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John McMahon, author of Inside Man: A Head Cases Novel

FBI Agent Gardner Camden is an analytical genius with an affinity for puzzles. He and his squad of brilliant yet quirky agents make up the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) unit, the FBI’s hidden edge, brought in for cases that no one else can solve. PAR’s latest case involves a militia group stockpiling weapons. When their confidential informant in the case is killed, it quickly becomes clear that the militia did not kill him. As the squad looks into the evidence surrounding his murder, an unidentified man is caught on camera with their informant. This mystery man’s picture is connected to another case at the FBI, an unsolved series of murdered women, buried in the ground in north Florida. As PAR juggles an investigation into both the dead women and the militia, they enroll a new informant, only to find the case escalating in dangerous ways.

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Jennifer Niven, author of Meet the Newmans

For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s Favorite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now it’s 1964, and the Newmans’ idealized apple-pie perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch. Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb --- literally. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and the charmed luck of rock ‘n’ roll idol Shep may have finally run out. When Del is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken, impassioned young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman, and a family, in 1964.

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Stefan Merrill Block, author of Homeschooled: A Memoir

Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were “stifling his creativity.” Hungry for more time with her boy, she began to instruct Stefan in the family’s living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother’s erratic whims, such as her project to recapture her 12-year-old son's early years by bleaching his hair and putting him on a crawling regimen. Years before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother’s increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.

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Belle Burden, author of Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage

In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together --- building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whiskey sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of 20 years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In STRANGERS, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal.

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Ashley Elston, author of Anatomy of an Alibi

Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life. She is married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes that Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can’t find proof because he tracks her every move. Aubrey Price has been haunted by the terrible night that changed her life a decade ago, and she’s convinced Benjamin Bayliss knows something about it. Living in a house full of criminals, Aubrey understands there’s more than one way to get to the truth --- and she may have found the best way in. Aubrey and Camille hatch a plan. For 12 hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place. Camille will spy on Ben, and the two women will get the answers they desperately seek. Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it.

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The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave

January 2026

When I pick up a Laura Dave book, I always know I am in for a treat. That certainly happened with THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME when it came out in 2021. Laura never meant to write a sequel; she thought the story was done with the epilogue.

However, after the success of the series adaptation on Apple TV+ --- which Laura and her husband, Josh Singer, had written and produced --- it was clear that more could be told, and fans wanted it. Even before she wrote the second book, Laura was doing script notes for Josh and the program’s writers to let them know where she saw the story heading for season two. Readers may recall that in the epilogue, Hannah sees Owen at a show where her work is being presented. Immediately there was a “what’s next?” feeling there.

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Allen Levi Book Group Signup

Links to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gSDdYVLGS0-fVo6B2ZVRNA.

Allen Levi Book Group Signup

Links to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gSDdYVLGS0-fVo6B2ZVRNA.

Editorial Content for Winter: The Story of a Season

Book

Winter: The Story of a Season

Contributors

Ray Palen

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

It is both refreshing and rewarding to see Val McDermid step away from her masterful thrillers to pen a collection of essays about the last of the four seasons, appropriately titled WINTER.

McDermid refers to winter as the chosen season of creativity, which is especially needed for a writer of dark deeds. She fondly recalls a book tour around the turn of the century that found her in Russia in December, which gave her a deeper appreciation of true winter. Read More

Teaser

Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for winter: the bitter clarity of a crisp cold day, the crunch of frost on fallen leaves, and the chance to be enveloped in big jumpers and thick socks. In WINTER, McDermid takes us on an adventure through the season, from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the windblown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa. Recalling in parallel memories from her own childhood --- of skating over frozen lakes and carving a “neep” (rutabaga) for Halloween to being taken to see her first real Christmas tree in the town square --- McDermid offers a wise and enchanting meditation on winter and its ever-changing, sometimes ephemeral, traditions.

Promo

Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for winter: the bitter clarity of a crisp cold day, the crunch of frost on fallen leaves, and the chance to be enveloped in big jumpers and thick socks. In WINTER, McDermid takes us on an adventure through the season, from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the windblown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa. Recalling in parallel memories from her own childhood --- of skating over frozen lakes and carving a “neep” (rutabaga) for Halloween to being taken to see her first real Christmas tree in the town square --- McDermid offers a wise and enchanting meditation on winter and its ever-changing, sometimes ephemeral, traditions.

