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Week of November 6, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of November 6th include Jane Smiley's A DANGEROUS BUSINESS, a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California in which two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls; THE VILLA by Rachel Hawkins, a brilliant gothic suspense set at an Italian villa with a dark history; NOVELIST AS A VOCATION, an insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller and a unique look at the craft of writing from beloved author Haruki Murakami; Armando Lucas Correa's THE NIGHT TRAVELER, a sweeping novel in which four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope --- from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and, finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall; THE DELUGE by Stephen Markley, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity; and the paperback original THE WISHING BRIDGE, a new holiday novel from Viola Shipman that sparkles with the humor and heart that fans of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Nancy Thayer and Jenny Colgan love most.

Jane Smiley, author of A Dangerous Business

Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend, Jean, and inspired by her reading --- especially by Edgar Allan Poe’s detective, Dupin --- Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious.