June 11, 2024

June 11, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 10th and June 17th 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 special contest for Marjan Kamali’s upcoming novel, THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN. This future Bookreporter.com Bets On title is a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young, and the way love and courage transforms our lives. In anticipation of the book’s July 2nd release, we are awarding an advance copy to 25 readers. The deadline for your entries is Friday, June 21st at noon ET.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

Here are five upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.

Wednesday, June 12th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Preview: Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between June 11th and July 2nd, along with a few from August, that she would like to get on your radar.

Wednesday, June 12th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry --- will talk to Lisa Wingate about her new book, SHELTERWOOD, a sweeping novel inspired by the untold history of women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth.

Wednesday, June 12th at 7pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's presents James Lee Burke as he discusses his new book, CLETE, with Michael Connelly. In this 24th installment of the Dave Robicheaux series, Dave and his partner and friend, Clete Purcel, attempt to stop ruthless smugglers of a dangerous new drug.

Monday, June 17th at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book: Liv Constantine (the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine) will talk to Mystery & Thriller Maven’s Sara DiVello about THE NEXT MRS. PARRISH, which finds Daphne and Amber Parrish thrust back into each other’s lives upon the resurgence of a long-forgotten threat.

Tuesday, June 18th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: The Killer Author Club was established in 2022 by Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda as a unique platform for suspense and mystery fans to hear from their favorite authors. In this latest episode, Hannah Mary McKinnon will talk about her upcoming thriller, ONLY ONE SURVIVES.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Special Contest for
THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN by Marjan Kamali
Enter to Win One of 25 Advance Copies

On Sale the Week of June 10th in Hardcover

June 11th

ALL FRIENDS ARE NECESSARY by Tomas Moniz (Fiction)
Efren “Chino” Flores has just moved back to the Bay Area from Seattle, jumping from sublet to sublet. In Washington, he was an adored middle school biology teacher with a loving wife, and a child on the way --- that is, until a stunning loss upended his life. Now he’s working temp jobs, terrified of commitment, and struggling to put himself back out into the world. But there to nurture Chino is a coterie of new and old friends and lovers who form a protective web around him. As he begins to date more men and women --- and to open himself up again to love --- Chino’s bonds with those around him grow both rich and profound. Like a fern blooming in the wake of a forest fire, new life comes after even the most devastating upheaval.
Algonquin Books | 9781643755816

ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS by Rob Hart (Thriller)
Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind and joined a 12-step group for reformed killers. When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593717394

BEN & ME: In Search of a Founder's Formula for a Long and Useful Life by Eric Weiner (Biography/Travelogue)
Ben Franklin lingers in our lives and in our imaginations. One of only two non-presidents to appear on US currency, Franklin was a founder, statesman, scientist, inventor, diplomat, publisher, humorist and philosopher. He believed in the American experiment, but Ben Franklin’s greatest experiment was…Ben Franklin. In that spirit of betterment, Eric Weiner embarks on an ambitious quest to live the way Ben lived. Not a conventional biography, BEN & ME is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, diligence and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781501129049

BURMA '44: The Battle That Turned World War II in the East by James Holland (History)
In February 1944, a ragtag collection of British clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers and other base troops managed to defeat a much larger and sophisticated contingent of some of the finest infantry in the Japanese army on their march towards India. What became known as the Battle of the Admin Box turned the battle for Burma. Not only was it the first decisive victory for Allied troops against the Japanese, it demonstrated how the Japanese could be defeated. Lessons learned in this otherwise insignificant corner of the Far East set up the campaign in Burma that would follow, as General William Slim’s Fourteenth Army finally turned the tide of the war in the East. In BURMA ’44, acclaimed World War II historian James Holland offers a dramatic tale of victory against incredible odds.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802160584

CLETE: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke (Thriller)
Clete Purcel is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past. When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal. Just as Clete starts to trail the culprits, Clara Bow hires Clete to investigate her scheming ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who seems to lurk around every corner. Clete is experiencing shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questioning Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could have imagined.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802163073

DAD CAMP by Evan S. Porter (Fiction/Humor)
After his daughter, Avery, was born, John gave it all up to be a super dad. Since then, he’s spent nearly every waking second with Avery, who’s his absolute best bud. Or, at least, she was. When now-11-year-old Avery begins transforming into an eye-rolling zombie of a preteen who dreads spending time with him, a desperate John whisks her away for a weeklong father-daughter retreat to get their relationship back on track. But John’s attempts to bond only seem to drive his daughter further away, and his instincts tell him Avery is hiding something more than just preteen angst. Even worse, the camp is far from the idyllic getaway he had in mind. John finds himself navigating a group of toxic dads who can’t seem to get along, cringeworthy forced bonding activities, and a camp director who has it out for him.
Dutton | 9780593474402

FAMILIARIS by David Wroblewski (Historical Fiction)
It is spring 1919, and John Sawtelle's imagination has gotten him into trouble…again. Now John and his newlywed wife, Mary, along with their two best friends and their three dogs, are setting off for Wisconsin's north woods, where they hope to make a fresh start --- and, with a little luck, discover what it takes to live a life of meaning, purpose and adventure. But the place they are headed for is far stranger and more perilous than they realize, and it will take all their ingenuity, along with a few new friends --- human, animal and otherworldly --- to realize their dreams.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212194297

THE FINAL ACT OF JULIETTE WILLOUGHBY by Ellery Lloyd (Mystery/Thriller)
Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx. Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations. But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?
Harper | 9780063323001

THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne (Memoir)
Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances. In the midst of it all, Griffin’s 22-year-old sister, Dominique, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne’s career as a crime reporter for Vanity Fair and a victims' rights activist. But THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its lovable, infuriating, funny and moving characters --- its author most of all.
Penguin Press | 9780593652824

GETTING TO KNOW DEATH: A Meditation by Gail Godwin (Memoir)
Ingmar Bergman once said that an artist should always have one work between himself and death. When renowned author Gail Godwin tripped and broke her neck while watering the dogwood tree in her garden at age 85, a lifetime of writing and publishing behind her and a half-finished novel in tow, Bergman's idea quickly unfurled in front of her, forcing her to confront a creative life interrupted. In GETTING TO KNOW DEATH, Godwin shares what spoke to her while in a desperate place. Remembering those she has loved and survived, including a brother and father lost to suicide, and finding meaning in the encounters she has with other patients as she heals, she takes stock of a life toward the end of its long graceful arc, finding her path through the words she has written and the people she has loved.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639734443

HORROR MOVIE by Paul Tremblay (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fan base. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big-budget reboot. The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. Still, he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors and surreal fan conventions --- demons of the past be damned. But at what cost?
William Morrow | 9780063070011

