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Week of March 27, 2023

New in Paperback

Week of March 27, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of March 27th include THE IT GIRL by Ruth Ware, an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder; OVERKILL, a riveting thriller from Sandra Brown in which a conflict of conscience for a former football star and an ambitious state prosecutor swiftly intensifies into a fight for their lives; Emily St. John Mandel's SEA OF TRANQUILITY, a novel of art, time, love and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon 500 years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space; CRYING IN H MART, Michelle Zauner's unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother and forging her own identity; and THE TOBACCO WIVES by Adele Myers, a deeply human, emotionally satisfying and dramatic novel about the power of female connection and the importance of seeking truth.

After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War by Helen Rappaport - History

March 28, 2023

Paris always has been a city of cultural excellence, fine wine and food, and the latest fashions. But it also has been a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution, never more so than before and after the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty. For years, Russian aristocrats had enjoyed all that Belle Époque Paris had to offer, spending lavishly when they visited. It was a place of artistic experimentation, such as Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. But the brutality of the Bolshevik takeover forced Russians of all types to flee their homeland. AFTER THE ROMANOVS is the story of the Russian aristocrats, artists and intellectuals who sought freedom and refuge in the City of Light.

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett - Horror

March 28, 2023

Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened 14-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did. Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident.

Crimson Summer by Heather Graham - Thriller

March 28, 2023

When FDLE special agent Amy Larson discovers a small horse figurine amid the bloody aftermath of a gang massacre in the Everglades, she recognizes it immediately. The toy is the calling card of the apocalypse cult that Amy and her partner, FBI special agent Hunter Forrest, have been investigating, and it can only mean one thing: this wasn’t an isolated skirmish --- it was the beginning of a war. Amy and Hunter’s investigation leads them to a violent, far-right extremist group who is in no hurry to quell the civil unrest. With a deadly puppet master working to silence their every lead, it’s a race against the clock to figure out who’s been pulling the strings and put a stop to the escalating cartel turf war before the Everglades run red.

Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner - Memoir

March 28, 2023

With humor and heart, Michelle Zauner tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band --- and meeting the man who would become her husband --- her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language and history that her mother had given her.

A Death in Denmark: The First Gabriel Præst Novel by Amulya Malladi - Mystery

March 28, 2023

Everyone in Denmark knew that Yousef Ahmed, a refugee from Iraq, brutally murdered the right-wing politician Sanne Melgaard. So when part-time blues musician, frustrated home renovator and full-time private detective Gabriel Præst agrees to investigate the matter, he knew it was a no-win case. But as Gabriel starts to ask questions, his face meets with the fists of Russian gangsters; the Danish prime minister asks him for a favor; and he starts to realize that something may be rotten in the state of Denmark. Wondering if Yousef was framed to heighten the local anti-Muslim sentiment, Gabriel follows a trail back in time to World War II when anti-Semitism was raging in Europe during the German occupation of Denmark, and he finds that some very powerful Danes don’t want him digging into the case.

Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni - Legal Thriller

March 28, 2023

Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career. Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. The prosecutor happens to be Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense. As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for.

Her Last Affair by John Searles - Psychological Thriller

March 28, 2023

Ever since her husband’s death in a freak accident the year before, Skyla spends her nights ruminating about the regrets and deceptions in her long marriage. That is, until she rents a cottage to a charming British man, Teddy Cornwell. A thousand miles away, Linelle is about to turn 50. Bored by her spouse and fired from her job, her only source of joy is an online affair with her very first love, a man she’s not seen in nearly 30 years, Teddy Cornwell. While in New York City, Jeremy, a failed and bitter writer, accepts an assignment to review a new restaurant in Providence. Years ago, Providence was the site of his first great love and first great heartbreak --- and maybe, just maybe, he’ll look her up when he’s back in town.

Her Lost Words: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley by Stephanie Marie Thornton - Historical Fiction

March 28, 2023

1792. As the author of A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN, Mary Wollstonecraft refuses to bow to society’s conventions and instead supports herself with her pen until an illicit love affair challenges her every belief about romance and marriage. When she gives birth to a daughter and is stricken with childbed fever, Mary fears it will be her many critics who recount her life’s extraordinary odyssey. 1818. The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley struggles to balance an ever-complicated marriage with motherhood while nursing twin hopes that she might write something of her own one day and discover the truth of her mother’s unconventional life. Mary’s journey will unlock her mother’s secrets, all while leading to her own destiny as the groundbreaking author of FRANKENSTEIN.

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller - Historical Romance

March 28, 2023

It’s ball season in Vienna, and Maria Wallner only wants one thing: to restore her family’s hotel, the Hotel Wallner, to its former glory. She’s not going to let anything get in her way, especially not the broad-shouldered American foreign agent who has saved her life two times already. Eli Whittaker also only wants one thing: to find out who is selling American secret codes across Europe, arrest them and go home to his sensible life in Washington, DC. But when he arrives in Vienna, he is immediately swept up into a chaotic whirlwind of balls, spies, waltzes and beautiful hotelkeepers who seem to constantly find themselves in danger. He disapproves of all of it! But his disapproval is tested as he slowly falls deeper into the chaos --- and as his attraction to said hotelkeeper grows.

The Hunt: A Decker/Lazarus Novel by Faye Kellerman - Mystery

March 28, 2023

Peter Decker and his partner, Detective Tyler McAdams, are thrown into an unsolved case and propelled into action when a body is found in the very woods where a man previously went missing in upstate New York. But that’s not the only crisis that Peter has to deal with. Teresa McLaughlin, the biological mother of Peter and his wife Rina Lazarus’ foster son, Gabe, has fled to Los Angeles with her two children in tow, hoping to avoid a court injunction amid a messy divorce. But LA is no escape from her problems; she is found by ruthless men and beaten mercilessly. When she wakes, barely conscious, Teresa discovers that both of her children are gone and frantically calls Gabe for help.

