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March 19, 2024

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this spring. Read more about it, and enter our Spring Preview Contest by Wednesday, March 20th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of FINDING MARGARET FULLER by Allison Pataki, which is now available. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

Adelle Waldman, author of Help Wanted

Every day at 3:55 a.m., members of Team Movement clock in for their shift at big-box store Town Square in a small upstate New York town. Under the eyes of a self-absorbed and barely competent boss, they empty the day’s truck of merchandise, stock the shelves, and scatter before the store opens and customers arrive. Their lives follow a familiar if grueling routine, but their real problem is that Town Square doesn’t schedule them for enough hours --- most of them are barely getting by, even while working second or third jobs. When store manager Big Will announces he is leaving, the members of Movement spot an opportunity. If they play their cards right, one of them just might land a management job, with all the stability and possibility for advancement that that implies.

Cristina Henríquez, author of The Great Divide

It is said that the Panama Canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. Ada Bunting is a bold 16-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. When she sees Omar, who has collapsed after a grueling shift, she is the only one who rushes to his aid. John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama with the goal of eliminating malaria. But his wife, Marian, has fallen ill herself, and when he witnesses Ada’s bravery and compassion, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty and sacrifice.

Tamron Hall, author of Watch Where They Hide: A Jordan Manning Novel

After dropping her child off at preschool, Marla Hancock disappears. She recently had left her verbally abusive husband and moved in with her sister, Shelly, who simply can’t believe that her sister would ever willingly vanish without her children. But with limited support from the town’s police department or media resources, Shelly fears that Marla’s disappearance won’t get the attention it deserves. So, several weeks after filing a missing person’s report, she reaches out to TV journalist Jordan Manning for help. Jordan has gained a reputation as a “fixer” with a vigilante edge, but she still feels pressure to prove herself as a young Black professional. Her search for Marla twists and turns in ways she never could have imagined, illuminating scandals and secrets that place her own life in grave danger.

Lisa Gardner, author of Still See You Everywhere

The case was sensational. Kaylee Pierson had confessed from the very beginning. Despite the media’s chronicling of her childhood spent with a violent father, no one could find sympathy for “the Beautiful Butcher” who had led 18 men home from bars before viciously slitting their throats. Twelve years ago, Pierson’s five-year-old sister, Leilani, went missing in Hawaii, and the main suspect was Pierson’s ex-boyfriend. Now, with only three weeks left to live, Pierson has finally received a lead on her sister’s whereabouts. Frankie Elkin takes on Pierson’s request to find Leilani on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific. In order to learn the truth and possibly save a young woman’s life, Frankie must go undercover at the isolated base camp.

Editorial Content for Mona of the Manor: A Tales of the City Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

In a little village in the midst of Britain’s Cotswolds sits Easley House, a grand English manor whose glory days appear to be behind it. Lord Teddy Roughton, Easley House’s most recent heir, married Mona Ramsey, a colorful American woman, so that he could run off to live his dream in San Francisco. Lord Teddy left his wife behind to run the manor. Being Her Ladyship suits her when it suits her, which is to say when paying guests arrive. Read More

Teaser

When Mona Ramsey married Lord Teddy Roughton to secure his visa --- allowing him to remain in San Francisco to fulfill his wildest dreams --- she never imagined that by age 48, she would be the sole owner of Easley House, Teddy’s grand, romantic country manor in the UK. She also didn't imagine that she’d need to open the manor’s doors to paying guests to afford the electric bill and repair the leaking roof. Yet somehow, she and her young friend, Wilfred --- whom guests assume is serving as Easley’s charming-but-clumsy butler --- and the loopy old gardener, Mr. Hargis, are making it work. This delicate equilibrium is upended when Americans Rhonda and Ernie Blaylock arrive for a weekend vacation at Easley, and Wilfred stumbles onto their terrible secret.