HOW TO AGE DISGRACEFULLY by Clare Pooley (Fiction/Humor)
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards. The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac; to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades; to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign. But when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide. When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door --- as well as the teenage father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog --- to save the building.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593831496

MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES by Rufi Thorpe (Fiction/Humor)
The child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet enrolls at her local junior college. She is still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor or get pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby. Now, at 20, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed and on the verge of eviction. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon she finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Before she knows it, she has turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?
William Morrow | 9780063356580

MIDDLETIDE by Sarah Crouch (Literary Thriller)
In the small, Puget Sound town of Point Orchards, the lifeless body of Dr. Erin Landry is found hanging from a tree on the property of prodigal son and failed writer Elijah Leith. Sheriff Jim Godbout’s initial investigation points to an obvious suicide, but upon closer inspection, there seem to be clues of foul play when he discovers that the circumstances of the beautiful doctor’s death were ripped straight from the pages of Elijah Leith’s own novel. Out of money and motivation, Elijah throws himself into restoring the ramshackle cabin his father left behind and rekindling his relationship with Nakita, whom he betrayed but was never able to forget. As the town turns against him, Elijah must fight for his innocence against an unexpected foe who is close and cunning enough to flawlessly frame him for murder.
Atria Books | 9781668035092

MOONBOUND by Robin Sloan (Science Fiction/Adventure)
It is 11,000 years from now. A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and challenges: unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history --- and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.
MCD | 9780374610609

ONE LAST SUMMER by Kate Spencer (Romantic Comedy)
Clara Millen’s life is spiraling out of control: her dream job is a nightmare, she’s resoundingly single, and it’s been years since she’s taken some time off. Thankfully, this year she’ll join her friends on their annual summer vacation to their beloved childhood sleepover camp for a much-needed escape. But when Clara arrives at Pine Lake Camp, she faces yet another unwelcome change: the owners are retiring and selling the property. The news turns her plans for revelry into a night of reminiscing…and prompts a surprise heart-to-heart between Clara and Mack, her old camp nemesis and constant competitor. Soon the campfires aren't all that's throwing off sparks. And when one wildly passionate night turns into two (then too many to count!), Clara begins to wonder if she and Mack could have a future together.
Forever | 9781538737668

ONE OF OUR KIND by Nicola Yoon (Psychological Thriller)
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California, hoping to find a community of like-minded people. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles. Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?
Knopf | 9780593470671

PLAYING FROM THE ROUGH: A Personal Journey through America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses by Jimmie James (Sports/Memoir)
Jimmie James spent his entire life defying the odds. He was born invisible. His birth certificate, long since filed away in some clerk’s office in East Texas, recorded facts about him that were deemed most relevant in the late 1950s: “colored” and “illegitimate.” His great-great-grandmother was enslaved, and his early life was confined by the privation and segregation of the late Jim Crow-era South. Four decades later, he embarked on his journey to play the 100 greatest golf courses in the United States. In a single year. From the first tee at Augusta National, the distance between the world he grew up in and the world of extreme privilege to which he’d now managed to gain access was impossible to ignore.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668005972

RED STAR FALLING: A Luke Daniels Thriller by Steve Berry with Grant Blackwood (Thriller/Adventure)
Luke Daniels receives a surprise visit from the head of a former CIA operation --- a failed attempt to assemble an espionage network within the Ukraine on the eve of the Russian invasion. It was during this mission that his friend, CIA case officer John Vince, was captured by Russian operatives and supposedly executed. But Luke is provided some shocking news. Vince is alive, in failing health, locked behind the walls of Russia’s brutal Solovetsky Island prison, and has a critical message he’ll give to no one but Luke. However, just as he manages to extract his friend from prison, Vince tragically dies, and his final words are rambling and incoherent. But they’re enough to plunge Luke into a hunt for something lost since the 15th century --- the legendary library of the first Tsar of All Russia, Ivan the Terrible.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538721117

THE ROM-COMMERS by Katherine Center (Romantic Comedy)
Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to rewrite a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates, it’s a break too big to pass up. Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for the writing gig of a lifetime. But Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone --- much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus, he doesn’t even care about the script; it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. But Emma is not going down without a fight. She will convince him that love stories matter --- even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But what if that kiss is accidentally amazing?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250283801

THE SONS OF EL REY by Alex Espinoza (Fiction)
Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to construction worker to famed luchador El Rey Coyote, yet he has always worn a mask. He was discovered by a local lucha libre trainer at a time when luchadores --- Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes --- were treated as daredevils or rock stars. Ernesto found fame, rapidly gaining name recognition across Mexico, but at great expense, nearly costing him his marriage to his wife, Elena. Years later, in East Los Angeles, his son, Freddy Vega, is struggling to save his father’s gym, while Freddy’s own son, Julian, is searching for professional and romantic fulfillment as a Mexican American gay man refusing to be defined by stereotypes.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668032787

SWAN SONG by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
Chief of Police Ed Kapenash is about to retire. Blond Sharon is going through a divorce. But when a 22-million-dollar summer home is purchased by the mysterious Richardsons --- how did they make their money, exactly? --- Ed, Sharon and everyone in the community are swept up in high drama. The Richardsons throw lavish parties, flirt with multiple locals, flaunt their wealth with not one but two yachts, and raise impossible hopes of everyone they meet. When their house burns to the ground and their most essential employee goes missing, the entire island is up in arms. The last of Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling Nantucket novels, SWAN SONG is a propulsive medley of glittering gatherings, sun-soaked drama, wisdom and heart, featuring the return of some of her most beloved characters.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316258876

TAKING LONDON: Winston Churchill and the Fight to Save Civilization by Martin Dugard (History)
Great Britain, summer 1940. The Battle of France is over, and the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Adolf Hitler’s powerful armies control Europe, and England stands alone against this juggernaut. In London, a new prime minister named Winston Churchill is determined to defeat the Nazi menace. Luckily for Churchill, one quirky Englishman has seen the future. Air Vice-Marshall Hugh Dowding, head of the Royal Air Force Fighter Command, has spent years preparing his nation's aerial defenses, utilizing the new technology of radar, training hundreds of hand-picked young pilots, and overseeing the design and purchase of the world's most up-to-date fighter aircraft. For the first time in history, the battlefield will not be land or water but entirely contested in the blue skies above. Nazi victory depends upon their overwhelming air power.
Dutton | 9780593473214

A TALENT FOR MURDER by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her work as a librarian in Maine. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured salesman whose job took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger. A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern --- five unsolved cases of murdered women. Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence?
William Morrow | 9780063205031

