August 6, 2024

August 6, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of August 5th and August 12th 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 Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for August, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, the PBS Books Readers Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, August 7th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome #1 international bestselling author Liz Nugent for a live virtual discussion of STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND as part of their B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Liz will be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author of THE MIDNIGHT FEAST, Lucy Foley.

Wednesday, August 7th 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 Rhys Bowen about her latest historical novel, THE ROSE ARBOR.

Wednesday, August 7th at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Rhys Bowen will discuss her new book, THE ROSE ARBOR, a haunting novel of suspense in which an investigation into a girl’s disappearance uncovers a mystery dating back to World War II.

Wednesday, August 7th at 10:15pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman will talk about the latest installment in their Clay Edison thriller series, THE LOST COAST. This heart-stopping tale of deception and redemption bursts with action, suspense and unforgettable characters.

Tuesday, August 13th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda will talk to Rachel Howzell Hall about her new book, WHAT FIRE BRINGS, a twisting novel of suspense in which a writer’s search for her missing friend becomes a real-life thriller.

Tuesday, August 13th at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child will talk about their latest thriller, ANGEL OF VENGEANCE. FBI Special Agent Pendergast and Constance Greene take a final stand against New York’s deadliest serial killer: Pendergast’s own ancestor...and Constance’s greatest enemy.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for August

Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads. We also feature a number of other prominent selections, including the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, Oprah’s Book Club, the PBS Books Readers Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.

Below is a preview of August's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here.

Indie Next
#1 Pick: THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach
THE PAIRING by Casey McQuiston
HUM by Helen Phillips
A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL by T. Kingfisher
THE AU PAIR AFFAIR by Tessa Bailey

LibraryReads
Top Pick: HOUSE OF GLASS by Sarah Pekkanen
YOU'RE THE PROBLEM, IT'S YOU by Emma R. Alban
THE DEAD CAT TAIL ASSASSINS by P. Djèlí Clark
STRANGE FOLK by Alli Dyer
MORBIDLY YOURS: A Love in Galway Novel, by Ivy Fairbanks

Barnes & Noble Book Club
THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach

"Good Morning America" Book Club
THE SEVENTH VEIL OF SALOME by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

PBS Books Readers Club
THE HUNTER by Tana French

"Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach

Reese's Book Club
SLOW DANCE by Rainbow Rowell

Target Book Club
THE GOLDEN GATE by Amy Chua

On Sale the Week of August 5th in Hardcover

August 6th

AGONY HILL by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Historical Mystery)
In the summer of 1965, Bostonian Franklin Warren arrives in Bethany, Vermont, to take a position as a detective with the state police. Warren's new home is on the verge of monumental change. The interstates under construction will bring new people, new opportunities and new problems to Vermont, and the Cold War and protests against the war in Vietnam have finally reached the dirt roads and rolling pastures of Bethany. Warren has barely unpacked when he's called up to a remote farm on Agony Hill. Former New Yorker and Back-to-the-Lander Hugh Weber seems to have set fire to his barn and himself, but things aren’t adding up for Warren. The people of Bethany clearly have secrets they’d like to keep, but Warren can’t tell if the truth about Weber’s death is one of them.
Minotaur Books | 9781250826626

AND SO I ROAR by Abi Daré (Fiction)
When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother --- who is terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Nigeria --- and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades. Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky 14-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia’s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she finally has found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school. Suddenly, there’s a horrible knocking at the front gate. It’s only the beginning of a harrowing ordeal that will see Tia forced to make a terrible choice between protecting Adunni or finally learning the truth behind the secret her mother has hidden from her.
Dutton | 9780593186558

ARKANGEL: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins (Thriller/Adventure)
The execution of a Vatican archivist within the shadow of the Kremlin exposes a conspiracy going back three centuries --- to the bloody era of the Russian Tsars. Before his murder, he manages to dispatch a coded message, a warning of a terrifying threat, one tied to a secret buried within the Golden Library of Tsars, a vast and treasured archive that had vanished into history. As combative forces race for the truth behind this death and alarming discovery, Sigma Force is summoned to aid in the search ---- not only for this missing trove of ancient books, but to follow a trail far into the Arctic, to search for the truth about a lost continent and a revelation that could ignite a global war. But Sigma Force has its own difficulties at home after an explosive attack on the National Mall --- one aimed at the heart of their covert agency --- has left them vulnerable and exposed.
William Morrow | 9780062893161

BLOOD LIKE MINE by Stuart Neville (Horror/Thriller)
On a snowy December night, single mother Rebecca Carter drives her van into a snowbank to avoid hitting an elk on a desolate mountain highway. She is at the end of her rope, out of money and food. Still, she refuses help from a man in a pickup truck. Rebecca’s adolescent daughter, Moonflower, is on the run from a grisly secret, and the last thing they can afford is to be remembered by anyone they meet. Meanwhile, Special Agent Marc Donner of the FBI has spent the better part of two years hunting down a gruesome serial killer who drains victims of blood before severing their spinal cords. As Agent Donner’s investigation brings him closer and closer to where Rebecca and Moonflower are hiding out, the life that Rebecca has fought so hard to hold together for her daughter becomes increasingly imperiled.
Hell's Hundred | 9781641295413

THE BOOKSHOP: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss (Social History)
Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In THE BOOKSHOP, we see the stakes: what has been, and what might be lost. Evan Friss’ history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many.
Viking | 9780593299920

THE BOYS OF RIVERSIDE: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller (Sports)
In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in the inbox of New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside was having an undefeated season. After years of covering wildfires, war, pandemic and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story about this deaf football team. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated boys and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. Fuller drove seven hours to the Riverside campus just in time to see them trounce their opponent in the second game of the playoffs. THE BOYS OF RIVERSIDE looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history.
Doubleday | 9780385549875

THE DEAD CAT TAIL ASSASSINS by P. Djèlí Clark (Fantasy/Adventure)
Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins --- resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories --- have only three unbreakable vows. First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade. Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen is a professional. She has never missed her mark. The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face to face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.
Tordotcom | 9781250767042

THE DEVIL RAISES HIS OWN by Scott Phillips (Historical/Noir Thriller)
Los Angeles, 1916: Photographer Bill Ogden has opened a portrait studio in the seedy noir world of early Hollywood, where he is joined by his granddaughter, Flavia, who is need of a fresh start after bludgeoning her drunken, abusive husband to death in Wichita. Though his business is mainly legit, Bill finds himself brushing up against the “blue movie” porn industry growing in the shadows of the motion picture mainstream. When a series of grisly murders take place across the city, Bill and his capable granddaughter are pulled into events as tricky and tangled as anything this side of The Big Sleep. We meet dreamers, opportunists, washed-up former stars and starry-eyed newcomers --- a cast of unforgettable characters living on the margins looking to make a quick buck, launch a career or just keep their family together.
Soho Crime | 9781641294935

THE DIVORCE written by Moa Herngren, translated by Alice Menzies (Fiction)
Bea couldn't be more excited to trade the stifling Stockholm summer heat for vacation on Gotland Island. She’s looking forward to spending quality time with her beloved husband, Niklas, and their two moody teenage daughters. One night shortly before their departure, Bea and Niklas have a seemingly mundane argument over a trivial issue, and Niklas goes out with a friend to blow off steam. As the hours pass, Niklas doesn’t come home, and Bea’s irritation soon gives way to panic as she imagines what kind of disaster might have happened to delay his return. What she soon learns will change her life forever. While her husband is fine, their marriage is not. Her kind, gentle pediatrician husband wants to leave her. But while this might seem like sudden insanity to Bea, for Niklas, it’s anything but.
HarperVia | 9780063352391

DRAGONS OF ETERNITY: Dragonlance Destinies, Volume 3 by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (Fantasy/Adventure)
When Destina Rosethorn and her companions were transported to a time centuries before their birth --- to the days of the Third Dragon War --- the Graygem of Gargath brought chaos to the battlefield and changed the course of history. Upon returning to the Inn of the Last Home, where their journey began, Destina’s party discovered a world completely changed. The forces of evil now hold sway over their land. The River of Time is rising, flowing inexorably toward the present day. Destina and her friends must make one last, desperate attempt to restore time’s river to its proper channel. If they do not succeed, the altered past will sweep over the present until no trace of their old world remains.
Random House Worlds | 9781984819420

