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Herman Melville

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

Attribution

Herman Melville

Rick Bass

To not pursue the thing one wants would be a waste of one's life.

Attribution

Rick Bass

March 6, 2020

Today I bring you my annual idea that Daylight Saving Time should kick off on a Monday, not on a weekend day. I do not need an hour less of the weekend; I think we should lobby for this to happen on a Monday!

It was a super busy and book-filled week. On Monday night, I attended the 25th anniversary of the Audie Awards, which was hosted by Mo Rocca, the “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent, author and host of the “Mobituaries” podcast. I have not been to this ceremony before and am so glad I went. It was terrific in that it gave me some more intel about the audio business --- and it was brisk, with wonderful presenters and very few speeches.

Editorial Content for Victim 2117: A Department Q Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

Those who have been faithfully reading the Department Q books will rejoice upon cracking the binding of VICTIM 2117, the latest installment in the series. Read More

Teaser

The newspaper refers to the body only as Victim 2117 --- the 2,117th refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and the death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold cases division led by Detective Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous --- and deeply personal --- case. A case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past, but has deadly implications for the future.

Promo

The newspaper refers to the body only as Victim 2117 --- the 2,117th refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and the death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold cases division led by Detective Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous --- and deeply personal --- case. A case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past, but has deadly implications for the future.

About the Book

In the heart-pounding next installment of the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling Department Q series, a terrifying international investigation reveals the complex backstory of one of the department's own --- the enigmatic Assad.

The newspaper refers to the body only as Victim 2117 --- the 2,117th refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and the death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold cases division led by Detective Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous --- and deeply personal --- case. A case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past, but has deadly implications for the future.

For troubled Danish teen Alexander, whose identity is hidden behind his computer screen, the death of Victim 2117 becomes a symbol of everything he resents and the perfect excuse to unleash his murderous impulses in real life. For Ghallib, one of the most brutal tormentors from Abu Ghraib --- Saddam Hussein’s infamous prison --- the death of Victim 2117 was the first step in a terrorist plot years in the making. And for Department Q’s Assad, Victim 2117 is a link to his buried past --- and the family he assumed was long dead.

With the help of the Department Q squad --- Carl, Rose and Gordon --- Assad must finally confront painful memories from his years in the Middle East in order to find and capture Ghallib. But with the clock ticking down to Alexander’s first kill and Ghallib’s devastating attack, the thinly spread Department Q will need to stay one step ahead of their most lethal adversary yet if they are to prevent the loss of thousands of innocent lives.

Audiobook available, read by Graeme Malcolm

Editorial Content for The Sea of Lost Girls

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Haywood Academy is located along the coast of a small Maine town. The ocean is full of stories, and some of the young women from the school have found themselves a part of those. This is the setting for Carol Goodman’s latest thriller, THE SEA OF LOST GIRLS, which takes some of the horrors that have haunted this town and adds some more tragedy to that history. Read More

Teaser

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried. Now she’s the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her 17-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behavior she’s long worried about, seems to be thriving. But one morning she gets a text from Rudy, asking for help. When she picks him up, she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess learns that Lila Zeller, Rudy’s girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where she found Rudy just hours before. As the investigation into Lila’s death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister.

Promo

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried. Now she’s the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her 17-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behavior she’s long worried about, seems to be thriving. But one morning she gets a text from Rudy, asking for help. When she picks him up, she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess learns that Lila Zeller, Rudy’s girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where she found Rudy just hours before. As the investigation into Lila’s death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister.

About the Book

In the tradition of Daphne du Maurier, Shari Lapena and Michelle Richmond comes a new thriller from the bestselling author of THE LAKE OF DEAD LANGUAGES --- a twisty, harrowing story set at a prestigious prep school in which one woman’s carefully hidden past might destroy her future.

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried, where it belongs. Now she’s the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her 17-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behavior she’s long worried about, seems to be thriving: he has a lead role in the school play and a smart and ambitious girlfriend. Tess tries not to think about the mistakes she made 18 years ago, and mostly, she succeeds.