Promo

When Mona Ramsey married Lord Teddy Roughton to secure his visa --- allowing him to remain in San Francisco to fulfill his wildest dreams --- she never imagined that by age 48, she would be the sole owner of Easley House, Teddy’s grand, romantic country manor in the UK. She also didn't imagine that she’d need to open the manor’s doors to paying guests to afford the electric bill and repair the leaking roof. Yet somehow, she and her young friend, Wilfred --- whom guests assume is serving as Easley’s charming-but-clumsy butler --- and the loopy old gardener, Mr. Hargis, are making it work. This delicate equilibrium is upended when Americans Rhonda and Ernie Blaylock arrive for a weekend vacation at Easley, and Wilfred stumbles onto their terrible secret.

About the Book

Set in the early 1990s, the long-awaited 10th novel in Armistead Maupin’s beloved and enduring Tales of the City series follows the adventures of Mona Ramsey, now the widowed Lady of a glorious old manor in Britain’s golden Cotswolds, and her fabulous adopted son Wilfred, as they come to the aid of an American visitor with a troubling secret.

When Mona Ramsey married Lord Teddy Roughton to secure his visa --- allowing him to remain in San Francisco to fulfill his wildest dreams --- she never imagined she would, by age 48, be the sole owner of Easley House, Teddy’s grand, romantic country manor in the UK. She also didn't imagine that she’d need to open the manor’s doors to paying guests to afford the electric bill and repair the leaking roof. Yet somehow, she and her young friend, Wilfred --- whom guests assume is serving as Easley’s charming-but-clumsy butler --- and the loopy old gardener, Mr. Hargis, are making it work.

This delicate equilibrium is upended when Americans Rhonda and Ernie Blaylock arrive for a weekend vacation at Easley, and Wilfred stumbles onto their terrible secret. Now, instead of being able to focus on the imminent arrival of her old friend, Michael Tolliver, and beloved parent Anna Madrigal, Mona will need to focus all of her considerable charm, willpower and wiles --- and the help of Wilfred and Mona’s girlfriend Poppy, the town’s postmistress and local calligraphy whiz --- to set things right before the Midsummer ceremony when the whole town will descend on Easley’s historic grounds.

Audiobook available, read by Mara Wilson

Editorial Content for Murder at la Villette: An Aimée Leduc Investigation Set in Paris

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Cara Black’s Aimée Leduc novels are such powerful mysteries that this long-running series has become the standard for strong female protagonists and Parisian-based stories. I firmly believe that these books are at their best when the plot deals with Aimée on a personal level. No story to date is more personal than this 21st and latest entry, MURDER AT LA VILLLETTE. Read More

Teaser

Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc doesn’t know that her life is about to be upended. Her ex, Melac, has been hounding her to move their daughter, Chloé, to Brittany. Aimée has stopped answering his calls, which is why she doesn’t know he’s waiting for her by the Bassin de la Villette as she leaves a client’s office late one night. When she finds him, he has just been stabbed by an assailant, who knocks Aimée unconscious and plants the bloody knife in her hands. Now Aimée is in police custody, debilitated by a concussion, with overwhelming evidence pointing to her as Melac’s killer. In an attempt to figure out who the real culprit is, she goes deep into the underbelly of Paris’s 19th arrondissement, where she rubs shoulders with biker gangs, paranoid journalists, grieving parents and frustratingly tight-lipped ex-cops on her hunt for justice.

Promo

Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc doesn’t know that her life is about to be upended. Her ex, Melac, has been hounding her to move their daughter, Chloé, to Brittany. Aimée has stopped answering his calls, which is why she doesn’t know he’s waiting for her by the Bassin de la Villette as she leaves a client’s office late one night. When she finds him, he has just been stabbed by an assailant, who knocks Aimée unconscious and plants the bloody knife in her hands. Now Aimée is in police custody, debilitated by a concussion, with overwhelming evidence pointing to her as Melac’s killer. In an attempt to figure out who the real culprit is, she goes deep into the underbelly of Paris’s 19th arrondissement, where she rubs shoulders with biker gangs, paranoid journalists, grieving parents and frustratingly tight-lipped ex-cops on her hunt for justice.

