January 17, 2017

January 17, 2017

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of January 16th and January 23rd 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 Debut Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight of THE GIRL BEFORE by JP Delaney, which releases on January 24th and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Twenty-five readers will win a copy of the book and share their comments on it. The deadline for your entries is Thursday, January 26th at noon ET.

Also, please keep in mind our Valentine's Day contest. Enter for your chance to win one of our five Bookreporter.com Valentine's Day prize packages, which includes one copy of each of our eight featured titles and some delicious chocolates. The deadline for your entries is Tuesday, February 14th at noon ET.

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:
Our Debut Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight of
THE GIRL BEFORE by JP Delaney

On Sale the Week of January 16th in Hardcover

January 16th

NEVER NEVER by James Patterson and Candice Fox (Thriller)
Harry Blue is the top Sex Crimes investigator in her department, but even she didn't see this coming: her own brother arrested for the grisly murders of three beautiful young women. Looking into a seemingly simple missing persons case, Harry has been assigned to a new "partner." But is he actually meant to be a watchdog? Still reeling from the accusations against her brother, Harry can't even trust her own instincts. Far from the world she knows and desperate to clear her brother's name, Harry has to mine the dark secrets of her strange new home for answers to a deepening mystery --- before she vanishes in a place where no one would ever think to look for her.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316433174

January 17th

THE FUTURES by Anna Pitoniak (Fiction)
Julia and Evan fall in love as undergraduates at Yale. After graduation, and on the eve of the great financial meltdown of 2008, they move together to New York City, where Evan lands a job at a hedge fund. But Julia, whose privileged upbringing grants her an easy but wholly unsatisfying job with a nonprofit, feels increasingly shut out of Evan's secretive world. With the market crashing and banks failing, Evan becomes involved in a high-stakes deal at work --- a deal that, despite the assurances of his Machiavellian boss, begins to seem more than slightly suspicious. Meanwhile, Julia reconnects with someone from her past who offers a glimpse of a different kind of life.
Lee Boudreaux Books | 9780316354172

HEY HARRY, HEY MATILDA by Rachel Hulin (Fiction)
Matilda Goodman is an underemployed wedding photographer grappling with her failure to live as an artist and the very bad lie she has told her boyfriend (that she has a dead twin). Harry, her (totally alive) brother, is an untenured professor of literature, anxiously contemplating his publishing status (unpublished) and sleeping with a student. When Matilda invites her boyfriend home for Thanksgiving to meet the family, and when Harry makes a desperate --- and unethical --- move to save his career, they set off an avalanche of shame, scandal and drunken hot tub revelations that force them to examine the truth about who they really are.
Doubleday | 9780385541671

HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD: Stories by Ottessa Moshfegh (Fiction/Short Stories)
There's something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh's stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities. HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition. But part of the unique quality of Moshfegh’s voice is the way the grotesque and the outrageous are infused with tenderness and compassion.
Penguin Press | 9780399562884

HUMAN ACTS by Han Kang (Fiction)
In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.
Hogarth | 9781101906729

INDELIBLE by Adelia Saunders (Fiction)
Magdalena has an unsettling gift. She sees the truth about people written on their skin --- names, dates, details both banal and profound --- and her only relief from the onslaught of information is to take off her glasses and let the world recede. Mercifully, her own skin is blank. In Adelia Saunders' debut, secrets are revealed among forgotten texts in the old archives of Paris, on a dusty cattle ranch in the American West, along ancient pilgrim paths, and in a run-down apartment in post-Soviet Lithuania. By chance, or perhaps by fate, the novel's characters converge, and Magdalena's uncanny ability may be the key to their happiness.
Bloomsbury USA | 9781632863942

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PERSIMMON WILSON by Nancy Peacock (Historical Fiction)
Sitting in a jail cell on the eve of his hanging, freedman Persimmon “Persy” Wilson wants nothing more than to leave some record of the truth --- his truth. He may be guilty, but not of what he stands accused: the kidnapping and rape of his former master’s wife. Fifteen years earlier, Persy had been sold to a sugar plantation; his deep and instant connection with a house slave named Chloe fueled a love affair and inspired plans to escape their owner, Master Wilson. But on the eve of the Union Army’s attack on New Orleans, Wilson shot Persy, leaving him for dead, and fled with Chloe and his other slaves to Texas. So began Persy’s journey across the frontier, determined to reunite with his lost love.
Atria Books | 9781501116353

LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK by Kathleen Rooney (Fiction)
She took 1930s New York by storm, working her way up writing copy for R.H. Macy’s to become the highest paid advertising woman in the country. Now it’s the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It’s chilly enough out for her mink coat, and Manhattan is grittier now, but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed --- and has not.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250113320

