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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 13th and May 20th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our Summer Reading Contests and Feature, a series of 24-hour giveaways that are taking place on select days between now and August 23rd. Enter for your chance to win fiction and nonfiction titles that we think will be great summer book picks.
We also have three contests to tell you about on ReadingGroupGuides.com.
Moving through three generations and back and forth in time, THE GUEST BOOK tells the story of a family and a country that buries its past in quiet, until the present calls forth a reckoning. We are celebrating the release of Sarah Blake's triumphant new novel --- following 2010's THE POSTMISTRESS --- with a special contest that will give three groups the chance to win 12 copies of the book. Enter here by Thursday, June 6th at noon ET.
May's "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest book is LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng, which is now available in paperback and is soon to be a limited series on Hulu starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. This riveting novel traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Three winners will be selected, and each will be awarded 12 copies of the book for their group. Enter here by Thursday, June 6th at noon ET.
And you only have until tomorrow, Wednesday, May 15th at noon ET to enter our very special contest for THIS TENDER LAND by William Kent Krueger, a magnificent novel about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the early years of the Great Depression, which releases on September 3rd. Ten book groups will win up to 10 advance copies of the book with the commitment of previewing it and providing feedback on it by Friday, August 16th.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News: Bookreporter.com's
Summer Reading Contests and Feature
Summer will be here before you know it! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through August 23rd, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.
This year’s prize books include:
Click here to read all the contest details
and see the prize books being awarded in May, June, July and August.
On Sale the Week of May 13th in Hardcover
May 14th
AMERICA WAS HARD TO FIND by Kathleen Alcott (Historical Fiction)
Ecuador, 1969: An American expatriate, Fay Fern, sits in the corner of a restaurant. She and her young son, Wright, turned away from the television where Vincent Kahn becomes the first man to walk on the moon. Years earlier, Fay and Vincent meet at a pilots’ bar in the Mojave Desert. Their casual affair ends quickly, but its consequences linger. Though their lives split, their senses of purpose deepen in tandem, each becoming heroes to different sides of the political spectrum of the 1960s and ’70s. With her last public appearance, a demonstration that frames the Apollo program as a vehicle for distracting the American public from its country’s atrocities, Fay leaves Wright to contend with her legacy, his own growing apathy, and the misdeeds of both his mother and his country.
Ecco | 9780062662521
ANNA OF KLEVE, THE PRINCESS IN THE PORTRAIT by Alison Weir (Historical Fiction)
Newly widowed and the father of an infant son, Henry VIII realizes he must marry again to ensure the royal succession. Forty-six, overweight and suffering from gout, Henry is soundly rejected by some of Europe's most eligible princesses. Anna of Kleve, from a small German duchy, is 24 and has a secret she is desperate to keep hidden. Henry commissions her portrait from his court painter, who depicts her from the most flattering perspective. Entranced by the lovely image, Henry is bitterly surprised when Anna arrives in England and he sees her in the flesh. Some think her attractive, but Henry knows he can never love her. What follows is the fascinating story of an awkward royal union that somehow had to be terminated.
Ballantine Books | 9781101966570
THE BEHAVIOR OF LOVE by Virginia Reeves (Fiction)
A passionate, ambitious behavioral psychiatrist, Ed Malinowski is now the superintendent of a mental institution and finally turning the previously crumbling hospital around. He also has a home he can be proud of, and a fiercely independent, artistic wife Laura, whom he hopes will soon be pregnant. But into this perfect vision of his life comes Penelope, a beautiful, young epileptic who never should have been placed in his institution and whose only chance at getting out is Ed. She is intelligent, charming and slowly falling in love with her charismatic, compassionate doctor. As their relationship grows more complicated, Ed must weigh his professional responsibilities against his personal ones, and find a way to save both his job and his family.
Scribner | 9781501183508
A BEND IN THE STARS by Rachel Barenbaum (Historical Fiction)
In Russia, in the summer of 1914, as war with Germany looms and the Czar's army tightens its grip on the local Jewish community, Miri Abramov and her brilliant physicist brother, Vanya, are facing an impossible decision. With fierce, headstrong Miri on the verge of becoming one of Russia's only female surgeons, and Vanya hoping to solve the final puzzles of Einstein's elusive theory of relativity, can they bear to leave the homeland that has given them so much? Before they have time to make their choice, war is declared and Vanya goes missing, along with Miri's fiancé. Miri braves the firing squad to go looking for them both. Not only the safety of Miri's own family but the future of science itself hangs in the balance.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538746264
A BRIGHTNESS LONG AGO by Guy Gavriel Kay (Historical Fantasy)
In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school, even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count --- and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast. Danio's fate changed the moment he saw and recognized Adria Ripoli as she entered the count's chambers one autumn night --- intending to kill. Born to power, Adria had chosen, instead of a life of comfort, one of danger --- and freedom. Which is how she encounters Danio in a perilous time and place.
Berkley | 9780451472984
THE BRITISH ARE COMING: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson (History)
Rick Atkinson has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy, he recounts the first 21 months of America’s violent war for independence. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627790437
BROTHERS DOWN: Pearl Harbor and the Fate of the Many Brothers Aboard the USS Arizona by Walter R. Borneman (History)
The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 remains one of the most traumatic events in American history. Few realize that aboard the iconic, ill-fated USS Arizona were an incredible 79 blood relatives. Tragically, in an era when family members serving together was an accepted, even encouraged, practice, 63 of the Arizona's 1,177 dead turned out to be brothers. In BROTHERS DOWN, acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman returns to that critical week of December, masterfully guiding us on an unforgettable journey of sacrifice and heroism, all told through the lives of these brothers and their fateful experience on the Arizona.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316438889
DISAPPEARING EARTH by Julia Phillips (Literary Thriller)
One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two young sisters go missing. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women. Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, DISAPPEARING EARTH transports readers to vistas of rugged beauty and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.
