Editorial Content for All the Old Knives
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Reviewer (text)
ALL THE OLD KNIVES, as author Olen Steinhauer hastens to tell the reader in his Acknowledgments, was inspired during his viewing of the “Masterpiece” adaptation of the poem “The Song of Lunch” by Christopher Reid. Comparisons with the film My Dinner with Andre arguably might be appropriate as well, given that the bulk of the book takes place almost entirely in a restaurant, over dinner, with a number of flashbacks occasionally backing and filling the narrative of what occurred six years previously. Read More
Teaser
Six years ago in Vienna, terrorists took over a hundred hostages, and the rescue attempt went terribly wrong. The CIA’s Vienna station was witness to this tragedy, gathering intel from its sources during those tense hours, assimilating facts from the ground and from an agent on the inside. So when it all went wrong, the question had to be asked: Had their agent been compromised, and how?
Promo
Six years ago in Vienna, terrorists took over a hundred hostages, and the rescue attempt went terribly wrong. The CIA’s Vienna station was witness to this tragedy, gathering intel from its sources during those tense hours, assimilating facts from the ground and from an agent on the inside. So when it all went wrong, the question had to be asked: Had their agent been compromised, and how?
About the Book
Six years ago in Vienna, terrorists took over a hundred hostages, and the rescue attempt went terribly wrong. The CIA's Vienna station was witness to this tragedy, gathering intel from its sources during those tense hours, assimilating facts from the ground and from an agent on the inside. So when it all went wrong, the question had to be asked: Had their agent been compromised, and how?
Two of the CIA's case officers in Vienna, Henry Pelham and Celia Harrison, were lovers at the time, and on the night of the hostage crisis Celia decided she'd had enough. She left the agency, married and had children, and is now living an ordinary life in the idyllic town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Henry is still a case officer in Vienna, and has traveled to California to see her one more time, to relive the past, maybe, or to put it behind him once and for all.
But neither of them can forget that long-ago question: Had their agent been compromised? If so, how? Each also wonders what role tonight's dinner companion might have played in the way the tragedy unfolded six years ago.
ALL THE OLD KNIVES is New York Times bestseller Olen Steinhauer's most intimate, most cerebral and most shocking novel to date.
Editorial Content for The Fifth Heart
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Reviewer (text)
The fictional character of Sherlock Holmes has been popular on a global scale ever since he was first introduced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. He has seen a huge resurgence in recent years, from Robert Downey Jr.'s on-screen films to network TV's "Elementary" and, my personal favorite, the BBC series "Sherlock" starring the incomparable Benedict Cumberbatch. Read More
Teaser
In 1893, Sherlock Holmes and Henry James come to America together to solve the mystery of the 1885 death of Clover Adams. Holmes has faked his own death because he has come to the conclusion that he is a fictional character. This leads to serious complications for James. If his esteemed fellow investigator is merely a work of fiction, what does that make him? And what can the master storyteller do to fight against the sinister power that may or may not be controlling them from the shadows?
Promo
In 1893, Sherlock Holmes and Henry James come to America together to solve the mystery of the 1885 death of Clover Adams. Holmes has faked his own death because he has come to the conclusion that he is a fictional character. This leads to serious complications for James. If his esteemed fellow investigator is merely a work of fiction, what does that make him? And what can the master storyteller do to fight against the sinister power that may or may not be controlling them from the shadows?
About the Book
In 1893, Sherlock Holmes and Henry James come to America together to solve the mystery of the 1885 death of Clover Adams, wife of the esteemed historian Henry Adams --- member of the Adams family that has given the United States two Presidents. Clover's suicide appears to be more than it at first seemed; the suspected foul play may involve matters of national importance.
Holmes is currently on his Great Hiatus --- his three-year absence after Reichenbach Falls during which time the people of London believe him to be deceased. Holmes has faked his own death because, through his powers of ratiocination, the great detective has come to the conclusion that he is a fictional character.
This leads to serious complications for James --- for if his esteemed fellow investigator is merely a work of fiction, what does that make him? And what can the master storyteller do to fight against the sinister power --- possibly named Moriarty --- that may or may not be controlling them from the shadows?
