On Sale This Week

September 22, 2026

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 21st and September 28th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight of the newly released THE MUNICH AFFAIR, along with our review. An upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick, this fascinating thriller from James Patterson and David Ellis is set in motion by the murder of Adolf Hitler's young lover by his own hand.

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This Week's Bonus News:
Our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight &
Featured Review of THE MUNICH AFFAIR 
by James Patterson and David Ellis
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

On Sale the Week of September 21st in Hardcover

September 21st

THE MUNICH AFFAIR by James Patterson and David Ellis (Historical Thriller)
Spanning a century, THE MUNICH AFFAIR is set in motion by the murder of Adolf Hitler's young lover by his own hand. A determined detective, Thomas Bauer, obsessively pursues Hitler --- putting Bauer’s Jewish wife and children in grave danger. A courageous journalist, Fritz Gerlich, writes story after story detailing the murder --- making Gerlich a target for Hitler’s Gestapo. An American professor, Eleanor Robbins, picks up the trail of evidence from present-day Neo-Nazis guarding the Führer’s long-held secrets to the death.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316404099 

September 22nd

AVALON, RISE by Madeline ffitch (Fiction)
Ditched on the side of the road, two friends shelter for the night in a barn. When they wake, one comes face to face with his destiny --- an antique letterpress, the Vandercook No. 4. Woody and Leroi have been friends their whole lives. But as Leroi falls in with the collective that cooks every Sunday in the park, learning about traveler symbols and how to slice a cucumber, Woody starts to snort the pills he’s been selling. He makes his art: beautiful letterpress signs for protests, and business cards commissioned by a woman he knows as Stasia but whom others know to be the leader of a white nationalist movement. Stasia bought the barn with the Vandercook in it; she says Woody can use it anytime. What does she want in return?
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374617769

CLOUD SIX by Amy Fusselman (Fiction/Dark Humor) 
Following a catastrophic plane crash, married couple Mam and Bunko have found themselves in Cloud Six. It's the newest --- and lowest --- tier of heaven, run by a slumlord demon named Widdershins who takes the form of an underwear model. With a rabbit skeleton as their guide, the pair do their best to remain hopeful and together in their quest: to navigate the strangest of places, to find help, and to catch even one glimpse of the teen daughter they left behind. While Mam and Bunko try to accept their fate, Widdershins navigates workplace politics and tries to impress an ex-lover. And Amy, who appears in the book as our guide and scribe, grapples with how to tell an honest story with Satan breathing down her neck.
Catapult | 9781646223480 

DIE FAMOUS by Michael Koryta (Historical Thriller) 
On the day Savannah Cody spots her first gray hair, she decides it’s time to murder the father of her only child. Edward “Nickel” Terhune is the getaway driver for the Brady Gang, one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals. Dragging her son, Alford, and her father, Wendell, a retired railroad detective, along for the quest, Savannah embarks to find the man she once loved and the nation now fears, journeying across an America transformed by the Great Depression. But Alford --- and soon, the FBI --- notices that the closer the family gets to Nickel, the less clear Savannah’s motivations seem to be. As the Brady Gang races to escape the law (or get rich trying), Nickel realizes he might not be able to outrun his mistakes.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316535991 

DOUBLE TAP: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Don Bentley (Political Thriller)
Mitch Rapp signed up to be an assassin, a lone wolf who hunts and kills his nation’s enemies on their turf. 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 must stop the chain reaction before the Middle East reaches critical mass.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668045916 

THE FIRST SCARLET DOOR: A 4MK Thriller by J.D. Barker (Thriller)
Before he was known as the Four Monkey Killer, he was just a boy trying to survive. Charleston, 1999. Fifteen-year-old Anson Bishop didn't mean to kill --- not the first time, anyway. Raised by parents who taught him that murder was simply survival, Anson thought he'd escaped his dark past when his home burned and his mother vanished with stolen mob money. He was wrong. Someone is hunting Charleston's forgotten children --- runaways, the addicts, the ones no one will miss. When the few people Anson has come to care about vanish into the night, he discovers a truth more horrifying than anything his parents taught him: there are monsters in the world far worse than the one he sees in the mirror.
Hampton Creek Press | 9798999350947 

HOLLYWOOD, ENDING by John Green (Fiction)
For rising talents Kai Laramie and Juniper Castillo, being cast in the buzzy biopic Andy Warhol Never Gets Old is the opportunity they’ve both been waiting for. They’re on the verge of breaking out, and maybe even falling in love. Soon, the movie is blowing up, and so are their lives --- in exciting, but also terrifying, ways. John Green artfully blends a behind-the-scenes Hollywood love story with an unflinching examination of the insatiable attention economy. Told through dual points of view, the novel brilliantly juxtaposes the on-screen study of Warhol’s life at the dawn of celebrity culture with the intimate struggles of two young people figuring out who they are, both together and alone.
Dutton | 9780525426073

INCARNATE by Alma Katsu (Psychological Thriller/Techno-Horror)
Dorothy Wagner has spent her whole life wanting nothing more than to be seen. But after failing to make her mark as an influencer, she takes a job working for a brilliant coder whose company is focused on cutting-edge deepfake technology. And there, in secret, is where she creates her salvation. Isabella. An impossibly gorgeous girl who takes social media by storm. Dorothy's artistry is brilliant, and Isabella seems so real that she garners millions of followers. But everybody knows that overnight success doesn’t just happen. And when someone gets a little too close to the truth, a violent confrontation sends Dorothy on the run, forcing her to confront what she’s willing to sacrifice to keep her secrets.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217177707 

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PLAYERS: What I've Learned from Baseball's Best by Peter Gammons (Sports)
Peter Gammons is the preeminent baseball writer of his generation. Nearly every significant figure in the game has shared stories with him. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PLAYERS reveals what Gammons has learned from those greats about baseball and life. He details the emergence of Latin and Asian players in Major League Baseball and the symbiotic relationships between manager and general managers, catchers and pitchers, and second basemen and shortstops. He recalls his chance childhood meeting with Roger Maris as he was falling in love with baseball. He speaks to the marriage between rock n' roll and baseball, and tells the story of how Ted Williams claimed he could smell the wood burning on his bat after smoking line drives to the outfield.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538777206

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK by Clare Mackintosh (Psychological Thriller)
Nadeeka is certain Jamie is having an affair. She knows the tell-tale signs. She's been here before. When Jamie claims to be at work late, she knows he's lying. He's with another woman, and she's determined to catch him in the act. But when Nadeeka arrives home to confront him, Jamie can't explain himself. The house has become a crime scene. Jamie is dead. You think you know the people you love. You think you know who you can trust. You think you know how the story ends. It’s not what you think.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464266003 

MAZYWOOD by Tananarive Due (Literary Thriller/Horror)
When Johnny --- a filmmaker and grandson of the famous Black actress Mazelle Washington --- brings his family to Mazywood, the secluded California mountain lodge left behind by his grandmother, he expects a quiet retreat. Instead, he uncovers a legacy of rage, secrets and terror that has haunted his family for generations. As a young Black actress, Mazelle brushed shoulders with giants like Lena Horne, Clark Gable and Hattie McDaniel. But beneath her public appearance, she carried a secret she had kept and nurtured since she was a child, when a dark wish came true and changed the course of her life forever. Now, 50 years after Mazelle’s death, Johnny finds himself confronting the truth she buried --- and the consequences she left behind.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781668075142 

