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Editorial Content for Blood Victory: A Burning Girl Thriller

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

I had mentioned in a prior review that Charlotte Rowe, aka “Burning Girl,” was sort of like the grown-up version of the little girl in Stephen King's novel, FIRESTARTER. An experimental drug may have given Charlotte exceptional powers, but she has grown to become so much more in Christopher Rice’s series. Read More

Teaser

As the test subject of an experimental drug, Charlotte Rowe was infused with extraordinary powers. As the secret weapon of a mysterious consortium, she baits evil predators and stops them in their tracks. But it takes more than fear to trigger what’s coursing through Charlotte’s blood. She needs to be terrorized. Serial killer Cyrus Mattingly is up to the task. Cyrus is a long-haul truck driver, and his cargo bay is a gallery of horrors on wheels. To stop his bloodshed, Charlotte will become his next victim, reining in her powers so she can face each of his evils in turn. Before she can unleash vengeance on a scale this killer has never seen, Charlotte and her team will have to go the distance into hell.

Promo

As the test subject of an experimental drug, Charlotte Rowe was infused with extraordinary powers. As the secret weapon of a mysterious consortium, she baits evil predators and stops them in their tracks. But it takes more than fear to trigger what’s coursing through Charlotte’s blood. She needs to be terrorized. Serial killer Cyrus Mattingly is up to the task. Cyrus is a long-haul truck driver, and his cargo bay is a gallery of horrors on wheels. To stop his bloodshed, Charlotte will become his next victim, reining in her powers so she can face each of his evils in turn. Before she can unleash vengeance on a scale this killer has never seen, Charlotte and her team will have to go the distance into hell.

About the Book

On a cross-country journey to hell, fear is the engine and vengeance is the destination as Christopher Rice’s Amazon Charts bestselling series continues.

As the test subject of an experimental drug, Charlotte Rowe was infused with extraordinary powers. As the secret weapon of a mysterious consortium, she baits evil predators and stops them in their tracks. But it takes more than fear to trigger what’s coursing through Charlotte’s blood. She needs to be terrorized. Serial killer Cyrus Mattingly is up to the task.

Cyrus is a long-haul truck driver, and his cargo bay is a gallery of horrors on wheels. To stop his bloodshed, Charlotte will become his next victim, reining in her powers so she can face each of his evils in turn.

As much as they know about Cyrus --- his method of selecting victims, his prolonged rituals --- there is something they don’t. What happens on the dark and lonely highways is only the journey. It’s the destination that’s truly depraved. Before she can unleash vengeance on a scale this killer has never seen, Charlotte and her team will have to go the distance into hell.

Audiobook available, read by Lauren Ezzo

Editorial Content for Impersonation

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

During the first couple of chapters of Heidi Pitlor’s IMPERSONATION, readers might assume that her novel will be a #MeToo chronicle, as ghostwriter Allie Lang’s latest client, a reality-TV celebrity, gets in hot water for past sexual misconduct (something Allie is entirely unsurprised by, given how he has treated her during their few in-person meetings). Read More

Teaser

Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother. Years of navigating her own and America’s cultural definitions of motherhood have left her a lapsed idealist. Lana Breban is a powerhouse lawyer, economist and advocate for women’s rights with designs on elected office. She and her staff have decided she needs help softening her public image and that a memoir about her life as a mother will help. When Allie lands the job as Lana’s ghostwriter, it seems as if things will finally go Allie’s way. But then childcare arrangements unravel, she falls behind on her rent, it turns out that Lana is better at critiquing than actually providing material, and Allie’s boyfriend decides to go on a road trip toward self-discovery.

Promo

Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother. Years of navigating her own and America’s cultural definitions of motherhood have left her a lapsed idealist. Lana Breban is a powerhouse lawyer, economist and advocate for women’s rights with designs on elected office. She and her staff have decided she needs help softening her public image and that a memoir about her life as a mother will help. When Allie lands the job as Lana’s ghostwriter, it seems as if things will finally go Allie’s way. But then childcare arrangements unravel, she falls behind on her rent, it turns out that Lana is better at critiquing than actually providing material, and Allie’s boyfriend decides to go on a road trip toward self-discovery.

