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Editorial Content for Big Breath In

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

With the release of THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A BEAR in 1995, John Straley began an award-winning career that would include both the Cecil Younger and Cold Storage mystery series, which have spawned legions of fans. Read More

Teaser

Diagnosed with terminal cancer, retired marine biologist Delphine is on the brink of throwing in the towel. She has outlived her PI husband and worries that she’s become a burden to her son and his growing family. One night, while contemplating how to go on, she witnesses a violent argument between a man and his girlfriend. When Delphine discovers that the woman has gone missing along with her young child, she embarks on a quest to find them. What begins as a chance encounter balloons into a rescue mission across the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, Delphine encounters the dregs of humanity --- grappling with schemers, kidnappers and murderers --- as well as its joys. With the help of a few friends, a retired PI and a queer biker gang, she is determined to see her mission through...knowing full well that it may be her last.

Promo

Diagnosed with terminal cancer, retired marine biologist Delphine is on the brink of throwing in the towel. She has outlived her PI husband and worries that she’s become a burden to her son and his growing family. One night, while contemplating how to go on, she witnesses a violent argument between a man and his girlfriend. When Delphine discovers that the woman has gone missing along with her young child, she embarks on a quest to find them. What begins as a chance encounter balloons into a rescue mission across the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, Delphine encounters the dregs of humanity --- grappling with schemers, kidnappers and murderers --- as well as its joys. With the help of a few friends, a retired PI and a queer biker gang, she is determined to see her mission through...knowing full well that it may be her last.

About the Book

A retired marine biologist turned amateur sleuth has an ax to grind --- and a child to save --- in this new stand-alone mystery from the author of the acclaimed Cecil Younger series.

Diagnosed with terminal cancer, retired marine biologist Delphine is on the brink of throwing in the towel. She has outlived her PI husband and worries that she’s become a burden to her son and his growing family. One night, while contemplating how to go on, she witnesses a violent argument between a man and his girlfriend. When Delphine discovers that the woman has gone missing along with her young child, she embarks on a quest to find them.

What begins as a chance encounter balloons into a rescue mission across the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, Delphine encounters the dregs of humanity --- grappling with schemers, kidnappers and murderers --- as well as its joys. With the help of a few friends, a retired PI and a queer biker gang, she is determined to see her mission through...knowing full well that it may be her last.

While BIG BREATH IN stands alone, longtime John Straley fans will recognize the characteristic wit, heart and contemplation of life that threads through every one of his books --- and discover a new heroine to fall in love with.

Audiobook available, read by Alyssa Bresnahan

Editorial Content for She's Always Hungry: Stories

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jana Siciliano

Eliza Clark reminds me of the girl you want to be friends with in preschool. She’s full of reckless self-confidence and strange and interesting facts learned from an older sibling. She can climb trees and other things just as good as the boys can, and she has the prettiest doll on show-and-tell day. She’s a little bit of everything, and you wish you could be that free and brave. Read More

Teaser

A woman welcomes a parasite into her body. A teenager longs for perfect skin. A scientist tends to fragile alien flora. A young man takes the night into his own hands. Unsettling, revelatory and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.

Promo

A woman welcomes a parasite into her body. A teenager longs for perfect skin. A scientist tends to fragile alien flora. A young man takes the night into his own hands. Unsettling, revelatory and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.

About the Book

From Eliza Clark, the author of the brilliant novels BOY PARTS and PENANCE and one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, comes a fierce, visionary and darkly comic story collection.

A woman welcomes a parasite into her body.

A teenager longs for perfect skin.

A scientist tends to fragile alien flora.

A young man takes the night into his own hands.

Unsettling, revelatory and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.

Audiobook available; read by Kevin Shen, Sam Stafford, Natalie Simpson and Chipo Chung

Editorial Content for Cross

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Megan Elliott

A border town in Northern Ireland is riven by political intrigue, personal rivalries and deep-seated betrayals in Austin Duffy’s CROSS, a powerful, poetic thriller about the costs and consequences of political violence. Read More

Teaser

1994, the summer leading up to the ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent activity protesting British rule, a community plays out its end game. Francie, a hardened yet troubled IRA man, has authorized the murder of a policeman by two teenage henchmen. The Widow Donnelly protests in the town square because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her. And pathological Handy Byrnes, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control. Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes.

