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Editorial Content for The Removed

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

In 2018, Brandon Hobson wrote about the notebook that his grandfather was holding when he died. Within it were Cherokee myths, as well as family stories centering on an ancestor named Tsala. Tsala hid in a cave as the majority of his people were made to march the Trail of Tears, a series of horrific, forced migrations of indigenous people by the US government in the mid-1800s. Tsala was found, he and his son were murdered, and then he walked in the spirit world. Read More

Teaser

In the 15 years since their teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting, the Echota family has been suspended in private grief. The mother, Maria, increasingly struggles to manage the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband, Ernest. Their adult daughter, Sonja, leads a life of solitude, punctuated only by spells of dizzying romantic obsession. And their son, Edgar, fled home long ago, turning to drugs to mute his feelings of alienation. With the family’s annual bonfire approaching, Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more. But as the bonfire draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world.

Promo

In the 15 years since their teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting, the Echota family has been suspended in private grief. The mother, Maria, increasingly struggles to manage the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband, Ernest. Their adult daughter, Sonja, leads a life of solitude, punctuated only by spells of dizzying romantic obsession. And their son, Edgar, fled home long ago, turning to drugs to mute his feelings of alienation. With the family’s annual bonfire approaching, Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more. But as the bonfire draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world.

About the Book

Steeped in Cherokee myths and history, a novel about a fractured family reckoning with the tragic death of their son long ago --- from National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson.

In the 15 years since their teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting, the Echota family has been suspended in private grief. The mother, Maria, increasingly struggles to manage the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband, Ernest. Their adult daughter, Sonja, leads a life of solitude, punctuated only by spells of dizzying romantic obsession. And their son, Edgar, fled home long ago, turning to drugs to mute his feelings of alienation.

With the family’s annual bonfire approaching --- an occasion marking both the Cherokee National Holiday and Ray-Ray’s death, and a rare moment in which they openly talk about his memory --- Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more. But as the bonfire draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world. Maria and Ernest take in a foster child who seems to almost miraculously keep Ernest’s mental fog at bay. Sonja becomes dangerously fixated on a man named Vin, despite --- or perhaps because of --- his ties to tragedy in her lifetime and lifetimes before. And in the wake of a suicide attempt, Edgar finds himself in the mysterious Darkening Land: a place between the living and the dead, where old atrocities echo.

Drawing deeply on Cherokee folklore, THE REMOVED seamlessly blends the real and spiritual to excavate the deep reverberations of trauma --- a meditation on family, grief, home, and the power of stories on both a personal and ancestral level.

Audiobook available; read by Gary Farmer, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, DeLanna Studi, Katie Rich and Christopher Salazar

Editorial Content for Margaret Truman's Murder on the Metro: A Capital Crimes Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

As I have gotten older, I have become more nostalgic. As a lifelong reader, I sometimes think about some of my favorite authors who have passed away during my lifetime: Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, James Herbert, Peter Benchley and Richard Laymon, to name just a few. Not only do we lose all the creative genius that made their work so memorable, we lose their characters as well. Read More

Teaser

Israel: A drone-based terrorist attack kills dozens on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea. Washington: America awakens to the shattering news that Vice President Stephanie Davenport has died of an apparent heart attack. That same morning, a chance encounter on the Washington Metro results in international private investigator Robert Brixton thwarting an attempted terrorist bombing. Brixton has no reason to suspect that the three incidents have anything in common, until he’s contacted by Kendra Rendine, the Secret Service agent who headed up the vice president’s security detail. Rendine is convinced the vice president was murdered and needs Brixton’s investigative expertise to find out why.

Promo

Israel: A drone-based terrorist attack kills dozens on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea. Washington: America awakens to the shattering news that Vice President Stephanie Davenport has died of an apparent heart attack. That same morning, a chance encounter on the Washington Metro results in international private investigator Robert Brixton thwarting an attempted terrorist bombing. Brixton has no reason to suspect that the three incidents have anything in common, until he’s contacted by Kendra Rendine, the Secret Service agent who headed up the vice president’s security detail. Rendine is convinced the vice president was murdered and needs Brixton’s investigative expertise to find out why.

