Editorial Content for A Fatal Lie: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
You might be taken aback when the lead investigator in the novel you are reading begins speaking to someone who is not there --- not just talking to himself but having a complete conversation with a non-existent person. If you are a reader of Charles Todd’s Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery series, these actions will not surprise you in the least. Read More
Teaser
A peaceful Welsh village is thrown into turmoil when a terrified boy stumbles on a body in a nearby river. With little to go on, the village police turn to Scotland Yard for help in identifying the body. When Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent from London to find answers, he is given few clues --- a faded military tattoo on the victim’s arm and an unusual label in the collar of his shirt. They eventually lead him to the victim’s identity: Sam Milford. By all accounts, he was a good man and well-respected. Then why is his death so mysterious? Rutledge uncovers a web of lies swirling around a suicidal woman, a child’s tragic fate, another woman bent on protecting her past. But where among all the lies is the motive for murder?
Promo
A peaceful Welsh village is thrown into turmoil when a terrified boy stumbles on a body in a nearby river. With little to go on, the village police turn to Scotland Yard for help in identifying the body. When Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent from London to find answers, he is given few clues --- a faded military tattoo on the victim’s arm and an unusual label in the collar of his shirt. They eventually lead him to the victim’s identity: Sam Milford. By all accounts, he was a good man and well-respected. Then why is his death so mysterious? Rutledge uncovers a web of lies swirling around a suicidal woman, a child’s tragic fate, another woman bent on protecting her past. But where among all the lies is the motive for murder?
About the Book
In one of his most puzzling cases, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge must delve deep into a dead man’s life and his past to find a killer determined to keep dark secrets buried.
A peaceful Welsh village is thrown into turmoil when a terrified boy stumbles on a body in a nearby river. The man appears to have fallen from the canal aqueduct spanning the valley. But there is no identification on the body, he isn’t a local and no one will admit to having seen him before. With little to go on, the village police turn to Scotland Yard for help.
When Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent from London to find answers, he is given few clues --- a faded military tattoo on the victim’s arm and an unusual label in the collar of his shirt. They eventually lead him to the victim’s identity: Sam Milford. By all accounts, he was a good man and well-respected. Then why is his death so mysterious? Looking for the truth, Rutledge uncovers a web of lies swirling around a suicidal woman, a child’s tragic fate, another woman bent on protecting her past. But where among all the lies is the motive for murder?
To track a killer, Rutledge must retrace Milford’s last journey. Yet death seems to stalk his every move, and the truth seems to shift at every turn. Man or woman, this murderer stays in the shadows, and it will take desperate measures to lure him --- or her --- into the light.
Audiobook available, read by Simon Vance
Editorial Content for Missing and Endangered: A Brady Novel of Suspense
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Joanna Brady is the Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, and this latest installment in J.A. Jance’s series takes place as Christmas is fast approaching. This means that Joanna’s oldest daughter, Jennifer, will be returning home from Northern Arizona University for her break. She asks permission to bring her rather naïve 16-year-old freshman roommate, Beth Rankin, home for the holidays. Read More
Teaser
When Jennifer Brady returns to Northern Arizona University for her sophomore year, she quickly becomes a big sister to her new roommate, Beth Rankin, a brilliant yet sheltered 16-year-old freshman. For a homeschooled Beth, college is her first taste of both freedom and unfettered access to the internet, and Jenny is concerned that she’s too naïve and rebellious for her own good. Her worries are well-founded because one day Beth vanishes, prompting Jenny to alert campus authorities, local police and her mom, Sheriff Joanna Brady --- who calls in a favor. Beth is found, but Jenny’s concern has unwittingly put her in the crosshairs of a criminal bent on revenge.
Promo
When Jennifer Brady returns to Northern Arizona University for her sophomore year, she quickly becomes a big sister to her new roommate, Beth Rankin, a brilliant yet sheltered 16-year-old freshman. For a homeschooled Beth, college is her first taste of both freedom and unfettered access to the internet, and Jenny is concerned that she’s too naïve and rebellious for her own good. Her worries are well-founded because one day Beth vanishes, prompting Jenny to alert campus authorities, local police and her mom, Sheriff Joanna Brady --- who calls in a favor. Beth is found, but Jenny’s concern has unwittingly put her in the crosshairs of a criminal bent on revenge.
About the Book
Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady’s professional and personal lives collide when her college-age daughter is involved in a missing persons case in this evocative and atmospheric mystery in J. A. Jance’s New York Times bestselling suspense series, set in the beautiful desert country of the American Southwest.
When Jennifer Brady returns to Northern Arizona University for her sophomore year, she quickly becomes a big sister to her new roommate, Beth Rankin, a brilliant yet sheltered 16-year-old freshman. For a homeschooled Beth, college is her first taste of both freedom and unfettered access to the internet, and Jenny is concerned that she’s too naïve and rebellious for her own good.
