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Editorial Content for The Girl in the Lake

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Megan Elliott

A paranormal researcher is drawn into an unsettling mystery when she connects with a young girl who claims to recollect the life of a long-missing teen in Lauren Oliver’s spooky thriller, THE GIRL IN THE LAKE. Read More

Teaser

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.

Promo

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.

About the Book

A young girl who claims to remember a past life draws a psychologist into a decades-old mystery in a haunting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver.

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, and to troubling recollections of her own.

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 the mystery of her disappearance is only deepening. Because 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. As Henley’s uncanny memories surface, so do old secrets --- each one drawing Kate inexorably back to that terrible long-ago summer by the lake.

Audiobook available, read by Shannon McManus

Editorial Content for Off the Record

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

One of the joys of reading is starting a book and being hooked from the first page. With OFF THE RECORD, Sara Goodman Confino accomplishes that and more. Read More

Teaser

1962. An aspiring reporter in DC, Judy Greenberg is aiming for journalistic greatness --- not finding a husband. Just don’t tell her mother. Then one day, she answers her boss’s private line. The message is curiously cryptic. It’s also delivered in a Russian accent. Judy is certain she has stumbled upon a scoop. Charming reporter Jack Fields isn’t one to dismiss Judy’s instincts. Perfect. A seasoned ally she can trust, not to mention pass off as a pretend boyfriend around her relieved parents. Together, they’re following the leads. Now Judy must choose between the safe life expected of her or one hell of a dangerous story that could make her career. She might even fall in love for real. If her ambitions don’t get her killed.

Promo

1962. An aspiring reporter in DC, Judy Greenberg is aiming for journalistic greatness --- not finding a husband. Just don’t tell her mother. Then one day, she answers her boss’s private line. The message is curiously cryptic. It’s also delivered in a Russian accent. Judy is certain she has stumbled upon a scoop. Charming reporter Jack Fields isn’t one to dismiss Judy’s instincts. Perfect. A seasoned ally she can trust, not to mention pass off as a pretend boyfriend around her relieved parents. Together, they’re following the leads. Now Judy must choose between the safe life expected of her or one hell of a dangerous story that could make her career. She might even fall in love for real. If her ambitions don’t get her killed.

About the Book

An aspiring newspaper reporter comes across a mystery that threatens to turn the Cold War hot in a funny, thrilling and strictly undercover romantic comedy by the bestselling author of DON'T FORGET TO WRITE.

In 1962, opportunities are typically few for nice Jewish girls clacking away at 90 words per minute in a newspaper typing pool. Except Judy Greenberg isn’t typical. An aspiring reporter in DC, she’s aiming for journalistic greatness --- not finding a husband. Just don’t tell her mother.

Then one day, she answers her boss’s private line. The message is curiously cryptic. It’s also delivered in a Russian accent. Judy is certain she has stumbled upon a scoop. Charming reporter Jack Fields isn’t one to dismiss Judy’s instincts. Perfect. A seasoned ally she can trust, not to mention pass off as a pretend boyfriend around her relieved parents. Together, they’re following the leads --- from a clandestine hotel bar to the dressing room of a slinky Cuban nightclub singer to an exhilarating underground of secrets and spies stretching from Moscow to Havana to Texas.

Now Judy must choose between the safe life expected of her or one hell of a dangerous story that could make her career. She might even fall in love for real. If her ambitions don’t get her killed.

Audiobook available, read by Helen Laser

Editorial Content for Hunger and Thirst

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

It begins with a fly. Or maybe it ends with one. Either way, the hunger and thirst in Claire Fuller’s latest novel are both terribly real and frighteningly metaphorical.  Read More

Teaser

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.

Promo

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.

About the Book

From the celebrated author of BITTER ORANGE and SWIMMING LESSONS comes an “atmospheric, psychologically vivid and unputdownable” new novel of complicated friendship and the desperate need to belong (Alice Winn).

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, who has always been hungry --- for food, but more importantly for love and acceptance --- carries out her friend’s terrible dare. And, for this, Ursula finds herself literally haunted.

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. As her past catches up with her present, Ursula must work out whether the monsters are within her or without --- and if they will finally make her pay for her past mistakes.

Part gothic horror, part coming-of-age, and a with contemporary twist on the haunted-house story, HUNGER AND THIRST is a chilling tale of loneliness, of the dangerous line between wanting and needing, and of how far a person will go to truly belong.

Editorial Content for The Emilys

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sam Johnson

The characters in THE EMILYS adjust to their COVID-scarred world as they debate a new epidemic named after Emily Dickinson. Are the sick suffering from a heliophobic virus, or are they tormented by psychosis and anxiety?  Read More

Teaser

Eve is at a breaking point. Alone with her two children in Massachusetts while her husband pursues his music career in New York City, she’s frustrated, bored and, above all, lonely when she runs into Demeter, a childhood friend with whom she shared one transformative summer. Demeter’s daughter, like a growing number of others, cannot go outside during the day. No one knows why, and doctors are skeptical that these people --- soon dubbed Emilys, after the famously reclusive local poet --- are telling the truth. But Eve believes Demeter and will help him --- if she can just figure out how. When Eve unites with an unlikely band of fellow detectives, she feels a clear sense of purpose for the first time in years. But what is she willing to risk to find a cure?