TEHRANGELES by Porochista Khakpour (Fiction)
Iranian-American multimillionaires Ali and Homa Milani have it all --- a McMansion in the hills of Los Angeles, a microwaveable snack empire and four spirited daughters. There’s Violet, the big-hearted aspiring model; Roxanna, the chaotic influencer; Mina, the chronically online overachiever; and the impressionable health fanatic Haylee. On the verge of landing their own reality TV show, the Milanis realize their deepest secrets are about to be dragged out into the open before the cameras even roll. Each of the Milanis --- even their aloof Persian cat, Pari --- has something to hide, but the looming scrutiny of fame also threatens to bring the family closer than ever.
Pantheon | 9781524747909

TRAVELING: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers (Music/Biography)
For decades, Joni Mitchell’s life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians --- from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile --- and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as --- with the other arm --- she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In TRAVELING, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys.
Dey Street Books | 9780062463722

THE UPTOWN LOCAL: Joy, Death, and Joan Didion: A Memoir by Cory Leadbeater (Memoir)
As an aspiring novelist in his early 20s, Cory Leadbeater was presented with an opportunity to work for a well-known writer whose identity was kept confidential. Since the tumultuous days of childhood, Cory had sought refuge from the rougher parts of life in the pages of books. Suddenly, he found himself the personal assistant to a titan of literature: Joan Didion. In the nine years that followed, Cory shared Joan’s rarefied world, transformed not only by her blazing intellect but also by her generous friendship and mentorship. But secretly, Cory was spiraling. He reeled from the death of a close friend. He spent his weekends at a federal prison visiting his father, who was serving time for fraud. He struggled day after day to write the novel that would validate him as a real writer. And meanwhile, the forces of addiction and depression loomed large.
Ecco | 9780063371576

On Sale the Week of June 10th in Paperback

June 11th

THE BLOCK PARTY by Jamie Day (Domestic Thriller)
The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other. On the night of the annual summer block party, there has been a murder. But who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold --- discovering that the real danger lies within their own block. Nothing, and no one, is ever as it seems.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250336149

THE DIG by Anne Burt (Thriller)
Antonia King has a complicated relationship with the past. She and her brother were found amid the rubble of a bombed-out apartment in Sarajevo and taken in by a family of contractors in Thebes, Minnesota. Eager to escape the constraints of her adopted town, Antonia embarks on a high-powered legal career. But it isn’t long before her brother’s mysterious disappearance pulls her back home. There, over the course of a single day, Antonia unearths decades of secrets and lies, leading to shocking revelations about her adoptive family --- and the sinister truth behind her biological mother’s death --- that will alter the course of her life and change her definition of family forever.
Counterpoint | 9781640096479

EVERYTHING’S FINE by Cecilia Rabess (Fiction)
Jess is a senior in college, ambitious but aimless, when she meets Josh. He’s a privileged preppy in chinos, ready to inherit the world. She’s not expecting to inherit anything. A year later, they’re both working at the same investment bank. And when Jess finds herself the sole Black woman on the floor, overlooked and underestimated, Josh shows up for her in surprising --- if imperfect --- ways. Before long, an unlikely friendship forms. It gradually, and then suddenly, turns into an electrifying romance that shocks them both. Despite their differences, the force of their attraction propels the relationship forward. But as the cultural and political landscape shifts underneath them, Jess is forced to consider if their disagreements run deeper than she can bear, what she’s willing to compromise for love, and if, in fact, everything’s fine.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982187750

FIND ME IN CALIFORNIA by Kerry Lonsdale (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Raised by her fiercely passionate and free-spirited grandmother, Julia Hope has never gone without love. But as she tends to her only living relative during her final days, Julia struggles to overcome her fear of being alone. A thousand miles away, Matt Gatlin has managed to avoid the coldhearted grandmother with whom he once lived. But after 12 years of her being blessedly out of sight, she needs him. His resentments still raw, Matt packs up his car and reluctantly heads to California to confront a bitter past he thought was long gone. Over the next six days, Julia’s and Matt’s fates intersect. An old diary exposes the tragedy of a long-lost love. A history of secrets in two families comes to light. And on a lonely back road, Matt picks up an unusual yet captivating hitchhiker with a secret of her own.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662514821

FORGIVING IMELDA MARCOS by Nathan Go (Fiction)
After suffering a serious heart injury, Lito Macaraeg reaches out to his estranged son --- a journalist who lives in the United States --- to promise him a scoop: the story of a secret meeting between Imelda Marcos and Corazon Aquino. Imelda was the flamboyant wife of the late Philippine dictator; Corazon was the wife of the opposition politician who was allegedly killed by the Marcoses. An unassuming housewife, Corazon rose up after her husband’s death to lead the massive rallies that eventually toppled the Marcos dictatorship. Lito was Corazon’s personal driver for many years, and her only companion on the journey from Manila to Baguio City to meet Imelda. Throughout the long drive, Lito’s loyalty to his employer is pitted against his own moral uncertainty about her desire to forgive Imelda.
Picador | 9781250335753

GOODBYE EARL: A Revenge Novel by Leesa Cross-Smith (Fiction)
In 2004, Rosemarie, Ada, Caroline and Kasey are in their final days of high school and on the precipice of all the things teenagers look forward to when anything in life seems possible. In 2019, Kasey has returned to her small Southern hometown of Goldie for the first time since high school --- and she still hasn’t told even her closest friends the truth of what really happened that summer after graduation, or what made her leave so abruptly. Now reunited with her friends in Goldie for a wedding, she’s determined to focus on the simple joy of being together again. But when she notices troubling signs that one of them might be in danger, she is catapulted back to that fateful summer. This time, Kasey refuses to let the worst moments of her past define her.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538707661

HOPE TO DIE: A DI Adam Fawley Thriller by Cara Hunter (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Midnight. A grisly murder scene at an isolated farm on the outskirts of Oxford. A man lies dead in the kitchen, shot point blank. The farm’s elderly owners claim the shooting was self-defense against a burglar. But something about the crime scene doesn’t sit right with DI Adam Fawley, whose gut tells him there’s more to their story. If the victim came to rob the house, why wasn’t he wearing gloves or carrying tools? Why didn’t the owner of the house call the police right after the shooting? Why did his wife wash his blood-splattered clothes immediately? Digging deeper, the police realize this is no ordinary burglary gone wrong. There’s an unmistakable link to an infamous case from years earlier involving a child’s murder and an alleged miscarriage of justice.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063263819

THE HOUSEKEEPERS by Alex Hay (Historical Fiction)
Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. Born into a world of con artists and thieves, she’s made herself respectable, running the grandest home in Mayfair. The place is packed with treasures, a glittering symbol of wealth and power, but dark secrets lurk in the shadows. When Mrs. King is suddenly dismissed from her position, she recruits an eclectic group of women to join her in revenge. Their plan? On the night of the house’s highly anticipated costume ball --- set to be the most illustrious of the year --- they will rob it of its every possession, right under the noses of the distinguished guests and their elusive heiress host. But there’s one thing Mrs. King wants even more than money: the truth. And she’ll run any risk to get it.
Graydon House | 9781525804298