Her worries are well-founded because one day Beth vanishes, prompting Jenny to alert campus authorities, local police and her mom, Sheriff Joanna Brady --- who calls in a favor. Beth is found, but Jenny’s concern has unwittingly put her in the crosshairs of a criminal bent on revenge.
With Christmas vacation approaching, and Beth at war with her parents, Jenny invites Beth to the shelter of the Brady home. While Joanna is sympathetic, she’s caught up in a sensitive case --- an officer-involved shooting that has placed the lives of two young children in jeopardy --- leaving her stretched thin to help a fragile young woman recently gone missing and endangered.
Audiobook available, read by Hillary Huber
Editorial Content for Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
“It took too long for me to admire my mother’s common sense and practical knowledge…to accept and appreciate my mother’s English. Her simplicity and directness.” Read More
Teaser
Elizabeth's mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet even though she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers. Decades later, Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation.
Promo
Elizabeth's mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet even though she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers. Decades later, Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation.
About the Book
A “hauntingly beautiful memoir about family and identity” (NPR) and a young woman's journey to understanding her complicated parents --- her mother an Okinawan war bride, her father a Vietnam veteran --- and her own, fraught cultural heritage.
Elizabeth's mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet even though she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers.
Decades later, Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation, not only to come to terms with the embattled dynamics of her family but also to reckon with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people.
Clear-eyed and profoundly humane, SPEAK, OKINAWA is a startling accomplishment --- a heartfelt exploration of identity, inheritance, forgiveness and what it means to be an American.
Audiobook available, read by Sachi Lovatt
Editorial Content for While Paris Slept
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Parents often passionately and truthfully declare that they would give their lives for their children. In WHILE PARIS SLEPT by Ruth Druart, during the German occupation of Paris, a woman on her way to a concentration camp gives her newborn infant to a stranger, hoping against hope that it will save her son’s life. Sometimes such decisions lead to unintended consequences. Read More
Teaser
Santa Cruz, 1953. Jean-Luc is a man on the run from his past. The scar on his face is a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi occupation in France. Now, he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door. Paris, 1944. A young Jewish woman's past is torn apart in a heartbeat. Herded onto a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope. On a darkened platform, two destinies become intertwined, and the choices each person makes will change the future in ways neither could have imagined.
Promo
Santa Cruz, 1953. Jean-Luc is a man on the run from his past. The scar on his face is a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi occupation in France. Now, he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door. Paris, 1944. A young Jewish woman's past is torn apart in a heartbeat. Herded onto a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope. On a darkened platform, two destinies become intertwined, and the choices each person makes will change the future in ways neither could have imagined.
About the Book
One woman must make the hardest decision of her life in this unforgettably moving story of resistance and faith during one of the darkest times in history.
Santa Cruz, 1953. Jean-Luc is a man on the run from his past. The scar on his face is a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi occupation in France. Now, he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door.
Paris, 1944. A young Jewish woman's past is torn apart in a heartbeat. Herded onto a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope.
On a darkened platform, two destinies become intertwined, and the choices each person makes will change the future in ways neither could have imagined.
Told from alternating perspectives, WHILE PARIS SLEPT reflects on the power of love, resilience and courage when all seems lost. Exploring the strength of family ties, and what it really means to love someone unconditionally, this debut novel will capture your heart.
Audiobook available; read by Luke Thompson, Frazer Hadfield, Jane Collingwood and Heather Long
Editorial Content for Do No Harm
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Bestselling author Christina McDonald is back with her third suspense novel, DO NO HARM, a tautly plotted, socially informed drama about how far one mother is willing to go to save her son. Read More
Teaser
Emma loves her life. She’s the mother of a precocious kindergartener, married to her soulmate --- a loyal and loving police detective --- and has a rewarding career as a doctor at the local hospital. But everything comes crashing down when her son, Josh, is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Determined to save him, Emma makes the risky decision to sell opioids to fund the life-saving treatment he needs. But when somebody ends up dead, a lethal game of cat and mouse ensues, her own husband leading the chase. With her son’s life hanging in the balance, Emma is dragged into the dark world of drugs, lies and murder. Will the truth catch up to her before she can save Josh?
Promo
Emma loves her life. She’s the mother of a precocious kindergartener, married to her soulmate --- a loyal and loving police detective --- and has a rewarding career as a doctor at the local hospital. But everything comes crashing down when her son, Josh, is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Determined to save him, Emma makes the risky decision to sell opioids to fund the life-saving treatment he needs. But when somebody ends up dead, a lethal game of cat and mouse ensues, her own husband leading the chase. With her son’s life hanging in the balance, Emma is dragged into the dark world of drugs, lies and murder. Will the truth catch up to her before she can save Josh?
