|
In case you missed them...
|
|
|
|
OverBooked Club
Monday, Apr 13, 5:30
Library Conference Room
Come chat about books with Kristen and Michelle.
This month's focus: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
|
|
Friends of the Library Vintage Book Sale
Saturday, April 25, in the library's multi-media room. 9-3
Bargain vintage books will be available for purchase at the Friends of the McCracken County Public Library’s Mini Book sale! These are Vintage, High Quality Books to enjoy yourself, or give to others! |
|
|
|
|
Dungeons and Danger
by Elizabeth Penney
The second in Elizabeth Penney's Ravensea Castle cozy mystery series, set in a haunted castle-turned-B&B in Yorkshire, UK. As Halloween approaches, Ravensea Castle is bustling with excitement as Nora Asquith welcomes the fall season guests to her family's newly converted bed and breakfast. A historian studying the movements of the Vikings has traced their exploits to Ravensea. A certain Viking woman, known as the Red Maiden, landed here and the historian believes she buried a treasure hoard before the castle was built. He is hopeful he can find the hoard now. Nora can't help but wonder if the enigmatic castle ghost she's always referred to as the woman in red could be this very Viking? Meanwhile, a team of four ghost hunters is coming to stay at Ravensea for the filming of Britain's Got Ghosts. Former students of the historian, the group arrives with their own rivalries and baggage. They try to see who can make the most paranormal contacts and end up getting more than they bargained for. When the historian is murdered during a Viking festival on castle grounds and his notes go missing, Nora can't help but wonder if the treasure was why he was killed . . . and could it be connected to the visiting ghost hunters? Additional accidents befalling the hunters raise the stakes as Nora races to find the killer--and the treasure--before another death occurs.
|
|
|
|
The Diva Hosts a Murderer
by Krista Davis
Old Town Virginia's entertaining guru and occasional sleuth Sophie Winston - a young Martha Stewart in the making - juggles Fourth of July fireworks, a houseful of guests, and homicide in the latest Domestic Diva culinary mystery from New York Times bestselling author Krista Davis. With a big crowd descending on her Northern Virginia home, it's a good thing event planner Sophie Winston is an expert at entertaining. Whipping up patriotic pastries is as easy as pie for her, though meeting the man her widowed Aunt Melly just impulsively married in Las Vegas is a little more awkward. Especially when Melly's longtime, now-heartbroken secret admirer is there too, which could lead to some fireworks. But the house party really gets explosive when Sophie's favorite tour guide falls victim to a killer--and evidence points to Sophie's own father. Will DNA really incriminate her dad? And what's the real story with her new uncle-by-marriage and the mysterious pal he's brought along with him? Some of the secrets Sophie's discovering are raising flags--and while the police department casts suspicion on her father, she has to declare her independence as a detective to find the real culprit, and serve justice along with her red, white, and blue cupcakes . . . Includes delicious recipes, fabulous decorating tips, and easy entertaining hacks!
|
|
|
|
Hot Wings and Homicide
by Carmela Dutra
Twins Beth and Seth Lloyd are on the chopping block in the follow-up to A Murder Most Fowl, where a perfect recipe for murder is stirred up. Business at Kluckin' Good is smoking hot. To keep momentum going, Beth and her twin brother, Seth, just scored a prime spot at the Flavors of the Bay Food Festival. For three and a half days, food lovers will flock to the Bay Area's biggest culinary event to enjoy gourmet food trucks, cook-offs, and live music, but this recipe for success is also the perfect setup for murder. When the infamous food critic Brad Dawson--also Beth's ex--turns up dead, the only clue at the scene of the crime is a Kluckin' Good tumbler mug. The timing couldn't be worse. Beth and Brad were seen in a heated altercation, and days prior, witnesses saw Seth punch Brad. Suspicion naturally falls on the twins. With the cops hot on their trail, Beth will have to avoid the flames to clear their names and save her food truck's reputation. But the chickens are out of the coop, and as Beth digs into Brad's final hours, she will uncover rivalries, grudges, and a different side of Brad she never knew. If she doesn't crack the case soon, she might be the next one to get cooked. Best of cluck A mouthwatering mystery for fans of Joanne Fluke that will leave you peckish for more.
|
|
|
|
John of John
by Douglas Stuart
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, LOS ANGELES TIMES, TIME, OPRAH DAILY, AND VOGUESo immersive, so all-encompassing, that I felt like I was living in it.--Ann PatchettFrom the Booker Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo comes a vivid, moving novel following a young man returning to his Hebridean island home, a portrait of a father's expectations and a son's desiresOut of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry back home to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides to find that little has changed except for him. He returns to the windswept croft and the two pillars of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, tweed weaver, and lay preacher in the local Presbyterian church, and his maternal grandmother Ella, a profanity-loving Glaswegian whose steady warmth helped Cal weather the sudden departure of his mother.Cal privately wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, while John is dismayed by his son's long hair, strange clothes, and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. But Cal isn't the only one in the croft house who is keeping secrets. As lambing season turns to shearing season, the threads holding together the community together become increasingly frayed, and nothing will remain as it was before.John of John is a singular novel about duty, passion, and the transformative power of the truth. It is a magnificent literary work that cements Douglas Stuart's reputation as one of our greatest novelists working today.
