| Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy KatzmanWhat it's about: One place at Stanford. Three qualified applicants from the same prep school. And three mothers determined to see their daughter win admission.
Meet the mean girls: stay-at-home mom Kelly, a Stanford alum; tech CEO Alicia, whose donations might make up for her daughter's lackluster grades; and single mom Maren, whose daughter is valedictorian.
Reviewers say: Girls with Bright Futures is a "bracingly vicious portrait of entitlement" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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City of Spies by Mara TimonLisbon, 1943. When her cover is blown, SOE agent Elisabeth de Mornay flees Paris. Pursued by the Gestapo, she makes her way to neutral Lisbon, where Europe's elite rub shoulders with diplomats, businessmen, smugglers, and spies. There she receives new orders and a new identity. Posing as wealthy French widow Solange Verin, Elisabeth must infiltrate a German espionage ring targeting Allied ships, before more British servicemen are killed. The closer Elisabeth comes to discovering the truth, the greater the risk grows. With a German officer watching her every step, it will take all of Elisabeth's resourcefulness and determination to complete her mission. But in a city where no one is who they claim to be, who can she trust?
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You Again
by Debra Jo Immergut
Abigail Willard first spots her from the back of a New York cab: the spitting image of Abby herself at age twenty-two, right down to the silver platforms and raspberry coat she wore as a young artist with a taste for wildness. But the real Abby is now forty-six and married, with a corporate job and two kids. As the girl vanishes into a rainy night, Abby is left shaken. Was this merely a hallucinatory side effect of working-mom stress? A message of sorts, sent to remind her of passions and dreams tossed aside? Or something more dangerous? All the while, Abby's life starts to slip from her control, her marriage hits major turbulence and her teenage son drifts into a radical movement that portends a dark coming era. When her elusive double presents her with a dangerous proposition, Abby must decide how much she values the life she's built and how deeply she knows herself.
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A Burning Sea
by Theodore Brun
Doomed to wander. Destined for glory. Erlan Aurvandil has turned his back on the past and his native Northern lands, taking a perilous journey to the greatest city in the world, Byzantium. But as his voyage ends, Erlan is brutally betrayed, captured and enslaved by a powerful Byzantine general. Meanwhile, Lilla Sviggarsdottir, Queen of Svealand, has lost her husband and with him, her kingdom. Leaving her lands and people behind, Lilla journeys east on a new quest: to find Erlan and raise an army mighty enough to defeat her usurper. But when she reaches the great city of Byzantium, she discovers a place in turmoil. A dark tide is rising against the Emperor from within his own court. As the shadows darken and whispers of war begin to strengthen, Erlan's fate becomes intertwined with that of the city. Are they both doomed to fall, or can freedom be won in the blood of battle?
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The Cleaner
by Mark Dawson
John Milton is the man the government call when they want a problem to vanish. But what happens when he's the one that needs to disappear? After a botched job leaves a bloody trail, government assassin John Milton does the one thing he's never done before: he hides. Disappearing into London's bustling East End and holing up in a vacant flat, Milton becomes involved with single mother Sharon and her troubled son Elijah, who are caught in an increasingly bloody turf war between two rival gangs. Unable to ignore the threat, Milton sets about protecting mother and son, meeting violence with violence. But his involvement puts him in the sights of the government's next best killer, and before long Milton is not just fighting to save a family and a home he's fighting to stay alive.
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The search party
by Simon Lelic
"A twisty, electrifying new thriller from the author of The New Neighbors and The Liar's Room... The entire town thinks sixteen-year-old Sadie Saunders is dead. Missing now for a week, they say she was murdered. And they think they know who did it. Sadie's five best friends aren't so sure, and they vow to find out the truth. So they pack their bags and head into the woods where Sadie was last seen. But they're not just friends, they're suspects. And each of them has a secret. As the landscape opens up, and the darkness closes in, the reality of their situation becomes clear... This was never really a search party. It's a witch hunt. And not everyone will make it home alive"
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| Possession by Katie LoweThe premise: Ten years ago, Hannah McLelland's life was upended when her husband was murdered in their London home. Since then she has worked hard to rebuild and make a life for her daughter, far away from the media sensation surrounding the trial of her husband's killer.
The problem: A true crime podcast is re-investigating the case, and as the host digs deeper into Hannah's past, the court of public opinion turns against Hannah and threatens to undo everything.
For fans of: Conviction by Denise Mina, which also features a main character who must deal with the airing of her dirty laundry on a true crime show. |
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| An Inconvenient Woman by Stéphanie BuelensWhat it is: an intricately plotted work of psychological suspense featuring well-developed, morally ambiguous characters with complicated personal lives.
Starring: Claire Fontaine, who makes shocking allegations about her ex-husband, including that he drove her daughter to suicide; Claire's ex-husband Simon Miller, who can no longer tolerate Claire's behavior; Sloan Wilson, a former LAPD detective hired by Simon to "deal with" Claire.
Reviewers say: An Inconvenient Woman is "a piercing, high-speed nightmare best consumed in a single breathless sitting" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Snake Island by Ben HobsonTwo years ago: Retirees Vernon and Penelope Moore cut ties with their son Caleb after he was convicted of brutally assaulting his wife, scandalizing their rural Australian town.
What's wrong now? Vernon gets word that Caleb has barely survived his own violent assault behind bars, at the hands of the son of a local crime boss. Trying to resolve things father to father, Vernon ends up setting in motion a series of events with consequences for everyone involved.
For fans of: small-town noir, flawed characters, and thrillers that contemplate complex moral and existential questions. |
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| The Nightworkers by Brian SelfonWhat it is: a gritty, character-driven crime novel about a dysfunctional family of money launderers dealing with trauma, betrayal, and cultural alienation.
The setup: Mixed-race but white-passing Shecky Keenan runs a reliable dirty money business with his artistic nephew Henry and niece Kerasha, a gifted thief. But when their newest runner vanishes with $250,000, both their livelihood and their lives are at stake.
Reviewers say: The Nightworkers is a "sharp, surprisingly affecting debut" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga TokarczukWhat it's about: Translated from the original Polish, this stylistically complex blend of literary fiction and suspenseful detective story follows quirky, reclusive Janina Duszejko as she involves herself in the investigation of a neighbor's murder.
Read it for: the offbeat tone, compelling writing, and Janina's insightful reflections on life in a small Polish village.
Try this next: Death in Her Hands, which also features an acclaimed author of literary fiction (in this case, Otessa Moshfegh) dipping her toe into the genre. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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