Knopf | 9780525520412
FULL COUNT: The Education of a Pitcher by David Cone and Jack Curry (Sports/Memoir)
During his 17-year career, David Cone became a master of the mechanics and mental toughness a pitcher needs to succeed in the major leagues. A five-time All-Star and five-time World Champion now gives his full count --- balls and strikes, errors and outs --- of his colorful life in baseball. From the pitchers he studied to the hitters who infuriated him, FULL COUNT takes readers inside the mind of a thoughtful pitcher, detailing Cone's passion, composure and strategies. The book is also filled with never-before-told stories from the memorable teams Cone played on --- ranging from the infamous late '80s Mets to the Yankee dynasty of the '90s.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748848
A GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY: The Red Scare and My Father by David Maraniss (Biography/History)
Elliott Maraniss, David’s father, a WWII veteran who had commanded an all-black company in the Pacific, was spied on by the FBI, named as a communist by an informant, called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, fired from his newspaper job, and blacklisted for five years. Yet he never lost faith in America and emerged on the other side with his family and optimism intact. In a sweeping drama that moves from the Depression and Spanish Civil War to the HUAC hearings and end of the McCarthy era, Maraniss weaves his father’s story through the lives of his inquisitors and defenders as they struggle with the vital 20th-century issues of race, fascism, communism and first amendment freedoms.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501178375
IF SHE WAKES by Michael Koryta (Thriller)
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.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316294003
THE NEVER GAME by Jeffery Deaver (Thriller)
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?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525535942
THE NIGHT BEFORE by Wendy Walker (Psychological Thriller)
Devastated by the end of her last relationship, Laura Lochner fled her Wall Street job and New York City apartment for her sister’s home in the Connecticut suburb where they both grew up. Though still haunted by the tragedy that’s defined her entire life, Laura is determined to take one more chance on love with a man she’s met on an Internet dating site. Rosie Ferro has spent most of her life worrying about her troubled sister. Fearless but fragile, Laura has always walked an emotional tightrope. So when Laura does not return home the following morning from her blind date, Rosie fears the worst. As she begins a desperate search to find her sister, she is not just worried about what this man might have done to Laura. She’s worried about what Laura may have done to him.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250198679
THE NIGHT WINDOW: A Jane Hawk Novel by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
A visionary young filmmaker hunted for sport across a vast Colorado ranch by the celebrated billionaire at the heart of a monstrous cabal. A brilliant computer hacker slipping through top-secret databases a whisper ahead of security trackers, gathering the facts to fight the all-powerful perpetrators of mass murder. A Vegas mob boss teamed with a homicidal sociopath, circling a beloved boy and his protectors, aiming to secure him as leverage against his fugitive mother. And that fugitive mother herself, ex-agent Jane Hawk, closing in on the malevolent architects of ruin she has stalked as they stalk her. These are some of the people and circumstances of THE NIGHT WINDOW, the stunning conclusion to Dean Koontz’s acclaimed Jane Hawk series.
Bantam | 9780525484707
ONCE MORE WE SAW STARS: A Memoir by Jayson Greene (Memoir)
As the book opens, two-year-old Greta Greene is sitting with her grandmother on a park bench on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A brick crumbles from a windowsill overhead, striking her unconscious, and she is immediately rushed to the hospital. But although it begins with this event and with the anguish Jayson and his wife, Stacy, confront in the wake of their daughter's trauma and the hours leading up to her death, ONCE MORE WE SAW STARS quickly becomes a narrative that is as much about hope and healing as it is about grief and loss. Jayson recognizes, even in the midst of his ordeal, that there will be a life for him beyond it --- that if only he can continue moving forward, from one moment to the next, he will survive what seems unsurvivable.
Knopf | 9781524733537
ORANGE WORLD AND OTHER STORIES by Karen Russell (Fiction/Short Stories)
In “Bog Girl," a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a 2,000-year-old girl who he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors,” two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. In the title story, a new mother desperate to ensure her infant’s safety strikes a diabolical deal, agreeing to breastfeed the devil in exchange for his protection. The landscape in which these and five other stories unfold is a feral, slippery, purgatorial space, bracketed by the void --- yet within it, Karen Russell captures the exquisite beauty and tenderness of ordinary life.
Knopf | 9780525656135
OUT EAST: Memoir of a Montauk Summer by John Glynn (Memoir)
They call Montauk the end of the world, a spit of land jutting into the Atlantic. The house was a ramshackle split-level set on a hill, and each summer 31 people would sleep between its thin walls and shag carpets. Against the moonlight the house's octagonal roof resembled a bee's nest. It was dubbed The Hive. In 2013, John Glynn joined the share house. Packing his duffel for that first Memorial Day weekend, he prayed for clarity. At 27, he was crippled by an all-encompassing loneliness, a feeling he had carried in his heart for as long as he could remember. OUT EAST is the portrait of a summer, of the Hive and the people who lived in it, and John's own reckoning with a half-formed sense of self.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538746653
RESISTANCE WOMEN by Jennifer Chiaverini (Historical Fiction)
After Wisconsin graduate student Mildred Fish marries brilliant German economist Arvid Harnack, she accompanies him to his German homeland, where a promising future awaits. In the thriving intellectual culture of 1930s Berlin, the newlyweds create a rich new life filled with love, friendships and rewarding work --- but the rise of a malevolent new political faction inexorably changes their fate. As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party wield violence and lies to seize power, Mildred, Arvid and their friends resolve to resist. For years, Mildred’s network stealthily fights to bring down the Third Reich from within. But when Nazi radio operatives detect an errant Russian signal, the Harnack resistance cell is exposed, with fatal consequences.
William Morrow | 9780062841100
RULES FOR VISITING by Jessica Francis Kane (Fiction)
At 40, May Attaway is more at home with plants than people. Over the years, she's turned inward, finding pleasure in language, her work as a gardener, and keeping her neighbors at arm's length while keenly observing them. But when she is unexpectedly granted some leave from her job, May is inspired to reconnect with four once-close friends. She knows they will never have a proper reunion, so she goes, one by one, to each of them. A student of the classics, May considers her journey a female Odyssey. What might the world have had if, instead of waiting, Penelope had set out on an adventure of her own?
Penguin Press | 9780525559221
THE SATAPUR MOONSTONE: A Perveen Mistry Novel by Sujata Massey (Historical Mystery)
India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri mountains, where the princely state of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur’s royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic hunting accident. Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s only female lawyer, is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young crown prince’s future, but she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace’s deadly curse?