|
|
|
|
The Things We Never Say
by Elizabeth Strout
Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He goes about his days teaching American history to high schoolers, correcting their casual ignorance, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He spends his free time sailing the beautiful Massachusetts Bay, or with his adult son and his wife of more than three decades - and as Artie does these things, he plans the event that will forever change the world he inhabits. But when a startling accident awakens a new perspective in Artie, and he realizes that life has its own secret it's been keeping from him - along with a lot more to say on the weighty matters of fate and freedom in his home and his country - he charts another course full of grief, hilarity, and heart, to a place where the end marks the beginning. Elizabeth Strout, as we have come to expect, delivers a profound exploration of the human condition - one that brims with deep compassion for each and every one of her characters. With exquisite prose and gentle intimacy, Artie Dam takes one man's fears and loneliness and makes them universal. And in the same breath, captures the mysterious love that sustains and holds us through it all-- Provided by publisher.
|
|
|
|
The Summer Boy
by Philippe Besson
On an island off the coast of France, six teenagers come together for a summer of desire and discovery until one of them vanishes forever, leaving the rest with an enduring mysteryTell me, do you know why the most beautiful love stories must always end badly?In the summer of 1985, on a scruffy resort island off the coast of France, six teenagers--five boys and one girl--band together for a final golden season before adulthood. Their days are drenched in sun and freedom, and their nights simmer with secrets, jealousy, and longing. Philippe is drawn to Nicolas, the quiet new boy who sees him in a way that no one else does. As their bond deepens, part of Nicolas remains unreachable--until a sudden tragedy brings their summer to a brutal end.The Summer Boy is a lush and unforgettable autobiographical tale, capturing the ineffable summers of youth in amber. Celebrated novelist Philippe Besson has shaped his memories into an aching meditation on how one summer night--and one fierce connection--can echo across a lifetime.
|
|
|
|
Returns and Exchanges
by Kayla Rae Whitaker
A sweeping novel of one Kentucky family's rise and fall throughout the 1980s--a tragicomic tour de force about love and marriage, parents and children, and the perils of mixing family with business, from the acclaimed author of The Animators This is the novel I've been missing: a sprawling, emotional, and true family saga. I fell completely in love with the characters, the story, the setting. All of it. It's damn near perfect.--Ayelet Waldman, author of Love & Treasure It's December 24, 1979, just before closing at Baker-Taylor's discount department store, and Fran (n e Baker) is surveying her domain. Her husband, Fred, is charming customers in the front of the store, while last-minute shoppers in the toy aisle are fighting over the lone remaining Atari. The older Taylor kids are on register, while the younger ones' chaos is contained to the stockroom. All is right in the world as the new decade approaches. With four healthy children and financial stability their own parents could have only dreamed of, Fred and Fran are the picture of the American Dream--rags to riches--with a successful chain of family-owned stores built on years of hard work and long hours. Underneath the surface, however, the business is changing at a breakneck pace, and each member of the family is struggling to keep up. Money is transforming Fred, and the extremes he will go to in order to fit in with the slicked-back high society crowd of Lexington, Kentucky, are embarrassing, if not downright dangerous. Josiah, the oldest son, wants nothing to do with the family business; Sam is seeing things that might not really be there; and Benny and Birdie are growing up with a fraction of the parenting that their older brothers had. Meanwhile, Fran, her family's stable core, is falling for Wendy, a cashier at Baker-Taylor's, risking everything along the way. While trying to maintain the facade of a perfect success story, Fred and Fran learn that in matters of love and money, once it's gone, it's gone--no returns, no exchanges.
|
|
|
|
The Midnight Train
by Matt Haig
When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop? No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there.The chance to re-live 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 . . . A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library.
|
|
|
|
Lake Effect
by Hillary Behrman
Winner of the 2024 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, selected by Lauren GroffA debut collection about the wild and hidden places in nature and the heart From Seattle to Istanbul, Lake Effect, the debut short story collection by Hillary Behrman, takes you to unmapped mountain ranges, wild urban places and the outskirts of a desert outpost dissecting the many ways we love, labor and isolate ourselves from one another. In these stories characters are rarely headed where they want to be: Paula's real and dream life become indistinguishable. Oliver can't shed the hold of family lore as he negotiates his love affair with Daniel. Siblings, Alex and Marcie, are comforted and scraped raw by intimacy as they traverse the years from juvenile vandalism to a labor and delivery gone terribly wrong. Miles searches for his mother in a homeless encampment beneath a maze of freeways. These stories exist at the intersection of social isolation and fierce intimacies and call into question the limits of our well-intentioned efforts to care for each other.