MURDER AT THE GRAND ALPINE HOTEL: A Miss Marple Mystery by Lucy Foley (Historical Mystery)
High in the Swiss Alps, accessible only by a single, winding railway, stands the luxurious Grand Alpine Hotel. With glorious mountain views and exclusive access to powdery slopes, it draws guests from far and wide. The notorious actress. The high-flying politician. The society wife. The reckless friend. The shrewd doctor. But not everyone is here for a winter holiday. Beneath the champagne and furs, dark histories simmer. Old grudges emerge like cracks in the ice. And someone is watching from the shadows. A polite, unassuming woman with an extraordinary mind: Miss Marple. When a body is found and a blizzard cuts off all escape, only Miss Marple can connect the clues before the killer strikes again. Because it isn’t a question of who has a motive, but who’s next.
William Morrow | 9780063376694 

MURDER ON THE SACRED RIVER: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander (Historical Mystery)
1908: Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, are vacationing in India at Ahilya Fort, the old home to the Maharaja’s family, when a man is found shot along the Narmada River. Emily and Colin jump into action, but their suspect list is large. 1740: Fifteen-year-old Ahilyabai has been married to the son of Malharrao Holkar, the Lord of the Malwa territory, for seven years. Now the time has finally come to produce an heir. But though Ahilya’s in-laws have shown her nothing but kindness, her notoriously drunken husband remains a mystery to her. Her sense of loyalty is tested as she attempts to balance fulfilling her duty with forging her own destiny. Her decisions will have ripple effects across time --- including Lady Emily’s investigation almost 200 years later.
Minotaur Books | 9781250375018 

ROCK*: A Mainstream Alternative History of Alternative Mainstream Music by Chuck Klosterman (Speculative Nonfiction)
The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in the spring of 1967. For decades, the cliché has been that it initially only sold 10,000 copies, though everyone who bought it supposedly started a band. It is the definition of a record whose influence outstrips its mass popularity. But what if the opposite had transpired? What if instead of selling 10,000 copies, it had sold…10 million copies? What if it had sold 100 million copies? What would have happened if the Velvet Underground had inexplicably become the biggest group in the history of popular music, and everything about the rest of the 20th century was merely a footnote to that phenomenon? Chuck Klosterman has generated a fictitious universe where almost everything is different, except for the songs.
Da Capo | 9780306837999 

THE STRANGERS by Naomi Alderman (Fiction)
A few months after her mother dies, the novelist Naomi Alderman sets up a wildlife camera in the back garden of her parents’ home. It captures the first image of a strange new animal. Suddenly these “mimmoths” are as common as foxes or dogs. And no one knows where they’ve come from. As Alderman negotiates the territory of grief, the mimmoths spread. They seem harmless but oddly intelligent. Alderman cannot shake the feeling that she has a particular connection to the creatures. As the impact of the mimmoths increases, she is pulled into the cross currents of conspiracy theories and global power struggles. Have her deeply personal forms of mourning lent recent events a surreal air, or is our reality changing drastically and irrevocably?
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316594776 

SWAN SONG: Diana, my sister by Charles Spencer (Memoir)
In September 1997, Charles Spencer stood in Westminster Abbey before a watching world and shared his grief at losing his beloved sister, Diana. Now, nearly 30 years later, he tells the astonishing story of his life with Diana and the tragic week of her death. In childhood, Charles and Diana, the youngest Spencers, were inseparable. Yet everything changed when Diana married the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, and overnight became a global icon. Charles saw his older sister serve the world’s marginalized and relish being mother to her treasured sons. But, pursued by a barbaric press as her royal marriage crumbled, she was left desperately alone. Charles always tried to be there for Diana --- until that black night in August 1997.
Penguin Press | 9798217379743 

TRUE NORTH: On the Road in Canada by Paul Theroux (Travel/Memoir)
For more than half a century, Paul Theroux has traveled the globe and chronicled its far corners with curiosity, wit and an unflinching eye. With TRUE NORTH, he turns that eye to a country that has long been his quiet neighbor: Canada. What begins as the completion of a North American road trip trilogy becomes something more personal. Theroux meets his Quebcois friends and relations, then travels more widely through remote villages, multicultural cities and sweeping landscapes that have defined modern Canada. Along the way, he speaks with farmers, refugees, writers like John Irving and Michael Ondaatje, and Indigenous leaders such as Tanya Talaga, listening as Canadians reckon with identity, belonging and patriotism.
Mariner Books | 9780358451303

AN UNEXPECTED LIFE: A Memoir by Gloria Steinem (Memoir)
Before she became a feminist leader, Gloria Steinem was a curious child: going on road trips with her itinerant father, caring for her mother, and devouring every book she could find. In AN UNEXPECTED LIFE, she reflects on the unlikely experiences and pivotal moments --- from a childhood rat bite that opened her eyes to the dangers of poverty to the 1970 Women’s March honoring the right to vote --- that shaped the visionary woman she would become. Steinem shares her years living in India, learning from the nonviolent movement there, and her travels around the world advocating for women’s rights. Along the way, she honors the people who influenced her most, including trailblazers, writers and thinkers who expanded her understanding of power, community, justice and solidarity.
Random House | 9780593978177 

On Sale the Week of September 21st in Paperback

September 22nd

AT LAST by Marisa Silver (Historical Fiction)
Helene Simonauer and Evelyn Turner are two formidable women whose paths cross when their children marry. Both women are sharp, cunning and unwavering in their conflicting beliefs about marriage, responsibility, family and, most pressingly, their efforts to vie for the love of their shared granddaughter. Weaving together the lives of Helene and Evelyn --- from their vastly different childhoods through the pivotal events that define them --- AT LAST paints a vivid portrait of the American Midwest, capturing the essence of a time and place where societal norms and personal aspirations often clashed.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668078976

BAD BAD GIRL by Gish Jen (Historical Fiction)
Gish’s mother, Loo Shu-hsin, is born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family. Her beloved nursemaid is torn from her even as she is constantly reprimanded: “Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!” Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English name --- Agnes --- but a first-rate education. Agnes finds solace in books and, in 1947, announces her intention to pursue a PhD in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sail --- never to return. Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-Pe, an engineering student. But by the time Gish is born, the news from China is proving inescapable; their marriage is foundering; and Agnes recapitulates the harshness of her own childhood.
Vintage | 9780593689653

BETWEEN CHAPTERS: How I Started Over, Took Some Chances, and Found the Plot by Zibby Owens (Memoir)
Paperback Original
In BETWEEN CHAPTERS, Zibby Owens offers a front-row seat to her decade of reinvention as she goes from being an Upper East Side stay-at-home mom of four to a divorced and remarried “book-fluencer,” author, publisher, award-winning podcaster and bookstore owner. Laugh alongside Zibby as she shares moments like messing up “the birds and the bees” talk, getting stuck climbing an inflatable raft at her kids’ sleepaway camp, and traveling with her new love. Join her in the forty-something trenches as she gains and loses weight, gains and loses friends, makes a zillion mistakes, and finds ways to turn grief, divorce pain, communal tragedy and the anticipation of an empty nest into moments of connection.
Zibby Publishing | 9781968506902

BLACK BAG by Luke Kennard (Fiction/Humor)
A penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr. Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr. Blend’s students react to someone zipped into an oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of Fall lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own --- in particular, can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag? --- and the actor’s childhood friend forms a vision for monetizing this new situation.
Zando | 9781638937388

CIRCLE OF DAYS by Ken Follett (Historical Fiction)
Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain. Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders --- and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538772782