Promo

1994, the summer leading up to the ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent activity protesting British rule, a community plays out its end game. Francie, a hardened yet troubled IRA man, has authorized the murder of a policeman by two teenage henchmen. The Widow Donnelly protests in the town square because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her. And pathological Handy Byrnes, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control. Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes.

About the Book

A masterful tale of betrayal and violence in a tight-knit community in Northern Ireland during the last days of the Troubles, from an acclaimed Irish writer making his US debut.

1994, the summer leading up to the ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent activity protesting British rule, a community plays out its end game.

Francie, a hardened yet troubled IRA man, has authorized the murder of a policeman by two teenage henchmen. The Widow Donnelly protests in the town square because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her. And pathological Handy Byrnes, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control.

Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes.

CROSS is a complex tale of betrayal and brutality at the height of the Troubles, a powerful, moving and empathetic lament for a community that has lost its way in its battle for the nation.

November 15, 2024

When I interviewed Susan Rieger about her novel, LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER, we talked about how the media landscape has changed over the past couple of decades and how we gather news on every topic in bits and bytes. There are times when we both miss the experience of settling in with a favorite magazine and turning the pages. I joke that by the time I watch the evening news, I already have read online about most of what is be reported. It got me thinking about the effect of this, as well as social media, on young people.

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

November 2024

THE BLUE HOUR by Paula Hawkins is set on the Scottish island of Eris. There is one house, Fairburn House, and it is unreachable from the Scottish mainland for 12 hours each day as the tide comes in. It’s the perfect setting for the story.

Vanessa Chapman, a famous artist who worked in numerous mediums, lived there for years before she passed away. Now it is home to Grace Haswell, a doctor who loves the solitude and isolation of the place. When a piece of Vanessa’s art is found to contain a human bone, an investigation is called for. James Becker, a noted art historian, is charged with figuring out how the bone may have gotten there. What happened out on that island? And what happened to Julian, Vanessa’s husband who disappeared two decades ago?

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November 15, 2024, 420 voters

The 2024 Booker Prize

The 2024 Booker Prize has been awarded to Samantha Harvey for her novel, ORBITAL, which takes place over a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. Compact yet beautifully expansive, the book invites us to observe Earth’s splendor, while reflecting on the individual and collective value of every human life. Click here to read more about Samantha Harvey, the first woman to win the prize since 2019, and ORBITAL, the second-shortest book to win the prize.

Interview: Graham Brown, author of Clive Cussler Desolation Code: A Novel from the NUMA Files

Nov 14, 2024

Kurt Austin and the NUMA crew face swarms of deadly bio-hacked sea locusts, a runaway AI system and a sinister cult in the newly released CLIVE CUSSLER DESOLATION CODE. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House and Clive Cussler’s primary publicist at G.P. Putnam’s Sons from 1999 to 2015, Graham Brown talks about collaborating with Cussler on this series, the changes he has made to Kurt as a character, and the impact that technological innovations have on these books.

November 12, 2024

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of November 11th and November 18th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our “What to Give, What to Get” feature. Here, we are spotlighting three books that we think are “reader perfect” suggestions for holiday giving and getting: THE BLUE HOUR by Paula Hawkins (an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick), EVERYONE THIS CHRISTMAS HAS A SECRET by Benjamin Stevenson, and THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS AT DUNDER MIFFLIN by Brian Baumgartner and Ben Silverman.

Lou Berney, author of Double Barrel Bluff

During his years as a wheelman for the Armenian mob in Los Angeles, Shake Bouchon didn’t think of himself as the settling-down type. But now he’s happily married to Gina, the love of his life --- and former adversary --- in Indiana, of all places. The great thing about Bloomington, for two people with checkered pasts, is that everyone is nice and no one knows them. Until the day a brutal Armenian thug shows up in his backyard. He demands that Shake help him find his missing mob boss, Alexandra “Lexy” Ilandryan, who also happens to be Shake’s ex-girlfriend. Shake reluctantly agrees to travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where Lexy was last seen. Once there, he finds himself tangled in an underworld of Cambodian gangsters, mob politics and opportunistic expats, where the stakes aren’t clear and everyone is looking to score.