Special Contest: Enter to Win One of 25 Advance Copies of THE GRAYS OF TRUTH by Sharon Virts, Releasing October 29th
Inspired by true events involving one of Baltimore’s most powerful families, THE GRAYS OF TRUTH is the story of one woman’s quest for answers in her fight for redemption --- and to save the man she loves. We have 25 advance copies of Sharon Virts' new novel to give away to those who would like to read the book, which releases on October 29th. The deadline for your entries is Friday, October 11th at noon ET.
» Click here to enter the contest.
Bookreporter.com Bets On: THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM by Laura Dave
As she did with THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, Laura Dave hits all the right notes with THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM. In it, family patriarch Liam Noone is found dead at the bottom of a cliff near the craftsman home on the California coast that he loved. He was a hotel magnate who developed properties that were both high-end and eco-friendly. While Liam’s death is first ruled an accident, one of his sons thinks that there was nothing accidental about it. He enlists the help of his half-sister, who very reluctantly joins him. Their investigation leads them deeper and deeper into their father’s life --- and the people closest to him. As Sam and Nora explore what happened, they have as tentative a relationship as Hannah and Bailey did in THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME.
» Click here to read more of Carol's Bets On commentary.
Bookreporter.com's Word of Mouth Contest: Tell Us What You've Read --- and You Can Win Two Books!
Let us know by Friday, October 18th at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have a chance to win THE PUZZLE BOX by Danielle Trussoni and WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? by Sophie Kinsella.
In THE PUZZLE BOX, the world’s greatest puzzle master has 24 hours to solve the most dangerous mystery of his life...or die trying. WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? is an unforgettable story --- by turns heartbreaking and life-affirming --- of a renowned novelist facing a devastating diagnosis and learning to live and love anew.
» Click here to enter the contest.
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for October
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads. We also feature a number of other prominent selections, including the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, Oprah’s Book Club, the PBS Books Readers Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.
Reese's Book Club pick for this month is SOCIETY OF LIES by debut novelist Lauren Ling Brown. Here’s how Reese describes the book: “This gripping thriller follows Maya as she returns to Princeton for her sister’s graduation, only to be thrust into a chilling mystery surrounding her sister’s death and a secret society she knows all too well. If you’re looking for a page-turner that keeps you on the edge of your seat this spooky season, this one is a must-read!”
» Click here for October's Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks.
Bookreporter.com's 14th Annual Fall Reading Contests and Feature
Fall is known as the biggest season of the year for books. The titles that release during this latter part of the year often become holiday gifts, and many are blockbusters. In our Fall Reading Contests and Feature, we are spotlighting a number of outstanding books that we know people will be talking about this fall.
We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through early October, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.
Our next contest will be up on Tuesday, October 8th at noon ET. The prize book will be THE LOVE ELIXIR OF AUGUSTA STERN by Lynda Cohen Loigman, which Sarah Penner calls "a feel-good story brimming with twists, tinctures, and a few love spells gone wrong."
» Click here to read all the contest details and learn more about our featured titles.
As part of our mission to expand The Book Report Network, we have been shooting video interviews with authors and posting them on our YouTube channel. We also have been making them available as podcasts. Carol loves interviewing authors, so this feels like a natural.
THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM is Laura Dave's latest thriller, following THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, and will be a Bets On pick. At the heart of this story is a secret that has been hidden for years — one that may have caused the death of Liam Noone, a successful hotel magnate. Nora, his daughter from one of his marriages, is convinced by Sam, his son from another marriage, to join together to see if his death was accidental or something more sinister. Laura talks about Liam’s unique hotel properties and what inspired them, and how research finds its way into her writing. She also shares her writing schedule and how she manages her day, as well as the song she had on repeat as she wrote, which is something she always does. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
Carol had the pleasure of talking to Chris Whitaker about his New York Times bestseller, ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, which is a Bets On title. Chris explains how he developed the book by spending a year writing just dialogue to get a feel for his characters, Patch and Saint. Once he had a good grasp of their voices, he could write around that. Chris went through trauma in his youth that overshadowed his life, and it fueled his writing here. He shares how he researches the locations that he uses in his novels and talks about the joy of having Edoardo Ballerini as a narrator for the audiobook. And yes, he addresses the book’s 261 chapters that are just one to three pages long. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
T.J. Newman's third thriller, WORST CASE SCENARIO, is a Bets On selection just as her first two books, FALLING and DROWNING, were. In this interview, T.J. shares how she came up with the idea for this book and the research that was required (including a detail that Carol saw to be totally plausible). She discusses her character development and why she feels that Joe Morton is the perfect narrator for the audiobook. We also hear about T.J.’s close relationship with her agent and how they work together. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.
» Click here for a complete list of our "Bookreporter Talks To" videos and podcasts, along with upcoming interviews.
