“No one who has ever done anything worth doing has gone uncriticized.” – George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood by William J. Mann
nonfiction / true crime / history / biography.
The brutal murder of Elizabeth Short—better known as the Black Dahlia—in 1947 has been in the public consciousness for nearly eighty years, yet no serious study of the crime has ever been published.
Short has been mischaracterized as a wayward sex worker or vagabond, and—like the seductive femme fatales of film noir—responsible for and perhaps deserving of her fate. William J. Mann, however, is interested in the truth. His extensive research reveals her as a young woman with curiosity and drive, who leveraged what little agency postwar society gave her to explore the world, defying draconian postwar gender expectations to settle down, marry, and have children. It’s time to reexamine the woman who became known as the Black Dahlia.
Using a 21st-century lens, Mann connects Short’s story to the anxious era after World War II, when the nation was grappling with new ideas, new demographics, new technologies, and old fears dressed up as new ones. Only by situating the Black Dahlia case within this changing world can we understand the tragedy of this young woman, whose life and death offer surprising mirrors on today.
Mann has strong opinions on who might’ve killed her, and even stronger ones on who did not. He spent five years sifting through the evidence and has found unknown connections by cross-referencing police reports, District Attorney investigations, FBI files, court documents, military records, and more, using the deep, intense research skills that have become his trademark. He also spoke with the families of the original detectives, of Short’s friends, and even of suspects, and relied on advice from experienced physicians and homicide detectives.
Mann deftly sifts through the sensationalized journalism, preconceived notions, myths, and misunderstandings surrounding the case to uncover the truth about Elizabeth Short like no book before. The Black Dahlia promises to be the definitive study about the most famous unsolved case in American history.
“A sober, well-researched study of a case whose notoriety obscured its subject.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Illuminating and captivating… readers get a clearer picture of WHO Elizabeth was instead of WHAT HAPPENED to her… she has been portrayed as a Hollywood starlet, a “loose” woman… Mann breaks down those misconceptions bit by bit.” – Bargain Sleuth Reviews
“Novelist and biographer Mann delivers a meticulous and humane reconsideration of one of America’s most sensationalized unsolved murders… Though Mann revisits familiar suspects, he sketches a fresh and more plausible theory of her death without claiming absolute certainty. For true crime devotees and Black Dahlia obsessives, this is a must.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden ★
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Sometimes, enough is enough…
Debbie Mullen is losing it. For years, she has compiled all of her best advice into her column, Dear Debbie, where the wives of New England come for sympathy and neighborly advice. Through her work, Debbie has heard from countless women who are ignored, belittled, or even abused by their husbands. And Debbie does her best to guide them in the right direction. Or at least, she did.
These days, Debbie’s life seems to be spiraling out of control. She just lost her job. Something strange is happening with her teenage daughters. And her husband is keeping secrets, according to the tracking app she installed on his phone. Now, Debbie’s done being the bigger person.
She’s done being reasonable and practical. It’s time to take her own advice.
And now it’s time for payback against all the people in her life who deserve it the most.
“Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…this darkly funny thriller will put a wicked smile on readers’ faces.” – Publishers Weekly
“…exciting… McFadden is an expert at keeping the pages turning and misdirecting her audience, ensuring several surprises. The same readers who fell in love with Millie from McFadden’s most popular outing, The Housemaid, and its sequels will also be rooting for Debbie.” – Kristine Huntley, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage by Heather Ann Thompson
nonfiction / history / politics / true crime.
On December 22, 1984, in a graffiti-covered New York City subway car, passengers looked on in horror as a white loner named Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teens, Darrell Cabey, Barry Allen, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur, at point-blank range. He then disappeared into a dark tunnel. After an intense manhunt, and his eventual surrender in New Hampshire, the man the tabloid media had dubbed the “Death Wish Vigilante” would become a celebrity and a hero to countless ordinary Americans who had been frustrated with the economic fallout of the Reagan 80s. Overnight, Goetz’s young victims would become villains.
Out of this dramatic moment would emerge an angry nation, in which Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post and later Fox News Network stoked the fear and the fury of a stunning number of Americans.
Drawing from never-before-seen archival materials, legal files, and more, Heather Ann Thompson narrates the Bernie Goetz Subway shootings and their decades-long reverberations, while deftly recovering the lives of the boys whom too many decided didn’t matter. Fear and Fury is the remarkable account and a searing indictment of a crucial turning point in American history.