Soho Crime | 9781616959098
WILD CARD: A Buddy Steel Mystery by Michael Brandman (Mystery)
When San Remo County Acting Sheriff Buddy Steel is deputized by the California Coastal Commission to investigate a reclusive Russian billionaire who has repeatedly violated state law by obstructing public access to his vast beachfront property, he makes a shocking discovery. He also learns that the politicos will not back up enforcement. This makes Buddy dig in his heels and face down the Russian's imported goon squad. At the same time, a string of random murders in the county's normally sleepy town of Freedom, a wealthy enclave up the coast from Los Angeles, places the Sheriff's Department on high alert as it seeks to apprehend a serial killer whose crimes are so perfectly executed they leave no forensic evidence.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211584
On Sale the Week of May 13th in Paperback
May 14th
DAMNATION ISLAND: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York by Stacy Horn (History)
Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New York’s Blackwell’s Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, "a lounging, listless madhouse." Digging through city records, newspaper articles and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells a gripping narrative through the voices of the island’s inhabitants. We also hear from the era’s officials, reformers and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. DAMNATION ISLAND shows how far we’ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us --- and reminds us how much work still remains.
Algonquin Books | 9781616209353
THE DESERT SKY BEFORE US by Anne Valente (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Billie is released from a correctional facility in Decatur, her sister Rhiannon is there to meet her. Painful secrets and numerous unspoken betrayals linger between them --- but most agonizing is the sudden passing of their mother, a renowned paleontologist. Rhiannon and Billie must overcome their differences as they set off on a road trip west, following the breadcrumb-trail of their late mother’s scavenger hunt, a sort of second funeral she planned in her final days. The sisters know the trail will end in Utah at the famous Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, where their mother spent her career researching dinosaur fossils. But the seemingly endless days on the road soon take their toll, forcing Rhiannon and Billie to confront their hostilities and revisit old memories --- both good and bad.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062749871
FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE: People and Places by Paul Theroux (Travel/Essays)
Paul Theroux’s latest collection of essays leads the reader through a dazzling array of sights, characters and experiences, as Theroux applies his signature searching curiosity to a life lived as much in reading as on the road. Travel essays take us to Ecuador, Zimbabwe and Hawaii, to name a few. Gems of literary criticism reveal fascinating depth in the work of Henry David Thoreau, Graham Greene, Joseph Conrad and Hunter Thompson. And in a series of breathtakingly personal profiles, we take a helicopter ride with Elizabeth Taylor, go surfing with Oliver Sacks, eavesdrop on the day-to-day life of a Manhattan dominatrix, and explore New York with Robin Williams.
Eamon Dolan/Mariner Books | 9781328592781
HER PRETTY FACE by Robyn Harding (Psychological Thriller)
Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat. A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before. Until she meets Kate Randolph. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart. Because one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunik. And she’s a murderer.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501174254
THE HIGH SEASON by Judy Blundell (Fiction)
In a beach town overrun with vacationers and newly colonized by socialites, Ruthie Beamish will go to extreme lengths when the life she loves is upended. Ruthie's house is her nest egg, recently renovated and located by the sea in a quiet village two ferry rides from the glitzier Hamptons. But to afford the house, she must rent it during the summer --- and this year to Adeline Clay, who is elegant, connected and accompanied by a “gorgeous satellite” stepson. Adeline forces herself into Ruthie's life, and when she's on the verge of losing everything, Ruthie discovers a new talent for pushing back. Nothing will be the same.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780525508731
LIFE OF DAVID HOCKNEY written by Catherine Cusset, translated by Teresa Fagan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Born in 1937 in a small town in the north of England, David Hockney had to fight to become an artist. After leaving his home in Bradford for the Royal College of Art in London, his career flourished, but he continued to struggle with a sense of not belonging, because of his homosexuality, which had yet to be decriminalized, and his inclination for a figurative style of art not sufficiently “contemporary” to be valued. Trips to New York and California --- where he would live for many years and paint his iconic swimming pools --- introduced him to new scenes and new loves, beginning a journey that would take him through the fraught years of the AIDS epidemic.
Other Press | 9781590519837
LIMELIGHT by Amy Poeppel (Fiction/Humor)
Allison Brinkley discovers that a carefully weighed decision to pack up and move her family from suburban Dallas to the glittery chaos of Manhattan may have been more complicated than she and her husband initially thought. After a humiliating call from the principal’s office and the loss of the job she was counting on, Allison begins to accept that New York may not suit her after all. When Allison has a fender-bender, she is led to the penthouse apartment of a luxurious Central Park West building and encounters Carter Reid, a famous pop star who has been cast in a new Broadway musical. Through this brush with stardom, Allison embraces a unique and unexpected opportunity that helps her find her way in the heart of Manhattan.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501176388
LITTLE PANIC: Dispatches from an Anxious Life by Amanda Stern (Memoir)
Growing up in the 1970s and ’80s in New York, Amanda Stern experiences the magic and madness of life through the filter of unrelenting panic. Plagued with fear that her friends and family will be taken from her if she's not watching, Amanda treats every parting as her last. Shuttled between a barefoot bohemian life with her mother in Greenwich Village, and a sanitized, stricter world of affluence uptown with her father, Amanda has little she can depend on. And when Etan Patz disappears down the block from their MacDougal Street home, she can't help but believe that all her worst fears are about to come true.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538711941
MY EX-BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING by Wendy Wax (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Prized and stored away for safekeeping, the timeless ivory wedding dress sits gently folded in its box. To Kendra, Brianna and Lauren, it’s a reminder of what could have been. Once closer than sisters, Lauren and Bree have grown up and grown apart. A successful author, Lauren returns home to the Outer Banks, fiancé in tow, to claim the dress she never thought she’d wear. Bree, a bookstore owner, grapples with the realities of life after you marry the handsome prince. Now on the eve of her daughter Lauren’s wedding, Kendra struggles with a secret she’s kept for far too long. And vows to make sure the dress will finally bring Lauren and Bree back together --- knowing they'll need each other to survive the coming storm.
