December 3, 2013

December 2nd

THE GODS OF GUILT: A Lincoln Lawyer Novel by Michael Connelly
When Mickey Haller learns that a murder victim was his own former client, a prostitute he thought he had rescued and put on the straight and narrow path, he knows he is on the hook for this one. Far from saving her, Mickey may have been the one who put her in danger. Haunted by the ghosts of his past, Mickey must work tirelessly and bring all his skill to bear on a case that could mean his ultimate redemption --- or proof of his ultimate guilt.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316069519

THE STORIES OF FREDERICK BUSCH edited by Elizabeth Strout
A contemporary of Ann Beattie and Tobias Wolff, Frederick Busch was a master craftsman of the form; his subjects were single-event moments in so-called ordinary life. The stories in this volume, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, are tales of families trying to heal their wounds, save their marriages, and rescue their children.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393239546


December 3rd

ACT OF WAR: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo by Jack Cheevers
ACT OF WAR tells the riveting saga of ex–submarine officer Pete Bucher and his men as they struggled to survive merciless torture and horrendous living conditions in North Korean prisons. It also reveals new details of President Lyndon Johnson’s high-risk gambit to prevent war from erupting on the Korean peninsula while his negotiators desperately tried to save the sailors from possible execution.
NAL Hardcover * 9780451466198

THE APARTMENT by Greg Baxter
One snowy December morning in an old European city, an American man leaves his shabby hotel to meet a local woman who has agreed to help him search for an apartment to rent. THE APARTMENT follows the couple across a blurry, illogical and frozen city into a past the man is hoping to forget, and leaves them at the doorstep of an uncertain future --- their cityscape punctuated by the man's lingering memories of time spent in Iraq and the life he abandoned in the United States.
Twelve * 9781455574780

BROWN DOG: Novellas by Jim Harrison
Brown Dog, a bawdy, reckless, down-on-his-luck Michigan Indian, has earned cult status with readers of Jim Harrison in the more than two decades since his first appearance. For the first time, BROWN DOG gathers all the Brown Dog novellas, including a never-published one, into a single volume --- the ideal introduction (or reintroduction) to Harrison’s irresistible Everyman.
Grove Press * 9780802120113

COMMAND AUTHORITY: A Jack Ryan Novel by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney
There’s a new strong man in Russia, but his rise to power is based on a dark secret hidden decades in the past. The solution to that mystery lies with a most unexpected source: President Jack Ryan. COMMAND AUTHORITY is the final published book by Tom Clancy, who passed away in October at the age of 66.
Putnam Adult * 9780399160479

GOING DARK by James W. Hall
Earth Liberation Front is a loosely knit organization comprised of environmental activists who take a "by any means necessary" approach to defending the planet. Flynn Moss, Thorn’s newly discovered son, has naively fallen in with an ELF cell in Miami that has concocted a non-violent plan to shut down the largest nuclear power plant in the state. But unbeknownst to some in the group, there are other members who would like to cause a radioactive catastrophe rivaling Chernobyl or Fukushima.
Minotaur Books * 9781250005007

THE HEIR APPARENT: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley
THE HEIR APPARENT chronicles the eventful life of Queen Victoria’s firstborn son, the quintessential black sheep of Buckingham Palace, who matured into as wise and effective a monarch as Britain has ever seen. Granted unprecedented access to the royal archives, noted scholar Jane Ridley draws on numerous primary sources to paint a vivid portrait of the man and the age to which he gave his name.
Random House * 9781400062553

IN THE NIGHT OF TIME written by Antonio Munoz Molina, translated by Edith Grossman
October 1936. Spanish architect Ignacio Abel arrives at Penn Station, the final stop on his journey from war-torn Madrid, where he has left behind his wife and children. Crossing the fragile borders of Europe, he reflects on months of fratricidal conflict in his embattled country, his own transformation from a bricklayer’s son to a respected bourgeois husband and professional, and the all-consuming love affair with an American woman that forever alters his life.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780547547848