CLIVE CUSSLER QUANTUM TEMPEST: A Novel of the Oregon Files by Mike Maden (Thriller/Adventure)
There’s a tempest brewing in Central America. A government crackdown on cartels leaves most of the drug lords locked up in an impregnable prison. In response, Amador Fierro, a brilliant, tech-savvy crime boss, forges the seven largest cartels into an allegiance called La Liga. If they are to defeat the U.S.-led offensive, they will need a powerful weapon. Thus is born Project Q: an Artificial General Intelligence computer that, when finished, will grant Fierro such overwhelming control of America. Chairman Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon are the only ones standing in his way, but they have their own problems. While two members of the team are unreachable in the Darien Gap searching for an Iranian Quds Force base, the Oregon crew have a mole in their midst. Meanwhile, other dark forces are at play.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9798217044283

THE EX-WIVES MURDER CLUB by Mette Ivie Harrison (Domestic Thriller/Dark Humor)
For Meg (wife #1), Jenny (#2) and Amelia (#3), the term “a woman scorned” isn’t strong enough. They want more than revenge for the years of their life they wasted with their pitiful excuse for a husband. They want him dead. As they carry out their lethal plan, they soon realize they’re thinking too small. What about all the other men (and women) who cause immeasurable suffering and get away with it? Thus “the business” is born. A dazzling new female-owned venture that will change the course of their lives --- and shorten many others! And for Meg and Jenny, it could allow them to experience a love they never thought possible.
Severn House | 9781448319022

FREE FALLING: A Sweetwater Peak Novel by Lyla Sage (Paranormal Romance/Western)
Paperback Original
Clarke Cartwright runs Toade’s Antiques, which is no small feat, especially considering that the roof is in shambles and half her merchandise is unsellable. But dealing with that feels easier than her other option: chatting it up with the ghost of her childhood crush’s father. Leith Wilkes has spent his life preparing to take over his family’s farm. Well, he’s actually spent most of his life flirting, but now he’s ready to buckle down, which has nothing to do with an oddly specific clause that his dad left in his inheritance. Leith is pretty sure he’s the only one who knows about it…until Clarke drunkenly spills that she knows, too, along with a bunch of other Wilkes family secrets. Leith starts to wonder if there’s more to Clarke than she lets on --- and if his dad has something to do with it.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780593977798

GABRIËLE written by Anne Berest and Claire Berest, translated by Tina Kover (Historical Fiction)
Paris, 1908. At the height of the Belle Époque, Gabriële Buffet --- a brilliant young musician fresh out of Europe’s most elite conservatory --- meets Francis Picabia, a charismatic and explosive Spanish painter. Their intense love affair plunges them into a Paris alive with artistic experimentation and social rebellion. Soon after, Gabriële meets the enigmatic Marcel Duchamp. Before long, the three have embarked on a passionate and unconventional relationship that will define their personal stories --- and in the process reshape modern art. As Europe moves from exuberance to upheaval, and World War I looms, Gabriële, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp and their milieu challenge every convention: about marriage, sexuality, authorship and artistic freedom.
Europa Editions | 9798889661924

THE GIRL FROM DEVIL’S LAKE: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance
(Mystery/Thriller)
Sheriff Joanna Brady is looking forward to the holidays with her busy family and celebrating her daughter’s graduation from the police academy. But the family is interrupted when a body is discovered beneath a flooded bridge in the Arizona desert. A young boy was murdered, and the details of the crime scene tell Joanna that this was not the killer’s first murder. As Joanna digs deeper into the case, she uncovers unlikely connections between cases of mysterious deaths and missing persons, having long since gone cold, that extend far beyond the confines of her small town and include the discovery of a body near Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. To get justice for the victims and to save the town of Bisbee from a predator, Joanna must chase down every dangerous lead.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063252646

IF A FACE COULD KILL: A Brigid Quinn Thriller by Becky Masterman (Domestic Thriller)
Former FBI agent Brigid Quinn hasn’t forgiven herself for the testimony that led to young mother Nicole Gleason being convicted for the manslaughter of her abusive husband. Now out of jail early on parole, Nicole is living in a group home for felons in Brigid’s Arizona neighborhood. But while Brigid hopes to make amends with Nicole, not everyone in the community is happy to have criminals on their doorstep. When outspoken local resident Dorita Gordino is grotesquely murdered, suspicion soon falls on Nicole. Brigid is determined to catch Dorita’s killer and prove Nicole’s innocence --- even if it means one of her own darkest secrets comes to light.
Severn House | 9781448318988

THE MAN NO ONE BELIEVED: The Untold Story of the Georgia Church Murders by Joshua Sharpe (True Crime)
In 1985, a white man walked into a South Georgia church and brutally murdered Harold and Thelma Swain, two pillars of the area’s Black community. The killer vanished into the night. For 15 years, the case remained unsolved. Then authorities zeroed in on Dennis Perry, a carpenter who grew up nearby. Convicted with devastatingly flawed evidence, Perry received a double life sentence. When award-winning journalist and South Georgia native Joshua Sharpe retraces the case, he discovers a winding path of corruption, devastating missteps and secrets. He eventually uncovers explosive evidence that helps prove Perry’s innocence. And he confronts a long-ignored suspect: an alleged white supremacist who had bragged about committing the murders. But the fight for the truth is not easily won.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324130550

MOROCCO by Norah Labiner (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Chicago, the turn of the 21st century. Our narrator --- always there and never entirely present --- recounts her decades-long relationship with the heiress Katherine Stern. Through the years since boarding school, she has seen Katherine as a daughter who wants for nothing but respect from her psychotherapist father, as a woman with a kind but fortune-hunting fiancée, and as a mystery even more confounding than the gothic horror stories she evaluates from the slush pile at her job. Sometimes, despite their estrangement, she has even seen Katherine as a friend. Inspired by the classic story WASHINGTON SQUARE by Henry James, Norah Labiner reimagines the prolific tale.
Melville House | 9781685892852

NASH FALLS by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Walter Nash has a very high-level position at Sybaritic Investments, where his innate skills and dogged tenacity have carried him to the top of the pyramid in his business career. However, following his estranged Vietnam-veteran father’s funeral, Nash is unexpectedly approached by the FBI in the middle of the night. They have an important request: become their inside man to expose an enterprise that is laundering large sums of money through Sybaritic. At the top of this illegal operation is Victoria Steers, an international criminal mastermind that the FBI has been trying to bring down for years. Nash has little choice but to accept the FBI’s demands and try to bring Steers and her partners to justice. But when Steers discovers that Nash is working with the FBI, she turns the tables on him in a way he never could have contemplated.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538758007

ONE OF US by Dan Chaon (Historical Thriller)
It’s 1915, and life is falling apart for 13-year-old twins Bolt and Eleanor. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost uncle Charlie. During a late-night poker game, when one of his rages ends in murder, they decide to flee. Salvation arrives in the form of Mr. Jengling, founder of the Emporium of Wonders. He adopts Bolt and Eleanor, who travel by train across the vast, sometimes brutal American frontier with their new family, watching as the exhibitions spark amazement wherever they go. But as Bolt falls in deeper with their new clan, he finds Eleanor pulling further away from him. And when Uncle Charlie picks up their trail, the twins find themselves facing a peril that will forever alter the trajectory of their lives.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250411662

PICKET LINE: The Lost Novella and Two New Stories by Elmore Leonard (Historical Fiction)
Chino and Paco Rojas seem well-mannered, at least for Chicanos, to the white cops who pull them over for littering on the long drive from California to Trinity, Texas. So well-mannered, in fact, that Captain Frank McKellan lets them off with a warning and recommends them a job at Stanzik Farms, the largest independent melon grower in the area. But Chino and Paco didn’t drive all this way for work. Instead, Chino is looking for a mysterious man, Vincent Mora, whose new Valley Agricultural Workers Association is causing a scene striking against the farm owners. Stanzik’s fields and Mora’s union bring together a cast of unlikely characters. Some are neighbors, others are just passing through. Some know each other well, or at least thought they did…before the picket line.  
Mariner Books | 9780063389380