Berkley | 9780440001430
PLUM RAINS by Andromeda Romano-Lax (Science Fiction)
In 2029, Angelica Navarro, a Filipina nurse, works as caretaker for Sayoko Itou, who is about to turn 100 years old. One day, Sayoko receives a cutting-edge robot “friend” that will teach itself to anticipate Sayoko’s every need. Angelica wonders if she is about to be forced out of her much-needed job by an inanimate object --- one with a preternatural ability to uncover the most deeply buried secrets of the humans around it. The old woman has been hiding secrets of her own for almost a century. What she reveals is a hundred-year saga of forbidden love, hidden identities, and the horrific legacy of WWII and Japanese colonialism --- a confession that will tear apart her own life and Angelica’s.
Soho Press | 9781641290258
ROBIN by Dave Itzkoff (Biography)
From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in “Mork & Mindy” and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations --- all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed. But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams’ comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt.
Picador | 9781250214812
TARGET: ALEX CROSS by James Patterson (Thriller)
A leader has fallen, and Alex Cross joins the procession of mourners from Capitol Hill to the White House. Then a sniper's bullet strikes a target in the heart of DC. Alex Cross' wife, Bree Stone, newly elevated chief of DC detectives, must solve the case or lose her position. The Secret Service and the FBI deploy as well in the race to find the shooter. Alex is tasked by the new President to lead an investigation unprecedented in scale and scope. But is the sniper's strike only the beginning of a larger attack on the nation?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538713761
AN UNWANTED GUEST by Shari Lapena (Psychological Thriller)
It's winter in the Catskills, and Mitchell's Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing weekend away. So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity --- and all contact with the outside world --- the guests settle in for the long haul. Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead --- it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic. Within the snowed-in paradise, something --- or someone --- is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm --- and one another.
Penguin Books | 9780525557647
VISIBLE EMPIRE by Hannah Pittard (Historical Fiction)
On a humid summer day, the phones begin to ring: disaster has struck. Chateau de Sully, a Boeing 707 chartered to ferry home more than 100 of Atlanta’s most prominent citizens from a European jaunt, crashed in Paris shortly after takeoff. Overnight, the city of Atlanta changes. Left behind are children, spouses, lovers and friends faced with renegotiating their lives --- the hedonism of the ’60s and the urgency of the civil rights movement at the city’s doorstep.
Mariner Books | 9781328588791
WE BEGIN OUR ASCENT by Joe Mungo Reed (Fiction)
Sol and Liz are a couple on the cusp. He’s a professional cyclist in the Tour de France, a workhorse but not yet a star. She’s a geneticist on the brink of a major discovery, either that or a loss of funding. They’ve just welcomed their first child into the world, and their bright future lies just before them --- if only they can reach out and grab it. But as Liz’s research slows, as Sol starts doping, their dreams grow murkier and the risks graver. Over the whirlwind course of the Tour, they enter the orbit of an extraordinary cast of conmen and aspirants, who draw the young family ineluctably into the depths of an illegal drug smuggling operation.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501169229
WEST LIKE LIGHTNING: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express by Jim DeFelice (History)
On the eve of the Civil War, three American businessmen launched an audacious plan to create a financial empire by transforming communications across the hostile territory between the nation’s two coasts. In the process, they created one of the most enduring icons of the American West: the Pony Express. Daring young men galloped over a vast and unforgiving landscape, etching an irresistible tale that passed into myth almost instantly. Equally an improbable success and a business disaster, the Pony Express came and went in just 18 months, but not before uniting and captivating a nation on the brink of being torn apart. WEST LIKE LIGHTNING is the first major history of the Pony Express to put its birth, life and legacy into the full context of the American story.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062496782
THE WOMAN IN THE WOODS by John Connolly (Mystery/Thriller)
In the beautiful Maine woods, a partly preserved body is discovered. Investigators realize that the dead young woman gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby. Private detective Charlie Parker is hired by a lawyer to shadow the police investigation and find the infant, but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left by the woman, someone with an interest in much more than a missing child…someone prepared to leave bodies in his wake. And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring and a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501171932
YOU WERE MADE FOR THIS by Michelle Sacks (Psychological Thriller)
Merry, Sam and Conor are the perfect family in the perfect place. Merry adores the domestic life. Sam, formerly an academic, is pursuing a new career as a filmmaker. When Merry's childhood friend Frank visits their Swedish paradise, she immediately becomes part of the family. She befriends the neighbors, and even finds herself embracing the domesticity she's always seemed to scorn. All their lives, Frank and Merry have been more like sisters than best friends. And that's why Frank soon sees the things others might miss --- treacherous things, which are almost impossible to believe when looking at this perfect family. But Frank, of all people, knows that the truth is rarely what you want the world to see.
Back Bay Books | 9780316475419
On Sale the Week of May 20th in Hardcover
May 21st
THE 45th by D.W. Buffa (Political Thriller)
What if a political party in disarray turned to a man to lead them with no political background? What if a country torn apart by ideology turned to a man whose charisma belied a complete lack of governing experience? What if a country elected a President based not on qualifications, but on hope? Would this man lead the country into a new era of fortune and prosperity? Or would he lead them into total and complete chaos?
Polis Books | 9781947993532
BILOXI by Mary Miller (Fiction)
Louis has been forlorn since his wife of 37 years left him, his father passed, and he impulsively retired from his job in anticipation of an inheritance check that may not come. On a routine trip to Walgreens to pick up his diabetes medication, he stops at a sign advertising free dogs. Harry Davidson, a man who claims to have more than a dozen canines, offers only one: an overweight mixed breed named Layla. Without any rational explanation, Louis feels compelled to take the dog home, and the two become inseparable. He is dumbfounded to find himself in love --- bursting into song with improvised jingles, exploring new locales, and reevaluating what he once considered the fixed horizons of his life.
Liveright | 9781631492167
BIRTHDAY by Meredith Russo (Fiction)
Six years of birthdays reveal Eric and Morgan’s destiny as they come together, drift apart, fall in love, and discover who they’re meant to be --- and if they’re meant to be together. From the award-winning author of IF I WAS YOUR GIRL, Meredith Russo, comes a heart-wrenching and universal story of identity, first love and fate.