Editorial Content for The Precious One
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Eustacia “Taisy” Cleary makes her living ghostwriting books. But this is one assignment she never thought she’d get: writing the autobiography of Wilson Cleary --- professor, inventor, self-made millionaire, philanderer, and the father who abandoned Taisy, her twin brother, Marcus, and their mother years ago. Her family was torn apart when Wilson had an affair with a young acolyte, who became pregnant with his child. He started his life over with his new family, leaving his old one in the dust. Read More
Teaser
In all her life, Eustacia “Taisy” Cleary has given her heart to only three men: her first love, Ben Ransom; her twin brother, Marcus; and Wilson Cleary --- professor, inventor, philanderer, self-made millionaire, brilliant man, breathtaking jerk: her father. Seventeen years ago, Wilson ditched his first family for Caroline, a beautiful young sculptor. So why is Wilson calling Taisy now, inviting her for an extended visit? Why, now, does Wilson want Taisy to help him write his memoir?
Promo
In all her life, Eustacia “Taisy” Cleary has given her heart to only three men: her first love, Ben Ransom; her twin brother, Marcus; and Wilson Cleary --- professor, inventor, philanderer, self-made millionaire, brilliant man, breathtaking jerk: her father. Seventeen years ago, Wilson ditched his first family for Caroline, a beautiful young sculptor. So why is Wilson calling Taisy now, inviting her for an extended visit? Why, now, does Wilson want Taisy to help him write his memoir?
About the Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of BELONG TO ME, LOVE WALKED IN and FALLING TOGETHER comes a captivating novel about friendship, family, second chances and the redemptive power of love.
In all her life, Eustacia “Taisy” Cleary has given her heart to only three men: her first love, Ben Ransom; her twin brother, Marcus; and Wilson Cleary --- professor, inventor, philanderer, self-made millionaire, brilliant man, breathtaking jerk: her father.
Seventeen years ago, Wilson ditched his first family for Caroline, a beautiful young sculptor. In all that time, Taisy’s family has seen Wilson, Caroline, and their daughter, Willow, only once.
Why then, is Wilson calling Taisy now, inviting her for an extended visit, encouraging her to meet her pretty sister --- a teenager who views her with jealousy, mistrust, and grudging admiration? Why, now, does Wilson want Taisy to help him write his memoir?
Told in alternating voices --- Taisy’s strong, unsparing observations and Willow’s naive, heartbreakingly earnest yearnings --- THE PRECIOUS ONE is an unforgettable novel of family secrets, lost love and dangerous obsession, a captivating tale with the deep characterization, piercing emotional resonance, and heartfelt insight that are the hallmarks of Marisa de los Santos’s beloved works.
Editorial Content for The Bullet
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Reviewer (text)
Caroline Cashion has a life that is well-ordered and intellectually stimulating, if quiet. A professor of French Literature at Georgetown University, she leads a dignified life, her past a routine list of appropriate family-oriented memories that give her nothing but joy. However, her past actually calls her out as a Batman figure, wounded without knowing it, having witnessed something truly terrible that has parked itself somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind. Read More
Teaser
In a split second, everything Caroline Cashion has known is proved to be a lie. A single bullet is found lodged at the base of her skull. Caroline is stunned. She has never been shot. Then, over the course of one awful evening, she learns the truth: that she was adopted when she was three years old after her real parents were murdered. She was wounded too, a gunshot to the neck. Surgeons had stitched up the traumatized little girl, with the bullet still there. Now, Caroline has to find the truth of her past.
Promo
In a split second, everything Caroline Cashion has known is proved to be a lie. A single bullet is found lodged at the base of her skull. Caroline is stunned. She has never been shot. Then, over the course of one awful evening, she learns the truth: that she was adopted when she was three years old after her real parents were murdered. She was wounded too, a gunshot to the neck. Surgeons had stitched up the traumatized little girl, with the bullet still there. Now, Caroline has to find the truth of her past.
About the Book
From former NPR correspondent Mary Louise Kelly comes a heart-pounding story about fear, family secrets, and one woman’s hunt for answers about the murder of her parents.
Two words: The bullet.
That’s all it takes to shatter her life.
Caroline Cashion is beautiful, intelligent, a professor of French literature. But in a split second, everything she’s known is proved to be a lie.
A single bullet, gracefully tapered at one end, is found lodged at the base of her skull. Caroline is stunned. It makes no sense: she has never been shot. She has no entry wound. No scar. Then, over the course of one awful evening, she learns the truth: that she was adopted when she was three years old, after her real parents were murdered. Caroline was there the night they were attacked. She was wounded too, a gunshot to the neck. Surgeons had stitched up the traumatized little girl, with the bullet still there, nestled deep among vital nerves and blood vessels.