LITTLE DEATHS by Emma Flint (Historical Mystery)
In 1965, single mother Ruth Malone wakes to discover that her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing. Eventually both are found dead, and all fingers immediately point to Ruth. The lead detective leaps to the obvious conclusion: facing divorce and a custody battle, Ruth took her children's lives. Rookie tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke’s interest in the story develops into an obsession with Ruth, and he comes to believe there's something more to the woman whom prosecutors, the press and the public have painted as a promiscuous femme fatale. Did Ruth Malone violently kill her own children, is she a victim of circumstance --- or is there something more sinister at play?
Hachette Books | 9780316272476

THE MAN WHO SHOT OUT MY EYE IS DEAD: Stories by Chanelle Benz (Fiction/Short Stories)
A brother and sister turn outlaw in a wild and brutal landscape. The daughter of a diplomat disappears and resurfaces across the world as a deadly woman of many names. A young Philadelphia boy struggles with the contradictions of privilege, violence, and the sway of an incarcerated father. A monk in 16th-century England suffers the dissolution of his monastery and the loss of all that he held sacred. The characters in Chanelle Benz's debut share a thirst for adventure that sends them rushing full-tilt toward the moral crossroads, becoming victims and perpetrators along the way.
Ecco | 9780062490759

MY LIFE, MY LOVE, MY LEGACY by Coretta Scott King, as told to The Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds (Memoir)
As a widow and single mother of four, Coretta Scott King worked tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a citadel for world peace, lobbied for 15 years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband, championed for women's, workers’ and gay rights, and was a powerful international voice for nonviolence, freedom and human dignity. Coretta’s is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an extraordinary black woman in 20th-century America, a brave leader who, in the face of terrorism and violent hatred, stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent and hopeful every day of her life.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627795982

NIGHT OF FIRE by Colin Thubron (Fiction)
A house is burning, threatening the existence of its six tenants --- including a failed priest; a naturalist; a neurosurgeon; an invalid dreaming of his anxious boyhood; and their landlord, whose relationship to the tenants is both intimate and shadowy. In NIGHT OF FIRE, the passions and obsessions in a dying house loom and shift, from those of the hallucinating drug addict in the basement to the landlord training his rooftop telescope on the night skies. As the novel progresses, the tenants’ diverse stories take us through an African refugee camp, Greek Orthodox monasteries, and the cremation grounds of India. Haunting the edges of their lives are memories. Will these remembrances be consumed forever by the flames? Or can they survive in some form?
Harper | 9780062499745

THE NOWHERE MAN: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
Taken from a group home at 12, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as part of the Orphan program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets --- i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man. But the new head of the Orphan program hasn’t forgotten about him and is using all of his assets --- including the remaining Orphans --- to track down and eliminate him. This time, though, the attack comes from a different angle, and Evan is caught unaware.
Minotaur Books | 9781250067852

THE RISING by Heather Graham and Jon Land (Thriller)
A football hero and homecoming king with plenty of scholarship offers, Alex Chin’s future looks bright. His tutor, Samantha Dixon, is preparing to graduate high school at the top of her class. When a football accident lands Alex in the hospital, his world is turned upside down. His doctor is murdered, followed by his parents. Death seems to follow him wherever he goes, and now it's after him. The two race desperately to stay ahead of Alex's attackers long enough to figure out why they are hunting him in the first place. The answer lies with a secret buried deep in his past, a secret his parents died to protect.
Tor Books | 9780765337917

SIGNALS: New and Selected Stories by Tim Gautreaux (Fiction/Short Stories)
The people in Tim Gautreaux’s latest collection of short stories wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities. They are primarily of the working class, proud and knowledgeable about the natural or mechanical world. Their lives are marked by a prized stereo or a magical sewing machine retrieved from a locked safe, boats and card games and casinos, grandparents and grandchildren and those in between, their experiences leading them to the ridiculous or the scarifying or the sublime. Most of them are striving for what's right and good, others tearing off in the opposite direction.
Knopf | 9780451493040

TRANSIT by Rachel Cusk (Fiction)
In the wake of her family’s collapse, a writer and her two young sons move to London. The process of this upheaval is the catalyst for a number of transitions --- personal, moral, artistic and practical --- as she endeavors to construct a new reality for herself and her children. In the city, she is made to confront aspects of living that she has, until now, avoided, and to consider questions of vulnerability and power, death and renewal, in what becomes her struggle to reattach herself to, and believe in, life.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374278625

THE WICKED CITY by Beatriz Williams (Fiction)
When she discovers that her banker husband has been harboring a secret life, Ella Gilbert escapes their sleek SoHo loft for a studio in a quaint building in Greenwich Village. Her charismatic musician neighbor, Hector, warns her to stay out of the basement after midnight, when a symphony of mysterious noise strikes up, even though it's stood empty for decades. Back in the Roaring Twenties, the building hosted one of the city’s most notorious speakeasies. As Ella unravels the strange history of the building --- and the family thread that connects her to flapper Geneva Kelly --- she senses the Jazz Age spirit of her incandescent predecessor invading her own shy nature, in ways that will transform her life in the wicked city.
William Morrow | 9780062405029

