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Editorial Content for Friends Like These

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

You are probably familiar with the expression “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” It is such a darkly comic line that you can practically hear it coming from the lips of a legendary stand-up comic, like Rodney Dangerfield or Jackie Mason. In the context of FRIENDS LIKE THESE, it accurately describes the highly dysfunctional, spoiled and privileged individuals who are at the center of Kimberly McCreight’s latest novel. Read More

Teaser

Six college friends have reunited for a glamorous weekend in the Catskills, a decade after a fatal accident that nearly destroyed them. Keith, once the ringleader of the group, is spiraling into addiction and stands at the edge of losing it all. This weekend is the last chance to save him. But Keith is not the only one who needs saving. By dawn on Sunday morning, a car has been found deep in the woods --- one of the friends is dead, another is missing. When a local detective turns up to investigate, it’s clear the group is hiding something ominous. Haunted by her sister’s murder years ago, Detective Julia Scutt has her own share of problems. But she is a skilled detective and knows a rehearsed story when she hears one. It is up to Julia to untangle a decade-long web of friendship, lies and betrayals to discover the truth.

Promo

Six college friends have reunited for a glamorous weekend in the Catskills, a decade after a fatal accident that nearly destroyed them. Keith, once the ringleader of the group, is spiraling into addiction and stands at the edge of losing it all. This weekend is the last chance to save him. But Keith is not the only one who needs saving. By dawn on Sunday morning, a car has been found deep in the woods --- one of the friends is dead, another is missing. When a local detective turns up to investigate, it’s clear the group is hiding something ominous. Haunted by her sister’s murder years ago, Detective Julia Scutt has her own share of problems. But she is a skilled detective and knows a rehearsed story when she hears one. It is up to Julia to untangle a decade-long web of friendship, lies and betrayals to discover the truth.

About the Book

In this relentlessly twisty literary thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight, a desperate intervention brings together a group of college friends 10 years after graduation --- a reunion marked by lies, betrayal and murder.

Six college friends have reunited for a glamorous weekend in the Catskills, a decade after a fatal accident that nearly destroyed them. Keith, once the ringleader of the group, was a handsome charmer on the fast track to success. Now he’s spiraling into addiction and stands at the edge of losing it all. This weekend is the last chance to save him.

But Keith, it turns out, is not the only one who needs saving.

By dawn on Sunday morning, a car has been found deep in the woods --- one of the friends is dead, another is missing. When a local detective turns up to investigate, it’s clear the group is hiding something ominous.

Haunted by her sister’s murder years ago, Detective Julia Scutt has her own share of problems. But she is a skilled detective and knows a rehearsed story when she hears one. It is up to Julia to untangle a decade-long web of friendship, lies and betrayals to discover the truth. But first she needs to face her own past --- including the secrets that could, in the end, offer the key to everything.

A story of unconditional love, obsession and the sometimes-impossible choices we have to make in the name of loyalty, FRIENDS LIKE THESE is a relentlessly twisty, roller-coaster of a novel.

Audiobook available; read by Carlotta Brentan, Ewan Chung, Susan Dalian, Lauren Fortgang, James Fouhey, Stacey Glemboski, Joe Knezevich and Alex McKenna

Editorial Content for The Missing Hours

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Claudia Castro was supposed to be in the delivery room with her sister, Edie, as she was giving birth to her first child. But when the baby is born, Claudia is nowhere to be found. She is completely unreachable, and her most recent posts involve a staycation. Read More

Teaser

From a distance, Claudia Castro has it all: a famous family, a trust fund, thousands of Instagram followers, and a spot in NYU’s freshman class. But look closer, and things are messier: her parents are separating, she’s just been humiliated by a sleazy documentary, and her sister is about to have a baby with a man she barely knows. Claudia starts the school year resolved to find a path toward something positive, maybe even meaningful --- and then one drunken night everything changes. She cuts herself off from her family, seeking solace in a new friendship. But when the rest of school comes back from spring break, Claudia is missing. Suddenly, the whole city is trying to piece together the hours of that terrible night.

Promo

From a distance, Claudia Castro has it all: a famous family, a trust fund, thousands of Instagram followers, and a spot in NYU’s freshman class. But look closer, and things are messier: her parents are separating, she’s just been humiliated by a sleazy documentary, and her sister is about to have a baby with a man she barely knows. Claudia starts the school year resolved to find a path toward something positive, maybe even meaningful --- and then one drunken night everything changes. She cuts herself off from her family, seeking solace in a new friendship. But when the rest of school comes back from spring break, Claudia is missing. Suddenly, the whole city is trying to piece together the hours of that terrible night.