That was 34 years ago.
Now, Caroline has to find the truth of her past. Why were her parents killed? Why is she still alive? She returns to her hometown where she meets a cop who lets slip that the bullet in her neck is the same bullet that killed her mother. Full-metal jacket, .38 Special. It hit Caroline’s mother and kept going, hurtling through the mother’s chest and into the child hiding behind her.
She is horrified --- and in danger. When a gun is fired it leaves markings on the bullet. Tiny grooves, almost as unique as a fingerprint. The bullet in her neck could finger a murderer. A frantic race is set in motion: Can Caroline unravel the clues to her past, before the killer tracks her down?
Editorial Content for Inspector of the Dead
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
It’s the middle of the 19th century. War is raging in Crimea. The British government has collapsed. Queen Victoria is trying to put it back together but finding it a delicate operation at best. Now, to make matters even worse, one Sunday, the first of many horrible murders occurs. And at St. James’s Church, of all places. English noblemen and women seem to be the targets, and the scenes are gruesome beyond imagination, the types of scenes one would rarely see among the upper classes at the time. Killings of this base sort usually happen only among the lowliest of the low. Read More
Teaser
The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters. Amid this crisis comes opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, one of the most notorious and brilliant personalities of Victorian England. Along with his irrepressible daughter, Emily, and their Scotland Yard companions, Ryan and Becker, De Quincey finds himself confronted by an adversary who threatens the heart of the nation.
Promo
The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters. Amid this crisis comes opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, one of the most notorious and brilliant personalities of Victorian England. Along with his irrepressible daughter, Emily, and their Scotland Yard companions, Ryan and Becker, De Quincey finds himself confronted by an adversary who threatens the heart of the nation.
About the Book
The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters. Amid this crisis comes opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, one of the most notorious and brilliant personalities of Victorian England. Along with his irrepressible daughter, Emily, and their Scotland Yard companions, Ryan and Becker, De Quincey finds himself confronted by an adversary who threatens the heart of the nation.
This killer targets members of the upper echelons of British society, leaving with each corpse the name of someone who previously attempted to kill Queen Victoria. The evidence indicates that the ultimate victim will be Victoria herself.
Editorial Content for The Animals
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Reviewer (text)
Don’t let THE ANIMALS get past you. The author is Christian Kiefer, who is not (yet) a household name, with a somewhat generic though very appropriate title that you might mistake for a children’s book. It’s a haunting, darkly exquisite piece of rural noir that will chill you from its somewhat sedate beginning to its apocalyptic-like ending. Read More
Teaser
Bill Reed manages a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, caring for injured animals that are unable to survive in the wild. Seemingly rid of his troubled past, Bill hopes to marry the local veterinarian and live a quiet life together, the promise of which is threatened when a childhood friend is released from prison. Suddenly forced to confront the secrets of his criminal youth, Bill battles fiercely to preserve the shelter that protects these wounded animals and to keep hidden his turbulent, even dangerous, history.
Promo
Bill Reed manages a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, caring for injured animals that are unable to survive in the wild. Seemingly rid of his troubled past, Bill hopes to marry the local veterinarian and live a quiet life together, the promise of which is threatened when a childhood friend is released from prison. Suddenly forced to confront the secrets of his criminal youth, Bill battles fiercely to preserve the shelter that protects these wounded animals and to keep hidden his turbulent, even dangerous, history.
About the Book
For fans of Denis Johnson and Peter Matthiessen, a literary thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in American fiction.
Bill Reed manages a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, caring for injured animals unable to survive in the wild --- raptors, a wolf, and his beloved bear, Majer, among them. He hopes to marry the local vet and live out a quiet life, until a childhood friend is released from prison and threatens to reveal Bill’s darkest secrets. Suddenly forced to confront his criminal past, Bill battles fiercely to preserve both the shelter and his hard-won new identity. Alternating between the past and the present, THE ANIMALS builds powerfully toward the revelation of Bill’s defining betrayal --- and the drastic lengths he’ll go to in order to escape the consequences.
