THE FOLLOWING IS A TENTATIVE LIST OF NEW FICTION RELEASES FOR OCTOBER 2013. NOTE: MOST TITLES ON THIS LIST ARE ON ORDER FOR THE LIBRARY AND CAN BE RESERVED, BUT WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE UNTIL THE RELEASE DATE. COMPILED BY JUDY KAMIAT, WEST BOYNTON BRANCH LIBRARY Mary Kay Andrews, CHRISTMAS BLISS, (304 pgs) 10/15 Old favorites come together for Christmas as Savannah antique dealer Weezie Foley prepares for her wedding and deals with maid-of-honor BeBe Loudermilk’s steadfast refusal to marry the love of her life, Harry, who lives with BeBe. Readers will meet characters from Savannah Blues, Savannah Breeze and Blue Christmas.

Jo Baker, LONGBOURN, (352 pgs) 10/8 Avid Jane Austen readers know Longbourn as the family home of the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice, where five unmarried daughters in search of husbands with fortunes and their put-upon parents reside. This, however, is not their story. The novel takes place beneath the staircase, where the servants prepare the meals, wait tables, scrub mud off boots and petticoats, drive the carriages, and otherwise cater to the daily demands of the household. While the drama of husband-hunting takes place largely offstage and the family goes about its familiar social engagements with the Bingleys, the Darcys, the insufferable Mr. Collins, and the mendacious Wickham, the real drama unfolds when the enigmatic James Smith arrives as a footman and catches the eye of Sarah, the young housemaid with dreams of a world beyond Longbourn. “A must- read for fans of Austen, this literary tribute also stands on its own as a captivating love story.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “This exquisitely reimagined Pride and Prejudice will appeal to Austen devotees and to anyone who finds the goings-on below the stairs to be at least as compelling as the ones above.” Library Journal “Irresistible . . . Sequels and prequels rarely add to the original, but Baker’s simple yet inspired reimagining does. It has best-seller stamped all over it.” Kirkus (Starred Review)

2 Charles Belfoure, THE PARIS ARCHITECT, (384 pgs) 10/1 How far would you go to help a stranger? What would you risk? Would you trade your life for another's in the name of what is right? Belfoure explores these questions and others in this debut novel set in Paris during the Nazi occupation. Lucien Bernard—who, like the book's author, is an architect—is offered a large sum of money to outsmart the Gestapo by devising unique hiding places for Jews, though he knows that anyone caught helping them will be tortured and killed by the Germans. Danger is everywhere: Lucien's mistress, Adele, a successful fashion designer, has an affair with a Gestapo colonel. Lucien's new assistant will betray him in a heartbeat. Offered a juicy German factory commission that involves working with a Nazi officer who admires architecture and art, Lucien's web weaves more complexly. And when he falls in love with Adele's assistant, rescues a child, and contacts some of the individuals he's saved, the stakes grow higher and Lucien's thoughts turn from money to vengeance. “Belfoure’s characters are well-rounded and intricate. Heart, reluctant heroism, and art blend together in this spine-chilling page-turner.” Publishers Weekly “Architect and debut author Belfoure's portrayal of Vichy France is both disturbing and captivating, and his beautiful tale demonstrates that while human beings are capable of great atrocities, they have a capacity for tremendous acts of courage as well.” Library Journal “Belfoure writes like an up-and-coming Ken Follett ... There's plenty of detail to interest architecture buffs, too.” Booklist FIRST NOVEL

Kenneth Bonert, THE LION SEEKER, (576 pgs) 10/15 “A Stupid or a Clever, a lion or a lamb”: this refrain follows Isaac Helger as he comes of age in South Africa in the ’20s and ’30s. Both of Isaac’s immigrant Jewish parents suffered in anti-Semitic Europe, but they’ve learned opposite lessons from their respective ordeals. His iron-willed, mysteriously scarred mother teaches him to put himself first, to take rather than give—because if given the chance, anyone else would do the same. But his father favors a life of peaceful labor, preferring happiness to materialism. Which legacy will Isaac choose as he tries to strike it rich, woo an upper-class “goy” girl, and retaliate against anti-Semites? Bonert’s minorities are not blameless victims: unable to see the similarity between the persecution of Jews and blacks, Isaac is a bigot, too. When Hitler’s onslaught begins, endangering the Helgers’ Lithuanian relatives, Isaac must decide which comes first: his own dreams or the lives of others. “Bonert’s debut is lengthy, but the pages turn quickly, with suspenseful prose and colorful vernacular dialogue that could easily be used in a blockbuster film.” Publishers Weekly “Bonert's book is worth the effort . . . For readers interested in Jewish or African fiction or literary, multicultural fiction.” Library Journal FIRST NOVEL