EAGLE ROCK: An Ashe Cayne Novel by Ian K. Smith (Mystery)
Billionaire Elliott Kantor, who ruled over a mammoth real estate portfolio in Chicago, was a creature of habit. His trainer came to his house three mornings every week for a 5:30 workout. By 6:30 he was in the car, and his driver drove him down into the city where he’d get a shave and trim from his barber, then head over to his offices. He always ate breakfast at his desk, had two young assistants who tended to his every whim and demand, then spent all day in and out of meetings. There were few surprises in his world. Or so everyone thought, until Kantor died in his sleep at age 77, leaving behind a vast fortune and grieving wife, son and five grandchildren. When Simon Kantor enlists Ashe Cayne to explore his father's death, the probing private investigator learns there were plenty of "activities" Elliott participated in after hours, including a sex traffic ring.
Amistad | 9780063253759

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by Emma Bamford (Psychological Thriller)
Maddy Wight is hired to ghostwrite the memoir of world-renowned cosmetic surgeon Dr. Angela Reynolds. She travels to Angela’s remote estate in the Scottish Highlands to hunker down and learn everything she can. Sharing the estate is Angela’s enigmatic business partner, Scott, whose mercurial moods change as quickly as the conditions on the darkening moors outside --- and Maddy finds herself drawn ever closer to him. Returning to London once the book is finished, Maddy is excited for their future together. But her dreams are shattered at the book launch when Angela learns that Scott has leapt to his death from the Scottish cliffs. Which is why Maddy is completely blindsided months later when she sees Scott entering the Tube station just in front of her. It can’t be him, can it?
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982170394

A FAREWELL TO ARFS: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn (Mystery)
Chet the dog and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, are entangled in a web of crime unlike anything they've ever seen before. Their elderly next-door neighbor, Mr. Parsons, thought he was doing the right thing by loaning his ne'er-do-well son, Billy, some money to help get himself settled. But soon, Mr. Parsons discovers that his entire life savings is gone. A run-of-the-mill scam? Bernie isn’t so sure that the case is that simple, but it's Chet who senses what they're really up against. Only Billy knows the truth, but he's disappeared. Can Chet and Bernie track him down before it's too late? Someone else is also in the hunt, an enemy with a mysterious, cutting-edge power who will test Chet and Bernie to their limit --- or maybe beyond. Even poker, not the kind of game they're good at, plays a role.
Forge Books | 9781250331809

FIRE AND BONES: A Temperance Brennan Novel by Kathy Reichs (Mystery/Thriller)
Always apprehensive about working fire scenes, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is called to Washington, DC, to analyze the victims of a deadly blaze and sees her misgivings justified. The devastated building is in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood with a colorful past and present, and Tempe becomes suspicious about the property’s ownership when she delves into its history. The pieces start falling into place strangely and quickly, and Tempe teams with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Soon the duo learns that back in the ’30s and ’40s the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant --- until the son of a Foggy Bottom gang member is shot dead at his home in an affluent part of the district. Coincidence? Targeted attacks? So many questions.
Scribner | 9781668050927

FIVE-STAR STRANGER by Kat Tang (Fiction)
In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, FIVE-STAR STRANGER follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the Rental Stranger app --- a place where users can hire a pretend fiancé, a wingman or an extra mourner for a funeral. Referred to only as Stranger, the narrator navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients. But when a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother and his own fraught past. Now, he must confront the boundaries he has drawn and explore the legacy of abandonment that shaped his life.
Scribner | 9781668050149

GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES: A Memoir by Lola Milholland (Memoir)
Lola Milholland grew up in the ’90s, the child of iconoclastic hippies. Both her parents threw open their rambling house in Portland, Oregon, to long-term visitors and unusual guests in need of a place to stay. Years later, after college and after her parents’ separation, Milholland returned home. There, she joined her brother and his housemates in furthering the experiment of communal living into a new generation. GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES tells the story of the residents of the Holman House --- of transcendent meals and ecstatic parties, of colorful characters coming together in moments of deep tenderness and inevitable irritation, of a shared life that is appealing, humorous, confounding and, just maybe, utopian --- with a wider exploration of group living as a way of life.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781954118577

HOUSE OF BONE AND RAIN by Gabino Iglesias (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo's mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her, Bimbo swears. And they all agree. Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits that impose their own order.
Mulholland Books | 9780316427012

HOUSE OF GLASS by Sarah Pekkanen (Domestic Thriller)
Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny --- in the midst of her parents' bitter divorce --- and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there's something eerie about the house itself: It's a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found. As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250283993

HUM by Helen Phillips (Dystopian Science Fiction/Thriller)
In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,” May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance. Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights’ respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams and animals flourish. But when her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781668008836

THE IN CROWD by Charlotte Vassell (Mystery)
Early one morning, a men’s rowing team discovers a body floating face down in the Thames. Many years before, the chief executive of a clothing manufacturer walked off with a multi-million-dollar corporate retirement fund and disappeared without a trace. Now, the discovery of this body has reopened that cold case. Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp has his own evening at the theater upended by the discovery of a dead body just a few seats away. Two decades ago, Eliza Chapel, a 14-year-old student at a girls boarding school in Cornwall, disappeared in the middle of the night under dubious circumstances. A second body and a second cold case reopened. As Caius investigates these parallel missing persons cases, he finds himself ensnared in the unexpected political machinations of a duke-in-waiting.
Doubleday | 9780593685976

THE KILL LIST: An Inspector Anjelica Henley Thriller by Nadine Matheson
(Mystery/Thriller)
Twenty-five years ago, DCI Harry Rhimes arrested Andrew Streeter for the brutal murders of five young people. Streeter’s "kill list" of victims was found in his home, and he was convicted of all five crimes. Now, Streeter’s convictions are being overturned, as new evidence implies the original investigation was corrupt. No one is more shocked than DI Anjelica Henley. Because this case is personal; Rhimes was her old boss, and he’s no longer alive to defend himself. But when the killings start up again, Henley must face the truth: Rhimes got it wrong 25 years ago. Henley and her team reopen the original murder cases, but they must put their personal feelings to one side. Because the real killer is still out there, and he’s working his way through a new kill list.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335455055

THE LOST COAST by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman (Mystery/Thriller)
Cut loose from his former life at the coroner’s office, Clay Edison has set up shop as a private investigator. It’s steady, safe work. Until it isn’t. The trouble begins when a young man, tasked with managing his grandmother’s estate, hires Clay to examine some minor financial discrepancies. What starts off as a case of simple fraud rapidly explodes into a web of deception, an elaborate con game stretching back decades and involving countless victims. All the evidence points to a tiny town on California’s rugged, remote Lost Coast. Good luck getting there, though. Clay’s reward for surviving the journey is a trigger-happy welcoming committee, ready to guard their secrets with lethal force. The price of truth will turn out to be higher --- and deadlier --- than he could have imagined.
Ballantine Books | 9780525620143

A MASK OF FLIES by Matthew Lyons (Horror/Thriller)
In the grisly aftermath of a botched bank heist, career criminal Anne Heller has no choice but to return to her family’s cabin --- a secluded shack in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and the site of her mother’s untimely death. Along for the ride are Jessup, Anne’s badly wounded partner, and Dutch, the police officer she’s taken hostage. As they wait for help, Anne discovers strange relics from her mother’s past and begins to unfold the mystery of her childhood at the cabin. Then Jessup goes missing, only to turn up dead. Anne and Dutch bury her friend, but that night, he comes back and knocks at the cabin door. Not a dream, not a hallucination, but not exactly Jessup, either. Something else. Something wearing her friend’s face. Something hungry.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250889812

THE MYSTERIOUS MRS. NIXON: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First Lady by Heath Hardage Lee (Biography)
In America’s collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted “Most Admired Woman in the World” in 1972 and made Gallup Poll’s top 10 list of most admired women 14 times. She survived the turmoil of the Watergate scandal with her popularity and dignity intact. The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described as elusive, mysterious and “plastic” in the press. When asked to define her “signature” First Lady agenda, she defied being put into a box. In THE MYSTERIOUS MRS. NIXON, Heath Hardage Lee presents readers with the essential nature of this First Lady --- an empathetic, adventurous, self-made woman who wanted no power or influence, but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered world-wide.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250274342

THE RULE OF THREE by Sam Ripley (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
I didn’t believe in the Rule of Three. Not at first. It was just one of those urban myths you hear about all the time. A story my boyfriend told me about a girl cursed by the number three. A girl whose parents had killed themselves after her sibling had died in an accident. Which meant that she was doomed to die too because that’s the Rule of Three. Bad things always happen in threes, they say, and they are right. Because it’s happening again. But this time the curse is coming for me. And worst of all? It’s coming for you, too.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668047699

THE SEVENTH VEIL OF SALOME by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Historical Fiction)
1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times. So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves. Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood, make for a sizzling combination. But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, Herod: a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.
Del Rey | 9780593600269