About the Book

In Margaret Truman's MURDER ON THE METRO, Jon Land's first thrilling addition to the New York Times bestselling Capital Crimes series, Robert Brixton uncovers a sinister plot threatening millions of American lives!

Israel: A drone-based terrorist attack kills dozens on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea.

Washington: America awakens to the shattering news that Vice President Stephanie Davenport has died of an apparent heart attack.

That same morning, a chance encounter on the Washington Metro results in international private investigator Robert Brixton thwarting an attempted terrorist bombing. Brixton has no reason to suspect that the three incidents have anything in common, until he’s contacted by Kendra Rendine, the Secret Service agent who headed up the vice president’s security detail. Rendine is convinced the vice president was murdered and needs Brixton’s investigative expertise to find out why.

In Israel, meanwhile, legendary anti-terrorist fighter Lia Ganz launches her own crusade against the perpetrators of that attack which nearly claimed the lives of her and granddaughter. Ganz’s trail will ultimately take her to Washington where she joins forces with Brixton to uncover an impossible link between the deadly attack on Caesarea and the attempted Metro bombing, as well as the death of the vice president.

The connection lies in the highest corridors of power in Washington where a deadly plot with unimaginable consequences has been hatched. With the clock ticking toward doomsday, Brixton and Ganz race against time to save millions of American lives who will otherwise become collateral damage to a conspiracy destined to change the United States forever.

Audiobook available, read by Christine Kiphart

Editorial Content for Winter's Orbit

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Maya Gittelman

In Everina Maxwell’s WINTER’S ORBIT, a hastily arranged marriage appears to be the swiftest way for the Empire to maintain peace with its newest, most contentious vassal planet. Read More

Teaser

Prince Kiem, a famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild, has been called upon to be useful for once. He's commanded to fulfill an obligation of marriage to the representative of the Empire's newest and most rebellious vassal planet. His future husband, Count Jainan, is a widower and murder suspect. Neither wants to be wed, but with a conspiracy unfolding around them and the fate of the empire at stake, they will have to navigate the thorns and barbs of court intrigue, the machinations of war and the long shadows of Jainan's past. And they'll have to do it together. So begins a legendary love story amid the stars.

Promo

Prince Kiem, a famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild, has been called upon to be useful for once. He's commanded to fulfill an obligation of marriage to the representative of the Empire's newest and most rebellious vassal planet. His future husband, Count Jainan, is a widower and murder suspect. Neither wants to be wed, but with a conspiracy unfolding around them and the fate of the empire at stake, they will have to navigate the thorns and barbs of court intrigue, the machinations of war and the long shadows of Jainan's past. And they'll have to do it together. So begins a legendary love story amid the stars.

About the Book

Prince Kiem, a famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild, has been called upon to be useful for once. He's commanded to fulfill an obligation of marriage to the representative of the Empire's newest and most rebellious vassal planet. His future husband, Count Jainan, is a widower and murder suspect.

Neither wants to be wed, but with a conspiracy unfolding around them and the fate of the empire at stake, they will have to navigate the thorns and barbs of court intrigue, the machinations of war and the long shadows of Jainan's past. And they'll have to do it together.

So begins a legendary love story amid the stars.

Like ANCILLARY JUSTICE meets RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE, WINTER'S ORBIT is perfect for fans of Lois McMaster Bujold.

Audiobook available, read by Raphael Corkhill

Editorial Content for Black Widows

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

I had so much fun reading BLACK WIDOWS. Everything about it is simply terrific --- from the descriptions, characterizations and pacing to the structure of the novel and the mystery that pulses at the heart of the story from beginning to end. Read More

Teaser

Polygamist Blake Nelson built a homestead on a hidden stretch of land --- a raw paradise in the wilds of Utah --- where he lived with his three wives: Rachel, the first wife, obedient and doting to a fault, with a past she'd prefer to keep quiet; Tina, the rebel wife, everything Rachel isn't, straight from rehab and the Vegas strip; and Emily, the young wife, naïve and scared, estranged from her Catholic family. The only thing that they had in common was Blake. Until all three are accused of his murder. When Blake is found dead under the desert sun, all three wives become suspect --- not only to the police, but to each other. As the investigation draws them closer, each wife must decide who can be trusted.