And then one more morning she gets a text at 2:50am: it’s Rudy, asking for help. When Tess picks him up, she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess gets a phone call from the Haywood school headmistress: Lila Zeller, Rudy’s girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where Tess found Rudy just hours before.

As the investigation into Lila’s death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister, and not only is Tess’ son a suspect but her husband is a person of interest too. But Lila’s death isn’t the first blemish on Haywood’s record, and the more Tess learns about Haywood’s fabled history, the more she realizes that not all skeletons will stay safely locked in the closet.

Audiobook available, read by Natalie Naudus

Editorial Content for The Last Taxi Driver

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

The dark despair of driving in urban circles has been well-captured on film: think Taxi Driver and Repo Man. Lee Durkee’s novel, THE LAST TAXI DRIVER, shares with the above a perspective on American life that is both realistic and paranoid and a frantic energy that emanates from its protagonist. The potential for violence lurks on every page and erupts in assaults sadly mundane and shockingly horrific. Read More

Teaser

Lee Durkee takes readers on a high-stakes cab ride through an unforgettable shift. Meet Lou --- a lapsed novelist, struggling Buddhist and UFO fan --- who drives for a ramshackle taxi company that operates on the outskirts of a north Mississippi college town. With Uber moving into town and his way of life vanishing, his girlfriend moving out, and his archenemy dispatcher suddenly returning to town on the lam, Lou must finish his bedlam shift by aiding and abetting the host of criminal misfits haunting the back seat of his disintegrating Town Car. Lou is forced to decide how much he can take as a driver, and if keeping his job is worth madness and heartbreak.

Promo

Lee Durkee takes readers on a high-stakes cab ride through an unforgettable shift. Meet Lou --- a lapsed novelist, struggling Buddhist and UFO fan --- who drives for a ramshackle taxi company that operates on the outskirts of a north Mississippi college town. With Uber moving into town and his way of life vanishing, his girlfriend moving out, and his archenemy dispatcher suddenly returning to town on the lam, Lou must finish his bedlam shift by aiding and abetting the host of criminal misfits haunting the back seat of his disintegrating Town Car. Lou is forced to decide how much he can take as a driver, and if keeping his job is worth madness and heartbreak.

About the Book

Hailed by George Saunders as “a true original --- a wise and wildly talented writer,” Lee Durkee takes readers on a high-stakes cab ride through an unforgettable shift. Meet Lou --- a lapsed novelist, struggling Buddhist and UFO fan --- who drives for a ramshackle taxi company that operates on the outskirts of a north Mississippi college town. With Uber moving into town and his way of life vanishing, his girlfriend moving out, and his archenemy dispatcher suddenly returning to town on the lam, Lou must finish his bedlam shift by aiding and abetting the host of criminal misfits haunting the back seat of his disintegrating Town Car. Lou is forced to decide how much he can take as a driver, and if keeping his job is worth madness and heartbreak.

Shedding nuts and bolts, THE LAST TAXI DRIVER careens through highways and back roads, from Mississippi to Memphis, as Lou becomes increasingly somnambulant and his fares increasingly eccentric. Equal parts Bukowski and Portis, Durkee’s darkly comic novel is a feverish, hilarious and gritty look at a forgotten America and a man at life’s crossroads.

Audiobook available, read by Patrick Lawlor

Editorial Content for The Boatman's Daughter

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

THE BOATMAN’S DAUGHTER is arguably the perfect horror novel. It may well be the perfect novel, period, or at least on a shortlist of such titles. Do I need to say more?

Maybe I do. Read More

Teaser

Ever since her father was killed when she was just a child, Miranda Crabtree has kept her head down and her eyes up, ferrying contraband for a mad preacher and his declining band of followers to make ends meet and to protect an old witch and a secret child from harm. But dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda’s peculiar and precarious life. And when the preacher makes an unthinkable demand, it sets Miranda on a desperate, dangerous path, forcing her to consider what she is willing to sacrifice to keep her loved ones safe.

