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Week of March 25, 2019

New in Paperback

Week of March 25, 2019

Paperback releases for the week of March 26th include A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, Amor Towles' transporting work of historical fiction about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel; TWISTED PREY by John Sandford, in which Lucas Davenport confronts an old nemesis, who is now a powerful U.S. senator; ALL THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, Elizabeth J. Church’s novel about a gutsy showgirl who tries to conquer her past amongst the glamour of 1960s Las Vegas; THE DUCHESS by Penny Junor, the first in-depth biography of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and her remarkable transformation from pariah to popular royal consort; and I AM, I AM, I AM, Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life.

All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church - Historical Fiction

March 26, 2019

Lily Decker never meant to become a showgirl. As a young girl in small-town Kansas, she danced to forget the pain of losing her family in a car accident. And dancing made her feel beautiful when the attentions of her Uncle Miles only brought shame. In 1967, Lily is grown and ready to leave her past behind. She changes her name to Ruby Wilde and heads to the Rat Pack’s Las Vegas to make a name for herself as a troupe dancer. However, the competition is fierce, and she finds work as a showgirl instead, doing fan-kicks in sky-high headdresses and sparkling costumes. Her new life brims with glamour and excitement, but something is still missing. Is it love? What choices will she make to feel whole again, and at what cost?

The Ancient Nine by Ian K. Smith - Thriller

March 26, 2019

Spenser Collins is a pre-med student and basketball star determined to make his single, working mother proud. Dalton Winthrop is a rich kid who has the ease and deep knowledge that come from a lifetime of belonging. At Harvard, Spenser and Dalton become friends, cementing their bond when Spenser is “punched” to join the exclusive Delphic Club. Soon, Spenser and Dalton are plunged into a century-old mystery about a group of alums known as the Ancient Nine whose identities are unknown, whose power is absolute, and whose intentions are darker and more dangerous than they ever could have imagined.

Bad Men and Wicked Women by Eric Jerome Dickey - Romantic Suspense

March 26, 2019

As a low-level enforcer in Los Angeles, Ken Swift knows danger, but nowhere does he feel it more than in his tangled romances. Divorced from one woman, in love with another, and wrestling with a strong desire to get to know a third, his life is far from perfect, and it becomes all the more complicated when his troubled daughter resurfaces on the same day as a major job. Margaux needs $50,000 immediately, and she isn't above blackmailing Ken to get it. Yet even as the tension-filled father/daughter reunion escalates into a clashing of wills and desires that spread far beyond their family, Ken's latest contract spirals quickly out of control, and he finds it is not only his daughter looking to seek revenge.

Beach House Reunion by Mary Alice Monroe - Fiction

March 26, 2019

Cara Rutledge returns to her Southern home on the idyllic Isle of Palms. Only through reconnecting with family, friends and the rhythms of the lowcountry can Cara release the hold of the past and open herself to the possibility of a new love, career and hope for the future. Meanwhile, her niece Linnea, a recent college graduate, leaves her historic home in Charleston and heads to her aunt’s beach house. On the island, she is part of the freer, natural ocean lifestyle she loves, rejoining the turtle team, learning to surf and falling in love. Remembering the lessons of her beloved grandmother, Lovie, Linnea rediscovers a meaningful purpose to her life and finds the courage she needs to break from tradition.

The Breakers: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller - Mystery

March 26, 2019

On a foggy summer morning, private investigator Sharon McCone receives a call from her former neighbors, the Curleys. Their usually dependable daughter, Chelle, hasn't been answering their calls for weeks. Would Sharon check on her? Sharon arranges to visit the building Chelle had been living in and rehabbing in southwest San Francisco. Lurking behind a divider screen is a ghastly art gallery: portraits and caricatures of mass murderers, long ago and recent. What, an alarmed Sharon wonders, was Chelle doing in this chamber of horrors? And where is she now?

The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked the Crown by Penny Junor - Biography

March 26, 2019

In THE DUCHESS, veteran royal biographer and journalist Penny Junor reveals in full, for the first time, the remarkable rise of a woman who was the most notorious mistress in the world. As Camilla Parker Bowles’ marriage to Prince Charles approached in 2005, the British public were upset at the prospect that this woman, universally reviled for wrecking the royal marriage, would one day become queen. Sensitive to public opinion, the palace announced that this would never happen; when Charles eventually acceded to the throne, Camilla would be known as the princess consort. Yet a decade later, British public sentiment had changed, with a majority believing that Camilla should become queen.