SHADOW OF DOUBT by Brad Thor (Political Thriller)
A mysterious cargo plane, flanked by a squadron of Russia’s most lethal fighters, has just taken off from a remote airbase. Closely monitored by the United States, no one inside the Pentagon has any idea where it’s going or what it’s carrying. A high-level Russian defector, a walking vault of secrets that could shatter the West, seeks asylum in Norway. Across the continent, in the heart of Paris, a lone French agent stumbles upon a conspiracy so explosive it could ignite a global firestorm. As alarm bells ring in Washington, the CIA’s most lethal weapon, Scot Harvath, is forced to choose between his conscience and his country.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982182236

THE SINGER SISTERS by Sarah Seltzer (Fiction)
It's 1996, and alt-rocker Emma Cantor is on tour, with her sights trained on a record deal. Emma has no lack of inspiration for her music --- chiefly her mother, Judie, a 1960s folk legend whose confessional songs made her an icon before her mysterious withdrawal from the public eye. Emma is baffled by Judie's coldness and is deeply shaken when she learns a long-kept secret about their family. When Emma uncovers more about her mother's past, she is vaulted to new heights as a performer. But the knowledge she gains also propels her toward a musical betrayal that further fractures her relationship with Judie. Increasingly famous, but fragile and isolated, Emma grapples with her mother’s legacy and what it means for her own future.
Flatiron Books | 9781250907646

A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL by T. Kingfisher (Fantasy/Adventure)
Cordelia knows her mother is…unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t evil sorcerers. When her mother unexpectedly moves them into the manor home of a wealthy older Squire and his kind but keen-eyed sister, Hester, Cordelia knows this welcoming pair are to be her mother's next victims. As her mother's plans darken, she must decide how to face the woman who raised her to save the people who have become like family.
Tor Books | 9781250244079

THERE IS A RIO GRANDE IN HEAVEN: Stories by Ruben Reyes Jr. (Fiction/Short Stories)
An ordinary man wakes one morning to discover he’s a famous reggaetón star. An aging abuela slowly morphs into a marionette puppet. A struggling academic discovers the horrifying cost of becoming a Self-Made Man. In THERE IS A RIO GRANDE IN HEAVEN, Ruben Reyes Jr. conjures strange dreamlike worlds to explore what we would do if we woke up one morning and our lives were unrecognizable. Boundaries between the past, present and future are blurred. Menacing technology and unchecked bureaucracy cut through everyday life with uncanny dread. The characters, from mango farmers to pop stars to ex-guerilla fighters to cyborgs, are forced to make uncomfortable choices --- choices that not only mean life or death, but also might allow them to be heard in a world set on silencing the voices of Central Americans.
Mariner Books | 9780063336278

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH HER by Kate Weinberg (Fiction)
Vita Woods produces a popular podcast and lives with her successful doctor boyfriend, Max. But as much as things are going right, the days are dark. Vita is not leaving the house. In fact, she can barely make it out of bed. Instead, she spends long, blurred hours falling in and out of The Pit, dead to the world and to herself. For months, Vita has been sick with an illness that no doctor can diagnose. And recently, Luigi, a Renaissance poet nursing a 500-year-old heartbreak, has started showing up at her bedside. He says he’s come to release her. But he may be a ghost, an apparition of her sickly mind. Then, when an unexpected mix-up pushes her into the path of her upstairs neighbors, Vita finds friendship --- and perhaps more --- in the apartment above. But something about her "condition" keeps nagging at her. What if the problem is Vita herself?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593717363

VILLA E by Jane Alison (Historical Fiction)
Along the glittering coast of southern France, a white villa rose from an earthen terrace. Eileen, a new architect previously known for her elegant chairs and furniture, built it as a haven for her and her lover. She realized each detail, designing the villa around their movements and habits. When the outspoken Le G, a founder of Modernist architecture, first laid eyes on the house, he could see his influence in the sleek lines. Affronted and impassioned, he took a paintbrush to the villa’s clean, white walls. Now, Le G is in the final week of his life. He has spent the last 30 years infiltrating Eileen’s house, erasing her presence and forgetting her name. But finally, the tide has come in, and Eileen is called back to her beloved coastline, where both artists will contend with the transformative power of memory.
Liveright | 9781324095057

On Sale the Week of August 5th in Paperback

August 6th

THE BOOKBINDER by Pip Williams (Historical Fiction)
It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who live on a narrow boat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press. Peggy has been told for most of her life that her job is to bind the books, not read them. But as she folds and gathers pages, her mind wanders to the opposite side of Walton Street, where the female students of Oxford’s Somerville College have a whole library at their fingertips. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has: to spend her days folding the pages of books in the company of the other bindery girls. Then refugees arrive from the war-torn cities of Belgium, sending ripples through the Oxford community and the sisters’ lives.
Ballantine Books | 9780593600467

BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN by Jessica Knoll (Psychological Thriller)
BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive --- including sorority president and key witness Pamela Schumacher --- are forever changed. Across the country, Tina Cannon is convinced her missing friend was targeted by the man papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer --- and that he’s struck again. Determined to find justice, the two join forces as their search for answers leads to a final, shocking confrontation.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781501153235

CALIFORNIA GOLDEN by Melanie Benjamin (Historical Fiction)
Southern California, 1960s. Carol Donnelly is a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport --- and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, bear the weight of her unconventional lifestyle. The Donnelly sisters grow up enduring their mother’s absence, both physically and emotionally. To escape questions about Carol’s whereabouts --- and to chase her elusive affection --- they cut school to spend their days in the surf. From her first time on a board, Mindy is a natural, but Ginger, two years younger, feels out of place in the water. As they grow up and their lives diverge, Mindy and Ginger’s relationship ebbs and flows. But through it all, their sense of duty to each other survives, as they are forever connected by the emotional damage they carry from their unorthodox childhood.
Bantam | 9780593497876

CANARY GIRLS by Jennifer Chiaverini (Historical Fiction)
Early in the Great War, Britain’s munitions factories struggled to produce the weapons their troops desperately needed in their fight against the Central Powers. Facing a shortage of civilian men, factory owners appealed to women to step up and help their nation build bombs. “Be the Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun” declared the recruitment posters, and thousands of young women responded to the call. The jobs were grueling --- 12-hour shifts, six days a week --- and dangerous. Yet for many “munitionettes,” as they were fondly known, war work was also meaningful and exciting. In CANARY GIRLS, Jennifer Chiaverini sheds light on the munitionettes and their contributions to the war effort through both their essential work and play.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063080751

CLIVE CUSSLER THE CORSICAN SHADOW: A Dirk Pitt Novel by Dirk Cussler (Thriller/Adventure)
In May 1940, as the German army blitzes Europe and Parisians flee their city, the chief curator of the Musée de l’Armée is ordered to get a mysterious piece of cargo out of the country. When he arrives at the port of Le Havre and learns that his intended ship has been sunk, he places the object on a decrepit steamer that sails out under German fire. In the present day, National Underwater and Marine Agency Director Dirk Pitt is on a diving expedition in the English Channel when he discovers a cache of uncut diamonds on a shipwreck. When the diamonds are stolen, Pitt and the NUMA agency find themselves up against a murderous cabal that soon reveals far more destructive plans than mere theft. Vital water treatment facilities around the globe are being targeted --- placing the world’s population in grave peril.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593544204

CLOSE KNIT by Jenny Colgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the northernmost reaches of Scotland lives Gertie MacIntyre, a proud island girl by birth. Her social circle is small but tight: family and friends, particularly the women in her knitting circle. In the whitewashed cottages of their hometown, everyone knows everyone, and the ladies of the knitting circle know more than most. In a place of long dark winters and geographic isolation, the knitting circle is a precious source of gossip, home, laughter and comfort for them all. And while she knits, Gertie is busily plotting what to do with the rest of her life. When Gertie develops a crush on Callum Frost, who owns the local airline, she dares herself to take a job as an air stewardess on the little plane that serves the local islands. Will Gertie’s future lie in the skies? Or will she need to go further afield to find the adventure she craves?
Avon | 9780063260566

DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang (Biography)
Born into the steam and starch of a Chinese laundry, Anna May Wong (1905–1961) emerged from turn-of-the-century Los Angeles to become Old Hollywood’s most famous Chinese American actress, a screen siren who captivated global audiences and signed her publicity photos --- with a touch of defiance --- “Orientally yours.” Now, more than a century after her birth, Yunte Huang narrates Wong’s tragic life story, retracing her journey from Chinatown to silent-era Hollywood, and from Weimar Berlin to decadent, prewar Shanghai, and capturing American television in its infancy. As Huang shows, Wong’s rendezvous with history features a remarkable parade of characters, including a smitten Walter Benjamin and (an equally smitten) Marlene Dietrich.
Liveright | 9781324095132

