June 18, 2024

June 18, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 17th and June 24th 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 13th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event, which is now available for viewing. Earlier this month, representatives from six publishers presented 30 titles perfect for book groups that will be published between now and October.

Join Us THIS Thursday Night!

Join Us NEXT Tuesday Night!

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 19th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": Join the "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry --- as they celebrate the release of Kristy's new novel, A HAPPIER LIFE, which is the F&F Pick of the Month.

Thursday, June 20th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Craig DiLouie and Paul Tremblay for a live virtual discussion of DiLouie's HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE AND SURVIVE and Tremblay's HORROR MOVIE as part of their Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. The conversation will be moderated by Gabino Iglesias, the author of THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME.

Thursday, June 20th at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Summer Preview Evening Event: Carol Fitzgerald will talk about a number of books releasing this summer that we think you will enjoy reading over the next few months.

Monday, June 24th at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book: Ace Atkins will talk to Mystery & Thriller Maven’s Sara DiVello about his new thriller, DON'T LET THE DEVIL RIDE. In it, a Memphis woman hires a PI to find her missing husband, only to discover that he is involved in a dangerous web of international intrigue.

Tuesday, June 25th at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Group: Carol Fitzgerald will talk to William Kent Krueger about his New York Times bestseller, THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, which is a Bets On pick. Kent also will answer questions from guests who will be "on stage," as well as from other members of the audience.

This Week's Bonus News:
ReadingGroupGuides.com’s 13th Annual Book Group
Speed Dating Event: Great Books for Book Groups

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

On Sale the Week of June 24th in Hardcover

June 25th

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK by Chris Whitaker (Mystery/Thriller)
1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges --- Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake. Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.
Crown | 9780593798874

ANYTHING IS GOOD by Fred Waitzkin (Fiction)
Ralph Silverman was a foreign film buff, a victim of bullies and a boy genius. He held long conversations with his pet parakeet and spent countless hours on a computer, creating mesmerizing music and solving problems in philosophy. He was a friend of great scholars and the son of a wealthy outer-borough businessman with shady associates and a secret second family. And, as he begins to take over the story from the narrator, Ralph finds himself in South Florida, physically abused and expelled into a frightening world of the unhoused --- with a broken pair of glasses, no money and no shoes.
Open Road Media | 9781504094559

BEAR by Julia Phillips (Fiction)
Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes, while Elena bartends at the local golf club. But even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence. Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, a terrified Sam is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the desire to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.
Hogarth | 9780525520436

A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA by Christina Dodd (Historical Mystery)
Once upon a time, a young couple met and fell in love. You probably know that story, and how it ended (hint: badly). Only here’s the thing: That’s not how it ended at all. Romeo and Juliet are alive and well and the parents of seven kids. I’m the oldest, a certified spinster at 20. Each time they’ve presented me with a betrothal, I’ve set out to find the groom-to-be a more suitable bride. But their latest match, Duke Stephano, isn’t so easy to palm off on anyone else. At our betrothal ball, I stumble upon the Duke with a dagger in his chest. But who killed him? Half of Verona had motive. And when everyone around the Duke begins dying, disappearing or descending into madness, I know I must uncover the killer…before death lies on me like an untimely frost.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496750167

THE DAUGHTERS' WAR by Christopher Buehlman (Fantasy/Adventure)
Galva --- Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill --- has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind. The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted --- not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.
Tor Books | 9781250887672

DON'T LET THE DEVIL RIDE by Ace Atkins (Thriller)
Addison McKellar knows she and her husband, Dean, don’t have the perfect marriage, but she’s still shocked when he completely vanishes from her life. As days stretch into a week and she’s repeatedly stonewalled by Dean’s friends and associates, her frustration turns into genuine alarm. When even the police seem dismissive of her concerns, Addison turns to her father’s old friend, legendary Memphis PI Porter Hayes. Porter and Addison quickly discover that Dean was never the hardworking business owner and family man he pretended to be. As they piece together the connections between a hook-handed mercenary, one of Elvis’ former leading ladies, and a man posing as an FBI agent, it becomes clear that Dean was deeply enmeshed in a high-stakes web of international intrigue, and Porter and Addison aren’t the only ones looking for him.
William Morrow | 9780063293380