Flatiron Books | 9781250129833
BITCOIN BILLIONAIRES: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption by Ben Mezrich (Biography)
Ben Mezrich's 2009 bestseller, THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES, is the definitive account of Facebook's founding and the basis for the Academy Award–winning film The Social Network. Two of the story's iconic characters are Harvard students Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss: identical twins, Olympic rowers and foils to Mark Zuckerberg. BITCOIN BILLIONAIRES is the story of the brothers’ redemption and revenge in the wake of their epic legal battle with Facebook.
Flatiron Books | 9781250217745
CARI MORA by Thomas Harris (Thriller)
Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men. Cari Mora, caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to survive. Beautiful and marked by war, Cari catches the eye of Hans-Peter as he closes in on the treasure. But Cari Mora has surprising skills, and her will to survive has been tested before.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538750148
THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON by Sara Collins (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers: renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, though she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams’ London home --- and into a passionate and forbidden relationship. Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself.
Harper | 9780062851895
DECEPTION COVE by Owen Laukkanen (Thriller/Adventure)
Former US Marine Jess Winslow reenters civilian life a new widow, with little more to her name than a falling-down house, a medical discharge for PTSD, and a loyal dog named Lucy. After 15 years in state prison, Mason Burke owns one set of clothes, a wallet, and a photo of Lucy, the service dog he trained while behind bars. When Jess' late husband piloted his final "fishing" expedition, he stole and stashed a valuable package from his drug dealer associates. Now the package is gone, and the sheriff's department has seized Jess' dearest possession --- her dog. Unless Jess turns over the missing goods, Lucy will be destroyed. To rescue Lucy, Jesse and Mason will have to forge an uneasy alliance.
Mulholland Books | 9780316448703
THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER by Kaira Rouda (Psychological Thriller)
Exactly one year ago, Jane Harris’ oldest daughter, Mary, died in a tragic accident. Lost in a haze of anti-depressants, Jane barely has even left the house. Now that’s all about to change. It’s time for Jane to reclaim her life and her family. Jane’s husband, David, has planned a memorial service for Mary; three days later, their youngest daughter, Betsy, graduates high school. Yet as Jane reemerges into the world, it’s clear her family has changed without her. Her husband has been working long days --- and nights --- at the office. Her daughter seems distant, even secretive. And her beloved Mary was always such a good girl. But does someone know more about Mary, and about her last day, than they’ve revealed?
Graydon House | 9781525835148
GATHER THE FORTUNES: A Crescent City Novel by Bryan Camp (Supernatural Fantasy/Mystery)
Renaissance Raines has found her place among the psychopomps --- the guides who lead the souls of the recently departed through the Seven Gates of the Underworld --- and done her best to avoid the notice of gods and mortals alike. But when a young boy named Ramses St. Cyr manages to escape his foretold death, Renai finds herself at the center of a deity-thick plot unfolding in New Orleans. Someone helped Ramses slip free of his destined end --- someone willing to risk everything to steal a little slice of power for themselves. Is it one of the storm gods that’s descended on the city? The death god who’s locked the Gates of the Underworld? Or the manipulative sorcerer who also cheated Death?
John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328876713
HOW TO FORGET: A Daughter's Memoir by Kate Mulgrew (Memoir)
They say you can’t go home again. But when her father is diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer and her mother with atypical Alzheimer’s, New York-based actress Kate Mulgrew returns to her hometown in Iowa to spend time with her parents and care for them in the time they have left. The months Kate spends with her parents in Dubuque --- by turns turbulent, tragic and joyful --- lead her to reflect on each of their lives and how they shaped her own. Those ruminations are transformed when, in the wake of their deaths, Kate uncovers long-kept secrets that challenge her understanding of the unconventional Irish Catholic household in which she was raised.
William Morrow | 9780062846815
THE ISLAND by Ragnar Jonasson (Mystery/Thriller)
Autumn of 1987 takes a young couple on a romantic trip in the Westfjords holiday --- a trip that gets an unexpected ending and has catastrophic consequences. Ten years later, a small group of friends go for a weekend in an old hunting lodge in Elliðaey --- a place completely cut off from the outside world --- to reconnect. But one of them isn't going to make it out alive. And Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is determined to find the truth in the darkness.
Minotaur Books | 9781250193377
MISTRESS OF THE RITZ by Melanie Benjamin (Historical Fiction)
Blanche Auzello and her husband, Claude, the mistress and master of the Ritz, allow the glamour and glitz of the hotel to take their minds off their troubled marriage, and off the secrets that they keep from their guests --- and each other. Until June 1940, when the German army sweeps into Paris, setting up headquarters at the Ritz. Suddenly, Blanche and Claude must navigate a terrifying new reality. In order to survive, and strike a blow against their Nazi “guests,” they must spin a web of deceit that ensnares everything and everyone they cherish. But one secret is shared between Blanche and Claude alone --- the secret that, in the end, threatens to imperil both of their lives, and to bring down the legendary Ritz itself.
Delacorte Press | 9780399182242
NECESSARY PEOPLE by Anna Pitoniak (Fiction)
Stella and Violet are best friends in college. After graduation, Violet lands a job in cable news, where she works her way up from intern to assistant to producer, and to a life where she's finally free from Stella's shadow. In this fast-paced world, Violet thrives, and her ambitions grow. But everything is jeopardized when Stella uses her connections, beauty and charisma to get hired at the same network. Stella soon moves in front of the camera, becoming the public face of the stories that Violet has worked tirelessly to produce --- and taking all the credit. As they strive for success, each reveals just how far she'll go to get what she wants --- even if it means destroying the other person along the way.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316451703
PRAIRIE FEVER by Michael Parker (Historical Fiction)
Set in the hardscrabble landscape of early 1900s Oklahoma, PRAIRIE FEVER traces the intense dynamic between the Stewart sisters: the pragmatic Lorena and the chimerical Elise. The two are bound together not only by their isolation on the prairie but also by their deep emotional reliance on each other. That connection supersedes all else until the arrival of Gus McQueen. When Gus arrives in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma, as a first-time teacher, his inexperience is challenged by the wit and ingenuity of the Stewart sisters. Then one impulsive decision and a cataclysmic blizzard trap Elise and her horse on the prairie and forever change the balance of everything between the sisters, and with Gus McQueen.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208530
THE SCENT KEEPER by Erica Bauermeister (Fiction)
Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world --- a place of love, betrayal, ambition and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that challenges the limits of her heart and imagination.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250200136
THE SUMMER OF ELLEN written by Agnete Friis, translated by Sinead Quirke Kongerskov (Psychological Thriller)
Jacob, a middle-aged architect living in Copenhagen, is in the alcohol-soaked throes of a bitter divorce when he receives an unexpected call from his great-uncle Anton. In his 90s and still living with his brother on their rural Jutland farm --- a place Jacob hasn’t visited since the summer of 1978 --- Anton remains haunted by a single question: What happened to Ellen? To find out, Jacob must return to the farm and confront what took place that summer --- one defined by his teenage obsession with Ellen, a beautiful young hippie from the local commune, and the unsolved disappearance of a local girl. In revisiting old friends and rivals, Jacob discovers the tragedies that have haunted him for over 40 years were not what they seemed.
