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V. E. Schwab, author of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada. A young girl grows up wild and wily. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. 1827. London. A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow --- but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined. 2019. Boston. College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, present and future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers…and revenge.

Riley Sager, author of With a Vengeance

In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution. Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of 13 hours. Her goal? Confront the people who have wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge --- and they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.

S. A. Cosby, author of King of Ashes

When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father’s car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family --- and the family business --- together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident, and Dante’s recklessness has placed them all in real danger. Roman, a financial whiz, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he’s forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills.

Wally Lamb, author of The River Is Waiting

New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown Corby Ledbetter’s marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother’s enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation still might be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?

Editorial Content for Jill Is Not Happy

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

College sweethearts Jack and Jill Tingley, an enviable couple from all appearances, seem to have it all. Living the good life --- successful, wealthy, gorgeous --- what more could anyone ask for? They have been together for 20 years. And if you ask Jill, she’ll tell you it’s because they were meant for each other. Jack and Jill, just like the nursery rhyme. How adorable! Read More

Teaser

If you ask Jill Tingley, she’ll tell you that she and her husband, Jack, are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Theirs is an enviable life, though they’ve grown distant in recent years. With their daughter, Maggie, away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect. Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He’s only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past that he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter’s sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He’s filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what. But he doesn’t realize what else Jill is hiding. So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge.

Promo

If you ask Jill Tingley, she’ll tell you that she and her husband, Jack, are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Theirs is an enviable life, though they’ve grown distant in recent years. With their daughter, Maggie, away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect. Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He’s only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past that he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter’s sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He’s filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what. But he doesn’t realize what else Jill is hiding. So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge.

About the Book

BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES meets WAR OF THE ROSES in this latest thriller from the USA Today bestselling author of BEST DAY EVER and THE NEXT WIFE, in which an ill-fated road trip resurrects a married couple's darkest secrets.

Some secrets keep a couple together.

If you ask Jill Tingley, she’ll tell you she and her husband, Jack, are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Wealthy, popular and genetically blessed, theirs is an enviable life, though they’ve grown distant in recent years. Newly empty nesting with their daughter, Maggie, away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect.

Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He’s only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter’s sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He’s filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what.

But he doesn’t realize what else Jill is hiding.

So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife --- think Ripley in yoga pants --- and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge. But everything will be fine. Jill still loves Jack and believes he’s the only one for her. She’ll do anything to keep him. Anything. She always has.

Audiobook available, read by Marnye Young

Editorial Content for Knave of Diamonds: A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

In this era of public domain, there has been no literary character more written about in fictional adventures than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. One of the cleverest and best written of these new Holmes series has come from the mind of Laurie R. King, who has had enormous success with her tales starring an older Holmes and his young wife, Mary Russell. Read More

Teaser

When Mary Russell was a child, she adored her black sheep Uncle Jake. But she hasn’t heard from him in many years --- until he presents himself at her Sussex door. Yes, Jake is back, and with a load of problems for his clever niece. Not the least of which is the reason the family rejected him in the first place: He was involved --- somehow --- in the infamous disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels from an impregnable safe in Dublin Castle. It was a theft that baffled not only the Dublin police and Scotland Yard, but Sherlock Holmes himself. And now, Jake expects Russell to step into the middle of it all? Conflicting loyalties and international secrets, blatant lies and blithe deceptions: sounds like another case for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

Promo

When Mary Russell was a child, she adored her black sheep Uncle Jake. But she hasn’t heard from him in many years --- until he presents himself at her Sussex door. Yes, Jake is back, and with a load of problems for his clever niece. Not the least of which is the reason the family rejected him in the first place: He was involved --- somehow --- in the infamous disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels from an impregnable safe in Dublin Castle. It was a theft that baffled not only the Dublin police and Scotland Yard, but Sherlock Holmes himself. And now, Jake expects Russell to step into the middle of it all? Conflicting loyalties and international secrets, blatant lies and blithe deceptions: sounds like another case for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

About the Book

Mary Russell’s allegiances are tested by the reappearance of her long-lost uncle --- and a tantalizing case not even Sherlock Holmes could solve.

When Mary Russell was a child, she adored her black sheep Uncle Jake. But she hasn’t heard from him in many years, and she assumed that his ne’er-do-well ways had brought him to a bad end somewhere --- until he presents himself at her Sussex door. Yes, Jake is back, and with a load of problems for his clever niece. Not the least of which is the reason the family rejected him in the first place: He was involved --- somehow --- in the infamous disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels from an impregnable safe in Dublin Castle.