Promo

Eve is at a breaking point. Alone with her two children in Massachusetts while her husband pursues his music career in New York City, she’s frustrated, bored and, above all, lonely when she runs into Demeter, a childhood friend with whom she shared one transformative summer. Demeter’s daughter, like a growing number of others, cannot go outside during the day. No one knows why, and doctors are skeptical that these people --- soon dubbed Emilys, after the famously reclusive local poet --- are telling the truth. But Eve believes Demeter and will help him --- if she can just figure out how. When Eve unites with an unlikely band of fellow detectives, she feels a clear sense of purpose for the first time in years. But what is she willing to risk to find a cure?

About the Book

The residents of a New England town become obsessed with finding the cure for a mysterious ailment spreading through their community in this kaleidoscopic novel about love’s capacities in a changing world.

Eve is at a breaking point. Alone with her two children in Massachusetts while her husband pursues his music career in New York City, she’s frustrated, bored and, above all, lonely when she runs into Demeter, a childhood friend with whom she shared one transformative summer. Demeter is as beautiful and charismatic as Eve remembers, but she’s also distraught. Demeter’s daughter, like a growing number of others, cannot go outside during the day. No one knows why, and doctors are skeptical that these people --- soon dubbed Emilys, after the famously reclusive local poet --- are telling the truth. But Eve believes her friend. She will help Demeter --- if she can just figure out how.

Eve’s perspective is joined by those of her fellow community members searching for answers: the local librarian and the town’s most prolific writer of letters to the editor, who both loved the same woman and now hate each other; an actor hoping to make amends for past misdeeds; Demeter’s teenage daughter, furious about the isolation she’s forced to endure. When Eve unites with this unlikely band of fellow detectives, she feels a clear sense of purpose for the first time in years. But this quest comes with a price: She is keeping secrets from her husband, fighting with Demeter, distracted from her children. What is she willing to risk to find a cure?

Audiobook available, read by Kristen Sieh and Sophie Amoss

Editorial Content for Mist and Malice: A Haven Thriller

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

In MIST AND MALICE, the second entry in Rachel Howzell Hall's exciting Haven Thriller series, the action kicks off where the first book ends. For those who haven't read FOG AND FURY, it could be confusing. So definitely start with the opening installment because a lot of the backstory of the characters is delineated there. Read More

Teaser

Private investigator Sonny Rush, the newest resident of Haven, California, knows that this fogbound coastal hamlet is every bit as dangerous as her hometown of Los Angeles. And when teenager and repeat runaway Honor Butler shows up at Sonny’s door with terror in her eyes, Sonny is immediately pulled into a new case that lands close to home. Honor tells Sonny a horrifying story about where she’s been --- and what she’s been forced to do. Then, hours later, the forest near Sonny’s cottage yields the remains of a missing day laborer. Soon, coincidence sharpens into conspiracy. As Sonny digs deeper, the threads of these cases twist together into something horrifying: a ruthless network preying on the vulnerable, protected by the very people meant to uphold the law.

Promo

Private investigator Sonny Rush, the newest resident of Haven, California, knows that this fogbound coastal hamlet is every bit as dangerous as her hometown of Los Angeles. And when teenager and repeat runaway Honor Butler shows up at Sonny’s door with terror in her eyes, Sonny is immediately pulled into a new case that lands close to home. Honor tells Sonny a horrifying story about where she’s been --- and what she’s been forced to do. Then, hours later, the forest near Sonny’s cottage yields the remains of a missing day laborer. Soon, coincidence sharpens into conspiracy. As Sonny digs deeper, the threads of these cases twist together into something horrifying: a ruthless network preying on the vulnerable, protected by the very people meant to uphold the law.

About the Book

A small-town PI is drawn into a killer conspiracy in a breathtaking novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of the Anthony Award–nominated THESE TOXIC THINGS.

Private investigator Sonny Rush, the newest resident of Haven, California, knows that this fogbound coastal hamlet is every bit as dangerous as her hometown of Los Angeles. And when teenager and repeat runaway Honor Butler shows up at Sonny’s door with terror in her eyes, Sonny is immediately pulled into a new case that lands close to home.

Desperate, hungry and in need of someone she can trust, Honor tells Sonny a horrifying story about where she’s been --- and what she’s been forced to do. Then, hours later, the forest near Sonny’s cottage yields the remains of a missing day laborer, a man whose wife has been searching for answers for months. Soon, coincidence sharpens into conspiracy.

As Sonny digs deeper, the threads of these cases twist together into something horrifying: a ruthless network preying on the vulnerable, protected by the very people meant to uphold the law. With every step closer to revealing Haven’s corruption, Sonny risks pulling the lives of her loved ones into the cross fire --- and exposing the shadows of her own past. Because in this town, loyalty can be fatal, and survival means deciding who you’re willing to betray.