Soho Crime | 9781616959951
WAISTED by Randy Susan Meyers (Fiction)
Alice and Daphne harbor the same secret: obsession with their weight overshadows concerns about their children, husbands and work. The two women meet at Waisted. Located in a remote Vermont mansion, the program promises fast, dramatic weight loss, and Alice, Daphne and five other women are desperate enough to leave behind their families for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The catch? They must agree to always be on camera; afterward, the world will see “Waisted: The Documentary.” The women soon discover that the filmmakers have trapped them in a cruel experiment. With each pound lost, they edge deeper into obsession and instability...until they decide to take matters into their own hands.
Atria Books | 9781501131387
On Sale the Week of May 20th in Paperback
May 21st
BEFORE WE WERE YOURS by Lisa Wingate (Fiction)
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge --- until strangers arrive in force, and the children are thrown into an orphanage. Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all. But when she returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family's long-hidden history, on a path that ultimately will lead either to devastation or to redemption.
Ballantine Books | 9780425284704
BETWEEN THEM: Remembering My Parents by Richard Ford (Memoir)
Richard Ford’s parents --- Edna, a feisty, pretty Catholic-school girl with a difficult past; and Parker, a sweet-natured, soft-spoken traveling salesman --- were rural Arkansans born at the turn of the 20th century. Married in 1928, they lived “alone together” on the road, traveling throughout the South. Eventually they had one child, born late, in 1944. For Ford, the questions of what his parents dreamed of, how they loved each other and loved him become a striking portrait of American life in the mid-century. BETWEEN THEM is Ford’s vivid image of where his life began and where his parents’ lives found their greatest satisfaction.
Ecco | 9780062661890
BRING ME BACK by B. A. Paris (Psychological Thriller)
Finn and Layla are driving along the highway when Finn decides to stop at a service station to use the restroom. When he returns, Layla is gone. That is the story Finn told to the police. But it is not the whole story. Ten years later, Finn is engaged to Layla’s sister, Ellen. Their shared grief over what happened to Layla drew them close. Still, there’s something about Ellen that Finn has never fully understood. His heart wants to believe that she is the one for him, even though a sixth sense tells him not to trust her. Then, not long before he and Ellen are to be married, Finn gets a phone call. Someone from his past has seen Layla --- hiding in plain sight. If Layla is alive --- and on Finn’s trail --- what does she want? And how much does she know?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250151346
THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER by Kate Morton (Historical Fiction)
In the depths of a 19th-century winter, a little girl is abandoned on the streets of Victorian London. She grows up to become in turn a thief, an artist’s muse and a lover. In the summer of 1862, shortly after her 18th birthday, she travels with a group of artists to a beautiful house on a bend of the Upper Thames. Tensions simmer, and one hot afternoon a gunshot rings out. A woman is killed, another disappears, and the truth of what happened slips through the cracks of time. It is not until over a century later, when another young woman is drawn to Birchwood Manor, that its secrets are finally revealed.
Washington Square Press | 9781451649413
EXIT WOUNDS edited by Paul B. Kane and Marie O'Regan (Mystery/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
Featuring both original in-universe stories and rarely seen reprints, this collection of 19 masterful short stories brings together some of the genre’s greatest living authors. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan take on a delightfully twisted killer in Val McDermid’s “Happy Holidays.” In Fiona Cummin’s “Dead Weight,” an overbearing mother resorts to desperate measures to keep control of her teenage daughter. And in Dean Koontz’s “Kittens,” a young girl learns the truth about how her pets have been dying and devises a horrible revenge. Tense, twisted and disturbing, EXIT WOUNDS is a visceral and thrilling collection showcasing the very best modern crime fiction has to offer.
Titan Books | 9781785659188
FIND YOU IN THE DARK by Nathan Ripley (Thriller)
For years, Martin Reese has been illegally buying police files on serial killers and obsessively studying them, using them as guides to find the missing bodies of victims. On his latest dig, Martin searches for the first kill of Jason Shurn, who may have been responsible for the disappearance of his wife’s sister. But when he arrives at the site, he finds a freshly killed body lying among remains that were left there decades ago. Someone else knew where Jason Shurn left the corpses of his victims…and that someone isn’t happy that Martin has been going around digging up his work. Hunted by a real killer and by Detective Sandra Whittal, Martin realizes that in order to escape, he may have to go deeper into the killer’s dark world than he ever thought.
Atria Books | 9781501178214
FLORIDA by Lauren Groff (Fiction/Short Stories)
Lauren Groff brings readers into a physical world that is at once domestic and wild --- a place where the hazards of the natural world lie waiting to pounce, yet the greatest threats and mysteries are still of an emotional, psychological nature. Among those navigating this place are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple; a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable, recurring character --- a steely and conflicted wife and mother. The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida becomes its gravitational center: an energy, a mood, as much as a place of residence.