FLASHBACK by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen (Mystery/Thriller)
Chloe and Sloane Morgan were only children when their mother was the second victim of the Bayside Strangler. Now, after spending 15 years trying to discover his identity, the sisters have suddenly vanished. Were they getting too close to the truth? The police consider their interest in the crime to be just a coincidence and have little motivation to pursue the cold case. Armed with the box of photos, videos, police reports and notes gathered by the sisters over the years --- plus the extraordinary senses from being blind before recovering her sight via a revolutionary surgical procedure --- Kendra Michaels follows the sisters’ trail of clues. Little does she realize that her search is about to unleash a long-dormant killer on San Diego.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538726266

THE GARDEN AGAINST TIME: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing (Memoir/Nature)
In 2020, Olivia Laing began to restore an 18th-century walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants. The work brought to light a crucial question for our age: Who gets to live in paradise, and how can we share it while there’s still time? Moving between real and imagined gardens, from Milton’s PARADISE LOST to John Clare’s enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth. But the story of the garden doesn’t always enact larger patterns of privilege and exclusion. It’s also a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393882001

A GENTLEMAN AND A THIEF: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue by Dean Jobb (True Crime)
A skilled con artist and one of the most successful burglars in history, Arthur Barry was adept at slipping in and out of bedrooms undetected. He became a folk hero, a gentleman bandit touted in the press as the “Prince of Thieves” and an “Aristocrat of Crime.” In a span of seven years, Barry stole pearls, diamonds and other precious gems worth almost $60 million today. Among his many victims were a Rockefeller, an heiress to the Woolworth Department Store fortune, an oil magnate, Wall Street bigwigs, a top executive of automotive giant General Motors, and a famous polo player. He befriended the Prince of Wales, Harry Houdini and other luminaries. The rollicking, caper-filled rise and dramatic downfall of this master thief is a high-speed ride told in stylish prose.
Algonquin Books | 9781643752839

A HAPPIER LIFE by Kristy Woodson Harvey (Fiction)
Present Day: Keaton Smith is desperate for a fresh start. So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort, North Carolina, on the market, she jumps at the chance to head south. But the moment she steps foot inside the abandoned house, she’s confronted with secrets about her grandparents, who died in a car accident before she was born. 1976: After meeting her husband, Townsend, Rebecca “Becks” Saint James abandoned the life she knew and never looked back. Forty years later, she’s made a name for herself as the best hostess North Carolina has ever seen. But she’s struggling behind the façade. As both Keaton and Becks face new challenges and chapters, they are connected through time by the house on Sunset Lane, which has protected the secrets, hopes and dreams of the women in their family for generations.
Gallery Books | 9781668012192

HONEY by Isabel Banta (Fiction)
It is 1997, and Amber Young has received a life-changing call. It’s a chance thousands of girls would die for: the opportunity to join girl group Cloud9 in Los Angeles and escape her small town. She quickly finds herself in the orbits of fellow rising stars Gwen Morris, a driven singer-dancer, and Wes Kingston, a member of the biggest boy band in the world, ETA. As Amber embarks on her solo career and her fame intensifies, her rich interior life is frequently reduced. Surrounded by people who claim to love her but only wish to exploit her, and driven by a desire for recognition and success, for love and sex, for agency and connection, Amber comes of age at a time when the kaleidoscope of public opinion can distort everything and one mistake can shatter a career.
Celadon Books | 9781250333469

HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN by Joyce Maynard (Fiction)
Following the death of her former husband, Cam, 54-year-old Eleanor has moved back to the New Hampshire farm where they raised three children to care for their brain-injured son, Toby, now an adult. Toby’s older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife; their sister, Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Although all appears stable, old resentments, anger and bitterness simmer just beneath the surface. HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN follows Eleanor and her family through 15 years (2010 to 2024) as their story plays out against a uniquely American backdrop and the events that transform their world (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, school violence) and shape their lives (later-life love, parental alienation, steadfast friendship).
William Morrow | 9780062398307

HUSBANDS & LOVERS by Beatriz Williams (Historical Fiction)
New England, 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne’s 10-year-old son, Sam, suffered acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom. Now, searching for a donor kidney, Mallory is forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother’s adoption and her romance with her childhood best friend, Monk Adams, which was cut short by a devastating betrayal. Cairo, 1951. Hungarian refugee Hannah Ainsworth has married a wealthy British diplomat with a coveted posting in glamorous Cairo. But a fateful encounter with the enigmatic manager of a hotel bristling with spies leads to a passionate affair that will reawaken Hannah’s longing for everything she once lost. As revolution simmers in the Egyptian streets, a pregnant Hannah finds herself snared in a game of intrigue between two men --- and an act of sacrifice that will echo down the generations.
Ballantine Books | 9780593724224

INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE by Josh Malerman (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day, “Can I go inside your heart?” When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay. Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger and bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel. But Other Mommy needs an answer.
Del Rey | 9780593723128

JOE HUSTLE by Richard Lange (Hard-boiled Thriller)
Joe Hustle is a survivor. A Gulf War vet and ex-con always one stumble away from catastrophe, he manages to scrape together enough money from various jobs to eke out a precarious existence on the darker fringes of Los Angeles. When he meets Emily, the black-sheep daughter of a wealthy family, the two spark an instant connection --- she seems like the best thing to happen to him in a while. But their whirlwind romance is put to the test when what starts out as a simple favor for a friend leaves Joe homeless, unemployed and on the wrong side of a vengeful drug dealer. An impulsive offer to go on a road trip with Emily promises to take them out of harm’s way --- but may only lead to more chaos.
Mulholland Books | 9780316568470

LOVE LETTERS TO A SERIAL KILLER by Tasha Coryell (Psychological Thriller)
Recently ghosted and sick of watching her friends fade into the suburbs, thirty-something Hannah finds community in a true-crime forum that’s on a mission to solve the murders of four women in Atlanta. After William, a handsome lawyer, is arrested for the killings, Hannah begins writing him letters --- and he writes back. Her interest in the case goes from curiosity to obsession, leaving space for nothing else as her life implodes around her. After she loses her job, she heads to Georgia to attend the trial and befriends fellow true-crime junkies. When a fifth woman is discovered murdered, the jury has no choice but to find William not guilty, and Hannah is the first person he calls upon his release. The two of them quickly fall into a routine of domestic bliss. Well, as blissful as one can feel while secretly investigating their partner for serial murder.
Berkley | 9780593640272

THE PARIS VENDETTA by Shan Serafin (Thriller)
The Paris conference was supposed to be the biggest moment of investment banker Adam Macias’ career. Instead, he arrives at a glamorous rooftop party in time to see his CEO --- and his career --- go up in flames when a dangerous conflagration interrupts the event. Now Adam is a suspect in the investigation into the life-threatening arson. After all, he’d used his ID to let a suspicious woman past a security checkpoint and up to the roof just moments before the fire broke out. Adam finds himself suddenly jobless, and the one woman who could provide him with an alibi --- his best friend and coworker, Jenn --- isn’t returning his calls. Adam knows that only the mysterious woman from the party can save him, but once he finally finds her, he discovers a whole new world of trouble.
Mysterious Press | 9781613165270