THE WINTER IN ANNA by Reed Karaim (Fiction)
A young man, Eric, drops out of college and lucks into a job with a small-town newspaper where he meets Anna --- a woman whose story will both haunt and inspire him for the rest of his life. Set in a remote North Dakota community in the last days before the Internet, THE WINTER IN ANNA unfolds around a romance that almost was, and a meditation on what constitutes a life well lived. In wistful, moving reflections, Eric looks back on his days with Anna and struggles to reconcile his memories with what he has since learned of her.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393608502

A WORD FOR LOVE by Emily Robbins (Fiction)
It is said there are 99 Arabic words for love. Bea, an American exchange student, has learned them all: In search of deep feeling, she travels to a Middle Eastern country known to hold "The Astonishing Text," an ancient, original manuscript of a famous Arabic love story that is said to move its best readers to tears. Once in this foreign country, though, Bea finds that instead of intensely reading Arabic, she is entwined in her host family's complicated lives. But as the country drifts toward explosive unrest, Bea wonders how many secrets she can keep, and how long she can fight for a romance that does not belong to her.
Riverhead Books | 9781594633584
 

On Sale the Week of January 16th in Paperback 

January 17th
 
THE APARTMENT by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
They come together by chance in the heart of New York City, four young women at turning points in their lives. Claire Kelly finds a spacious loft in Hell’s Kitchen, but the aspiring shoe designer needs at least one roommate to manage it. She meets Abby Williams, a writer trying to make it on her own. Four years later, Morgan Shelby joins them. She’s ambitious, with a serious finance job on Wall Street. Then comes Sasha Hartman, a medical student whose identical twin sister is a headline-grabbing supermodel. And so the sprawling space becomes a home to friends about to embark on new, exhilarating adventures.
Dell | 9780425285428
 
A BLADE OF BLACK STEEL by Alex Marshall (Fantasy/Adventure)
After 500 years, the Sunken Kingdom has returned and brought with it a monstrous secret that threatens to destroy every country on the Star. As an inhuman army gathers on its shores, poised to invade the Immaculate Isles, the members of the Cobalt Company face an ugly choice: abandon their dreams of glory and vengeance to combat a menace from another realm, or pursue their ambitions and hope the Star is still there when the smoke clears.
Orbit | 9780316340700
 
THE CHOSEN MAIDEN by Eva Stachniak (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Bronia is a gifted young ballerina, but she is quickly eclipsed by her brother, Vaslav. Deemed a prodigy, Vaslav Nijinsky will grow into the greatest, and most provocative, dancer of his time. To prove herself her brother's equal in the rigid world of ballet, Bronia will need to be more than extraordinary, defying society's expectations of what a female dancer can and should be. The real-life muse behind one of the most spectacular roles in dance, The Rite of Spring's Chosen Maiden, Bronia rises to the heights of modern ballet through grit, resilience and fervor. But when the First World War erupts and rebellion sparks in Russia, Bronia --- caught between old and new, traditional and ground-breaking, safe and passionate --- must begin her own search for what it means to be modern.
Doubleday Canada | 9780385678568
 
FIRST WOMEN: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies by Kate Andersen Brower (Social History)
One of the most underestimated --- and challenging --- positions in the world, the First Lady of the United States must be many things: an inspiring leader with a forward-thinking agenda of her own; a savvy politician, skilled at navigating the treacherous rapids of Washington; a wife and mother operating under constant scrutiny; and an able CEO responsible for the smooth operation of countless services and special events at the White House. Former White House correspondent Kate Andersen Brower draws on a wide array of untapped, candid sources to tell the stories of the 10 remarkable women who have defined that role since 1960.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062439666
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S JOURNEY: The President Forges a New Nation by T.H. Breen (History)
During his first term as president, George Washington decided that the only way to fulfill the Revolution was to take the new federal government directly to the people. He organized an extraordinary journey carrying him to all 13 states. If the nation fragmented, as it had almost done after the war, it could never become the strong, independent nation for which Washington had fought. In scores of communities, he communicated a powerful and enduring message --- that America was now a nation, not a loose collection of states. And the people responded to his invitation in ways that he never could have predicted.
Simon & Schuster | 9781451675436
 
GEORGIA: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe by Dawn Tripp (Historical Fiction)
In 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe is a young, unknown art teacher when she travels to New York to meet Alfred Stieglitz, the famed photographer and art dealer, who has discovered O’Keeffe’s work and exhibits it in his gallery. O’Keeffe is quickly drawn into Stieglitz’s sophisticated world, becoming his mistress, protégé and muse, as their attraction deepens into an intense and tempestuous relationship and his photographs of her create a sensation. Yet, as her own creative force develops, Georgia begins to push back against what critics and others are saying about her and her art. And soon she must make difficult choices to live a life she believes in.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812981865