About the Book

From the critically acclaimed author of INVISIBLE CITY and CONVICTION, THE MISSING HOURS is a novel about obsession, privilege and the explosive consequences of one violent act.

From a distance, Claudia Castro has it all: a famous family, a trust fund, thousands of Instagram followers, and a spot in NYU’s freshman class. But look closer, and things are messier: her parents are separating, she’s just been humiliated by a sleazy documentary, and her sister is about to have a baby with a man she barely knows.

Claudia starts the school year resolved to find a path toward something positive, maybe even meaningful --- and then one drunken night everything changes. Reeling, her memory hazy, Claudia cuts herself off from her family, seeking solace in a new friendship. But when the rest of school comes back from spring break, Claudia is missing.

Suddenly, the whole city is trying to piece together the hours of that terrible night.

Audiobook available, read by Taylor Meskimen

Editorial Content for Fault Lines

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

From debut novelist Emily Itami comes FAULT LINES, an explosively resonant and shockingly witty look into the life of happy housewife Mizuki...who maybe isn’t so happy after all. Read More

Teaser

Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry. Then, one rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. In him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship and the neon, electric pulse of the city she has always loved. But the further she falls into their relationship, the clearer it becomes that she is living two lives --- and in the end, we can choose only one.

Promo

Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry. Then, one rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. In him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship and the neon, electric pulse of the city she has always loved. But the further she falls into their relationship, the clearer it becomes that she is living two lives --- and in the end, we can choose only one.

About the Book

Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry.

Then, one rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. In him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship and the neon, electric pulse of the city she has always loved. But the further she falls into their relationship, the clearer it becomes that she is living two lives --- and in the end, we can choose only one.

Funny, provocative and startlingly honest, FAULT LINES is for anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and asked, Who am I, and how did I get here? A bittersweet love story and a piercing portrait of female identity, it introduces Emily Itami as a debut novelist with astounding resonance and wit.

Audiobook available, read by Lydia Wilson

Editorial Content for We Know You Remember

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jack Kramer

Swedish author Tove Alsterdal makes her American debut with WE KNOW YOU REMEMBER, a riveting mystery that is a worthy addition to the series of novels by terrific Swedish authors that have captured the attention and praise of mystery lovers all over the world. The plot structure of this memorable work is brilliantly conceived and executed, and the development of an array of fascinating characters is impressive. As a matter of fact, it is as much a profound psychological study as it is a clever police procedural. Read More

Teaser

It’s been more than 20 years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to his family’s house, he knows instantly that something is amiss. The front door key, hidden under a familiar stone, is still there. Inside, there’s a panicked dog, a terrible stench and water pooling on the floor: the father Olaf has not seen or spoken to in decades is dead in the bathroom shower. For police detective Eira Sjödin, the investigation of this suspicious death resurrects long-forgotten nightmares. She was only nine when Olof Hagström, then 14, was found guilty of raping and murdering a local girl. The case left a mark on the town’s collective memory and tinged Eira’s childhood with fear. Too young to be sentenced, Olof was sent to a youth home and exiled from his family. He was never seen in the town again. Until now.

Promo

It’s been more than 20 years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to his family’s house, he knows instantly that something is amiss. The front door key, hidden under a familiar stone, is still there. Inside, there’s a panicked dog, a terrible stench and water pooling on the floor: the father Olaf has not seen or spoken to in decades is dead in the bathroom shower. For police detective Eira Sjödin, the investigation of this suspicious death resurrects long-forgotten nightmares. She was only nine when Olof Hagström, then 14, was found guilty of raping and murdering a local girl. The case left a mark on the town’s collective memory and tinged Eira’s childhood with fear. Too young to be sentenced, Olof was sent to a youth home and exiled from his family. He was never seen in the town again. Until now.

About the Book

A missing girl, a hidden body, a decades-long cover-up and old sins cast in new light: the classic procedural meets Scandinavian atmosphere in this rich, character-driven mystery, awarded Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, that heralds the American debut of a supremely skilled international writer. 

It’s been more than 20 years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to his family’s house, he knows instantly that something is amiss. The front door key, hidden under a familiar stone, is still there. Inside, there’s a panicked dog, a terrible stench and water pooling on the floor: the father Olaf has not seen or spoken to in decades is dead in the bathroom shower.