About the Book
From the USA TODAY bestselling author of BEHIND EVERY LIE and THE NIGHT OLIVIA FELL comes an unforgettable and heart-wrenching novel about the lengths one woman will go to save her son.
Emma loves her life. She’s the mother of a precocious kindergartener, married to her soulmate --- a loyal and loving police detective --- and has a rewarding career as a doctor at the local hospital.
But everything comes crashing down when her son, Josh, is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Determined to save him, Emma makes the risky decision to sell opioids to fund the life-saving treatment he needs. But when somebody ends up dead, a lethal game of cat and mouse ensues, her own husband leading the chase. With her son’s life hanging in the balance, Emma is dragged into the dark world of drugs, lies and murder. Will the truth catch up to her before she can save Josh?
A timely and moving exploration of a town gripped by the opioid epidemic, and featuring Christina McDonald’s signature “complex, emotionally intense” (Publishers Weekly) prose, DO NO HARM examines whether the ends ever justify the means...even for a desperate mother.
Audiobook available, read by Joy Osmanski and Kyle Tait
Editorial Content for The Echo Wife
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
The bestselling author of MAGIC FOR LIARS returns with THE ECHO WIFE, a science fiction-inspired domestic thriller that upends the tropes of cheating husbands, angry wives and pliant mistresses and turns them into something far more. Read More
Teaser
Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be. And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband. Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up. Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.
Promo
Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be. And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband. Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up. Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.
About the Book
I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.
It took me so long to hate him.
Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.
And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.
Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.
Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.
A page-turning near-future domestic suspense novel, this chilling read combines the eerie family drama of Shirley Jackson with the propulsive pacing of Ruth Ware.
Audiobook available, read by Xe Sands
Editorial Content for Guilty Admissions: The Bribes, Favors, and Phonies Behind the College Cheating Scandal
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
While reading GUILTY ADMISSIONS, I was reminded of the famous politician answering a question about a defeat with this observation: “It hurts too much to laugh, and I’m too old to cry.” Read More
Teaser
GUILTY ADMISSIONS weaves together the story of an unscrupulous college counselor named Rick Singer, and how he preyed on the desperation of some of the country's wealthiest families living in a world defined by fierce competition and a community of deeply insecure parents who will do anything to get their kids into name-brand colleges in order to maintain their own A-list status. Investigative reporter Nicole LaPorte lays bare the source of this insecurity --- that in 2019, no special "hook" in the form of legacy status, athletic talent or financial giving can guarantee a child's entrance into an elite school. The result is paranoia, deception and true crimes at the peak of the American social pyramid.
Promo
GUILTY ADMISSIONS weaves together the story of an unscrupulous college counselor named Rick Singer, and how he preyed on the desperation of some of the country's wealthiest families living in a world defined by fierce competition and a community of deeply insecure parents who will do anything to get their kids into name-brand colleges in order to maintain their own A-list status. Investigative reporter Nicole LaPorte lays bare the source of this insecurity --- that in 2019, no special "hook" in the form of legacy status, athletic talent or financial giving can guarantee a child's entrance into an elite school. The result is paranoia, deception and true crimes at the peak of the American social pyramid.
About the Book
This entertaining exposé on how the other half gets in tells the shockingly true story of the Varsity Blues scandal, and all of the crazy parents, privilege and con men involved.
GUILTY ADMISSIONS weaves together the story of an unscrupulous college counselor named Rick Singer, and how he preyed on the desperation of some of the country's wealthiest families living in a world defined by fierce competition, who function under constant pressure to get into the "right" schools, starting with pre-school; non-stop fundraising and donation demands in the form of multi-million-dollar galas and private parties; and a community of deeply insecure parents who will do anything to get their kids into name-brand colleges in order to maintain their own A-list status.
Investigative reporter Nicole LaPorte lays bare the source of this insecurity --- that in 2019, no special "hook" in the form of legacy status, athletic talent or financial giving can guarantee a child's entrance into an elite school. The result is paranoia, deception and true crimes at the peak of the American social pyramid.
With a glittering cast of Hollywood actors --- including Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin --- hedge fund CEOs, sales executives and media titans, GUILTY ADMISSIONS is a soap-opera-slash-sneak-peek-behind-the-curtains at America's richest social circles; an examination of the cutthroat world of college admissions; and a parable of American society in 2019, when the country is run by a crass tycoon and all totems of status and achievement have become transactional and removed from traditions of ethical restraint.
A world where the rich get whatever they want, however they want it.
Audiobook available, read by Betsy Foldes Meiman