HEARTSTONE by Elle Katharine White (Historical Fantasy)
Paperback Original
They say a Rider in possession of a good blade must be in want of a monster to slay --- and Merybourne Manor has plenty of monsters. Aliza Bentaine knows this all too well; she’s already lost one sister to the invading gryphons. So when Lord Merybourne hires a band of Riders to hunt down the horde, Aliza is relieved her home will soon be safe again. But with the arrival of the haughty and handsome dragonrider, Alastair Daired, Aliza expects a battle; what she doesn’t expect is a romantic clash of wills, pitting words and wit against the pride of an ancient house. Nor does she anticipate the mystery that follows them from Merybourne Manor, its roots running deep as the foundations of the kingdom itself, where something old and dreadful slumbers…something far more sinister than gryphons.
Harper Voyager | 9780062451941

RISE OF THE ROCKET GIRLS: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt (History)
In the 1940s and ’50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible. For the first time, RISE OF THE ROCKET GIRLS tells the stories of these women --- known as "human computers" --- who broke the boundaries of both gender and science.
Back Bay Books | 9780316338905
 
THEIR PROMISED LAND: My Grandparents in Love and War by Ian Buruma (Social History)
During the almost six years England was at war with Nazi Germany, Winifred and Bernard Schlesinger, Ian Buruma’s grandparents, and the film director John Schlesinger's parents, were, like so many others, thoroughly sundered from each other. Their only recourse was to write letters back and forth. And write they did, often every day. Now, in a labor of love that is also a powerful act of artistic creation, Buruma has woven his own voice in with theirs to provide the context and counterpoint necessary to bring to life not just a remarkable marriage, but a class and an age.
Penguin Books | 9780143109952
 
THE THINGS WE KEEP by Sally Hepworth (Fiction)
Anna Forster, in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease at only 38 years old, resides in Rosalind House, an assisted living facility. There, she meets fellow resident Luke, and a relationship develops between the two. When Eve Bennett is suddenly thrust into the role of single mother, she finds herself putting her culinary training to use at Rosalind House. When she meets Anna and Luke, she is moved by the bond the pair has forged. But when a tragic incident leads Anna's and Luke's families to separate them, Eve finds herself questioning what she is willing to risk to help them.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250051929

THIS IS NOT OVER by Holly Brown (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
You’ll have your deposit within seven business days, just like it says on Getaway.com. I’ve put through a refund to your credit card for the full amount, minus 200 dollars to replace the stained sheets. When 30-year-old Dawn reads Miranda’s email, she sees red. People have always told Dawn she’s beautiful, and she just hopes they don’t see beneath --- to how she grew up, to what she’s always tried to outrun. The email strikes a nerve, with its lying intimation that Dawn is so dirty you need to throw out her sheets. Fifty-seven-year-old Miranda thought she’d seen it all, but she can’t believe her eyes when she reads Dawn’s review. People might think that her life is privileged, but they don’t know what’s really going on. They don’t know about her son.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062456830
 
WAYS TO DISAPPEAR by Idra Novey (Fiction)
Deep in gambling debt, the celebrated Brazilian writer Beatriz Yagoda abruptly vanishes. In Pittsburgh, her American translator Emma hears the news and flies immediately to Brazil. There, in the sticky, sugary heat of Rio, Emma and her author's children conspire to solve the mystery of Yagoda's curious disappearance and staunch the colorful demands of her various outstanding affairs: the rapacious loan shark with a zeal for severing body parts, and the washed-up and disillusioned editor who launched Yagoda's career years earlier.
Back Bay Books | 9780316298476
 
THE WIDOW by Fiona Barton (Psychological Thriller)
There's a lot Jean hasn't said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment. Now her husband is dead, and there's no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything.
Berkley | 9781101990476
 

On Sale the Week of January 23rd in Hardcover

January 24th

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED AMERICA: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation by Randall Fuller (History)
In early 1860, a single copy of Charles Darwin’s ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES was read and discussed by five important American intellectuals who seized on the book’s assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery. THE BOOK THAT CHANGED AMERICA offers a fascinating narrative account of these prominent figures as they grappled over the course of that year with Darwin’s dangerous hypotheses. In doing so, it provides new perspectives on America prior to the Civil War, showing how Darwin’s ideas became potent ammunition in the debate over slavery and helped advance the cause of abolition by giving it scientific credibility.
Viking | 9780525428336

CLOWNFISH BLUES by Tim Dorsey (Mystery/Humor)
Serge A. Storms and Coleman’s adventure traveling the byways of the Sunshine State’s underbelly is about to take a detour. Someone is trying to tilt the odds in the state lottery amidst a conga line of huge jackpots, spinning off more chaos than any hurricane season. With this much at stake, of course every shady character wants in. Crooked bodega owners, drug cartels laundering money through the lottery, and venture capitalists are all trying to game the system --- and lining up to get their cut. They’re also gambling with their lives, because when Serge and Coleman get hip to this timely (and very lucrative) trip, there’s no telling whose number is up next.
William Morrow | 9780062429223

