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Week of February 26, 2018

New in Paperback

Week of February 26, 2018

Paperback releases for the week of February 26th include EXIT WEST, Mohsin Hamid's astonishingly visionary love story that imagines the forces that drive ordinary people from their homes into the uncertain embrace of new lands; HOUSE OF SPIES by Daniel Silva, which finds legendary spy, assassin and art restorer Gabriel Allon determined to hunt down the world’s most dangerous terrorist, a shadowy ISIS mastermind known only as Saladin; THIS CLOSE TO HAPPY, Daphne Merkin’s rare, vividly personal account of what it feels like to suffer from clinical depression; and Helene Cooper's MADAME PRESIDENT, the harrowing but triumphant story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf --- leader of the Liberian women’s movement, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first democratically elected female president in African history.

The Black Elfstone: The Fall of Shannara by Terry Brooks - Fantasy

February 27, 2018

The Four Lands has been at peace for generations, but now a mysterious army of invaders is cutting a bloody swathe across a remote region of the land. No one knows who they are, where they come from, or what they are after --- and most seem content to ignore these disturbing events. The only people who sense a greater, growing threat and wish to uncover the truth are society’s outcasts: an exiled high Druid, a conflicted warrior, a teenage girl struggling to master a prodigious magic…and a scrappy young orphan, improbably named Shea Ohmsford.

The Book of Polly by Kathy Hepinstall - Fiction

February 27, 2018

Willow Havens is 10 years old and obsessed with the fear that her mother, Polly, a cantankerous, take-no-prisoners Southern woman, will die. Her father passed away before she was born, her much older brother and sister are long grown and gone, and failing elsewhere. It’s just her and bigger-than-life Polly. Willow is desperately hungry for clues to the family life that preceded her, and especially Polly’s life pre-Willow. Why did she leave her hometown of Bethel, Louisiana, 50 years ago and vow never to return? Who is Garland Jones, her long-ago suitor who possibly killed a man? And will Polly be able to outrun the Bear, the illness that finally puts her on a collision course with her past?

The Cutthroat: An Isaac Bell Adventure by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - Historical Thriller/Adventure

February 27, 2018

Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before, but none quite like this. Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt that leads him into increasingly more alarming territory. Petite young blond women like Anna are being murdered in cities across America, and the pattern goes beyond the physical resemblance of the victims. There are disturbing familiarities about the killings themselves that send a chill through even a man as experienced with evil as Bell.

Death of a Ghost: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery by M. C. Beaton - Mystery

February 27, 2018

When Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth hears reports of a haunted castle near Drim, he assumes the eerie noises and lights reported by the villagers are just local teenagers going there to smoke pot or, worse, inject themselves with drugs. Still, Hamish decides that he and his policeman, Charlie "Clumsy" Carson, will spend the night at the ruined castle to get to the bottom of the rumors once and for all. There's no sign of any ghost...but then Charlie disappears through the floor. It turns out he's fallen into the cellar. And what Hamish and Charlie find there is worse than a ghost: a dead body propped against the wall. Waiting for help to arrive, Hamish and Charlie leave the castle just for a moment, but when they return, the body is nowhere to be seen.

Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West by Tom Clavin - History

February 27, 2018

The town that started as a small military site exploded with the coming of the railroad, cattle drives, eager miners, settlers and various entrepreneurs passing through to populate the expanding West. Before long, Dodge City’s streets were lined with saloons and brothels, and its populace was thick with gunmen, horse thieves and desperadoes of every sort. Enter Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. Young and largely self-trained men, the lawmen led the effort that established frontier justice and the rule of law in the American West, and did it in the wickedest place in the United States. Tom Clavin’s DODGE CITY tells the true story of their friendship, romances, gunfights and adventures.

Don't Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life by Peggy Orenstein - Social Science/Essays

February 27, 2018

Named one of the “40 women who changed the media business in the last 40 years” by Columbia Journalism Review, Peggy Orenstein is one of the most prominent, unflinching feminist voices of our time. In DON’T CALL ME PRINCESS, Orenstein’s most resonant and important essays are available for the first time in collected form, updated with both an original introduction and personal reflections on each piece. Her takes on reproductive justice, the infertility industry, tensions between working and stay-at-home moms, pink ribbon fear-mongering and the complications of girl culture are not merely timeless --- they have become more urgent in our contemporary political climate.