Audiobook available, read by Inger Tudor

Editorial Content for A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ron Kaplan (www.RonKaplansBaseballBookshelf.com)

A CENTURY OF HITCHCOCK, the most recent homage to legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, begins and ends with promise. Tony Lee Moral, who has written several books on Hitchcock, discusses his subject’s genius, frequently using words like “unprecedented” and “innovation.” The early chapters note the pains he went through for as much control over his productions as possible, given that he worked for a stretch with studio honcho David O. Selznick. Read More

Teaser

For over a century, Alfred Hitchcock has remained one of cinema's most influential directors. Known as the Master of Suspense, this visionary filmmaker directed more than 50 films over six decades. Drawing on new archival research, previously unpublished interviews, and a rigorous examination of key biographies, A CENTURY OF HITCHCOCK challenges the long-standing narratives that have shaped Hitchcock's legacy. Tony Lee Moral revisits controversial claims regarding Hitchcock's alleged abuses, scrutinizing biographer Donald Spoto's interpretations --- particularly Spoto's portrayal of the director's relationship with actress Tippi Hedren. With his analysis of Spoto's 1980 interview of Hedren, Moral reveals for the first time how one key document contradicts decades of exaggeration.

Promo

For over a century, Alfred Hitchcock has remained one of cinema's most influential directors. Known as the Master of Suspense, this visionary filmmaker directed more than 50 films over six decades. Drawing on new archival research, previously unpublished interviews, and a rigorous examination of key biographies, A CENTURY OF HITCHCOCK challenges the long-standing narratives that have shaped Hitchcock's legacy. Tony Lee Moral revisits controversial claims regarding Hitchcock's alleged abuses, scrutinizing biographer Donald Spoto's interpretations --- particularly Spoto's portrayal of the director's relationship with actress Tippi Hedren. With his analysis of Spoto's 1980 interview of Hedren, Moral reveals for the first time how one key document contradicts decades of exaggeration. 

About the Book

For over a century, Alfred Hitchcock has remained one of cinema's most influential directors. Known as the Master of Suspense, this visionary filmmaker directed more than 50 films over six decades. His thriller The Lodger (1927) marked the start of his signature style, which was later exemplified in classic films like Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963).

Hitchcock's work received tremendous success and critical acclaim. While he never won the competitive Academy Award for Best Director, he received five Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, a BAFTA Fellowship, multiple lifetime achievement awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nine of his films are preserved in the United States National Film Registry. His mastery of tension, innovative camera techniques and psychological depth continue to inspire and influence modern filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan, Jordan Peele and Bong Joon Ho.

Drawing on new archival research, previously unpublished interviews, and a rigorous examination of key biographies, A CENTURY OF HITCHCOCK challenges the long-standing narratives that have shaped Hitchcock's legacy. Author Tony Lee Moral revisits controversial claims regarding Hitchcock's alleged abuses, scrutinizing biographer Donald Spoto's interpretations --- particularly Spoto's portrayal of the director's relationship with actress Tippi Hedren. With his analysis of Spoto's 1980 interview of Hedren, Moral reveals for the first time how one key document contradicts decades of exaggeration.

In this comprehensive reappraisal of Hitchcock's career, Moral encourages readers to explore the complexities of creative collaboration and the risks of relying on a single biographical narrative. Marking 100 years since Hitchcock's first film, The Pleasure Garden, and 50 years since his last film, Family Plot, Moral reexamines the director's cinematic brilliance, storytelling mastery, creative partnerships and controversies, offering a fresh perspective on Hitchcock's legacy in the post-#MeToo era.

June 18, 2026

I feel like “immersed” is such a high-level word to use to describe my current reading situation. It's the kind of word that one would drop into conversation at a cocktail party and say it with a lot of drama.

It would be more accurate to say that I feel like I am on a treadmill racing as fast as I can to read for interviews and other coverage that we are working on. As time goes on, I know more and more authors whose latest work I want to read. There are also new writers who I want to explore.

Trust me, I know these are not life-altering decisions to make, but when you attend as many previews as we do and hear authors sharing commentary about their work, it is a good challenge to have to select what to read.

June 17, 2026

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we think is a great summer reading selection. Read more about it, and enter our Summer Reading Contest by Thursday, June 18th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of LITTLE WONDER by Sophie Chen Keller, which is this month's Oprah's Book Club pick. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

June 16, 2026

This is one of those updates where there are sooooooo many titles for you to explore. I almost dare you to see if you cannot find a book that you want to consider for your next book group discussion!

PLUS we have the video and leave behinds for our semiannual Book Group Speed Dating program.

Read on and ENJOY! And we hope to see you at one of the upcoming events spotlighted below.

June 16, 2026

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 15th and June 22nd 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 ReadingGroupGuides.com's 15th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event, which is now available for viewing. Last Friday, representatives from five publishers presented 31 titles perfect for book groups that will be published between now and November.