DARK AT THE CROSSING by Elliot Ackerman (Fiction)
Haris Abadi is a man in search of a cause. An Arab American with a conflicted past, he is now in Turkey, attempting to cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad's regime. But he is robbed before he can make it, and is taken in by Amir, a charismatic Syrian refugee and former revolutionary, and Amir's wife, Daphne, a sophisticated beauty haunted by grief. As it becomes clear that Daphne is also desperate to return to Syria, Haris' choices become ever more wrenching: Whose side is he really on? Is he a true radical or simply an idealist? And will he be able to bring meaning to a life of increasing frustration and helplessness?
Knopf | 9781101947371

DAYS WITHOUT END by Sebastian Barry (Historical Fiction)
Thomas McNulty, aged barely 17 and having fled the Great Famine in Ireland, signs up for the U.S. Army in the 1850s. With his brother in arms, John Cole, Thomas goes on to fight in the Indian Wars --- against the Sioux and the Yurok --- and, ultimately, the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, the men find these days to be vivid and alive, despite the horrors they see and are complicit in.
Viking | 9780525427360

DEATH’S MISTRESS: SISTER OF DARKNESS: The Nicci Chronicles, Volume I by Terry Goodkind (Fantasy)
One-time lieutenant of the evil Emperor Jagang, known as “Death’s Mistress” and the “Slave Queen,” the deadly Nicci captured Richard Rahl in order to convince him that the Imperial Order stood for the greater good. But it was Richard who converted Nicci instead, and for years thereafter she served Richard and Kahlan as one of their closest friends --- and one of their most lethal defenders. Now, with the reign of Richard and Kahlan finally stabilized, Nicci has set out on her own for new adventures. One of her jobs will be to keep her travelling companion, the unworldly prophet Nathan, out of trouble. But her real task will be to scout the far reaches of Richard Rahl’s realm.
Tor Books | 9780765388216

DISASTER FALLS: A Family Story by Stéphane Gerson (Memoir)
On a day like any other, on a rafting trip down Utah’s Green River, Stéphane Gerson’s eight-year-old son, Owen, drowned in a spot known as Disaster Falls. That same night, as darkness fell, Stéphane huddled in a tent with his wife, Alison, and their older son, Julian, trying to understand what seemed inconceivable. “It’s just the three of us now,” Alison said over the sounds of a light rain and, nearby, the rushing river. “We cannot do it alone. We have to stick together.” DISASTER FALLS chronicles the aftermath of that day and their shared determination to stay true to Alison’s resolution.
Crown | 9781101906699

DUST BOWL GIRLS: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory by Lydia Reeder (Sports/History)
Traveling from farm to farm at the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals. With passion for the sport and heartfelt loyalty to one another and their coach, the Cardinals won every game. For author Lydia Reeder, this is a family story: coach Babb is her great-uncle. When her grandmother handed her a folder that contained newspaper articles, letters and photographs of Sam and the Cardinals, she said, “You might want to tell their story someday.” Now, with extensive research and the gathered memories of the surviving Cardinals, she has.
Algonquin Books | 9781616204662

FATAL by John Lescroart (Thriller)
Kate and her husband, Ron, attend a dinner party where they meet another couple, Peter and Jill. Kate and Peter only exchange a few pleasant words, but Kate is suddenly overcome with a burning desire for Peter. Her fixation on him results in an intense, passionate encounter between the two. Confident that her life can now go back to normal, Kate never considers that Peter may not be so willing to move on. Not long after their affair, a masked man barges into the café Kate is sitting in with her best friend, firing an assault weapon indiscriminately into the crowd. This tragedy is the first in a series of horrifying events that will show Kate just how grave the consequences of one mistake can be.
Atria Books | 9781501115677

THE FIFTH PETAL by Brunonia Barry (Mystery/Thriller)
When a teenage boy dies suspiciously on Halloween night, Salem's chief of police, John Rafferty, who is now married to gifted lace reader Towner Whitney, wonders if there is a connection between his death and Salem’s most notorious cold case --- a triple homicide dubbed "The Goddess Murders," in which three young women, all descended from accused Salem witches, were slashed on Halloween night in 1989. He finds unexpected help in Callie Cahill, the daughter of one of the victims newly returned to town. Neither believes that the main suspect, respected local historian Rose Whelan, is guilty of murder or witchcraft. But exonerating Rose might mean crossing paths with a dangerous force.
Crown | 9781101905609

THE GIRL BEFORE by JP Delaney (Psychological Thriller)
Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control. The space is intended to transform its occupant --- and it does. After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street, she is instantly drawn to the space --- and to its aloof but seductive creator. Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home’s previous tenant, a woman similar to her in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror as the girl before.
Ballantine Books | 9780425285046

MEXICO: Stories by Josh Barkan (Fiction/Short Stories)
The characters in Josh Barkan’s story collection --- chef, architect, nurse, high school teacher, painter, beauty queen, classical bass player, plastic surgeon, businessman, mime --- are simply trying to lead their lives and steer clear of violence. Yet, inevitably, crime has a way of intruding on their lives all the same. A surgeon finds himself forced into performing a risky procedure on a narco killer. A teacher struggles to protect lovestruck students whose forbidden romance has put them in mortal peril. A painter’s freewheeling ways land him in the back of a kidnapper’s car. Again and again, the walls between “ordinary life” and cartel violence are shown to be paper thin, and when they collapse the consequences are life-changing.
Hogarth | 9781101906293