Don't Let Go by Harlan Coben - Thriller

February 27, 2018

Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks --- and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For 15 years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother's death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he's been looking for. When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions --- mostly about Leo and Diana, whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.

The Duchess by Danielle Steel - Historical Fiction

February 27, 2018

Angélique Latham has grown up at magnificent Belgrave Castle under the loving tutelage of her father, the Duke of Westerfield, after the death of her aristocratic French mother. At 18 she is her father’s closest, most trusted child, schooled in managing their grand estate. But when he dies, her half-brothers brutally turn her out, denying her very existence. Unable to secure employment without references or connections, Angélique desperately makes her way to Paris, where she rescues a young woman fleeing an abusive madam and suddenly sees a possibility: Open an elegant house of pleasure that will protect its women and serve only the best clients. But living on the edge of scandal, can she ever make a life of her own --- or regain her rightful place in the world?

Enigma by Catherine Coulter - Thriller

February 27, 2018

Kara Moody’s perfect pregnancy turns into a nightmare when her newborn son is nowhere to be found in her Georgetown hospital. FBI agents Savich and Sherlock think they’re investigating an abduction, but soon discover their case is tangled in a web of medical mystery that could make immortality possible. Liam Hennessy, notorious thief and one of the FBI’s most wanted, has escaped into the deep woods of the Appalachians --- and when he wants to be hidden, few can find the Manta Ray. Special agents Jack Cabot and Cam Wittier are sent to find him, but they find something else entirely. As each agent tirelessly pursues their prey, the clock is ticking. Savich and his team will have to go way beyond the ordinary if they are to solve the cases of a lifetime.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid - Fiction

February 27, 2018

In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet --- sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair, and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors --- doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through.

The Far Empty by J. Todd Scott - Thriller

February 27, 2018

Seventeen-year-old Caleb Ross is adrift in the wake of the sudden disappearance of his mother more than a year ago, and is struggling to find his way out of the small Texas border town of Murfee. Chris Cherry is a newly minted sheriff’s deputy, a high school football hero who has reluctantly returned to his hometown. When skeletal remains are discovered in the surrounding badlands, the two are inexorably drawn together as their efforts to uncover Murfee’s darkest secrets lead them to the same terrifying suspect: Caleb’s father and Chris’ boss, the charismatic and feared Sheriff Standford “Judge” Ross.

The Four Legendary Kingdoms by Matthew Reilly - Thriller/Adventure

February 27, 2018

Jack West, Jr. and his family are living happily on their remote farm when Jack is brutally kidnapped, and he awakes in an underground cell to find a masked attacker with a knife charging at him. Jack, it seems, has been chosen --- along with a dozen other elite soldiers --- to compete in a series of deadly challenges designed to fulfill an ancient ritual. With the fate of the Earth at stake, he will have to traverse diabolical mazes, fight cruel assassins, and face unimaginable horrors that will test him like he has never been tested before. In the process, he will discover the mysterious and powerful group of individuals behind it all: the four legendary kingdoms. He might also discover that he is not the only hero in this place.

House of Spies by Daniel Silva - Thriller/Adventure

February 27, 2018

Four months after the deadliest attack on the American homeland since 9/11, terrorists leave a trail of carnage through London’s West End. The attack is a brilliant feat of planning and secrecy, but with one loose thread. The thread leads Gabriel Allon and his team of operatives to the south of France and to the gilded doorstep of Jean-Luc Martel and Olivia Watson. A beautiful former British fashion model, Olivia pretends not to know that the true source of Martel’s enormous wealth is drugs. And Martel turns a blind eye to the fact that he is doing business with a man whose objective is the very destruction of the West. Together, under Gabriel’s skilled hand, they will become an unlikely pair of heroes in the global war on terror.

