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Week of November 12, 2018

New in Paperback

Week of November 12, 2018

Paperback releases for the week of November 12th include Jeffery Deaver's THE CUTTING EDGE, in which Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs return to New York City to confront a killer terrorizing couples at their happiest --- and most vulnerable; FUTURE HOME OF THE LIVING GOD by Louise Erdrich, a startling portrait of a young woman fighting for her life and her unborn child against oppressive forces that manifest in the wake of a cataclysmic event; ALTERNATE SIDE, a provocative novel from Anna Quindlen that explores what it means to be a mother, a wife and a woman at a moment of reckoning; and BREAKING FREE, a searing memoir by the daughter of Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed Prophet of the FLDS Church, who takes you deep inside the secretive polygamist Mormon fundamentalist cult run by her family and how she escaped it.

Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen - Fiction

November 13, 2018

Some days, Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life --- except when there’s a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home, or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? New York City was once Nora’s dream destination, and her clannish dead-end block has become a safe harbor, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. The owners watch one another’s children grow up. They use the same handyman. They trade gossip and gripes, and they maneuver for the ultimate status symbol: a spot in the block’s small parking lot. Then one morning, Nora returns from her run to discover that a terrible incident has shaken the neighborhood, and the enviable dead-end block turns into a potent symbol of a divided city.

Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and My Father, Warren Jeffs by Rachel Jeffs - Memoir

November 13, 2018

Born into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Rachel Jeffs was raised in a strict patriarchal culture defined by subordinate sister wives and men they must obey. No one in this radical splinter sect of the Mormon Church was more powerful or terrifying than its leader, Warren Jeffs --- Rachel’s father. Living outside mainstream Mormonism and federal law, Jeffs arranged marriages between underage girls and middle-aged and elderly members of his congregation. In BREAKING FREE, Rachel blows the lid off this taciturn community to offer a harrowing look at her life with Jeffs, and the years of physical and emotional abuse she suffered.

Chicago by David Mamet - Historical Thriller

November 13, 2018

Mike Hodge --- veteran of the Great War, big shot of the Chicago Tribune, medium fry --- probably shouldn’t have fallen in love with Annie Walsh. Then again, maybe the man who killed Annie Walsh should have known better than to trifle with Mike Hodge. Mixing some of his most brilliant fictional creations with actual figures of the era and exploring questions of honor, deceit, revenge and devotion, CHICAGO --- David Mamet’s first novel in more than two decades --- is a book that combines spectacular elegance of craft with a kinetic wallop as fierce as the February wind gusting off Lake Michigan.

The Cutting Edge: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel by Jeffery Deaver - Thriller

November 13, 2018

In the early hours of a quiet, weekend morning in Manhattan's Diamond District, a brutal triple murder shocks the city. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs quickly take the case. As more crimes follow, it becomes clear that the killer's target is not gems, but engaged couples themselves. The Promisor vows to take the lives of men and women during their most precious moments --- midway through the purchase of an engagement ring, after a meeting with a wedding planner, trying on the perfect gown for a day that will never come. Soon the Promisor makes a dangerous mistake: leaving behind an innocent witness, Vimal Lahori, a talented young diamond cutter who can help Rhyme and Sachs blow the lid off the case.

Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City by Kate Winkler Dawson - True Crime/History

November 13, 2018

London was still recovering from the devastation of World War II when another disaster hit: for five long days in December 1952, a killer smog held the city firmly in its grip and refused to let go. Day became night, mass transit ground to a halt, criminals roamed the streets, and some 12,000 people died from the poisonous air. But in the chaotic aftermath, another killer was stalking the streets, using the fog as a cloak for his crimes. Journalist Kate Winkler Dawson braids these strands together into a true crime thriller about a man who changed the fate of the death penalty in the UK, and an environmental catastrophe with implications that still echo today.

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri - Historical Fantasy

November 13, 2018

The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited. When Mehr's power comes to the attention of the Emperor's most feared mystics, she must use every ounce of will, subtlety and power she possesses to resist their cruel agenda. Should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance.

The Feud by Catherine Hiller - Fiction

November 13, 2018

Despite the notion of female solidarity, almost every office has its feud, usually between two women. In THE FEUD, a work friendship goes bad…very bad. Soon Nikki and Roberta engage in a series of betrayals that threatens one with the loss of her boyfriend and reputation, and the other with the loss of her home and her family. Nikki smokes weed, while Roberta drinks wine. They each have their little helpers, but can anything really help them achieve peace? The book is set in the mid-’90s, when the internet was new and cell phones were rare. The two women use these emerging technologies in their increasingly damaging war with each other until they find themselves alone in a stalled elevator.

Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro - Fiction

November 13, 2018

Maggie is entirely devoted to her husband Thomas, their two beautiful children, and to God --- until what begins as a platonic intellectual and spiritual exchange between writer Maggie and poet James transforms into an erotically charged bond that challenges Maggie’s sense of loyalty and morality, drawing her deeper into the darkness of desire.

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich - Dystopian Thriller

November 13, 2018

The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Thirty-two-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker is four months pregnant. Though she wants to tell the adoptive parents who raised her from infancy, Cedar first feels compelled to find her birth mother, an Ojibwe living on the reservation, to understand both her and her baby’s origins. As she goes back to her own biological beginnings, society around her begins to disintegrate. It will take all Cedar has to avoid the prying eyes of potential informants and keep her baby safe.

High Crimes: A Georgia Davis Novel of Suspense by Libby Fischer Hellmann - Mystery/Thriller

November 13, 2018

Chicago PI Georgia Davis is hired to hunt down those behind the assassination of Resistance leader Dena Baldwin at a demonstration 14 months after the 2016 election. The gunman dies within minutes of the shooting. As Georgia sifts through Dena’s 42,000 Facebook followers, she discovers that unknown enemies hiding behind fake profiles have infiltrated the group. She finds others who will do whatever it takes --- including murder --- to shield right-wing, wealthy elites. Threats and bruises have never frightened Georgia, but she’s side-swiped by the sudden reappearance of her mother, who abandoned her when she was a child. Can she survive a family crisis at the same time she pursues killers whose only goal is to protect themselves?

Prague Spring by Simon Mawer - Historical Fiction

November 13, 2018

In the summer of 1968, the year of Prague Spring with a Cold War winter, Oxford students James Borthwick and Eleanor Pike set out to hitchhike across Europe. Having reached southern Germany, they decide on a whim to visit Czechoslovakia, where Alexander Dubcek's "socialism with a human face" is smiling on the world. Meanwhile, in the company of Czech student Lenka Konecková, Sam Wareham --- First Secretary at the British embassy in Prague --- finds a way into the world of Czechoslovak youth; now, nothing seems off-limits behind the Iron Curtain. But the great wheels of politics are grinding in the background. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev is making demands of Dubcek, and the Red Army is massing on the borders.

Signal Loss: A Hal Challis Investigation by Garry Disher - Mystery

November 13, 2018

A pair of hit men have a very bad day, and the resulting bushfire draws attention to a meth lab and two burned bodies in a Mercedes. As Inspector Hal Challis of the Crime Investigation Unit struggles to link these events to major meth suppliers flooding the Peninsula with drugs, he also finds himself spending valuable time fending off jurisdictional challenges from Melbourne’s Major Drug Investigative Division. Meanwhile, Sgt. Ellen Destry, of CIU’s sex crimes unit, is hunting for a serial rapist who is extremely adept at not leaving clues.

The Sixth Day: A Brit in the FBI Thriller by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison - Thriller

November 13, 2018

When several major political figures die mysteriously, officials blame their deaths on natural causes. However, when a small drone is spotted at the scene of the most recent death, it quickly becomes clear to FBI agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine that there’s more to this mystery than meets the eye. Dr. Isabella Marin is a language expert, and she’s dedicated her entire life to researching an ancient text that has long been considered indecipherable…that is, until now. When Nicholas and Michaela uncover plans for a devastating attack on London, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before it’s too late. Not only are they in danger of losing the manuscript --- an object of extreme value --- they’re also at risk of losing more innocent lives, including their own.

The Smack by Richard Lange - Thriller

November 13, 2018

Rowan Petty is a conman down on his luck. He's flat broke, living out of cheap hotels, and wondering how it all went wrong. His car quits on him in Reno, and he takes a job there on the bottom rung of a lousy phone scam. When he's not swindling lonely widows, he tries to turn nickels into dimes at the poker table. One snowy night, he crosses paths with a sweet-talking hooker who's tired of the streets, and sparks fly. When an old friend of his turns up spreading a rumor about two million dollars in army money smuggled out of Afghanistan and stashed in an apartment in Los Angeles, it seems like a chance at the score of a lifetime. So Petty and the hooker head south, and straight into trouble.

The Wine Lover's Daughter: A Memoir by Anne Fadiman - Memoir

November 13, 2018

An appreciation of wine --- along with a plummy upper-crust accent, expensive suits, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Western literature --- was an essential element of Clifton Fadiman’s escape from lower-middle-class Brooklyn to swanky Manhattan. But wine was not just a class-vaulting accessory; it was an object of ardent desire. THE WINE LOVER’S DAUGHTER traces the arc of a man’s infatuation from the glass of cheap Graves he drank in Paris in 1927; through the Château Lafite-Rothschild 1904 he drank to celebrate his 80th birthday, when he and the bottle were exactly the same age; to the wines that sustained him in his last years, when he was blind but still buoyed, as always, by hedonism.