NO MAN'S LAND by Simon Tolkien (Historical Fiction)
After the death of his mother, Adam Raine and his father head north of London to the coal mining town of Scarsdale. Tensions between the miners and their employer, Sir John Scarsdale, escalate, and finally explode with terrible consequences. Adam’s fate shifts once again, and he finds himself drawn into the opulent Scarsdale family home where he makes an enemy of Sir John’s son, Brice. However, Adam finds consolation in the company of Miriam, the local parson’s beautiful daughter with whom he falls in love. When they become engaged and Adam wins a scholarship to Oxford, he starts to feel that his life is finally coming together --- until the outbreak of World War I threatens to tear everything apart.
Nan A. Talese | 9780385541978

NUMBER 11 by Jonathan Coe (Fiction)
This long-awaited sequel to THE WINSHAW LEGACY opens as two 10-year-olds, Alison and Rachel, have a frightening encounter with the "Mad Bird Woman" who lives down the road. As the narrative progresses through time, the novel envelops others who are connected to the girls: Alison's mother, a has-been singer, competing on a hit reality TV show; Rachel's university mentor confronting her late husband's disastrously obsessive search for a German film he saw as a child; a young police constable investigating the seemingly accidental and unrelated deaths of two stand-up comedians; and the ludicrously wealthy family who hire Rachel as a nanny --- under whose immense London mansion Rachel will discover a dark and terrifying secret.
Knopf | 9780451493361

THE PATRIOTS by Sana Krasikov (Fiction)
When the Great Depression hits, Florence Fein leaves Brooklyn College for what appears to be a plum job in Moscow --- and the promise of love and independence. But once in Russia, she quickly becomes entangled in a country she can’t escape. Many years later, Florence’s son, Julian, will make the opposite journey, immigrating back to the United States. His work in the oil industry takes him on frequent visits to Moscow, and when he learns that Florence’s KGB file has been opened, he arranges a business trip to uncover the truth about his mother, and to convince his son, Lenny, who is trying to make his fortune in the new Russia, to return home. What he discovers is both chilling and heartbreaking: an untold story of what happened to a generation of Americans abandoned by their country.
Spiegel & Grau | 9780385524414

PERFECT LITTLE WORLD by Kevin Wilson (Fiction)
When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she’s fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother, but without any money or relatives to help, she’s left searching. Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a “perfect little world” --- to study what would happen when 10 children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project, and he wants Izzy and her son to join. This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families disintegrates.
Ecco | 9780062450326

THE PROMETHEUS MAN by Scott Reardon (Thriller)
When a pile of bodies is found in Paris, CIA Agent Tom Blake hustles his way onto a major case: tracking a man with enhanced abilities, the test subject of a secret government program. There's just one problem: the man using Agent Blake's identity is not Agent Blake. He's Tom Reese, a man without a family or a home. Reese is searching for his brother's killer. He stole Agent Blake's identity two months ago and has bluffed his way onto the team investigating his only lead. But soon the CIA will find out that Agent Blake is in two places at once. Soon the augmented man will come looking for him. And soon both will discover that Tom Reese carries a secret even he doesn't know about. He is the last test subject of Project Prometheus.
Mulholland Books | 9780316310925

RISE: How a House Built a Family by Cara Brookins (Memoir)
After escaping an abusive marriage, Cara Brookins had four children to provide for and no one to turn to but herself. In desperate need of a home but without the means to buy one, she did something incredible. Equipped only with YouTube instructional videos, a small bank loan and a mile-wide stubborn streak, Cara built her own house from the foundation up with a work crew made up of her four children. With no experience nailing together anything bigger than a bookshelf, she and her kids poured concrete, framed the walls and laid bricks for their two-story, five-bedroom house. She had convinced herself that if they could build a house, they could rebuild their broken family.
St. Martin’s Press | 9781250095664

THE SIGNAL FLAME by Andrew Krivák (Historical Fiction)
In a small town in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains, Hannah and her son, Bo, mourn the loss of the family patriarch, Jozef Vinich. Having survived the trenches of World War I as an Austro-Hungarian conscript, Vinich journeyed to America and built a life for his family. His daughter married the Hungarian-born Bexhet Konar, who enlisted to fight with the Americans in the Second World War but brought disgrace on the family when he was imprisoned for desertion. He returned home to Pennsylvania a hollow man, only to be killed in a hunting accident on the family’s land. Finally, in 1971, Hannah’s prodigal younger son, Sam, was reported MIA in Vietnam. And so there is only Bo, a quiet man full of conviction, a proud work ethic, and a firstborn’s sense of duty.
Scribner | 9781501126376