|
|
|
|
The Calamity Club
by Kathryn Stockett
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, GOODREADS, TOWN & COUNTRY, MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE, GARDEN & GUN, AARP, WOMAN'S WORLD, COUNTRY LIVING, AND OPRAH DAILYSo immersive, exciting, and downright fabulous, you never want it to end.-Oprah DailyThe multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what's rightfully theirs--and the power of friendship to change everything.Oxford, Mississippi, 1933.Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable big girls at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she's left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister's seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates--and Meg's--converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan to claim what's rightfully theirs. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women's freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences. The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer--an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious--the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.
|
|
|
|
The Foursome
by Christina Baker Kline
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina -- Kline's own distant relatives -- who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam. When Eng and Chang Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they're not just a curiosity--they're a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they're looking for wives--and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge.Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees in the twins' fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sarah, quiet and observant, isn't so sure. When the twins' lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything--including race, class, and gender--is rigidly defined.Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of a fractured nation hurtling toward war, The Foursome is both intimate and epic: a story of love and constraint, identity and reinvention. With piercing insight and emotional precision, Kline brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center.
|
|
|
|
Five Weeks in the Country
by Francine Prose
In the summer of 1857, when British newspapers warned of an approaching comet about to destroy the earth, an unusual-looking stranger arrived at Charles Dickens's home, Gad's Hill, in the countryside outside London. Dickens had met Hans Christian Andersen at a dinner party, a decade before, and, in a moment of desperation, had invited him to visit.
The visit did not go well. The eccentric Danish author of classic fairy tales, who barely spoke English, outstayed his welcome and alienated the Dickens household, which included nine children. Even the oblivious, obsessively self-conscious Andersen sensed the increasing tension between Dickens and his unhappy wife, Catherine, but was slow to understand--or to believe--that Dickens had fallen in love with a young actress appearing in his new play. For Andersen, those five weeks were a series of social mistakes and embarrassments but ultimately a lesson in how life's most humbling experiences can be transformed into art.
Five Weeks in the Country, a work of imaginative fiction inspired by actual events, is Francine Prose at her dazzling best.
|
|
|
|
Ironwood: A Catalina Novel
by Michael Connelly
Sworn to protect a scenic island meant to be far from the evils of the mainland, Detective Sergeant Stilwell can feel danger closing in. Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated--by twenty-two miles of ocean--from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven. Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off. An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong. While under orders to remain in the sheriff's substation, he finds in the lost and found a valuable backpack that was never claimed. He traces it to a woman who disappeared while hiking on the island four years ago. But then why was the pack only turned in two months back? Now thoroughly intrigued, he follows the mystery all the way to the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Ren e Ballard. Stilwell and Ballard work the case from both sides of the channel, and soon realize they are on the trail of a criminal who revels in taunting the authorities. Meanwhile, frustrated at being shut out of an investigation on his own island, Stilwell risks his already shaky standing in the department to pursue a case whose reach is wider than he ever imagined. Page-turning, packed with intrigue, and bringing together an unstoppable investigative team, Ironwood continues the Catalina series with all of Michael Connelly's signature relentless narrative drive...evocative atmosphere, realistic dialogue, and well-developed characters (Washington Review of Books).
|
|
|
|
26 Beauties: A Women's Murder Club Thriller
by James Patterson
From the world's #1 bestselling author, the Women's Murder Club goes searching for 26 Beauties--young women missing in San Francisco. SFPD's Sergeant Lindsay Boxer's best friend, Claire Washburn, is named medical examiner of the year. But an uninvited guest crashes the Women's Murder Club's party: a concerned father seeking investigative reporter Cindy Thomas's help in locating his missing daughter. And she's not the only one. Lindsay's been investigating the deaths of a Jane Doe washed up on a nearby beach, and a young woman found in Golden Gate Park. What if all these cases are connected? The answers lie with the 26 Beauties on the run and in the wind.
|
|
|
|
The Brothers McKay: A Longmire Mystery
by Craig Johnson
A masterful new novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series 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. The twenty-second novel in the Longmire series, The Brothers McKay is a murder mystery and a survival thriller that tests the sheriff's hard-won sense of justice--all while paying sly homage to Dostoevsky's classic.
|
|
|
|
The Final Target
by Nora Roberts
A young author becomes the object of a fan's desire--and rage--in the gripping thriller by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Nature.He showed up at Arden Bowie's debut author appearance with a copy of her novel and an eager smile. He showered her with compliments and got her autograph. 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 giving in to one of his incessant invitations and chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistake... An introvert at heart, Arden had long craved solitude--but now, after a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors and startling at every sound. 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 decides to write a new story for herself, moving to a tiny Oregon town and befriending 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. He still believes Arden's purpose on earth is to serve and please him. And his job is to protect her. But who will protect her from him?