Riverhead Books | 9781594634529
HAVE YOU SEEN LUIS VELEZ? by Catherine Ryan Hyde (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn’t belong. After his best friend moves away, he has only two real connections: to the feral cat he’s tamed and to a blind 92-year-old woman in his building who’s introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez? Mildred Gutermann, a German Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, has been alone since her caretaker disappeared. She turns to Raymond for help, and as he tries to track Luis down, a deep and unexpected friendship blossoms between the two. Despondent at the loss of Luis, Mildred isolates herself further from a neighborhood devolving into bigotry and fear.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542042369
THE HELLFIRE CLUB by Jake Tapper (Historical/Political Thriller)
Charlie Marder is an unlikely Congressman. Thrust into office by his family ties after his predecessor died mysteriously, Charlie is struggling to navigate the dangerous waters of 1950s Washington, DC, alongside his young wife Margaret, a zoologist with ambitions of her own. Amid the swirl of glamorous and powerful political leaders and deal makers, a mysterious fatal car accident thrusts Charlie and Margaret into an underworld of backroom deals, secret societies, and a plot that could change the course of history. When Charlie discovers a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of governance, he has to fight not only for his principles and his newfound political career, but also for his life.
Back Bay Books | 9780316472302
INDIANAPOLIS: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic (History)
Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the Philippine Sea when she is sunk by two Japanese torpedoes. For the next five nights and four days, almost 300 miles from the nearest land, nearly 900 men battle injuries, sharks, dehydration, insanity and eventually each other. Only 316 will survive. For the first time, Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story of the ship, her crew, and their final mission to save one of their own. It begins in 1932, when Indianapolis is christened, and continues through World War II, when the ship embarks on her final world-changing mission: delivering the core of the atomic bomb to the Pacific for the strike on Hiroshima.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501135958
INVITATION TO A BONFIRE by Adrienne Celt (Psychological Thriller)
In the 1920s, Zoya Andropova, a young refugee from the Soviet Union, finds herself in the alien landscape of an elite all-girls New Jersey boarding school. Having lost her family, her home and her sense of purpose, Zoya must now endure the malice her peers heap on scholarship students and her new country's paranoia about Russian spies. With the arrival of visiting writer and fellow Russian émigré Leo Orlov --- whose books Zoya has privately obsessed over for years --- her luck seems poised to change. But the relationship that forms between them will put Zoya, Leo and his calculating wife, Vera, all at risk.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635571530
IT’S HOT IN THE HAMPTONS by Holly Peterson (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Raised in East Hampton, Caroline never thought she’d be one of the “city people” who spent summers and weekends at the beach. But once her husband’s business takes off, a job stint transplants the couple permanently into Manhattan life --- where entitled husbands, like hers, embark on affair after affair with little consequence. Time for the wives to get even. When Caroline’s friend, Annabelle, suggests they experiment as their wayward mates have, Caroline resists at first. That is, until a scroll through an iPad makes her reconsider…and a pact between two friends is made. The agreement quickly turns serious when Caroline begins to confront the man her husband has become, or perhaps always has been.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062867377
THE KING’S WITCH by Tracy Borman (Historical Fiction)
In March of 1603, as she helps to nurse the dying Queen Elizabeth of England, Frances Gorges dreams of her parents’ country estate. She is happy to stay at home when King James of Scotland succeeds to the throne. But when her ambitious uncle forcibly brings Frances to the royal palace, she is a ready target for the twisted scheming of the Privy Seal, Lord Cecil. As a dark campaign to destroy both King and Parliament gathers pace, culminating in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, Frances is surrounded by danger, finding happiness only with the King’s precocious young daughter --- and, with Tom Wintour, the one courtier she feels she can trust. But Wintour has a secret that, when revealed, places Frances in conflict with her royal charge and in fear for her own family.
Grove Press | 9780802129598
LYING NEXT TO ME by Gregg Olsen (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Adam and Sophie Warner and their three-year-old daughter are vacationing in Washington State’s Hood Canal for Memorial Day weekend. But on Adam’s first day out on the water, he sees Sophie abducted by a stranger. In a nearby cabin is another couple, Kristen and Connor Moss. Unfortunately, beyond what they’ve heard in the news, they’re in the dark when it comes to Sophie’s disappearance. For Adam, at least there’s comfort in knowing that Mason County detective Lee Husemann is an old friend of his. But as Adam’s paranoia about his missing wife escalates, Lee puts together the pieces of a puzzle. The lives of the two couples are converging in unpredictable ways, and the picture is unsettling.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542040518
THE MANDELA PLOT by Kenneth Bonert (Literary Thriller)
As the 1980s draw to a close, South Africa is a maelstrom of political violence, the apartheid regime in its death throes. Young Martin Helger is a misfit at an elite private boys’ school in Johannesburg, with a father who is a scrap dealer and a brother who is a mysterious legend. When a beautiful and manipulative American activist arrives at the family home, Martin soon finds himself wrenched out of his isolated bubble and thrust into the heart of the struggle. At the same time, secrets from the past begin to emerge, tearing at the Helgers, a second-generation Jewish family, even as the larger forces of history and politics tear apart the country.
Mariner Books | 9781328585073
NINO AND ME: An Intimate Portrait of Scalia's Last Years by Bryan A. Garner (Memoir)
For almost 30 years, Antonin Scalia was arguably the most influential and controversial Justice on the United States Supreme Court. Based on his reputation for using scathing language to criticize liberal court decisions, many people presumed Scalia to be gruff and irascible. But to those who knew him as “Nino,” he was characterized by his warmth, charm, devotion, fierce intelligence and loyalty. Bryan Garner’s friendship with Justice Scalia was instigated by celebrated writer David Foster Wallace and strengthened over their shared love of language. In NINO AND ME, Garner gives a firsthand insight into the mind, habits and faith of one of the most famous and misunderstood judges in the world.
Threshold Editions | 9781501181511
THE OTHER WOMAN by Sandie Jones (Psychological Thriller)
Adam adores Emily. Emily thinks Adam’s perfect, the man she thought she’d never meet. Lurking in the shadows is a rival, a woman who shares a deep bond with the man she loves. Emily chose Adam, but she didn’t choose his mother Pammie. There’s nothing a mother wouldn’t do for her son, and now Emily is about to find out just how far Pammie will go to get what she wants: Emily gone forever.