SECOND NATURE by Joyce Carol Oates, writing as Rosamond Smith (Psychological Thriller)
Celebrating 40 years of pseudonymous suspense from Joyce Carol Oates
Four decades ago, Joyce Carol Oates penned her first novel of psychological suspense under the name “Rosamond Smith.” In the Smith books, Oates explored themes of betrayal and deception, lust and murder, through stories involving twins, doubles and hidden second identities. Hard Case Crime is proud to bring these extraordinary works of crime fiction back into print in definitive double editions, each pairing two complete novels and two never-before-collected Oates short stories. In this volume, a model suburban husband grows obsessed with a beautiful stranger in DOUBLE DELIGHT, while an eminent professor preys on a vulnerable student in NEMESIS --- and the echoes continue in the rare short stories “A Girl Worth Twenty Million” and “First Death.”
Hard Case Crime | 9781835415467

A SLOWLY DYING CAUSE: A Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George (Mystery)
Michael Lobb has just been found dead on the floor of his family’s tin and pewter workshop. It’s suspicious enough that his body was found by a representative of Cornwall EcoMining, a company keen on acquiring his family’s land, and it’s made even worse when he’s revealed to have been the majority owner of the business and the sole obstacle preventing a deal from being made. But it doesn’t take long for Inspector Beatrice Hannaford to unearth the layers of estrangement that surrounded Michael in his final days. In comes Kayla, a young woman who has just been made his widow. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers are brought in to help solve the crime and search for justice in a community where lust, greed and family traditions collide with devastating consequences.
Penguin Books | 9780593493601

TIME OF THE CHILD by Niall Williams (Historical Fiction)
Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean that he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow and remains there, having missed one chance at love --- and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man. But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy's lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter's lives, the understanding of their family and their role in their community are changed forever.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639737581

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO LORI LOVELY? by Sarah McCoy (Historical Fiction)
In 1969, 23-year-old starlet Lori Lovely shocks the world by ditching a promising film career to take vows as a Benedictine nun. The media can’t get enough of the story. Why would such a beautiful girl take the veil? Did it have anything to do with her costar, heartthrob singer Lucas Wesley? In 1990, history student Lu Tibbott decides to dig into a true 20th-century mystery for her senior thesis and write about her aunt Lori, now the Mother Abbess at a cloistered convent in rural New England. For decades, Mother Lori has refused all requests for interviews --- until Lu arrives with a tape recorder in hand. To Lu’s delight, Mother Lori is finally ready to talk...but only if Lu is truly ready to listen.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063338753

On Sale the Week of September 28th in Hardcover

September 29th

AMERICAN HAGWON by Min Jin Lee (Fiction)
The men, women and children in AMERICAN HAGWON struggle to find satisfaction and meaning in a world that seems to grow less forgiving with each passing year. Once comfortably middle class in Korea, John and Helen Koh and their three children find their lives upended --- first by a shocking betrayal by John’s oldest friend, then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Desperately striving to regain their footing, they leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in Southern California --- where new vistas of opportunity open up for the children as their parents, strangers in a strange land, must adjust to a new life in which their experience and education mean little, and they set their sights on whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures.
Cardinal | 9781538752036

THE AMERICAN WAY OF KILLING: The Invention of an Epidemic by Malcolm Gladwell (Cultural Studies/Social Science) 
The United States has far more homicides than any of its peers around the world. Why? In this groundbreaking book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the American “peculiarity” --- how the world’s wealthiest country came to suffer from a problem typically only seen in the world’s poorest countries. Drawing on original interviews, archival and social science research, and his trademark insight, Gladwell approaches the American paradox through a series of stories. What can we learn from the miracle of a young gunshot victim in Washington, D.C.? How have the legal troubles of a 17th-century English knight influenced American attempts at gun control? Why would a European police chief be baffled by the graduation ceremony at any American police academy?
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316603782 

BRADY: An American Story and the Price of Greatness by Lars Anderson (Sports/Biography)
Former Sports Illustrated journalist Lars Anderson plunges into Tom Brady’s childhood to discover the origins of what Brady later described as his “sickness”: his category-five obsession with the game. The obsession dictated every choice Brady made --- from what foods he ate to how he managed his day-to-day schedule to how he viewed his role as father to his three children and husband to supermodel Gisele Bündchen. From more than 350 original interviews with people who know the quarterback on and off the field, Anderson paints a detailed psychological portrait of Tom Brady, a self-described loner whose life is defined by discipline, resilience, a fascination with preparation, an intolerance for wasted time, and a relentless pursuit of the extraordinary.
Celadon Books | 9781250360304 

THE CAULDRON: The Making of the Modern Middle East by Simon Sebag Montefiore (History)
Renowned historian Simon Sebag Montefiore wades into the ideological battles and geopolitical tensions of the Middle East with a comprehensive and nuanced chronicle that situates the region in the context of its last 125 years. Few understand the real history of the Middle East; fewer still understand its variety and cosmopolitanism, its complexity and interconnectedness. Taking the reader on a spectacular journey from the Ottoman sultanate to the Trump presidency, from Morocco to Iran, THE CAULDRON is a dazzling panorama of faith and fanaticism, creativity and tolerance, dictatorship and democracy brought to life by an extraordinary cast of kings, warriors, poets, terrorists and peacemakers.
Knopf | 9780593805053 

COME CLOSER: Childhood Wounds, Adult Love, and the Secrets of Emotional Intimacy by Dr. Galit Atlas (Psychology/Personal Growth)
What is the secret of emotional intimacy? How can understanding our childhood experiences give us the insights we need to be close to others in a truly satisfying, longer-lasting and more meaningful way? In COME CLOSER, Galit Atlas invites us inside the private lives of her patients --- and into her own --- to offer new, life-changing answers to these important questions. Atlas has identified six child archetypes --- the frightened child, the melancholic child, the ashamed child, the invisible child, the guilty child, and the chosen child --- and in these pages, she shows how each childhood wound plays out in our adult relationships.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668067147 

DODGE CITY by Patrick deWitt (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1967 in Los Angeles, and Lee Clarke has received his draft notice, calling him up to fight in the Vietnam War. A straitlaced, apolitical 23-year-old, Lee is studying at UCLA until a fistfight leads to his expulsion --- and his removal from the deferment list. Although he is happy in California and loves his girlfriend, he will leave the country and head for the border. Bringing only a single suitcase and a bag of amphetamines, he makes his stimulated progress against the width of the country, pining for the life he’s left behind and wondering what his decision will mean for his future. But he's not just saying goodbye to the country of his birth. In four different towns strung out along the northern United States, Lee visits each member of his immediate family.
Ecco | 9780063438118 

THE DYING LIGHT: A Detective Matthew Venn Novel by Ann Cleeves (Mystery) 
The body of a young woman, Lottie, is found in the swimming pool of a luxurious holiday home. The girl’s best friend, Hannah, whose family owns the house, is missing. The girls had arrived a few days earlier to celebrate the end of their school exams, quickly stirring unrest in the small community with incendiary social media videos mocking the place as parochial. When further tragedy strikes, Detective Matthew Venn and his team begin questioning a community filled with secrets. The fact that Hannah’s father, Paul Armstrong, is a rising political star with powerful enemies draws intense media scrutiny to the case. With the summer heat come holidaymakers, and it emerges that some of them may have stronger connections with the Armstrong family than first thought.
Minotaur Books | 9781250836809