PEARCE OYSTERS by Joselyn Takacs (Fiction)
Set on the Louisiana coastline during the historic 2010 oil spill, PEARCE OYSTERS follows the Pearce family, local oyster farmers whose business, family and livelihood are all on the brink of collapse. It highlights the grit and beauty of lives lived in an overlooked corner of the American South and the interdependence of nature and man. Diving deep into the bonds of family, culture, community, class and industry, debut novelist Joselyn Takacs elevates the voices of her deeply sympathetic characters: Jordan, the reluctant head of his family’s storied oyster business; May, his distressed, widowed mother who has her own unexpected drama; and Benny, the beatnik musician brother who returns from New Orleans to help with the crisis.
Zibby Books | 9781958506509

RESURRECTION by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Darcy Gray is a successful influencer with her blog, The Gray Zone. She and her husband, department store magnate Charles Gray, are a power couple in Manhattan and on the international stage. To celebrate 20 years of marriage, Darcy impulsively flies to Rome to surprise Charlie, who is tending to business interests there. Instead, she gets the shock of her life, which upends her whole world. Still reeling, Darcy flees to Paris to see her daughter, Zoe. But a rapidly escalating worldwide health crisis forces her to remain indefinitely in France. She finds a welcoming refuge in the home of aging French movie star Sybille Carton. There, she meets a widowed American engineer and former Marine who is also stranded. Bill Thompson is kind and courteous but also carries an air of mystery about him.
Delacorte Press | 9780593498460

SENTINEL: An Armored Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller/Adventure)
Josh Duffy and his wife, Nikki, are both working for the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, providing protection for diplomats in the field. They've been sent to Ghana with a team of US embassy personnel who are there to highlight American commitment to the construction of a new dam. Since Ghana is a stable democracy, the Duffy children have come along for a short vacation. But stability proves to be fleeting when a Chinese plan to embarrass the US means the destruction of the dam. Now Josh and his protectees are on the run, caught between a Chinese hit squad and a rebel army.
Berkley | 9780593436912

SHANGHAI by Joseph Kanon (Historical Thriller)
After the violence of Kristallnacht, European Jews, now desperate to emigrate, found the consular doors of the world closed to them. Only one port required no entry visa: Shanghai, a self-governing Western trading enclave in what was technically Chinese territory, a political anomaly that became an escape hatch. Daniel Lohr was one of the lucky ones --- lucky enough to have escaped the Gestapo when his colleagues in the resistance were caught, lucky to have an uncle waiting in Shanghai, lucky to find a casual shipboard flirtation turn unexpectedly passionate. But as Daniel tries to navigate his way through his uncle’s world in Shanghai’s fabled nightlife, he finds himself increasingly ensnared in a maze where politics and crime are two sides of the same shiny coin.
Scribner | 9781668006429

SOME MURDERS IN BERLIN by Karen Robards (Historical Thriller)
September 1943: Berlin is the heart of darkness --- and the last place Dr. Elin Lund wishes to be. An expert in psychological profiling, she’s been summoned from Copenhagen to investigate the gruesome murders of eight young women. Even in the midst of unspeakable evil, these killings stand apart. And with her homeland now under Nazi occupation and a young son to protect, Elin can’t refuse such a request. Homicide Detective Kurt Schneider, head of the criminal police unit, is grudging in his welcome. The orders to find the killer come from the top, and to fail means death. The stakes are too high to risk any mistakes --- or to trust a stranger. Yet the pair, trapped in an uneasy partnership, each has expertise the other needs. And Schneider, like Elin, is clearly guarding secrets of his own.
Mira | 9780778305514

TRUST HER by Flynn Berry (Thriller)
Three years after they narrowly escaped the IRA's worst punishment for informing, Northern Irish sisters Tessa and Marian Daly have built a new life in Dublin with their young children. It's a small island, though, and just as quickly as they disappeared, figures from their past surface to drag them back into the conflict. Tessa is told she must track down her old handler from MI5, Eamonn, and attempt to turn him into an IRA informant, or lose everything. Tessa's reunion with Eamonn revives a host of feelings she has long attempted to bury. As their relationship intensifies and the pressure mounts, long-held secrets rise to the surface, and Tessa must navigate a treacherous landscape of shifting loyalties, all while trying to protect her beloved son.
Viking | 9780593490327

