May 26, 2026

May 26, 2026

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 25th and June 1st 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 Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary for THE CALAMITY CLUB by Kathryn Stockett, which is an instant New York Times bestseller. The multimillion-copy-selling author of THE HELP returns with a bold, bighearted novel about a group of unbreakable women fighting for what’s rightfully theirs --- and the power of friendship to change everything.

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This Week's Bonus News:
Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On Commentary for
THE CALAMITY CLUB by Kathryn Stockett

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

On Sale the Week of May 25th in Hardcover

May 26th

THE ARCADIAN by Steven Pressfield (Historical Thriller)
Spain, the 1500s. The Iberian Peninsula is splintered by faith and ambition, its kingdoms locked in endless struggle. Armies clash, religions collide, and empires rise on tides of blood. Into this crucible rides Telamon. He has lived a hundred lives across centuries, forever condemned to take up arms. Now, drawn into the brutal conflict between Portuguese invaders and Andalusian defenders, he must face both the battlefield before him and the eternal war within himself. But Telamon is not alone. Across time, through lifetimes, the same figures return: all reborn in new forms, bound together by a cycle neither mercy nor death can break. As the armies close on a desperate city, their destinies entwine once more, and Telamon is forced to reckon with the questions that haunt every warrior’s soul.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324124252 

THE ARCHITECT by John Katzenbach (Thriller)
“Remember what your name means. I'm so sorry.” Just two weeks before her final architecture exams, Sloane Connolly receives this cryptic handwritten note from her estranged mother. She returns to her hometown in northwest Massachusetts to discover that her mother has vanished. A thorough search turns up no trace of her, and the police rule her disappearance a suicide. As Sloane deals with the aftermath, she distracts herself by taking on a mysterious commission: to design a memorial for six strangers whose connection to her anonymous client is deliberately kept in the dark. To complete this project, Sloane must trace the lives of all six individuals and uncover the hidden links between them. The secrets she unearths begin to weave dangerously into her own family's tragic history.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798200894116 

BABYLON, SOUTH DAKOTA by Tom Lin (Science Fiction)
When Saul Keng Hsiu and his wife, Mei Lee, move from China to the United States to take possession of a 160-acre homestead bequeathed to them by a distant relative, all they have are the possessions on their back, some hidden gold, and a pocketful of chrysanthemum seeds. After a rocky start and a long, harsh winter, the couple find themselves successfully raising chrysanthemums and livestock --- and soon after, a daughter, Mara. But when representatives from the US Army Corps of Engineers buy an acre of the Hsiu’s farmland and begin building a missile silo, the inexplicable starts to occur. In the years and generations that follow, increasingly impacted by the silo and its residue, the Hsius experience strange, wondrous and tragic events on their farm.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316576277 

BEFORE I KNEW I LOVED YOU by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Toshikazu Kawaguchi takes us back to the warm heart of the mysterious Funiculi Funicula Cafe, with another four guests whose luminous stories of love, lost and won again, will reaffirm your belief in its eternal potential. In this book, we meet the girl who couldn’t call her mother and yearns to reconnect with her; the man who waited for a reply from his girlfriend and never heard from her; the woman anxious to travel ahead to know what her future holds; and the student who travels back to meet his father again, who passed away many years before. Yet the same rules always apply --- you must return before the coffee gets cold. And while it does, memories are revisited, people are changed forever, and the enduring power of love transcends the boundaries of time.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335000682

BENEATH A BROKEN SKY by Joshua Moehling (Mystery/Thriller) 
It's a hot, miserable summer in the small town of Sandy Lake. Detective Ben Packard has finally settled into life here --- just in time for a tornado to sweep through the county, causing irreparable damage. Hiding among the debris is someone with a secret. When a mother who made enemies defending her bullied son is killed, the suspect list stretches across the entire town. For Packard, the case hits uncomfortably close to home. The deeper he digs, the more Sandy Lake hums with a tension that refuses to break. As thick smoke from nearby wildfires chokes the air, someone from Packard's past shows up on his doorstep without warning, forcing him to confront the reality of navigating life as a gay man in a small town bent on tradition, no matter the cost. 
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728279046

THE BOLEYN SECRET by Alison Weir (Historical Fiction) 
At 12 years old, Katherine Carey attends her aunt, Queen Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold. Horrified by what she witnesses, Katherine is convinced that King Henry VIII is a murderer and has sent an innocent woman to a terrible death. Although the Boleyn family has now fallen from favor, Katherine still manages to secure a coveted role as companion to her now-motherless cousin, the young Lady Elizabeth. Only when her mother lies dying does Katherine learn the life-shattering truth that the Boleyns have been hiding for years. It is a secret that follows Katherine throughout her life, as she flees religious persecution with her husband and lives abroad in fear, returning home only when Elizabeth becomes queen. But the bond between the Boleyn cousins will never be the same again.
Ballantine Books | 9780593974735 

THE BROTHERS McKAY: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
When Pepper McKay, one of the most hated men in Absaroka County, is found murdered on his ranch in Crazy Woman Canyon, suspects aren’t in short supply. But Sheriff Walt Longmire’s attention is on those who had gathered for a family meeting that evening, McKay’s very different sons: a smooth-talking charmer, a cosmopolitan journalist, a reclusive monk, and a half-Native ranch hand who keeps the place running. Each had a motive. Each claims he’s innocent. As Walt investigates what happened that night at the O-Kay Lodge, he’s pulled into a tangle of old grudges and long-buried secrets. Then the case takes a sharp turn: a second body surfaces, and a wildfire tears through the canyon, trapping Walt and forcing him into a fight for his life as both the killer and the elements close in.
Viking | 9780593830734 

DEAD WEIGHT written by Hildur Knútsdóttir, translated by Mary Robinette Kowal (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door. When she tracks down the cat’s wayward owner, she finds a young woman just as lost and in need of help. Like a gust of cold air in a Reykjavík night, Ásta and her pet slip into Unnur’s life. It’s unexpected, but welcome. Unnur likes the company, and she begins to rely on Ásta in turn. But like a black cat, trouble has been tailing her new friend, and Unnur is the only one there for Ásta when things take a violent turn. The two women quickly learn: nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250329295 

THE FINAL TARGET by Nora Roberts (Psychological Thriller)
He showed up at Arden Bowie’s debut author appearance with a copy of her novel and an eager smile. Then he came to her next event. And the one after that. Dustin was just an aspiring writer who wanted advice, Arden reassured herself. But after chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistake. After a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors. And her relief at his imprisonment is tempered by anxiety when Dustin’s wealthy mother helps to get him a paltry five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility. Arden moves to a tiny Oregon town and befriends Gideon, an ex-LAPD detective. But while she learns to thrive, Dustin remains his delusional, twisted self, as fixated as ever and now seething with anger.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250413581 

A FORTUNE OF SAND by Ruta Sepetys (Historical Fiction)
Detroit, 1927. A city of smoke and ambition, where glittering wealth conceals a graveyard of secrets. Marjorie Lennox is the youngest daughter of a powerful Detroit dynasty. Creative, reckless and never quite what they wanted, Marjorie has spent her life overlooked by her controlling father and self-absorbed siblings. But when she secretly applies to an elite arts program backed by a mysterious patron, she grabs the chance to finally step out of her family’s shadow. The program is strict in ways that feel sinister. Doors lock at strange hours. Rumors spread about women going missing. And the handsome benefactor behind it all is as magnetic as he is unsettling. As Marjorie gets pulled deeper into his world, she must fight to discover the truth before she loses herself completely.
Ballantine Books | 9798217093243

GHALEN: A Romance in Black by Walter Mosley (Fiction)
Ghalen, a brilliant young Black man, is the son of two seemingly mismatched parents. His mother is a gifted scientist whose own mother expected her to exceed all the achievements in her family. His father is a gentle cook at a small vegan restaurant whose idiosyncratic nature shows the young woman a radically different love and understanding of life, despite his inexperience and lack of education. His parents’ grand love story starts it all off, setting us up to follow Ghalen and his family so deeply that each new twist and turn feels personal. The journey through Ghalen’s coming-of-age tale, as he ventures out into the world, is marked with peaks and valleys and such a drive that you can’t help but strap in for it all.
Amistad | 9780063451551 

I HEAR A NEW WORLD by Alan Moore (Historical Fantasy)
It's 1958, and Dennis Knuckleyard has decided to leave his adventures in the Great When in the past where they belong. For nine years, he's avoided so much as thinking about the magical version of London until he rediscovers a key that he'd secretly brought into his own world from the other for safekeeping. When Dennis gives the key to a friend, its magical properties reawaken, bringing creatures from the other world into Dennis' and sparking riots in Notting Hill. Even worse, Dennis' old crush, Grace Shilling, has been forced into the Great When to investigate strange happenings in both cities. Desperate to keep Grace safe, Dennis follows her into Long London. But once inside the other city, it will not let him go away again so easily.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635578881 

THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE: Essays by David Sedaris (Essays)
In THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE, David Sedaris investigates what it means to be a traveler, a brother, a lifelong friend. Trying on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh’s hip-replacement surgery, he both succeeds and fails. He covers ground with his friend, Dawn, and challenges her to eat a truck tire. Ever adding to his list of “Countries I Have Been To,” he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, buys a bespoke priest’s cassock in Vatican City, and goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo. Throughout these essays, Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity this fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316264839 

THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN by Matt Haig (Science Fiction/Fantasy)
No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to relive the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were. For Wilbur, his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice. Before he gave it all away. He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything.
Viking | 9780593833377 

SAY NEPHEW: On Boyhood, Unclehood, and Queer Mentorship by Steven Pfau (Memoir)
In SAY NEPHEW, Steven Pfau blends memoir and criticism to celebrate the gay uncles who shape our sense of queer identity, culture and history. The most influential figure in Pfau’s gay boyhood --- the mentor who set the standard for all his future mentors --- was his uncle Bruce. A charismatic storyteller, Bruce came out in 1950s Memphis and lived in New York City through many of the defining events of the gay liberation era. Bruce was both a unique fixture in his nephew’s upbringing and a link in a long lineage of uncles, literal and figurative, who have offered various forms of queer tutelage to younger men. But what role is the nephew supposed to play in these relationships? And who does he become once his uncles are no longer there to guide him?
Catapult | 9781646222919 

THE VISIONARIES: Bretton Woods, the Marshall Plan, and the Making of the Post-World War II Order by James Holland (History)
James Holland’s deep knowledge of WWII gives him unique insight and appreciation for its historic aftermath. THE VISIONARIES chronicles the prelude to the Marshall Plan --- from Franklin Roosevelt’s historic “four freedoms” speech and “Good Neighbor Policy” towards Central and South America to the landmark Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944, which established the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, pillars of world stability. But it was Truman who pushed for the Marshall Plan, which in 1948 kickstarted via economic assistance the fastest period of growth in European history. However, Holland warns that we in the West have become complacent, less willing to safeguard the freedoms that extended prosperity has allowed.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802168078 

On Sale the Week of May 25th in Paperback

May 26th

ANGEL DOWN by Daniel Kraus (Historical/Supernatural Thriller)
Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade. What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.
Atria Books | 9781668068519

AUTOCORRECT: Stories written by Etgar Keret, translated by Jessica Cohen and Sondra Silverston (Fiction/Short Stories)
Set in our world, alternate realities, distant futures and the immortal realm, the stories in AUTOCORRECT traverse the wide range of human experience. With wit and creativity, Etgar Keret blends the absurd and the profound, juxtaposing life's smallest details with weighty existential questions. A man names an asteroid after his wife only to find that it's on a collision course with Earth in “For the Woman Who Has Everything.” In “Squirrels,” a widower's husband reincarnates as a rodent, and “Eating Olives at the End of the World” considers proper social etiquette in the face of destruction. Keret's stories probe society's uncomfortable truths, searching for meaning in our ever-changing world.
Riverhead Books | 9780593717240

THE BACHELORETTE PARTY by Camilla Sten (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
On a remote island nestled off the coast of Sweden, four friends meet every year. The idea is to drink beer, dance by the water, and shake off the weight of life's expectations. The location of the island is a secret to everyone but them. Ten Years Later. Ever since she was a teenager, Tessa Nilsson has been consumed by the story of four friends who disappeared. Her best friend, Anneliese, wants to have a bachelorette party before she walks down the aisle. The destination is Baltic Vinyasa, a sleek, sophisticated yoga retreat on a small island off the coast --- one with such similar characteristics to the tragedy years ago that it raises the hair on Tessa’s neck. Tessa will not pass this up. It’s her last chance to find out what happened to the four women. And it’s someone else’s last chance to get revenge.
Minotaur Books | 9781250888426

THE BEAST IN THE CLOUDS: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda by Nathalia Holt (History)
By 1928, dozens of expeditions had scoured the Himalayas in search of the panda bear, an animal many believed to be a myth. That year, the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt and a small team of scientists and naturalists launched their own dangerous journey. Lost in blizzards, attacked by robbers, ravaged by illness, and cut off from food supplies, the brothers’ crew was pushed to its physical and emotional limits. They would accomplish what years of exploration had not --- introducing the panda to the Western world. Along the way, they documented a rapidly disappearing landscape and helped bring about a new era of conservation biology.
Atria/One Signal Publishers | 9781668027752

BUG HOLLOW by Michelle Huneven (Fiction)
When Sally Samuelson was eight years old, her golden boy brother, Ellis, went missing the summer he graduated high school. Ellis finally turned up at the bucolic Bug Hollow, a last gasp of the beautiful Northern California counterculture in the ’70s. He had found joy in the communal life there, but he died in a freak accident weeks later. From that point, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis, especially after Julia, Ellis’ girlfriend from Bug Hollow, shows up pregnant on their doorstep. 
Penguin Books | 9780593834893

THE DIVORCE by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Naomi was living the quintessential love story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love, get married, buy a dream house and start a family. Then --- he kicks her out, hires the city's best divorce lawyers, drains their accounts, and takes up with a twenty-something. It's a brutal end to the story. Naomi should accept defeat: move into a dingy apartment, get back into the workforce, and piece together the shattered remains of her life. Except, why should she? Instead, Naomi fixates on her husband's new girlfriend. What begins as cynical curiosity soon twists into obsession --- and then into something far darker. As Naomi uncovers secrets she never imagined, she realizes her own life may be in danger.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464249631

DOLLY ALL THE TIME by Annabel Monaghan (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was 12, and not at 39 when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home. So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield --- the annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family --- with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself. Can she really start now?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593853979

END GAME by Jeffrey Archer (Mystery/Thriller)
London, 2012. The eyes of the world are on Britain as the country prepares to host the Olympic Games. But the glare of the spotlight makes London a target for some of the most dangerous people on earth. And the moment the bid is won, an international conspiracy is set in motion to unleash a devastating attack that will leave the world in chaos. One man stands between triumph and disaster: Commander William Warwick, heading up Scotland Yard's elite team. But as he pursues the shadowy organization, he sets off a deadly game of cat and mouse that will take him from the bustling streets of London to the hidden corridors of power. Can Warwick stop the assassin before the greatest show on earth becomes a catastrophe?
HarperCollins | 9780008795849

ENDLING by Maria Reva (Fiction)
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a maverick scientist who scours the country’s forests, trying and failing to breed rare snails. To fund her work, she entertains Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile wives. Nastia and Solomiya are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator. Together, the three women embark on the journey of a lifetime with a truckful of kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-his-kind snail --- that is, until Russia invades.
Vintage | 9781984897596

FOR RICHER FOR POORER by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
After working as the head designer for Oscar de la Renta, Eugenia Ward started her own company when she turned 40. She is now a major name in evening gowns and wedding gowns, ready-to-wear and haute couture. But with the fashion business in a major downturn, she recently has suffered heavy losses and desperately needs new investors --- and new ideas. At the same time, she is the matriarch and guiding light for her five adult children, a single mother for more than a decade. Patrick Hughes, a successful real estate developer, is also going through a rough patch and gives Eugenia valuable advice about her business challenges. But as her family gathers for her daughter’s big wedding, tensions are running high, money may be running out, and a hurricane is looming on the horizon.
Dell | 9780593498811

GUESS AGAIN by Charlie Donlea (Psychological Thriller)
Ten years ago, 17-year-old high school volleyball star Callie Jones vanished from her quiet Wisconsin lake community. A highly publicized search followed, but her body was never found. Ethan Hall, a former renegade detective turned ER doctor, left law enforcement to escape the horrors of the kid crime division. But on the 10th anniversary of Callie’s disappearance, his former partner, Pete Kramer, makes a desperate request. Pete is the veteran detective who originally investigated the case. Now he’s dying, and he needs Ethan to return to the haunting work he left behind --- and solve what happened to Callie, once and for all. It turns out there is much more to the nightmare of Callie’s disappearance than Ethan imagined, including a connection with his own dark past…and secrets that are still worth killing for.
Kensington | 9781496753977

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER by Francesca Cocchi (Romance)
Paperback Original
Lina Mariano is stuck --- in her hometown, in her job, and in the past. And after six years of writing up local weddings as a columnist for a popular lifestyle website, she’s wholeheartedly sick of nuptials. Worse, the next one on her list is none other than Sebastian Nikolaou’s. Working high school summers with Sebastian at his mother’s iconic beach restaurant, teenage Lina was totally wrapped up in the way he made her feel --- until the night that everything changed. Even so, she’s embarrassed to admit how often she still thinks of him. It will take a careful look at her younger self, and some wisdom from the best friend who was there for it all, to see that making her dreams come true is up to her alone --- whether or not those dreams still include Sebastian.
Kensington | 9781496760784

THE IDAHO FOUR: An American Tragedy by James Patterson and Vicky Ward (True Crime)
THE IDAHO FOUR chronicles the story that began on November 13, 2022, in Moscow, Idaho. In the dark early hours, the lives of four friends and college students were cut short by unspeakable violence. The book --- now featuring a newly reported conclusion --- is an exploration of a complex criminal investigation and its devastating aftermath. It is a timeless portrait of the worst and best in us.
Little, Brown and Company | 9781538766521