3 William Boyd, SOLO: A James Bond Novel, (336 pgs) 10/8 It's 1969, and, having just celebrated his forty-fifth birthday, James Bond—British special agent 007—is summoned to headquarters to receive an unusual assignment. Zanzarim, a troubled West African nation, is being ravaged by a bitter civil war, and M directs Bond to quash the rebels threatening the established regime. Bond's arrival in Africa marks the start of a feverish mission to discover the forces behind this brutal war— and he soon realizes the situation is far from straightforward. Piece by piece, Bond uncovers the real cause of the violence in Zanzarim, revealing a twisting conspiracy that extends further than he ever imagined.

Emma Chapman, HOW TO BE A GOOD WIFE, (288 pgs) 10/15 Marta and Hector have been married for a long time; through the good and bad; through raising a son and sending him off to life after university. So long, in fact, that Marta finds it difficult to remember her life before Hector. He has always taken care of her, and she has always done everything she can to be a good wife—as advised by a dog-eared manual given to her by Hector’s aloof mother on their wedding day. But now, something is changing. Small things seem off. A flash of movement in the corner of her eye, elapsed moments that she can’t recall; visions of a blonde girl in the darkness that only Marta can see. Perhaps she is starting to remember—or perhaps her mind is playing tricks on her. As Marta’s visions persist and her reality grows more disjointed, it’s unclear if the danger lies in the world around her, or in Marta herself. The girl is growing more real every day, and she wants something. “Chapman excels at creating tension and suspense . . . a chilling debut.” Publishers Weekly FIRST NOVEL

Jennifer Chiaverini, THE SPYMISTRESS, (368 pgs) 10/1 Born to slave-holding aristocracy in Richmond, Virginia, and educated by Northern Quakers, Elizabeth Van Lew was a paradox of her time. When her native state seceded in April 1861, Van Lew’s convictions compelled her to defy the new Confederate regime. Pledging her loyalty to the Lincoln White House, her courage would never waver, even as her wartime actions threatened not only her reputation, but also her life. Van Lew’s skills in gathering military intelligence were unparalleled. She helped to construct the Richmond Underground and orchestrated escapes from the infamous Confederate Libby Prison under the guise of humanitarian aid. Her spy ring’s reach was vast, from clerks in the Confederate War and Navy Departments to the very home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Although Van Lew was inducted posthumously into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, the scope of her achievements has never been widely known.

Lee Child (Editor Jonathan Santlofer), INHERIT THE DEAD, (288 pgs) 10/8 4 Pericles “Perry” Christo is a PI with a past—a former cop, who lost his badge and his family when a corruption scandal left him broke and disgraced. When wealthy Upper East Side matron Julia Drusilla summons him one cold February night, he grabs what seems to be a straightforward (and lucrative) case. The socialite is looking for her beautiful, aimless daughter, Angelina, who is about to become a very wealthy young woman. But as Christo digs deeper, he discovers there’s much more to the lovely “Angel” than meets the eye. Her father, her best friend, and her boyfriends all have agendas of their own. Angel, he soon realizes, may be in grave danger . . . and if Christo gets too close, he just might get caught in the crossfire. “Despite the usual serial-novel pitfalls, C.J. Box, Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Charlaine Harris, Val McDermid, and the 15 other distinguished crime authors who each contribute a chapter to this team project succeed in fashioning an engaging and cohesive plot. The chapters move seamlessly as clues and storylines set up by one author are expanded by the next.” Publishers Weekly “Not merely a genre curiosity, the book is a well-told mystery that stands on its own two (or 40) feet.” Booklist (Royalties in excess of editor and contributor compensations go to Safe Horizon, America’s largest provider of services for domestic violence victims)