WHEN THE NIGHT COMES FALLING: A Requiem for the Idaho Student Murders by Howard Blum (True Crime)
Timed for a trial that will capture national attention, WHEN THE NIGHT COMES FALLING examines the mysterious murders of four University of Idaho students. Having covered this case from its start, Edgar Award-winning investigative reporter Howard Blum takes readers behind the scenes of the police manhunt that eventually led to suspected killer Bryan Christopher Kohberger and uncovered larger, lurid questions within this unthinkable tragedy.
Harper | 9780063349285

WOMAN OF INTEREST: A Memoir by Tracy O'Neill (Memoir)
In 2020, Tracy O’Neill began to rethink her ideas of comfort and safety. Just out of a 10-year relationship and thirty-something, she was driven by an acute awareness that the mysterious mother she’d never met might be dying somewhere in South Korea. After contacting a grizzled private investigator, O’Neill took his suggested homework to heart when he disappeared before the job was done, picking up the trail of clues and becoming her own hell-bent detective. Despite COVID-19, the promise of what she might discover --- the possibility that her biological mother was her kind of outlaw, whose life could inspire her own --- was too tempting.
HarperOne | 9780063309869

On Sale the Week of June 24th in Paperback

June 25th

THE ART THIEF: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel (True Crime)
For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than 200 heists over nearly eight years --- in museums and cathedrals all over Europe --- Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than 300 objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In THE ART THIEF, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content.
Vintage | 9781984898456

BEYOND THE LIGHT HORIZON by Ken MacLeod (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
Paperback Original
The Fermi have departed from the rocky worlds, but they still haunt the gas giants. Their long-term intentions remain unknown. Hurled into the past by a time-slip, John Grant and his onboard AI navigate the long way back. They return to the present in a distant system, where they find Terre Nouveau, a human settlement already 200 years old. Grant’s ship takes this astounding news to the far-roving Station, where Nayak has found new problems and a new lover. As the Station explores Terre Nouveau’s system, they encounter intelligent species far older than humanity, who are just as perplexed about the origins and intentions of the Fermi as they are. On Apis, rogue agent Marcus Owen rallies the native intelligent life against the human settlers and passes on a warning from the Fermi: the humans must stop encroaching --- or else.
Orbit | 9780356514826

BLACK RIVER ORCHARD by Chuck Wendig (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something besides the season is changing there. Because in that town there is an orchard with seven most unusual trees. From those trees grows a new sort of apple: strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black. Take a bite, and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger and more vital. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing --- and become darker. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples. However, something else is buried in the orchard besides the seeds of these extraordinary trees: a bloody history whose roots reach back to the very origins of the town. Now it’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.
Del Rey | 9780593158760

THE BUCHAREST LEGACY: The Rise of the Oligarchs by William Maz (Thriller)
The CIA is rocked to its core when a KGB defector divulges that there is a KGB mole inside the Agency. They learn that the mole’s handler is a KGB agent known as Boris. CIA analyst Bill Hefflin recognizes that name --- Boris is the code name of Hefflin’s longtime KGB asset. If the defector is correct, Hefflin realizes that Boris must be a triple agent, and his supposed mole has been passing false intel to Hefflin and the CIA. What’s more, this makes Hefflin the prime suspect as the KGB mole inside the Agency. Hefflin is given a chance to prove his innocence by returning to his city of birth, Bucharest, Romania, to find Boris and track down the identity of the mole. But Hefflin has a secret that no one else knows --- Boris has been dead for over a year.
Oceanview Publishing ‎| 9781608096190

