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Week of March 23, 2020

New in Paperback

Week of March 23, 2020

Paperback releases for the week of March 23rd include THE NEVER GAME, which kicks off a brand new series for Jeffery Deaver, whose protagonist is an expert tracker named Colter Shaw; INSIDE THE EMPIRE by Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff, a riveting look at what is really said and done behind closed doors with the New York Yankees, the most famous and wealthiest sports franchise in the world; THE AMERICAN AGENT, the 15th installment in Jacqueline Winspear's historical mystery series starring beloved heroine Maisie Dobbs, who investigates the mysterious murder of an American war correspondent in London during the Blitz; IF SHE WAKES, a nail-biting thriller from Michael Koryta that finds two women fighting for their lives against an enigmatic killer; and BECOMING MRS. LEWIS by Patti Callahan, an exquisite novel of poet and writer Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world."

The American Agent: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear - Historical Mystery

March 24, 2020

When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs. He is accompanied by Mark Scott, an agent from the US Department of Justice who helped Maisie escape Hitler’s Munich in 1938. MacFarlane asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon’s death. As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the British Isles, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect Anna, the young evacuee she has grown to love and wants to adopt.

Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer - Memoir

March 24, 2020

Returning to his longtime home in Japan after his father-in-law’s sudden death, Pico Iyer picks up the steadying patterns of his everyday rites: going to the post office and engaging in furious games of ping-pong every evening. But in a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honoring the dead, he comes to reflect on changelessness in ways that anyone can relate to: parents age, children scatter, and Iyer and his wife turn to whatever can sustain them as everything falls away. As the maple leaves begin to turn and the heat begins to soften, Iyer shows us a Japan we have seldom seen before, where the transparent and the mysterious are held in a delicate balance, and where autumn reminds us to take nothing for granted.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan Henry, writing as Patti Callahan - Historical Fiction

March 24, 2020

When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis --- known as Jack --- she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and --- against all odds --- finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

Flowers Over the Inferno: A Teresa Battaglia Novel written by Ilaria Tuti, translated by Ekin Oklap - Mystery/Thriller

March 24, 2020

Superintendent Teresa Battaglia has fought for nearly four decades to earn rank and respect on a testosterone-heavy Italian police force. When she’s called to investigate a gruesome murder near a mountainside town, she’s paired with a young male inspector she’s not sure she trusts. But she has no choice. In this remote town full of secrets, eerie folktales and primal instincts, the killer seems drawn to a group of local children, who may be in grave danger. As Teresa inches closer to the truth, she must confront the possibility that her faculties, no longer what they once were, may fail her before the chase is over.

The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz - Fiction

March 24, 2020

Billie James' inheritance isn't much: a little money and a shack in the Mississippi Delta. The house once belonged to her father, a renowned black poet who died unexpectedly when she was four years old. Though Billie was there when the accident happened, she has no memory of that day --- and she hasn't been back to the South since. Thirty years later, Billie returns, but her father's home is unnervingly secluded: her only neighbors are the McGees, the family whose history has been entangled with hers since the days of slavery. As Billie encounters the locals, she hears a strange rumor: that she herself went missing on the day her father died. As the mystery intensifies, she finds out that this forgotten piece of her past could put her in danger.

If She Wakes by Michael Koryta - Thriller

March 24, 2020

As college senior Tara Beckley drives to deliver a visiting professor to a conference, a horrific car accident kills the professor and leaves Tara in a vegetative state. Or so her doctors think. In fact, she's a prisoner of locked-in syndrome: fully alert but unable to move a muscle. Trapped in her body, she learns that someone powerful wants her dead. But why? And what can she do, lying in a hospital bed, to stop them? Abby Kaplan, an insurance investigator, is hired by the college to look into Tara's case. When she starts asking questions, things quickly spin out of control, leaving Abby on the run and a mysterious young hit man named Dax Blackwell hard on her heels.

Inside the Empire: The True Power Behind the New York Yankees by Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff - Sports

March 24, 2020

Using the 2018 baseball season as the backdrop, INSIDE THE EMPIRE gives readers the real, unvarnished “straight-from-the-gut” truth from Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone, Giancarlo Stanton, C.C. Sabathia --- even Hal Steinbrenner and Randy Levine --- and many more. This is baseball’s version of HBO’s award-winning NFL series “Hard Knocks.” Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff take you deep into the Yankees clubhouse, their dugout and the front office, and pull back the curtain so that every fan can see what really goes on.

