Coming Soon

Sophie Pattison loves books. And as well as a dream job at a local book festival, she has a husband she adores, a lifelong best friend, Emma, and a brother she’s always been close to. Which makes you wonder why since Christmas Sophie has been living alone, estranged from Emma, avoiding her brother and about to be fired. Now it feels like the only thing she has left is reading. When Sophie rediscovers an author she first read in her 20s, the words on the page reach her in a new way --- becoming both solace and company. Sophie devours every one of the author's novels and begins to dream of meeting her, but knows they never will. But what if she did? What if, by then, the author feels like a friend? What if, for Sophie, it feels almost like love?

STRANGE IS THE LIGHT follows a passionately entangled group of childhood friends, fractured by the betrayals and secrets kept as they grew into adulthood. Now, after 20 years, Daphne, Ronan, Leonie and Finn will finally have to face the consequences of cutting their last adventure short --- having accidentally opened a rift into a dangerous alternate dimension while playing a mysterious RPG version of their childhood game. Daphne never took her final turn...And there is a debt that must be paid.

A private plane cuts through the winter night. David sits back in his leather seat. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders, but he struggles to recognize his own handwriting. A mystery. The world, once so knowable, has been rendered inscrutable.This is what David knows: Cody, his assistant, will shepherd him along the voyage. A stopover in London. Dinner with his adult daughter. His final destination is Zurich. David glides through hotel rooms and foreign cities, running out the clock on his mortal life. His grasp on the present slips away, and the past rushes in: the Sunday roasts of childhood. The stiff clothes meant only for church. The losses and missteps that punctuate a life. As David’s arrival in Zurich looms, a portrait of an unraveling mind emerges. 

Little Sparrow, Julia, Afong Moy, Madame Moy, The Chinese Lady, were her many names...but her true name has been lost to time. In 1834, Afong Moy was brought to New York as a live exhibit. Rising to fame as the first Chinese female in the United States, she became an oddity among curios as Americans marveled at the opportunity to observe her astonishing little feet, broken and bound to resemble lotuses. As the story moves from 1820s Canton to Gold Rush San Francisco, three women introduce us to her many names. Her mother calls her Little Sparrow and sells her to a captain who sails her to New York. The captain’s wife names her Julia and “graciously” treats her as her own. And when she is shunted off to P.T Barnum, her fellow human exhibitions call her China. Eventually arriving in San Francisco's Chinatown, she will at long last claim her name and her own story.

Grace O’Malley was born to be a sea captain. But despite her natural skill, Grace learns early that her dreams of a life at the helm are not compatible with the expectations of her noble family. Her role is to secure a strong alliance and bear children. But when she’s sent to foster with a nearby clan, Grace falls for a clever and open-minded second son. Married off against her will to a brutal warrior, Grace performs her duty, all the while gathering loyal followers and consolidating her husband’s power, only to be ousted from his lands. But this betrayal offers Grace the opportunity to return to sea, finally leading clan O’Malley’s mighty fleet. But Queen Elizabeth’s incursions into Ireland grow bolder and Grace must fight to defend her land, her ships, and the people she loves most.

By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship and love. While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.

SFPD Homicide Inspector Raquel Laing had a “difficult childhood,” until she was taken in by a loving family. She still lives with her adoptive sister, Dee, an online investigator. Trouble arrives with a case for Inspector Laing: the homicide of a drug dealer in San Francisco. But the everyday spirals into complications --- just as a search into the family’s ancestry is throwing Dee into her own world of turmoil. Raquel’s case blows up and she is removed from Homicide and put onto the Cold Case Unit. It leaves her free to look at some disturbing facts about her past --- and at the devastating news that Dee has uncovered in her search for the truth. The two sisters begin to suspect that they are tied together in ways that threaten attention from a powerful and vicious international cartel.

At the Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr, every mage with the healer’s gift has five years to master their power and to prepare for the infamous Grand Exam --- a five-day trial whose results will determine their entire future. The list of exam rules includes: You will perform five practical cases. Your exam group is chosen at random. You pass together, or fail together. It does not include: On the first day, your exam group will find a classmate's dead body in the exam hall. And as they will soon discover, this particular group all have something to hide...and all have a connection with the dead girl, a brilliant scholar who would have been first in their class. Five scholars. Five secrets. Five days in which to solve a murder, pass the most important exam of their lives and uncover a secret larger than all of their own combined. One with the potential to change the world.

Alex Stern made it to hell and back more than once, but this time she left the door open behind her. Demons are creeping through the streets of New Haven and the Yale campus, feeding on the souls of the living, terrifying the dead. To stop it, they’ll have to reach deep into the secrets of Yale and its societies, and discover the truth hidden in Alex’s own blood. But for the first time in her life, she won’t have to face the fight alone. Dawes, Turner, Mercy and even Tripp will have a role to play, none more so than Alex’s mentor Darlington, the golden boy who lived so long in her head, now back in the flesh and cursed with dangerous powers of his own. Hell itself is stalking the delegates of Lethe House, and they’re all about to learn that demons don’t play by human rules.