THE LAKE HOUSE: A Firefly Summer Novel by Lori Foster (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Pixie Nolan first came to Bramble, Kentucky, the abandoned and desperate young single mother found hope, healing and a fresh start. With the loving support of her best friends, she is now happily raising her toddler son in a cozy cottage. She never expected to make an electrifying connection with a summer renter, a retired Navy SEAL with his own complicated past. Brogan Rafferty arrives with an adorable baby girl in tow and settles into the lake house next door. But it’s no coincidence that Brogan has found Pixie, and his startling revelations make it clear she’s the key to healing old regrets and building new dreams. And when a hostile stranger turns up with shocking accusations against Bramble’s new hometown hero, Pixie must put her own fears and heartbreak away for good.
Kensington | 9781496752383

LOOSE LIPS: A Ghostwriter Mystery by Kemper Donovan (Literary Mystery)
Sometimes, even a first-rate ghostwriter and successful mystery author needs to make a buck. Even if that means setting foot on a cruise ship, something she vowed she’d never do. To top it off, the “Get Lit Cruise” is being organized by Payton Garrett, a bestselling author --- and the ghostwriter’s longtime frenemy from back in their MFA days. Payton has acquired a rabid following who eagerly snapped up the invitations sent to a select few of her newsletter subscribers. The guests, all female, will receive personalized instruction from experts in five different writing genres. When an attendee is found dead under suspicious circumstances and several others suffer symptoms of poisoning, there are numerous motives and suspects to choose from. As the body count rises along with onboard tensions, no one is safe.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496744579

LOVE ON THE SHELF by Sheila Roberts (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Alice Willoughby and her mom run HEA Books, a cozy shop devoted to love stories and the people who crave them. Alice is great at matching customers with their perfect happily-ever-after. She just can’t seem to find her own. Enter Parker Black, a disillusioned radio host who’s reinvented himself as a romance-bashing shock jock. Bitter from his breakup with a romance author, Parker takes aim at the entire genre --- and his on-air rants start stirring up trouble for Alice’s loyal customers and their partners. His crusade leads to spirited debates and bookstore protests. But when unexpected sparks fly between the two of them, Alice begins to wonder if her favorite trope --- enemies to lovers --- might actually be playing out in real life.
Mira | 9780778305828

THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB by Martha Hall Kelly (Historical Fiction)
In 2016, 34-year-old Mari Starwood travels to Martha’s Vineyard with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Deveraux. Mari isn’t sure what to expect when she finally makes it to the reclusive artist’s stunning waterfront property, but she is shocked to find out that her relationship to the island runs deeper than she ever thought possible. In 1942, the Smith sisters are faced with the impossible task of holding their family farm together during WWII as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard and their brother ships out to fight on the frontlines. In an attempt at normalcy, the girls start a book club that soon grows in both number and influence. But their lives are upended when a mysterious man washes up on the shore, and they find themselves questioning who they can truly trust in these turbulent times.
Ballantine Books | 9780593354933

THE MEDUSA PROTOCOL: An Assassins Anonymous Novel by Rob Hart (Thriller)
When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign…or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message? Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. It turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone, up.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593717448

MURDER TAKES A VACATION by Laura Lippman (Mystery)
Mrs. Blossom has a knack for blending into the background, which was an asset during her days assisting private investigator Tess Monaghan. But when she finds a winning lottery ticket in a parking lot, everything changes. She is determined to see the world that she sometimes feels is passing her by. When Mrs. Blossom booked her cruise through France on the MS Solitaire, she did not expect to meet Allan on her transatlantic flight. He is the first man who has sparked something inside her since her beloved husband passed. She also didn’t expect Allan to be found dead 24 hours later in Paris, a city he wasn’t supposed to be in. Now Mrs. Blossom doesn’t know who to trust on board the ship, especially when a mystifying man, Danny, keeps popping up around every corner, always present when things go awry.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062998118

NEVER FLINCH by Stephen King (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are 14 citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend, Holly Gibney, for help. Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard.
Scribner | 9781668089347

THE QUEEN WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD by SJ Bennett (Historical Mystery)
1961, England. The Queen is spending a night on board the royal train with her entourage and her sister, Princess Margaret. But before they reach their destination, an unreliable witness claims to have seen a brutal murder from one of the carriages. The Queen and her assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, get to work on their second joint investigation. No one else saw the crime. If there is a victim, could he be the missing photographer friend of Margaret’s new husband, Tony Armstrong Jones? This time, the Cold War threatens to undermine the Queen’s upcoming visit to Italy. She and Joan must tackle dark forces that follow them all the way, in a tale of spies, lies and treachery.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892425339

REMAIN: A Supernatural Love Story by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan (Paranormal Romance)
When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia’s deathbed revelation --- that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world --- sits uneasily with him. But when Tate takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world. They forge an immediate connection. But below the surface of Wren’s idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom.
Dell | 9798217154050

RETURN TO SENDER: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
When Blair McGowan, the mail person with the longest postal route in the country of over 300 miles a day, goes missing, the question becomes: Where do you look for her? The Postal Inspector for the State of Wyoming elicits Sheriff Walt Longmire to mount an investigation into her disappearance, and Walt does everything but mail it in. Posing as a letter carrier himself, the good sheriff follows her trail and finds himself enveloped in the intrigue of an otherworldly cult.
Penguin Books | 9780593830727

RUN FOR THE HILLS by Kevin Wilson (Fiction)
Ever since her dad left them 20 years ago, it’s been just Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While it’s a bit lonely and a less exciting life than what she imagined for herself, it’s mostly okay. Then one day, Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half-sister. Reuben, who was left behind by their dad 30 years ago, has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half-siblings. And he wants Madeline to leave her home and join him for the craziest kind of road trip imaginable to find them all. As Madeline and Reuben --- and eventually the others --- share stories of their father, who behaved so differently in each life he created, they begin to question what he was looking for with every new incarnation.
Ecco | 9780063317529

SEDUCTION THEORY by Emily Adrian (Fiction)
Simone is the star of Edwards University’s creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist and campus sex icon. Her husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. But when Ethan sleeps with the department administrative assistant, Abigail, the couple’s faith in their flawless relationship is rattled. While Ethan is away for the summer, she grows inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta “Robbie” Green. But behind Simone’s back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor’s marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may --- or may not --- be the truth.
Little, Brown Paperbacks | 9780316584524

SHOPGIRLS by Jessica Anya Blau (Fiction)
Nineteen-year-old Zippy is the newest and youngest salesgirl at I. Magnin, “San Francisco’s Finest Department Store.” For a girl who grew up in a one-bedroom apartment above a liquor store with her mother and her mother’s madcap boyfriend, Howard, and who wanted to go to college but had no help in figuring out how, I. Magnin represents a real chance for a better and more elegant life. Or, at the very least, a more interesting one. Zippy may not be in school, but she’s about to get an education that will stick with her for decades. However, just when she thinks she’s getting a handle on how to be an adult woman in 1985, two surprises threaten both her sense of self and her coveted position at I. Magnin.
Mariner Books | 9780063052369

THE SOUTH by Tash Aw (Fiction)
When his grandfather dies, Jay travels south with his family to the property they’ve inherited, a once flourishing farm that has fallen into disrepair. The trees are diseased, the fields parched from months of drought. Jay’s father, Jack, sends him out to work the land, or whatever land is left. Over the course of these hot, dense days, Jay finds himself drawn to Chuan, the son of the farm’s manager, different from him in every way except for one. Out in the fields, and on the streets into town, the charge between the boys intensifies. Inside the house, the other family members begin to confront their own secrets and regrets.
Picador | 9781250437969

TAKING MANHATTAN: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America by Russell Shorto (History)
In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he encountered Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland’s canny director general. TAKING MANHATTAN reveals the founding of New York to be an invention, the result of creative negotiations that would blend the multiethnic, capitalistic society of New Amsterdam with the power of the rising English empire. But the birth of what might be termed the first modern city is also a story of the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and of the roots of American slavery.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324130581

THUS WITH A KISS I DIE by Christina Dodd (Historical Mystery)
I, Rosie Montague of Verona, am 20 years old, and I’ve never been wed. I’m beautiful but without conceit, for Juliet, my legendary Mamma, is the most gorgeous creature to ever walk the earth. Just ask Romeo, my legendary Papà. (Rumors of their deaths were premature.) I was heartwhole until I fell (literally) in love with Lysander of the House of Beautiful. But our love was not to be, for I was thwarted by Escalus, the Prince of Verona…who had designs on me. I’m trapped. Then I’m presented with a solution. Escalus’ father, Prince Escalus the Elder, appears to me. He tasks that I find his killer. Did I mention Elder is a ghost? Meanwhile, revolution threatens, for beneath Verona society’s glittering surface lurk dark shadows --- and an enemy eager to make me a tragic heroine in my own right.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496750204

THE VIOLET HOUR by Victoria Benton Frank (Fiction)
Violet Adams is the perfect, youngest child in a family of loud, passionate women on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. As the sweet, traditional one, she’s always been the steady hand in her family. But after a sudden breakup and subsequent tragedy, she doesn’t know who she is anymore. Aly Knox, Violet’s best friend, is a young influencer still struggling with the loss of her mother and adjusting to joining Violet in Southern living. With her best friend’s help, Violet is determined to break out of her shell --- and who she thought she was --- no matter what. And what better place to look for success, meaning and possibly love than the Lowcountry of South Carolina?
Gallery Books | 9781668067772