DISTANT SONS by Tim Johnston (Literary Thriller/Mystery)
What if Sean Courtland’s old Chevy truck had broken down somewhere else? What if he’d never met Denise Givens, a waitress at a local tavern in the Wisconsin town where he lands? Or Dan Young, who fled Minnesota for reasons unknown? Instead, Sean and Dan pick up carpentry and plumbing work for an old man named Marion Devereaux, and Sean gets drawn into the lives of Denise and her father --- and of the townspeople, all haunted by the disappearance of three young boys decades ago. As the paths of these characters converge, observing them all is Detective Corinne Viegas, whose drive to seek justice comes from her father's own failure to find those boys and the violence once done to her sister. An irreversible chain of events is set in motion that culminates in shattering violence and the revelation of long-buried truths.
Algonquin Books | 9781643756332

ELIZABETH OF EAST HAMPTON by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Will Darcy is everything Elizabeth Bennet is not. Aloof, arrogant…and rich. Of course, he’s never cared about money. In fact, it’s number one on his long list of things that irk him. Number two? His friend Charlie’s insistence on setting him up with his new girlfriend’s sharp-tongued sister. Lizzy is all wrong for him --- from her money-hungry family to her uncanny ability to speak to him as bluntly as he does everyone else. But then maybe that’s why he can’t stop thinking about her. Lizzy is sure Will hates everybody. He thinks she willfully misunderstands them. Yet, just as they strike an uneasy truce, mistakes threaten Charlie and Jane’s romance, with Will and Lizzy caught in the undertow. The two must sift through the gossip and lies to protect the happiness of everyone they love --- even if it means sacrificing their own.
Gallery Books | 9781668052556

FIRST GEN: A Memoir by Alejandra Campoverdi (Memoir)
Alejandra Campoverdi has been a child on welfare, a White House aide to President Obama, a Harvard graduate, a gang member’s girlfriend, and a candidate for U.S. Congress. She’s ridden on Air Force One and in G-rides. She’s been featured in Maxim magazine and had a double mastectomy. Living a life of contradictory extremes often comes with the territory when you’re a “First and Only.” It also comes at a price. With candor and heart, Alejandra retraces her trajectory as a Mexican American woman raised by an immigrant single mother in Los Angeles. Foregoing the tidy bullet points of her resume and instead shining a light on the spaces between them, what emerges is a powerful testimony that shatters the one-dimensional glossy narrative we are often sold of what it takes to achieve the American Dream.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538757192

THE GOLDEN GATE by Amy Chua (Historical Mystery)
In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan’s investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont 10 years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still. The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris’ sister, Isabella, and her cousins, Cassie and Nicole.
Minotaur Books | 9781250903624

HALCYON by Elliot Ackerman (Alternate History)
Virginia, 2004. Gore is entering his second term as president. Our narrator, Martin Neumann, recently divorced, is living at Halcyon, the estate of renowned lawyer and World War II hero Robert Ableson. When news breaks that scientists funded by the Gore administration have discovered a cure for death, it calls into question everything Martin thought he understood about life, not least his work as a historian. Who is Ableson, really, and why did he draw Martin into his orbit? Is this new science a miraculous good or an insidious evil?
Vintage | 9780593467084

A HISTORY OF BURNING by Janika Oza (Historical Fiction)
In 1898, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labor for the British on the East African Railway. Far from home, he commits a brutal act in the name of survival that will haunt him and his family for years to come. Pirbhai’s children are born in Uganda during the waning days of British colonial rule, and as the country moves toward independence, his granddaughters come of age in a divided nation. In 1972, the entire family is forced to flee under Idi Amin’s military dictatorship. Pirbhai’s grandchildren are now scattered across the world, struggling to find their way back to each other. One day a letter arrives with news that makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, to secure their own place in the world.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538724255

IN A LEAGUE OF HER OWN by Kaia Alderson (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
An ambitious Harlem woman’s husband upends her social climbing when he buys a Negro Leagues baseball team and appoints her as the team’s business manager. Overnight, Effa Manley goes from 125th Street’s civil rights champion to an interloper in the boys’ club that is professional baseball. Navigating her way through gentlemen’s agreement contracts, the very public flirtatious antics of superstar Satchel Paige, and a sports world that would much rather see this woman back in her “place” at home, Effa ultimately whips her team, the Newark Eagles, into the Negro Leagues Champions of 1946. But how long will she get to enjoy the fruits of her success before Major League Baseball tears it all apart?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063228382

LAS MADRES by Esmeralda Santiago (Fiction)
They refer to themselves as “las Madres,” a close-knit group of women who, with their daughters, have created a family based on friendship and blood ties. Their story begins in Puerto Rico in 1975 when 15-year-old Luz is seriously injured in a car accident. Tragically, her parents are both killed in the crash. Now orphaned, Luz copes with the aftershock of a brain injury when two new friends enter her life, Ada and Shirley. In 2017, in the Bronx, Luz’s adult daughter, Marysol, wishes she better understood her. But how can she when her mother barely remembers her own life? To help, Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela, suggests a vacation in Puerto Rico. But despite all their careful planning, back-to-back hurricanes disrupt their homecoming, and a secret is revealed that blows their lives wide open.
Vintage | 9780345803894

THE LAST LIGHT OVER OSLO by Alix Rickloff (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Cleo Jaffray was an American. A war in Europe had nothing to do with her. She told herself that right up until the man she loved went missing in Poland, and Cleo was forced to turn to the only person who might be able to help --- her aunt Daisy, the US Minister to Norway. As only the second woman ambassador, Daisy Harriman is determined to prove the naysayers wrong and succeed in her post. When Cleo lands on her doorstep, Daisy must balance her responsibilities as a diplomat with her desire to help her family. Their search for answers is interrupted when Germany invades Norway, and the pair find themselves on the run. Then, as Daisy is given the task of escorting the Norwegian Crown Princess and her young children to America, Cleo’s lover resurfaces with a story that doesn’t add up and dangerous enemies on his trail.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063286207

A LIKEABLE WOMAN by May Cobb (Psychological Thriller)
After her troublemaker mother’s mysterious death, Kira fled her wealthy Texas town and never looked back. Now, decades later, Kira is invited to an old frenemy’s vow renewal celebration. Though she is reluctant to go, there are things pulling her home --- but none more important are the urgent texts from her grandmother, who says she has something for Kira. Something related to her mother’s death, something that makes it look an awful lot like murder. When her grandmother gives Kira a memoir that her mother had been working on before she died, Kira is drawn into the past and all the sizzling secrets that come along with it. As she gets closer to discovering what --- and who --- might have brought about her mother’s end, it becomes clear that someone wants the past to stay buried.
Berkley | 9780593546802

MRS. PORTER CALLING by AJ Pearce (Historical Fiction)
London, April 1943. A little over a year since she married Captain Charles Mayhew and he went away to war, Emmy Lake is now in charge of “Yours Cheerfully,” the hugely popular advice column in Woman’s Friend magazine. She is dedicated to helping readers face the increasing challenges brought about by over three years of war. But Emmy’s world is turned upside down when a glamorous socialite, the Honorable Mrs. Cressida Porter, becomes the new publisher of the magazine and wants to change everything the readers love. Mrs. Porter fills the pages with expensive clothes and frivolous articles about her friends. Worst of all, she announces that she is cutting the “Yours Cheerfully” column. With the stakes higher than ever, Emmy and her friends must find a way to save the magazine that they love.
Scribner | 9781668007723

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE ALPERTON ANGELS by Janice Hallett (Mystery)
Everyone knows the story of the Alperton Angels: the cult that brainwashed a teenage girl into believing her baby was the anti-Christ. When the girl came to her senses and called the police, the Angels committed suicide and mother and baby disappeared. Now, true-crime author Amanda Bailey is looking to revive her career by writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned 18; finding them will be the scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected and also on the baby’s trail. As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realize that the truth about the Angels is much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined, and in pursuit of the story they risk becoming part of it.
Atria Books | 9781668023402

MYSTERY LIGHTS: Stories by Lena Valencia (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
An influencer attempts to derail a viral TV marketing campaign with her violent cult following. A marriage between two ghost hunters is threatened when one of them loses her ability to see spirits. The lives of a famous painter in the twilight of her career and a teenage UFO enthusiast converge when a mysterious glowing orb appears in their small desert town. And a slasher-flick screenwriter looking for inspiration escapes a pack of wild dogs only to find herself locked in an SUV with a strange man beside her. Set primarily in deserts throughout the American Southwest, Lena Valencia’s MYSTERY LIGHTS is a debut collection of stories about women and girls at the crossroads of mundane daily life and existential dread.
Tin House Books | 9781959030621