FICTIONAL SELVES: A Memoir by Kyle MacLachlan (Memoir)
Kyle MacLachlan’s funny, moving and playfully self-aware memoir charts a career that could belong to no other. Plucked from obscurity to star in David Lynch’s Dune, the Hollywood blockbuster that never was, MacLachlan rebounded with a startling performance in Lynch’s provocative masterpiece, Blue Velvet, which would mark him as a master of the unusual and ultimately lead to his career-defining role as Agent Dale Cooper on the TV sensation “Twin Peaks.” FICTIONAL SELVES is a book of doppelgängers, with MacLachlan mirrored by his own prodding ego (“Other Kyle”), the iconic characters he inhabited, and the ones that eluded his grasp but gave him a profound and surprising lens onto himself as a person and a performer.
Crown | 9798217086320 

THE FRENCH ILLUSION by John Grisham (Thriller)
After Paul and Chelsea Tanner’s fairy-tale wedding, their future is full of promise. But their honeymoon to Paris takes a dark, shocking turn when they are kidnapped while on a day trip to the French countryside. Who would target them, and why? It turns out this is not the first crime of its kind. The search for clues soon stretches across borders, with the FBI, CIA and French Intelligence trying to work together to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Struggling to find answers, a young lawyer is recruited to be the bait in an elaborate CIA operation.
Doubleday | 9780385550543 

GALINDA: A Charmed Childhood by Gregory Maguire (Fantasy)
Who was Glinda the Good Witch before she floated down in her bubble to greet Dorothy? Who was Glinda before she became Elphaba Thropp’s magnetic and popular roommate at Shiz University? The youngest of four children in a high-born family down on their luck, Galinda is both pampered and ignored. Her natural grace promises to elevate her in the district dance competitions. But these efforts distract her from seeing the growing resentments of local merchants who disapprove of her family’s business strategies. As her father deftly pivots around the snares and nets laid for him by his competitors, Galinda begins to dance toward a life that might lift her above her proud, if hardscrabble, childhood.
William Morrow | 9780063495272

GHOST BARN: A Dave Gurney Novel by John Verdon (Mystery/Thriller) 
A local election sees a powerful real estate mogul with plans for a massive development face off against a librarian and ardent conservationist. Protests erupt, battle lines are drawn between ideological camps, 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, Dave Gurney suspects he’s the town’s only hope to stop the carnage that is tearing everybody apart. But involvement comes at a price. 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 unsolvable --- even if it costs him his wife for good?
Counterpoint | 9781640097254 

THE KING OF ALOE VERA by Tomas Moniz (Fiction)
Seventy-five-year-old Rey has lived on the same block in San Francisco’s Mission District for most of his life, watching his city transform. A widower for 10 years, he spends most of his time volunteering at the library. But by the end of the month, Rey must move into a senior retirement and leave his neighborhood behind. It’s at the library during one of his last shifts where he meets Q, on probation, post-breakup with her girlfriend and dealing with a troubled family. As Rey tries to decide what to do with the rest of his days, literally counting them off and cutting his remaining ties, Q begins to insert herself into his world in a way that he can't deny.
Algonquin Books | 9781523536092 

LONDON STATION by David McCloskey (Political Thriller)
A new US administration has taken office, installing a brash and unconventional CIA director. When the axe falls on the chief of London Station, the agency veteran decides to spy for the Brits --- a betrayal uncovered by his replacement, Artemis Aphrodite Procter. Caught between a turncoat spymaster and a ruthless new boss back at Langley, Procter now must navigate a tense environment as old friends become adversaries and no one knows whom to trust. Adding to the chaos is a new breed of private intelligence agency: a secretive and powerful company run by a reclusive billionaire. When assets begin dying, Procter and her team in London Station must find out who is leaking the sources’ identities --- and why --- before both agencies go blind.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324123217

THE MANY PRIVATE LIVES OF MISSY COOKE by Jane Green (Fiction)
Missy Cooke’s parents divorced when she was young. While her mother did her best to make ends meet, her father devoted his life to work --- and his new family. Missy only knew him from afar. But when he came to visit, his light shone bright. He was Silicon Valley tech titan Marty Cooke. Now an adult, Missy’s life is a constant negotiation between her own desires and the towering expectations of her father. But when a devastating diagnosis forces Marty to step down from his tech empire, ipryy, he chooses Missy. Thrust into a world of high-stakes board meetings and cutthroat corporate politics, Missy is completely out of her depth. When she uncovers a dark secret that threatens to destroy everything her father built, she must decide what kind of leader she will become.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335449610 

MESTRA: A Short Story by Madeline Miller (Mythological Fiction)
Mestra, daughter of the King of Thessaly, is granted a unique gift by Poseidon: the ability to transform herself into any being she can imagine. Her father, on the other hand, is cursed. As punishment for disrespecting the goddess Demeter, he is in possession of an unnatural, insatiable hunger. Devoted Mestra suggests using her new gift to help her father. But if his hunger is bottomless, how much will he take from her? Soon she must decide: Will she keep helping her father survive or finally break free?
Ecco | 9780063566286

NANTUCKET CHRISTMAS STROLL by Nancy Thayer (Fiction) 
The Nantucket Christmas Stroll is the most wonderful time of year on the island. At the heart of this celebration is the Parsons family and the sparkling house party they host each year. Brick Parsons and his wife, Jane, eagerly anticipate the arrival of their three adult children who are all coming home for the holidays. Together, the family celebrates the Stroll, reuniting with old friends and lovers on the tree-lit Main Street. But the holiday cheer is soon overshadowed by the stress of the season as secrets are revealed and emotions run high. Champagne flows and Christmas-themed canapes are enjoyed as the Parsons family come together on the night of the party, proving that family and the power of love can make any season bright.
Ballantine Books | 9780593723968 

NIGHTJARS by Michael Wehunt (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
On a rainy night, Luke Oshel gets stood up halfway through dinner. But before his date walks off to the bathroom and never returns, she leaves an old photograph under her napkin --- Luke as a child, a dead body in the shadows of his bedroom, and a terrifying masked man. He has no recollection of this event. Then more photos disrupt his life --- Luke posing with murder victims, covered in blood --- and he falls back into the deep paranoia and repressed memories he has tried to leave behind. All the drugs and alcohol, therapy and hypnosis sessions have never conquered his deepest fear --- that he hasn’t escaped the hidden legacy of his late father, who killed his victims by blood loss. But now there is a new string of serial killings, and the evidence all points to Luke.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250333728 

PLY by Hernan Diaz (Fiction)
Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.
Riverhead Books | 9780593719541 

THE RADIANCE by Ayad Akhtar (Fiction)
When a hit-and-run shatters more than his body, a writer is plunged into a spiritual awakening he can’t tell from madness. In its grip, he’s drawn to a brilliant campus colleague by an uncanny pull, and into a scandal that threatens to destroy them both. What begins as a provocative portrait of academic and cultural warfare deepens into erotic entanglement, the exposure of a family secret, and the mystery surrounding the narrator’s accident --- both the violence and its aftermath. Moving between rural America and Europe, Islam and Christianity, the intimate and the metaphysical, THE RADIANCE is of our American moment and beyond it --- asking not only what has broken, but what radiance remains.
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668078631 

RESTORATION by Carol Davis (Historical Fiction)
It is 1984, and Risa Meier has built a successful life in San Francisco. But when her estranged mother unexpectedly reenters her life after nearly a decade of silence, old wounds resurface. As a series of personal tragedies force Risa to confront the past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her family, herself and the future she carefully planned. Seeking distance and a fresh start, Risa accepts an opportunity in rural England, where she is tasked with restoring a centuries-old barn. As hidden histories emerge through letters, memories and the landscape itself, the restoration becomes more than a professional challenge. The deeper she digs into the building's past, the more she is forced to confront her own inheritance of grief, loss and longing.
Rise Books | 9781959524199 

