Skip to main content

Week of August 12, 2019

New in Paperback

Week of August 12, 2019

Paperback releases for the week of August 12th include FEARED, the sixth installment in Lisa Scottoline's Rosato & DiNunzio thriller series, in which Mary DiNunzio’s ruthless nemesis Nick Machiavelli is back...with a vengeance; Matthew Pearl's historical mystery (and long-awaited follow-up to THE DANTE CLUB), THE DANTE CHAMBER, a riveting journey across London and into both the beauty and darkness of Dante; FLIGHTS by Olga Tokarczuk, which explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer and a body in motion not only through space but also through time; and MEG, JO, BETH, AMY, Anne Boyd Rioux's fresh and engaging look at the circumstances leading Louisa May Alcott to write LITTLE WOMEN, and why this beloved story of family and community ties set in the Civil War has resonated with audiences across time.

Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson - Biography

August 13, 2019

It has been 100 years since Agatha Christie wrote her first novel and created the formidable Hercule Poirot. Arguably the greatest crime writer in the world, Christie's books still sell over four million copies each year --- more than 30 years after her death --- and it shows no signs of slowing. But who was the woman behind these mystifying, yet eternally pleasing, puzzlers? Biographer Laura Thompson reveals the Edwardian world in which Christie grew up, explores her relationships, including those with her two husbands and daughter, and investigates the many mysteries still surrounding Christie's life, most notably her 11-day disappearance in 1926.

Below the Radar by Dana Ridenour - Thriller

August 13, 2019

After her last assignment went horribly wrong, FBI Special Agent Lexie Montgomery is determined to keep going with her undercover work. So when a Dutch constable goes missing, she jumps at the chance. Along with Blake Bennett, her unfamiliar new partner, Lexie is thrown into the Gathering, a haven for environmental activists planning illegal activity. As they try to get closer to the vanished constable, Blake begins to suspect that Lexie may be hiding an affinity for the eco-extremists' cause. With her loyalties in question from both sides, Lexie will be forced to prove herself as an undercover agent and as a new recruit for the terrorists' cause. But as time starts to run out, staying below the radar may prove harder than she had planned.

Certain American States: Stories by Catherine Lacey - Fiction/Short Stories

August 13, 2019

The characters in Catherine Lacey’s first collection of short stories are continually coming to terms with their place in the world, and how to adapt to that place, before change inevitably returns. A woman leaves her dead husband’s clothing on the street, only for it to reappear on the body of a stranger; a man reads his ex-wife’s short story and neurotically contemplates if it's about him; a young woman whose Texan mother insists on moving to New York City with her has her daily attempts to get over a family tragedy interrupted by a mute stranger showing her incoherent messages on his phone. These are stories of breakups, abandonment and strained family ties; dead brothers and distant surrogate fathers; loneliness, happenstance, starting over and learning to let go.

The Dante Chamber by Matthew Pearl - Historical Mystery

August 13, 2019

Five years after a series of Dante-inspired killings stunned Boston, a politician is found in a London park with his neck crushed by an enormous stone device etched with a verse from the "Divine Comedy." When other shocking deaths erupt across the city, all in the style of the penances Dante memorialized in "Purgatory," poet Christina Rossetti fears that her missing brother, the artist and writer Dante Gabriel Rossetti, will be the next victim. The unwavering Christina enlists poets Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes to decipher the literary clues, and together these unlikely investigators unravel the secrets of Dante’s verses to find Gabriel and stop the killings.

Feared by Lisa Scottoline - Thriller

August 13, 2019

When three men announce that they are suing the Rosato & DiNunzio law firm for reverse sex discrimination --- claiming that they were not hired because they were men --- Mary DiNunzio and Bennie Rosato are outraged. To make matters worse, their one male employee, John Foxman, intends to resign, claiming that there is some truth to this case. The plaintiffs’ lawyer is Nick Machiavelli, who already has lost to Mary once and is now back with a vengeance --- determined not only to win, but to destroy the firm. It soon becomes clear that Machiavelli will do anything in his power to achieve his end…even after the case turns deadly.

Flights written by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft - Fiction

August 13, 2019

Olga Tokarczuk’s novel interweaves reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion and migration. Chopin's heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. FLIGHTS explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going?

The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher - Historical Fiction

August 13, 2019

Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy moves in rarified circles. Eager to escape the watchful eye of her strict mother, Rose, the antics of her older brothers, Jack and Joe, and the erratic behavior of her sister Rosemary, Kick is ready to strike out on her own and is soon swept off her feet by Billy Hartington, the future Duke of Devonshire. But their love is forbidden, as Kick's devout Catholic family and Billy's staunchly Protestant one would never approve their match. When war breaks like a tidal wave across her world, Billy is ripped from her arms as the Kennedys are forced to return to the States. Kick gets work as a journalist and joins the Red Cross to get back to England, where she will have to decide where her true loyalties lie --- with family or with love.