For police detective Eira Sjödin, the investigation of this suspicious death resurrects long-forgotten nightmares. She was only nine when Olof Hagström, then 14, was found guilty of raping and murdering a local girl. The case left a mark on the town’s collective memory --- a wound that never quite healed --- and tinged Eira’s childhood with fear. Too young to be sentenced, Olof was sent to a youth home and exiled from his family. He was never seen in the town again. Until now. 

An intricate crime narrative in which past and present gracefully blend, WE KNOW YOU REMEMBER is a relentlessly suspenseful and beautifully written novel about guilt and memory in which nothing is what it seems, and unexpected twists upend everything you think you know.

Audiobook available, read by Hillary Huber

Editorial Content for Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pauline Finch

It isn’t until the very end of WINDSWEPT --- in her Acknowledgments, actually --- that UK writer Annabel Abbs references the onset of COVID-19 and its impact on the final trek in her ambitious project to physically trace the routes of eight extraordinary walking women of the 19th and 20th centuries. Read More

Teaser

WINDSWEPT is a beautifully written meditation on connecting with the outdoors through the simple act of walking. In captivating and elegant prose, Annabel Abbs-Streets follows in the footsteps of women who boldly reclaimed wild landscapes for themselves, including Georgia O’Keeffe in the empty plains of Texas and New Mexico, Nan Shepherd in the mountains of Scotland, Gwen John following the French River Garonne, Daphne du Maurier along the River Rhône, and Simone de Beauvoir --- who walked as much as 25 miles a day in a dress and espadrilles --- through the mountains and forests of France.

Promo

WINDSWEPT is a beautifully written meditation on connecting with the outdoors through the simple act of walking. In captivating and elegant prose, Annabel Abbs-Streets follows in the footsteps of women who boldly reclaimed wild landscapes for themselves, including Georgia O’Keeffe in the empty plains of Texas and New Mexico, Nan Shepherd in the mountains of Scotland, Gwen John following the French River Garonne, Daphne du Maurier along the River Rhône, and Simone de Beauvoir --- who walked as much as 25 miles a day in a dress and espadrilles --- through the mountains and forests of France.

About the Book

A provocative and meditative memoir that crosses continents and centuries in a poignant account of the power of women walking in nature.

Annabel Abbs-Streets' WINDSWEPT is a beautifully written meditation on connecting with the outdoors through the simple act of walking. In captivating and elegant prose, Abbs-Streets follows in the footsteps of women who boldly reclaimed wild landscapes for themselves, including Georgia O’Keeffe in the empty plains of Texas and New Mexico, Nan Shepherd in the mountains of Scotland, Gwen John following the French River Garonne, Daphne du Maurier along the River Rhône, and Simone de Beauvoir --- who walked as much as 25 miles a day in a dress and espadrilles --- through the mountains and forests of France.

Part historical inquiry and part memoir, the stories of these writers and artists are laced together by moments in Abbs-Streets' own life, beginning with her poet father who raised her in the Welsh countryside as an “experiment,” according to the principles of Rousseau. Abbs-Streets explores a forgotten legacy of moving on foot and discovers how it has helped women throughout history to find their voices, to reimagine their lives and to break free from convention.

As Abbs-Streets traces the paths of exceptional women, she realizes that she, too, is walking away from her past and into a radically different future. WINDSWEPT crosses continents and centuries in a provocative and poignant account of the power of walking in nature.

Audiobook available, read by Fenella Fudge

Editorial Content for The Last House on Needless Street

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Christine M. Irvin

Ted lives alone in his childhood home with his cat, Olivia. Abused as a child, he has turned mostly into a recluse in his adult life, going out to get food when necessary and see his therapist so he can get his meds. Ted has blocked out the outside world as much as possible, except for his daughter, Lauren, who visits him from time to time. He boards up all the windows of his house with plywood that just has peepholes drilled into them so he can see in but no one can see out. Read More

Teaser

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

Promo

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

About the Book

Catriona Ward's THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET is a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of GONE GIRL and THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE.

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.

A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.