RUTHLESS by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Shipping magnate John Randall Williams is at sea after the recent death of his wife. About to face his first Christmas alone, John meets a young woman named Lillith at a dinner party and is immediately drawn to her beauty. He invites her to share the holiday with him on his sailboat in Saint Barts. Charlotte Ramsay, a senior editor at Vanity Fair, is on assignment in Saint Barts during the holidays. She has come to the island to interview another powerful man: high-tech billionaire Ben Sharpe, whose luxury yacht is also anchored in the harbor. Though the first interview goes badly, she eventually agrees to have dinner with him and becomes intrigued by the real man behind the facade. A chance encounter between the two couples sets the stage for a face-off between Charlotte and John.
Delacorte Press | 9780593973301 

SOPHIE, STANDING THERE by Meg Mason (Fiction) 
Sophie Pattison loves books. Along with 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?
Harper | 9780063493131 

THE STEPS: A Memoir by Sylvester Stallone (Memoir)
In the 50 years since Sylvester Stallone ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, he and those steps have become symbols of resilience and determination, and have inspired millions from all over the world to pursue their dreams. In THE STEPS, Stallone recounts how he pursued his own dreams. A culmination of decades of reflection, Stallone shares where he came from --- a difficult birth, an even more difficult childhood, years of struggle in school being misunderstood --- and he explains how the real story of a successful life is built by facing, embracing and ultimately overcoming our challenges. It’s found in the distances we are willing to go and the steps we must take to get from where we are to where we want to go.
William Morrow | 9780063443914 

TRAD WIFE by Sarah Langan (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the “trad wife” queen, on her idyllic 300-acre farm. But behind every perfect image is a secret. And in this case, the secret is a horror. Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to expose the deception behind Mia’s curated life. But soon, Jenny has more to contend with than staged videos and camera-ready poses. There’s something wrong at the farmhouse. Something slithers through Jenny’s dreams, and at night, the children sing strange nursery rhymes. She’s losing time. She’s losing her hair. She starts to worry that she’s losing her mind.
Atria Books | 9781668229651

THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF FIRST LADY FREEMAN by Deesha Philyaw (Fiction)
Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married a megachurch pastor 15 years her senior. She doesn’t have many allies, but that hasn’t stopped her from building an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded products, and living the comfortable life her husband's power affords her. On the eve of her 40th birthday, Schar gets the final bit of validation she’s always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors’ wives. Finally, blissfully, the ice between Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw. But as the pageant nears, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center, and her carefully curated life implodes.
Mariner Books | 9780063383074 

THE VANISHING FAMILY: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia by Robert Kolker (Science/Biography)
In Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, there lived a family with nine siblings, the youngest a girl named Barb. As the older children headed off to college, only Barb was home to see their mother fall under a gothic spell, changing into someone she didn’t recognize. We learn that this family has a genetic mutation that causes dementia, but with an especially cruel twist. As early as their 40s, formerly loving parents and hard-driving executives will lose their jobs, have affairs, take up drinking, and become people their families hardly know. Their former personalities seem to vanish --- and there is a 50-50 chance that it will happen to their children, too. THE VANISHING FAMILY unfolds like a heartbreaking thriller as the siblings begin to realize that what happened to their mother is happening to them.
Doubleday | 9780385551038 

THE WEIGHT OF ANGELS by John Boyne (Alternate History)
When the Marquess of Queensberry left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: “For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite.” The most celebrated playwright of his day famously sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution and, ultimately, prison. From then on, his gilded existence spiraled into public disgrace, humiliation and an early death. But what if he had simply ignored the insult? What direction might his life have taken? Rather than dying in penury in Paris at age 46, what if Wilde had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes of the first part of the 20th century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life was as dramatic, tumultuous and exhilarating as the first?
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250411365 

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO RIGHT?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture by Danny Meyer (Business & Leadership/Memoir)
In 2006, Danny Meyer owned 11 restaurants, was nurturing a single parkside burger kiosk called Shake Shack, and had just written a bestselling book, SETTING THE TABLE, about his company’s unique culture of Enlightened Hospitality. On the first page of that book, Danny proudly declared that in 25 years he had never closed a restaurant. But just a few years later, he shuttered his beloved Tabla, a decision that filled him with shame --- but sparked a reckoning within him about what it means to be a leader. Danny realized that his fear of failure wasn’t just misguided; it was an impediment to his innate entrepreneurial spirit. In WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO RIGHT?, he takes the reader along on his journey to learn how he’s delivered a winning culture of excellence at scale.
Random House | 9780593731772 

On Sale the Week of September 28th in Paperback

September 29th

ALL THE WAY TO THE RIVER: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert (Memoir/Self-Help)
In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe. What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?
Riverhead Books | 9780593540992

THE BOOK OF LUKE by Lovell Holder (Fiction)
Following the car accident that ended his football career and left his body scarred, 22-year-old Luke Griffin joins the cast of “Endeavor,” a new competition-based reality show that pits the tabloids’ darlings against one another in tasks of endurance and problem solving. But Luke has aspirations far bigger than the show's million-dollar prize, and soon a series of betrayals leads to irreversible tragedy. Ten years later, Luke is a father of two and the stay-at-home husband to America’s only openly gay senator. When his husband's serial cheating is exposed, Luke impulsively joins the cast of the latest season of “Endeavor” in a desperate bid to earn some fast cash. Back on set, he is confronted with everything he tried to leave in the past, all of which threaten to tear down the walls he’s spent a decade building.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538770160

BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan (Historical Fiction)
In the jubilant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, shares a single, life-altering moment with Margaret Salt, a woman determined to outrun her past. Cal is married to Becky, whose spiritual gifts help the living speak to the dead, while Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving at sea, believed to be safe --- until a telegram suggests otherwise. What begins as a fleeting transgression becomes a complex secret that irrevocably binds all four of them in unexpected ways. As their small Ohio town remakes itself in the postwar boom, the Salt and Jenkins families remain in each other’s orbit, and the consequences of choices made long ago begin to emerge, reshaping their lives in ways that will forever impact the next generation.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593595053

A FERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
Avery and Reed Bond grew up sharing a close-knit relationship. Even so, Avery often finds herself exasperated by her brother’s relentless matchmaking, while Reed can’t resist teasing his sister. Facing their first Christmas without their beloved Grams, the woman who lovingly raised them, Reed and Avery decide to spend the holiday together at Reed’s home. However, their plans take an unexpected turn when the ferry Avery is traveling on stalls in the middle of Puget Sound, stranding its passengers and leaving Reed waiting a now undetermined length of time for her arrival. What is at first an inconvenience threatens to ruin the plans of a number of commuters, but Avery and Reed soon discover that this unforeseen delay might end up being a perfectly timed blessing in disguise.
Ballantine Books | 9780593974698

I THINK WE SHOULD KILL OTHER PEOPLE by L.M. Chilton (Mystery & Thriller/Humor)
Paperback Original
Hazel and Marc were paired together on “Love Synced,” a revolutionary reality AI dating show that matches hopeful lovers. But when it came time to say “I do,” Hazel left her perfect match at the altar. Now all she wants to do is fly home. Instead, she’s trapped at a tiny, snowed-in airport with her ex and his obnoxiously rich family. But when they start turning up dead, a jilted lover is the least of Hazel's worries. There’s a serial killer to catch first. The heart is a fickle thing, so it’s no surprise that AI couldn’t predict true love for Hazel. But can it help crack the case when a murderer is picking off her almost-in-laws one by one?
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668094211