About the Book

Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc has been framed for the murder of her daughter’s father. Now she’s on the lam and must find the real killer to clear her name in this thrilling 21st installment of Cara Black’s New York Times bestselling mystery series.

Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc doesn’t know that her life is about to be upended. Her ex, Melac, has been hounding her to move their daughter, Chloé, to Brittany. Aimée is fed up with his threats to take her to court and has stopped answering his calls. Which is why she doesn’t know he’s waiting for her by the Bassin de la Villette as she leaves a client’s office late one night. When she finds him there, bleeding in the canal, he has just been stabbed by an assailant, who knocks Aimée unconscious and plants the bloody knife in her hands.

Now Aimée is in police custody, debilitated by a concussion, with overwhelming evidence pointing to her as Melac’s killer. She must figure out who murdered Melac --- not an easy job, given the target on his back as a former homicide investigator. Cut off from her typical network and forced to operate under multiple layers of cover, Aimée must go deep into the underbelly of Paris’s 19th arrondissement, where she rubs shoulders with biker gangs, paranoid journalists, grieving parents and frustratingly tight-lipped ex-cops on her hunt for justice.

Audiobook available, read by Carine Montbertrand

Editorial Content for The Extinction of Irena Rey

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

Jennifer Croft has made a name for herself recently, not only for being the award-winning English translator of Nobel Prize–winning Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk but also for leading an advocacy effort demanding that US and UK publishers include the names of translators on book jackets. Now it appears that Croft is about to make a name for herself as a novelist as well, with an evocative, witty literary mystery that puts the art of translation front and center. Read More

Teaser

Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace. The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece. They explore this ancient wooded refuge with its intoxicating slime molds and lichens and study her exotic belongings and layered texts for clues. But doing so reveals secrets --- and deceptions --- of Irena Rey's that they are utterly unprepared for.

Promo

Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace. The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece. They explore this ancient wooded refuge with its intoxicating slime molds and lichens and study her exotic belongings and layered texts for clues. But doing so reveals secrets --- and deceptions --- of Irena Rey's that they are utterly unprepared for.

About the Book

From the International Booker Prize-winning translator and Women's Prize finalist, an utterly beguiling novel about eight translators and their search for a world-renowned author who goes missing in a primeval Polish forest.

Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace.

The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece. They explore this ancient wooded refuge with its intoxicating slime molds and lichens and study her exotic belongings and layered texts for clues. But doing so reveals secrets --- and deceptions --- of Irena Rey's that they are utterly unprepared for. Forced to face their differences as they grow increasingly paranoid in this fever dream of isolation and obsession, soon the translators are tangled up in a web of rivalries and desire, threatening not only their work but the fate of their beloved author herself.

This hilarious, thought-provoking debut novel is a brilliant examination of art, celebrity, the natural world and the power of language. It is an unforgettable, unputdownable adventure with a small but global cast of characters shaken by the shocks of love, destruction and creation in one of Europe's last great wildernesses.

Audiobook available, read by Lanessa Tremblett

Editorial Content for Piglet

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

Lottie Hazell's debut novel starts with what could be a rather predictable scene in a traditional comedy of manners. Engaged couple Kit and Piglet (a nickname she's had since childhood) are preparing to host their first-ever dinner party in the new home they've just purchased in Oxford. The house isn't even fully unpacked yet; instead of a dining table, they rig up a surface on a pile of boxes. Piglet, a professional cookbook editor and accomplished home cook, is eager to impress their friends and welcome them into the life she and Kit are about to share together. Read More

Teaser

An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, Piglet has lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit. One of the many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking. But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly…hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. By the day of her wedding, Piglet is undone but is also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.

Promo

An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, Piglet has lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit. One of the many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking. But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly…hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. By the day of her wedding, Piglet is undone but is also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.