ONE WRONG WORD by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Psychological Thriller)
Unfairly accused of having an affair with a powerful client, crisis management expert Arden Ward’s life and dreams are about to crash and burn. Then Arden is given an ultimatum. She has just two weeks to save her career and her reputation. Is Cordelia Bannister the answer to her prayers? Cordelia needs Arden’s help for her husband Ned, a Boston real estate mogul who was recently acquitted in a fatal drunk driving accident. But his reputation is ruined, and the fallout is devastating for his family. Revelations soon begin to emerge about what really happened the night of the accident. And then another car crash throws Ned back into the spotlight. The more Arden tries to untangle the truth, the more she’s haunted by one disturbing question: What if she’s also protecting a killer?
Forge Books | 9781250849502

THE OTHER HALF by Charlotte Vassell (Mystery)
Rupert's 30th birthday party is a black-tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald's --- catered with cocaine and expensive champagne. The morning after, his girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, a single stiletto heel jutting from under a bush. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally. This investigation is going to be about aristocrats and Classics degrees, Instagram influencers and whose father knows who. Or is it "whom"? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn't sure. Sharply dressed, smart and thoroughly modern, he discovers Clemmie's body on his early morning jog. As he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxurious life of these London socialites, a wall of staggering wealth and privilege threatens to shut down his investigation before it's even begun.
Vintage | 9780593685969

THE OTHER WOMAN written by Therese Bohman, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Fiction)
Paperback Original
She works at Norrköping Hospital, at the very bottom of the hierarchy: in the cafeteria, below the doctors, nurses and nursing assistants. But she dreams of one day becoming a writer, of moving away and reinventing herself. Carl Malmberg, an older, married doctor at the hospital, catches her eye. She begins an intense affair with him, though she struggles with the knowledge that he may never be hers. At the same time, she realizes that their attraction to each other is governed by their differences in social status. As her doubts increase, the revelation of a secret no one could have predicted forces her to take her own destiny in hand.
Other Press | 9781635425048

THE PAIRING by Casey McQuiston (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
After a brutal breakup on the transatlantic flight to their dream European food and wine tour, Theo and Kit exited each other's lives once and for all. Theo has found confidence as a hustling bartender by night and aspiring sommelier by day, with a long roster of casual lovers. Kit, who never returned to America, graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school class and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened, good for 48 months after its original date and about to expire. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Separately. It's not until they board the tour bus that they discover they've both accidentally had the exact same idea, and now they're trapped with each other for three weeks.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250862747

THE PERFECT SON by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
Newly Published in the US
Erika Cass has a perfect family and a perfect life. Until, one quiet evening, two detectives show up at her front door. A high school girl has vanished from their quiet neighborhood, and the police suspect the worst. Erika's teenage son, Liam, was the last person to see the girl alive. Erika has always sensed something…different in her seemingly perfect oldest child. He's charming, smart and popular, but mothers have the best instincts, and Erika knows there's more to her son than meets the eye. She wants to believe he's innocent, but as the evidence mounts, she can't deny the truth. Liam may have done the unthinkable.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464227295

PIECES OF BLUE by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Fiction)
When Paul Hill drowns in a surfing accident, his broken-hearted wife, Lindsey, and their three children are left in huge financial trouble. Once Paul’s life insurance finally comes through, Lindsey impulsively uses the money to buy a charmingly ramshackle motel in Hawaii. Teenage Olivia quickly develops a crush on a handsome but monosyllabic skateboarder. Twelve-year-old Carlos reinvents himself as a popular kid named Carl. And Sena, the youngest, will do whatever it takes to protect her beloved motel chickens. But while the kids adjust, Lindsey is flailing. Then a handsome stranger rolls into the motel parking lot, and she’s surprised to feel a long-dormant part of herself stirring. She accepts his offer to help, unaware that he may have secrets of his own.
Flatiron Books | 9781250847317

PROMISE by Rachel Eliza Griffiths (Historical Fiction)
The Kindred sisters, Ezra and Cinthy, have grown up with an abundance of love. Love from their parents. Love from their neighbors, the Junketts, the only other Black family in town. And love for their adopted hometown of Salt Point, a beautiful Maine village. But as the girls hit adolescence, their white neighbors, including Ezra’s best friend, Ruby, start to see their maturing bodies and minds in a different way. And as the news from distant parts of the country fills with calls for freedom, equality and justice for Black Americans, the white villagers of Salt Point begin to view the Kindreds and the Junketts as threats to their way of life. Amid escalating violence, prejudice and fear, Ezra and Cinthy must reach deep inside the wells of love they’ve built to commit great acts of heroism and grace on the path to survival.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593241943

THE RAGING STORM: A Detective Matthew Venn Novel by Ann Cleeves (Mystery)
When Jem Rosco --- sailor, adventurer and legend --- blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But just as abruptly as he arrived, Rosco disappears again, and soon his lifeless body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored-off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own. This is an uncomfortable case for Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Greystone is a place he visited as a child, a community he parted ways with. Superstition and rumor mix with fact as another body is found, and Venn finds his judgment clouded. As the winds howl, and Venn and his team investigate, he realizes that no one --- including himself --- is safe from Scully Cove’s storm of dark secrets.
Minotaur Books | 9781250836793

THE ROSE ARBOR by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
London: 1968. Liz Houghton is languishing as an obituary writer at a London newspaper when a young girl’s disappearance captivates the city. If Liz can break the story, it’s her way into the newsroom. She already has a scoop: her best friend, Marisa, is a police officer assigned to the case. Liz follows Marisa to Dorset, where they make another disturbing discovery. Over two decades earlier, three girls disappeared while evacuating from London. One was found murdered in the woods near a train line. The other two were never seen again. As Liz digs deeper, she finds herself drawn to the village of Tydeham, which was requisitioned by the military during the war and left in ruins. After all these years, what could possibly link the missing girls to this abandoned village? And why does a place Liz has never seen before seem so strangely familiar?
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662504228

THE SISTERHOOD: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy (History)
Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. They were unlikely spies, which is exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives --- first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda --- though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside.
Crown | 9780593238196

SMALL TOWN SINS by Ken Jaworowski (Thriller)
In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a former coal and steel town whose best days seem long past, 5,000 residents have toughed it out. For some of them, their biggest troubles have just arrived. After years of just scraping by, three restless souls have their lives upended: Nathan, a volunteer fireman who uncovers a secret stash of money in a burning building and takes it; Callie, a nurse whose tender patient may not have long to live, despite the girl’s fundamentalist parents’ ardent beliefs; and Andy, a recovering heroin addict who undertakes a nightmare mission to hunt down and stop a serial predator. As their stories barrel toward unexpected ends, Nathan, Callie and Andy struggle to endure --- or escape. They each face their pasts and gamble on their futures, and confront the underside of their rough Rust Belt town.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250881694

THE SPANISH DIPLOMAT’S SECRET by Nev March (Historical Mystery)
Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife, Lady Diana Framji, are embarking to England in the summer of 1894. Jim is hopeful the cruise will help Diana open up to him. Something is troubling her, and Jim is concerned. On their first evening, Jim meets an intriguing Spaniard, a fellow soldier with whom he finds an instant kinship. But within 24 hours, Don Juan Nepomuceno is murdered, his body discovered shortly after he asks rather urgently to see Jim. When the captain discovers that Jim is an investigator, he pleads with Jim to find the killer before they dock in Liverpool in six days, or there could be international consequences. Aboard the beleaguered luxury liner are a thousand suspects but no witnesses to the locked-cabin crime.
Minotaur Books | 9781250855084

A STOLEN CHILD: A Maggie D'arcy Mystery by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Mystery)
After months of training, former Long Island homicide detective Maggie D’arcy is now officially a Garda. She’s finally settling into life in Ireland, and so is her teenage daughter, Lilly. Maggie may not be a detective yet, but she’s happy with her community policing assignment in Dublin's Portobello neighborhood. When she and her partner find former model and reality TV star Jade Elliot murdered, days after responding to a possible domestic violence disturbance at her apartment, they also discover Jade's toddler daughter missing. Amidst a nationwide manhunt, Maggie and her colleagues must look deep into Jade’s life --- both personal and professional --- to find a ruthless killer.
Minotaur Books | 9781250826701

THE THIRTEENTH HUSBAND by Greer Macallister (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Aimee is 10 years old, as the night dips into the witching hour, the Woman in White appears to her. Minutes later, Aimee's father is dead --- and Aimee inherits a fortune. But the Woman in White never really leaves Aimee, appearing as a sinister specter before every tragedy in her life. Despite Aimee's wealth, her cross-continental travels, and her increasingly shocking progression through husbands, Aimee is haunted by the unidentifiable Woman's mysterious motivations. Tearing through millions of dollars, four continents and a hearty collection of husbands, real-life heiress Aimee Crocker blazed an unbelievable trail of public scandal, private tragedy, and the kind of strong independent woman the 1880s had never seen.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728294070