THE WAR BEYOND by Andrea Stewart (Fantasy/Adventure)
Hakara risked her life to find her long-lost sister, Rasha, only to lose her all over again. Now she and her Unanointed rebels hunt for the shapeshifter Lithuas, knowing that defeating her would strike a blow to the plans of the tyrant god Kluehnn. Rasha once longed to be reunited with Hakara. No longer. Now she is a Godkiller and proud to serve Kluehnn’s divine will. Yet she also harbors doubts about Kluehnn’s teachings. When she is sent to destroy Hakara and her allies, Rasha will have to decide where her loyalty truly lies. As the two sisters hurtle towards a bloody reunion, Sheuan continues her shadowy games of intrigue to uncover the secret that killed her father, while her cousin, Mullayne, seeks the tomb of Tolemne. There, Mull believes he’ll find the answers he desires.
Orbit | 9780316564847

WHAT KIND OF PARADISE by Janelle Brown (Mystery/Thriller)
Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in: the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence, the books of 19th-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to him has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past and her mother’s death: San Francisco. It is here where she will come to question everything she values.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593449806

WOODWORKING by Emily St. James (Fiction)
Erica Skyberg is 35 years old, recently divorced --- and trans. Not that she's told anyone yet. Mitchell, South Dakota, isn't exactly bursting with other trans women. Instead, she keeps to herself, teaching by day and directing community theater by night. That is, until Abigail Hawkes enters her orbit. Abigail is 17, Mitchell High’s resident political dissident and Only Trans Girl. It’s a role she plays faultlessly, albeit a little reluctantly. She's also annoyed by the idea of spending her senior year secretly guiding her English teacher through her transition. But Abigail remembers the uncertainty --- and loneliness --- that comes with it. Besides, Erica isn’t the only one struggling to shed the weight of others’ expectations. As their unlikely friendship evolves, it comes under the scrutiny of their community.
Crooked Media Reads | 9781638934172

THE WORDS OF DR. L: And Other Stories by Karen E. Bender
(Speculative Fiction/Short Stories)
Grounded in both the contemporary United States and a variety of dystopias, Karen E. Bender’s otherworldly collection examines the evolving dynamics of the nuclear family during adolescence, motherhood, the empty nest, and caring for an aging parent. A young woman seeks to learn the magical words that can terminate her unwanted pregnancy. A mother discovers an extra child in her home she had forgotten about. A couple is separated from their son and encased in globes orbiting the Earth. Society develops a terrible plan to leave the burning planet for a life on Mars. Each story honors the emotional force of its situation by grappling with themes of freedom, self-definition, youth, aging, control and power.
Counterpoint | 9781640097681

On Sale the Week of June 1st in Hardcover

June 2nd

THE ADVENTURES OF JUAN PLANCHARD by Jonathan Jakubowicz (Political Thriller/Adventure) 
"My name is Juan Planchard. I’m twenty-nine years old, and I have five million dollars in my account. I own a house in Caracas, another in Madrid, and a high-rise apartment in New York. I run a sportsbook at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. I share a private jet with a friend’s frontman. And I’m convinced --- down to my bones --- that every decision I made during the revolution was the right one. My descendants will thank me.” So begins THE ADVENTURES OF JUAN PLANCHARD, the story of a middle-class nobody turned millionaire by weaponizing the very corruption that swallowed Venezuela. But in the middle of the chaos, greed and blood money, Juan falls hard for Scarlet, a sharp, seductive American beauty who just might be his way out --- or his ultimate downfall.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538779781 

ALAN OPTS OUT by Courtney Maum (Fiction/Humor) 
Alan Anderson is a powerful advertising executive who is up for the biggest pitch of his career and the account everyone wants: US Dairy. Cow’s milk sales are plummeting, and the C-Suite wants to see trendy oat milk kicked to the curb. When an anarchist farmer tanks Alan’s presentation, Alan bombs the pitch but ends the day with an epiphany. No longer will he exploit the insecurities of others in the service of capitalism. Alan is opting out. This development is anathema to his wife, Vivian, who can only watch as Alan moves into their backyard playhouse to live off the land and --- worse --- spend time with the family. But instead of shocking the neighbors, Alan’s commitment to a less-is-more lifestyle seems to be catching on. Could everyone want what Alan is not selling? 
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316599108 

BLUNT INSTRUMENT by Amy Bloom (Mystery)
The case of the bludgeoned lecturer has all of Cromwell University reeling, even though the elderly Professor Bullfinch wasn’t particularly well-liked. His ornery nature and Old World approach to campus politics ruffled more than a few feathers over the years, and present tensions within his department mean there are more suspects than mourners in the wake of his death. And the murder weapon --- a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne --- does seem to indicate that the attack may have been academically motivated. Enter Dell Chandler, the failed English professor turned self-taught private detective whom Dr. Cutty calls in to investigate the crime. But to solve the case, she will have to dodge her own demons from her past life as a disgraced academic.
The Mysterious Press | 9781613167601 

CHECKMATE: Genius, Lies, Ambition, and the Biggest Scandal in Chess by Ben Mezrich (Sports/Biography)
In September 2022, the unthinkable happened: 19-year-old American chess prodigy Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in a stunning face-to-face match. Within days, Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating --- a bombshell allegation that rocked the chess world. As the scandal spiraled, Chess.com --- the dominant force in online chess --- launched a high-stakes investigation igniting a global media firestorm. But CHECKMATE is about more than a cheating scandal. It’s the story of a teenager willing to risk everything to rise to the top; a reclusive genius suddenly fighting to protect his legacy; and a centuries-old game transforming into a billion-dollar industry fueled by streaming, sponsorships and Silicon Valley power players.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538773031 

THE CHILDREN by Melissa Albert (Literary Mystery/Gothic Fantasy)
Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods. In one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse. In the other, they live in the pages of their mother’s world-famous Ninth City books. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame --- until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors. Now an adult, Guinevere is forced to confront the questions she has spent the last 20 years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s fantasy world?
William Morrow | 9780063487437 

CLIVE CUSSLER COLD FIRE: A Novel from the NUMA Files by Graham Brown (Thriller/Adventure)
In the frigid air high above the Arctic Ocean, an American C-17 carrying a cutting-edge laser of immense power successfully shoots down a ballistic missile nearly 400 miles away. Before the celebration can even begin, the aircraft goes dark, vanishing off radar. It becomes obvious that the aircraft has been hijacked, the crew murdered at their stations. Its last-known heading would take it directly to Russia, but the CIA insisted it never arrived. An odd signal suggests it crashed into the Arctic Ocean halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Russian ships are seen putting out to sea in large numbers. Chinese vessels are spotted north of Norway. The only American asset in the area is a small research vessel operated by NUMA. Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala lead the search but soon find that all is not as it seems.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217184972

CRESCENDO by Jane Healey (Historical Fiction)
Twins Natasha and Max Kitson have lived their lives on the road, together building Max's career as a world-renowned pianist. But when, at age 20, the former prodigy begins making uncharacteristic mistakes, he abruptly cancels his remaining concerts and moves himself and his sister into the home of an enigmatic French patron, never realizing that Henri has been his sister's lover. In Paris, over the course of one summer, Natasha's long-simmering resentments and Max's deep insecurities drive the siblings apart as each vie for Henri's attentions. But neither twin can have their host entirely to themselves. While Henri woos Natasha with lavish gifts and trips to the ballet during the day, it's Max's music that draws Henri from bed each night.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639735556 

DECODING THE DEVIL: Black Women Codebreakers and the Secret War Against Stalin's Bomb by Sarah Valentine (History)
Facing the global threat of a rising Communist world power in the aftermath of World War II, the U.S. employed hundreds of Black Americans to speed read Russian communications and gather essential information on their most dangerous nuclear rival. The result was the creation of a segregated civilian codebreaking unit known as the Traffic Processing Division --- The Plantation. Its 100 college-educated Black women made invaluable breakthroughs in the country’s Soviet intelligence, even as the Red Scare and the backlash against civil rights eroded their democratic freedoms at home. Their underappreciated top-secret work led directly to victory over the USSR and the end of the Cold War 30 years later. In DECODING THE DEVIL, Sarah Valentine tells their remarkable story in full for the first time. 
Harper | 9780063305472 

DOWN WITH THE SHIPMANS by Meg Mitchell Moore (Fiction)
It’s the week after Fourth of July, and the Shipman sisters are returning to their picturesque summer home on the New Hampshire coast for what they believe is a family reunion, the first without their late mother. However, their tranquil setting quickly becomes a stage for drama when their father, Calvin, drops the bombshell news that he plans to sell the cherished beach house. As old memories are stirred up, and the sisters navigate both the packing of the house and their personal crises, the arrival of Calvin’s new wife pushes Jordan, Natalie and Mae to decide how far they’re willing to go to preserve the Shipman bond.
William Morrow | 9780063337015 

THE FINAL CHAPTER by C.B. Everett (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Ten years ago, a bestselling, critically acclaimed literary author disappeared without a trace…and without a final novel. In recent days, that missing manuscript has surfaced. However, it’s not another genius work of literary fiction, but an espionage novel full of all-too-stereotypical spycraft and James Bond-like twists. His former publisher has asked the author’s best friend --- and fellow author named C.B. Everett --- to annotate the novel with details from real life to give the strange novel context within his larger oeuvre. But as C.B. reads, he finds that the espionage thriller is filled with references to events and people who feel a little too familiar. Soon he’s wondering if the novel might in fact be a key to his missing friend’s disappearance.
Atria Books | 9781668058336 