Promo

Ever since her father was killed when she was just a child, Miranda Crabtree has kept her head down and her eyes up, ferrying contraband for a mad preacher and his declining band of followers to make ends meet and to protect an old witch and a secret child from harm. But dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda’s peculiar and precarious life. And when the preacher makes an unthinkable demand, it sets Miranda on a desperate, dangerous path, forcing her to consider what she is willing to sacrifice to keep her loved ones safe.

About the Book

A "lush nightmare" (Paul Tremblay) of a supernatural thriller about a young woman facing down ancient forces in the depths of the bayou

Ever since her father was killed when she was just a child, Miranda Crabtree has kept her head down and her eyes up, ferrying contraband for a mad preacher and his declining band of followers to make ends meet and to protect an old witch and a secret child from harm.

But dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda’s peculiar and precarious life. And when the preacher makes an unthinkable demand, it sets Miranda on a desperate, dangerous path, forcing her to consider what she is willing to sacrifice to keep her loved ones safe.

With the heady mythmaking of Neil Gaiman and the heartrending pacing of Joe Hill, Andy Davidson spins a thrilling tale of love and duty, of loss and discovery. THE BOATMAN'S DAUGHTER is a gorgeous, horrifying novel, a journey into the dark corners of human nature, drawing our worst fears and temptations out into the light.

Audiobook available, read by Samantha Desz

Editorial Content for The Evil Men Do

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

I have been looking forward to the return of P.T. Marsh since I read the last sentence of the last page of THE GOOD DETECTIVE, John McMahon’s debut novel that introduced Marsh to the world of crime fiction. A homicide detective with the Mason Falls, Georgia police department, Marsh is a tragic figure who is still emotionally reeling from the loss of his wife and son in a hit-and-run incident. THE EVIL MEN DO answers some questions regarding what occurred on that fateful night when Marsh lost everything while raising others in the manner of the best genre fiction. Read More

Teaser

A hard-nosed real estate baron is dead, and detectives P.T. Marsh and Remy Morgan learn there's a long list of suspects. Mason Falls, Georgia, may be a small town, but Ennis Fultz had filled it with professional rivals, angry neighbors and a wronged ex-wife. As Marsh and Morgan dig into the case, it becomes clear that Fultz's death was not an isolated case of revenge. It may be part of a dark web of crimes connected to an accident that upended Marsh's life a couple years earlier --- and that now threatens the life of a young child. Marsh veers dangerously off track as his search for clues becomes personal...and brings him to a place where a man's good deeds turn out to be more dangerous than his worst crimes.

Promo

A hard-nosed real estate baron is dead, and detectives P.T. Marsh and Remy Morgan learn there's a long list of suspects. Mason Falls, Georgia, may be a small town, but Ennis Fultz had filled it with professional rivals, angry neighbors and a wronged ex-wife. As Marsh and Morgan dig into the case, it becomes clear that Fultz's death was not an isolated case of revenge. It may be part of a dark web of crimes connected to an accident that upended Marsh's life a couple years earlier --- and that now threatens the life of a young child. Marsh veers dangerously off track as his search for clues becomes personal...and brings him to a place where a man's good deeds turn out to be more dangerous than his worst crimes.

About the Book

The author of THE GOOD DETECTIVE delivers a gripping and atmospheric new novel in which a cop takes on a harrowing new case and confronts old personal demons.

What if the one good thing you did in your life doomed you to die?

A hard-nosed real estate baron is dead, and detectives P.T. Marsh and Remy Morgan learn there's a long list of suspects. Mason Falls, Georgia, may be a small town, but Ennis Fultz had filled it with professional rivals, angry neighbors and a wronged ex-wife. And when Marsh realizes that this potential murder might be the least of his troubles, he begins to see what happens when ordinary people become capable of evil.