THE HOUSEMAID IS WATCHING by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
I used to clean other people's houses. Now, I can't believe this home is actually mine. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve. Even though I'm wary of our new neighbor Mrs. Lowell, when she invites us over for dinner it's our chance to make friends. Her maid opens the door wearing a white apron, her hair in a tight bun. I know exactly what it's like to be in her shoes. But her cold stare gives me chills. The Lowells' maid isn't the only strange thing on our street. I'm sure I see a shadowy figure watching us. My husband leaves the house late at night. And when I meet a woman who lives across the way, her words chill me to the bone: Be careful of your neighbors. Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464221132

THE HUNGRY BONES: An Alexa Glock Forensics Mystery by Sara E. Johnson (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Alexa Glock throws her hat in the ring for a position at Abertay University in Scotland. Her professional crush, Dr. Ben Odden, is interested in her expertise in teeth. Meanwhile, a human skeleton has been exhumed in a quaint former gold rush town in New Zealand. A benefactor believes that the bones are that of a Chinese gold miner, and she wants to repatriate the "hungry ghost" of her ancestor to China. Alexa is called in to examine the teeth and the secrets they contain. She didn't expect to discover a hole in the skull. When another skeleton is unearthed nearby and also shows evidence of a violent death, she heads to the police station to open a cold case. Then, the town's beloved school principal goes missing, and Alexa is quickly recruited to assist with the search.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728257372

INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE by Emma Törzs (Fantasy/Thriller)
For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements. Half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect these books of magic. All magic comes with a price, though, and for years they have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna has isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book that Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063253476

INSIDE THREAT by Matthew Quirk (Political Thriller)
The White House has been breached, and the President is forced to flee to a massive doomsday bunker outside DC to defend against whatever comes next. Only the most trusted agents and officials are allowed in with him. Among them is Erik Hill, who has given his life to the Secret Service. Despite his growing disillusionment from seeing Washington corruption up close, Erik can’t ignore years of instincts honed on the job. The government is under attack, and no one is better equipped to face down the threat than he is. The evidence leads him to a conspiracy at the highest levels of power. As the killers strike inside the bunker, it will take everything Erik has to save his people, himself and his country.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063051706

JACKPOT SUMMER by Elyssa Friedland (Fiction)
Paperback Original
The four Jacobson children were raised to respect the value of a dollar. But now that they’re adults, their financial lives are in disarray. The siblings reunite when their newly widowed father puts their Jersey Shore beach house on the market. Packing up childhood memories isn’t easy, especially when there’s other drama brewing. Matthew is miserable at his corporate law job and wishes he had more time with his son; Laura’s marriage is imploding in spectacular fashion; Sophie’s art career is stalled while her boyfriend’s is on the rise; and Noah’s total failure to launch has him doing tech repair for pennies. When Noah sees an ad for a Powerball drawing, he and his sisters go in on tickets while Matthew passes. All hell breaks loose when one of the tickets is a winner, and three of the four Jacobsons become overnight millionaires.
Berkley | 9780593638545

LADY TAN’S CIRCLE OF WOMEN by Lisa See (Historical Fiction)
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine. Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom. But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife --- embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.
Scribner | 9781982117092

MADDALENA AND THE DARK by Julia Fine (Gothic Historical Fiction)
Venice, 1717. Fifteen-year-old Luisa has only wanted one thing: to be the best at violin. As a student at the Ospedale della Pietà, she hopes to join the highest ranks of its illustrious girls’ orchestra and become a protégé of the great Antonio Vivaldi. Luisa is good at violin, but she is not the best. She has peers, but she does not have friends. Until Maddalena. After a scandal threatens her noble family’s reputation, Maddalena is sent to the Pietà to preserve her marriage prospects. When she meets Luisa, Maddalena feels the stirrings of a friendship unlike anything she has known. But Maddalena has a secret: she has hatched a dangerous plot to rescue her future her own way.
Flatiron Books | 9781250867902

THE MURDER WHEEL: A Joseph Spector Locked-Room Mystery by Tom Mead (Historical Mystery)
When a sensational killing rocks 1938 London, local newspaper ads offer a hefty sum to the person who can say whodunnit. A man has been shot dead at the top of a Ferris wheel, and his wife --- the only other person in their carriage --- insists on her innocence. But who else could have fired the deadly bullet and escaped unseen? The sheer implausibility of the claim is enough to whip the press into a frenzy. For young and idealistic Edmund Ibbs, the lawyer representing the accused, that frenzy may be his only hope at discovering the truth of the mysterious murder. As he digs into the case, Ibbs unwittingly enters a shadowy web of conspiracy and murder, soon finding himself implicated in not one but two seemingly impossible crimes.
Mysterious Press | 9781613165485

NIGHTBLOOM by Peace Adzo Medie (Fiction)
When Selasi and Akorfa were young girls in Ghana, they were more than just cousins; they were inseparable. They would do anything for each other, imploring their parents to let them be together, sharing their secrets, desires and private jokes. Then Selasi begins to change, becoming hostile and quiet; her grades suffer, and she builds a space around herself, shutting Akorfa out. Meanwhile, Akorfa is accepted to an American university with the goal of becoming a doctor. Although hopeful that she can create a fuller life as a woman in America, she discovers the insidious ways that racism places obstacles in her path once she leaves Ghana. It takes a crisis to bring the friends back together, with Selasi’s secret revealed and Akorfa forced to reckon with her role in their estrangement.
Algonquin Books | 9781643756301

NOT IN LOVE by Ali Hazelwood (Romance)
Paperback Original
Rue Siebert has a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down. Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through --- and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him. Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail.
Berkley | 9780593550427

OBSESSED: A Michael Bennett Psychological Thriller by James Patterson and James O. Born (Psychological Thriller)
A killer is obsessed with Detective Michael Bennett’s oldest daughter. Michael Bennett is obsessed with keeping his family safe. New York City is obsessed with cracking the killer’s code. You will be obsessed with James Patterson and James O. Born’s startling psychological thriller. Obsessed.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752975

THE PARIS WIDOW by Kimberly Belle (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Stella met Adam, she thought she finally had found a nice, normal guy --- a welcome change from her previous boyfriend and her precarious jetsetter lifestyle with him. But her secure world comes crashing down when Adam goes missing after an explosion in the city square. Unable to reach him, she panics. As the French police investigate, it’s revealed that Adam was on their radar as a dealer of rare and stolen antiquities with a long roster of criminal clients. Reeling from this news, Stella is determined not to leave Paris until she has the full story. Was Adam a random victim or the target of the explosion? And why is someone following her through the streets of Paris?
Park Row | 9780778307976