THE IRISH GOODBYE by Heather Aimee O'Neill (Fiction)
It’s been years since the three Ryan sisters were all together at their beloved family home. Two decades ago, their lives were upended by a fatal accident on their brother Topher’s boat. Now the Ryan women are back and eager to reconnect, but each carries a heavy secret. The eldest, Cait, still holding guilt for the role no one knows she played in the boat accident, rekindles a flame with her high school crush. Middle sister Alice has been thrown a curveball that threatens the career she’s restarting and faces a difficult decision that may doom her marriage. And the youngest, Maggie, is finally taking the risk of bringing the woman she loves home to meet her devoutly Catholic mother. When Cait invites a guest from their shared past to dinner, old tensions boil over and new truths surface.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250408167

A KILLER WEDDING by Joan O'Leary (Mystery/Humor)
Editor Christine Russo can't believe her luck. She's been chosen by the iconic Gloria Beaufort, founder of a billion-dollar beauty empire, to cover her grandson's wedding for Bespoke, the elite fashion magazine read by every A-lister. It feels too good to be true. Because it is. Gloria is found dead on the first morning of the celebratory weekend, and her entire family wants to keep her death a secret and for the wedding to march on. When Gloria's heirs issue a chilling warning to Christine to keep things quiet, she can't help but wonder if one of them is guilty of murder. As she navigates a world where glamour masks grimy secrets and everyone she meets is a suspect, she realizes that among this glitzy elite nothing is as it seems.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063432222

LADY OF UNCANNY CHARMS by Charlie N. Holmberg (Historical Fantasy)
Paperback Original
Owein arrives in England to marry Lady Cora of Leiningen, his dearest friend and confidante he’s known mostly through letters. However, Queen Victoria has other plans in store for the centuries-old wizard. The queen is obsessed with preserving magic, and she believes Owein is the key to pursuing her lofty ambitions. Torn from his family, his home and his betrothed, Owein is pushed into the Queen’s League of Magicians, where he learns that the Crown’s upheaval of his life is only the beginning of his problems. Meanwhile, Cora must push aside her broken heart and use her own spells and resources to uncover truths that the queen wants hidden. As new threats, former loves, untapped spells and even older souls than Owein collide, his next choice could be his last.
47North | 9781662531224

LUCKY NIGHT by Eliza Kennedy (Fiction)
After six years of a stolen hour here, another there, tonight is going to be different for Nick Holloway and Jenny Parrish. They’ve booked a room in a new luxury hotel in Manhattan, where they’ll spend the entire night together for the first time. Expectations are running high for this brief reprieve from ordinary life: they both need a good bout of ravishing sex and witty conversation. But that’s not what they get. Because they’ve barely gotten started when a smoke alarm goes off. Nick is annoyed but not worried about what must be only a minor glitch. Jenny is anxious and guilty. Is karma coming for them at last? LUCKY NIGHT seamlessly shifts between Nick and Jenny’s perspectives as the reality of their situation becomes apparent, and all their secrets, evasions and regrets come spilling out.
Crown | 9780593800850

THE MIDNIGHT GUESTS by Alex Hay (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
1926. Diana Gold, owner and impresario, throws open the doors to the most opulent new hotel in London. As the champagne flows and the chandeliers shimmer, millionaires and gamblers rub shoulders with film stars and royalty. But things at the Hotel Artemis aren’t quite what they seem --- including the two guests Diana expects at midnight. Powerful and dangerous, they’ve dragged her from the gutter and taught her all she knows. Now Diana must take perfect care of them --- unless they take care of her first. But when a body is found in the hotel’s finest suite, the lavish opening night begins to spiral out of control. And over 24 fateful hours, the staff and guests of the Artemis will find out why they are really there.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335001580

THE OCTOBER FILM HAUNT by Michael Wehunt (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Ten years ago, Jorie Stroud was the rising star of the October Film Haunt --- a trio of horror enthusiasts who camped out at the filming locations of their favorite scary movies, sharing their love through their popular blog. But after a night in the graveyard from Proof of Demons --- perhaps the most chilling cult film ever made, directed by the enigmatic Hélène Enriquez --- everything unraveled. Now, Jorie has built an isolated life with her young son in Vermont. In the devastating wake of her viral, truth-stretching Proof of Demons blog entry, Jorie has put it all behind her. Until a videotape arrives in the mail. Jorie fears someone might be filming her. And the “Rickies” --- Enriquez obsessives who would do anything for the reclusive director --- begin to cross lines in shocking ways. It seems Hélène Enriquez is making a new kind of sequel…and Jorie is her final girl.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250333711

PENDERGAST: THE BEGINNING by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
It only took six months for the life of Special Agent Dwight Chambers to crumble around him. First, he lost his partner, and then, tragically, his wife. Returning to work at the New Orleans Field Office, Chambers is dismayed to find himself saddled with mentoring a brand-new FBI agent --- A. X. L. Pendergast. As Chambers tries to pull himself together, his enigmatic and exasperating junior partner pulls an outrageous stunt that gets both of them suspended. Pendergast welcomes the banishment, because it gives him the opportunity to investigate a peculiar murder in Mississippi that has captured his fancy. Chambers grudgingly goes along. Thanks in large part to Pendergast’s brilliance and unorthodox methods, they solve the case and find the killer. That is when the true horror begins.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538765760

A SEA GLASS CHRISTMAS by Davis Bunn (Romance)
Two days before his 21st birthday, Brody Reames left the Outer Banks to fulfill his dream of sailing. He knew leaving his hometown wouldn’t be forever, but to mend a disillusioned heart in Fortunate Harbor, it was for the best. Still, he never expected that a family upheaval and his loving mother’s plea would call him back. With Christmas nearing, Brody is coming home again --- to a crisp chill in the air and a warm former flame. An attorney for the Outer Banks’ five-star oceanfront resort and resident treasure hunter, Rae Alden has a life that is adventurous, rewarding...and lonely. But now, after eight years, she sees Brody again. Like waves along the Crystal Coast, emotions thought long-gone come rushing back. But with both of them facing family turmoil and secrets yet to be revealed, how promising is a new chance at happiness, no matter how powerful the yearning?
Kensington | 9781496754271

THE SISTERS OF CRIMSON HOUSE by Melissa Anderson Sweazy (Supernatural Thriller/Gothic Horror)
Paperback Original
The only woman in a long line of famous psychics to not inherit the family gift, Charley Bryde spends her days inside Crimson House, the coveted family mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, living in the shadows of her talented older sister, Miranda. But when a shocking tragedy scatters the Brydes across the globe, Charley is forced to grow up on her own. As the money runs dry and Charley's ownership of Crimson House is put at risk, she turns the manor into a haunted attraction and starts representing the family brand with lies, cons and expertly read tarot cards. When a skeptic starts targeting Charley for the fraud that she is, she'll stop at nothing to save the family legacy. But the skeptics' arrival cracks something open in Charley that the Brydes wanted to remain buried. Deep.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464272356

THE SWORD OF LIGHT by Heather Graham (Fantasy/Romance)
The mystical Tuatha Dé Danann walked the hills of ancient Ireland long before the first Rí, or king, ever ruled the land. Before they stepped back to make way for mankind, they left behind objects of incredible power that would reveal themselves when most needed. When invaders from the North arrive, it feels like the moment that has long been foretold has finally come. Deidre, the daughter of a Rí, and Kylin, the son of a Northman who found peace and a home in Éire, have little in common, until they begin seeing visions of these fantastical gifts. The revelation that a traitor exists among the many Irish kings forces them to work together using their newfound powers in defense of their homeland. As all they hold dear comes under threat, it may be more than just dreams that the two begin to share.
Mira | 9780778306634