INSIDE THE DREAM PALACE: The Life and Times of New York's Legendary Chelsea Hotel by Sherill Tippins
The Chelsea Hotel, since its founding by a visionary French architect in 1884, has been an icon of American invention: a cultural dynamo and haven for the counterculture, all in one astonishing building. Sherill Tippins, author of the acclaimed FEBRUARY HOUSE, delivers a masterful and endlessly entertaining history of the Chelsea and of the successive generations of artists who have cohabited and created there.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780618726349

THE KID: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee, Jr.
Ted Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. His batting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player who has hit more than 500 home runs has a higher career batting average. Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left baseball to serve as a Marine pilot in WWII and Korea. He hit home runs farther than any player before him --- and traveled a long way himself, as Ben Bradlee, Jr.'s biography reveals.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316614351

MY VENICE AND OTHER ESSAYS by Donna Leon
For many years, Donna Leon has written essays for European publications. Collected here are the best of these: over 50 funny, charming, passionate and insightful essays that range from battles over garbage in the canals to the troubles with rehabbing Venetian real estate. She shares episodes from her life in Venice, explores her love of opera, and recounts tales from in and around her country house in the mountains.
Atlantic Monthly Press * 9780802120366

THE PRINCE OF RISK by Christopher Reich
Bobby Astor is a fearless New York hedge-fund gunslinger on the verge of making his biggest killing ever. But everything changes when his father, the venerable chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, is murdered along with the head of the Federal Reserve. In the moments before his death, Bobby's father sends him a mystifying text message that offers the only clue to the identity of the killer and the terrifying motivation behind the attack.
Doubleday * 9780385535069

ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE BOURNE RETRIBUTION by Eric Van Lustbader
Ouyang Jidan, a senior member of China's Politburo, and a major Mexican drug lord may be trafficking in something far more deadly than drugs. Jidan is the man who ordered Rebeka --- one of the only people Jason Bourne has ever truly cared about --- murdered. Bourne is determined to avenge her death, but in the process he becomes enmeshed in a monstrous world-wide scheme involving the Chinese, Mexicans and Russians.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455550951

SECRETS OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR: A Chronicle 1129-1312 by Susie Hodge
SECRETS OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR is the compelling chronicle of the warrior monks and their fight to defend the Catholic faith, and of their participation in the efforts to vie for control of the Holy Land with the Muslim armies of Kurdish military genius Saladin and his successors. Informally organized in 1119 to protect pilgrims on their journeys to visit the Holy Land, and officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church in 1129, the medieval Knights Templar grew into an elite fighting force that played a central role in the battles of the Crusades.
Quercus * 9781623650520

SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST: A Crissa Stone Novel by Wallace Stroby
A half million dollars in drug proceeds, guarded by three men with automatic weapons. For Wallace Stroby's determined heroine, professional thief Crissa Stone, and her team, stealing it was the easy part. But when the split goes awry in a blaze of gunfire, Crissa finds herself on the run with a duffel bag of stolen cash, bound by a promise to deliver part of the take to the needy family of one of her slain partners.
Minotaur Books * 9781250000385

THE SPOOK LIGHTS AFFAIR: A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
While John Quincannon follows a danger-laden trail to unmask the murderous perpetrators of a Wells, Fargo robbery, his partner, Sabina Carpenter, works her wiles on friends and relatives of a vanished debutante until the pieces of her puzzle start falling into place. But it’s an oddly disguised gent appearing out of nowhere who provides the final clue to both cases --- the shrewd “crackbrain” who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes.
Forge Books * 9780765331755

VATICAN WALTZ by Roland Merullo
Cynthia Piantedosi lives a quiet, unassuming life outside of Boston, guided by her Catholic faith. Devoted to her elderly father and not particularly interested in dating and socializing, she develops a deep friendship with her parish priest, who encourages her to explore her faith. When he is killed in a mysterious accident, a message begins to emerge from Cynthia’s prayers: God is calling her to be the first female Catholic priest.
Crown * 9780307452955


December 7th

THE COLLECTOR OF LOST THINGS by Jeremy Page
The year is 1845, and young researcher Eliot Saxby is paid to go on an expedition to the Arctic in the hope of finding remains of the by-now-extinct Great Auk, a large flightless bird of mythical status. Eliot joins a hunting ship, but the crew and the passengers are not what they seem. As the ship moves further and further into the wilds of the Arctic Sea, Eliot clings to what he believes in, but is irrevocably drawn back into a past that haunts him --- and a present that confronts him with a myriad of dangers.
Pegasus * 9781605984858