Jeffery Deaver, THE OCTOBER LIST, (320 pgs) 10/1 Thriller Award–winner Deaver (Edge) delivers a stand-alone that moves backward in time over the span of a three-day weekend, from Sunday evening to early Friday morning. In the first chapter, office manager Gabriela McKenzie, whose six-year-old daughter, Sarah, has been kidnapped, waits in her Manhattan apartment for news from fund manager Daniel Reardon, who’s attempting to deal with kidnapper Joseph Astor. Gabriela must not only pay a $500,000 ransom but also fork over the mysterious “October List,” which belongs to her former boss Charles Prescott, the head of Prescott Investments, who has fled from a police investigation. “As the ingenious plot folds back on itself, the reader has to reevaluate and reinterpret the constantly shifting "facts" in the case. The finished picture finally emerges with a shock of recognition. This is brilliant craftsmanship in a vastly entertaining package.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “Deaver dispenses expository bits and cliffhangers with a mastery that'll make you smile even more broadly after you realize how thoroughly you've been hoodwinked . . . Perhaps the cleverest of all Deaver's exceptionally clever thrillers. If you've ever wished you could take the film Memento to the beach, here's your chance.” Kirkus (Starred Review)

Margaret Drabble, THE PURE GOLD BABY, (304 pgs) 10/1 Jess is a passionate British anthropologist eager to learn more about the children she encountered in Africa who were living with a rare genetic 5 syndrome. Instead, she ends up staying put in 1960s London as a single mother once she has her “pure gold baby,” a beautiful, happy little girl with an atypical mind. Transforming herself into “an anthropologist of the inner world,” Jess finds plenty of customs and mind-sets to scrutinize as she seeks guidance in raising Anna, who loves to sing and make art but can’t learn to count or read. Jess dives into a far-ranging and profoundly unsettling investigation into how such children are perceived and treated. Meanwhile, her friends—Eleanor the narrator and a chorus of don’t-try-to- fool-me mothers—attempt to cast Jess as “the shining one who did not lie and did not falter.” But, of course, like everyone else, Jess struggles with the contradictory demands of love, work, friendship (particularly with a suicidal poet), and motherhood as she tries to do right by sweet, stoic Anna. “Dame of the British Empire Drabble is in peak form in this marvelously dexterous, tartly funny, and commanding novel of moral failings and women’s quandaries, brilliantly infusing penetrating social critique with stinging irony as she considers what life makes of us and what we make of life.” Booklist (Starred Review)

Jennifer DuBois, CARTWHEEL, (384 pgs) 10/1 When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colorful buildings, the street food, the handsome, elusive man next door. Her studious roommate Katy is a bit of a bore, but Lily didn’t come to Argentina to hang out with other Americans. Five weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect. But who is Lily Hayes? It depends on who’s asking. As the case takes shape—revealing deceptions, secrets, and suspicious DNA—Lily appears alternately sinister and guileless through the eyes of those around her: the media, her family, the man who loves her and the man who seeks her conviction. “DuBois does an excellent job of creating and maintaining a pervasive feeling of foreboding and suspense. . . . an acute psychological study of character that rises to the level of the philosophical.” Booklist (Starred Review) (P.S. This sophomore novel by the author of the PEN/Hemingway finalist A Partial History of Lost Causes subtly echoes details of the Italian judicial travails of Amanda Knox.)

Andre Dubus, DIRTY LOVE, (320 pgs) 10/7 Award–winning novelist Dubus (The Garden of Last Days, 2008) debuted as a short story writer nearly 25 years ago. He now reclaims the form in an incisive collection of subtly linked tales set in a changing New Hampshire coastal town. With fresh energy and conviction, Dubus explores the demands and disappointments of desire and marriage, generating a critical mass of sensory detail and refined suspense. A desperately orderly man hires a detective to follow his longtime, suddenly unfaithful wife. Two overweight loners attempt to find the intimacy other 6 couples seem to take for granted. A bartender posing as a poet and living on charm and evasiveness suddenly faces the realities of fatherhood. In the novella “Dirty Love,” Devon is hounded out of high school when a dirty cell-phone video, recorded without her permission, is posted online. She seeks sanctuary with her great-uncle Francis, a retired teacher haunted by his experiences in the Korean War. “Dubus’ emotional discernment, sexual candor, penetrating of place, sensitivity to family conflicts, and keen attunement to the perils of our embrace of “iEverything”—from online sexual roulette to cyberbullying and violent video games—are electrifying, compassionate, and profound. These are masterful and ravishing tales of loneliness, confusion, betrayal, the hunger for oblivion, and the quest for forgiveness.” Booklist (Starred Review) “First rate fiction by a dazzling talent.” Kirkus (Starred Review) “Once again, Dubus creates deeply flawed characters and challenges the reader to identify with their common humanity.” Publishers Weekly “