About the Book

Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother to a young boy. Years of navigating her own and America’s cultural definitions of motherhood have left her a lapsed idealist. Lana Breban is a powerhouse lawyer, economist and advocate for women’s rights with designs on elected office. She also has a son. Lana and her staff have decided she needs help softening her public image and that a memoir about her life as a mother will help.

When Allie lands the job as Lana’s ghostwriter, it seems as if things will finally go Allie’s way. At last, she thinks, there will be enough money not just to pay her bills but to actually buy a house. After years of working as a ghostwriter for other celebrities, Allie believes she knows the drill: she has learned how to inhabit the lives of others and tell their stories better than they can.

But this time, everything becomes more complicated. Allie’s childcare arrangements unravel; she falls behind on her rent; her subject, Lana, is better at critiquing than actually providing material; and Allie’s boyfriend decides to go on a road trip toward self-discovery. But as a writer for hire, Allie has gotten too used to being accommodating. At what point will she speak up for all that she deserves? 

A satirical, incisive snapshot of how so many of us now live, IMPERSONATION tells a timely, insightful and bitingly funny story of ambition, motherhood and class.

Audiobook available, read by Dylan Moore

Editorial Content for Under Pressure: A Lucas Page Novel

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Robert Pobi has had a nice career with novels ranging from straight horror to crime fiction. However, he really has found himself with the creation of Dr. Lucas Page, a character who is so unique and well drawn out that you need to build a series around him. Well, Pobi has done just that. CITY OF WINDOWS introduced us to Page, and now we get to spend more quality time with him in UNDER PRESSURE. Read More

Teaser

On a beautiful October evening, New York City's iconic Guggenheim Museum is closed for a tech company's private gala. Until an explosion rocks the night, instantly killing 702 people, including every single attendee --- yet the damage to the building itself was minimal. An explosion of that precision was no accident. In response, the FBI mobilizes its entire team, but the sheer number of victims strains their resources. Dr. Lucas Page is uniquely gifted for the task at hand --- he can visualize a crime scene as if he was a bystander and can break down any set of data at a glance. Even though Page wants nothing to do with the FBI, with his city under attack and his family at risk, he steps in to find a killer in a haystack before they strike again.

Promo

On a beautiful October evening, New York City's iconic Guggenheim Museum is closed for a tech company's private gala. Until an explosion rocks the night, instantly killing 702 people, including every single attendee --- yet the damage to the building itself was minimal. An explosion of that precision was no accident. In response, the FBI mobilizes its entire team, but the sheer number of victims strains their resources. Dr. Lucas Page is uniquely gifted for the task at hand --- he can visualize a crime scene as if he was a bystander and can break down any set of data at a glance. Even though Page wants nothing to do with the FBI, with his city under attack and his family at risk, he steps in to find a killer in a haystack before they strike again.

About the Book

A series of deadly explosions rock the city of New York and with too many victims and no known motive, the F.B.I. turns once again to Dr. Lucas Page in Robert Pobi's UNDER PRESSURE.

On a beautiful October evening, New York City's iconic Guggenheim Museum is closed for a tech company's private gala. Until an explosion rocks the night, instantly killing 702 people, including every single attendee --- yet the damage to the building itself was minimal.

An explosion of that precision was no accident and, in response, the FBI mobilizes its entire team --- but the sheer number of victims strains their resources. Were all 702 victims in the wrong place at the wrong time, or was there only one target and 701 unlucky bystanders? That many victim files is a staggering amount of data to sort through and Brett Kehoe, Special Agent in Charge of Manhattan, decides that he can't do this without more computational power.