SILVER CITY: A Novel of the American West by Jeff Guinn (Historical Fiction/Western)
Cash McLendon has journeyed to Mountain View in the Arizona Territory with one goal: to convince Gabrielle Tirrito that he’s a changed man and win her back from schoolteacher Joe Saint. As they’re about to depart by stage for their new life in San Francisco, Gabrielle is kidnapped by enforcer Killer Boots, who is working on orders from crooked St. Louis businessman Rupert Douglass. Cash, once married to Douglass’ troubled daughter, fled the city when she died of accidental overdose --- and Douglass vowed he’d track Cash down and make him pay. Now McLendon, accompanied by Joe Saint and Major Mulkins, hits the trail in pursuit of Gabrielle and Killer Boots, hoping to make a trade before it’s too late.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399165436

THE SPIDER AND THE FLY: A Reporter, a Serial Killer, and the Meaning of Murder by Claudia Rowe (True Crime/Memoir)
In September 1998, young reporter Claudia Rowe was working as a stringer for the New York Times in Poughkeepsie, New York, when local police discovered the bodies of eight women stashed in the attic and basement of the small colonial home that 27-year-old Kendall Francois shared with his parents and sister. Rowe became consumed with the desire to understand just how a man could abduct and strangle eight women --- and how a family could live for two years, seemingly unaware, in a house with the victims’ rotting corpses. Reaching out after Francois was arrested, Rowe and the serial killer began a dizzying four-year conversation about cruelty, compassion and control.
Dey Street Books | 9780062416124

THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS by Laurie Frankel (Fiction)
When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it’s another baby boy. At least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect. But Claude is not like his brothers. One day he puts on a dress and refuses to take it off. He wants to bring a purse to kindergarten. He wants hair long enough to sit on. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn aren’t panicked at first. Kids go through phases, after all, and make-believe is fun. But soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.
Flatiron Books | 9781250088550

THE TRUE FLAG: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire by Stephen Kinzer (History)
How should the United States act in the world? Americans cannot decide. Sometimes we burn with righteous anger, launching foreign wars and deposing governments. Then we retreat --- until the cycle begins again. No matter how often we debate this question, none of what we say is original. Every argument is a pale shadow of the first and greatest debate, which erupted more than a century ago. Its themes resurface every time Americans argue whether or not to intervene in a foreign country. Revealing a piece of forgotten history, Stephen Kinzer transports us to the dawn of the 20th century, when the United States first found itself with the chance to dominate faraway lands.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627792165

WHO KILLED PIET BAROL? by Richard Mason (Historical Fiction)
Piet Barol was a tutor before he came to South Africa, his wife, Stacey, an opera singer. In Cape Town they are living the high life, impersonating French aristocrats --- but their lies are catching up with them. The Barols’ furniture business is on the verge of collapse, and they need cheap, top-quality wood. Piet enlists two Xhosa men to lead him into a vast forest, in search of a fabled tree. He’s sure he’ll be able to buy what he needs for a few glass trinkets. But he’s underestimating the Xhosa, who believe the spirits of their ancestors live in this sacred forest. Battle lines are drawn. When Piet’s powers of persuasion fail him, he resorts to darker, more dangerous talents to get what he is determined to have.
Knopf | 9780385352888
 

On Sale the Week of January 23rd in Paperback 

January 24th
 
BAD SIGNS by R.J. Ellory (Historical Thriller)
Orphaned by an act of senseless violence that took their mother from them, half-brothers Clarence Luckman and Elliott Danziger have been raised in state institutions, unaware of any world beyond its walls. But their lives take a sudden turn when they are seized as hostages by a convicted killer en route to death row. Earl Sheridan is a psychopath of the worst kind, and as he and his two hostages set off on a frenetic path through California down to Texas, Clarence and Elliot must come to terms with the ever-growing tide of violence in their wake.
The Overlook Press | 9781468314328
 
EVERYBODY'S FOOL by Richard Russo (Fiction)
In this long-awaited follow-up to 1993’s NOBODY’S FOOL, Doug Raymer has become the chief of police and is tormented by the improbable death of his wife --- not to mention his suspicion that he was a failure of a husband. Meanwhile, the irrepressible Sully has come into a small fortune, but is suddenly faced with a VA cardiologist’s estimate that he only has a year or two left to live. As Sully frantically works to keep the bad news from the important people in his life, we are reunited with his son and grandson; Ruth, the married woman with whom he carried on for years; and the hapless Rub Squeers, who worries that he and Sully aren’t still best friends.
Vintage | 9780307454829
 
THE FIREBRAND AND THE FIRST LADY: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott (History/Politics)
In 1938, 28-year-old Pauli Murray wrote a letter to the President and First Lady, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, protesting racial segregation in the South. Eleanor wrote back. So began a friendship that would last for a quarter of a century, as Pauli became a lawyer, principal strategist in the fight to protect Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and a co-founder of the National Organization of Women, and Eleanor became a diplomat and first chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Vintage | 9780679767299
 
