In September 2022, the unthinkable happened: 19-year-old American chess prodigy Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in a stunning face-to-face match. Within days, Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating --- a bombshell allegation that rocked the chess world. As the scandal spiraled, Chess.com --- the dominant force in online chess --- launched a high-stakes investigation igniting a global media firestorm. But CHECKMATE is about more than a cheating scandal. It’s the story of a teenager willing to risk everything to rise to the top; a reclusive genius suddenly fighting to protect his legacy; and a centuries-old game transforming into a billion-dollar industry fueled by streaming, sponsorships and Silicon Valley power players.

In September 2022, the unthinkable happened: 19-year-old American chess prodigy Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in a stunning face-to-face match. Within days, Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating --- a bombshell allegation that rocked the chess world. As the scandal spiraled, Chess.com --- the dominant force in online chess --- launched a high-stakes investigation igniting a global media firestorm. But CHECKMATE is about more than a cheating scandal. It’s the story of a teenager willing to risk everything to rise to the top; a reclusive genius suddenly fighting to protect his legacy; and a centuries-old game transforming into a billion-dollar industry fueled by streaming, sponsorships and Silicon Valley power players.

From the bestselling author of THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES and BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE comes the cinematic true story about the biggest scandal in modern chess.

In September 2022, the unthinkable happened: 19-year-old American chess prodigy Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in a stunning face-to-face match. Within days, Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating --- a bombshell allegation that rocked the chess world. As the scandal spiraled, Chess.com --- the dominant force in online chess --- launched a high-stakes investigation igniting a global media firestorm.

But CHECKMATE is about more than a cheating scandal. It’s the story of a teenager willing to risk everything to rise to the top; a reclusive genius suddenly fighting to protect his legacy; and a centuries-old game transforming into a billion-dollar industry fueled by streaming, sponsorships and Silicon Valley power players.

With exclusive access to the central figures, Ben Mezrich takes readers deep inside the weird, wild and cutthroat world of competitive chess --- where genius meets ambition, and every move could be your last.

Audiobook available, read by Adam Verner

Marion has stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. The only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who's a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower when the curtain is pulled back. Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now she's covered in blood, and she's a woman on the run. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?

Marion has stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. The only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who's a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower when the curtain is pulled back. Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now she's covered in blood, and she's a woman on the run. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?

NORMAN WAS HER FIRST...

Marion is in deep. She's stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. It's late at night, and the only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She pays for a room in cash and ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who's handsome, charming and a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower, scrubbing off the late-summer heat, when the curtain is pulled back.

Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now, she's covered in blood, and she's a woman on the run --- not just a thief, but a killer, too. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?

In Psycho, Hitchcock shocked audiences when he killed off his protagonist. But what if the leading lady had fought back? MARION offers an alternate history of the most famous dead blonde to ever grace the silver screen. Only this time, the knife is in her hands --- and she's no victim.

Audiobook available, read by Natalie Naudus and Tawny Platis

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) was only 27 years old when she began work on one of the most important novels in the English language. Two years later in 1847, she completed WUTHERING HEIGHTS. It took the world almost a century to catch up to Brontë’s masterpiece, and it has taken even longer to know Brontë --- an elusive figure, with a ghostly legacy provoked by her early death and the loss (and likely destruction) of almost all her personal papers. Drawing on formerly inaccessible notebooks and manuscripts, THIS DARK NIGHT constructs a portrait of Brontë, her famous writing sisters Charlotte and Anne, and the effect of their sisters’ and mother’s tragic deaths. 

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) was only 27 years old when she began work on one of the most important novels in the English language. Two years later in 1847, she completed WUTHERING HEIGHTS. It took the world almost a century to catch up to Brontë’s masterpiece, and it has taken even longer to know Brontë --- an elusive figure, with a ghostly legacy provoked by her early death and the loss (and likely destruction) of almost all her personal papers. Drawing on formerly inaccessible notebooks and manuscripts, THIS DARK NIGHT constructs a portrait of Brontë, her famous writing sisters Charlotte and Anne, and the effect of their sisters’ and mother’s tragic deaths. 

Deborah Lutz compellingly captures Emily Jane Brontë, extraordinary poet and author of the incomparable WUTHERING HEIGHTS, with deep insight and glorious prose.

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) was only 27 years old when she began work on one of the most important novels in the English language. Two years later in 1847, she completed WUTHERING HEIGHTS. It took the world almost a century to catch up to Brontë’s masterpiece, and it has taken even longer to know Brontë --- an elusive figure, with a ghostly legacy provoked by her early death and the loss (and likely destruction) of almost all her personal papers.