“[An] insightful book with a convincing argument for how we got to now.” – Laurie Unger Skinner, Booklist
“[Thompson’s] skill for historical dot-connecting makes this a worthy, informative book.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Thompson names Ronald Reagan’s cuts to the social safety net as the original sin of the 1980s. She charts the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, which capitalized on racial resentments and economic anxieties of fearful, angry white New Yorkers who were disenchanted with liberal solutions to social problems… But the heart of Fear and Fury is twin courtroom dramas: the criminal trial of Goetz for the shootings and a civil trial seeking financial damages for one of his victims… In Thompson’s capable hands, the Goetz saga, and its relationship to the present day, gets the messy resolution it deserves.” – BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
The Final Score by Don Winslow
fiction / short stories / mystery / suspense.
The trademark literary style, trenchant wit, and incisive characterization that have made Don Winslow a repeat New York Times bestselling author and “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Providence Journal) are on brilliant display in this new book sure to delight Winslow’s most devoted fans and first-time readers.
The multi-million-dollar casino heist is impossible—it can’t be done. That’s what makes it irresistible to a legendary robber facing the rest of his life in prison for his “Final Score.” An ambitious, hard-working college-bound teenager has a side job delivering illegal booze to “The Sunday List” until a crooked cop, a seductive customer, and a fake guru threaten to end his dreams. Two wise guys tell each other a “True Story” over breakfast at a diner. It’s all bullshit and laughs until someone else has to pick up the check. An otherwise honest patrolman has to make an excruciating choice between his loyalty to the job and his love for a ne’er-do-well cousin in “The North Wing.” The entitled, substance-addicted movie star that surfer/PI Boone Daniels and his crew are hired to babysit in “The Lunch Break” is a problem. She also has a problem—someone wants her dead. Finally, the one terrible, momentary mistake that a devoted family man makes sends him to prison and on a “Collision” course between the man he wants to be and the killer he’s forced to become to survive.
With a foreword written by award-winning crime author Reed Farrel Coleman, The Final Score is a propulsive, perceptive, and deeply immersive book of crime writing — the ultimate testament to Don Winslow’s prowess as a living legend of the genre.
“Gritty little gems.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“After a brief period of retirement, Winslow’s welcome return to writing proves that he’s still a deft hand at crime fiction. Running the gamut from action-packed to uproariously funny to deeply poignant, every story in this collection hits its mark.” – Philip Zozzaro, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“…superb… Even if only for a little while, it’s great to have this exceptional crime writer back in action.” – David Pitt, Booklist
Her Cold Justice by Robert Dugoni
fiction / suspense / mystery.
In a quiet South Seattle neighborhood, a suspected drug smuggler and his girlfriend are murdered in their home. When a young man named Michael Westbrook is accused of the brutal double homicide, his uncle JP Harrison turns to Keera Duggan to defend him. JP is Keera’s trusted investigator, and he desperately needs Keera to save his nephew against escalating odds.
The evidence is circumstantial—Michael worked with one of the victims, drugs were found in his possession, and he bolted from authorities. Ruthless star prosecutor Anh Tran has gotten convictions on much less. With the testimony of two prison informants, the case looks grave. But Keera never concedes defeat. To free her client, she must dig deep before Tran crushes both of them.
As the investigation gets more twisted with each new find, Keera is swept up in a mystery with far-reaching consequences. This case isn’t just murder. It’s looking like a conspiracy. And getting justice for Michael could be the most dangerous promise Keera has ever made.
“Another page-turner from an author who could probably make Blackstone’s Commentaries sound thrilling.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Dugoni is a master of stories that tackle injustice, and this latest Keera Duggan thriller verifies he’s one of the best storytellers as well. He should be considered in the same breath as Michael Connelly when it comes to writing about life in law enforcement and the courtroom. Don’t miss this one.” – Jeff Ayers, firstCLUE
Missing Sam by Thrity Umrigar
fiction / mystery / suspense.
One night after a party, old grievances surface between married couple Aliya and Sam and the night ends badly with a heated argument. Sam goes for a run early the next morning to clear her head—and doesn’t come back.
Aliya reports her wife missing, but as a gay, Muslim daughter of immigrants, she can’t escape the scrutiny and suspicion of those around her. Scared and furious and feeling isolated as strangers and acquaintances alike doubt her innocence, Aliya makes one wrong choice after another. She must fight to prove her innocence in the public eye even as she is torn between her fear that Sam is dead and her desire to find and save her wife. But is safety ever truly possible for them?