THE FIRE AGENT by David Baerwald (Historical Fiction)
Born into an aristocratic German Jewish family, Ernst Baerwald is a gifted linguist, talented musician and fearless idealist. When he’s recruited in 1900 to become a spy, his life becomes an extraordinary adventure spanning two continents, two world wars, and impossible choices that will haunt him forever. From Frankfurt to Milan to Tokyo, Ernst moves through a world of intrigue and passion. He battles Japan’s Yakuza while entertaining its royalty and hosts Europe’s most brilliant performers. He falls deeply in love…with two women. He witnesses the rise of fascism in both Japan and Germany. And when the forces of fascism in Japan meet the horrors of Hitler’s Germany, this German Jew faces an impossible choice: destroy the country he loves most or become complicit in unimaginable evil.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781966302001 

THE FIRST ALL-STAR GAME: Babe Ruth, FDR, and America at the Crossroads by Randall Sullivan (Sports/History)
1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Optimism was fading --- and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, and fans stayed home. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out --- missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago, and setting in motion a chain of events that eventually would bring together the world’s best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World’s Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America’s standing on the world stage. But dark clouds were gathering abroad.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802167361 

HUNGER AND THIRST by Claire Fuller (Psychological Thriller/Gothic Horror)
1987: After a childhood trauma and years in and out of the care system, 16-year-old Ursula finds herself with a new job delivering mail at a local art school, a bed in a halfway house, and some new friends, including wild-child Sue. When Ursula is invited to join a squat at the Underwood, a mysterious house whose owners met a terrible end, she can’t resist this hodgepodge family. But as Sue’s behavior and demands become more extreme, Ursula carries out her friend’s terrible dare. Thirty-six years later, Ursula is a renowned but reclusive sculptor living under a pseudonym in London when her identity is exposed by a true-crime documentarian researching an unsolved disappearance. But the filmmaker is not the only one who has discovered Ursula’s whereabouts.
Tin House | 9781963108729 

I WANNA BE LOVED BY YOU: Marilyn Monroe: A Life in 100 Takes by Andrew Wilson (Biography)
I WANNA BE LOVED BY YOU presents Marilyn Monroe in a startling new light. It draws upon unpublished letters from Marilyn, Arthur Miller and Joe DiMaggio; case notes and private letters from Marilyn’s psychoanalyst, Dr. Ralph Greenson; and unpublished audio recordings from the likes of Jane Russell, Billy Wilder, John Huston, Amy and Milton Greene, housekeeper Eunice Murray, and many more. We go behind the scenes of her marriages to teenage sweetheart Jim Dougherty, Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller. We see Marilyn train with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, working to dismantle the common perception that she was merely a dumb blonde. And in the concluding chapters, Andrew Wilson dissects what happened on the night Marilyn died after a suspected drug overdose.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538723500 

THE KENNEDYS AND THE WINDSORS: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made by Caroline Hallemann (Biography)
For nearly a century, two families an ocean apart have captured the world’s collective imagination: the British Windsors and the American Kennedys. Much ink has been spilled on their individual trysts, tragedies and triumphs over the years, but no one has examined their powerful and intertwined legacies. Until now. In THE KENNEDYS AND THE WINDSORS, acclaimed journalist Caroline Hallemann unearths the story of two iconic families whose lives, ambitions and respective reigns have mirrored each other in surprising ways. She reveals how an upstart Irish Catholic family with little access into elite New England society came to host dinner parties for a King and Queen and forge an eventual path to the White House. In the process, she draws out some startling parallels between the two families.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593717455 

LAND by Maggie O'Farrell (Historical Fiction)
On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster. The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is unexpectedly sent off course by an unsettling encounter. His life, and the lives of those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás? And how is Liam, who is only 10, going to finish the mapping and get them both home?
Knopf | 9780593320648

LOVERS XXX by Allie Rowbottom (Fiction) 
Los Angeles, 1982. Eighteen-year-old Jude, newly out of reform school, is searching for her best friend, Winnie, when she falls under the spell of an older man with a motorcycle, a needle and a taste for danger. What begins as an escape spirals into motel rooms, stickups and drug binges. Jude eventually finds Winnie, now Velvet, dancing at a Sunset Strip club. Together they imagine a future --- bartending, writing, building a life of their own --- but the same world that offers glamour and freedom threatens to consume them. Survival means navigating men who promise love, power and escape --- always at a cost.
Soho Press | 9781641297301 

THE MAGICAL GAME: The Spirit and History of Baseball's Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses by Addy Baird (Sports/History) 
For more than 150 years, a magical culture has been central to the game of baseball. At the turn of the 20th century, a battle between two lucky mascots defined early World Series matchups. Soon after, two generational curses spawned decades of heartbreaking losses for the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox. Today, players like Bryce Harper perform at-bat rituals, fans refuse to wash the jerseys of their favorite players, and baseball people everywhere refuse to utter the words “no-hitter” before there’s been a hit. In THE MAGICAL GAME, journalist and converted baseball fan Addy Baird turns her reporter’s eye to her favorite sport, investigating the roots of these magical practices and telling the story of baseball’s long history of superstition, rituals, curses, jinxes, hoodoos and hexes.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250353467 

MAN OF MY DREAMS by Olivia Worley (Psychological Thriller)
Bestselling romance author Ivy Harcourt has been as unlucky in love as she’s been successful in writing. As her sad relationship track attests, there are no good dating options left in New York...until she rescues an escaped dog in the park and runs into Liam. Charming, British, hot architect Liam. The exact description of the love interest in her next book. When an instant connection leads to a whirlwind relationship, Ivy is convinced she’s found the dream man. Except he may be too perfect. He may be hiding something. And Ivy may have secrets of her own.
Minotaur Books | 9781250372338 

MARION by Leah Rowan (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Marion has stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. The only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who's a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower when the curtain is pulled back. Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now she's covered in blood, and she's a woman on the run. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250416469 

MY YEAR IN PARIS WITH GERTRUDE STEIN: A Fiction by Deborah Levy (Fiction) 
Our narrator is trying to write an essay about Gertrude Stein, but it seems impossible. She knows too much and nothing at all about the leading avant-garde thinker of the early 20th century. There are the facts: Gertrude Stein studied psychology at Harvard and medicine at Johns Hopkins, then quit; curated modern art in her rented apartment that would shake the world; wrote novels, plays, poetry and libretti that are incoherent and brilliant; felt love at first sight for her daring wife, the subject of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS. But so much is out of reach. How do we put ourselves together? What do we lose to become modern? What do we find beyond the limits of language? 
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374602079

A PAIR OF ACES by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (Historical Fiction)
Eunice Carter, assistant district attorney for the City of New York and Manhattan’s first Black female prosecutor, has her sights set on Lucky Luciano, head of New York City’s five largest organized crime families. Other prosecutors have tried to bring down Lucky, but no one has thought to approach the mob through its role in prostitution. Until Eunice. But she can’t get Luciano alone. Polly Adler has worked long and hard to build up her high-class brothel business. But Lucky has gone too far, and Polly finally sees the chance to end his reign once and for all. Together, Eunice and Polly fashion a case utilizing a network of women. It is this very alliance --- of two women from vastly different worlds --- that launches the most sensational trial New York City has ever seen.
Berkley | 9780593637937

THE QUEEN'S CORONATION by Jennifer Ryan (Historical Fiction)
London, 1953. Buckingham Palace and the many employees vital to the smooth running of the monarchy find themselves in bedlam as the Queen's coronation quickly approaches. Caroline Brimstone is the assistant dresser to the queen. When a trip to Balmoral brings her face to face with the man she once loved, she finds herself at a crossroads between what her life is and what her life could be. Lucy Jones is a junior wardrobe assistant. When a handsome, wealthy man at the palace promises to help her on her way to stardom, she's over the moon to have such a supportive husband-to-be. Miranda Miller has come over from America just in time to help with preparations as a temporary secretary in the palace. The job is a perfect way to gather information for the article she's writing about the coronation.
Ballantine Books | 9780593872277

A RIVER RED WITH BLOOD: A Charlie Parker Novel by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller)
In a darkly brilliant thriller set in Maine’s rural Kennebec River Valley, the body of a young runaway from a “troubled teens” school has been found in the water, seemingly drowned, while a teenage girl has gone missing, believed dead. Now it is up to one man, private investigator Charlie Parker, to find the connection, and bring two evils --- one new and one ancient --- to an end.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668083970

ROAD TRIP by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
Sisters Maeve and Therese Dunigan have been estranged for years. They could not be more opposite: Maeve is the rule follower, and Therese is the rebel. But when their mother’s death brings the family back together, the two find that they have inherited a painting --- one that could be worth millions and save them from the wolves at their door. The only issue is whether it’s real or a fake --- and the only way they can prove that theirs is the real McCoy is to solve the mystery of how this portrait of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat made its way to their childhood home in Savannah, Georgia. This means a road trip --- to Ireland, to their family roots, and to a mysterious crime that occurred generations ago. With tensions simmering, the two hit the road. Can they survive the journey without killing each other?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250372888 