Editorial Content for Ongoingness: The End of a Diary
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Sarah Manguso has written two previous memoirs. One, THE TWO KINDS OF DECAY, is an account of her own debilitating illness when she was in college. The other, THE GUARDIANS, is an elegy for a close friend of hers who committed suicide as a young adult. Both books were spare and precise in style, deliberately eschewing the kinds of easy clichés that can mar this genre. Now Manguso, also an award-winning poet, returns with a third memoir about a different type of writing --- and how and why she is finally letting it go. Read More
Teaser
Sarah Manguso confronts a meticulous diary that she has kept for 25 years. “I wanted to end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened,” she explains. Maintaining this diary, now 800,000 words, had become, until recently, a kind of spiritual practice. Then Manguso became pregnant and had a child, and these two Copernican events generated an amnesia that put her into a different relationship with the need to document herself amid ongoing time.
Promo
Sarah Manguso confronts a meticulous diary that she has kept for 25 years. “I wanted to end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened,” she explains. Maintaining this diary, now 800,000 words, had become, until recently, a kind of spiritual practice. Then Manguso became pregnant and had a child, and these two Copernican events generated an amnesia that put her into a different relationship with the need to document herself amid ongoing time.
About the Book
In her third book that continues to define the contours of the contemporary essay, Sarah Manguso confronts a meticulous diary that she has kept for 25 years. “I wanted to end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened,” she explains. But this simple statement belies a terror that she might forget something, that she might miss something important. Maintaining that diary, now 800,000 words, had become, until recently, a kind of spiritual practice.
Then Manguso became pregnant and had a child, and these two Copernican events generated an amnesia that put her into a different relationship with the need to document herself amid ongoing time. ONGOINGNESS is a spare, meditative work that stands in stark contrast to the volubility of the diary --- it is a haunting account of mortality and impermanence, of how we struggle to find clarity amid the chaos of time that rushes around and over and through us.
Editorial Content for Soil
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Reviewer (text)
Pick up SOIL, Jamie Kornegay’s dark debut novel, and you will realize within perusal of the first couple of pages that you hold something special in your hands. Kornegay is one of those rare authors --- Cormac McCarthy, Larry Brown and Peter Farris immediately come to mind --- who can dig into the nooks and crevices of life that one knows are there but tends to gloss over and ignore, all the while making it look easy, when it most assuredly is not. The account of a gradual descent into the maelstrom of quiet madness, SOIL is the manifestation of such a talent. Read More
Teaser
An ambitious young environmental scientist hoped to establish a sustainable farm on a small patch of river-bottom land nestled among the Mississippi hills. Jay Mize convinced his wife, Sandy, to move their six-year-old son away from town and to a rich and lush parcel. He did not know that within a year he’d be ruined, that flood and pestilence would invade his fledgling farm, or that his wife and son would leave him. When Jay discovers a corpse on his property, he is sure his bad luck has come to a head and he is being framed.
Promo
An ambitious young environmental scientist hoped to establish a sustainable farm on a small patch of river-bottom land nestled among the Mississippi hills. Jay Mize convinced his wife, Sandy, to move their six-year-old son away from town and to a rich and lush parcel. He did not know that within a year he’d be ruined, that flood and pestilence would invade his fledgling farm, or that his wife and son would leave him. When Jay discovers a corpse on his property, he is sure his bad luck has come to a head and he is being framed.
About the Book
In this darkly comic, “promising debut from an assured new voice in Southern fiction” (Library Journal), an idealistic young farmer moves his family to a Mississippi flood basin, suffers financial ruin --- and becomes increasingly paranoid he’s being framed for murder.
It all begins with a simple dream. An ambitious young environmental scientist hopes to establish a sustainable farm on a small patch of land nestled among the Mississippi hills. Jay Mize convinces his wife Sandy to move their six-year-old son away from town and to a rich and lush parcel where Jacob could run free and Jay could pursue the dream of a new and progressive agriculture for the 21st century. Within a year he’d be ruined.
When the corpse appears on his family’s property, Jay is convinced he’s being set up. And so beings a journey into a maze of misperceptions and personal obsessions, as the farmer, his now-estranged wife, a predatory deputy and a backwoods wanderer, all try to uphold a personal sense of honor. By turns hilarious and darkly disturbing, SOIL traces one man’s apocalypse to its epic showdown in the Mississippi mudflats. “The Coen brothers meets Flannery O’Connor. It’s definitely Gothic, it’s definitely dark, but at the same time, it is hilarious and heartbreaking” (Kyle Jones, NPR).