A FRIEND OF MR. LINCOLN by Stephen Harrigan (Historical Fiction)
It is Illinois in the 1830s and 1840s. Abraham Lincoln is a circuit-riding lawyer, a member of the state legislature, a man of almost ungovernable ambition. To his friends he is also a beloved figure, by turns charmingly awkward and mesmerizingly self-possessed. Among his friends and political colleagues are Joshua Speed, William Herndon, Stephen Douglas and many others who have come to the exploding frontier town of Springfield to find their futures. It is through another friend, fictional poet Cage Weatherby, that we will come to know Lincoln in his 20s and 30s, as a series of formative, surprising incidents unfolds.
Vintage | 9780307745330
 
GIRL THROUGH GLASS by Sari Wilson (Fiction)
In the summer of 1977, 11-year-old Mira is an aspiring ballerina whose mentor is 47-year-old Maurice DuPont. As she ascends higher in the ballet world, her relationship with Maurice intensifies, sparking unexpected desires that will upend both their lives. In the present day, Kate, a professor of dance, embarks on a risky affair with a student that threatens to obliterate her career and capsize the new life she has painstakingly created for her reinvented self. When she receives a letter from a man she has long thought dead, Kate is hurled back into the dramas of a past she thought she had left behind.
Harper Perennial | 9780062326287
 
THE GUN written by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Allison Markin Powell (Thriller)
On a nighttime walk along a Tokyo riverbank, a young man named Nishikawa stumbles on a dead body, beside which lies a gun. From the moment Nishikawa decides to take the gun, the world around him blurs. Knowing he possesses the weapon brings an intoxicating sense of purpose to his dull university life. But soon his personal entanglements become unexpectedly complicated. Through it all, he can’t stop thinking about the gun --- and the four bullets loaded in its chamber. As he spirals into obsession, his focus is consumed by one idea: that possessing the gun is no longer enough --- he must fire it.
Soho Crime | 9781616957681
 
THE MERMAN by Carl-Johan Vallgren (Fantasy)
Nella and her brother, Robert, live a difficult life with their mother and father in a small town on the west coast of Sweden. Robert is bullied at school, and Nella has to resort to debt and petty crime to pay off his tormentors. When she turns to her friend, Tommy, for help, her suspicions are aroused by the mysterious comings and goings of his brothers at their dilapidated boat house. But when she uncovers the reason behind their enigmatic behavior, her life is opened to the realities of a mind-boggling secret.
Pegasus Books | 9781681773100
 
MIDNIGHT SUN by Jo Nesbø (Thriller)
He was once the kingpin's fixer, but after betraying him, Ulf is now the one his former boss wants fixed. Hiding out at the end of the line in northern Norway, Ulf lives among the locals. A mother and son befriend him, and their companionship stirs something deep in him that he thought was long dead. As he awaits the inevitable arrival of his murderous pursuers, he questions if redemption is at all possible or if, as he's always believed, “hope is a real bastard.”
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard | 9780804172578
 
THE TRAPPED GIRL by Robert Dugoni (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
When a woman’s body is discovered submerged in a crab pot in the chilly waters of Puget Sound, Detective Tracy Crosswhite finds herself with a tough case to untangle. Before they can identify the killer, Tracy and her colleagues on the Seattle PD’s Violent Crimes Section must figure out who the victim is. Her autopsy, however, reveals she may have gone to great lengths to conceal her identity. After evidence surfaces that their Jane Doe may be a woman who suspiciously disappeared months earlier, Tracy is once again haunted by the memory of her sister’s unsolved murder. As she begins to uncover a twisted tale of brutal betrayal and desperate greed, Tracy will find herself risking everything to confront a killer who won’t go down without a deadly fight.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503940406

UNDER PRESSURE: A Body Armor Novel by Lori Foster (Romantic Suspense)
Paperback Original
Leese Phelps’ road hasn’t been an easy one, but it’s brought him to the perfect job --- working for the elite Body Armor security agency. However, being drawn to Catalina Nicholson is a dangerous complication, especially since it could be the very man who hired Leese who’s threatening her. What Catalina knows could get her killed. But who’d believe the sordid truth about her powerful stepfather? Beyond Leese’s ripped body and brooding gaze is a man of impeccable honor. He’s the last person she expects to trust --- and the first who’s ever made her feel safe. And he’s the only one who can help her expose a deadly secret, if they can just stay alive long enough.
HQN Books | 9780373789931

WORLD, CHASE ME DOWN by Andrew Hilleman (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
Paperback Original
Once the most wanted man in America, Pat Crowe is a forgotten folk hero who captivated the nation as an outlaw for economic justice. WORLD, CHASE ME DOWN resurrects him, telling the electrifying story of the first great crime of the last century. In 1900, the out-of-work former butcher kidnapped the teenage son of Omaha’s wealthiest meatpacking tycoon for a ransom of $25,000 in gold, and then burgled, safe-cracked and bond-jumped his way across the country and beyond, inciting a manhunt that was dubbed “the thrill of the nation” and a showdown in the court of public opinion between the haves and have-nots --- all the while plotting a return to the woman he never stopped loving.
Penguin Books | 9780143111474

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