THE PHOENIX BALLROOM by Ruth Hogan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
For 50 years, Venetia Hargreaves’ world revolved around her husband. Now she’s a wealthy widow left with a beautiful but empty home. Once upon a time, she was a dance instructor who dreamed of opening her own ballroom school with a fellow teacher who won her heart. Instead, she chose the safer path. So, at 74, Venetia declares her independence. But something is still missing...until on one of her dog walks by the river, she passes by a building she remembers all too well. In her youth it was the spectacular Phoenix Ballroom, where she used to teach waltzes and tangos. These days it’s a community center and spiritualist church. Eager to revive at least one meaningful thing from her past, Venetia buys the Phoenix Ballroom and finds a supportive and loving community of lost souls who become a delightful multigenerational family-by-choice.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063348745

QUEEN OF EXILES by Vanessa Riley (Historical Fiction)
In 1810, Marie-Louise Christophe is crowned queen as her husband, Henry I, begins his reign over the first and only free Black nation in the Western Hemisphere. But despite their newfound freedom, Haitians still struggle under mountains of debt to France and indifference from former allies in Britain and the new United States. Louise desperately tries to steer the country’s political course as King Henry descends into a mire of mental illness. In 1820, King Henry is overthrown and dies by his own hand. Louise and her daughters manage to flee to Europe with their smuggled jewels. In exile, the resilient Louise redefines her role, recovering the fortune that Henry had lost and establishing herself as an equal to the kings of European nations.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063271005

RED MEMORY: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan (History)
“It is impossible to understand China today without understanding the Cultural Revolution,” Tania Branigan writes. During this decade of Maoist fanaticism between 1966 and 1976, children turned on parents, students condemned teachers, and as many as two million people died for their supposed political sins, while tens of millions were hounded, ostracized and imprisoned. Yet in China this brutal and turbulent period exists, for the most part, as an absence; official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national amnesia. RED MEMORY uncovers 40 years of silence through the stories of individuals who lived through the madness.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324076285

RETURN TO VALETTO by Dominic Smith (Historical Fiction)
On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village, centuries of earthquakes, landslides and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only 10 residents remain, including the widows Serafino --- three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother --- who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, returns. But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers. The captivating and no-nonsense Elisa Tomassi asserts that the family patriarch, Aldo Serafino, a resistance fighter whom her own family harbored, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. This revelation unravels a secret that has impacted Valetto across generations. Who will answer for the crimes of the past?
Picador | 9781250335777

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH: A Tale of Boom and Bust in the New Wild West by Finn Murphy (Memoir)
After decades as a long-haul trucker, Finn Murphy left the road and settled in Boulder County, Colorado. Before long he noticed that many of his neighbors were captivated by the prospect of vast riches in “the Hemp Space.” When hemp was legalized, after 80 years in federal exile, Colorado became the center of a hemp growing and processing boom. Figuring he’d harvest some of that easy money, Murphy bought a 36-acre farm. What could go wrong? Well, pretty much everything. ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH is the comic chronicle of a wild year as Murphy follows his Great American Dream, gradually losing his shirt but not his spirit.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324078913

SOMEBODY’S FOOL by Richard Russo (Fiction)
Ten years after the death of the magnetic Donald “Sully” Sullivan, the town of North Bath is going through a major transition as it is annexed by its much wealthier neighbor, Schuyler Springs. Peter, Sully’s son, is still grappling with his father’s tremendous legacy as well as his relationship to his own son, Thomas, wondering if he has been all that different a father than Sully was to him. Meanwhile, the towns’ newly consolidated police department falls into the hands of Charice Bond, after the resignation of Doug Raymer, the former North Bath police chief and Charice’s ex-lover. When a decomposing body turns up in the abandoned hotel situated between the two towns, Charice and Raymer are drawn together again and forced to address their complicated attraction to one another.
Vintage | 9780593310977

THAT NIGHT IN THE LIBRARY by Eva Jurczyk (Literary Mystery)
Paperback Original
On the night before graduation, seven students gather in the basement of their university's rare books library. They're not allowed in the library after closing time, but it's the perfect place for the ritual they want to perform --- one borrowed from the Greeks, said to free those who take part in it from the fear of death. And what better time to seek the wisdom of ancient gods than in the hours before they'll scatter in different directions to start their real lives? But just a few minutes into their celebration, the lights go out --- and one of them drops dead. As the body count rises, with nothing but the books to protect them, the group must figure out how to survive the night while trapped with a murderer.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728295695

THE WEAVER AND THE WITCH QUEEN by Genevieve Gornichec
(Historical Fantasy/Romance)
Oddny and Gunnhild meet as children in 10th-century Norway. After a visiting wisewoman makes an ominous prophecy that involves Oddny, her sister Signy, and Gunnhild, the three girls take a blood oath to always help one another. When Oddny’s farm is destroyed and Signy is kidnapped by Viking raiders, Oddny is set adrift from the life she imagined --- but she's determined to save her sister, even as she finds herself drawn to one of the raiders who participated in the attack. And in the far north, Gunnhild, who fled her home years ago to learn the ways of a witch, is surprised to find that her destiny seems to be linked with that of the formidable King Eirik. But the bonds that hold the two women together are strong, and when they find their way back to each other, these bonds will be tested in ways they never could have foreseen.
Ace | 9780593438251

WHAT FIRE BRINGS by Rachel Howzell Hall (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Bailey Meadows has just moved into the remote Topanga Canyon home of thriller author Jack Beckham. As his writer-in-residence, she’s supposed to help him once again reach the bestseller list. But she’s not there to write a thriller --- she’s there to find Sam Morris, a community leader dedicated to finding missing people, who has disappeared in the canyon surrounding Beckham’s property. The missing woman was last seen in the drought-stricken forest known for wildfires and mountain lions. Each new day, Bailey learns just how dangerous these canyons are --- for the other women who also have gone missing here…and for her. Could these missing women be linked to strange events that occurred decades ago at the Beckham estate?
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662504167

YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza (Fiction)
Cinnamon Haynes has fought hard for a life she never thought was possible. Her life’s mantra is to be good, quiet and grateful. Until something shifts, and Cinnamon is suddenly haunted by a terrifying question: “Is this all there is?” Daisy Dunlap has had her own share of problems in her 19 years on earth. Her hopes for her future are threatened when she gets unexpectedly pregnant. She hides this development from everyone close to her and then makes a drastic decision with devastating consequences. When Cinnamon finds an abandoned baby in a park and takes the newborn into her home, the ripple effects of this decision risk exposing the truth about Cinnamon’s own past, which she has gone to great pains to portray as idyllic to everyone…even herself.
Atria Books | 9781668005521