About the Book

In this radiant work of creative nonfiction, internationally beloved novelist Val McDermid delivers a dazzling ode to a lost world, ruminating on a single winter in her life as she journeys into the heart of the season’s ever-evolving community-based traditions.

Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for winter: the bitter clarity of a crisp cold day, the crunch of frost on fallen leaves, and the chance to be enveloped in big jumpers and thick socks.

In WINTER, McDermid takes us on an adventure through the season, from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the windblown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa. Recalling in parallel memories from her own childhood --- of skating over frozen lakes and carving a “neep” (rutabaga) for Halloween to being taken to see her first real Christmas tree in the town square --- McDermid offers a wise and enchanting meditation on winter and its ever-changing, sometimes ephemeral, traditions.

A hygge-filled journey through winter nights, McDermid reminds us that it is a time of rest, retreat and creativity, for scribbling in notebooks and settling in beside the fire. A treat for the hunkering-down, post-holiday reading season, WINTER is a charming and cozy celebration of the year’s idle months from one of Scotland’s best-loved writers.

Audiobook available, read by Val McDermid

Editorial Content for Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl

Book

Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl

Contributors

Norah Piehl

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

My prior exposure to Julie Murphy was through her middle-grade and young adult novels like DUMPLIN'. I was broadly aware of the fact that she had co-written a series of adult romances with a Christmas theme, but until I picked up FUNDAMENTALS OF BEING A GOOD GIRL, I had no idea just how adult Murphy's collaboration with Sierra Simone could be. Read More

Teaser

When rookie lecturer Maddie Kowalczk lands at Astra University, she’s looking to start fresh after a messy breakup. But her first night in town takes a twist when she bumps into Bram Loe, who she (not so accidentally) stole a parking spot from earlier that day. The unspoken chemistry as he locks eyes with her while she gets a birthday spanking at a local bar is hotter than a Bunsen burner at full flame. Bram is looking for a break from his hectic life as an ecology professor and dad to rambunctious twins and a busy teenager. So when his college friend’s divorce celebration brings him face to face with the same delectable brat who stole his parking spot, he’s ready for a night to remember. But the next morning, Bram’s world turns upside down. His new nanny? None other than Maddie, who also happens to be the new poli-sci adjunct at the university where he teaches.

Promo

When rookie lecturer Maddie Kowalczk lands at Astra University, she’s looking to start fresh after a messy breakup. But her first night in town takes a twist when she bumps into Bram Loe, who she (not so accidentally) stole a parking spot from earlier that day. The unspoken chemistry as he locks eyes with her while she gets a birthday spanking at a local bar is hotter than a Bunsen burner at full flame. Bram is looking for a break from his hectic life as an ecology professor and dad to rambunctious twins and a busy teenager. So when his college friend’s divorce celebration brings him face to face with the same delectable brat who stole his parking spot, he’s ready for a night to remember. But the next morning, Bram’s world turns upside down. His new nanny? None other than Maddie, who also happens to be the new poli-sci adjunct at the university where he teaches.

About the Book

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy and USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone comes a brand-new college town raunch-com about a sexy single dad professor and a feisty law school grad turned nanny in this steamy tale of Academic Affairs.

Class is in session.

Maddie Kowalczk is ready to be a bad girl. When the rookie lecturer lands at Astra University, she’s looking to start fresh after a messy breakup. But her first night in town takes a twist when she bumps into Bram Loe --- a reserved but incredibly handsome single dad she (not so accidentally) stole a parking spot from earlier that day. The unspoken chemistry as he locks eyes with her while she gets a birthday spanking at a local bar is hotter than a Bunsen burner at full flame.

Bram is looking for a break from his hectic life as an ecology professor and dad to rambunctious twins and a busy teenager. So when his college friend’s divorce celebration brings him face-to-face with the same delectable brat who stole his parking spot, he’s ready for a night to remember. But the next morning, Bram’s world turns upside down (and that’s not just the hangover talking). His new nanny? None other than Maddie, who also happens to be the new poli-sci adjunct at the university where he teaches. 

Maddie is desperate and broke, so when Bram offers her a raise and the chance to set some ground rules, she can’t say no. As the two settle into their new roles, the normally unruffled Bram finds that no one riles him up like Maddie does, which is a problem when every argument feels like foreplay. Of course, Bram is an educator first and foremost, and he very quickly finds he can’t resist the temptation of instructing Maddie in the fundamentals of being a good girl. 

And it turns out Maddie’s a hands-on learner.

Audiobook available; read by Connor Crais, Victoria Connolly and Teddy Hamilton