Promo

Polygamist Blake Nelson built a homestead on a hidden stretch of land --- a raw paradise in the wilds of Utah --- where he lived with his three wives: Rachel, the first wife, obedient and doting to a fault, with a past she'd prefer to keep quiet; Tina, the rebel wife, everything Rachel isn't, straight from rehab and the Vegas strip; and Emily, the young wife, naïve and scared, estranged from her Catholic family. The only thing that they had in common was Blake. Until all three are accused of his murder. When Blake is found dead under the desert sun, all three wives become suspect --- not only to the police, but to each other. As the investigation draws them closer, each wife must decide who can be trusted.

About the Book

Blake's dead. They say his wife killed him. If so, which one?

Polygamist Blake Nelson built a homestead on a hidden stretch of land --- a raw paradise in the wilds of Utah --- where he lived with his three wives: Rachel, the first wife, obedient and doting to a fault, with a past she'd prefer to keep quiet; Tina, the rebel wife, everything Rachel isn't, straight from rehab and the Vegas strip; and Emily, the young wife, naïve and scared, estranged from her Catholic family.

The only thing that they had in common was Blake. Until all three are accused of his murder.

When Blake is found dead under the desert sun, all three wives become suspect --- not only to the police, but to each other. As the investigation draws them closer, each wife must decide who can be trusted. With stories surfacing of a notorious cult tucked away in the hills, whispers flying about a fourth wife, and evidence that can't quite explain what had been keeping Blake busy, the three widows face a reckoning that might shatter all they know to be true.

For fans of THE WIFE BETWEEN US and THE DRY comes a chilling murder mystery that takes a domestic thriller's classic question --- "Did his wife kill him?" --- and twists it into an completely new type of suspense.

Editorial Content for Lola on Fire

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

LOLA ON FIRE is that somewhat rare book that lives up to its pre-publication publicity. It is a multifaceted story that has attracted attention to some degree as a result of its occasional scenes of graphically described violence, perhaps at the expense of its other equally worthy elements. Read More

Teaser

Brody Ellis doesn’t have enough money to buy the medication his sister Molly needs, so he robs a convenience store. But he bumps into a young woman on his way out and loses his wallet. Just when he expects the cops to arrive, the phone rings. It's Blair Mayo, the woman he bumped into. Brody will get his billfold back, but only if he does her a favor: steal her late mother's diamonds from her wicked stepmom. When he gets to the house, he finds a gruesome crime scene --- and a security camera. Brody knows he's been framed. Hitting the road to save their lives, Brody and Molly realize that they've become pawns in a mysterious game --- one that involves a notorious enforcer named Lola Bear.

Promo

Brody Ellis doesn’t have enough money to buy the medication his sister Molly needs, so he robs a convenience store. But he bumps into a young woman on his way out and loses his wallet. Just when he expects the cops to arrive, the phone rings. It's Blair Mayo, the woman he bumped into. Brody will get his billfold back, but only if he does her a favor: steal her late mother's diamonds from her wicked stepmom. When he gets to the house, he finds a gruesome crime scene --- and a security camera. Brody knows he's been framed. Hitting the road to save their lives, Brody and Molly realize that they've become pawns in a mysterious game --- one that involves a notorious enforcer named Lola Bear.

About the Book

Arthur Ellis Award nominee Rio Youers combines vengeance and deceit, love and bullets, secrets, and twists in this high-octane action thriller with a vibrant emotional core.

Brody Ellis is short on luck and even shorter on cash to buy the medication his sister Molly needs.