A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery: Book Two in The Risen Kingdoms by Curtis Craddock - Historical Fantasy

March 24, 2020

Isabelle des Zephyrs has always been underestimated throughout her life, but after discovering the well of hidden magic within her, unveiling a centuries-long conspiracy, and stopping a war between rival nations, she has gained a newfound respect amongst the cutthroat court. All that is quickly taken away when Isabelle is unfairly convicted of breaking the treaty she helped write and has her political rank and status taken away. Now bereft, she nevertheless finds herself drawn into a mystery when her faithful musketeer Jean-Claude uncovers a series of gruesome murders by someone calling themselves the Harvest King.

Late-Life Love: A Memoir by Susan Gubar - Memoir

March 24, 2020

On Susan Gubar’s 70th birthday, she receives a beautiful ring from her husband. As she contemplates their sustaining relationship, she begins to consider how older lovers differ from their youthful counterparts --- and from ageist stereotypes. While her husband confronts age-related disabilities that effectively ground them, Susan dawdles over the logistics of moving from their cherished country house to a more manageable place in town and starts seeking out literature on the changing seasons of desire. Throughout the complications of devoted caregiving, her own ongoing cancer treatments, apartment hunting, the dismantling of a household, and perplexity over the breakdown of a treasured friendship, Susan finds consolation in books and movies.

The Light Years: A Memoir by Chris Rush - Memoir

March 24, 2020

Chris Rush was born into a prosperous, fiercely Roman Catholic, New Jersey family. But underneath the gleaming mid-century house, the flawless hostess mom and the thriving businessman dad ran an unspoken tension that, amid the upheaval of the late 1960s, was destined to fracture their precarious facade. His older sister Donna introduces him to the charismatic Valentine, who places a tab of acid on 12-year-old Rush’s tongue, proclaiming: “This is sacrament. You are one of us now.” After an unceremonious ejection from an experimental art school, Rush heads to Tucson to make a major drug purchase and, still barely a teenager, disappears into the nascent American counterculture. Given what Rush confronts on his travels, it is a miracle he is still alive.

The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver - Thriller

March 24, 2020

A young woman has gone missing in Silicon Valley, and her father has hired Colter Shaw to find her. The son of a survivalist family, Shaw is an expert tracker. Now he makes a living as a "reward seeker," traveling the country to help police solve crimes and private citizens locate missing persons. But what seems a simple investigation quickly thrusts him into the dark heart of America's tech hub and the cutthroat billion-dollar video-gaming industry. When another victim is kidnapped, the clues point to one video game with a troubled past --- The Whispering Man. In that game, the player has to survive after being abandoned in an inhospitable setting with five random objects. Is a madman bringing the game to life?

The Scar: A Personal History of Depression and Recovery by Mary Cregan - Memoir

March 24, 2020

At the age of 27, Mary Cregan gives birth to her first child, a daughter she names Anna. But it’s apparent that something is terribly wrong, and two days later, Anna dies --- plunging Cregan into suicidal despair. Decades later, sustained by her work, a second marriage and a son, Cregan reflects on this pivotal experience and attempts to make sense of it. She weaves together literature and research with details from her own ordeal --- and the still-visible scar of her suicide attempt --- while also considering her life as part of the larger history of our understanding of depression.

The Summer of Sunshine and Margot by Susan Mallery - Fiction

March 24, 2020

Etiquette coach Margot Baxter knows precisely how to manage wayward clients…until she comes face-to-exquisite-face with Bianca, an aging movie star notorious for her shock-and-awe tactics. Schooling Bianca on the fine art of behaving like a diplomat’s wife is the greatest challenge of Margot’s career. Soon secrets unravel that bring them closer together and force Margot to confront the truth: change doesn’t just happen. She has to be brave enough to demand the life --- and love --- she’s always wanted. For years, Sunshine has been the good-time sister, abandoning jobs to chase after dreams that will never come true. No more. This time, she’ll finish college and dedicate herself to her future. And she will not let her life get derailed by a man again…no matter how tempting that man may be.

They Said It Couldn't Be Done: The '69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History by Wayne Coffey - Sports/History

March 24, 2020

The story of the 1969 New York Mets’ season has long since entered sports lore as one of the most remarkable of all time. But beyond the “miracle” is a compelling narrative of an unlikely collection of players and the hallowed manager who inspired them to greatness. Future Hall of Fame ace Tom Seaver snagged the biggest headlines, but the enduring richness of the story lies in the core of a team comprised of untested youngsters, lightly regarded veterans, and four Southern-born African-American stalwarts who came of age in the shadow of Jackie Robinson. Renowned sports journalist Wayne Coffey brings to life a moment when a championship could descend on a city like magic, and when a baseball legend was authored one inning at a time.

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell - Biography

March 24, 2020

Virginia Hall was a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and --- despite her prosthetic leg --- helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall --- an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance and personal triumph over shocking adversity.