Genre lovers have a lot to be excited about this week, as most of the best new books being released fall under either the Suspense, Sci-Fi, or Historical Fiction headers. Even 1 of this week’s 2 general fiction sounds thrilling enough to be Suspense. Of course, Nonfiction readers shouldn’t fret either, as one of that genre’s biggest titles of the year is coming out in the form of James Comey’s new memoir. So, no matter what you like to read you should find something here to keep you entertained!
FICTION
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
THEN:
She was fifteen, her mother’s golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.
NOW:
It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter. And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet. Before too long she’s staying the night at his house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter. Poppy is precocious and pretty – and meeting her completely takes Laurel’s breath away.
Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.
What happened to Ellie? Where did she go? Who still has secrets to hide?
Description from Goodreads.
“Jewell teases out her twisty plot at just the right pace, leaving readers on the edge of their seats. There will surely be comparisons to novels such as Emma Donoghue’s Room (2010) as well as all of the ‘Girl’ thrillers, but Jewell’s latest really isn’t at all derivative. Her multilayered characters are sheer perfection, and even the most astute thriller reader won’t see where everything is going until the final threads are unknotted. Those few who do guess early won’t mind, as the pace and prose will keep them hooked.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“If you were the first of your friends to read Girl On The Train, and have read Gone Girl more times than you can remember, then here is your summer read. A thriller about a 15-year-old girl who has vanished and a mother who won’t give up hope. A perfect Pimm’s companion.” – The Sun (UK)
“Jewell has departed from chick lit and gone full tilt into a psycho thriller, but she’s lost none of her brilliance… Deeply emotional and incredibly clever. Bravo.” – Mail Online
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The Only Story by Julian Barnes
In a staid suburb fifteen miles south of London in the sixties Paul, nineteen, home from university for the holidays, is urged by his mother to join the tennis club. At the mixed doubles tournament he is partnered with a Mrs. Macleod. She is forty-eight, confident, ironic. Her first name is Susan; she is married with two grown-up daughters. Soon Paul and Susan are lovers.
In The Only Story Paul looks back at how they fell in love, how he freed her from a sterile marriage, how they set up together, and how, very slowly, everything fell apart as Susan sank into alcoholism, and love turned into pity and anger.
This is a profound – and achingly sad – novel about love by one of fiction’s greatest mappers of the human heart and its vagaries.
Description from Goodreads.
“…ruminative, finely wrought, and often wryly funny…” – Amazon
“[This] deeply touching novel is a study of heartbreak. . . . By revisiting the flow and ebb of one man’s passion, Barnes eloquently illuminates the connection between an old man and his younger self.” – Publishers Weekly
“Consistently surprising. . . . It shows a novelist at the height of his powers [and is] a book that quietly sinks its hooks into the reader and refuses to let go.” – The Times
Available Formats:
MYSTERY & SUSPENSE
The Fallen by David Baldacci
Amos Decker and his journalist friend Alex Jamison are visiting the home of Alex’s sister in Barronville, a small town in western Pennsylvania that has been hit hard economically. When Decker is out on the rear deck of the house talking with Alex’s niece, a precocious eight-year-old, he notices flickering lights and then a spark of flame in the window of the house across the way. When he goes to investigate he finds two dead bodies inside and it’s not clear how either man died. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s something going on in Barronville that might be the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country.
Faced with a stonewalling local police force, and roadblocks put up by unseen forces, Decker and Jamison must pull out all the stops to solve the case. And even Decker’s infallible memory may not be enough to save them.
Description from Goodreads.
“Baldacci is a wonderful storyteller, and he incorporates wonderful characters into baffling conspiracies. Mimicking the style of his Camel Club series of novels, he takes on small-town America, capturing both good and bad elements. He demonstrates why these small towns are worth saving. It’s a theme he has explored before, but it still has potency and relevance.” – Washington Post
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | Playaway | eBook | eAudiobook
The Elizas by Sara Shephard
When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.
Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?
The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins.
Description from Goodreads.
“Who can you trust when you can’t even trust yourself? With an unreliable yet compelling heroine, Sara Shepard crafts an eerie tale of manipulation, inception, and betrayal that will leave readers questioning their own memories—and reality.” – Us Weekly
“A story blending Hitchcock, S.J. Watson, and Ruth Ware.” – Entertainment Weekly
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The Saint of Wolves and Butchers by Alex Grecian
Travis Roan and his dog Bear are hunters: they travel the world pursuing evildoers in order to bring them to justice.