DEAD ON TARGET: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
A visit to the local village fete for a spot of fun and relaxation turns into a nightmare for Agatha Raisin when she discovers the body of the local landowner in the woods --- with an arrow in his chest and trousers aound his ankles. Agatha’s old adversary, Detective Chief Inspector Wilkes, declares the death a tragic accident, believing the victim has been hit by a stray arrow from an archery demonstration. Agatha is convinced of foul play, however, and is shocked when Wilkes eventually agrees...with her as his prime murder suspect. Determined to clear her name and find the real killer, Agatha launches her own investigation, quickly becoming involved with a family at war, an unscrupulous gangster --- and a killer who is determined to make her the next victim.
Minotaur Books | 9781250898661

FINDING MR. WRITE by Kelley Armstrong (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Daphne McFadden already knows that as a female author, the cards are stacked against her. Now she knows just how much. Because her sudden whim to pose as an “outdoorsy hunk of masculinity” male author for her new book just resulted in the unthinkable: a bidding war, a huge book deal and the kind of fame every author dreams of. Now she’s in big trouble. Because she needs to convince the world that Zane Remington actually exists. But how? By hiring an actor, of course. Only Chris Stanton is not an actor. He’s used to balancing the books, not pretending he wrote one. Still, he’s mostly certain he can pose as some overly macho bro-author. But as the hype circus gets more out of control, it’s just a matter of time before someone discovers their little write lie.
Forever ‎| 9781538742747

FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING: A Memoir by Matthew Perry (Memoir)
“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty.” So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; 14-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; 24-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called “Friends Like Us”; and so much more.
Flatiron Books | 9781250866455

THE FRUGAL WIZARD’S HANDBOOK FOR SURVIVING MEDIEVAL ENGLAND by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy/Adventure)
A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation. But can he figure them out in time to survive?
Tor Books | 9781250899682

GENEALOGY OF A MURDER: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night by Lisa Belkin (True Crime)
In 1960, a young cop is murdered, shocking his close-knit community in Stamford, Connecticut. The killer remains at large, his identity still unknown. But on a beach not far away, a young Army doctor faces a chilling realization. He knows who the shooter is. In fact, the man --- a prisoner out on parole --- had called him only days before. By helping his former charge and trainee, the doctor may have inadvertently helped set the murder into motion. Alvin Tarlov, David Troy and Joseph DeSalvo were all born of the Great Depression, all with grandparents who had left different homelands for the same American Dream. How did one become a doctor, one a cop and one a convict? Journalist Lisa Belkin traces the paths of each of these three men --- one of them her stepfather.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324076124

THE HISTORY OF A DIFFICULT CHILD by Mihret Sibhat (Fiction)
Even before she is born, Selam Asmelash has a wry, bewitching omniscience that animates life in her Small Town in southwestern Ethiopia in the 1980s. Selam and her father listen to the radio in secret as the socialist military junta that recently overthrew the government seizes properties and wages civil war in the North. The Asmelashes, once an enterprising, land-owning family, are ostracized under the new regime. In the Small Town where they live, nosy women convene around coffee ceremonies multiple times a day. As Selam’s mother grows ill, she embraces a persecuted, Pentecostal God and insists her family convert alongside her. The Asmelashes stand solidly in opposition to the times, and Selam grows up seeking revenge on despotic comrades, neighborhood bullies and a ruthless God.
Penguin Books | 9780593298633

KALA by Colin Walsh (Literary Thriller)
In the seaside town of Kinlough, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. Helen, Jo and Mush were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group’s white-hot center. Soon after that summer’s peak, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now it’s 15 years later. Helen has reluctantly returned to Ireland for her father’s wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician, newly back in town; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mother’s café. But human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. And as past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance.
Vintage | 9780593470022