TWELVE MONTHS: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy)
Harry Dresden has been through a lot, and so has his city. After Harry and his allies narrowly managed to save Chicago from being razed to the ground, everything is different --- and it’s not just the current lack of electricity. In the battle, Harry lost people he cared about. And that's the kind of loss that takes a toll. Harry being Harry, he’s doing his level best to help the city and his friends recover and rebuild. But it’s a heavy load, and he needs time. But time is one thing Harry doesn’t have. Ghouls are prowling Chicago and taking out innocent civilians. Harry’s brother is dying, and Harry doesn’t know how to help him. And last but certainly not least, the Winter Queen of the Fae has allied with the White Court of vampires --- and Harry has been betrothed to the seductive, deadly vampire Lara Raith to seal the deal.
Ace | 9780593199343

UNGRATEFUL IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER: A Memoir from the Child of a Mail-Order Bride by Katya Suvorova (Memoir)
Paperback Original
Growing up undocumented in Houston, Texas, Katya Suvorova learned that keeping her family together meant dodging the police, enduring her mother’s many husbands, and babysitting her younger sister instead of finishing the third grade. Her understanding of her life shifted dramatically at 17, when Katya discovered her mother’s advertisement in a forgotten Eastern European mail-order bride catalog from the 1990s. As she grew older, Katya came to better understand what her mother had risked when she smuggled herself and her then-three-year-old daughter from Russia into the US. UNGRATEFUL IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER explores difficult questions and stories both shocking and hilarious across Katya’s childhood through to an adulthood estranged from the woman who sacrificed everything for her.
Alcove Press | 9798892426855

A VOW IN VENGEANCE by Jaclyn Rodriguez (Fantasy/Romance)
Rune Ryker has nothing left to lose. Everything has been stolen by the Immortals --- her family, her home, her freedom. Each year, humans are forced to journey into the Immortal Realms, but 20-year-old Rune orchestrates her own selection, determined to find her family and destroy anyone who stands in her way. Rune is used to doing whatever it takes to survive, and now she must endure the Forge, a cutthroat college for the Immortal druids’ elusive tarot magic. When Rune’s magic reveals itself to be the rarest and most powerful, she must live with its only other wielder: Prince Draven. As arrogant as he is ruthlessly ambitious, he’s the last person she can trust. Rune’s abilities also draw the eyes of the most dangerous druids in the realms. Some want to use her. More want her dead. Draven offers to train her…for a price.
Slowburn | 9781638934769

WHAT STALKS THE DEEP by T. Kingfisher (Gothic Horror/Dark Fantasy)
Alex Easton does not want to visit America. They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted. But when their old friend, Dr. Denton, summons them to help find his lost cousin --- who went missing in that very mine --- well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250463647

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE by Jade Chang (Fiction)
Lola Treasure Gold can’t figure out her life. She’s broke, unemployed and back in her childhood home, a crumbling cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Worse --- unspeakably worse --- one of her closest friends has just died. So nobody is more surprised than Lola when a jackpot falls in her lap: she stars in a viral video, opening a surprising path for her to become a self-help guru. With the encouragement of her other best friend, Celi, Lola embraces the public interest in her perceived message. But is she a scammer or a sage? Just as Lola is telling others to be their own guiding lights, she can’t seem to find hers. She’s grieving, accused of using the notoriety of her friend’s death to fuel her rise, and full of questions about the fate of her mother.
Ecco | 9780063416406

WILD ANIMAL written by Joël Dicker, translated by Robert Bononno (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
On July 2, 2022, two criminals set out to rob a jewelry shop in Geneva. But even with a foolproof plan, their “perfect” heist will prove far from uneventful. Twenty days earlier, on a luxurious estate along the shores of Lake Geneva, Sophie Braun prepares to celebrate her 40th birthday. Her life seems perfect, but her idyllic world is about to crumble. Her husband is becoming embroiled in petty schemes. Her neighbor, a policeman with a spotless reputation, is obsessed with her and spies on the most intimate moments of her life. Then, on her birthday, she receives a gift from a mysterious prowler that endangers her life. It will take many journeys into the past, far from Geneva, to unravel the origins of this diabolical plot from which no one will emerge unscathed.
HarperVia | 9780063426030

THE WILDERNESS by Angela Flournoy (Fiction)
Desiree, Danielle, January, Monique and Nakia are in their early 20s and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood, and of big-city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood --- overwhelming, mysterious, and full of freedom and consequences --- swoops in and stays. As these friends move from the late 2000s into the late 2020s, from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another --- amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability, and the increasing volatility of modern American life.
Mariner Books | 9780063318816

WITCH TRIAL by Harriet Tyce (Legal Thriller)
Paperback Original
When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in a park, the city of Edinburgh is stunned. The shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with the murder. Rumors of bullying are overshadowed by something more wicked and frightening: whispers of dark rituals, feverish obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong. Matthew Phillips is a respected heart surgeon picked for the jury. As the trial unfolds --- and the girls’ lawyers offer a surprising and unsettling defense --- the reluctant Matthew finds himself questioning everything: the motives, the evidence, even his own judgment. Then he begins to have strange visions of terrifying things --- hallucinations he tells himself. After all, witchcraft isn’t real. Or is it?
Harper Perennial | 9780063492936

A WOODED SHORE: And Other Stories by Thomas McGuane (Fiction/Short Stories)
In these nine peerless stories, a family boating trip veers into emotional disaster while very narrowly avoiding the physical; a would-be cheater hands over his car --- his prized possession --- for a shot with a pretty girl; a furniture magnate and his filmmaker daughter visit his impoverished hometown; a doctor’s long-ago affair returns with a bitter pill. Crackling with wry humor, shot through with both wisdom and pain, these are stories of grifters and dreamers, of the lovelorn and the lawless, stories of the ongoing dissonance between the lives we want and the lives this world will allow.
Vintage | 9780345805935

October 1st

CAPITAL PARTNERS: A Financial Thriller by Libby Fischer Hellmann (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When hedge fund owner Jay Montgomery raids his own fund, he disappears with millions belonging to his investors --- who include his wife, Grace; his dead partner's widow; and a vengeful Russian oligarch. Longtime frenemies, Grace and widow Dana want their money back and reluctantly team up. Their pursuit turns deadly when two people connected to Jay are killed. Tracking down a disenchanted AI pioneer in the UK confirms their suspicions: Their every move is being monitored, analyzed and anticipated by a sophisticated AI system programmed to optimize outcomes, not protect people. But there is one thing the system cannot fully account for: the irrational, emotional, deeply human choices determined people make when everything is at stake.
The Red Herrings Press | 9781966678175

TRUST NO ONE by Mary Burton (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
After 17 years away, public defender Raine Hale returns to her family’s crumbling Virginia estate when her estranged cousin, Maria, is hospitalized following a near-fatal cyanide poisoning. As sole beneficiary of Hale House and guardian to Maria’s five-year-old daughter, Molly, Raine confronts a troubling legacy she vowed never to revisit --- and is thrust into a deadly mystery. But she can’t trust anyone. When people begin dying, Hale House becomes as dangerous as the secrets it holds. With a killer circling closer and Molly’s life in her hands, Raine must unravel generations of family deceptions before she becomes the next victim buried in the family plot.
Montlake | 9781662530333

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