|
|
|
|
My Name Was Gerry Sass
by Tiffany Hanssen
The Sopranos meets Six Feet Under in this thrilling debut crime novel about the killing of a hitman-for-hire, his daughter who wants revenge, and a priest who accidentally witnessed everythingGerry Sass is not who he appears to be. On the surface, he is the proud owner of a local country music station outside of Mystic, Iowa. Beneath it, he's a mob-connected hitman-for-hire who launders money through the station WIOA. One morning in 1986, his life of crime catches up to him when two men march him out into the woods and shoot him in the back of the head. Plunged into purgatory, he's doomed to a painful examination of his life. Unbeknownst to the assassins, Gerry's closest friend, a Catholic priest named Father Dan, witnesses his execution yet does nothing to stop it. Meanwhile, Gerry's daughter, Early, jumps into his prized Mustang with a thirst for revenge. On her adrenaline-fueled hunt, she comes to realize that she's more like Gerry than she ever chose to admit. Alternating between the voices of a grieving and adrenaline-fueled daughter, a guilt-ridden priest with no one he can trust, and the voice of a dead killer not quite yet gone, My Name Was Gerry Sass exposes the complicated natures of family, grief, and God in this propulsive and darkly funny novel.
|
|
|
|
Witch Hunt
by Richard O'Rawe
'Enriched by historical data, this spellbinding policeprocedural has a vicious sting in its tail' - Kirkus Reviews StarredReviewHow can you get away with murder in a city full of cameras? London's DSI Grace O'Malley must solve a puzzling case in this highly addictive blend of gritty police procedural and creepy historical horror by dynamic father-daughter duo Richard and Bernadette O'Rawe. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live . . . Detective Superintendent Grace O'Malley of London's Metropolitan Police receives a dubious phone call. A self-proclaimed witch hunter, using the alias of Matthew Hopkins, the notorious seventeenth century witchfinder general, is leading her to his first victim. Someone is exploiting the bloody history of the witchfinder to start a modern-day witch hunt, making sure their debut murder of a TV-medium is broadcast worldwide during Halloween night on Westminster Bridge. The clock is ticking for this high-profile case. Grace needs to find out who is behind the premeditated crime before the witch hunter can strike again. But the more she investigates, the more she finds herself in an intricate web of lies, deceit and threats - a case even more complex and incredible than originally thought. Fans of British crime thrillers in the style of Mick Herron, Ian Rankin, Harlan Coben, Val McDermid and Denise Mina will binge this first in a series with a gripping plot full of shocking twists and turns.
|
|
|
|
The Tuxedo Society
by Paul Rudnick
If Guy Ritchie directed a James Bond caper starring a queer 007, it might look something like this hilarious and action-packed spy thriller by Paul Rudnick, acclaimed screenwriter and author of Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style, that blends espionage and social commentary, with an elite, gay secret society. They are fierce patriots. They are licensed to kill. And they are really, really gay. Welcome to democracy's secret weapon, the Tuxedo Society. When Andrew Birnbaum, a struggling actor making ends meet by working in a candle shop, gets invited to have dinner with the exclusive Tuxedo Society by his best friend, Brock, his life takes an unexpected turn. What seems like a group of wealthy socialites gathering for gossip and cocktails quickly spirals into a world of espionage, danger, and hilarity. Andrew soon meets Reggie O'Malley, a Navy SEAL with a penchant for black tie, who recruits Andrew to join the society's covert mission to protect national security. Armed with gadgets like an inflatable life raft backpack, a yoga mat that doubles as an assault rifle, and, of course, an AMEX Black Card, Andrew quickly finds himself tackling spies, thwarting assassinations, and facing a host of unexpected threats in settings from the White House to the Vatican to the Summer Olympic Games. The stakes escalate when Andrew and his comrades are sent on a jet-setting mission to uncover the truth about an ancient artifact. Along the way, they clash with oligarchs, crooked senators, and a smarmy televangelist with sinister plans for world domination. Packed with Paul Rudnick's signature wit, The Tuxedo Society is a wild ride through decadence, danger, and unexpected heroism, as Andrew discovers that saving the world might just be the role he's been waiting for.
|
|
|
|
The Divorce
by Freida McFadden
A brand-new, gripping thriller from Freida McFadden, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid What is a happily ever after really worth?Naomi was living the quintessential love story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love, get married, buy a dream house, start a family...Then--he kicks her out, hires the city's best divorce lawyers, drains their accounts, and takes up with a 20-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.But if it keeps her perfect family intact, isn't it worth it?In The Divorce, #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a razor-sharp, subversive thriller where love curdles into vengeance, and survival becomes the most dangerous game of all.