It was a theft that shook a government, enraged a king, threatened the English establishment --- and baffled not only the Dublin police and Scotland Yard, but Sherlock Holmes himself. And, now, Jake expects Russell to step into the middle of it all? To slip away with him, not telling Holmes what she’s up to? Knowing that the theft --- unsolved, hushed-up, scandalous --- must have involved Mycroft Holmes as well?

Naturally, she can do nothing of the sort. Siding with her uncle, even briefly, could only place her in opposition to both her husband-partner and his secretive and powerful brother. She has to tell Jake no.

On the other hand, this is Jake --- her father’s kid brother, her childhood hero, the beloved and long-lost survivor of a much-diminished family.

Conflicting loyalties and international secrets, blatant lies and blithe deceptions: sounds like another case for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

Audiobook available; read by Amy Scanlon, Jefferson Mays and Steven Crossley

Editorial Content for Her First Mistake

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

HER FIRST MISTAKE is the start of a new series, which is based on a minor character from Kendra Elliot’s Columbia River series. If you have not read those books, rest assured that you still will completely enjoy this novel. Read More

Teaser

Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten. Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something too: a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.

Promo

Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten. Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something too: a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.

About the Book

When a very personal cold case murder is reopened, a detective’s secrets come to light in a novel of shocking twists and suspense by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten.

Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something too: a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.

As past and present and leads and misleads collide, one thing is frighteningly clear. Derrick’s murder wasn’t just unsolved. It’s unfinished. And only the truth --- no matter the risk --- can save the next victim.

Audiobook available, read by Stephanie Németh-Parker

Editorial Content for Flashlight

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jana Siciliano

Readers cannot expect that the simple accident they think they see happen in the opening passages of Susan Choi’s latest novel will take off into a beautiful and touching mystery that addresses the hot-button topics of racial identity and the need for greater empathy from human to human. Read More

Teaser

One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences. But now it is just Anne and Louisa, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. What really happened to Louisa’s father?

Promo

One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences. But now it is just Anne and Louisa, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. What really happened to Louisa’s father?

About the Book

A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations and memory, from the author of TRUST EXERCISE.

One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is 10 years old.

Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences.

But now it is just Anne and Louisa, Louisa and Anne, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. United, separated and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father?

Shifting perspectives across time and character and turning back again and again to that night by the sea, FLASHLIGHT chases the shock waves of one family’s catastrophe, even as they are swept up in the invisible currents of history.

A monumental new novel from the National Book Award winner Susan Choi, FLASHLIGHT spans decades and continents in a spellbinding, heartgripping investigation of family, loss, memory, and the ways in which we are shaped by what we cannot see.

Audiobook available, read by Eunice Wong

Editorial Content for The Playing Lesson: A Duffer's Year Among the Pros

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

For those of us who love golf, the next best thing to playing is reading about it. In that realm, we’re fortunate to be able to choose among writers like Britain’s Bernard Darwin, the United States’s Herbert Warren Wind and Canadian Lorne Rubenstein, all of whom have illuminated the sport and its participants. They, and others like them, have produced not simply fine golf writing, but great writing period. Read More

Teaser

Nearly 50 years after taking up the game, Michael Bamberger made a pair of startling discoveries: golf had never meant more to him, and he knew almost nothing about it. He decided to cover himself in green in a whole new way. He spent a year inside the ropes of professional golf --- playing, caddying, competing, volunteering and interviewing --- looking for a door into the sport’s sanctum sanctorum. In THE PLAYING LESSON, Bamberger goes on the ultimate golfing bender. You’ve read about St. Andrews before, but here you will experience the home of golf in a whole new way. You’ll join the author as he volunteers in one tournament, caddies in others, plays in men’s and women’s pro-ams, and conducts intimate interviews with elite figures in the game.

Promo

Nearly 50 years after taking up the game, Michael Bamberger made a pair of startling discoveries: golf had never meant more to him, and he knew almost nothing about it. He decided to cover himself in green in a whole new way. He spent a year inside the ropes of professional golf --- playing, caddying, competing, volunteering and interviewing --- looking for a door into the sport’s sanctum sanctorum. In THE PLAYING LESSON, Bamberger goes on the ultimate golfing bender. You’ve read about St. Andrews before, but here you will experience the home of golf in a whole new way. You’ll join the author as he volunteers in one tournament, caddies in others, plays in men’s and women’s pro-ams, and conducts intimate interviews with elite figures in the game.

About the Book

You are cordially invited to join Michael Bamberger on a year-long golfing adventure --- playing alongside the pros of the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, LIV Golf and more --- as he seeks to unlock golf’s most stubborn secrets in various and surprising ways, all in the name of...improvement!

