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Rachel Hawkins, author of The Villa

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend. Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album --- and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

Week of November 6, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of November 6th include Jane Smiley's A DANGEROUS BUSINESS, a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California in which two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls; THE VILLA by Rachel Hawkins, a brilliant gothic suspense set at an Italian villa with a dark history; NOVELIST AS A VOCATION, an insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller and a unique look at the craft of writing from beloved author Haruki Murakami; Armando Lucas Correa's THE NIGHT TRAVELER, a sweeping novel in which four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope --- from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and, finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall; THE DELUGE by Stephen Markley, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity; and the paperback original THE WISHING BRIDGE, a new holiday novel from Viola Shipman that sparkles with the humor and heart that fans of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Nancy Thayer and Jenny Colgan love most.