SISTERS OF A HALVED HEART by Nayantara Roy (Fiction)
Mira Guhathakurta is a poetry editor at a distinguished literary magazine in New York, a dream job that has given her nearly everything she's always wanted. And then she reconnects with Jack from college, and suddenly she feels as if she might have found her soulmate. They've woven their lives together so thoroughly. All that remains is for Jack to meet her family: her beloved father and dear sister, Joy. But when Joy commits an unthinkable act of betrayal, the sisters are impossibly fractured and their father's heart is broken. As the sisters navigate their tumultuous relationship and Mira starts over, it turns out that Joy isn't the only one who has been --- or continues to be --- dishonest.
Algonquin Books | 9781643757698

SKYRING WATER by Louis L'Amour and Beau L'Amour (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
1961. The world is on the brink of nuclear war. Walls are dividing East and West. Empires are crumbling. And in Barcelona, chaos is unleashed when a rogue officer of the East German STASI attempts to blackmail a pair of struggling arms dealers. The secret: 30 tons of stolen gold hidden in an icebound wilderness at the end of the world. Mike Fowler is a former Navy salvage diver and OSS assassin. Anton Voss is an expatriate German scientist whose past grows darker the closer anyone looks. The two share an inseparable bond, having saved one another's lives. But all of that is put at risk when Mike discovers Anton standing over a midnight visitor with a gun in his hand. Now they're on the run, allied with gangsters, pursued by the CIA, Israeli intelligence, and a shadowy cabal bent on creating an invisible empire.
Bantam | 9798217302468 

STUART WOODS' DEEP WATER: A Stone Barrington Novel by Brett Battles
(Thriller/Adventure)
When Stone Barrington meets one of his clients, Trenton Sidney, for a sunset drink on Trenton’s new yacht, the last thing he expects is to be a victim of a shipwreck. As one of the four survivors of the incident but with little memory of the sinking, Stone finds himself diving straight back into work. His first task? To reach out to the beneficiaries in Trenton’s will. But when new evidence that points to foul play comes to light, Stone must probe the tragedy in more ways than one in order to uncover the identity of the perpetrator…before they find another lethal way to get themselves out of deep water.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217179275 

SUBLIMATION by Isabel J. Kim (Fiction)
When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home. Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at 10 years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral. She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life. How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?
Tor Books | 9781250376794

SUMMERLAND COVE by Ellen Baker (Fiction) 
Lindy has the summer of a lifetime planned at her family’s beloved cottage in Summerland Cove, Maine. She’s slated big events three weekends in a row: her husband David’s 50th birthday party, her parents’ 50th anniversary party, and her oldest daughter Hailey’s wedding. But when David doesn’t show up for his own party, everything about the life they’ve created together is thrown into question. The agonizing days tick by and still no David. Lindy struggles to remain calm, even as long-buried details of the family’s past begin to surface, offering distressing clues. Meanwhile, her mother seems to be harboring secrets of her own, her father has grown alarmingly absent-minded, and Hailey wrestles with whether she should get married at all --- even if her father does turn up.
Mariner Books | 9780063448773 

THE TYPING LADY: And Other Fictions by Ruth Ozeki (Fiction/Short Stories)
In this spirited and emotionally resonant collection, award-winning novelist Ruth Ozeki turns her singular gaze to the short story, exploring childhood ambition, youthful desire, midlife reinvention, and the unsparing clarity of old age. A college student falls for her professor and learns to transmute longing into language. A disquieted husband watches with tenderness and unease as the ghost of his wife’s ambition roams the woods outside their home. A long-deceased Beat poet hijacks the mind of a young publishing assistant during a sales meeting, railing against the state of modern literature. A curious grandmother creates a fake online dating profile to spy on her granddaughter’s romantic life --- and sets in motion a deception she can’t control.
Viking | 9780593832714 

THE UNICORN HUNTERS by Katherine Arden (Historical Fantasy)
Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is the sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands and her body forever in the hands of her enemies. Anne’s only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so she arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France’s greatest rival. The forest of Brocéliande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Broceliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn. While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Brocéliande. It’s a diversion so she can wed in secret. Or so she thinks.
Del Rey | 9780593128282 

VIEW FROM THE EAST WING: A Memoir by Jill Biden (Memoir) 
Jill Biden became First Lady at a complicated moment in U.S. history, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the shadow of the January 6th insurrection. These were the circumstances under which she set up office in the East Wing, where she hit the ground running. Throughout her husband’s presidency, Jill remained a tireless advocate for her causes, including women’s health, military families, vaccine awareness, cancer initiatives, and education. She made history as the first-ever First Lady to hold an outside job while her husband was in office, continuing to work as a professor at a nearby community college. Yet all the while, she saw herself as an ordinary woman living an extraordinary life. In VIEW FROM THE EAST WING, Jill shares her White House experiences for the first time, in her own words.
Gallery Books | 9781668222881 

WHISTLER by Ann Patchett (Fiction)
When Daphne Fuller and her husband, Jonathan, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than a year when Daphne was nine. Now 53, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away. While their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both. Now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.
Harper | 9780063511637 

THE WINDSOR AFFAIR by Melanie Benjamin (Historical Fiction)
Feuding Windsor brothers and their wives --- some things, it seems, never change. Melanie Benjamin's latest work of historical fiction recreates the cataclysmic events that nearly toppled the monarchy and incited the power struggle between Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and Wallis Simpson. Told from the perspectives of both women, the book propels readers into the fabulous world of the debonair Prince of Wales, café society of the 1930s, and the glittering private lives of the Windsors. The first novel to be dedicated to this infamous rivalry, THE WINDSOR AFFAIR brings us all the gossip and intrigue between the two very different --- yet perhaps more similar than they would admit --- wives of royals.
Delacorte Press | 9780593497883 

THE WRECK OF THE MENTOR: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail by Eric Jay Dolin (History) 
From the bestselling author of BLACK FLAGS, BLUE WATERS comes the story of the American whaleship Mentor, wrecked in 1832 on a remote reef in the western Pacific. With supplies dwindling, the 11 surviving crewmen face not only the miseries of shipwreck in unfamiliar territory but also the profound uncertainty of contact with the Indigenous people of the Micronesian archipelago of Palau, who within days approach the deserted men brandishing axes, clubs and spears. In this gripping saga of cultural collision, tribal wars and dashed hopes, award–winning historian Eric Jay Dolin vividly reconstructs the Mentor’s doomed voyage, the years of perilous captivity, and the delicate negotiations and fraught naval rescue mission that followed.
Liveright | 9781324096320 

On Sale the Week of June 1st in Paperback

June 1st

THE GIRL IN THE LAKE by Lauren Oliver (Psychological Thriller/Supernatural Mystery)
Paperback Original
Kate Willis, a consultant for the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, is tasked with interviewing six-year-old Henley Haskell about the girl’s alleged past-life recollections. The evaluation also marks a return for Kate to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Here, 24 years ago, Kate’s friend, Becca McGuire, vanished from her bunk at a now-shuttered summer camp and was never seen again --- presumably drowned in Lake Sauquamet. But Henley’s memories of her “other life” are ones that could only belong to Becca. For Kate, Henley’s recurring, suffocating nightmares and her disturbing illustrations of places she has never been seem to spell out the unbelievable. Somewhere, somehow, the truth about what really happened to Becca is locked inside this little girl.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662533716

MURDER BY DESIGN by Lee Goldberg (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Due to a traumatic brain injury, Edison Bixby is impulsively rude. He’s also a brilliant insurance investigator who solves baffling crimes by figuring out how the design of the man-made world around us makes them possible. Enter Wally Nash, a struggling actor hired to keep Bixby from offending everyone he meets. Their first case together involves Caroline Crowley, who took a nasty fall down a staircase at a shopping mall in front of dozens of witnesses. Video clearly shows the deadly misstep. But Bixby is certain she was murdered by design, subtly manipulated into causing her own demise. The mall itself made the crime intentional, if not inevitable. Now Bixby must prove his outrageous theory before a very cunning killer gets others on his hit list to murder themselves, too.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662533617

THE QUITTERS CLUB by Jessica Strawser (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When four ride-or-die friends reunite for a getaway, they’re desperate for a break and a chance to reconnect. But each is hiding a deeper reason why. Marie feels like an impostor teaching “How to Say No” seminars while her marriage has evolved into something she never said yes to. Brooke’s most heartfelt goal --- motherhood --- is proving out of reach. Lucy’s dream career has broken her spirit, possibly for good. And Collins feels trapped in grief by her late husband’s legacy. All their lives, they’ve encouraged each other not to give up --- but they can’t do this anymore. Now, at a breaking point, they make a pact: Quit. And help each other through the fallout. At first, it’s positively liberating. But letting go will be more complicated than they imagined.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662534959

June 2nd

THE BOOK OF RECORDS by Madeleine Thien (Fiction)
Lina and her father arrive at an enclave called The Sea, a staging post between migrations, with only a few possessions. In this mysterious and shape-shifting place, a building made of time, pasts and futures collide. Lina befriends her neighbors: Bento, a Jewish scholar in 17th-century Amsterdam; Blucher, a philosopher in 1930s Germany fleeing Nazi persecution; and Jupiter, a poet of Tang Dynasty China. Memory, political revolution, generational change and the ethical imagination are at the heart of Lina’s illuminating conversations with her fellows in the Sea. Through their guidance, Lina equips herself to reckon with difficult questions of guilt, responsibility and the possibility of redemption when her ailing father begins to reveal his role in their family’s tragic past.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324130703