|
|
|
|
A Very Vexing Murder: Harriet Smith Investigates
by Lucy Andrew
Harriet Smith investigates...A murder most Austen. A witty debut whodunit that reimagines Harriet Smith, the gullible sidekick of Jane Austen's Emma, as a spitfire con woman, hired to break off an engagement and uncover a murderer in the genteel village of Highbury. Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure. --Jane Austen, EMMAIs a killer lurking in the idyllic country domain of Emma Woodhouse?No longer Emma's na ve companion, Harriet Smith is a feisty con-woman-turned-detective tasked with breaking off Frank Churchill's engagement and uncovering his aunt's would-be murderer. While Harriet has doubts that the deadly threats are little more than society scandal, the shrewd Mrs. Churchill suspects Frank's unsuitable fianc e, Jane Fairfax, is out to kill her. What begins as a routine investigation among Highbury's elite quickly spirals into a web of deception, dangerous secrets, and a game of survival.As Harriet interrogates a growing list of suspects with the help of her long-suffering best friend, Robert Martin, not only does she have to contend with a potential homicidal maniac and striking out as a single woman in Regency society, but is also afraid her father (and former partner-in-crime) is out for revenge.With a cast of unforgettable characters--including a charming scoundrel, a lovesick farmer, a ghoulish butler, and a ruthless heiress determined to hide her skeletons at any cost-- this brilliantly reimagined mystery featuring the characters from Jane Austen's Emma is as deliciously dark as it is delightfully clever.
|
|
|
|
The Last Mandarin
by Louise Penny
A gripping thriller about family and power co-written by Louise Penny, #1 bestselling author of the Gamache novels, and Mellissa Fung, an award-winning journalist. A mother and a daughter race against time in this all-too-real thriller that reaches from Tiananmen Square all the way to the White House. Alice Li, a first-generation Chinese American and former food blogger, has long lived in the shadow of her mother, Vivien Li-- a Tiananmen Square dissident turned world-renowned human rights activist and passionate advocate for a free and democratic China. When security and fire alarms go off simultaneously all around the world, setting off a panic, the signal is traced back to China. As world leaders scramble to respond, Vivien and Alice are called to the White House in hopes Madame Li can interpret the Chinese intentions. But why involve Alice? If China isn't behind the attack, Vivien warns, someone even more dangerous is pulling the strings. Mother and daughter must join together to overcome their estrangement if they have any hope of preventing global catastrophe. From DC to Ohio to Hong Kong, they work to prevent the next attack, along the way decoding an ancient legend and uncovering a secret language invented by women, for women. The Last Mandarin is an electrifying study of absolute power and voracious greed, political terror and personal conviction. But it is also an intimate examination of choice, of sacrifice, of memory and myths, both cultural and personal. It is the story of a mother and daughter, as well as a compelling international thriller about the precarious balance of power across the world, and within a family. And what happens when both break down. In a world ruled by power, even family can be a weapon.
|
|
|
|
The Fine Art of Lying
by Alexandra Andrews
Alexandra Andrews is monied Manhattan's very own Agatha Christie.--Ada CalhounFrom the critically acclaimed author of Who is Maud Dixon? comes a riveting new novel about a young wife and mother thrust into a world of wealth and privilege, whose rash mistake sets off a domino effect of murder and betrayal.In the beginning, there was art.It was Clare Bast's love of art that saved her from a bleak, predictable life in upstate New York, and drew her to the cultured world of Manhattan's Upper East Side where she met Jed, her doting, affluent husband.Despite her best efforts--including a half-finished PhD, abandoned when her daughter Sadie was born--Clare secretly can't help but feel like an imposter in Jed's one-percent, Park-Avenue life.When the well-connected wife of Jed's new boss introduces her to influential friends--a curator here, a gallerist there, an aficionado abroad--Clare feels an essential part of herself coming alive again. And when she discovers that an important work painted by the subject of her unfinished dissertation is hanging in the brownstone of a seductively attractive dealer, she believes fate is leading her where she belongs . . . until she finds herself at the scene of a gruesome murder and a stolen masterpiece. Caught in the perfectly wrong place at the perfectly wrong time, every clue the investigation uncovers points back to her.Suddenly, Clare is trapped inside a dark and treacherous art world filled with unscrupulous dealers and international criminals. What, exactly, has she gotten herself into . . . and how is she going to get herself, and her family, out?
|
|
|
|
A Murder in Hollywood
by Michael Crichton
From Michael CrichtonCreator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, Rising Sun, and DisclosureWriting as John LangeComes a new Hollywood mystery thriller, originally written in 1973 by Crichton but never before published, that will keep you guessing until the very end.In the glitz and decadence of 1970s Hollywood, an era when sex and drugs were readily available on any movie set, the writer of the next Western blockbuster, Bloodrock, has just been found dead in his motel bathtub. Now publicist Harvey Jason is desperately trying to keep the project on track while the famed Harlow Perkins, a brilliant and ruthless investigator, begins to unravel the mystery and hunt the killer down. From scorching-hot desert locations to sleazy motel bars, the members of the cast and crew--each one with a very dark secret of their own--will send this case deeper and deeper into a maze of confusion and shadows until the shocking truth is revealed. Will the murderer be found? Or will the true identity of the killer turn out to be just another Hollywood illusion?