They have now come to Kansas on the trail of Rudolph Bormann, a Nazi doctor and concentration camp administrator who snuck into the US under the name Rudy Goodman in the 1950s and has at last been identified. Travis quickly learns that Goodman has powerful friends who will go to any length to protect the Nazi; what he doesn’t know is that Goodman has furtively continued his diabolical work, amassing a congregation of followers who believe he possesses God-like powers.
Caught between these men is Kansas State Trooper Skottie Foster, an African American woman and a good cop who must find a way to keep peace in her district–until she realizes the struggle between Roan and Bormann will put her and her family in grave peril.
Description from Goodreads.
“With his artistry of painting a sense of place and time, Grecian delivers a compelling, twisty story driven by fascinating characters. The Saint of Wolves and Butchers makes breathless, gripping, up-all-night reading.” – Nora Roberts
“A breathtaking thriller with plenty of action and some very clever twists . . . the grimly satisfying conclusion makes it worth it for both characters and readers. Fans of David Baldacci and John Grisham will enjoy the unpredictability and unrelenting suspense.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
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Our Little Secret by Roz Nay
They say you never forget your first love. What they don’t say though, is that sometimes your first love won’t forget you…
A police interview room is the last place Angela expected to find herself today. It’s been hours, and they keep asking her the same inane questions over and over. “How do you know the victim?” “What’s your relationship with Mr. Parker?” Her ex’s wife has gone missing, and anyone who was close to the couple is a suspect. Angela is tired of the bottomless questions and tired of the cold room that stays the same while a rotating litany of interrogators changes shifts around her. But when criminologist Novak takes over, she can tell he’s not like the others. He’s ready to listen, and she knows he’ll understand. When she tells him that her story begins a decade before, long before Saskia was in the picture, he gives her the floor.
A twenty-something young professional, Angela claims to have no involvement. How could she? It’s been years since she and H.P., Mr. Parker that is, were together. As her story unfolds, it deepens and darkens. There’s a lot to unpack… betrayal, jealousy, and a group of people who all have motives for retribution. If Angela is telling the truth, then who’s lying?
Description from Goodreads.
“[A] mesmerizing debut…Nay expertly spins an insidious, clever web, perfectly capturing the soaring heights and crushing lows of first love and how the loss of that love can make even the sanest people a little crazy. Carve out some time for this riveting, one-sitting read.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Seemingly every aspiring author out there is now busy capitalizing on the trend, crafting dark psychological thrillers with unreliable female narrators and wild plot twists. It’s increasingly difficult, then, to stand out in this crowded market… All of this is why first-time author Roz Nay’s debut Our Little Secret is so impressive.” – Toronto Star
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Warning Light by David Ricciardi
When a commercial aircraft makes an emergency landing at an Iranian military base, it looks like a crisis has been narrowly avoided. But for undercover intelligence analyst Zac Miller, the CIA-staged crash landing is the only part of his assignment that goes right.
What was supposed to be a simple surveillance mission quickly heads south when the Iranians apprehend the smooth-talking American. Never trained to be a field operative, Zac’s in over his head, especially when it turns out escaping from captivity is only the beginning of his problems. On the run across Europe from both Iranian agents and Western authorities who are convinced he’s defected, Zac finds himself fighting for his life, with no guarantee he’ll even have one to go back to…
Description from Goodreads.
“Starts with a bang, and then gets better and better…one of the best thrillers you’ll read this year.” – Lee Child
“A Ulysses-like odyssey…If only he’d run into a whirlpool and a monster, readers might mistake this adventure for a tale by Homer…Let’s hope for more Zac Miller adventures.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility—much like Maggie Hughes’ parents. Maggie’s English-speaking father has ambitions for his daughter that don’t include marriage to the poor French boy on the next farm over. But Maggie’s heart is captured by Gabriel Phénix. When she becomes pregnant at fifteen, her parents force her to give baby Elodie up for adoption and get her life ‘back on track’.