An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

Audiobook available, read by Christopher Ragland

Editorial Content for The Yards

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

When you get a feeling that something is not quite right, you really should pay attention to it. Otherwise, be ready for the consequences. Git O’Rourke ignored that warning nagging at the back of her mind, and she paid dearly. Read More

Teaser

A single mother, Git O’Rourke works hard to support her daughter Charlie, but still finds time to cut loose every once in a while and find a companion for the night. Which is exactly how she ends up in a hotel room with a strange man passed out on heroin, and how she comes to possess the bag of money and guns that he left open as he got his fix. When the dead body is discovered at the Skyview Motor Court, officer Delia Mariola recognizes the victim as the perpetrator in an earlier crime --- a domestic violence call. She knows he’s connected to the local mob, but the crime scene doesn’t exactly resemble their typical hit. Instead, all signs point to a pick-up gone wrong. Which means that all signs point to Git.

Promo

A single mother, Git O’Rourke works hard to support her daughter Charlie, but still finds time to cut loose every once in a while and find a companion for the night. Which is exactly how she ends up in a hotel room with a strange man passed out on heroin, and how she comes to possess the bag of money and guns that he left open as he got his fix. When the dead body is discovered at the Skyview Motor Court, officer Delia Mariola recognizes the victim as the perpetrator in an earlier crime --- a domestic violence call. She knows he’s connected to the local mob, but the crime scene doesn’t exactly resemble their typical hit. Instead, all signs point to a pick-up gone wrong. Which means that all signs point to Git.

About the Book

In this twisty crime novel, a hotel hook up gone wrong finds a single mother suspected of murder.

Git O’Rourke is from the wrong side of the tracks --- even if, in the depressed Rust Belt town of Baxter, it’s not always clear where that designation begins. A single mother, she works hard to support her daughter Charlie, but still finds time to cut loose every once in a while, to go to a local bar, drink martinis and find a companion for the night. Which is exactly how she ends up in a hotel room with a strange man passed out on heroin, and how she comes to possess the bag of money and guns that he left open as he got his fix.

When the dead body is discovered at the Skyview Motor Court, a bullet through its forehead, officer Delia Mariola is one of the first on the scene. She recognizes the victim as the perpetrator in an earlier crime --- a domestic violence call --- but that does little to explain how he ended up in the situation in which they find him. She knows he’s connected to the local mob, but the crime scene doesn’t exactly resemble their typical hit. Instead, all signs point to a pick-up gone wrong. Which means that all signs point to Git.

A twisted tale set in a tough town, THE YARDS is a multiple-voiced mystery with two unforgettable women at its core; its suspenseful, thrilling and unpredictable plot will keep the reader guessing until the very last page.

Audiobook available, read by Amy McFadden and Cody Roberts

Abe Streep, author of Brothers on Three: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana

March 11, 2017, was a night to remember. In front of the hopeful eyes of thousands of friends, family members and fans, the Arlee Warriors would finally bring the high school basketball state championship title home to the Flathead Indian Reservation. The game would become the stuff of legend, with the boys revered as local heroes. The team’s place in Montana history was now cemented, but for starters Will Mesteth, Jr. and Phillip Malatare, life would keep moving on --- senior year was only just beginning. In BROTHERS ON THREE, we follow Phil and Will, along with their teammates, coaches and families, as they balance the pressures of adolescence, shoulder the dreams of their community, and chart their own individual courses for the future.

Dawn Turner, author of Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood

Siblings Dawn and Kim, and their best friend Debra, were three Black girls who bonded as they roamed the concrete landscape of Bronzeville, a historic neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, the destination of hundreds of thousands of Black folks who fled the ravages of the Jim Crow South. These third-generation daughters of the Great Migration come of age in the 1970s, and for a brief, wondrous moment, they are all giggles and dreams and promises of “friends forever.” But then fate intervenes, sending them careening in wildly different directions. Dawn struggles to make sense of the shocking turns that consume her sister and her best friend, all the while asking herself a simple but profound question: Why?

Craig Johnson, author of Daughter of the Morning Star: A Longmire Mystery

When Lolo Long's niece Jaya begins receiving death threats, Tribal Police Chief Long calls on Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire along with Henry Standing Bear as lethal backup. Jaya "Longshot" Long is the phenom of the Lame Deer Lady Stars High School basketball team and is following in the steps of her older sister, who disappeared a year previously, a victim of the scourge of missing Native Woman in Indian Country. Lolo hopes that having Longmire involved might draw some public attention to the girl's plight, but with this maneuver she also inadvertently places the good sheriff in a one-on-one with the deadliest adversary he has ever faced in both this world and the next.