Minotaur Books | 9781250192004
PIECES OF HER by Karin Slaughter (Thriller)
Andrea Cooper knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence, and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly 30 years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062883094
POPS: Fatherhood in Pieces by Michael Chabon (Memoir/Essays)
For the September 2016 issue of GQ, Michael Chabon wrote a piece about accompanying his then-13-year-old son to Paris Men’s Fashion Week. Possessed with a precocious sense of style, Abe was in his element chatting with designers he idolized and turning a critical eye to the freshest runway looks of the season. Chabon Sr. sat idly by, staving off yawns and fighting the impulse that the whole thing was a massive waste of time. Despite his own indifference, however, what gradually emerged as Chabon ferried his son to and from fashion shows was a deep respect for his son’s passion. With the GQ story as its centerpiece, and featuring six additional essays, POPS illuminates the meaning, magic and mysteries of fatherhood.
Harper Perennial | 9780062851123
THE RESTLESS WAVE: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations by John McCain and Mark Salter (Memoir)
Written while confronting a mortal illness, John McCain looks back with appreciation on his years in the Senate, his historic 2008 campaign for the presidency against Barack Obama, and his crusades on behalf of democracy and human rights in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Always the fighter, McCain attacks the “spurious nationalism” and political polarization afflicting American policy. He makes an impassioned case for democratic internationalism and bi-partisanship. He tells stories of his most satisfying moments of public service, including his work with another giant of the Senate, Edward M. Kennedy.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501178023
ROCKET MEN: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson (History)
In a year of historic violence and discord --- the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago --- the Apollo 8 mission would be the boldest, riskiest test of America’s greatness under pressure. In ROCKET MEN, Robert Kurson puts the focus on the three astronauts and their families: the commander, Frank Borman, a conflicted man on his final mission; idealistic Jim Lovell, who had dreamed since boyhood of riding a rocket to the Moon; and Bill Anders, a young nuclear engineer and hotshot fighter pilot making his first space flight.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812988710
ROMAN COUNT DOWN: A Rick Montoya Italian Mystery by David P. Wagner (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Rick Montoya, who is eager to experience more of his Italian mother's culture, heads to Rome to start his own translation business. He's armed with curiosity and an appetite for local food and wine. Rick's maternal uncle is a Roman cop with one eye to his nephew's welfare and another to how Rick might be useful, perhaps widen his career choices. So Commissario Piero Fontana pulls Rick into an investigation: the murder of Count Umberto Zimbardi. The wealthy count enjoyed indulging a circle of convivial friends and a hobby collecting oral histories by interviewing residents in the city's centro storico. After heading home from such an afternoon, he was found dead on a bridge over the Tiber.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211638
THE ROYAL SECRET by Lucinda Riley (Mystery)
Paperback Original
When Sir James Harrison, one of the greatest actors of his generation, passes away at the age of 95, he leaves behind not just a heartbroken family but also a secret so shocking, it could rock the English establishment to its core. Joanna Haslam, an up-and-coming reporter, is assigned to cover the legendary actor’s funeral. But she stumbles on something dark beneath the glamour: the mention of a letter James Harrison has left behind --- the contents of which many have been desperate to keep concealed for over 70 years. As she peels back the veil of lies that has shrouded the secret, she realizes that she’s close to uncovering something deadly serious --- and the royal family may be implicated.
Atria Books | 9781982121273
SPLINTER IN THE BLOOD by Ashley Dyer (Mystery/Thriller)
After months of hunting a cold-blooded murderer that the press has dubbed the Thorn Killer, Detective Greg Carver is shot in his own home. His trusted partner, Ruth Lake, is alone with him. Yet instead of calling for help, she has rearranged the crime scene and wiped the room clean of prints. But Carver isn’t dead. Awakening in the hospital, Carver has no memory of being shot, but is certain that his assailant is the Thorn Killer. He insists the attack is retaliation, an attempt to scare the detective off the psychopath’s scent. One person knows the truth and isn’t telling. She’s also now leading the Thorn Killer investigation while Carver recuperates. Ruth is keeping a deadly secret, and she’ll cross every line to keep it from surfacing.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062797681
THE SUMMER I MET JACK by Michelle Gable (Fiction)
In 1950, a young, beautiful Polish refugee arrives in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, to work as a maid for one of the wealthiest families in America. Alicia is at once dazzled by the large and charismatic family, in particular the oldest son, a rising politician named Jack. Alicia and Jack are soon engaged, but his domineering father forbids the marriage. And so, Alicia trades Hyannisport for Hollywood, and eventually Rome. She dates famous actors and athletes and royalty, including Gary Cooper, Kirk Douglas and Katharine Hepburn, all the while staying close with Jack. A decade after they meet, on the eve of Jack’s inauguration as the 35th President of the United States, the two must confront what they mean to each other.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250103253
SWEET LITTLE LIES by Caz Frear (Mystery)
Cat Kinsella, a Detective Constable with the Metropolitan Police Force, is called to the scene of a murder, where young housewife Alice Lapaine has been found strangled. Cat and her team immediately suspect Alice’s husband, until she receives a mysterious phone call that links the victim to Maryanne Doyle, a teenage girl who went missing in Ireland 18 years earlier. The call raises uneasy memories for Cat --- her family met Maryanne while on holiday, right before she vanished. Though she was only a child, Cat knew that her father wasn’t telling the truth when he denied knowing anything about Maryanne or her disappearance. Did he do something to the teenage girl all those years ago? Could he have harmed Alice now?
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062823274
THE UNKNOWNS: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home by Patrick K. O'Donnell (History)
When the Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery in 1921, eight of America’s most decorated, battle-hardened WWI veterans served as Body Bearers for the casket. For the first time, celebrated military historian and bestselling author Patrick K. O’Donnell recounts their heroics on the battlefield a century ago. The Body Bearers included a cowboy who relived the Charge of the Light Brigade, a Native American who heroically captured 63 German prisoners single-handedly, and a salty New Englander who dueled a U-boat for hours in a fierce gunfight. Their stories reveal the larger narrative of America’s involvement in the conflict, transporting readers into the midst of events and battles during 1917-1918 that ultimately decided the Great War.
Grove Press | 9780802147172
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