P.S. Duffy, THE CARTOGRAPHER OF NO MAN’S LAND, (384 pgs) 10/28 The year is 1916, and Angus MacGrath leaves Snag Harbor, a hardscrabble Nova Scotia fishing village, to join the war and search for his adored brother-in-law, Ebbin Hant, who has gone missing on the front lines. An artist, Angus is promised a cartographer's position in London but is instead sent directly to the battlegrounds of France. Duffy's first novel depicts terrifyingly real battle scenes, rich in subtle details, displaying the intimacies shared among soldiers and the memories that haunt them. While Angus battles in the trenches, his son Simon is fighting a war of his own back at home—traversing the growing hostility and blistering emotions of a grief-stricken village and his pacifist family while coming of age without his father. “Physical and emotional geography are beautifully rendered, and Duffy’s vivid descriptions illuminate war’s transformative effect in fresh ways. Well-nuanced characters and carefully choreographed (but still surprising) situations make this a strong debut.” Publishers Weekly “Essential reading for historical fiction lovers and war story fans alike.” Library Journal (Starred Review) “Thanks to Duffy’s full realization—each character, however minor, is a distinct personality and her patience in developing the cast of characters makes for an unusually rich novel.” Booklist (Starred Review) FIRST NOVEL

Carolly Erickson, THE SPANISH QUEEN: A Novel of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, (304 pgs) 10/22 When young Catherine of Aragon, proud daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, is sent to England to marry the weak Prince Arthur, she is unprepared for all that awaits her: early widowhood, the challenge of warfare with the invading Scots, and the ultimately futile attempt to provide the realm with a prince to secure the succession. She marries Arthur's energetic, athletic brother Henry, only to encounter fresh 7 obstacles, chief among them Henry's infatuation with the alluring but wayward Anne Boleyn. “Erickson succeeds with this fresh and sympathetic reinterpretation of the Spanish princess's life, mainly by instilling a spirit and spine in Queen Catherine, unlike other authors. Although following the historical events that most fans of Tudor historical fiction know like the backs of their hands, the novel is fast-paced and adds subtle elements of surprise (who knew that the queen had a vengeful streak?) that will please even the most avid of the genre's readers.” Library Journal “A vivid evocation of a queen who refused to be written off.” Kirkus

Helen Fielding, BRIDGET JONES: Mad About the Boy, (400 pgs) 10/15 What do you do when your girlfriend’s sixtieth birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend’s thirtieth? Is it better to die of Botox or die of loneliness because you’re so wrinkly? Is it wrong to lie about your age when online dating? Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice? Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his assistant? Is it normal to get fewer followers the more you tweet? Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood? If you put lip plumper on your hands do you get plump hands? Is sleeping with someone after two dates and six weeks of texting the same as getting married after two meetings and six months of letter writing in Jane Austen’s day? Pondering these and other modern dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of loss, single motherhood, tweeting, texting, technology, and rediscovering her sexuality in—Warning! Bad, outdated phrase approaching!—middle age.

Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly, THE TILTED WORLD, (320 pgs) 10/1 Franklin (Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter) is enamored of the people and history of the South. Poet Fennelly (Great with Child) finds inspiration in the secret anxieties and joys of parenthood. Together, the husband-and- wife team created Dixie Clay, a young woman who is married to bootlegger Jesse and struggling to find closure after the loss of her child. Dixie resides in the town of Hobnob, MS, a town buttressed from massive flooding by a straining levee. The year is 1927, when two prohibition agents mysteriously disappear from the town and federal agents Ingersoll and Ham are sent to investigate. Disguised as engineers, the agents work undercover to integrate themselves into the underbelly of Hobnob and quickly identify Dixie's husband as the main suspect. While Ham pursues Jesse through the law, Ingersoll pursues Dixie romantically. As the water pours through the levee, all four find themselves searching for new beginnings. “A pleasurable work of historical fiction rife with religious symbolism and romance.” Library Journal “fans of Fennelly will savor her depictions of a mother’s ferocious love, and Franklin’s following will shine 8 to the violent rendering of a nearly forgotten time and ethos.” Publishers Weekly

Elizabeth George, JUST ONE EVIL ACT, (736 pgs) 10/15 This tale of love, passion, and betrayal, the 18th Inspector Lynley novel from bestseller George (after 2012's Believing the Lie), spotlights Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers. Taymullah Azhar, a science professor who's a friend and neighbor of Havers in North London, is devastated to come home one day and discover that his nine-year-old daughter, Hadiyyah, and most of her possessions are gone. Hadiyyah's mother, Angelina Upman, to whom Azhar was never married, has decamped to Italy with the girl. A grateful Azhar accepts Havers's offer to act as a private detective, though her superiors resist her request for a leave of absence. Months later, when kidnappers take Hadiyyah from Angelina in an Italian marketplace, Lynley travels to Lucca, Tuscany, to look into the matter. Havers later goes AWOL to Lucca, where she seizes the initiative in the case and risks her career to persuade Scotland Yard to get involved. “Series fans will enjoy following Lynley and Havers on their first investigation outside the U.K., while newcomers will be just as enthralled.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “George is a master of the wily plot and the timely tossed out red herring… George’s fans will be glad to see Havers back in action, even though, as ever, she’s quick to land in trouble. And as for Lynley—well, he’s as cool as ever, in more than one sense of the word.” Kirkus “This is a must for fans of this series. Twists and turns are vintage George and do not disappoint.” Library Journal

Elizabeth Gilbert, THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS, (512 pgs) 10/1 Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist—but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life. “There is much pleasure in this unhurried, sympathetic, intelligent novel by an author confident in her material and her form.” Publishers Weekly “Gilbert's sweeping saga of Henry Whittaker and his daughter Alma offers an allegory for the great, rampant heart of the 19th century . . . A brilliant exercise of intellect and imagination.” Kirkus 9

Gigi Levangie Grazer, SEVEN DEADLIES, (256 pgs) 10/17 Perry Gonzales, daughter of a hardworking single mother, is tendering her application to Bennington College, four years early. This scholarship student, who commutes from rough North Hollywood to the exclusive Mark Frost Academy in Beverly Hills, is already anticipating her future as a writer. Her personal essay, as such essays must, demonstrates community service and extracurricular components: in Perry's case, her thriving small business tutoring her privileged, spoiled and tragically flawed Mark Frost classmates. Each of the seven tutoring assignments she details is a mini-allegory about a deadly sin. Lust involves the cossetted daughter whose birthday wish, a backyard concert by the boy band du jour, has unexpected consequences for her neglected, studious brother. Two of the anecdotes, Wrath and Greed, detail unorthodox, some would say criminal, methods for coping with sociopathic children. In Gluttony and Sloth, respectively, an obese student whose hunger literally knows no bounds and a video gamer whose body has atrophied except in those areas required for his all-consuming pastime suffer symbolic retribution for their excesses. As her "essay" ticks off the transgressions, some facts about Perry herself begin to emerge: She is academically gifted but humbly diligent, ever grateful and respectful toward her mother, and, where a handsome quarterback (in Pride) is concerned, as vulnerable as her airheaded Mark Frost schoolmates. “Levangie (The Starter Wife) takes a slight detour in her darkly funny new novel; she continues to lampoon the wealthy, powerful, and superficial, but her POV this time belongs to a 14-year-old Latina.” Publishers Weekly “The most original admissions essay seen since Legally Blonde.” Kirkus

John Grisham, SYCAMORE ROW, (464 pgs) 10/22 John Grisham's A Time to Kill is one of the most popular novels of our time. Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial-a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history. Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier. The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?