Dr. Lucas Page, astrophysicist, university professor and former FBI agent, is uniquely gifted for the task at hand --- he can visualize a crime scene as if he was a bystander and can break down any set of data at a glance. Even though Page wants nothing to do with the FBI, with his city under attack and his family at risk, he steps in to find a killer in a haystack before they strike again.

Audiobook available, read by Will Damron

Editorial Content for Behind the Red Door

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

How much does our brain do to protect us? What repressed memories might surface one day with the right stimuli? In BEHIND THE RED DOOR, Megan Collins explores how childhood events can be suppressed, altered, misremembered and deleted. Read More

Teaser

When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a 34-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare --- one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading --- Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory. Returning to her childhood home to help her father pack for a move, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir and discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. With the help of her psychologist father, Fern digs deeper, hoping to find evidence that her connection to Astrid can help the police locate her. But when Fern discovers more about her own past than she ever bargained for, the disturbing truth will change both of their lives forever.

Promo

When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a 34-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare --- one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading --- Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory. Returning to her childhood home to help her father pack for a move, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir and discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. With the help of her psychologist father, Fern digs deeper, hoping to find evidence that her connection to Astrid can help the police locate her. But when Fern discovers more about her own past than she ever bargained for, the disturbing truth will change both of their lives forever.

About the Book

“A haunting thriller” (PopSugar) about a woman who believes that she has a connection to a decades old kidnapping and begins a frantic investigation to find out what really happened when the victim goes missing again.

When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a 34-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping --- and equally famous return --- 20 years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.

Returning to her childhood home to help her father pack for a move, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir --- which may have provoked her original kidnapper to abduct her again --- and as she reads through its chapters and visits the people and places within it, she discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. With the help of her psychologist father, Fern digs deeper, hoping to find evidence that her connection to Astrid can help the police locate her. But when Fern discovers more about her own past than she ever bargained for, the disturbing truth will change both of their lives forever in this “masterful meditation on fear” (Mindy Mejia, author of STRIKE ME DOWN).

Audiobook available, read by Patricia Santomasso and Alexandra Allwine

Editorial Content for The Dazzling Truth

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Megan Elliott

Some people seem meant to be together. That’s certainly the case for Maeve Morelli and Murtagh Moone, the couple at the heart of Helen Cullen’s novel, THE DAZZLING TRUTH. Read More

Teaser

In the courtyards of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1978, aspiring actress Maeve meets pottery student Murtagh Moone. As their relationship progresses, marriage and motherhood come in quick succession, but for Maeve, with the joy of children also comes the struggle to hold on to the truest parts of herself. Decades later, on a small Irish island, the Moone family are poised for celebration but instead are struck by tragedy. Each family member must find solace in their own separate way, until one dazzling truth brings them back together. But as the Moone family confront the past, they also journey toward a future that none of them could have predicted. Except perhaps Maeve herself.

Promo

In the courtyards of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1978, aspiring actress Maeve meets pottery student Murtagh Moone. As their relationship progresses, marriage and motherhood come in quick succession, but for Maeve, with the joy of children also comes the struggle to hold on to the truest parts of herself. Decades later, on a small Irish island, the Moone family are poised for celebration but instead are struck by tragedy. Each family member must find solace in their own separate way, until one dazzling truth brings them back together. But as the Moone family confront the past, they also journey toward a future that none of them could have predicted. Except perhaps Maeve herself.

About the Book

One Irish family. Three decades. One dazzling story.

In the courtyards of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1978, aspiring actress Maeve meets pottery student Murtagh Moone. As their relationship progresses, marriage and motherhood come in quick succession, but for Maeve, with the joy of children also comes the struggle to hold on to the truest parts of herself.

Decades later, on a small Irish island, the Moone family are poised for celebration but instead are struck by tragedy. Each family member must find solace in their own separate way, until one dazzling truth brings them back together. But as the Moone family confront the past, they also journey toward a future that none of them could have predicted. Except perhaps Maeve herself.

