Josephine Buck runs a trading post just off the Navajo Reservation. Widow Leigh Ann Vance is Jo's right-hand woman, filling the emptiness in her own life. Shortly after her husband, Kurt, was killed, Leigh Ann discovered he had been having a string of affairs. Leigh Ann's trust issues affect her feelings for blind sculptor Melvin Littlewater. Kurt's business partners accuse Leigh Ann of helping Kurt embezzle, and the police wonder if Leigh Ann killed him. When she turns to Melvin for help, she finds him fighting his own demons, haunted by memories of a young girl he saw moments before the car crash that cost him his sight.
Stavros Stavros Mavrakis, Greek immigrant and proud owner of the Gala Diner, believes he has just 10 days to live. As he prepares for his final hours, he sends a scathing email to his ex-wife and three grown daughters, outlining his wishes for how they each might better live their lives. With varying degrees of laughter and scorn, his family and friends dismiss his behavior as nothing more than a plea for attention. But when Stavros disappears, those closest to him are forced to confront the possibility of his death.
Private investigator Bernie Little and his canine companion, Chet, return home to encounter some alarming developments. First off, Bernie’s wall is gone, and with it Bernie’s grandfather’s watch, their most valuable possession. And next door, old Mr. Parsons is under investigation for being in possession of a saguaro cactus illegally transplanted from the desert. Bernie and Chet go deep into the desert to investigate. Is it possible that such a lovely old couple have a terrible secret in their past?
While America becomes swept up in the fervor of the Space Race, Jim Harrison, a test pilot in the United States Air Force, passes up the chance to become an astronaut to welcome his daughter into the world. Together, he and his wife confront the thrills and challenges of raising a child head-on. But when his family is faced with a sudden and inexplicable tragedy, Harrison's instincts as a father and a pilot are put to the test. The aftermath will haunt the Harrisons and strain their marriage as Jim struggles under the weight of his decisions.
Quinn Colson is jobless --- voted out of his position as sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi. But in the middle of the long, hot summer, somebody smashes through the house of a wealthy mill owner, making off with a safe full of money and shooting a deputy. As Deputy Lillie Virgil hunts the criminals and draws Colson in, other people join the chase but with a much more personal motive. For that safe contained more than just money --- it held secrets. And as Colson well knows, secrets can kill.
One final cry (“God almighty, help us!”) and suddenly her world shifted violently, until a blinding collision scattered her mind and shook her bones. As all sensation drifted away, a hand reached for hers before all faded into darkness. Now she has awakened as though from some strange, suffocating dream in a warm and welcoming room. She recalls fragments of the accident. She remembers a baby. And a ring on her finger reminds her of a lie. But most of all, there is a secret. And in this house of strangers, she can trust no one but herself to keep it.
On July 24, 1983, during the finale of a heated four-game series between the dynastic New York Yankees and small-town Kansas City Royals, umpires nullified a go-ahead home run based on an obscure rule, when Yankees manager Billy Martin pointed out an illegal amount of pine tar on Royals third baseman George Brett’s bat. The call temporarily cost the Royals the game, but the decision was eventually overturned, resulting in a resumption of the game several weeks later that created its own hysteria. THE PINE TAR GAME chronicles this watershed moment.
Ramie Phillips has led a very successful life, but she isn't necessarily happy. On a boat with friends, she tries to fight her feelings of discontent with steel will and hard liquor. No one even notices as she goes to the diving board and dives off. Ramie finds herself back on the eve of her 18th birthday, with a second chance to see the people she's lost and change the choices she regrets. How did she get back here? Is she really back in time? Above all, she'll have to answer the question that no one else can: What it is that she really wants from the past, and for her future?
An art dealer and owner of her own design studio, Sara Medina travels the world to find the ideal artwork for her clients. Jay Vermillion recently inherited Vermillion Sky, a working ranch near Wyoming’s breathtaking Grand Teton Mountains --- and the estates of the rich and restless. When Jay hires Sara to handle his late father’s artwork, it’s love at first sight --- a mutually inconvenient attraction that is soon complicated by a double murder at the edge of the ranch and a potential betrayal even closer to home.
When Robert Bunch arrived in Charleston to take up the post of British consul in 1853, he was young and full of ambition, but even he couldn’t have imagined the incredible role he would play in the history-making events to unfold. In an age when diplomats often were spies, Bunch’s job included sending intelligence back to the British government in London. Yet as the United States threatened to erupt into Civil War, Bunch found himself plunged into a double life, settling into an amiable routine with his slavery-loving neighbors on the one hand, while working furiously to thwart their plans to achieve a new Confederacy.
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.
August's Books on Screen roundup includes the films The Thursday Murder Club, My Oxford Year and Night Always Comes on Netflix, the Providence Falls trilogy on Hallmark, The Map That Leads to You on Prime Video, and She Rides Shotgun in theaters; the conclusion of "And Just Like That..." on HBO Max and "The Institute" on MGM+; the series premieres of "Outlander: Blood of My Blood" on STARZ and "The Terminal List: Dark Wolf" on Prime Video; the season premieres of "The Marlow Murder Club" on PBS "Masterpiece" and "My Life with the Walter Boys" on Netflix; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of The King of Kings and How to Train Your Dragon.