BUCKLEY: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America by Sam Tanenhaus (Biography)
In 1951, with the publication of GOD AND MAN AT YALE, a scathing attack on his alma mater, 25-year-old William F. Buckley, Jr., seized the public stage --- and commanded it for the next half-century as he led a new generation of conservative activists and ideologues to the peak of political power and cultural influence. Ten years before his death in 2008, Buckley chose prize-winning biographer Sam Tanenhaus to tell the full, uncensored story of his life and times, granting him extensive interviews and exclusive access to his most private papers. Thus began a deep investigation into the vast and often hidden universe of Bill Buckley and the modern conservative revolution.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593733554

THE CHATEAU ON SUNSET by Natasha Lester (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In 1957, newly orphaned Aria Jones is sent to live with her aunt, a fading star who hides away in Hollywood’s infamous Chateau Marmont. There, two aspiring actresses, Calliope and Flitter, take the grieving Aria under their wing. But her first few nights reveal an insidious secret that continues to haunt her as she grows up in the hotel’s halls. If Aria can just stay invisible and invite no trouble as she saves money, then she can leave the Marmont and live life on her own terms. However, her carefully laid plans fall apart when the hotel is bought by Theo Winchester, a reclusive rock star turned unexpected caretaker of his daughter, Adele. To earn the last bit of money she needs to escape, Aria becomes Adele’s tutor, which brings Aria closer to Theo and ignites a passion she never expected.
Ballantine Books | 9780593726556

THE COMPOUND by Aisling Rawle (Fiction)
Lily --- a bored, beautiful twentysomething --- wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside 19 other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home. Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave. Why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593977286

THE DARK MIRROR: A Bone Season Novel by Samantha Shannon (Dystopian/Urban Fantasy)
Paige Mahoney is outside the Republic of Scion for the first time in more than a decade, but she has no idea how she got to the free world. Half a year has been wiped from her memory. Her journey back to the revolution soon takes her to Venice, where the Domino Programme has uncovered evidence of a secret Scion plan. Before Paige can return to London, she must help the network unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist, which threatens to bring Europe to its knees in weeks. And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories --- Arcturus Mesarthim --- also might hold the key to thwarting Scion, allowing the revolution to strike an unprecedented blow.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639735945

DEATH ON THE LANAI: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery by Rachel Ekstrom Courage (Mystery)
Paperback Original
The invite promised to celebrate “the greatest artist of the century.” Blanche Devereaux’s passionate dalliances are as plentiful as hot Southern nights, and surely one can’t be expected to remember all of one’s suitors. But when the Girls disembark the party’s ferry at a small Biscayne Bay island and meet their secretive host, the memories come flooding back: she a Radio City Rockette in her 20s, he the poor artist who could offer her nothing but his love. Fate drove them apart, but Declan, now the famous artist El Toro, professes that Blanche has always been his muse. A tropical storm knocks power out across the island, and when Declan is found dead the next morning, all eyes are on Blanche. Trapped at the estate with the other guests, the Girls must band together to find the true killer.
Hyperion Avenue | 9781368117876

DEPARTURE 37 by Scott Carson (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
On a clear October day, the American skies empty after hundreds of pilots refuse to fly, triggering a complete ground stop as authorities seek to explain an act of baffling coordination that the pilots insist was not planned. While the nation’s military chiefs and artificial intelligence experts mobilize in search of answers, a 16-year-old girl named Charlie on the coast of Maine watches a strange silvery balloon drift across the water and toward her new home --- a place she loathes. All she wants is to escape back to Brooklyn. She’s about to get much more than that. Her new home is ground zero for a story that begins at a remote naval base in Indiana during the winter of 1962, when a physicist named Martin Hazelton discovered something extraordinary --- and deadly.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982191498

A DIFFERENT KIND OF POWER: A Memoir by Jacinda Ardern (Memoir)
What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. A DIFFERENT KIND OF POWER is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made political history and changed our assumptions of what a global leader can be. Through her personal experiences and reflections, Ardern is a model for anyone who has ever doubted themselves, or has aspired to lead with compassion, conviction and courage.
Crown | 9780593728710

THE DISASTER GAY DETECTIVE AGENCY by Lev AC Rosen (Mystery/Humor)
Paperback Original
Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew --- a group of loveable and messy queer twenty-somethings --- and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as time: they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed. Or is it? When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cell phone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him. But he gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses a murder --- and sees Jon fleeing the scene. Brandon, Ollie, Nicole and Ian decide to solve the mystery of the murder and uncover Jon's true identity. They just have to figure it out before a target falls on their own backs.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464252853

DON’T FORGET ME, LITTLE BESSIE: A Holland Family Novel by James Lee Burke (Historical Thriller)
At the beginning of the 20th century, Bessie Holland yearns for the love that she has never known. She finds a soulmate and mentor in a brilliant but tormented suffragette English teacher, who inspires Bessie to fight the forces of evil that permeate her world. Watching the vast Texas countryside being destroyed by an oil company and a menacing figure with a violent past, Bessie is prepared to defend her home and her family. But when she accidentally kills an unarmed man to defend her father, Hackberry, she must flee to New York. There, her older brother introduces her to boys who will grow into gangsters. But as children admire and respect Bessie’s spirit and fortitude, she is cast into a gangland that yearns for justice and mercy.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802167453

THE DRY SEASON: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex by Melissa Febos (Memoir)
In the wake of a catastrophic two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break. For three months she would abstain from dating, relationships and sex. Ever since her teens, Febos had been in one relationship after another with men and women. Finally, she would carve out time to focus on herself and examine the patterns that had produced her midlife disaster. Over those first few months, Febos gleaned insights into her past. She decided to extend her celibacy, not knowing it would become the most fulfilling and sensual year of her life. No longer defined by her romantic pursuits, she learned to relish the delights of solitude, the thrill of living on her own terms, the distinct pleasures unmediated by lovers, and the freedom to pursue her ideals without distraction or guilt.
Vintage | 9780593685150

HAZEL SAYS NO by Jessica Berger Gross (Fiction)
When Hazel Blum’s father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere town in Maine. But just as they begin to slowly acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town’s sprawling community, a dramatic fallout on the very first day of Hazel’s senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335003034

HYSTERIA: An Alexander Gregory Thriller by LJ Ross (Psychological Thriller)
First Publication in the US
Recently returned from his last case in Ireland, elite forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Dr. Alexander Gregory receives a call from the French police that he can't ignore. It's Paris Fashion Week, and some of the world's most beautiful women are turning up dead --- each killed in a frenzy, their faces slashed as the world's press looks on. Amid the carnage, one victim survives but is too traumatized to speak. Without her testimony, the police are powerless to stop the killer before he strikes again. Can Gregory unlock the secrets buried in her mind before it's too late?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464273902

I SEE YOU’VE CALLED IN DEAD by John Kenney (Fiction/Humor)
Obituary writer Bud Stanley isn’t really living his best life. He’s fallen into a funk after a divorce. (She left him for another man, who, in fairness, was far more interesting.) He’s not doing his job well. He’s given up on dating. And he’s about to be fired for accidentally publishing his own obituary one mildly drunken night (though technically the company can’t legally fire a dead person). As Bud awaits his fate at work, he does the only logical thing: He goes to the wakes and funerals of total strangers to learn how to live again.
Zibby Publishing | 9798989923021

IN THE FAMILY WAY by Laney Katz Becker (Historical Fiction)
In 1965 America, women can’t have their own bank accounts, credit cards, or sign their own leases; divorce is scandalous and difficult; and abortion is illegal. Every week, a group of suburban housewives meet for their Tuesday canasta game. When prim and proper Lily Berg, a doctor’s wife, discovers she’s pregnant with their second child, she follows her friend Becca’s suggestion and takes in Betsy, a pregnant teen from the local home for unwed mothers. Betsy, who’s never met anyone Jewish before, is to live with the Bergs for six months, help with babysitting and housekeeping, have her own baby, and agree never to contact the family again. But things quickly get complicated. Lily, who has opened her home to the teenager, never planned on opening her heart, yet that’s exactly what happens.
Harper Perennial | 9780063423268

THE IRRESISTIBLE URGE TO FALL FOR YOUR ENEMY: Book 1 of the Dearly Beloathed Duology by Brigitte Knightley (Fantasy/Romance)
When Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, falls ill, he realizes he needs the expertise of a very specific healer. As fate would have it, that healer belongs to an enemy faction, the Haelan Order. Aurienne Fairhrim and her fellow Haelan are inundated by sick children suffering from an outbreak of a long-forgotten Pox. Unable to get the funding needed to launch an immunization program, the Haelan Order is desperate for money --- so desperate that when Osric breaks into their headquarters to bribe Aurienne to heal him, she is forced to accept. As Osric and Aurienne work together to solve not only his illness but the mysterious reoccurrence of the Pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the tension between them.
Ace | 9780593819463

KATABASIS by R. F. Kuang (Historical Fantasy)
Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality so she can work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that possibly could be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion. With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like. But there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.
Harper Voyager | 9780063021488