Nearly 50 years after taking up the game, Michael Bamberger made a pair of startling discoveries: golf had never meant more to him, and he knew almost nothing about it. He decided to cover himself in green in a whole new way. He spent a year inside the ropes of professional golf --- playing, caddying, competing, volunteering and interviewing --- looking for a door into the sport’s sanctum sanctorum.

In THE PLAYING LESSON: A Duffer's Year Among the Pros, Bamberger goes on the ultimate golfing bender. You’ve read about St. Andrews before, but here you will experience the home of golf in a whole new way. You’ll join the author as he volunteers in one tournament, caddies in others, plays in men’s and women’s pro-ams, and conducts intimate interviews with elite figures in the game. You’ll mooch off the lessons Bamberger takes from instructors, famous and obscure, who teach golf in novel ways. You’ll learn how to buy a better golf game.

Maybe you’ve had club fittings, but not like the one Bamberger experiences in various tour trailers. In a pro-am, Bamberger gets driving tips from one of the tour’s longest hitters, Jake Knapp. He receives a putting lesson from Brad Faxon. He learns how to hit hook wedges from Gary Player. He lives through the intense pain of Rory McIlroy’s misses and rejoices at Lydia Ko’s triumphs. He plays Pebble Beach and Royal Oak, a down-home nine-hole public course in Detroit with perfect greens. He receives an unexpected hug from Greg Norman at a LIV Golf event in Miami, along with the words, “Come on in here, you a--hole.” He spends a lot of time at driving ranges, some of it productive.

What Bamberger has done here, when you get right down to it, is create his own tour. THE PLAYING LESSON is a report on a real-life golfing safari, with stops inside the heads of the game’s high priests, his own --- and yours.

Audiobook available, read by Michael Bamberger 

Editorial Content for Never Been Shipped

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

In Alicia Thompson's 2023 novel, WITH LOVE, FROM COLD WORLD, readers loved the chemistry between its romantic leads but also swooned over one of its more minor characters. As one Goodreads user wrote, "Frankly, I'd die for John." John, one of Asa's housemates, finally gets some main character energy in NEVER BEEN SHIPPED, a romance set in the world of rock music --- and on the high seas. Read More

Teaser

Micah's relationship to music is complicated. As teenagers, her band took off after being featured on a popular TV show, but the group barely released their sophomore album before breaking up. Now, over a decade later, the band is reuniting for one more performance on a themed cruise. John misses playing in a band, and mostly he misses Micah, who had been his best friend until the music stopped. Back then, he didn't take the lead, either in his guitar parts or while he sat back and watched her date another bandmate. John has never been one to rock the boat, but he's faced with another chance now that this cruise has brought music --- and Micah --- back in his life. Onboard, Micah can't help but see John with brand new eyes, and John's feelings only intensify as the discordant band's tension grows to a breaking point.

Promo

Micah's relationship to music is complicated. As teenagers, her band took off after being featured on a popular TV show, but the group barely released their sophomore album before breaking up. Now, over a decade later, the band is reuniting for one more performance on a themed cruise. John misses playing in a band, and mostly he misses Micah, who had been his best friend until the music stopped. Back then, he didn't take the lead, either in his guitar parts or while he sat back and watched her date another bandmate. John has never been one to rock the boat, but he's faced with another chance now that this cruise has brought music --- and Micah --- back in his life. Onboard, Micah can't help but see John with brand new eyes, and John's feelings only intensify as the discordant band's tension grows to a breaking point.

About the Book

A band reunion may be enough to change two musicians' tune on love in this electric romance from USA Today bestselling author Alicia Thompson.

Micah's relationship to music is complicated. As teenagers, her band took off after being featured on a popular TV show, but the group barely released their sophomore album before breaking up. Now, over a decade later, the band is reuniting for one more performance on a themed cruise, and Micah is determined to learn from her past mistakes --- no losing herself in the music and no losing her heart along the way. 

John misses playing in a band and mostly he misses Micah, who'd been his best friend until the music stopped. Back then, he didn't take the lead, either in his guitar parts or while he sat back and watched her date another bandmate. John has never been one to rock the boat, but he is faced with another chance now that this cruise has brought music --- and Micah --- back in his life.

Onboard, Micah can't help but see John with brand new eyes and John's feelings only intensify as the discordant band's tension grows to a breaking point. With five days at sea, there's a ticking clock on anything that might develop between them, and they'll have to decide if their relationship is destined to be more than a one-hit wonder.

Audiobook available, read by Ellie Gossage