As Marsh and Morgan dig into the case, it becomes clear that Fultz's death was not an isolated case of revenge. It may be part of a dark web of crimes connected to an accident that upended Marsh's life a couple years earlier --- and that now threatens the life of a young child. Marsh veers dangerously off track as his search for clues becomes personal...and brings him to a place where a man's good deeds turn out to be more dangerous than his worst crimes.

Audiobook available, read by Jon Lindstrom

Editorial Content for Please See Us

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

From debut author Caitlin Mullen comes PLEASE SEE US, a literary thriller written in the vein of greats such as Laura Lippman and Chloe Benjamin and set in the ripe-for-drama beachside town of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Read More

Teaser

Summer has come to Atlantic City, but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they are there. Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face.

Promo

Summer has come to Atlantic City, but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they are there. Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face.

About the Book

In this sophisticated, suspenseful debut reminiscent of Laura Lippman and Chloe Benjamin, two young women become unlikely friends during one fateful summer in Atlantic City as mysterious disappearances hit dangerously close to home.

Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they are there.

Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face.

If they can put the pieces together in time, they may save another lost girl --- so long as their efforts don’t attract perilous attention first. Can they break the ill-fated cycle, or will they join the other victims?

A “beautifully written, thoughtful page-turner” (Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of THE IMMORTALISTS), PLEASE SEE US is an evocative and compelling psychological thriller that explores the intersection of womanhood, power and violence.

Audiobook available; read by Corey Brill, Piper Goodeve, Hillary Huber and Dara Rosenberg

Editorial Content for A Beginning at the End

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Christine M. Irvin

The world has come to an end. That is to say, the normal world of commerce and daily life has ended globally. A massive flu pandemic has wiped out over five billion people, or 70 percent of the world’s population. The survivors are faced with a whole new world. Read More

Teaser

Six years after a virus wiped out most of the planet’s population, former pop star Moira is living under a new identity to escape her past --- until her father launches a sweeping public search for her. Desperate for a fresh start herself, jaded event planner Krista navigates the world for those still too traumatized to go outside. Rob has tried to protect his daughter, Sunny, by keeping a heartbreaking secret, but when strict government rules threaten to separate parent and child, Rob needs to prove himself worthy in the city’s eyes by connecting with people again. The lives of Krista, Moira, Rob and Sunny begin to twine together. When reports of another outbreak throw the fragile society into panic, the friends are forced to finally face everything that came before --- and everything they still stand to lose.

Promo

Six years after a virus wiped out most of the planet’s population, former pop star Moira is living under a new identity to escape her past --- until her father launches a sweeping public search for her. Desperate for a fresh start herself, jaded event planner Krista navigates the world for those still too traumatized to go outside. Rob has tried to protect his daughter, Sunny, by keeping a heartbreaking secret, but when strict government rules threaten to separate parent and child, Rob needs to prove himself worthy in the city’s eyes by connecting with people again. The lives of Krista, Moira, Rob and Sunny begin to twine together. When reports of another outbreak throw the fragile society into panic, the friends are forced to finally face everything that came before --- and everything they still stand to lose.

About the Book

Four survivors come together as the country rebuilds in the aftermath of a devastating pandemic. A character-driven postapocalyptic suspense with an intimate, hopeful look at how people can move forward by creating something better.

Six years after a virus wiped out most of the planet’s population, former pop star Moira is living under a new identity to escape her past --- until her domineering father launches a sweeping public search to track her down. Desperate for a fresh start herself, jaded event planner Krista navigates the world for those still too traumatized to go outside, but she never reaches out on her own behalf. Rob has tried to protect his daughter, Sunny, by keeping a heartbreaking secret, but when strict government rules threaten to separate parent and child, Rob needs to prove himself worthy in the city’s eyes by connecting with people again.

Krista, Moira, Rob and Sunny meet by circumstance and their lives begin to twine together. When reports of another outbreak throw the fragile society into panic, the friends are forced to finally face everything that came before --- and everything they still stand to lose. Because sometimes having one person is enough to keep the world going.

Audiobook available, read by Emily Woo Zeller