The Line Between by Tosca Lee - Dystopian Thriller

August 13, 2019

When Wynter Roth is turned out of New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation. As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she’s been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she’s feared all her life --- until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples that are key to understanding the disease. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter herself.

Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters by Anne Boyd Rioux - Literary Criticism

August 13, 2019

Soon after its publication, LITTLE WOMEN became an enormous bestseller and one of America’s favorite novels. Its popularity quickly spread throughout the world, and the book has become an international classic. When Anne Boyd Rioux read the novel in her 20s, she had a powerful reaction to the story. Through teaching the book, she has seen the same effect on many others. In MEG, JO, BETH, AMY, Rioux recounts how Louisa May Alcott came to write LITTLE WOMEN, drawing inspiration for it from her own life. Rioux also examines why this tale of family and community ties, set while the Civil War tore America apart, has resonated through later wars, the Depression, and times of changing opportunities for women.

The Perfect Son by Lauren North - Psychological Thriller

August 13, 2019

When Tess Clarke wakes up in the hospital the day after her son Jamie's eighth birthday, she's sure of these things: She's been stabbed, her son is missing, her brother-in-law and her grief counselor are involved. But no one is listening to her. After her husband, Mark, died suddenly in a terrible accident a few months earlier, the only thing keeping Tess together is Jamie. As they struggle to make sense of their new life without Mark, they find joy in brief moments of normalcy. But there in the hospital, confused and surrounded by people who won't listen, Tess’ world falls apart. To save her son, she must piece together what happened between Mark's death and Jamie's birthday, but the truth might just be too much for her to bear.

They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen - Psychological Thriller

August 13, 2019

Hannah had a perfect life in London until she did something shocking that landed her in a high-risk psychiatric unit. Since Hannah has been admitted, two women have died, including Charlie, one of her closest friends in the institution. She is convinced there’s a serial killer picking off the patients one by one, passing their deaths off as suicides. But why? And who will believe her? At first, Hannah’s mother Corinne assumes that her outlandish claims about a killer in the unit are just another manifestation of her psychological condition. But as she starts to uncover strange inconsistencies surrounding the unit's charismatic director, Dr. Roberts, she begins to wonder if her daughter might have stumbled upon the truth.

The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg - Metaphysical Mystery

August 13, 2019

Shortly after Clare arrives in Havana, Cuba, to attend the annual Festival of New Latin American Cinema, she finds her husband, Richard, standing outside a museum. He’s wearing a white linen suit she’s never seen before, and he’s supposed to be dead. Grief-stricken and baffled, Clare tails Richard, a horror film scholar, through the newly tourist-filled streets of Havana, clocking his every move. As the distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, Clare finds grounding in memories of her childhood in Florida and of her marriage to Richard, revealing her role in his death and reappearance along the way.

Trust Me When I Lie by Benjamin Stevenson - Thriller

August 13, 2019

Producer Jack Quick knows how to frame a story. So says Curtis Wade, the subject of Jack's new true-crime docuseries, convicted of a young woman's murder four years prior. In the eyes of Jack's viewers, flimsy evidence and police bias influenced the final verdict...even though, off screen, Jack himself has his doubts. But when the series finale is wildly successful, a retrial sees Curtis walk free. And then another victim turns up dead. To set things right, Jack goes back to the sleepy vineyard town where it all began, bent on discovering what really happened. Because behind the many stories he tells, the truth is Jack's last chance.

The Verdun Affair by Nick Dybek - Historical Fiction

August 13, 2019

In 1921, two young Americans meet in Verdun, the city in France where one of the most devastating battles of World War I was waged. Quickly, they fall into a complicated affair against the ghostly backdrop of the ruined city. Months later, Tom and Sarah meet again at the psychiatric ward of an Italian hospital, drawn there by the appearance of a mysterious patient the doctors call Douglas Fairbanks (after the silent film actor) --- a shell-shocked soldier with no memory of who he is. At the hospital, Tom and Sarah are joined by Paul, an Austrian journalist with his own interest in the amnesiac. Each is keeping a secret; each has been shaken by the horrors of war.

The Warning by James Patterson with Robison Wells - Technothriller

August 13, 2019

A small southern town was evacuated after a freak power-plant accident. As the first anniversary of the mishap approaches, some residents are allowed to return past the national guard roadblocks. Mount Hope natives Maggie and Jordan quickly discover that their hometown is not as it was before. Downed cellular networks fail to resume service. Animals savagely attack humans. And the damaged power plant, where Jordan's father is an engineer, is under military lockdown. As friends and family morph into terrifying strangers, Maggie and Jordan increasingly turn to each other. Their determination to discover who --- or what --- has taken control of Mount Hope soon has them in the crosshairs of a presence more sinister than any they could have imagined.