THE MURDER CODE by Steve Mosby
When a woman is found bludgeoned to death, Detective Inspector Andrew Hicks suspects a crime of passion, and attention focuses on her possessive ex-husband. But then a second body is found, and more murders arrive in quick succession. As the death toll rises, Hicks must face not only a killer obsessed with randomness and chaos, but also a secret in his own past. If he is to stop the killings, he must confront the truth about himself.
Pegasus * 9781605984889

TENNYSON: To Strive, To Seek, To Find by John Batchelor
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Queen Victoria's favorite poet, commanded a wider readership than any other of his time. His ascendancy was neither the triumph of pure genius nor an accident of history: he skillfully crafted his own career and his relationships with his audience. This thoughtful new biography by John Batchelor reveals him to be a fascinating paradigm of both the Romantic and Victorian ideals.
Pegasus * 9781605984902

December 3rd

AN AMISH MIRACLE: Three Amish Novellas by Beth Wiseman, Ruth Reid and Mary Ellis
Paperback Original
AN AMISH MIRACLE is composed of three Amish novellas written by three bestselling authors. Beth Wiseman writes "Always Beautiful," about a depressed 18-year-old suffering from obesity; Ruth Reid contributes "Always His Providence," in which a widow is in danger of losing her farm due to delinquent taxes; and from Mary Ellis comes "Always in My Heart," about a mother who believes God is punishing her for giving up her firstborn son when she was a teenager.
Thomas Nelson * 9781401688707

CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE: A Stevens and Windermere Novelby Owen Laukkanen
From the outside, Carter Tomlin’s life looked perfect. In reality, he has lost his job, the bills are mounting, and that perfect life is hanging by a thread. Desperate, he robs a bank. Then another. As the red flags start to go up, FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere homes in on Tomlin from one direction, while Minnesota state investigator Kirk Stevens picks up the trail from another. But Tomlin has guns and a new taste for violence. And he’s not quitting anytime soon.
Berkley * 9780425264706

DEAD EYE: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney
Paperback Original
Haunted by his former employers and International groups, legendary ex-CIA master assassin Court Gentry, now known as the Gray Man, has always prided himself on his ability to disappear at will, to fly below the radar and exist in the shadows. But when he takes revenge upon a former employer who betrayed him, he exposes himself to something he’s never had to face before. A killer who is just like him.
Berkley Trade * 9780425269053

FAREWELL, DOROTHY PARKER by Ellen Meister
Movie critic Violet Epps has learned to channel her literary hero, Dorothy Parker. If only she could summon that kind of courage in her personal life. Determined to defeat her social anxiety, Violet visits the Algonquin Hotel, where Parker and other famous writers of the 1920s traded barbs. But she gets more than she bargained for when Parker's feisty spirit rematerializes from an ancient guestbook and hitches a ride onto her life.
Berkley Trade * 9780425264713

THE GOLDEN CALF: An Inspector Irene Huss Investigation by Helene Tursten
Three men have been shot in one of Göteborg's most fashionable neighborhoods, sending Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues on a goose chase through a tony world of expensive cars and fancy homes. All three victims seem to be tied to one person, the glamorous dot-com darling Sanna Kaegler-Ceder. But Sanna is not speaking, even when her own life seems to be at stake.
Soho Crime * 9781616952983

KINSEY AND ME: Stories by Sue Grafton
In 1982, Sue Grafton introduced us to Kinsey Millhone. Thirty years later, Kinsey is an established international icon and Grafton is a number-one bestselling author. To mark this anniversary year, Grafton has given us stories that reveal Kinsey’s origins and Grafton’s past. KINSEY AND ME has two parts: the nine Kinsey stories (1986-93), and the "And Me" stories, written in the decade after Grafton's mother died.
Berkley * 9780425267790

ME AND THE DEVIL by Nick Tosches
An aging New Yorker, a writer named Nick, feels life ebbing out of him. One evening, at a dimly lit bar, he meets a tantalizing young woman, and the night that follows is the most extraordinary of his life. Propelled by uncontrollable, primordial desires, he tastes human blood for the first time and is filled with a sexual and spiritual ecstasy.
Back Bay Books * 9780316120999