Audiobook available, read by Patrick Moy

Editorial Content for The Search Party

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Simon Lelic’s THE SEARCH PARTY takes place in a small English town situated next to a raging river and a dense wood. The setting is perfect for this suspenseful, twisting tale of a missing girl, Sadie Saunders, and the five friends who try to find her. Everyone believes she has died, and one of the young men in the group is suspected of killing her. In addition to Sadie’s absence, a boy is found dead. They form their own search party, while each holds onto his or her secrets. They are ill-prepared for the daunting task that they have taken upon themselves. Read More

Teaser

The entire town thinks 16-year-old Sadie Saunders is dead. Missing now for a week, they say she was murdered. And they think they know who did it. Sadie's five best friends aren’t so sure, and they vow to find out the truth. So they pack their bags and head into the woods where Sadie was last seen. But they’re not just friends, they’re suspects. And each of them has a secret. As the landscape opens up, and the darkness closes in, the reality of their situation becomes clear. This was never really a search party. It’s a witch hunt. And not everyone will make it home alive.

Promo

The entire town thinks 16-year-old Sadie Saunders is dead. Missing now for a week, they say she was murdered. And they think they know who did it. Sadie's five best friends aren’t so sure, and they vow to find out the truth. So they pack their bags and head into the woods where Sadie was last seen. But they’re not just friends, they’re suspects. And each of them has a secret. As the landscape opens up, and the darkness closes in, the reality of their situation becomes clear. This was never really a search party. It’s a witch hunt. And not everyone will make it home alive.

About the Book

A twisty, electrifying new thriller from the author of THE NEW NEIGHBORS and THE LIAR'S ROOM.
 
The entire town thinks 16-year-old Sadie Saunders is dead. Missing now for a week, they say she was murdered. And they think they know who did it.

Sadie's five best friends aren’t so sure, and they vow to find out the truth. So they pack their bags and head into the woods where Sadie was last seen.

But they’re not just friends, they’re suspects. And each of them has a secret.
 
As the landscape opens up, and the darkness closes in, the reality of their situation becomes clear.

This was never really a search party.
    
It’s a witch hunt.

And not everyone will make it home alive.

Audiobook available; read by Fiona Button, Ben Arogundade, Sacha Dhawan, Jack Rowan, Joe Gaminara and Nicole Davis

Greg Iles, author of Cemetery Road

Marshall McEwan is one of the most successful journalists in Washington, D.C. But when he discovers that his father is terminally ill, he must return home to face the unfinished business of his past. On arrival, he finds Bienville, Mississippi, very much changed. His family’s 150-year-old newspaper is failing; and Jet Talal, the love of his youth, has married into the family of Max Matheson, one of a dozen powerful patriarchs who rule the town through the exclusive Bienville Poker Club. To Marshall’s surprise, the Poker Club has taken a town on the brink of extinction and offered it salvation, in the form of a billion-dollar Chinese paper mill. But on the verge of the deal being consummated, two murders rock Bienville to its core, threatening far more than the city’s economic future.

Cecil Beaton

The truly fashionable are beyond fashion.

Attribution

Cecil Beaton

Harriet van Horne

There are days when any electrical appliance in the house, including the vacuum cleaner, seems to offer more entertainment possibilities than the TV set.

Attribution

Harriet van Horne

August 19, 2020

How come the summer months fly by so quickly while winter drags? How can it be August 19th already?

It has been a very busy summer. Our "Bookreporter Talks To" schedule has been full, and I have been attending many evening events with authors. We've compiled a list of other book-themed podcasts that readers suggested; you can see them in our blog here. If you have other ideas, email me with the subject line "Podcast" and we will add them!

I also have been attending many virtual author events in the evening. If you are doing the same, let me know with the subject line "Virtual Events." We are sharing some upcoming ones later in this newsletter.