A provocative examination of suburban mores, Missing Sam captures the terror manifested in today’s political climate, and the real dangers, both physical and psychological, of being brown and queer in America.
“This vivid and deeply felt narrative should please the author’s fans and win her new ones.” – Publishers Weekly
“Gritty hope and redemption glimmer throughout this must-read literary crime story.” – Christine Tran, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…Thrity Umrigar’s Missing Sam asks its central question obliquely. Not ‘where is Sam?’ But ‘what happens to the person left behind?’… Suspense builds from recognition — the familiar unease of knowing how quickly sympathy thins, how love can be recast as motive, how loss becomes spectacle when the wrong person is grieving. It leaves the reader with a sharpened sense of how fragile belonging can be, and how easily loss exposes the conditions under which compassion is extended, or withheld.” – Jordan Snowden, Seattle Times
Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner by Marc Shaiman
nonfiction / memoir / music / theater / film.
In Never Mind the Happy, musical dynamo Marc Shaiman looks back on five decades of Broadway triumphs, Hollywood hijinks, and unforgettable collaborations. Along the way, he charts the personal highs and heartbreaks that have shaped him—spending his teenage years in community theater, starting a decades-long collaboration with Bette Midler in the’70s, surviving the AIDS crisis of the ’80s, his award-winning film music career in the Hollywood of the ’90s, right up to the highs (and lows) of creating Broadway musicals from 2000 on.
Candid, hilarious, and deeply human, Shaiman’s story is a tribute to the power of music, the pull of the spotlight, and the beat that never stops.
Part showbiz tell-all, part love letter to the melancholy that fuels creativity, told in perfect comic timing—along with a few wrong notes, and plenty of standing ovations.
“[A] funny, touching memoir…” – Town & Country
“Pop culture and musical mavens will savor this joyful romp (with some angst) through his stellar Broadway and Hollywood career.” – Frederick Augustyn, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Film and theater composer Shaiman delivers a rollicking debut memoir about his decades-long career in entertainment… Shaiman’s narrative sparkles with personality and affection for the performers and collaborators who shaped his life. The result is a lively, heartfelt chronicle of creativity, survival, and the enduring pull of the spotlight.” – Publishers Weekly
Such a Perfect Family by Nalini Singh
fiction / mystery / suspense.
A woman buried.
A woman broken.
A woman crashed.
A woman burned.
And the man who knew them all.
Love at first sight, a whirlwind Vegas wedding, a fairy-tale romance.
For forty-three days, Tavish Advani has been the happiest man in the world—until his new life turns to ash, his wealthy in-laws’ house going up in a fiery explosion. His badly injured wife lies in a coma, her family all but annihilated.
Tavish thought he’d left the sins of his Los Angeles life behind, but it’s not so easy to leave behind an investigation into the deaths of several high-profile women—all of whom he’d professed to love. Tragedy and death follow him no matter where he goes… but this time, he knows he’s truly innocent.
Desperately trying to clear his name as the authorities zero in, Tavish begins his own investigation into the fire—and learns that his wife’s picture-perfect family may have been nothing but a meticulously constructed mirage. The truth is much darker than anything Tavish could’ve imagined…
“Singh comes in hot and never lets up in this exhilarating standalone thriller… Singh shrewdly toys with readers’ expectations en route to some truly bombshell revelations. Even genre veterans are likely to be fooled by this devilish puzzler.” – Publishers Weekly
“Singh has crafted another delightfully engaging page-turner sure to satisfy all your marriage-plot itches.” – Molly Odintz, CrimeReads
“With lush language and disquieting detail, Singh peels back the layers of respectability, exposing rot. But themes of love and devotion run deep, too. Both longtime fans and newcomers will be hard-pressed to take breaks while on this engrossing, tension-laced, ride.” – Mala Bhattacharjee, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Vigil by George Saunders ★
fiction.
Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.
She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?
Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distant, drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s postdeath future.
With the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.