THREE-INCH TEETH: A Joe Pickett Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage --- killing, among others, the potential fiancé of Joe Pickett’s daughter. At the same time, Dallas Cates, who Joe helped lock up years ago, is released from prison with a special list tattooed on his skin. He wants revenge on the people who sent him away: the six people he blames for the deaths of his entire family and the loss of his reputation and property. Using the grizzly attacks as cover, Cates sets out to methodically check off his list. The problem is, both Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett are on it.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593331361

THRONE OF THE FALLEN by Kerri Maniscalco (Fantasy/Romance)
When a cryptic note arrives, signaling the beginning of a deadly game, the Prince of Envy knows it will take more than a hint of sin to win and save his falling demon court. None of his meticulous plans prepare him for the frustrating artist who ignites his sin like no other. The trouble with scoundrels and blackguards is that they haven’t a modicum of honor, which Miss Camilla Antonius learns after one desperate mistake allows Waverly Green’s most notorious rake to blackmail her. To avoid a ruinous scandal, Camilla is forced to enter a devil’s bargain with Envy, little expecting that his game will awaken her true nature. Together, Envy and Camilla must embark on a perilous journey through the Underworld while trying to avoid the most dangerous trap of all: falling in love.
‎Grand Central Publishing | 9780316581486

TIME’S MOUTH by Edan Lepucki (Fiction)
Ursa can travel through memory and revisit her past. After she flees her hometown for the counterculture glory of 1950s California, the intoxicating potential of her unique ability eventually draws a group of women into her orbit and into a ramshackle Victorian mansion. Soon this cultish community of sisterhood takes an ominous turn, prompting Ursa’s son, Ray, and his pregnant lover, Cherry, to flee their home and reinvent themselves far from her insidious influence. But a series of mysterious events forces Cherry to abandon their baby, leaving Ray to raise Opal alone. Now a teenager and still heartbroken over the abandonment of the mother she never knew, Opal must journey into her own past to reveal the generations of secrets that gave rise to the shimmering source of her family's painful legacy.
Counterpoint | 9781640096608

TO ERR IS CUMIN: A Spice Shop Mystery by Leslie Budewitz (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner. Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, who is new in town and is nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper has tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain. On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer.
Seventh Street Books | 9781645060857

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DEVLINS by Lisa Scottoline (Domestic Thriller)
TJ Devlin is the charming disappointment in the prominent Devlin family, all of whom are lawyers at their highly successful firm --- except him. After a stint in prison and rehab for alcoholism, TJ can’t get hired anywhere except at the firm, in a make-work job with the title of investigator. But one night, TJ’s world turns upside down after his older brother, John, confesses that he murdered one of their clients, an accountant he’d confronted with proof of embezzlement. It seems impossible coming from John, the firstborn son and Most Valuable Devlin. TJ plunges into the investigation, seizing the chance to prove his worth and save his brother. But in no time, TJ and John find themselves entangled in a lethal web of deception and murder. TJ will fight to save his family, but what he learns might break them first.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525539735

THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO EMBER by Danica Nava (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Ember Lee Cardinal’s job search is not going well. So when her resumé is rejected for the 37th time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative” listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie --- a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job. Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life --- and her love life seems to be looking up: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, actually seems to be interested in her too. They start to see each other secretly. But when they're caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies.
Berkley | 9780593642603

UNBALANCED: A Jake Longly Thriller by D.P. Lyle (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Ex-pro baseball player Jake Longly and his girlfriend, Nicole, are asked by Jake’s father, Ray, a private investigator, to pick up some papers from a realtor for his business. When Jake and Nicole reach the office, they find it empty --- except for the dead body of the realtor lying on the floor, a single gunshot wound to his head. Who could’ve wanted him dead? The long suspect list and the numerous possible motives make untying the knot difficult. Working with the police department, Jake, Nicole, Ray and their friend, Pancake, dive into the deceivingly simple investigation, which grows more complex by the minute. With millions of dollars at stake, weeding through the realtor’s entanglements requires all hands on deck. And yet again, Jake is dragged into the PI business he can’t seem to escape.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095544

WALKING THE BOWL: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka by Chris Lockhart and Daniel Mulilo Chama
(True Crime/Biography)
Based on years of investigative reporting and unprecedented fieldwork, WALKING THE BOWL immerses readers in the daily lives of four unforgettable characters: Lusabilo, a determined waste picker; Kapula, a burned-out brothel worker; Moonga, a former rock crusher turned beggar; and Timo, an ambitious gang leader. These children navigate the violent and poverty-stricken underworld of Lusaka, one of Africa’s fastest growing cities. When the dead body of a 10-year-old boy is discovered under a heap of garbage in Lusaka’s largest landfill, a murder investigation quickly heats up. The children’s lives become more closely intertwined as each child engages in a desperate bid for survival against forces they never could have imagined.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335449658

WANTED: TODDLER'S PERSONAL ASSISTANT: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me about the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America by Stephanie Kiser (Memoir)
Paperback Original
When Stephanie Kiser moves to New York City after college to pursue a career in writing, she quickly learns that her entry-level salary won't cover the high cost of living --- never mind her crushing student loan debt. But there is one in-demand job that pays more than enough to allow Stephanie to stay in the city: nannying for the 1%. Desperate to escape the poverty of her own childhood and jump social classes, Stephanie falls into a job that hijacks her life for the next seven years: a personal assistant to toddlers on Manhattan's Upper East Side. In WANTED: TODDLER’S PERSONAL ASSISTANT, Stephanie chronicles her journey from newbie nanny to beloved caregiver --- and the painful decision to eventually say goodbye to the children she has grown to love.
Sourcebooks | 9781728298160

WEDNESDAY’S CHILD: Stories by Yiyun Li (Fiction/Short Stories)
A grieving mother makes a spreadsheet of everyone she’s lost. Elsewhere, a professor develops a troubled intimacy with her hairdresser. And every year, a restless woman receives an email from a strange man twice her age and several states away. In Yiyun Li’s stories, people strive for an ordinary existence until doing so becomes unsustainable, until the surface cracks and the grand mysterious forces --- death, violence, estrangement --- come to light. And even everyday life is laden with meaning, studded with indelible details: a filched jar of honey, a mound of wounded ants, a photograph kept hidden for many years, until it must be seen.
Picador | 9781250338389

On Sale the Week of August 12th in Hardcover

August 13th

ALL THE WAY GONE: A Detective Annalisa Vega Novel by Joanna Schaffhausen (Mystery)
Is there such a thing as a good sociopath? Newly minted private investigator Annalisa Vega is skeptical, but her first client, Mara Delaney, insists that some sociopaths are beneficial to society. Mara has even written a book titled The Good Sociopath centered on Chicago neurosurgeon Craig Canning. Dr. Canning has saved hundreds of lives, so it shouldn’t matter that he doesn’t actually care about his patients, should it? But Mara has a more urgent problem. She is now concerned that Canning might not be such a good sociopath after all. A young woman in Canning’s apartment building mysteriously plunged to her death from a balcony, and Mara fears Canning could be responsible. She needs to uncover the truth about Canning before the book comes out, so Annalisa has little time to search for answers.
Minotaur Books | 9781250904140

ANGEL OF VENGEANCE: A Pendergast Novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
Constance Greene confronts Manhattan’s most dangerous serial killer, Enoch Leng, bartering for her sister's life. But she is betrayed and turned away empty-handed, incandescent with rage. Unknown to Leng, Pendergast’s brother, Diogenes, appears unexpectedly, offering to help --- for mysterious reasons of his own. Disguised as a cleric, Diogenes establishes himself in New York's notorious Five Points slum, manipulating events like a chess master, watching Leng’s every move…and awaiting his own chance to strike. Meanwhile, as Pendergast focuses on saving the unstable Constance in her fanatical quest for vengeance, she strikes out on her own: to rescue her beloved siblings from a tragic fate and take savage retribution on Leng. But Leng is one step ahead and has a surprise for them all.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538765708

BLIND TO MIDNIGHT: A Nick Ryan Novel by Reed Farrel Coleman (Thriller)
Every cop in the city knows his name, but no one says it out loud. He doesn't wear a uniform, but he is the most powerful cop in New York. Nick Ryan can find a criminal who's vanished. Or make a key witness disappear. He has cars, safe houses, money and weapons hidden all over the city. Nearly 3,000 New Yorkers died on 9/11. But in the entire city on that tragic day, only one murder actually took place. Now, over two decades later, Detective Nick Ryan must dig beneath the official report --- and into his own past --- to find the truth. Working again for the mysterious power broker "Joe," Nick finds a link between an airman, a billionaire, a trove of Nazi gold and a crew of killers, but he gets sidetracked when his dear "uncle" Tony and Tony's wife are murdered in a professional hit.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798874823900