10 Anne Hillerman, SPIDER WOMAN’S DAUGHTER, (320 pgs) 10/1 In her first novel, reporter Hillerman successfully revives Navajo policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee; last seen in The Shape Shifter (2006), the final book from her father, MWA Grand Master Tony Hillerman (1925–2008). Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who married Chee in 2004’s Skeleton Man, sees a gunman shoot Leaphorn in a restaurant parking lot, but isn’t close enough to stop the shooter from driving off. With Leaphorn comatose, Chee is named head investigator, while Manuelito is officially removed from the case because she’s a witness. Leaphorn’s current job evaluating a collection that the American Indian Resource Center is acquiring may provide a clue to his attacker. The much used getaway car and the odd disappearance of Leaphorn’s anthropologist lady friend, Louisa Bourebonette, may offer other clues. Chee may lead, but Manuelito forcefully injects herself into the case as a desperate killer threatens to strike again. “Like her father, Hillerman has a gift for combining history and mystery.” Publishers Weekly “Fans of Southwestern mysteries will cheer this return of Leaphorn and Chee.” Library Journal FIRST NOVEL

Iris Johansen, SILENCING EVE, (416 pgs) 10/1 This is the finale that fans have been waiting for. In Taking Eve, the game began. In Hunting Eve, the chase was on. Now, in Silencing Eve, the prey is cornered. Will Eve Duncan survive? Will those she loves take the fall with her? And will the secrets of Eve’s past ultimately become her undoing?

Raymond Khoury, RASPUTIN’S SHADOW, (416 pgs) 10/8 On a cold, bleak day in 1916, all hell breaks loose in a mining pit in the Ural Mountains. Overcome by a strange paranoia, the miners attack one another, savagely and ferociously. Minutes later, two men—a horrified scientist and Grigory Rasputin, trusted confidant of the tsar—hit a detonator, blowing up the mine to conceal all evidence of the carnage. In the present day, FBI agent Sean Reilly’s search for Reed Corrigan, the CIA mind control spook who brainwashed Reilly’s son, takes a backseat to a new, disturbing case. A Russian embassy attaché seems to have committed suicide by jumping out of a fourth-floor window in Queens. The apartment’s owners, a retired physics teacher from Russia and his wife, have gone missing, and further investigation reveals that the former may not be who the FBI believes him to be. Joined by Russian Federal Security Service agent Larisa Tchoumitcheva Reilly’s investigation of the old man’s identity will uncover a desperate search for a small, mysterious device, with consequences that reach back in time and which, in the wrong hands, could have a devastating impact on the modern world. “Khoury’s ample cultural references are fresh, and most should withstand the test of time. History, mystery, suspense, and action-Khoury knows the recipe for a good read.” Library Journal “Khoury carries the story off nicely...this is a 11 fast-paced, enjoyable tale.” Kirkus “Fine action, an engaging historical mystery with modern-day implications, and a cast of engaging characters - all in all, a thoroughly entertaining genre-bender.” Booklist

Cassandra King, MOONRISE, (400 pgs) 9/3 Helen Honeycutt is swept off her feet by Emmet at the small Fort Lauderdale, Fla., television station where she works. She also falls in love with the idea of Moonrise, his family home in North Carolina, even though its preservation had been the “driving force” of his first wife, Rosalyn’s life. Helen and Emmet summer at Moonrise, where Helen encounters the back-biting, two-faced machinations of the tight-knit friends once shared by Emmet and Rosalyn. Fascinated by the overgrown gardens, trying to maintain her career, shut out by Emmet’s friends (and increasingly by Emmet), Helen wonders if Rosalyn’s haunts the house, or if there’s something more sinister and human going on. “King’s latest novel (after Queen of Broken Hearts) takes inspiration from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, keeping the best of the latter’s atmospheric tension without falling into melodramatic cliché . . . a suspenseful modern Gothic that gives a nod to its predecessors while still being fresh.” Publishers Weekly “