MIDDLE C by William H. Gass
William H. Gass’s new novel moves from World War II Europe to a small town in postwar Ohio. In a series of variations, Gass gives us a mosaic of a life --- futile, comic, anarchic --- arranged in an array of vocabularies, altered rhythms, forms and tones, and broken pieces with music as both theme and structure, set in the key of middle C.
Vintage * 9780804168786

NO CAPE REQUIRED: A Devotional: 52 Ways to Unleash Your Inner Hero by Kristen Parrish
Paperback Original
As children, we dream of throwing on a cape and changing the world. Then we grow up, we learn to see the flaws in our movie stars and athletes, and we accept that true heroism is not possible in the real world. You continue to dream, though. Isn’t that why you still love watching heroes on the big screen? In these pages, Kristen Parrish looks at the qualities of 52 heroes, and then shows how you can acquire every one of those qualities.
Thomas Nelson * 9781400205158

THE PAINTED TABLE by Suzanne Field
Paperback Original
By the time Saffee inherits the table, the object of her mother’s obsession, the surface is thick with haphazard layers of paint, and heavy with unsettling memories. After a childhood spent watching her mother slide steadily into insanity, painting and re-painting the ancient table, Saffee has come to fear that seeds of psychosis may lie dormant within her. But as an adult with a family of her own, Saffee must confront her mother's torment if she wants to defend herself against it.
Thomas Nelson * 9781401689704

RAW: A Love Story by Mark Haskell Smith
Paperback Original
Sepp Gregory, a reality-TV hunk and one of People magazine's "sexiest men alive," is on tour to promote his debut novel. The book has hit the bestseller list and is even getting rave reviews from serious critics. Aside from Harriet Post, that is. Determined to pen an expose on the publishing industry, Harriet hijacks the book tour and uncovers the ghostwriter. Reality and "reality" collide, and a tragic accident sends Sepp and Harriet off on a sex-fueled road trip through the southwest.
Grove Press/Black Cat * 9780802122018

RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA by Kimberly McCreight
Kate learns that her daughter, Amelia, has been suspended from school. Upon her arrival, she finds the school surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.
Harper Perennial * 9780062225443

ROBERT B. PARKER'S IRONHORSE by Robert Knott
Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have been through some of the roughest places in the Western United States. As newly appointed Territorial Marshalls, their first task is to escort Mexican prisoners to the border. This simple train ride is easy after some of their past adventures, but when the Governor of Texas and his wife and daughters climb aboard, they begin to realize that this job may not be as easy as they expected.
Berkley * 9780425267707

THREAT VECTOR by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney
An aborted coup in the People's Republic of China has left President Wei Zhen Lin with no choice but to agree with the expansionist policies of General Su Ke Qiang. They have declared the South China Sea a protectorate and are planning an invasion of Taiwan. Jack Ryan’s administration is determined to thwart China’s ambitions, but the stakes are dangerously high as a new breed of powerful Chinese anti-ship missile endangers the US Navy's plans to protect the island.
Berkley * 9780425262306

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods
Two unexpected invitations may be the first clues in an intricate puzzle that Stone Barrington must unravel to learn the truth --- a puzzle that will lead him deep into the rarefied world of European ultrawealth and privilege, where billionaires rub elbows with spooks, insider knowledge is traded at a high premium, and murder is never too high a price to pay for a desired end. It soon becomes clear that beneath the bright lights of Europe lurks a shadowy underworld...and its only rule is deadly ambition.
Signet * 9780451414397


December 7th

DIE EASY: A Charlie Fox Thriller by Zoë Sharp
Bodyguard Sean Meyer has woken from a gunshot-induced coma with his memory in tatters. When an ambitious robbery explodes into a deadly hostage situation, the motive may be far more complex than simple greed. Somebody has a major score to settle, and Sean is part of the reason. Only trouble is, he doesn’t remember why. And when his former lover, Charlie Fox, finds herself facing a nightmare from her own past, she realizes she can’t rely on Sean to watch her back.
Pegasus * 9781605985084