London, 1949. Amidst the smog of the capital stumbles Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless 18-year-old employed by a secondhand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How? Dennis has stumbled on a book from the Great When, a magical version of London beyond time and space, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous, terrible beings. But this other, magical London must remain a secret. If Dennis cannot find a way to return this book to where it belongs, he risks repercussions, such as his body being turned inside out (or worse). Soon he finds himself at the center of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons forever.
For over 40 years, Jane Rosenberg has been at the heart of the news cycle, covering almost every major trial that has passed through the New York justice system as a courtroom sketch artist, including the most recent Donald Trump hush money trial. In DRAWN TESTIMONY, Rosenberg brings us into the dramatic high-stakes world of her craft, where art, psychology and courtroom drama collide. Over the course of her legendary career, Jane has had a front-row seat to some of the most iconic and notorious moments in our nation’s recent history. Readers will learn how she has honed her unique powers of perception and what her portraits reveal, not only about her subjects, but about the human condition in general.
Freshly graduated from a rigorous training program in all things spy craft, former typist Evelyne Redfern is eager for her first assignment as a field agent helping Britain win the war. However, when she learns her first task is performing a simple security test at Blackthorn Park, a requisitioned manor house in the sleepy Sussex countryside, she can’t help her initial disappointment. Making matters worse, her handler is to be David Poole, a fellow agent who manages to be both strait-laced and dashing in annoyingly equal measure. However, Evelyne soon realizes that Blackthorn Park is more than meets the eye, and an upcoming visit from Winston Churchill means that security at the secret weapons research and development facility is of the utmost importance. When Evelyne discovers Blackthorn Park’s chief engineer dead in his office, her simple assignment becomes more complicated.
With this debut collection, two-time Academy Award-winning writer and director Pedro Almodóvar delivers a tantalizing glimpse into his world, formed by 12 stories carefully selected from his personal writings dating from the late ‘60s to the present. Almodóvar writes: “I’ve been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I’ve always refused…. I’ve never kept a diary, and whenever I’ve tried, I’ve never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox. It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little enigmatic.” Each entry reflects Almodóvar's most intimate obsessions, as well as his evolution as an artist.
Psychologist Arles Shepherd treats troubled children, struggling with each case to recover from her own traumatic past. Having just set up a new kind of treatment center in the remote Adirondack wilderness, Arles longs to heal one patient in particular: a 10-year-old boy who has never spoken a word --- or so his mother, Louise, believes. Hundreds of miles away, Cass Monroe is living a parent’s worst nightmare. His 12-year-old daughter has vanished on her way home from school. With no clues, no witnesses and no trail, the police are at a dead end. Fighting a heart that was already ailing, and struggling to keep both his marriage and himself alive, Cass turns to a pair of true-crime podcasters for help. Arles, Louise and Cass will soon find their lives entangled in ways none of them could have anticipated.
A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions --- a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her --- because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. As the net closes in, what unfurls is a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.
Dallas private investigator Dylan Fisher hasn’t seen his ex-wife, Rose, in three years --- which is why he’s surprised when she asks him to meet her at a hotel. Rose Doucette is a homicide detective, and she wants Dylan’s help with a murder investigation that she’s been asked to step back from but can’t seem to let go. They review the details of the case and part ways --- but as Rose is leaving the parking lot, Dylan sees a suspicious car begin to follow her. He tails the car and tries to warn Rose, but he’s too late --- the driver of the car shoots her, killing her instantly. The police are determined to pin the murder on Dylan, so he’s left with no choice but to find the killer himself. Teaming up with Rose’s widower, the pair dive into Rose’s past to figure out who could’ve wanted to kill the woman they both loved --- and what they were trying to hide.
Emilia Ward lives in suburban London with her husband, their young son, and a teenager from her first marriage. Emilia is an ordinary mom --- and she’s also the bestselling author of the Miranda Moody detective novels. But when writing her 10th --- and most difficult --- book, life takes a disturbing turn: an incident mimicking the plot of one of her novels occurs in real life. Just an unsettling coincidence, right? Until it happens again. And again. Then someone she knows dies in the same way as a victim in the book she's currently writing. Why is someone doing this? What do they want? How could they possibly know what she’s thinking --- and writing? Is Emilia and her family next?
It is considered by many the greatest season in golf history. In 1953, Ben Hogan provided a fitting exclamation point to his miraculous comeback from a near-fatal auto accident by becoming the first player to win golf’s Triple Crown --- the Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open --- within a span of four months. It was closer than anyone had gotten to the modern-day Grand Slam of winning all four of golf’s major tournaments. THE WEE ICE MON COMETH is the first book to detail Hogan’s historic accomplishment. Ed Gruver weaves together interviews with members of Hogan’s family, golf historians, playing partners and business partners, along with extensive research and eyewitness accounts of each tournament.