KISS ME IN THE CORAL LOUNGE: Intimate Confessions from a Happy Marriage by Helen Ellis (Humor/Essays)
Welcome to the Coral Lounge, a room in Helen Ellis’ New York City apartment painted such an exuberant shade that a Peeping Tom left a sticky note asking for the color. It is in the Coral Lounge where all the parties happen. A game called “What’s in the box?” makes its uproarious debut, the Puzzle Posse pounces on a 500-piece jigsaw of a beheaded priest, and guests don blindfolds for a raucous bridal shower. When the pandemic shuts down the city, the Coral Lounge becomes a place of refuge, where Helen and her husband binge-watch Joan Collins’ “Dynasty,” dote on two spoiled cats, and where Helen discovers that even 20 years into marriage, her husband still makes her heart pitter patter.
Vintage | 9780593466551

THE LAST DROP OF HEMLOCK by Katharine Schellman (Historical Mystery)
Life as a working-class girl in Prohibition-era New York isn’t safe or easy. But Vivian Kelly has a new job at the Nightingale, an underground speakeasy. Things are finally looking up for her and her sister, Florence...until the night Vivian learns that her friend Bea's uncle, a bouncer at the Nightingale, has died. His death is ruled a suicide, but Bea isn’t so convinced. She knew her uncle was keeping a secret: a payoff from a mob boss that was going to take him out of the tenements and into a better life. Now, the money is missing. Vivian and Bea uncover more than they expected when rumors surface of a mysterious letter writer who's blackmailing Vivian's poorest neighbors for their most valuable possessions, threatening poison if they don't comply.
Minotaur Books | 9781250340030

A NOVEL LOVE STORY by Ashley Poston (Paranormal Romance/Fantasy)
Paperback Original
Eileen Merriweather is looking forward to her annual book club retreat this year. But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel. Because it is. Eloraton is the town of her favorite romance series, and it feels like home. It’s perfect --- and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story. Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending. Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place --- a grumpy bookstore owner who does not want her finishing this book. Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after just might be intertwined with her own.
Berkley | 9780593640975

PINK LEMONADE CAKE MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
The Tri-County Summer Solstice Celebration has come to town, and even among local artisans, athletes and marching bands, Hannah Swensen attracts fans of her own while serving lip-smacking pink lemonade desserts. But the mood sours when a body turns up, leading revelers to wonder if the festivities mark both the longest day of the year and the deadliest. A retired professional MLB player has met a terrifying end --- and, considering the rumors swirling about his past, the list of suspects could fill a small stadium. Among them could soon be Delores, Hannah’s mother, who publicly held a grudge against the victim after he infamously dunked her in the tank at a previous county fair.
Kensington | 9781496736123

REPRODUCTION by Louisa Hall (Fiction)
A novelist attempts to write a book about Mary Shelley, author of FRANKENSTEIN, a mother and artist whose harrowing pregnancies reveal the cost of human reproduction. Soon, however, the novelist’s own painful experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, as well as her increasing awareness of larger threats from climate change to the pandemic, force her to give up on the book and turn instead to writing a contemporary FRANKENSTEIN, based on the story of an old friend who mysteriously reappears in her life.
Ecco | 9780063283633

SALLY BRADY’S ITALIAN ADVENTURE by Christina Lynch (Historical Fiction)
What if you found yourself in the middle of a war armed only with lipstick and a sense of humor? Abandoned as a child in Los Angeles in 1931, Dust Bowl refugee Sally Brady convinces a Hollywood movie star to adopt her, and she grows up to be an effervescent gossip columnist secretly satirizing Europe’s upper crust. By 1940, saucy Sally is conquering Fascist-era Rome with cheek and charm. A good deed leaves Sally stranded in wartime Italy, brandishing a biting wit, a fake passport, and an elastic sense of right and wrong. To save her friends and find her way home through a land of besieged castles and villas, Sally must combat tragedy with comedy, tie up pompous bureaucrats in their own red tape, force the cruel to be kind, and unravel the mystery, weight and meaning of family.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250881625

STORM WARNING by David Bell (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Jake Powell is racing to get off the Florida barrier island on which he lives as a powerful hurricane approaches. When he finds his best friend Dallas, the building manager, dead from a blow to the skull, Jake realizes there’s more than the storm to fear. There’s a murderer on the island, maybe even still inside the nearly abandoned building. Dallas had repeatedly run afoul of the wealthy owners of the building by complaining about code violations and the precarious state of the condos. But he’d also once told Jake that every resident had a secret they’d come to Florida to escape. Had one of them killed to conceal their sins? As a dozen people shelter together in hopes of surviving the deadly hurricane, a second murder makes it all too clear: one of them is a dangerous killer.
Berkley | 9780593549995

TANGLED VINES: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders by John Glatt (True Crime)
In South Carolina, the Murdaugh name means power. But when attorney Alex Murdaugh discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on June 7, 2021, the family was thrust into the national spotlight. The mystery deepened months later when Alex himself was discovered shot in the head on a roadside. But as authorities scrambled for clues, dark secrets about this Southern legal dynasty came to light. The Murdaughs wouldn’t hesitate to wield their influence to protect one of their own. As bombshells of financial fraud were revealed and more suspicious deaths were linked to the Murdaughs, a new portrait of Alex Murdaugh emerged: a desperate man on the brink of ruin who would do anything, even murder his wife and son, to save his family’s reputation.
St. Martin’s True Crime | 9781250861122

TOM CLANCY WEAPONS GRADE: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel by Don Bentley
(Thriller/Adventure)
The quiet of a Texas night is shattered by the sounds of screeching brakes, crumpling metal and, most shockingly, rapid gunfire. The auto accident Jack Ryan Jr. thought he witnessed turned out to be a professional hit. Jack may be too late to save the victim, but he’ll be damned if he’s going to let the hitters escape justice. He has just one lead --- a meeting the victim was going to. When Jack shows up instead, he’s drawn into the seedy underbelly of a small Texas town and the cold case of a college student who vanished from its streets. Jack is left with nothing but questions. Who wants it to look like the victim was drunk? Why does someone want an innocent witness killed? And most of all, what’s a team of South African hitmen doing in the Lone Star State?
Berkley | 9780593422830

TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin (Fiction)
On a bitter cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money and beg favors --- and before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even 25 years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
Vintage | 9780593466490

WELCOME TO BEACH TOWN by Susan Wiggs (Fiction)
In idyllic Alara Cove, a California beach town, it’s graduation day at the elite Thornton Academy. At Thornton, the students are the worldly and overindulged children who live in gated enclaves with spectacular views. But the class valedictorian is Nikki Graziola, a surfer’s daughter who is there on scholarship. To the shock of everyone in the audience, Nikki veers off script while giving her commencement address and reveals a secret that breaks open the whole community. Her accusation shakes the foundation of Alara Cove, pitting her against the wealthy family whose money runs the town. Her new notoriety sends Nikki into exile for years, where she finds fame --- but not fortune --- overseas as a competition surfer...until a personal tragedy compels her to return to Alara Cove.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062914170

WELLNESS by Nathan Hill (Fiction)
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the '90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago’s thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward 20 years to married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter cults disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook wars, and something called Love Potion Number Nine. For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other.
Vintage | 9780593469835

THE YEAR OF WHAT IF by Phaedra Patrick (Fiction)
Paperback Original
On the verge of her second marriage, Carla Carter knows she’s finally found the one. She and her fiancé, Tom, met through Logical Love, a dating agency she founded for the pragmatically minded, and she’s confident that, together, they will dispel an old family curse claiming Carter women are unlucky in love. For peace of mind, Carla’s family insists she visit a fortune teller before she ties the knot. Except the tarot unexpectedly reveals that the love of Carla’s life is not Tom, but one of the several men she briefly dated during her European gap year --- 21 years ago. Only weeks away from her big day, Carla sets off across Europe to track down her exes from that unforgettable year, desperate to prove the fortune teller wrong. From Spain to Portugal, Italy to France, will one be her perfect match?
Park Row | 9780778310891

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