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Colleen Cambridge, author of A Fashionably French Murder: An American in Paris Mystery

Fashion is returning to the forefront in Paris, as the somber hues of wartime are replaced by vibrant colors and ultra-feminine silhouettes, influenced by Christian Dior’s “New Look.” American expat Tabitha Knight and aspiring chef Julia Child join a friend for a private showing at an exclusive fashion atelier, Maison Lannet. The event goes well, but when Tabitha returns later that evening to search for a lost glove, she finds the lights still on --- and the couturier dead, strangled by a length of lace. The shop manager suspects that a jealous rival --- perhaps Dior himself --- committed the crime. Tabitha dismisses that idea, but when another body is found, it’s apparent that someone is targeting employees of Maison Lannet. It’s up to Tabitha to don her investigative hat and find answers before someone commits another fatal fashion faux pas.

May 13, 2025

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 12th and May 19th 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 Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for May, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, Oprah's Book Club, the PBS Books Readers Club, the "Read with Jenna" Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.

May 13, 2025

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we think is a great summer reading selection. Read more about it, and enter our Summer Reading Contest by Wednesday, May 14th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of WHISTLE by Linwood Barclay, which releases on May 20th. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

Jill Bialosky, author of The End Is the Beginning: A Personal History of My Mother

When Iris Yvonne Bialosky died in an assisted care facility on March 29, 2020, it unleashed a torrent of emotions in her daughter, Jill Bialosky. Grief, of course, but also guilt, confusion and doubt, all of which were compounded by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it impossible for Jill to be with her mother as she was dying and to attend her mother’s funeral. Starting with her mother’s end and the physical/cognitive decline that led her to a care home, THE END IS THE BEGINNING explores Iris’ battle with depression, the tragedy of a daughter’s suicide, a failed second marriage, the death of her beloved first husband only five years into their young marriage, her joyful teenage years, and the trauma of losing her own mother at just eight years old.

Florence Knapp, author of The Names

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates. Spanning 35 years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. THE NAMES explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

Jeffery Deaver, author of South of Nowhere: A Colter Shaw Novel

When a levee collapses in Hinowah, a small town in Northern California, Colter Shaw is brought on by his sister, Dorion, a disaster response specialist, to help locate a family swept away by the raging water, with mere hours to survive. But after a surprise attack along the river obstructs Colter's urgent search, the siblings are forced to consider a new reality: Is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes, or is someone sabotaging it? Colter and Dorion must race against a ticking clock to uncover the truth and save the citizens before the village washes out completely, destroying everything and everyone in its path.

Isabel Allende, author of My Name Is Emilia del Valle

In San Francisco in 1866, an Irish nun, abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman. At the age of 17, she begins to publish pulp fiction using a man’s pen name. When these fictional worlds can no longer satisfy her sense of adventure, she turns to journalism, convincing an editor at The Daily Examiner to hire her. There she is paired with another talented reporter, Eric Whelan. As Emilia proves herself, her restlessness returns, until an opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. While there, she meets her estranged father and delves into the violent confrontation in the country where her roots lie.

Fredrik Backman, author of My Friends

Most people don’t even notice them --- three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that unexpectedly will be placed into 18-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it.

Editorial Content for The Tenant

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

THE TENANT, Freida McFadden’s latest novel, proves that she is still at the top of her psychological thriller game.

The bulk of the story is told from the perspective of Blake Porter, a VP of marketing who is on the rise and living with his fiancée, Krista, in a nice Manhattan brownstone. Blake is on a roll...until he is not. When he gets called into his boss’s office at the end of a long workday, he is completely blindsided by accusations that he sold trade secrets to the competition. Despite his protests, he is fired without severance or unemployment. Read More

Teaser

Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone he shares with his fiancée, he's desperate to make ends meet. Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake is looking for. Or is she? Because something isn't quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears that someone knows his darkest secrets. Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it'll be far too late. The trap is already set.

Promo

Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone he shares with his fiancée, he's desperate to make ends meet. Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake is looking for. Or is she? Because something isn't quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears that someone knows his darkest secrets. Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it'll be far too late. The trap is already set.

About the Book

A new, jaw-dropping thriller from the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE BOYFRIEND and THE HOUSEMAID!

There's no place like home.

Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone he shares with his fiancée, he's desperate to make ends meet.

Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake is looking for. Or is she?

Because something isn't quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears that someone knows his darkest secrets.

Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it'll be far too late. The trap is already set.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden knocks at your door with a gripping story of revenge, privilege and secrets turned sour.

Audiobook available, read by Will Damron and Christine Helen Lakin

Editorial Content for The Missing Half

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Ashley Flowers was already a household name when ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE was published in 2022. As the #1 female podcaster in the country, Flowers hosts “Crime Junkie,” making her foray into suspense fiction not only a natural one, but a booming success when her debut became an instant bestseller. Now, with the release of THE MISSING HALF (which she co-authored with Alex Kiester), Flowers proves that she is not letting go of the literary world anytime soon…and the genre is all the better for it. Read More

Teaser

At 24, Nicole “Nic” Monroe lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years --- since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both cases eventually went cold. Nic wants nothing more than to move on from her sister’s disappearance and the state in which it has left her. But then one day, Jules’ sister, Jenna Connor, walks into Nic’s life and offers her something she hasn’t felt in a long time: hope.

Promo

At 24, Nicole “Nic” Monroe lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years --- since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both cases eventually went cold. Nic wants nothing more than to move on from her sister’s disappearance and the state in which it has left her. But then one day, Jules’ sister, Jenna Connor, walks into Nic’s life and offers her something she hasn’t felt in a long time: hope.

About the Book

Two women haunted by their sisters’ unsolved disappearances band together in this captivating mystery from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE and host of the #1 true crime podcast "Crime Junkie."

Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At 24, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years --- since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace.

On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver’s door was open, and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both cases eventually went cold.

Nic wants nothing more than to move on from her sister’s disappearance and the state in which it has left her. But then one day, Jules’ sister, Jenna Connor, walks into Nic’s life and offers her something she hasn’t felt in a long time: hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they’ve ever known.

Audiobook available, read by Saskia Maarleveld