for the life of Special Agent Dwight Chambers to crumble around him. First, he lost his partner, and then, tragically, his wife. Returning to work at the New Orleans Field Office, Chambers is dismayed to find himself saddled with mentoring a brand-new FBI agent --- A. X. L. Pendergast. As Chambers tries to pull himself together, his enigmatic and exasperating junior partner pulls an outrageous stunt that gets both of them suspended. Pendergast welcomes the banishment, because it gives him the opportunity to investigate a peculiar murder in Mississippi that has captured his fancy. Chambers grudgingly goes along. Thanks in large part to Pendergast’s brilliance and unorthodox methods, they solve the case and find the killer. That is when the true horror begins.

Don Winslow, author of The Final Score

THE FINAL SCORE is a collection of six all-new short novels from Don Winslow. The multi-million-dollar casino heist is impossible. That’s what makes it irresistible to a legendary robber facing the rest of his life in prison for his “Final Score.” An ambitious, hard-working college-bound teenager has a side job delivering illegal booze to “The Sunday List” until a crooked cop, a seductive customer and a fake guru threaten to end his dreams. Two wise guys tell each other a “True Story” over breakfast at a diner. It’s all laughs until someone else has to pick up the check. And there are three more stories that are just as twisty: “The North Wing,” “The Lunch Break” and “Collision.”

George Saunders, author of Vigil

Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion. She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it? Crowds of people and animals --- worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead --- arrive, clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room, and two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for his post-death future.