LIQUID by Mariam Rahmani (Fiction)
Two years after earning a PhD from UCLA, the narrator of LIQUID stands achingly far from the middle-class comfort promised by her education and the successes of her immigrant parents. Jokingly, her best friend, Adam, suggests she just marry rich. Taking this challenge seriously, armed with a spreadsheet, she sets off on a whirlwind summer of 100 dates with rich Angelenos/as. But when a family emergency takes her to Tehran, it's a queer love interest and the possibility of a very different future that sustains her attention. Now she must confront the contradictions of her life and decide which path she wants to follow.
Algonquin Books | 9781643756516

THE LISTENERS by Maggie Stiefvater (Historical Fiction)
The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles. Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile. June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.
Penguin Books | 9780593655528

LUCKY DAY by Chuck Tingle (Horror)
Four years ago, an unthinkable disaster occurred. In what was later known as the Low-Probability Event, eight million people were killed in a single day, each of them dying in improbable, bizarre ways. Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day, and she still struggles to make sense of the unbelievable catastrophe. To her, the LPE proved that the God of Order is dead and nothing matters anymore. When Special Agent Layne shows up on Vera’s doorstep, she learns he's investigating a suspiciously --- and statistically impossibly --- lucky casino. He needs her help to prove that the casino’s success is connected to the deaths of millions, and it's Vera's last chance to make sense of a world that doesn’t.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250398673

MARK TWAIN by Ron Chernow (Biography)
Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. After establishing himself as a journalist, satirist and lecturer, he settled in Hartford with his wife and three daughters, where he went on to write THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER and ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Twain threw himself into the hurly-burly of American culture and emerged as the nation’s most notable political pundit. At the same time, his madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him. To economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care.
Penguin Books | 9780525561743

MEET ME AT THE CROSSROADS by Megan Giddings (Fiction)
On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger. Ayanna and Olivia, two Black midwestern teens --- and twin sisters --- have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? When one of them goes missing, will the other find solace on her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend?
Amistad | 9780063337985

NOTES ON INFINITY by Austin Taylor (Fiction)
Zoe, the daughter of an MIT professor, can envision her future anew at Harvard. Jack, a boy in Zoe’s organic chemistry class, matches her intellect and curiosity with every breath. When Jack refers Zoe for a position in a prestigious professor’s lab, the two become entwined as colleagues. They find themselves on the cusp of a breakthrough: the promise of immortality through a novel anti-aging drug. Zoe and Jack set off on their new project in secret. Finding encouraging results, they bring their work to an investor, drop out of Harvard, and form a startup. But after the money, the magazine covers, and the national news stories detailing their success, Zoe and Jack receive a startling accusation that threatens to destroy both the company they built and their partnership.
Celadon Books | 9781250376121

PARK AVENUE by Renée Ahdieh (Fiction)
The daughter of Korean bodega owners, Jia Song has just made junior partner at her prestigious Manhattan law firm, and she is about to score the ultraluxe gold-on-gold Birkin bag of her dreams. So when her boss asks her to sit in on the hush-hush family implosion of a high-level client, she accepts without hesitation --- only to find out that it is one of the most famous Korean families in the world. The Park family’s net worth is estimated at a billion dollars, and their mega-successful Korean beauty brand has shaped the culture for the past two decades. But the patriarch is filing for divorce while his wife is dying, and their three children can’t stop snapping at one another. With both the family fortune and legacy under threat from the worst kind of scandal, it’s up to Jia to set things right --- and she only has a month to do it.
Flatiron Books | 9781250897978

A PROMISE TO ARLETTE by Serena Burdick (Historical Fiction)
Sidney and Ida Whipple are living the suburban 1950s American dream, which didn’t seem possible when they met at the height of WWII in France. But when their neighbors show off a newly purchased Man Ray photograph, Ida comes face to face with the person she loved and lost in the war: Arlette. Only Ida knows the truth about the photograph and why it can’t possibly be authentic. In an attempt to right past wrongs, she travels to California vowing to confront Man Ray. Sidney wakes to find his wife is missing, the photograph in question stolen, and all the secrets they’ve tried to bury come rushing back. With his daughters in tow, he travels after Ida, hoping to forge a new path together. Instead, their sojourn leads to a shocking discovery that could pull their family apart.
Atria Books | 9781668070314

PUCK by Samantha Allen (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Puck is the nonbinary mastermind behind “Homewreckers,” a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell --- with a little help from their exes. Used to being the one pulling the strings, it shocks Puck when their life undergoes a plot twist of its own, and their college roommate, Mia, announces her engagement to her ex’s best friend, Damon. Having only recently broken up with longtime boyfriend Zander, and never having had much in common with Damon, Mia’s news leaves her friend group reeling. When they arrive for a week of wedding festivities at an upscale resort in the Appalachian forest, Puck immediately sees that Mia’s marriage will lead to misery and takes it upon themself to save their friends by rearranging the couples --- without anyone finding out.
Zando | 9781638933410

RAGE by Linda Castillo (Mystery/Thriller)
Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on scene to find the dismembered body of 21-year-old Samuel Eicher, a local Amish man who owned a successful landscaping business. The investigation has barely begun when, miles away, a second body is found. The deceased is 21-year-old Aaron Shetler, Samuel’s best friend. What could these two young Amish men have been involved in that led to such violent ends? Kate learns quickly that, for reasons she doesn’t understand, no one is willing to talk about what happened to the men. Just as she begins to fear the case may be hopeless, a mystery woman comes forward and reveals that fun-loving Aaron and Samuel had recently befriended some very unsavory characters --- individuals who may have ties to a larger, more sinister, black market.
Minotaur Books | 9781250436894

THE RAINY DAY BOOKSHOP by RaeAnne Thayne (Romance)
Paperback Original
Between caring for her mother and rebuilding the relationship with her estranged daughter, Emma, Rosie Lucas’ life is full. With Emma and her three-year old daughter, Olive, back home, Rosie has a partner for The Rainy Day Bookshop, the family business, and a chance to fix the past. What she doesn’t have time for is a romantic relationship. And even if she did, arrogant and reclusive writer Andrew Morgan is the last person she’d choose. Still, as an irresistible flirtation builds between them, he becomes her unexpected confidante on the distance Rosie can’t seem to overcome with Emma, a secret she can’t quite unravel. She never told Rosie what she saw all those years ago, and she never will. But some secrets refuse to stay buried, and sometimes the truth is more shocking than fiction.
Mira | 9781335013200

ROAD LONGER THAN MEMORY by Melanie McCabe (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
After a failed relationship and an unsettled teaching career, Sara Barlow returns to her childhood home in Arlington, Virginia, hoping for a fresh start. But when she applies for a job at her old high school, she spots in the gymnasium the man she suspects was involved in a classmate’s violent death a decade earlier. Haunted by the past, Sara confronts the memories she’s spent years trying to suppress: her sister Suzanne’s fatal car crash, her secret summer with the reckless Devlin Barrie, and the anonymous 911 call she made after witnessing what she believes was a murder. As the construction of Interstate 66 physically fractures her community, Sara grapples with emotional fault lines of her own --- guilt, silence and buried truth.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608096527

SONGS OF NO PROVENANCE by Lydi Conklin (Fiction)
SONGS OF NO PROVENANCE tells the story of Joan Vole, an indie folk singer forever teetering on the edge of fame, who flees New York after committing a shocking sexual act onstage that she fears will doom her career. Joan seeks refuge at a writing camp for teenagers in rural Virginia, where she's forced to question her own toxic relationship to artmaking --- and her complicated history with a friend and mentee --- while finding new hope in her students and a deepening intimacy with a nonbinary artist and fellow camp staff member.
Catapult | 9781646223275

THE STOLEN QUEEN by Fiona Davis (Historical Mystery)
Egypt, 1936: Anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered and accepts a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. But then an unbearable tragedy strikes. New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins lands an opportunity to work for former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala. Meanwhile, Charlotte is now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art. She’s consumed by her research on Hathorkare --- a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. The night of the gala: One of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing, and there are signs that Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening. Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity.
Dutton | 9780593474280

UNIVERSALITY by Natasha Brown (Fiction)
Late one night on a Yorkshire farm, in the midst of an illegal rave, a young man is nearly bludgeoned to death with a solid gold bar. An ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth surrounding the attack, connecting the dots between an amoral banker landlord, an iconoclastic newspaper columnist, and a radical anarchist movement that has taken up residence on the farm. She solves the mystery, but her viral exposé raises more questions than it answers.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593977316

THE VERY HEART OF IT: New York Diaries, 1983-1994 by Thomas Mallon (Diaries)
In 1983, Thomas Mallon was a literature professor at Vassar College. The AIDS epidemic was beginning to surge in New York City, the ever-bustling epicenter of literary culture and gay life. Riding the success of his debut, A BOOK OF ONE’S OWN, he became a fixture within the city’s literary scene, crossing paths with cultural giants and becoming an editor at GQ. He captured it all in his daily journals. But in some ways it was the worst possible time for a gay coming-of-age in the city. One of his lovers succumbed to AIDS, and the illness of others was both a heartbreaking reality and a constant reminder of his own exposure. Tracing his own life day by day, Mallon evokes all that those years encompassed: the hookups, intensifying politics and personal tragedies, as well as his own blossoming success and eventual romantic happiness.
Vintage | 9780593687727

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