Since releasing her debut album her senior year of high school, Dylan Read has spent 15 years growing up in the public eye. In the circles of fame and celebrity in which she now travels, the careful maintenance of Dylan Read, the pop star, is often more important than the songs themselves. And so lots of people think they understand everything about her. But what no one knows is the part of her origin story she successfully has kept hidden: her childhood best friend, Kelsey, vanished the year before Dylan became famous. Now, as Dylan is at the height of her career, Kelsey’s body is found at the bottom of their hometown lake --- forcing Dylan to reckon with their shared past, her friend’s influence on her music, and if there’s more to their story than meets the eye.
Dismissed from his post at a prestigious London hospital, Dr. Henry Talbot has little choice but to accept a mysterious offer of employment as a private physician from an inscrutable lord in rural Wales, Lord Julian. Arriving at Plas Helyg, the isolated estate, Henry can’t speak the language and finds himself treated with hostile suspicion by superstitious villagers, whose beliefs in myths and magic he’s inclined to dismiss. But when he discovers that his predecessor died under peculiar, inexplicable circumstances, his determination to uncover the truth leads him down a path fraught with danger --- made all the more perilous by his headstrong, reluctant ally Linette, Lord Julian’s cousin.
In Nottingham, England, Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. But with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job. When the threat of war in England becomes a reality, Emma’s daughter, Olivia, must be evacuated to the countryside. Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, and the work at the lending library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story. One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom? Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks --- and they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.
In the winter of 1906, Lady Emily and her husband, Colin, are invited to the opulent home of Baroness Ursula von Duchtel in the Bavarian alps. Outside is a mountainous winter wonderland with a view of Mad King Ludwig’s fairy tale castle. Inside, the villa hosts a magnificent but eclectic art collection --- as well as an equally eclectic collection of fellow guests. Among them are a musician, an art dealer, a coquette from the demi-monde, and Kaspar, the Baroness’ boorish son-in-law, whom, it begins to appear, someone wants dead. Emily continues to investigate Kaspar's increasingly lethal “mishaps" when tragedy strikes, ensnaring the guests in a web of fear and suspicion. It’s up to Emily to sift through old secrets and motivations, some stretching far into the past, to unmask the killer.
Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his 30s. In the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women --- his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a 22-year-old competitive chess player. In the early weeks of his bereavement, he meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude --- a period of desire, despair and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
Sarita has been watched over by a guardian angel her entire life. She calls him Angelo and keeps him a secret. But secrets can’t stay buried forever. When Angelo murders someone she loves, Sarita begins to see what's really been lurking in the shadows surrounding her. And she will have to embrace the evil within if she hopes to make it out alive.
Roman Grady is the sole reporter for the local newspaper in a tiny Hudson Valley town --- a town so small that every store opening and DUI is considered newsworthy. But when Roman's longtime girlfriend, Ashley, the mother of his four-year-old son, is found dead, he realizes he had no idea what was really going on in her life. And when he starts asking questions, he’s not prepared for the answers. What was Ashley doing at the cliffside home of her troubled ex-girlfriend? How did no one in a house full of people see what happened to her? And why does it seem like everyone in town suddenly has something to hide? As Roman and his mother dig into Ashley’s last few months, the truths they uncover threaten to expose painful secrets. The kind of secrets that can get you killed.
Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy Washington, D.C. family who place him into a comfortable job at the State Department and a placid diplomat’s career. In 1938, as Hitler’s inexorable rise continues, Teddy is reassigned to the US Consulate in Amsterdam to replace fleeing staff. Teddy’s job is to process visa applications, and by 1939, refugees from Nazi-conquered Poland, Austria and other countries are desperate to secure safe passage to America. When Teddy and his girlfriend, Sara, are introduced to an orphaned young girl named Katy, who has been abandoned on the grounds of a nursery school, they agree to adopt her. Teddy makes the dangerous and selfless decision to join with underground groups and use his position at the Consulate to rescue those with no other avenue of escape.
In 2002, Dan Slepian, a veteran producer for NBC’s “Dateline,” received a tip from a Bronx homicide detective that two men were serving 25 years to life in prison for a 1990 murder they did not commit. Haunted by what the detective had told him, Slepian began an investigation of the case that eventually resulted in freedom for the two men and launched him on a two-decade personal and professional journey into a deeply flawed justice system fiercely resistant to rectifying --- or even acknowledging --- its mistakes and their consequences. THE SING SING FILES is Slepian’s account of challenging that system.
We have listed 12 of Carol’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks that are now or soon to be in paperback. Which of these books have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.
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Coming Soon
Curious about what books will be released in the months ahead so you can pre-order or reserve them? Then click on the months below.
July's Books on Screen roundup includes the series premieres of "Ballard" on Prime Video, "Dexter: Resurrection" on Paramount+ with Showtime, "The Institute" on MGM+, "Washington Black" on Hulu, and "The Hunting Wives" on Netflix; the season premieres of Apple TV+'s "Foundation" and Prime Video's "The Summer I Turned Pretty"; the season finales of "Nine Perfect Strangers" on Hulu and "Sullivan's Crossing" on The CW; the films Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of Juliet & Romeo, The Amateur and The Actor.