“Vibrant, fiendishly clever… Saunders varies pointillist technique with staccato dialogue, slapstick humor, even touches of horror. It’s all thrilling on the page.” – Hamilton Cain, Boston Globe
“…staggering… Saunders has outdone himself with this endlessly irreverent work of art. ” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] book full of philosophical musings, corny antics and plaintive yearnings set down in lines as surprising and agile as deer… a strikingly weird work of modern fiction… Saunders uses the considerable rhetorical power of his prose to push [the] gracious idea that comfort is all we can offer.” – Ron Charles, Washington Post
“In this purposeful, funny, and lacerating variation on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Saunders ponders suffering and repentance in a wily indictment of greed, greenwashing, and planetary devastation.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Vigil is a book that, with astounding brevity, delves into one of the main issues of modern life, our reliance on oil and the impact the oil industry has had on the world as well as the complexities of how it damages the environment while also being essential to maintaining society as it currently functions… This book is full of keen, searing insights and big ideas woven into a compelling story full of a vivid cast of characters so well realized you will hate them, cry for them, want to shake them and yell at them and hug them and mourn for them… Vigil explores and exposes the morally grey in all of us, the hungers and fears that drive our actions and inactions, and juxtaposes all of the tiny wonderful things in life with the ways in which we threaten the possibility of those very things by avoiding direct eye contact with this out of control monster we have all had a hand in creating and refer to as society.” – Savannah Laughlin, The Southern Bookseller Review
The Wolf and His King by Finn Longman
fiction / fantasy / romance / historical fiction.
The wolf-sickness strikes always without warning, stealing Bisclavret’s body and confusing his mind. Since boyhood, he hasn’t dared leave his isolated holdings—not to beg the return of his father’s lost estate, not to seek brotherhood among the court, not even to win the knighthood he yearns for. But when a new king ascends, Bisclavret must deliver his kiss of fealty or answer for the failure.
Half an exile himself, the young king is intrigued by this uneasy, rough-hewn nobleman. Bisclavret seems a perfect knight: bold, strong, and merciful. But he keeps his secrets close, and the king’s longings are not for counsel alone. As his fascination grows, the barriers between them multiply, until one day Bisclavret vanishes beyond reach. Battling desperation and grief, the king stands alone to face the greatest threats to his kingdom, with only duty to his people between him and ruin—duty, and the steadfast loyalty of the strangest wolf…
“The novel aspires to balance Arthurian legends and medieval material culture with flights of fancy in ways that captivate… A beautifully told version of the 12th-century tale of a werewolf that elevates romantasy through its historical and literary connections, without ever sacrificing story or losing sight of the messily human nature of love.” – Emily Bowles, Library Journal
“[A] novel about the isolating power of shame and fear of judgement… quiet, meditative, powerful, and suffused with a deep affection for and knowledge of aspects of the medieval world… deeply thought, in a way that I have encountered in fantasy far less often than I would like.” – Liz Bourke, Locus
Women of a Promiscuous Nature by Donna Everhart
fiction / historical fiction / suspense.
On a brisk February morning while walking to the diner where she works, 24 year-old Ruth Foster is stopped by the local sheriff. He insists she accompany him to a health clinic, threatening to arrest her if she doesn’t undergo testing in order to preserve decency and prevent the spread of sexual disease.
Though Ruth has never shared more than a chaste kiss with a man, by day’s end she is one of dozens of women held at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. Some are there because they were reported for promiscuity by neighbors, husbands, strangers. Some were accused of prostitution. Others were just pretty and unmarried. Or poor and “suspicious.” One was eating dinner alone in a restaurant. Another spoke to a soldier.
Josephine’s sin was running a business as a single woman. Maude’s was trying to drown her sorrows. Frances had lost her mind. Opal married a man with a mean streak. Some, like 15-year-old Stella, are brought in because they’re victims of assault. She’s too naive and broken to understand how unjust this imprisonment is.
Superintendent Dorothy Baker, convinced that she’s transforming degenerate souls into upstanding members of society, oversees the women’s medical treatment and “training” until they’re deemed ready for parole. Sooner or later, everyone at the Colony learns to abide by Mrs. Baker’s rule book or face the consequences—solitary confinement, grueling work assignments, and worse.
But some refuse to be cowed. Some find ways to fight back – at any cost…
“Everhart writes movingly about the American Plan (a real government program that tried to regulate women’s bodies and sexuality) and its consequences in the first part of the 20th century. With its strong women characters, the novel is a brutal but unforgettable read.” – Margie Ticknor, Library Journal
“Everhart uses the characters to highlight the complexity of how this came to be and how women’s limited rights and vulnerability in that day’s society resulted in this heartbreaking context… will generate lots of important discussions.” – The Bookish Bulletin
“The more I read, the more I find out about things I know nothing about… compelling and horrifying and informative… kudos to Ms. Everhart for the research she did.” – Di, The Book Review Crew
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