Illegal Holdings: A Valentin Vemeulen Thriller by Michael Niemann - Thriller

March 1, 2018

UN fraud investigator Valentin Vermeulen is on assignment in Maputo, Mozambique. His ho-hum task is to see if Global Alternatives is spending UN money the way they promised. The nonprofit was set up by hedge fund mogul Vincent Portallis to revolutionize development aid. The only upside for Vermeulen is the prospect of seeing his lover Tessa Bishonga, who is reporting on foreign land acquisitions in Africa. When Vermeulen notices that a five-million-dollar transfer has gone missing, he is given the run-around. His dogged pursuit of the missing transfer makes him the target of some ruthless operators. And once he meets up with Tessa, she is inevitably sucked in to the story as well, which turns out to be far more nefarious than either of them imagined.

In This Grave Hour: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear - Historical Mystery

February 27, 2018

At the moment Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcasts to the nation Britain’s declaration of war with Germany, a senior Secret Service agent breaks into Maisie Dobbs' flat to await her return. Dr. Francesca Thomas has an urgent assignment for Maisie: to find the killer of a man who escaped occupied Belgium as a boy, some 23 years earlier during the Great War. In a London shadowed by barrage balloons, bomb shelters and the threat of invasion, within days another former Belgian refugee is found murdered. As Maisie’s search for the killer escalates, the country braces for what is to come. Britain is approaching its gravest hour --- and Maisie could be nearing a crossroads of her own.

Indecent Exposure: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods - Thriller/Adventure

February 27, 2018

As an eligible bachelor, man-about-town, and mover in the highest social echelons, Stone Barrington has always been the subject of interest and gossip. But when he’s unwittingly thrust into the limelight, he finds himself scrambling to take cover. Before too long, Stone is fending off pesky nuisances left and right, and making personal arrangements so surreptitiously it would take a covert operative to unearth them. Unfortunately, Stone soon discovers that these efforts only increase the persistence of the most troublesome pests…and when he runs afoul of a particularly tenacious lady, he’ll be struggling to protect not just his reputation, but his life.

The Last Night at Tremore Beach by Mikel Santiago - Psychological Thriller

February 27, 2018

What starts out as an idyllic summer holiday on the Irish coast soon becomes a living nightmare with unpredictable consequences for a world-renowned composer and his family. Recently divorced and in the middle of a creative crisis, Peter Harper decides to take shelter on Ireland’s scenic and isolated Tremore Beach. But after he is struck by lightning one stormy night, he begins experiencing terrible headaches and strange dreams. As the line between his dreams and reality begins to blur, Peter realizes that his bizarre dreams may be a warning of horror still to come.

The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett - Mystery

February 27, 2018

Arthur Prescott is happiest when surrounded by the ancient books and manuscripts of the Barchester Cathedral library. But when a beautiful young American named Bethany Davis arrives in Barchester charged with the task of digitizing the library’s manuscripts, Arthur sets out to thwart Bethany, only to find in her a kindred spirit with a similar love for knowledge and books --- and a fellow Grail fanatic. Bethany soon joins Arthur in a quest to find the lost Book of Ewolda, the ancient manuscript telling the story of the cathedral’s founder. And when the future of the cathedral itself is threatened, their search takes on grave importance, leading the pair to discover secrets about the cathedral, the Grail --- and themselves.

Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by Helene Cooper - Biography

February 27, 2018

When Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the 2005 Liberian presidential election, she demolished a barrier few thought possible, obliterating centuries of patriarchal rule to become the first female elected head of state in Africa’s history. MADAME PRESIDENT is the inspiring, often heartbreaking story of Sirleaf’s evolution from an ordinary Liberian mother of four boys to international banking executive, from a victim of domestic violence to a political icon, from a post-war president to a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline - Thriller

February 27, 2018

Chris Brennan is applying for a job as a high school government teacher, and he's ready to step in as an assistant baseball coach. But everything about him is a lie. Raz is a high school pitcher who may have a future in the major leagues. However, his father died only a few months ago, leaving him in a vulnerable place where any new father figure might influence him for good, or for evil. Jordan is shy, and his mother fears he is being lured down a dark path by one of his teammates. Mindy doesn’t know that her husband and her son, Evan, are keeping secrets from her --- secrets that might destroy them all. At the center of all of them is Chris Brennan. Why is he there? What does he want? And what is he willing to do to get it?