About the Book

An elegant, razor-sharp debut about women's ambitions and appetites --- and the truth about having it all

Outside of a childhood nickname she can’t shake, Piglet is rather pleased with how her life has turned out. An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, she has lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit, whose rarefied family she actually, most of the time, likes, despite their upper-class eccentricities. One of the many, many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking.

But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly…hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. Torn between a life she’s always wanted and the ravenousness that comes with not getting what she knows she deserves, Piglet is, by the day of her wedding, undone, but also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.

A stylish, uncommonly clever novel about the things we want and the things we think we want, PIGLET is both an examination of women’s often complicated relationship with food and a celebration of the messes life sometimes makes for us.

Audiobook available, read by Rebekah Hinds

Editorial Content for A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jana Siciliano

The almighty pretty boy duo of Luke Perry and Jason Priestley came around once in a generation, and they had their faces plastered everywhere in the ’90s. We all heard about the fights on the set of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” the possible romances, the smart-aleck responses to the first generation of internet journalists. A monolith like Aaron Spelling’s enormously successful drama was impenetrable; we all thought it would go on forever. Read More

Teaser

Best known for playing loner rebel Dylan McKay on “Beverly Hills 90210,” Luke Perry was 52 years old when he died of a stroke in 2019. There have been other deaths of ’90s stars, but this one hit different. Gen X was reminded of their own inescapable mortality and robbed of an exciting career resurgence for one of their most cherished icons --- with recent roles in the hit series “Riverdale” and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood bringing him renewed attention and acclaim. Only upon his death, as stories poured out online about his authenticity and kindness, did it become clear how little was known about the exceedingly humble actor and how deeply he impacted popular culture. In A GOOD BAD BOY, Margaret Wappler attempts to understand who Perry was and why he was unique among his Hollywood peers.

Promo

Best known for playing loner rebel Dylan McKay on “Beverly Hills 90210,” Luke Perry was 52 years old when he died of a stroke in 2019. There have been other deaths of ’90s stars, but this one hit different. Gen X was reminded of their own inescapable mortality and robbed of an exciting career resurgence for one of their most cherished icons --- with recent roles in the hit series “Riverdale” and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood bringing him renewed attention and acclaim. Only upon his death, as stories poured out online about his authenticity and kindness, did it become clear how little was known about the exceedingly humble actor and how deeply he impacted popular culture. In A GOOD BAD BOY, Margaret Wappler attempts to understand who Perry was and why he was unique among his Hollywood peers.

About the Book

An artful and contemplative tribute to the late actor famed for his role as Dylan McKay on "Beverly Hills, 90210."

Best known for playing loner rebel Dylan McKay on "Beverly Hills 90210," Luke Perry was 52 years old when he died of a stroke in 2019. There have been other deaths of '90s stars, but this one hit different. Gen X was reminded of their own inescapable mortality and robbed of an exciting career resurgence for one of their most cherished icons --- with recent roles in the hit series "Riverdale" and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood bringing him renewed attention and acclaim. Only upon his death, as stories poured out online about his authenticity and kindness, did it become clear how little was known about the exceedingly humble actor and how deeply he impacted popular culture.

In A GOOD BAD BOY, Margaret Wappler attempts to understand who Perry was and why he was unique among his Hollywood peers. To do so, she uses an inventive hybrid narrative. She speaks with dozens who knew Perry personally and professionally. They share insightful anecdotes: how he kept connected to his Ohio upbringing; nearly blew his "90210" audition; tried to shed his heartthrob image by joining the HBO prison drama "Oz;" and, in the last year of his life, sought to set up two of his newly divorced friends. (After his death, the pair bonded in their grief and eventually married.) Amid these original interviews and exhaustive archival research, Wappler weaves poignant vignettes of memoir in which she serves as an avatar to show how Perry shaped a generation’s views on masculinity, privilege and the ideal of “cool.”

Timed to the fifth anniversary of Perry’s death, A GOOD BAD BOY is a profound and entertaining examination of what it means to be an artist and an adult.

Audiobook available; read by Jennifer Jill Araya and George Newbern, with Margaret Wappler