BURN by Peter Heller (Dystopian Thriller)
Every year, Jess and Storey have made an annual pilgrimage to the most remote corners of the country. Although the state of Maine has convulsed all summer with secession mania --- a mania that simultaneously has spread across other states --- Jess and Storey figure it’s a fight reserved for legislators or, worst-case scenario, folks in the capital. But after weeks hunting off the grid, the men reach a small town and are shocked by what they find: a bridge blown apart, buildings burned to the ground, and bombed-out cars abandoned on the road. Trying to make sense of the sudden destruction all around them, they set their sights on finding their way home, dodging armed men as they seek a path to safety. Then a startling discovery drastically alters their path and the stakes of their escape.
Knopf | 9780593801628

BURN OUT by Joshua Hood (Thriller/Adventure)
Becoming one of the US Forest Service's elite smokejumpers has been Jake Slade's dream. Parachuting into the path of a raging fire and beating it into submission isn't for the faint of heart, but Slade has never backed down from a challenge. After surviving the grueling six-week training course, he thinks he's ready for anything nature has to dish out. What he hasn't considered is man-made danger, in the form of an old friend turned CI and the DEA Special Agent determined to hunt him down…using Slade as the tracker. It's an offer he wants to refuse, but with the promise of prison time being expunged from his record, Slade agrees, hoping to finally put to rest the demons of his past. But what begins as a straightforward search-and-rescue mission swiftly turns into a harrowing run for his life.
Blackstone Publishing | 9781665109611

DRAWN TESTIMONY: My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist by Jane Rosenberg (Memoir)
For over 40 years, Jane Rosenberg has been at the heart of the news cycle, covering almost every major trial that has passed through the New York justice system as a courtroom sketch artist, including the most recent Donald Trump hush money trial. In DRAWN TESTIMONY, Rosenberg brings us into the dramatic high-stakes world of her craft, where art, psychology and courtroom drama collide. Over the course of her legendary career, Jane has had a front-row seat to some of the most iconic and notorious moments in our nation’s recent history. Readers will learn how she has honed her unique powers of perception and what her portraits reveal, not only about her subjects, but about the human condition in general.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335008046

A GREAT MARRIAGE by Frances Mayes (Fiction)
Dara Willcox, in New York for a weekend, meets Austin Clarke at an art gallery. If love at first sight can happen, it happens to them. These two vivid, ambitious people are on different courses, but they will make their lives together happen. At their April engagement dinner at Dara’s family home, her mother, Lee, sets a beautiful table, and the family and close friends gather to celebrate. Rich, Dara’s father, raises a toast. Suddenly, Lee spills the wine, a brilliant red stain splashing onto the tablecloth and onto Austin. Days later, Austin hears unsettling news from London that wrecks their plans. Dara abruptly cancels the wedding and refuses to reveal the reason. Austin faces a major tragedy, the consequences of which are life-altering. But it’s Lee’s impulsive visit to London that alters their fate.
Ballantine Books | 9780593498989

HERA by Jennifer Saint (Historical Fiction/Mythology)
When the immortal goddess Hera and her brother, Zeus, overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side. But as they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera begins to see that Zeus is just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed. While Zeus ascends, Hera is relegated to the role of wife and mother, a role she never wanted. She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?
Flatiron Books | 9781250855602

HIGHWAY THIRTEEN: Stories by Fiona McFarlane (Fiction/Short Stories)
In the small town of Barrow, Australia, people go about their ordinary lives. They drive to work through the dense state forest. They raise their families. They flirt and yearn. They lie and confess. Some of them leave home. Some of them return. Darkness thrums beneath the surface of these ordinary lives: the violence of one man, a serial killer whose murders made Barrow infamous. His 12 victims are long gone, but their deaths are felt --- beyond the forest where they were buried, beyond this country, beyond even this time. In the past, where a young woman on a school trip to Rome sees something she shouldn’t have. In the present, where a man confronts an ancient grief on the suburban streets of Texas. In the future, in the hands of journalists, podcast hosts and television actors whose livelihoods hinge on the twin spectacles of loss and violence.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374606268

HOW TO LEAVE THE HOUSE by Nathan Newman (Fiction/Humor)
It's Natwest's last day before he leaves for university, and there's only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house --- which still hasn't arrived. He won't leave town without it. This is the story of 24 hours in the life of Natwest and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. Yet it's also the story of a middle-aged dentist who dreams of being a respected artist --- but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it's the story of a tortured imam involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; an octogenerian mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a troubled teenager whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It's the story of Natwest's obnoxious ex-boyfriend; his class-traitor mother and her childhood boyfriend; and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest's past.
Viking | 9780593654903

THE HYPOCRITE by Jo Hamya (Fiction)
August 2020. Sophia, a young playwright, awaits her father’s verdict on her new show. A famous author whose novels haven’t aged as gracefully into the modern era as he might have hoped, he is completely unaware that the play centers on a vacation the two took years earlier to an island off Sicily, where he dictated to her a new book. Sophia’s play has been met with rave reviews, but her father has studiously avoided reading any of them. When the house lights dim, however, he understands that his daughter has laid him bare and used the events of their summer to create an incisive, witty, skewering critique of the attitudes and sexual mores of the men of his generation.
Pantheon | 9780593701034

I NEED YOU TO READ THIS by Jessa Maxwell (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Years ago, Alex Marks escaped to New York City for a fresh start. But her carefully cultivated world is upended when her childhood hero, Francis Keen, is brutally murdered. Francis was the woman behind the famous advice column "Dear Constance," and her words helped Alex through some of her darkest times. When Alex sees an advertisement searching for her replacement, she impulsively applies. Against all odds, she is given the position and quickly proves herself skilled at solving other people’s problems. But she soon begins to receive strange, potentially threatening letters at the office. Francis’ murderer was never identified, turning everyone around her into a threat. As Alex is drawn into the details surrounding her predecessor’s murder, her own dark secrets begin to rise to the surface.
Atria Books | 9781668008034

JOY by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Sent to live in her grandparents’ joyless home after her parents abandon her, Allegra Dixon finds her only solace through an escape into books. Attending boarding school, life finally takes a turn when she meets a dashing young West Point cadet named Shep Williams. Soon their friendship blossoms into something more, and they fall deeply in love. After college, Allegra has established herself as a book editor, and Shep is rising through the ranks of the military. But then Shep suddenly receives a posting to Afghanistan, and they decide to marry before he goes. Between his deployments, they cling to their brief and fraught stolen moments together. Each time he leaves, Shep promises the separations will come to an end. But soon Allegra realizes that the horrors of war have begun to change her husband into a man she no longer recognizes.
Delacorte Press | 9780593498613

LADY MACBETH by Ava Reid (Historical Fantasy)
The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men. The Lady knows that she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed. The Lady knows that his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive. But the Lady does not know that her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world. She does not know this yet. But she will.
Del Rey | 9780593722565

MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY: A Memoir by Anna Marie Tendler (Memoir)
In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs. In MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY, Tendler recounts her hospital experience, as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed. As the title suggests, many of these moments are impacted by men --- unrequited love in high school; the 28-year-old she lost her virginity to when she was 16; the frustrations and absurdities of dating in her mid-30s; and her decision to freeze her eggs as all her friends were starting families.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668032343

PEGGY by Rebecca Godfrey with Leslie Jamison (Historical Fiction)
Venice, 1958. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress and now legendary art collector, sits in the sun at her white marble palazzo on the Grand Canal. She’s in a reflective mood, thinking back on her thrilling, tragic, nearly impossible journey from her sheltered, old-fashioned family in New York to here: iconoclast and independent woman. Rebecca Godfrey’s PEGGY is a blazingly fresh interpretation of a woman who defies every expectation to become an original. The daughter of two Jewish dynasties, Peggy finds her cloistered life turned upside down at 14, when her beloved father perishes on the Titanic. His death prompts Peggy to seek a life of passion and personal freedom and, above all, to believe in the transformative power of art.
Random House | 9780385538282

THE STRANGER AT THE WEDDING by A. E. Gauntlett (Mystery/Thriller)
Annie never much believed in love. That is, until meeting Mark. After crossing paths on morning commutes, they connect at a group counseling session for trauma survivors. Each recognizes something in the other, though both hide their own troubled pasts. It’s a whirlwind romance that propels Annie through their courtship, all the way to her wedding day. But as she stands at the altar, casting her eyes over the rows of well-wishers, she spots a stranger in the crowd, and she soon learns that her new life isn’t going to be the happily ever after that she had planned. Who is the stranger at the wedding? What really happened to Mark’s first wife? And was Annie and Mark’s meeting as random as it first appeared, or is something more sinister at work?
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250343369