|
|
|
|
The Parkwood Murders
by Chris Chibnall
The gripping new mystery from the bestselling author of Death at the White Hart For its many repeat customers, Parkwood Holiday Village is a haven - idyllic woodland, a tranquil lake, customer service on tap around the clock. For Detective Nicola Bridge, it's a crime scene. When a body is discovered early one morning in the park's wave pool, Nicola is faced with an investigation like no other: hundreds of suspects, but seemingly no witnesses. As she digs into the reality that lies behind Parkwood's serene fa ade, she meets the exhausted staff whose hard work keeps the guests happy. It soon turns out that they are her best sources - after all, who pays attention to what they let slip in front of the lifeguards, cleaners and babysitters that make a holiday seamless? But when a shocking discovery links the murder to an unsolved disappearance at the park from five years before, Nicola realises that this might not be a one-off crime of passion. There's a killer lurking somewhere in these woods...
|
|
|
|
The Daisy Chain Flower Shop
by Laurie Gilmore
The brand new summer romance set in Dream Harbor from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Pumpkin Spice Café and The Strawberry Patch Pancake House!Another gentle small-town romance with Hallmark movie vibes... Dream Harbor remains a cozy spot to linger Publisher's Weekly
|
|
|
|
Score
by Kennedy Ryan
A scorching second-chance romance between a talented screenwriter and a phenomenal musician from the New York Times bestselling author of Before I Let Go. A triumph of art and emotion. --Talia Hibbert, New York Times bestselling author You never forget your first love. Isn't that what they say? Verity Hill knows this truth intimately. She didn't simply miss Wright Monk Bellamy when they parted ways in college. She's haunted by his touch. Every kiss, any lover since--it's a shadow of what they had. Time heals all wounds. Isn't that what they say? Monk doesn't believe that for a second. He wasn't simply betrayed when he and Verity split. He was devastated, with parts of him left behind in the ruins of all that was destroyed. More than a decade after their disastrous breakup, Verity and Monk must work together on the set of an epic Harlem Renaissance biopic. With Monk, now a world-class musician, creating the score, and Verity, an award-winning screenwriter, penning the script, there's Oscar buzz before shooting even begins. This once-in-a-lifetime project could catapult them both to new heights, but can they can put the past behind them for the sake of the film ... for the sake of something more?
|
|
|
|
Our Perfect Storm
by Carley Fortune
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, TODAY, WOMAN'S WORLD, TOWN & COUNTRY, BRITT & CO., AND MORE Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer.Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong--they've always clashed . . . and come back together. Until now. It's the eve of Frankie's wedding weekend, and she doesn't know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man. Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie's life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fianc dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation. Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family's home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie's broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino. Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long buried feelings neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good.
|
|
|
|
The Summer Share
by Jenn McKinlay
When two misfits discover they've inherited the same beach house, sparks fly in the most unexpected ways, in this hilarious and heartfelt rom-com from the New York Times bestselling author of Summer Reading. Free-spirited travel influencer Hannah Spencer has spent five years touring the country in her vintage van, alone save for her hulking Great Dane, Dude. Until an unexpected inheritance from her pops has Hannah thinking about putting down roots in Cape Split, North Carolina, where she's the new owner of a worse-for-wear seaside beach house. Or, rather, fifty percent of one. Turns out Simon O'Malley inherited the other half from his gramps. As Simon and Hannah spend the summer tag-teaming repairs on the crumbling cottage, they discover it was once home to a timeless love story. As their own relationship shifts from enemies to friends to lovers, they begin to wonder if the house's romantic past might be a good omen for their future together. But there's one problem--Simon is set on selling the property at the end of the summer. For Hannah, the Split isn't like anyplace she's ever been, and Simon isn't like any man she's ever known--she doesn't want to let this new life go. She just needs Simon to see their budding relationship and this newfound community in the same way, or their first summer share might also be their last.
|
|
|
|
The Shippers
by Katherine Center
One of the hottest, fastest-rising rom-com stars delivers her latest swoon-worthy novel about a destination wedding on a cruise ship. After a whole lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton decides to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister's destination wedding on a cruise ship. With the help of a little pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest ), and she decides to woo him during the cruise for some long-delayed closure. Only problem is, her sister's a little busy being a bride at the moment--so JoJo ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, to be her wing man. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but then showed up, anyway. Cooper: who left town without a word four years earlier and moved to London. Cooper: who was, if she's honest, the worst heartbreak of JoJo's life. It's bliss for her to see him again, and it's agony, too--and the more they team up for Project Conquest, the more she obsesses over questions she can't bring herself to ask. Shipboard antics ensue in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance--as JoJo and Cooper fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, treat sunburns, get jealous, rescue each other over and over, and finally, at last, figure it all out in the most blissful, swoony, romantic way. No one does summer romance quite like Katherine Center. THE SHIPPERS will take readers on the cruise of a lifetime in a story awash with romantic longing, top-notch banter, long-held secrets . . . and true love rediscovered.