Desperate, he robs a convenience store, but on the way out, he bumps into a young woman and loses his wallet. Just when he expects the cops to arrive, the phone rings. It's Blair Mayo --- the woman he bumped into --- and she's got the missing billfold.

Brody will get it back, but only if he does her a favor: steal her late mother's diamonds from her wicked stepmom. But when he gets to the house, he finds a gruesome crime scene --- and a security camera. Brody knows he's been framed.

Back home, the terrified young man gets another call. The police won't get the incriminating video footage, Blair says. Instead, her daddy, the notorious mobster Jimmy Latzo, will exact his own kind of revenge.

Hitting the road to save their lives, Brody and Molly realize that they've become pawns in a mysterious game --- one that involves a notorious enforcer named Lola Bear who brutally crossed paths with Jimmy Latzo 26 years before...a ghost from the past who is intimately connected to their lives.

Audiobook available, read by Jim Meskimen

Editorial Content for How to Order the Universe

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kayla Provencher

Written by María José Ferrada and translated by Elizabeth Bryer, HOW TO ORDER THE UNIVERSE fits the vastness of the unknown into a travel salesman’s suitcase. Read More

Teaser

For seven-year-old M, the world is guided by a firm set of principles, based on her father D’s life as a traveling salesman. Enchanted by her father’s trade, M convinces him to take her along on his routes, selling hardware supplies against the backdrop of Pinochet-era Chile. As father and daughter trek from town to town in their old Renault, M’s memories and thoughts become tied to a language of rural commerce, philosophy, the cosmos, hardware products and ghosts. M, in her innocence, barely notices the rising tensions and precarious nature of their work until she and her father connect with an enigmatic photographer, E, whose presence threatens to upend the unusual life they’ve created.

Promo

For seven-year-old M, the world is guided by a firm set of principles, based on her father D’s life as a traveling salesman. Enchanted by her father’s trade, M convinces him to take her along on his routes, selling hardware supplies against the backdrop of Pinochet-era Chile. As father and daughter trek from town to town in their old Renault, M’s memories and thoughts become tied to a language of rural commerce, philosophy, the cosmos, hardware products and ghosts. M, in her innocence, barely notices the rising tensions and precarious nature of their work until she and her father connect with an enigmatic photographer, E, whose presence threatens to upend the unusual life they’ve created.

About the Book

For seven-year-old M, the world is guided by a firm set of principles, based on her father D’s life as a traveling salesman. Enchanted by her father’s trade, M convinces him to take her along on his routes, selling hardware supplies against the backdrop of Pinochet-era Chile. As father and daughter trek from town to town in their old Renault, M’s memories and thoughts become tied to a language of rural commerce, philosophy, the cosmos, hardware products and ghosts. M, in her innocence, barely notices the rising tensions and precarious nature of their work until she and her father connect with an enigmatic photographer, E, whose presence threatens to upend the unusual life they’ve created.

María José Ferrada expertly captures a vanishing way of life and a father-daughter relationship on the brink of irreversible change. At once nostalgic, dangerous, sharply funny, and full of delight and wonder, HOW TO ORDER THE UNIVERSE is a richly imaginative debut and a rare work of magic and originality.

Emily Layden, author of All Girls

ALL GIRLS follows nine young women as they navigate their ambitions and fears at a prestigious New England prep school, all pitched against the backdrop of a scandal the administration wants silenced. But as the months unfold, and the school's efforts to control the ensuing crisis fall short, these extraordinary girls are forced to discover their voices, and their power.

Chang-rae Lee, author of My Year Abroad

Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is catapulted from ordinary young man to talented protégé, and pulled into a series of ever more extreme and eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong and of himself. The narrative alternates between Tiller’s outlandish, mind-boggling year with Pong and the strange, riveting, emotionally complex domestic life that follows it, as Tiller processes what happened to him abroad and what it means for his future.

Cherie Jones, author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter’s Tunnels. When she’s grown, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom --- and their lives.

Sarah Pearse, author of The Sanatorium

Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel. Elin Warner has taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge --- there's something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her.