TILL DEATH DO US PART by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (Domestic Thriller)
Ten years ago, June’s beloved husband, Josh, drowned on their honeymoon, and his body was never found. Now, a decade later, June is finally ready to move on. She owns a natural wine bar in Brooklyn and is engaged to a patient, supportive man named Kyle. But out of the blue, she sees Josh. Is this just a hallucination from the guilt June carries about finally moving on, or is it possible that he never died in the first place? Soon enough, she stumbles across a website for a winery in Napa, and the owner in the photo is identical to her dead husband. With her upcoming wedding looming, June secretly flies to Napa for answers. But she’s not prepared for all the secrets she’s about to unlock because everything she thought she knew about her first love is a lie.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982144661

WORST CASE SCENARIO by T.J. Newman (Thriller)
When a pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet, a commercial airliner filled with passengers crashes into a nuclear power plant in the small town of Waketa, Minnesota, which becomes ground zero for a catastrophic national crisis with global implications. The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record: Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8. Until now. In WORST CASE SCENARIO, ordinary people --- power plant employees, firefighters, teachers, families, neighbors and friends --- are thrust into an extraordinary situation as they face the ultimate test of their lives. It will take the combined courage, ingenuity and determination of a brave few to save not only their community and loved ones, but the fate of humanity at large.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316576796

On Sale the Week of August 12th in Paperback

August 13th

THE ABSOLUTES by Molly Dektar (Gothic Psychological Thriller)
When Nora, a withdrawn American teenager, is sent to live with relatives in Turin, she meets Nicola, the enigmatic son of the most powerful aristocratic family in Italy. Years later, the two reconnect in New York and begin a heated affair. Propelled by disorienting desire, Nora quickly becomes entangled in Nicola’s insular, menacing world of old-world luxury and family secrets. When she suspects she’s being used in a secret plot to overthrow his corrupt father, Nora willfully turns submissive to Nicola, pushing against the boundaries of her own moral limits until she finds herself spiraling on a path of self-destruction.
Mariner Books | 9780063282711

THE BREAK-UP PACT by Emma Lord (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
June and Levi were best friends as teenagers --- until the day they weren’t. Now June is struggling to make rent on her beachside tea shop, Levi is living a New York cliché as a disillusioned hedge fund manager and failed novelist, and they've barely spoken in years. But after they both experience public, humiliating break-ups with their exes, they accidentally make some juicy gossip of their own --- a photo of them together has the internet convinced they're a couple. With so many people rooting for them, they decide to put aside their rocky past and make a pact to fuel the fire. Pretending to date will help June’s shop get back on its feet and make Levi’s ex realize that she made a mistake. All they have to do is convince the world they're in love, one swoon-worthy photo opp at a time.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250845306

THE BROTHERS KENNEY by Adam Mitzner (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Former track star Sean Kenney used to be on top of the world, but that was a very long time ago. Now he's been estranged from his loved ones for the past two years --- until the unthinkable calls him home. While struggling to make sense of the devastating death that has shaken the Kenney family to its core, Sean grasps at the opportunity to seek forgiveness for his past mistakes --- from his family and himself --- while clinging to the belief that if he can discover what really happened that day, he might somehow be redeemed.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212631334

DARK CORNERS by Megan Goldin (Psychological Thriller)
Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his release date approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped --- or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? And why was she visiting him in the first place? When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel Krall’s help in finding the missing influencer. Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250842251

DEAR HANNA by Zoje Stage (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
As a young child, Hanna tried to murder her own mother. But that was more than 16 years ago. Extensive therapy --- and writing letters to her younger brother --- has since curbed those nasty tendencies. Now 24, Hanna is living an outwardly normal life of domestic content. Married to real estate agent Jacob, she’s also stepmother to his teenage daughter, Joelle. They live in a beautiful home, and Hanna loves her career as a phlebotomist --- a job perfectly suited to her occasional need to hurt people. But when Joelle begins to change in ways that don’t suit Hanna’s purposes, her carefully planned existence threatens to come apart. With life slipping out of her control, Hanna reverts to old habits, determined to manipulate the events and people around her. And the only thing worse than a baby sociopath is a fully grown one.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662520990

THE ITALY LETTERS by Vi Khi Nao (Fiction)
Paperback Original
This beautiful and mesmerizing novel by a queer Vietnamese American writer is a brilliant and unclassifiable work of fiction that takes the form of a series of letters written by the unnamed narrator to her lover in Italy: part of a stream-of-consciousness narrative that is by turns poignant, bawdy, funny and disturbing --- and often beautifully poetic. Along the way, the story touches on the immigrant experience, LGBTQIA identity, social class, writing, betrayal, sex and homesickness.
Melville House | 9781685891305

THE LAND OF LOST THINGS by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller)
Phoebe, an eight-year-old girl, lies comatose following a car accident --- a body without a spirit. Ceres, her mother, can only sit by her bedside and read aloud the fairy stories Phoebe loves in the hope they might summon her back to this world. But an old house on the hospital grounds, a property connected to a book written by a vanished author, is calling to Ceres. Something wants her to enter, to journey to a land colored by the memories of childhood, and the folklore beloved of her father --- a land of witches and dryads, giants and mandrakes; a land where old enemies are watching and waiting. The Land of Lost Things.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668022290

THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman (Mystery)
It's rarely a quiet day for the Thursday Murder Club. Shocking news reaches them --- an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing. The gang's search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers and online fraudsters --- as well as heartache close to home --- Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust. With the body count rising, the clock ticking down, and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?
Penguin Books | 9780593299449

THE MURDERS IN GREAT DIDDLING by Katarina Bivald (Mystery/Humor)
Paperback Original
The small, rundown village of Great Diddling is full of stories. The way the villagers avoid outsiders, the furtive stares and whispers in the presence of newcomers --- author Berit Gardner can sense the edge of a story waiting to be unraveled, and she's just the person to do it. In fact, with a book deadline looming over her and no manuscript, Berit doesn't just want this story. She needs it. Then, while attending a village tea party, Berit becomes part of the action herself. An explosion in the library of the village's grand manor kills a local man, and the resulting investigation and influx of outsiders sends the quiet, rundown community into chaos. The residents of Great Diddling rewrite their own narrative and transform the death of one of their own from a tragedy into a new beginning.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728295763

A PROMISED LAND by Barack Obama (Memoir)
In this stirring first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency --- a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.
Crown | 9781524763176

RED RABBIT by Alex Grecian (Supernatural Horror/Western)
Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit. On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure --- but no sense of purpose --- and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger. Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250874696

REYKJAVÍK: A Crime Story by Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdóttir (Mystery)
Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. Time passes, and the mystery becomes Iceland‘s most infamous unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there? Thirty years later, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lára's case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret, and with the eyes of Reykjavík upon him, it soon becomes clear that Lára's disappearance is a mystery that someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved.
Minotaur Books | 9781250907356

SCANDALOUS WOMEN: A Novel of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann by Gill Paul (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
1966, NYC: Jacqueline Susann’s VALLEY OF THE DOLLS hits bookstores, and she is desperate for a bestseller. In London, Jackie Collins’ racy THE WORLD IS FULL OF MARRIED MEN launches her career. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex. 1965, NYC: College graduate Nancy White is excited to take up her dream job at a Manhattan publishing house, but she never could be prepared for the rampant sexism she will encounter. While working on VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, she becomes friends with Jacqueline Susann, and, after reaching out to Jackie Collins about a US deal, she is responsible for the two authors meeting. Will the two Jackies clash as they race to top the charts? Will Nancy achieve her ambition of becoming an editor, despite all the men determined to hold her back?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063245150

TELL ME WHAT I AM by Una Mannion (Psychological Thriller)
Nessa Garvey’s sister, Deena, vanished without a trace in Philadelphia in 2004. In all that time, Nessa has never once doubted what her instincts told her: her sister’s ex-husband has gotten away with an unspeakable crime. Nessa’s niece, Ruby, is raised by her father, the man Nessa suspects, in rural Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain. Ruby learns how to hunt, how the plants and trees grow, how to avoid making her father angry. The one question she longs to ask is the one she knows she cannot voice: What really happened to her mother? Over 14 years and 400 miles apart, these two women slowly begin to unearth the family history of insidious power and control that has shaped them both in such different ways. But can they reach each other in time?
Harper Perennial | 9780063314788

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