I'll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife and Motherhood by Jessi Klein - Humor/Essays

March 28, 2023

In New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Jessi Klein’s second collection, she hilariously explodes the cultural myths and impossible expectations around motherhood and explores the humiliations, poignancies and possibilities of midlife. In interconnected essays like “Listening to Beyoncé in the Parking Lot of Party City,” “Your Husband Will Remarry Five Minutes After You Die,” “Eulogy for My Feet” and “An Open Love Letter to Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent,” Klein explores this stage of life in all its cruel ironies, joyous moments and bittersweetness.

The It Girl by Ruth Ware - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

March 28, 2023

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford. Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends --- Will, Hugh, Ryan and Emily --- during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead. Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent.

Not So Perfect Strangers by L.S. Stratton - Domestic Thriller

March 28, 2023

Tasha Jenkins has finally found the courage to leave her abusive husband. Taking her teenage son with her, Tasha checks into a hotel the night before their flight out of D.C. But escaping isn’t so easy, and Tasha soon finds herself driving back to her own personal hell. As she is leaving, a white woman pounds on her car window, begging to be let in. Behind the woman, an angry man is in pursuit. Tasha makes a split-second decision that will alter the course of her life: she lets her in and takes off. She and Madison Gingell may have very different everyday realities, but what they have in common is marriages they need out of. The two women want to help each other, but they have very different ideas of what that means. They are on a collision course that will end in the case files of the D.C. MPD homicide unit.

Overkill by Sandra Brown - Thriller

March 28, 2023

Former Super Bowl MVP quarterback Zach Bridger’s ex-wife, Rebecca Pratt, has been placed on life support after a violent assault. Four years later, her attacker, Eban --- the scion of a wealthy family in Atlanta --- gets an early release from prison. State prosecutor Kate Lennon is determined to bring him to justice. Rebecca’s parents have kept her alive all these years, but if she were to die, Eban could be retried on a new charge: murder. It isn’t lost on Zach that in order for Eban to be charged with Rebecca’s murder, Zach must actually be the one to kill her. Eban, realizing the jeopardy he’s in, plots to make certain that neither Zach nor Kate lives to see the death of Rebecca --- and the end of his freedom.

The Resting Place written by Camilla Sten, translated by Alexandra Fleming - Psychological Thriller/Horror

March 28, 2023

Eleanor lives with prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize a familiar person's face. When she walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother Vivianne’s murder, she came face to face with the killer --- a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, the horror of having come so close to a murderer --- and not knowing if they’d be back --- overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality. Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house, a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died suddenly. A place that has housed a chilling past for over 50 years.

The Scandalous Ladies of London: The Countess by Sophie Jordan - Historical Romance

March 28, 2023

Wealthy society maven Lady Gertrude knows how the world works. If her husband is less than faithful, it’s an acceptable price to pay for her coveted position at the apex of London’s most fashionable set. No exclusive soirée or lavish ball is complete without her and her group of decadent, well-connected friends. And this Season promises more excitement than usual: Tru is launching her daughter into Society, helping her navigate the cutthroat Marriage Mart, complete with fortune hunters, jealous debutantes and malicious gossips. As skilled as Tru is at playing the high-stakes games of the ton, she never expects to meet her match --- until Jasper Thorne begins to court her daughter. Jasper needs a titled bride, but when he meets Tru, all his carefully laid plans go up in smoke.

Sea Change by Gina Chung - Fiction

March 28, 2023

Ro is stuck. She's just entered her 30s, she's estranged from her mother, and her boyfriend has just left her to join a mission to Mars. Her days are spent dragging herself to her menial job at the aquarium, and her nights are spent drinking sharktinis (Mountain Dew and copious amounts of gin, plus a hint of jalapeño). With her best friend pulling away to focus on her upcoming wedding, Ro's only companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who also happens to be her last remaining link to her father, a marine biologist who disappeared while on an expedition when Ro was a teenager. When Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor intent on moving her to a private aquarium, Ro finds herself on the precipice of self-destruction.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel - Post-Apocalyptic/Science Fiction

March 28, 2023

Edwin St. Andrew is 18 years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the Canadian wilderness and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal. Two centuries later, Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony. Within the text of Olive’s bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him. When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended.

Suspects by Danielle Steel - Thriller

March 28, 2023

Theodora Morgan, the founder of a wildly popular online shopping service, prefers to keep a low profile, especially over the last months. It was a year ago when her husband, industry mogul Matthieu Pasquier, and their son were kidnapped and held for ransom --- a nightmare that ended in tragedy. The case has gone cold, despite evidence linking the crime to Matthieu’s Russian competitors. Theo has reluctantly gone back to work running her company. On the flight to a launch party for one of her highly anticipated pop-up shops in New York City, she crosses paths with high-society networker Pierre de Vaumont. Theo politely invites him to her event --- unaware that Pierre has been flagged by the CIA.

The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers - Historical Fiction

March 28, 2023

Maddie Sykes is a burgeoning seamstress who has just arrived in Bright Leaf, North Carolina --- the tobacco capital of the South --- where her aunt has a thriving sewing business. After years of war rations and shortages, Bright Leaf is a prosperous wonderland in full technicolor bloom, and Maddie is dazzled by the bustle of the crisply uniformed female factory workers, the palatial homes and, most of all, her aunt’s glossiest clientele: the wives of the powerful tobacco executives. But she soon learns that a trail of misfortune follows many of the women, including substantial health problems. Although Maddie is quick to believe that this is a coincidence, she inadvertently uncovers evidence that suggests otherwise.