|
|
|
|
First and Forever
by Lynn Painter
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lynn Painter comes an utterly irresistible romantic comedy about a football star and his team's die-hard fan who find themselves entangled in a PR stunt that only one of them knows is fake. Duffy Distefano loves three things: her dad, the family cat, and Minneapolis Coyote football. So after she gets booed out of a game and becomes the internet's villain following an awful encounter with the team's beloved mascot, she is disgruntled, to put it mildly. Eager to clear the air, Duffy agrees to an interview on a hit morning show. She doesn't expect a co-guest to join her--especially not the Coyotes' star tight end. When MVP Connor Cunningham gets tasked with damage control to help his team out of a PR nightmare, he finds himself in a highly amusing verbal sparring match with a recently wronged fan on live TV. The interview instantly goes viral, and the public is obsessed with them. Despite his distaste for PR stunts, a strong push from the Coyotes' PR team to ride the wave results in Connor asking Duffy out. But he quickly discovers being with Duffy is much easier than he anticipated, and somehow it doesn't feel fake to him. This secret can only blow up, but all he knows is that if he messes things up with Duffy, it'll be the greatest fumble of his life. Oozing with chemistry that feels like fireworks and banter that makes you swoon, Lynn Painter delivers her signature blend of heart and humor in this love story that you won't soon forget.
|
|
|
|
Dolly All the Time
by Annabel Monaghan
A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion, from the New York Times bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script. This book is like a spicy margarita...sweet and a little salty, tart and hot...I have fallen in love with Dolly and with funny, fizzing Annabel Monaghan --Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich If they start by pretending, can they end with something real? Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn't solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine 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--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 as public dinners and high-society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She's never relied on anyone besides herself--can she really start now?
|
|
|
|
When Sparks Fly
by Monica Murphy
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Monica Murphy comes a sweltering summer romance you won't be able to put down.Twenty-two-year-old heiress Rachel Henderson has one goal this summer: hide out at her family's lake house and recover from the most mortifying breakup Manhattan society has ever witnessed. Sun, swimming, and zero paparazzi--what could go wrong?But her quiet summer by the lake goes up in literal flames when a spa-day candle mishap sets her mother's designer curtains on fire. When the local fire department shows up--specifically the ridiculously hot fire captain--the house is saved, but the captain scorches her pride with a lecture about fire safety.Determined to prove she can handle life on her own without her family's help, Rachel finds a new roommate and a new job--too bad she's terrible at it. Oh, and she keeps running into Captain Tall-Dark-and-Infuriating (which definitely isn't a hardship). The more time they spend together, the more their conversations start to get real, and Rachel finds herself falling for Wyatt. She thinks he might even feel the same way.The only problem? Wyatt is all about roots and permanence, while Rachel is the very definition of flighty. But this summer, she just might be tempted to stay ...
|
|
|
|
Fever Dream
by Elsie Silver
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Elsie Silver comes a small-town, forbidden, rivals-to-lovers romance, the first book in the brand-new Western romance series Emerald Lake. Professional bull rider Emmett Bush is not looking for love. He's looking for a paycheck to save his family's farm from bankruptcy. So, when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show, Romance Ranch, he's already decided it's all one big performance. Until Julia Silva walks onto his property. Smart, snarky, beautiful, and off-limits in more ways than one. As the location consultant on set and the little sister of his most bitter professional rival, she's the last woman who should pique his interest. Julia has been warned about Emmett. She knows better than to fall for his cocky swagger, broad shoulders, and smoldering good looks. Plus, she's sworn off relationships. But as Julia and Emmett work together, mutual distaste grows into an unexpected connection and then... something more. Soon, they find themselves searching for excuses to spend time together and out of reach of the cameras. Knowing glances. Stolen kisses. Secret rendezvous. Still, Emmett signed up to play the role of an eligible bachelor searching for the one. His family's land and legacy depend on him completing the show. The problem is, he's already fallen in love. Just not with a contestant.