On Sale the Week of June 17th in Hardcover

June 18th

1974: A Personal History by Francine Prose (Memoir)
During her 20s, Francine Prose lived in San Francisco, where she began an intense and strange relationship with Tony Russo, who had been indicted and tried for working with Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon papers. The narrative is framed around the nights she spent with Russo driving manically around San Francisco, listening to his stories --- and the disturbing and dramatic end of that relationship in New York. What happens to them mirrors the events and preoccupations of that historical moment: the Vietnam War, drugs, women's liberation, the Patty Hearst kidnapping. At once heartfelt and ironic, funny and sad, personal and political, 1974 provides an insightful look at how Francine Prose became a writer and an artist during a time when the country, too, was shaping its identity.
Harper | 9780063314092

THE GLASSMAKER by Tracy Chevalier (Historical Fiction)
It is 1486, and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers on Murano, the island revered for the craft. As a woman, she is not meant to work with glass --- but she has the hands for it, the heart and a vision. When her father dies, she teaches herself to make glass beads in secret, and her work supports the Rosso family fortunes. Skipping like a stone through the centuries, in a Venice where time moves as slowly as molten glass, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss --- from a plague devastating Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists.
Viking | 9780525558279

GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER by Joseph Earl Thomas (Fiction)
After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round-the-clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak and responsibility.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538740989

JACKIE by Dawn Tripp (Historical Fiction)
JACKIE is the story of a woman who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence. When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is 21 and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue. Kennedy, she thinks, is not her kind of adventure, yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor and his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: “Three and a half seconds --- that’s all it was --- a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not.”
Random House | 9780812997217

LITTLE ROT by Akwaeke Emezi (Fiction)
Aima and Kalu are a longtime couple who have just split. When Kalu, reeling from the breakup, visits an exclusive sex party hosted by his best friend, Ahmed, he makes a decision that will plunge them all into chaos, brutally and suddenly upending their lives. Ola and Souraya, two Nigerian sex workers visiting from Kuala Lumpur, collide into the scene just as everything goes to hell. Sucked into the city’s corrupt and glittering underworld, they’re all looking for a way out, fueled by a desperate need to escape the dangerous threat that looms over them.
Riverhead Books | 9780525541639

LULA DEAN'S LITTLE LIBRARY OF BANNED BOOKS by Kirsten Miller
(Fiction/Humor)
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia. Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on a mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books --- none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home. What she doesn’t know is that a local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets and restocked her library with banned books. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.
William Morrow | 9780063348691

MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by Riley Sager (Psychological Thriller)
One July night, 10-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent on a manicured lawn in a quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again. Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Someone seems to be roaming the cul-de-sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle? The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place --- be it quiet forest or suburban street --- is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.
Dutton | 9780593472378

THE MIDNIGHT FEAST by Lucy Foley (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests’ healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen. But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.
William Morrow | 9780063003101

THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING by Kimi Cunningham Grant (Thriller)
Emlyn doesn't let herself think about the past. How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the love of her life, left her half dead on the side of the road three years ago. She now lives alone in her Airstream trailer and works as a fishing and hunting guide in scenic Idaho. Her closest friends are the community's makeshift reverend and a handsome Forest Service ranger. But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. As Emlyn and Tyler trace Janessa's path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can't deny the chemistry still crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods --- and that Janessa isn't the only one in danger.
Minotaur Books | 9781250907615

THE NEXT MRS. PARRISH by Liv Constantine (Psychological Thriller)
Hard work and immaculate planning turned Amber Patterson Parrish from invisible wallflower to prominent socialite. Less than a year after her husband Jackson’s tax-evasion scandal, Amber reigns supreme over the Bishops Harbor community. But with Jackson being released from prison, Amber’s free time --- and money --- is vanishing. Meanwhile, Daphne Parrish left Bishops Harbor after her divorce from Jackson, swearing she would never go back. But when one of her daughters runs away from home, desperate to see her father, Daphne agrees to return for the summer for their daughters’ sake. When a ghost from Amber’s past emerges looking for revenge, these three figures find unlikely allies in one another. But who is playing who?
Bantam | 9780593599921

PARADE by Rachel Cusk (Fiction)
Midway through his life, the artist G begins to paint upside down. Eventually, he paints his wife upside down. He also makes her ugly. The paintings are a great success. In Paris, a woman is attacked by a stranger in the street. Her attacker flees, but not before turning around to contemplate her victim, like an artist stepping back from a canvas. At the age of 22, the painter G leaves home for a new life in another country, far from the disapproval of her parents. Her paintings attract the disapproval of the man she later marries. When a mother dies, her children confront her legacy: the stories she told, the roles she assigned to them, the ways she withheld her love. Her death is a kind of freedom.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374610043

RAKESFALL by Vajra Chandrasekera (Science Fiction)
Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace the claws of death, loves that leave their mark on civilization, and promises that nothing can break. This is one such story. Annelid and Leveret met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. They found each other in a torn-up nation, peering through propaganda to grasp a deeper truth. And in a demon-haunted wood, another act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey throughout the ages. No world can hold them, no life can bind them, and they'll never leave each other behind.
Tordotcom | 9781250847683

RED SKY MOURNING by Jack Carr (Political Thriller)
A storm is on the horizon. America’s days are numbered. A Chinese submarine has gone rogue and is navigating towards the continental United States, putting its nuclear missiles within striking distance of the West Coast. A rising Silicon Valley tech mogul with unknown allegiances is at the forefront of a revolution in quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence. A politician controlled by a foreign power is a breath away from the Oval Office. These seemingly disconnected events are on a collision course to ignite a power grab unlike anything the world has ever seen. The country’s only hope is a quantum computer that has gone dark, retreating to the deepest levels of the internet, learning at a rate inconceivable at her inception. She is now positioned to act as either the country’s greatest savior or its worst enemy.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668047071

SAME AS IT EVER WAS by Claire Lombardo (Fiction)
After a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, Julia Ames has found herself on the placid plateau of mid-life. But Julia has never navigated the world with the equanimity of her current privileged class. Having nearly derailed herself several times, making desperate bids for the kind of connection that always felt inaccessible to her, at age 57 she finally feels that she has a firm handle on things. Julia is unprepared, though, for what comes next: a surprise announcement from her straight-arrow son, an impending separation from her spikey teenage daughter, and a seductive resurgence of the past, all of which threaten to draw her back into the patterns that previously had kept her on a razor’s edge.
Doubleday | 9780385549554

SANDWICH by Catherine Newman (Fiction/Humor)
For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals and messes of all kinds. This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past --- except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing; her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends her into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.
Harper | 9780063345164