Testimony by Scott Turow - Legal Thriller

February 27, 2018

When former prosecutor Bill ten Boom is tapped by the International Criminal Court --- an organization charged with prosecuting crimes against humanity --- he feels drawn to what will become the most elusive case of his career. Over 10 years ago, in the apocalyptic chaos following the Bosnian war, an entire Roma refugee camp vanished. Now for the first time, a witness has stepped forward: Ferko Rincic claims that armed men marched the camp's Gypsy residents to a cave in the middle of the night --- and then with a hand grenade set off an avalanche, burying 400 people alive. Only Ferko survived. Boom's task is to examine Ferko's claims and determine who might have massacred the Roma.

This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin - Memoir

February 27, 2018

Daphne Merkin has been hospitalized three times: first, in grade school, for childhood depression; years later, after her daughter was born, for severe postpartum depression; and later still, after her mother died, for obsessive suicidal thinking. Recounting this series of hospitalizations, as well as her visits to myriad therapists and psychopharmacologists, Merkin fearlessly offers what the child psychiatrist Harold Koplewicz calls “the inside view of navigating a chronic psychiatric illness to a realistic outcome.” In this dark yet vital memoir, Merkin describes not only the harrowing sorrow that she has known all her life, but also her early, redemptive love of reading and gradual emergence as a writer.

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen - Thriller

February 27, 2018

Married to a beautiful police officer and father of two young boys, neurosurgeon Eitan Green has the perfect life. Then, speeding along a deserted moonlit road after an exhausting hospital shift, he hits someone. Seeing that the man, an African migrant, is beyond help, he flees the scene. When the victim's widow knocks at Eitan's door the next day, holding his wallet and divulging that she knows what happened, Eitan discovers that her price for silence is not money. It is something else entirely, something that will shatter Eitan's safe existence and take him into a world of secrets and lies he never could have anticipated.

The Whole Way Home by Sarah Creech - Fiction

February 27, 2018

Country singer and fiddler Jo Lover is poised to become a one-name Nashville star like her idols, Loretta, Reba and Dolly. But the stage persona she’s built is threatened when her independent label merges with big-time Capitol Records, bringing Nashville heartthrob JD Gunn --- her first love --- back into her life. Long ago Jo played with JD’s band. But they parted ways and took their own crooked roads to stardom. When the label reunites them for a show, the old sparks fly, the duet they sing goes viral, and fans begin clamoring for more. All too soon, the painful secret Jo has been hiding is uncovered, a shocking revelation that threatens to destroy her reputation and her dreams.

The Will to Kill: A Mike Hammer Mystery by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins - Hard-boiled Mystery

February 27, 2018

Taking a midnight stroll along the Hudson River, Mike Hammer gets more than he bargained for: a partial corpse on an ice floe. The body is that of a butler who spent the last years of his life working for a millionaire --- also now deceased --- and his notoriously privileged children. Were both master and servant murdered? Captain Pat Chambers thinks so. But to prove it, Hammer must travel to upstate New York to investigate the dead man’s family, all of whom have a motive for murder --- and one of whom has a taste for it.

Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties by Camille Pagán - Fiction

February 27, 2018

At 53, Maggie Harris has a good marriage and two mostly happy children. Perpetually anxious, she’s also accumulated a list of semi-reasonable fears. But never once did she worry that her husband of nearly 30 years would leave her. On the day Adam walks out the door, everything that makes Maggie secure goes with him. Only then does she realize that while she’s been busy caring for everyone else, she’s become invisible to the world --- and to herself. Maggie cautiously begins to rebuild her life with a trip to Rome, a new career and even a rebound romance. But when a fresh crisis strikes and an uncertain future looms, she must decide: How much will she risk to remain the woman she’s just become?