Mitch Rapp signed up to be an assassin. Now, he has a new mission. When Mitch’s target --- a Pakistani chemical weapons scientist for hire --- is snatched from the streets of Verona, the American Assassin must penetrate the jihadi cell responsible for the brazen kidnapping before they can make use of the scientist’s deadly expertise. But Mitch isn’t the only one interested in the scientist. The Pakistani represents an existential threat. A threat that will fray alliances, force enemies to seek common ground and resurrect long settled vendettas. As the events triggered by the kidnapping cascade out of control, Mitch Rapp must stop the chain reaction before the Middle East reaches critical mass.

Long before Jurassic Park was the embryo of an idea in Michael Crichton's mind, there was "ER." A medical student who dreamt of a career in Hollywood, Crichton did what any aspiring writer would: he created a script based on time working in a high-octane hospital emergency department. It wasn't until Crichton turned his attention to dinosaurs and his 1990 novel JURASSIC PARK became a megahit that Steven Spielberg's camp asked the former doctor what other ideas he was kicking around. And, thus, "ER" was born. Despite some resistance from NBC's top brass, the Warner Bros. Television drama became an overnight hit. It would, in its heyday, average 35 million viewers per season (in an era before streaming and DVRs), and was either the number one or number two most watched show on television for six years.

Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air.

When it comes to the Murphy family, nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems. Youngest sister Emerson is busy planning her dream wedding to Kyle. Pregnant middle sister Sloane and her husband Adam’s dream house has turned into a nightmare. Eldest sister Caroline, as always, is there to swoop in and get her sisters’ lives under control. Until her focus is more than a little shifted by Emerson’s hunky costar. Matriarch Ansley and her new husband Jack have finally hit their stride. But when a scandal that would affect every single Peachtree Bluff citizen comes to light, Ansley questions whether he is actually the man she thought he was. Through it all, these women must rely on their powerful family bonds and small-town charm of the place that, no matter what, always calls them home.

Natalie knows one truth: There is no such thing as a good job. And, minute by minute, she hears the many ways workers are not just not getting by, but actually getting hustled. Then, a mysterious flyer leads her to The Company. Natalie turns out to be the perfect candidate for their pilot program: in-house surrogate. For years, her every need is met: stacks of healthy meals in the refrigerator of a luxury condo, fitness coaches and nutritionists, around-the-clock healthcare. Between deliveries, she takes time off --- no obligations or expectations. For the first time in her life, she is good at her job; for the first time, she feels free. But just as she’s about to fulfill the terms of her contract, a staffing decision upends everything and drags her deep into another social experiment. There she meets new questions about her future, her freedom, her purpose and what she can expect from the world.

Ghosts are returning from the past to trouble Gurney’s peace as a local election sees the rise of a powerful real estate mogul with plans for a massive development. Protests erupt, battle lines are drawn, and the future of a once idyllic hamlet hangs in the balance. When bodies start turning up, and the local police turn a blind eye, Gurney suspects he’s the town’s only hope to stop the carnage that is tearing everybody apart. But his last case nearly got his best friend killed, and it shattered his relationship with his wife, Madeleine. Can he ignore what’s happening and potentially let a murderer run amok or will he once again dive into the darkness, giving into his obsessive need to solve the unsolveable --- even if it costs him Madeleine for good? One thing is clear: this harrowing, confounding case will be his last.

Something lives under Willa’s bed. As an adult, her fondest childhood memories are of the invisible entity under her bed who taught her how to read. Now 32, Willa is a reclusive but successful painter until a bombshell news report exposes her identity as the controversial survivor of the unsolved Rapture Mystery Slayings. Six teenagers died in the woods while Willa walked free, and everyone thinks she killed them. When an old classmate calls about a funeral, Willa reluctantly travels to her sleepy hometown, where the possessed forest that stole her friends looms. The trees whistle for her attention, but she knows better than to listen. As her past pulls her back to the place where she swore she’d never return, Willa is drawn toward the monster she left behind --- and becoming the villain her hometown has always believed her to be.

When crime correspondent turned war reporter Harry Flynn returns to Britain from Singapore in 1945, he takes a quiet job with the Festival of Britain. There, he joins a team of misfits and eccentrics as they help to ready the Festival for launch. When a Frenchwoman goes missing, Flynn becomes the central suspect in her disappearance --- and possible murder. He was the last person to see her alive, yet he has no memory of the evening they spent together. As evidence against him mounts, Flynn begins to wonder if he might actually be to blame. To make matters worse, he is surrounded by people who have their own secret agenda.