Drawing on formerly inaccessible notebooks and manuscripts, THIS DARK NIGHT constructs a portrait of Brontë, her famous writing sisters Charlotte and Anne, and the effect of their sisters’ and mother’s tragic deaths. In the first full-length biography in over 20 years, renowned scholar Deborah Lutz sketches the days of a woman crafting otherworldly fiction while running her father’s parsonage: writing interweaving with household work, daydreaming and exploring the rough-hewn outdoors.

As she traces the influence of Brontë’s life and work, Lutz follows how Brontë’s fantastical early poems of the night sky, women rulers, and outsiders and rebels grew into the stormy, transcendent WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Lutz also illuminates the overlooked ways that the legendary writer addressed debates of her time that still resonate today, including questions of gender and sexuality, race and class, and rapid industrialization set against the natural world.

From her menagerie of dogs and birds to the beloved moors that Brontë wandered and later emblazoned in her novel, Lutz depicts the passions of an author at odds with convention. Uniting the domestic and the cosmic, THIS DARK NIGHT plumbs the life and writing of this idiosyncratic woman, dark soul and monumental genius.

Audiobook available, read by Christine Rendel 

1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Optimism was fading --- and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, and fans stayed home. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out --- missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago, and setting in motion a chain of events that eventually would bring together the world’s best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World’s Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America’s standing on the world stage. But dark clouds were gathering abroad.

1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Optimism was fading --- and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, and fans stayed home. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out --- missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago, and setting in motion a chain of events that eventually would bring together the world’s best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World’s Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America’s standing on the world stage. But dark clouds were gathering abroad.

Acclaimed journalist Randall Sullivan tells the story of baseball in America, from its rough-and-tumble origins through the first decades of the 20th century and into the pivotal summer of 1933 --- when national crisis and a sport’s fight for survival converged in baseball’s first All-Star Game.

1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Breadlines stretched around city blocks, and shantytowns sprawled in the shadows of skyscrapers. American optimism was fading --- and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, fans stayed home, and even the mighty Babe Ruth seemed to have lost some of his magic. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out --- missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago and setting in motion a chain of events that eventually would bring together the world’s best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game.

It was a newspaperman’s idea: The Game of the Century. Put the world’s best players on one field and let the public decide who belonged there. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World’s Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America’s standing on the world stage. But abroad, dark clouds were gathering. Hitler was Germany’s new chancellor, and Mussolini had consolidated his power. As visitors strolled the fairgrounds, Italian warplanes flew overhead, and a zeppelin sent by the German delegation circled the city emblazoned with a swastika.

THE FIRST ALL-STAR GAME is the story of a nation and a sport at a crossroads and a sweeping look back at baseball’s early history and the America that shaped it. Deeply researched and filled with remarkable characters --- legendary players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Lefty Grove rubbing shoulders with Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone and Charles Lindbergh --- Randall Sullivan explores the history of an American obsession and captures the moment when both the sport and the nation found renewal in a single spectacle of hope.

Audiobook available, read by Johnny Heller 

Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is the sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands and her body forever in the hands of her enemies. Anne’s only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so she arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France’s greatest rival. The forest of Brocéliande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Broceliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn. While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Brocéliande. It’s a diversion so she can wed in secret. Or so she thinks.

Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is the sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands and her body forever in the hands of her enemies. Anne’s only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so she arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France’s greatest rival. The forest of Brocéliande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Broceliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn. While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Brocéliande. It’s a diversion so she can wed in secret. Or so she thinks.

In a desperate gamble to save her throne, a young monarch conceals a secret marriage in the shadows of an enchanted forest --- and unknowingly alters the fate of her world --- in this dazzling novel from the New York Times bestselling author of THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE.

Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is the sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands and her body forever in the hands of her enemies.

But Anne refuses to be the last duchess of Brittany.

Her only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so Anne arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France’s greatest rival. But secrets are hard to keep in a world where rival courts spy on each other with diviners.

The forest of Brocéliande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Broceliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn and one critical quirk: This ancient forest is completely hostile to divination.

While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Brocéliande. A bit of pointless pageantry. A diversion so she can wed in secret.

Or so she thinks.

In this rich and epic novel, the author of the acclaimed Winternight trilogy turns the real history of a remarkable woman into an unforgettable tale of mystery, enchantment and the price of power.

Audiobook available, read by Fiona Hardingham