SHADOWHEART: An UNSUB Novel by Meg Gardiner (Psychological Thriller)
In a Tennessee prison, Efrem Judah Goode draws haunting portraits of women he claims he has killed. Around the country, desperate families of the missing seek answers in his eerie drawings. And on darkened back roads and New York City streets, a new killer poses duct-taped bodies at the sites of Goode’s murders. Two serial killers are locked in a twisted rivalry. To stop the brutal slayings, FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix must unravel the connection between Goode and the Broken Heart Killer. Their warped competition destroys anyone in their path. Caught between a manipulative psychopath and a ruthless UNSUB, Caitlin has to dive into not one but two dark and twisted minds. She will risk everything, plunging into the depths of their depraved clash, to hunt down an unstoppable killer.
Blackstone Publishing | 9781982627522

On Sale the Week of June 17th in Paperback

June 18th

THE ART OF CATCHING FEELINGS by Alicia Thompson (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Daphne Brink doesn’t follow baseball, but watching “America’s Snoozefest” certainly beats sitting at home in the days after she signs her divorce papers. After one too many ballpark beers, she heckles Carolina Battery player Chris Kepler, who quickly proves there might actually be a little crying in baseball. Horrified, Daphne reaches out to Chris on social media to apologize…but forgets to identify herself as his heckler in her message. When a DM from “Duckie” catches his eye, he impulsively messages back. Duckie is sweet, funny and seems to understand him in a way no one else does. Daphne isn’t sure how much longer she can keep lying to Chris, especially as she starts working with the team in real life and their feelings for each other deepen.
Berkley | 9780593640937

AUGUST BLUE by Deborah Levy (Fiction)
At the height of her career, the piano virtuoso Elsa M. Anderson --- former child prodigy who is now in her 30s --- walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance. Now she is in Athens, watching an uncannily familiar woman purchase a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history. So begins her journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who seems to be her double.
Picador | 9781250338853

THE BEDLAM CADAVER: A Hunt & Hooke Novel by Robert J. Lloyd (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
1681. London cooks in summer heat. Bonfires are lit in protest against the King’s brother, James, heir to the throne but openly Catholic. Rumors abound of a “Black Box” said to conceal proof that the King’s illegitimate son is really the rightful heir. When a wealthy merchant’s daughter is kidnapped and murdered --- even though a ransom was paid --- the King orders Harry Hunt of the Royal Society to help investigate. A second woman goes missing: Elizabeth Thynne, England’s richest heiress. Her husband has a ransom letter from the same kidnappers. Pressured by powerful men to find the killers and rescue Elizabeth, Harry uncovers a disturbing link to Bethlehem Hospital, better known as Bedlam. But he is falsely accused of the crimes. To prove his innocence, he must find the real culprits.
Melville House | 9781685890957

THE CARNIVALE OF CURIOSITIES by Amiee Gibbs (Historical Fantasy)
In Victorian London, there is no more coveted ticket than Ashe and Pretorius' Carnivale of Curiosities. However, rumors abound that the show’s proprietor, Aurelius Ashe, is more than an average magician. It's said that for the right price, he can make any wish come true. No one knows the truth of this claim better than Lucien the Lucifer, the Carnivale's star attraction. When Odilon Rose comes calling with a proposition regarding his young and beautiful charge, Charlotte, Ashe is tempted to refuse. But after revealing that Rose holds a secret that threatens the security of the troupe's most vulnerable members, Ashe has no choice but to sign an insidious contract. The stakes grow higher as Lucien finds himself drawn to Charlotte and her to him, an attraction that spurs a perilous course of events.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538723944

CULTURED: A Jake Longly Thriller by D.P. Lyle (Mystery/Thriller)
Jake Longly is back where he belongs: relaxing on the beach in front of his restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama. His peace is interrupted, however, when he receives a call from his private investigator father. April Wilkerson has gone missing from Lindemann Farms, the rustic yet posh resort built by self-help and financial guru Jonathon Lindemann. Lindemann, founder of The Lindemann Method (TLM), recruits wealthy people to join his program, charging a hefty entry fee but in return promising huge financial gains and self-enlightenment. Jake’s celebrity status makes him the best person for the case. When Jake and his girlfriend, Nicole, go on an undercover visit to Lindemann Farms, some suspicious activity makes them wonder about the legitimacy of TLM.
Oceanview Publishing ‎| 9781608096183

DO TELL by Lindsay Lynch (Historical Fiction)
As character actress Edie O'Dare finishes the final year of her contract with FWM Studios, the clock is ticking for her to find a new gig after an undistinguished stint in the pictures. She's long supplemented her income moonlighting for Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist, providing salacious details of parties and premieres. When a young starlet approaches her after an assault by an A-list actor at a party, Edie helps get the story into print and sets off a chain of events that will alter the trajectories of everyone involved. Edie’s second act career in gossip grants her more control on the page than she ever commanded in front of the camera. But she learns that publishing the secrets of those former colleagues she considers friends has repercussions. And when she finds herself in the middle of the trial of the decade, Edie is forced to make an impossible choice.
Vintage ‎| 9780593469286

EVERYONE HERE IS LYING by Shari Lapena (Domestic Thriller)
William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery’s family declares her missing. Suddenly the neighborhood doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery's neighbors become increasingly unhinged. Who took Avery Wooler?
Penguin Books ‎| 9780593489956

GEORGE: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes (Memoir)
When Frieda Hughes moved to the depths of the Welsh countryside, she was expecting to take on a few projects: planting a garden, painting, writing her poetry column for The Times (London), and possibly even breathing new life into her ailing marriage. But instead, she found herself rescuing a baby magpie, the sole survivor of a nest destroyed in a storm --- and embarking on an obsession that would change the course of her life. As the magpie, George, grows from a shrieking scrap of feathers and bones into an intelligent, unruly companion, Frieda finds herself captivated --- and apprehensive of what will happen when the time comes to finally set him free.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster ‎| 9781668016510

HOTEL LAGUNA by Nicola Harrison (Historical Fiction)
In 1942, Hazel Francis left Wichita, Kansas, for California, determined to do her part for the war effort. At Douglas Aircraft, she became one of many “Rosie the Riveters,” helping to construct bombers for the U.S. military. But now the war is over, men have returned to their factory jobs, and women like Hazel have been dismissed. Unwilling to be forced into a traditional woman’s role in the Midwest, Hazel finds herself in the bohemian town of Laguna Beach. Desperate for work, she accepts a job as an assistant to famous artist Hanson Radcliff. But Hazel still wants to work with airplanes and maybe even learn to fly one someday. Torn between pursuing her dream and the dream life she has been granted, she is unsure if giving herself over to Laguna is what her heart truly wants.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250336545