|
|
|
|
Platform Decay
by Martha Wells
A most-anticipated title from USA Today, Goodreads, BookPage, BookRiot, Seattle Times, and The Nerd Daily Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment of Martha Wells' bestselling and award-winning Murderbot Diaries series.Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good. After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know. Including human children. Ugh. This may well call for... eye contact (Emotion check: Oh, for f--) The Murderbot DiariesAll Systems RedArtificial ConditionRogue ProtocolExit StrategyNetwork EffectFugitive TelemetrySystem CollapsePlatform Decay
|
|
|
|
A Parade of Horribles
by Matt Dinniman
It's off to the races in the explosive eighth book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series--featuring bonus material exclusive to this print edition. As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they're forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon. Races. Get from point A to point B, and don't come in last. After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging. It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple. Ignore those strange glitches that are occurring with increasing frequency. Don't listen to those whispers about what's happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it a coming-out party for the ages. Everything is fine, Crawler. I repeat, everything is fine. Carl hates that it's business as usual. The rules of this floor have taken away his agency. That just will not do. So Carl is planning a party of his own. It's a plan so dangerous, so insane, he can't even consult his friends lest the AI put a stop to it. Because if it goes wrong, it's not just the end of Carl and Donut. No. The stakes are higher than they've ever been. Includes part eight of the exclusive bonus story Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret.
|
|
|
|
National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America
by Michael Auslin
The inspiring story of the Declaration of Independence--the first to take us from its drafting by Thomas Jefferson to today--charting the many lives of a document that captures the soul of America and has united generations around its defiant ideals, published for the 250th anniversary of America's founding. Quiet and politically untested, Thomas Jefferson was not the obvious choice to draft a statement of principles explaining why the American colonies were breaking ties with the King of England. His soaring rhetoric would inspire generations of Americans to live up to the founders' dreams. National Treasure is the gripping story of our most revered founding relic, as a physical object and a set of ideals that have made America what it is today. An award-winning historian, Michael Auslin take us from the boarding house in Philadelphia where Jefferson put quill to paper to the Declaration's covert signing, dissemination in the doldrums of the revolutionary war, and long, harrowing, and ultimately hallowed afterlife. We follow the parchment as it is hauled out of a soon-to-be-burning Washington in 1814 and see it hidden in a dank cellar, posted in classrooms, recited on village greens, printed on handkerchiefs, and used to sell insurance and bundle coal. An inspiration to both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis in the Civil War, it has grown more important for each new generation. While FDR and Churchill celebrated its commitment to freedom from tyranny, the document itself was lowered into a bunker at Fort Knox. After the war, its precious ink fading, it was painstakingly preserved and enshrined. Through it all, Jefferson's words have inspired implausibly varied causes, from suffragists and civil rights leaders to groups waging war on the US government. As Jefferson had hoped, the principles enshrined in the Declaration became a beacon to the world. But what lessons should we take from it today? Can this statement of ideals in whose name the signers pledged their lives and sacred honor bring a disparate nation together? As we gather to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founders' bold experiment in democracy, Auslin reminds us that this enduring document was not just a call for freedom and equality but an eloquent statement of the principles that bind us together.
|
|
|
|
What's So Great about the Great Books?: Why You Should Read Classic Literature (Even Though It Might Destroy You)
by Naomi Kanakia
A popular novelist and literary blogger answers those who claim the classics are too difficult, too problematic, and too white--and explains what we gain by reading them When she was in her early twenties, then-aspiring writer Naomi Kanakia set out to read the Great Books--humankind's most highly regarded literary classics, representing the best that human beings have thought or said, as determined by the two elderly intellectuals who'd written the guidebook she consulted. After twenty years, she has made her way through about two-thirds of these books, and she's found reading them to be an immensely pleasurable and insightful activity. Plato, Milton, Tolstoy, Proust, all those dead guys--their books have stood the test of time. But since beginning her journey, Kanakia has found that although reading the Great Books is part of a longstanding tradition of engaging with the thought of previous generations, it is also a highly contingent activity that arose out of a specific time and place, the brainchild of a small group of early twentieth-century popularizers associated with Columbia University and the University of Chicago. And people have always been skeptical about the idea of reading the Great Books, asking if this is truly a realistic or even desirable goal for the ordinary person. A more recent and growing group of Great Books skeptics asks if these works are too problematic, reactionary, and irrelevant to bother reading. Kanakia, a self-described left-of-center person, grapples with these objections, attempting to restore context for the Great Books even as she sticks up for them. Because books that expose us to fundamental truths about the nature of beauty and reality are worth fighting for.
|
|
|
|
True Crime: A Memoir
by Patricia Cornwell
#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell finally tells the story that rivals all of the works that precede it: her own. Let's start, and end, with this: Patricia Cornwell's autobiography, TRUE CRIME, could be the best book she's ever written. And I've read them all --James Patterson Patricia Cornwell is best known for her international bestselling thriller series about forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Every story comes from somewhere, and Scarpetta's began when Patricia Cornwell embedded herself in a morgue. In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalized twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham's wife Ruth. Cornwell depicts a harrowing hospitalization and near-death car accident. She unflinchingly shares overcoming obstacles that later gave her the ambition to become an award-winning police reporter. From there it was research in a medical examiner's office that would turn into a full-time job. She would become a forensic expert and worldwide publishing phenomenon. Cornwell leaves no stone unturned in this deeply candid account of her life, offering inspiring insight into what made her into the international sensation she is today.
|
|
|