Maria Astorini, once popular character actress and late-night talk show darling, is having a moment. The B-list actress has survived divorces, a string of public embarrassments, an aging face, financial ruin and a worldwide pandemic. Now, a small, unexpected role has heightened her celebrity status and propelled her, at age 65, into the limelight. And then, along comes the call Maria has spent decades avoiding. It’s her publisher asking, “Where is that book?” To finally fulfill her contract, Maria attempts to write, or, at the very least, sends a pile of pages meant to vaguely resemble the book she promised to deliver nearly four decades earlier. In a series of bite-sized anecdotes, she candidly recalls her past, chronicling the moments of her full, funny and extraordinarily unpredictable life. Maria hasn’t been able to write a book about her life --- she’s been too busy living it.

The year is 1981. Tehran is in violent turmoil in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The Soviets are planning to overthrow the Ayatollah’s fledgling Islamist regime. If they do so, one response contemplated in the secret chambers of American power would be to strike with nuclear weapons. REDWOOD is the story of how one mysterious double agent cracked open the KGB, revealed the Kremlin’s secret plot, and prevented Armageddon.“Redwood” was the MI6 codename for this unsung, hitherto-unknown hero of the Cold War. Facing exposure, he demanded that MI6 try to smuggle him out of Iran in a high-stakes escape plan.

Pursued by a past he cannot bring himself to remember, Hal returns to his Midwestern birthplace, where he takes a job as staff physician at a veteran’s home. There, Hal finds himself the unwilling audience of his patients’ horrific stories, and descends with them into a Dantesque vision of the hell of war. Fleeing one hell for another, Hal searches the ruins of his ancestral home for clues to his own family’s descent into murder and madness. Between these two worlds, Hal finds a guide in Nell, who harbors her own secrets about both worlds. The ancient veterans compel Hal to hear what they did and what they suffered. As the veterans’ war stories grow stranger and more terrible, they lead Hal to a terrifying discovery: about his patients, his family, and his collapsing world.

In this new collection of genre-defying stories by Cristina Rivera Garza, a woman visits what she thinks could be her old lover's hometown after being abandoned by her, years earlier. Two herons hitchhike across Mexico. A group of workers build a new home, only to see it destroyed by the state. With little baggage and much bravado, the characters in TERRESTRIAL hitchhike, migrate, take trains, wander or, at times, fly, to survive the mandates of patriarchy and capitalism. On dusty roads or by a lake turned suddenly ominous, they remain in close contact with the earth's surface, sensing its wild promise and capacity for violence, its degradation and enduring beauty.

Botswana sometimes feels like a small town, so when a client wanders into the detective agency, it comes as little surprise that Mma Ramotswe has met him once before. But Mr. B has not made the trip to Gaborone for pleasure. The animal rescue center he runs is in peril. Someone in the surrounding villages is tarnishing its reputation. Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, and Mr. J.L.B Matekoni travel to Maun to restore the community’s trust in the sanctuary. Makutsi is apprehensive at the idea of leaving Charlie in charge of the business. Mr. Moepi, the owner of the carwash down the road, is facing a rather unusual problem --- his carwashes are making too much money, and Mr. Moepi suspects something is not quite right. Determined to prove his mettle, Charlie delves headfirst into the case.

Nanako Hanada is a passionate book lover who manages the Village Vanguard, an iconically eccentric bookstore in Tokyo. But her story takes a turn with the breakdown of her marriage. Spending her nights alone in Tokyo's four-hour capsules, she’s finding herself rather isolated. That's until Nanako finds the meet-up site Perfect Strangers. Perfect Strangers is where people meet for 30-minute bursts to find friendship or romance, build a network, or just share ideas. She sets up her profile promising to recommend people “the book that will change their life.” In the ensuing year, Nanako meets hundreds of people. Soon she discovers that she can connect with just about anyone, and bustling Tokyo begins to feel like a welcoming small town.

At the beginning of THE HIDDEN PALACE, the second book in Helene Wecker’s Golem and Jinni trilogy, Ahmad the jinni travels to Syria with the copper flask that holds the captured wizard Yehudah Schaalman. There in the desert he buries the flask for all time...or so he thinks. In THE GATES OF MIDNIGHT, it’s 1930 and three decades have passed. Chava the golem quietly tends to her house and garden in Brooklyn, hoping to create a refuge for other magical beings. Meanwhile, Ahmad has found employment as an architect in Chicago, helping to build its towering skyline above the prairie. But all is not well in the desert. Schaalman has managed to trick an unsuspecting passerby into digging up the flask, and now it passes from hand to hand as the wizard possesses his victims, all in an effort to get to Chava, the only one who can release him from his prison.