JUDGMENT PREY: A Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
Alex Sand was playing basketball with his two young sons when all three were shot in cold blood. A wealthy federal judge, there’s no short list of people who could have a vendetta against Alex. But the gruesome murders, especially that of his children, turn their St. Paul community on its head. Alex was on the verge of a major donation to a local housing charity, Heart/Twin Cities. With the money in limbo, eyes suddenly turn to his grieving widow, Margaret Cooper, to see what she might do with the money. Margaret struggles to move forward and can’t imagine how or why anyone would target her husband. With public pressure mounting and both the local police force and the FBI hitting dead end after dead end, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to do what others could not: find answers.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593542835

LAY YOUR BODY DOWN by Amy Suiter Clarke (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
After Del Walker fled her small hometown and its cult-like church, she vowed never to return. The man she loved, Lars, left her to marry the local golden girl Eve, and their romance is now the focus of Eve’s viral blog espousing the pastor’s conservative philosophy about women and marriage. But six years later, Lars is suddenly killed, and she’s convinced it couldn’t have been an accident. When Del returns to her hometown for the funeral, she discovers that the now mega-church --- and the insidious, patriarchal teachings of Pastor Rick Franklin --- has grown not only in size but in influence. She is determined to cut through the church’s lies and corruption to find out who killed Lars, even if it means confronting the religious trauma she’s spent years trying to bury.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063329447

THE MEMORY OF ANIMALS by Claire Fuller (Dystopian Fiction)
In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease causing sensory damage, nerve loss and, in most cases, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted 27-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London --- perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there. As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. The lines between past, present and future begin to blur. Who can Neffy trust? Why can’t she forgive herself? How should she live, if she survives?
Tin House Books | 9781959030577

MY MAGNOLIA SUMMER by Victoria Benton Frank (Fiction)
In New York City, winter never seems to loosen its hold. And for South Carolina transplant Maggie, the balmy beach weather of April back home on Sullivan’s Island feels like a distant memory. Until a phone call from her sister, Violet, changes everything. Gran, the treasured matriarch, has fallen into a coma after a car accident caused by Maggie’s troubled mother, Lily. But once Maggie returns, she finds that Sullivan’s Island holds even more secrets. The Magic Lantern, the restaurant owned and run by generations of women in her family, is now rudderless, and her sister seems headed for a savage breakup. When the three generations of South Carolina women join forces --- the family pillar Gran, troubled Lily, impulsive Violet and redoubtable Maggie --- anything is possible.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063286160

ONE-STAR ROMANCE by Laura Hankin (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Natalie and Rob couldn’t have less in common. Nat is a messy artist, and Rob is a rigid academic. The only thing they share is their devotion to their respective best friends, who just got engaged. Still, unexpected chemistry has Natalie cautiously optimistic about being maid of honor to Rob’s best man. Until, minutes before the ceremony, Nat learns that Rob wrote a one-star review of her new novel, which has them both reeling. When the reception ends, these two opposites hope they’ll never meet again. But they’re forced together whenever their fast-track best friends celebrate another milestone. Through housewarmings and christenings, life-changing triumphs and failures, Natalie and Rob grapple with their own choices --- and how your harshest critic can become your perfectly imperfect match.
Berkley | 9780593438213

ROMAN STORIES written by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by the author with Todd Portnowitz (Fiction/Short Stories)
Rome is the protagonist, not the setting, of Jhumpa Lahiri's nine stories. In “The Boundary,” one family vacations in the Roman countryside, though we see their lives through the eyes of the caretaker’s daughter, who nurses a wound from her family’s immigrant past. In “P’s Parties,” a Roman couple, now empty nesters, finds comfort and community with foreigners at their friend’s yearly birthday gathering --- until the husband crosses a line. And in “The Steps,” on a public staircase that connects two neighborhoods and the residents who climb up and down it, we see Italy’s capital in all of its social and cultural variegations, filled with the tensions of a changing city: visibility and invisibility, random acts of aggression, the challenge of straddling worlds and cultures, and the meaning of home.
Vintage | 9780593469903

THE RUNNING GRAVE: A Cormoran Strike Novel by Robert Galbraith (Mystery)
Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths. In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her.
Mulholland Books | 9780316572118

THE SECOND MURDERER: A Philip Marlowe Novel by Denise Mina (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she’s a walking target. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found before that happens. To make sure, they have Anne Riordan --- now head of her own all-female detective agency --- on the case, too. The search for Chrissie takes the two investigators from the Montgomery mansion to the roughest neighborhoods of LA, through dive bars and boarding houses and out to Skid Row. And that’s all before they find the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to Chrissie first? And what happens when a woman doesn’t want to be found?
Mulholland Books | 9780316265669

SUNSHINE NAILS by Mai Nguyen (Fiction/Humor)
Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked. Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent, and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they’ve built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: Do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?
Atria Books | 9781668010501

WATCH US DANCE written by Leila Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor (Historical Fiction)
It’s the 1960s, and the air is electric. On the cusp of adulthood, two biracial siblings --- one strong-willed and strait-laced, the other free-spirited and self-destructive --- search for their place in a newly independent Morocco. But soon they find the ideals of their youth colliding with the realities of racism and corruption, as Moroccans once united against their colonizer make a grab for wealth and influence, and the national spirit of communal celebration gives way to elites telling everyone else to “watch us dance.”
Penguin Books | 9780593493328

WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND by Wanda M. Morris (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Deena Wood’s life has fallen apart in the aftermath of losing her beloved mother, her marriage and her prestigious job at an Atlanta law firm. So she returns to her childhood home in Brunswick, Georgia, to heal. One day, while driving through the city, she unwittingly finds herself on the oceanfront property of a loner widower who is fighting to keep land that has been in his family since the end of the Civil War. He threatens her and warns her to never return. But shortly after, he disappears, and his very expensive property is quickly put up for sale. Curious about what has happened to the man, Deena digs into his disappearance and finds a family legacy at risk. What starts out as a bit of curious snooping turns into a deadly game of illegal land grabs and property redevelopment in poor and rural communities with dark and powerful forces at work.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063322219

THE WIFE APP by Carolyn Mackler (Fiction/Humor)
Lauren, the mother of twins, stumbles on a dirty secret that explodes her marriage. When Madeline learns that she might lose her child to her ex in England, it stirs up a decades-old personal tragedy. Sophie obsesses over her ex-husband’s Family 2.0 --- all while keeping her true desires hidden, even from herself. It starts as a joke during a tipsy night out, as Lauren, Madeline and Sophie rail against everything wives do for free. Let’s build an app that monetizes the mental load. And maybe get revenge on our exes in the process? Soon the Wife App is born, and before long, it’s the fastest growing start-up in New York City. But then life intervenes. Love intervenes. Ex-husbands intervene. And the consequences are bigger than anything Lauren, Madeline or Sophie could have expected.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982158828

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