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Douglas Preston, author of Badlands: A Nora Kelly Novel

In the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found --- and the case is assigned to FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. The victim walked into the desert, shedding clothes as she went, and died in agony of heatstroke and thirst. Two rare artifacts are found clutched in her bony hands --- lightning stones used by the ancient Chaco people to summon the gods. Is it suicide or…sacrifice? Agent Swanson brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate. When a second body is found --- exactly like the other --- the two realize the case runs deeper than they imagined. As Corrie and Nora pursue their investigation into remote canyons, haunted ruins and long-lost rituals, they find themselves confronting a dark power that, disturbed from its long slumber, threatens to exact an unspeakable price.

Week of July 20, 2026

Paperback releases for the week of July 20th include MY FRIENDS by Fredrik Backman, an unforgettably funny and deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life 25 years later; THE FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, an emotional story about family, sacrifice and transcendent love from Dean Koontz, in which a girl liberated from a carnival sideshow discovers her mysterious purpose; Francesca Serritella's FULL BLOOM, a stunning novel about ambition and untapped desire that finds a woman's life forever changed by a mysterious perfume; and POSITIVE OBSESSION by Susana M. Morris, a magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, Octavia E. Butler, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work.