The First Family by Michael Palmer and D.J. Palmer - Medical Thriller

March 26, 2019

Growing up in the White House was never supposed to be easy. So when 16-year-old Cam, also a champion chess player, experiences extreme moodiness and an uncharacteristic violent outburst, doctors are quick to dismiss his troubles as adolescent angst. Still, Secret Service agent Karen Ray is convinced that Cam’s condition is serious --- enough so that she summons her physician ex-husband for a second opinion. At first, the president’s team doesn’t want to listen to Dr. Lee Blackwood. But when Cam gets sicker, Lee must make a diagnosis from a puzzling array of symptoms. As Lee and Karen race for a cure to help Cam, they begin to uncover betrayals that breach the highest levels of national security. And until they can find the truth, no one is safe.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - Historical Fiction

March 26, 2019

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

The Good Fight by Danielle Steel - Fiction

March 26, 2019

The daughter and granddaughter of prominent Manhattan lawyers, Meredith McKenzie is destined for the best of everything. Spending her childhood in Germany as her father prosecutes Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, Meredith soaks up the conflict between good and evil as it plays out in real time. When her family returns to the United States, she begins blazing her own trail, swimming against the tides, spurred on by her freethinking liberal grandfather, determined to become a lawyer despite her traditional, conservative father’s objections. But when the violence of the era strikes too close to home, her once tightly knit family must survive a devastating loss and rethink their own values and traditions in light of the times.

Head On: A Novel of the Near Future by John Scalzi - Science Fiction/Thriller

March 26, 2019

Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh-and-bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it. Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field. Is it an accident or murder? FBI agents and Haden-related crime investigators Chris Shane and Leslie Vann are called in to uncover the truth --- and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa.

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell - Memoir

March 26, 2019

On 17 occasions, Maggie O’Farrell has stared death in the face --- and lived to tell the tale. In this astonishing memoir, she shares the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life: The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life’s myriad dangers.

Jackrabbit Smile: A Hap and Leonard Novel by Joe R. Lansdale - Thriller

March 26, 2019

Hap is celebrating his wedding to his longtime girlfriend, Brett (who is also Hap and Leonard's boss), when their backyard barbecue is interrupted by a couple of Pentecostal white supremacists. Judith Mulhaney's daughter, Jackrabbit, has been missing for five years. Well, she's been missing from them for five years, but she's been missing from everybody, including the local no-goods who ran with her, for a few months. Despite their misgivings about Judith and her son, Hap and Leonard take the case. It isn't long until they find themselves mixed up in a revivalist cult that believes Jesus will return flanked by an army of lizard-men --- solving a murder to boot.

The Neighbor by Joseph Souza - Psychological Thriller

March 26, 2019

When Leah and her husband, Clay, move from Seattle to Maine, she envisions a vibrant new neighborhood packed with families. But while Clay works long hours, Leah is left alone each day in a nearly deserted housing development. Bored and adrift, Leah finds herself watching Clarissa and Russell Gaines next door, envying their stylishly decorated home and their university careers. But Leah’s obsession with the intriguing, elegant Clarissa grows until she’s not just spying from afar but sneaking into their house, taking small objects and reading Clarissa’s diary. It contains clues to a hidden turmoil Leah never guessed at --- and a connection to a local college girl who’s disappeared.

The Night Visitors by Carol Goodman - Psychological Thriller

March 26, 2019

Alice gets off a bus in the middle of a snowstorm in Delphi, NY. She is fleeing an abusive relationship and desperate to protect 10-year-old Oren, a major Star Wars fan who is wise beyond his years. Though Alice is wary, Oren bonds nearly instantly with Mattie, a social worker who brings them home for the night. She has plenty of room, she says. What she doesn't say is that Oren reminds her of her little brother, who died 30 years ago at the age of 10. But Mattie isn't the only one withholding elements of the truth. Alice is keeping her own secrets. And as the snowstorm worsens around them, each woman's past will prove itself unburied, stirring up threats both within and without.

Nothing to Lose by Victoria Selman - Psychological Thriller

March 26, 2019

Offender Profiler Ziba MacKenzie arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder with a disturbing sense of déjà vu. Nine days earlier, another woman’s body was found: same location, same MO, same physical appearance. For the police, it’s clear that a new serial killer is on the loose. But for Ziba, it’s even more sinister --- because the victims look just like her. Ziba has been the focus of a killer’s interest before, and knows that if she gets too close again, this case could be her last. Still, she’s not one to play by the rules --- especially when her secret investigation into her husband’s murder begins to attract unwanted attention. Can Ziba uncover what connects the two victims before she becomes one herself?

The Other Sister by Sarah Zettel - Psychological Thriller

March 26, 2019

Everyone thought that reckless, troubled Geraldine Monroe was the bad sister --- especially when she fled town after her mother's death 25 years ago. But people don't know the truth. Marie Monroe knows. She was there for their father's cruel punishments, the constant manipulation, the lies. Everyone thinks she's the perfect daughter --- patient, kind and obedient. No one would suspect her of anything. Especially not murder. Now Geraldine is home again, and she and Marie have united in a plan for the ultimate revenge. But when old secrets and new fears clash, everyone is pushed to the breaking point…and the sisters will learn that they can't trust anyone --- not even each other.

The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton - Psychological Thriller

February 18, 2020

Juliette loves Nate. She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline so she can keep a closer eye on him. They are meant to be. The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back. She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants. True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain.

So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch written by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Ingvild Burkey - Biography/Art History

March 26, 2019

In SO MUCH LONGING IN SO LITTLE SPACE, Karl Ove Knausgaard sets out to understand the enduring and awesome power of Edvard Munch’s work by training his gaze on the landscapes that inspired Munch and speaking firsthand with other contemporary artists, including Anselm Kiefer, for whom Munch’s legacy looms large. Bringing together art history, biography and memoir, Knausgaard tells a passionate, freewheeling and pensive story about not just one of history’s most significant painters, but the very meaning of choosing the artist’s life, as he himself has done.

Twisted Prey: A Lucas Davenport Novel by John Sandford - Mystery/Thriller

March 26, 2019

A rich psychopath, Taryn Grant had run successfully for the U.S. Senate, where Lucas Davenport had predicted she'd fit right in. He was also convinced that she'd been responsible for three murders, though he'd never been able to prove it. Once a psychopath had gotten that kind of rush, though, he or she often needed another fix, so he figured he might be seeing her again. He was right. A federal marshal now, with a very wide scope of investigation, he's heard rumors that Grant has found her seat on the Senate intelligence committee, and the contacts she's made from it, to be very...useful. Pinning those rumors down was likely to be just as difficult as before, and considerably more dangerous.

Walking Shadows: A Decker/Lazarus Novel by Faye Kellerman - Mystery

March 26, 2019

The brutally beaten body of 26-year-old Brady Neil is discovered in the woods adjacent to an empty vacation home. When Brady was a baby, his father, Brandon Gratz, was convicted of robbing and killing the owners of a local jewelry store. While Gratz and his partner admitted to the robbery, they swore they left the owners very much alive. As he digs into Gratz’s past, Detective Peter Decker begins to suspect that the son’s murder may be connected to the father’s sins. Before he can put together the pieces, Decker finds out that one of Brady’s friends, Joseph Boch, has gone missing. Heading to Boch’s house with his temporary new partner, Hamilton PD cop Lenora Baccus, they discover a bloodbath. Who would savagely kill two innocent men --- and why?

Why Baseball Matters by Susan Jacoby - Sports/History

March 26, 2019

Baseball, first dubbed the “national pastime” in print in 1856, is the country’s most tradition-bound sport. Despite remaining popular and profitable into the 21st century, the game is losing young fans, among African Americans and women as well as white men. Furthermore, baseball’s greatest charm --- a clockless suspension of time --- is also its greatest liability in a culture of digital distraction. These paradoxes are explored by historian and passionate baseball fan Susan Jacoby in a book that is both a love letter to the game and a tough-minded analysis of the current challenges to its special position --- in reality and myth --- in American culture.