Drawing on elements of classic Southern noir, dark comedy and modern dysfunction, Jamie Kornegay’s novel is about the gravitational pull of one man’s apocalypse and the hope that maybe, just maybe, he can be reeled in from the brink. “Dig your hands into this SOIL to find gutty and peppery writing, an almost recklessly bold imagination, audacious empathy and a story so twisty and volatile that nearly every turn feels electrifyingly unexpected” (Jonathan Miles, award-winning author of WANT NOT and DEAR AMERICAN AIRLINES).
Editorial Content for Night Night, Sleep Tight
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Reviewer (text)
NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT will be a surprise to those who have read author Hallie Ephron’s three previous mystery and suspense novels. While she has seemed incapable of writing badly throughout her career, her latest, a mystery that takes place almost entirely over the course of six days near the close of May 1985, is far and away her best work to date. It is a confident, sure-footed period piece that will have you reading all night as you chase the twists and turns of the story to its surprising ending. Read More
Teaser
When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, she assumes his death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making. The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend, Joelen Nichol, seems like more than a coincidence.
Promo
When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, she assumes his death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making. The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend, Joelen Nichol, seems like more than a coincidence.
About the Book
From the award-winning author of THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN comes a riveting tale of domestic noir, infused with old Hollywood folklore and glamour, set in a town rife with egotism and backstabbing and where fame and infamy are often interchangeable.
Los Angeles 1985: When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, Deirdre assumes her father’s death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making.
The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend Joelen Nichol --- daughter of the legendary star Elenor “Bunny” Nichol --- seems like more than a coincidence. Back in 1958, Joelen confessed to killing her movie star mother’s boyfriend. Deirdre happened to be at the Nichols house the night of the murder --- which was also the night she suffered a personal tragedy of her own. Could all of these events be connected?
Her search to find answers forces Deirdre to confront a truth she has long refused to believe: beneath the slick veneer of Beverly Hills lie secrets that someone will kill to keep buried.
Editorial Content for The Dog Who Saved Me
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Reviewer (text)
“As soon as I turn my back, he goes at the food, inhaling it in three gulps. Now I get it. He won't take it if I'm looking, as if he expects me to snatch it away from him. I can see my shrink nodding with a grim expression and declaring, 'Trust issues.' Guess this dog and I are well matched. We both have issues.” Read More
Teaser
Boston police officer Cooper Harrison never thought he’d go back to his hometown of Harmony Farms. But when his faithful K-9 partner Argos is killed in the line of duty, Cooper, caught in a spiral of trauma and grief, has nowhere else to turn. Jobless and on the verge of divorce, he accepts an offer for the position of dog officer in Harmony Farms. Cooper refuses to get emotionally invested in another dog the way he had with Argos --- until he finds himself rescuing a wounded and gun-shy yellow lab gone feral.
Promo
Boston police officer Cooper Harrison never thought he’d go back to his hometown of Harmony Farms. But when his faithful K-9 partner Argos is killed in the line of duty, Cooper, caught in a spiral of trauma and grief, has nowhere else to turn. Jobless and on the verge of divorce, he accepts an offer for the position of dog officer in Harmony Farms. Cooper refuses to get emotionally invested in another dog the way he had with Argos --- until he finds himself rescuing a wounded and gun-shy yellow lab gone feral.
About the Book
Cooper Harrison, a member of the Boston K-9 unit, never thought he would ever go back to his hometown, Harmony Farms. But when his faithful canine partner, Argos, is killed in the line of duty, Cooper finds himself mired in grief. Jobless, on the verge of divorce, and in a self-destructive rut, Cooper has little choice but to accept an offer for the position of animal control officer in Harmony Farms.
And so he finds himself back where he started. Where his father, Bull, was once known as the town drunk. Where his brother, Jimmy, was a delinquent and a bully. Where he grew up as "one of those" Harrisons. Forced to face the past while dealing with the present --- including his brother's continued involvement in the drug business --- Cooper does his job with deliberate detachment, refusing to get emotionally invested in another dog the way he had with Argos. Until he finds himself rescuing a wounded and gun-shy yellow lab gone feral...
Cooper never thought he'd find himself going back in order to move forward, yet Harmony Farms is the one place where Cooper must learn to forgive and, only then, heal. All with the help of a yellow dog, who has a history --- and secrets --- that Cooper must uncover.