Elodie is raised in Quebec’s impoverished orphanage system. It’s a precarious enough existence that takes a tragic turn when Elodie, along with thousands of other orphans in Quebec, is declared mentally ill as the result of a new law that provides more funding to psychiatric hospitals than to orphanages. Bright and determined, Elodie withstands abysmal treatment at the nuns’ hands, finally earning her freedom at seventeen, when she is thrust into an alien, often unnerving world.
Maggie, married to a businessman eager to start a family, cannot forget the daughter she was forced to abandon, and a chance reconnection with Gabriel spurs a wrenching choice. As time passes, the stories of Maggie and Elodie intertwine but never touch, until Maggie realizes she must take what she wants from life and go in search of her long-lost daughter, finally reclaiming the truth that has been denied them both.
Description from Goodreads.
“A study of how love persists through the most trying of circumstances. Deep and meaningful… captures the reader’s attention…” – Booklist
“The ending hits a perfect emotional note: bittersweet and honest, comforting and regretful.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
SCI-FI & FANTASY
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, complete with geothermal heating and sustainable energy. The city’s denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living, however, the city is starting to fray along the edges—crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called “the breaks” is ravaging the population.
When a strange new visitor arrives—a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side—the city is entranced. The “orcamancer,” as she’s known, very subtly brings together four people—each living on the periphery—to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.
Blackfish City is a remarkably urgent—and ultimately very hopeful—novel about political corruption, organized crime, technology run amok, the consequences of climate change, gender identity, and the unifying power of human connection.
Description from Goodreads.
“An urgent tale imploring us to look at the ties between technology, race, gender and class privilege. . . . Surprisingly heartwarming. . . . An action-packed science fiction thriller.” – Washington Post
“Miller’s poetic prose gives this dystopian story a taut, lyrical edge.” – Entertainment Weekly
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Head On by John Scalzi
Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.
Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.
Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth―and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.
Description from Goodreads.
“[Scalzi’s] prose flows like a river, smoothly carrying us through the story; his characters are beautifully crafted; and his future world is impeccably designed, at the same time wildly imaginative and wholly plausible.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“This taut mystery, filled with memorable characters in a well-constructed world, will keep readers on the edges of their seats.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
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The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp
The post–Katrina New Orleans of The City of Lost Fortunes is a place haunted by its history and by the hurricane’s destruction, a place that is hoping to survive the rebuilding of its present long enough to ensure that it has a future. Street magician Jude Dubuisson is likewise burdened by his past and by the consequences of the storm, because he has a secret: the magical ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known—a father who just happens to be more than human.
Jude has been lying low since the storm, which caused so many things to be lost that it played havoc with his magic, and he is hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the Fortune god of New Orleans. But his six-year retirement ends abruptly when the Fortune god is murdered and Jude is drawn back into the world he tried so desperately to leave behind. A world full of magic, monsters, and miracles. A world where he must find out who is responsible for the Fortune god’s death, uncover the plot that threatens the city’s soul, and discover what his talent for lost things has always been trying to show him: what it means to be his father’s son.
Description from Goodreads.
“A masterly game played by gods and monsters, a devastated city trying to rebuild, and compelling characters struggling to find their place in a strange world are all pieces of this fantastic and enthralling puzzle of a story. Camp’s thoroughly engaging debut is reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, with the added spirit of the vibrant Big Easy.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Camp’s fantasy reads like jazz, with multiple chaotic-seeming threads of deities, mortals, and destiny playing in harmony. This game of souls and fate is full of snarky dialogue, taut suspense, and characters whose glitter hides sharp fangs. […] Any reader who likes fantasy with a dash of the bizarre will enjoy this trip to the Crescent City.” – Publishers Weekly
Available Formats:
NONFICTION
A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
In this book, former FBI director James Comey shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader.
Mr. Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama. He previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the U.S. deputy attorney general in the administration of President George W. Bush. From prosecuting the Mafia and Martha Stewart to helping change the Bush administration’s policies on torture and electronic surveillance, overseeing the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation as well as ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Comey has been involved in some of the most consequential cases and policies of recent history.
Description from Goodreads.
“…absorbing… some near-cinematic accounts of what [he] was thinking…” – The New York Times
“…by far the most consequential book yet in the literature of the Trump presidency…” – NPR
Available Formats:
Print Book | Playaway | eBook