Jennifer Laam, THE SECRET DAUGHTER OF THE TSAR, (320 pgs) 10/22 Jennifer Laam braids together the stories of three women: Veronica, Lena, and Charlotte. Veronica is an aspiring historian living in present-day Los Angeles when she meets a mysterious man who may be heir to the Russian throne. As she sets about investigating the legitimacy of his claim through a winding path of romance and deception, the of her own past begin to haunt her. Lena, a servant in the imperial Russian court of 1902, is approached by the desperate Empress Alexandra. After conceiving four daughters, the Empress is determined to sire a son and believes Lena can help her. Once elevated to the Romanov’s treacherous inner circle, Lena finds herself under the watchful eye of the meddling Dowager Empress Marie. Charlotte, a former ballerina living in World War II occupied Paris, receives a surprise visit from a German officer. Determined to protect her son from the Nazis, Charlotte escapes the city, but not before learning that the officer’s interest in her stems from his longstanding obsession with the fate of the Russian monarchy. Then as Veronica's passion intensifies, and her search for the true heir to the throne takes a dangerous turn, the reader learns just how these three vastly different women are connected. FIRST NOVEL

Wally Lamb, WE ARE WATER, (576 pgs) 10/22 In middle age, Annie Oh—wife, mother, and outsider artist—has shaken her family to its core. After twenty-seven years of marriage and three children, Annie has fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy, cultured, 12 confident Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her professional success. Annie and Viveca plan to wed in the Oh family's hometown of Three Rivers, Connecticut, where gay marriage has recently been legalized. But the impending wedding provokes some very mixed reactions and opens a Pandora's box of toxic secrets—dark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohs' lives. “Clear and sweetly flowing; highly recommended.” Library Journal (Starred Review)

Robin Lloyd, ROUGH PASSAGE TO LONDON: A Sea Captain’s Tale, (376 pgs) 10/7 Lyme, Connecticut, early nineteenth century. Elisha Ely Morgan is a young farm boy who has witnessed firsthand the terror of the War of 1812. Troubled by a tumultuous home life ruled by the fists of their tempestuous father, Ely's two older brothers have both left their pastoral boyhoods to seek manhood through sailing. One afternoon, the Morgan family receives a letter with the news that one brother is lost at sea; the other is believed to be dead. Scrimping as much savings as a farm boy can muster, Ely spends nearly every penny he has to become a sailor on a square-rigged ship, on a route from New York to London—a route he hopes will lead to his vanished brother, Abraham. Learning the brutal trade of a sailor, Ely takes quickly to sea-life, but his focus lies with finding Abraham. Following a series of cryptic clues regarding his brother's fate, Ely becomes entrenched in a mystery deeper than he can imagine. As he feels himself drawing closer to an answer, Ely climbs the ranks to become a captain, experiences romance, faces a mutiny, meets Queen Victoria, and befriends historical legends such as Charles Dickens in his raucous quest. FIRST NOVEL

Mike Maden, DRONE, (432 pgs) 10/22 Troy Pearce is the CEO of Pearce Systems, a private security firm that is the best in the world at drone technologies. A former CIA SOG operative, Pearce used his intelligence and combat skills to hunt down America’s sworn enemies in the War on Terror. But after a decade of clandestine special ops, Pearce opted out. Too many of his friends had been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Now Pearce and his team chose which battles he will take on by deploying his land, sea, and air drones with surgical precision. Pearce thinks he’s done with the U.S. government for good, until a pair of drug cartel hit men assault a group of American students on American soil. New U.S. president Margaret Meyers then secretly authorizes Pearce Systems to locate and destroy the killers sheltered in Mexico. Pearce and his team go to work, and they are soon thrust into a showdown with the hidden powers behind the El Paso attack—unleashing a host of unexpected repercussions. FIRST NOVEL

13 Val McDermid, CROSS AND BURN (416 pgs) 10/22 McDermid’s eighth novel featuring forensic psychologist Tony Hill and detective Carol Jordan (after The Retribution) finds the two partners on the outs. Jordan has resigned from the Bradfield, England, police force and taken up a labor-intensive DIY job. Hill is still struggling with the events that have driven Jordan from his life. Meanwhile, Det. Sgt. Paula McIntyre, who formerly served with Jordan, catches two cases—one involving a missing person, the other a vicious murder—that together engulf her both personally and professionally. A psychopath is intent on kidnapping and training the perfect wife—and beating to death and disfiguring his “mistakes.” When McIntyre’s decision to seek help from Hill takes a drastic, unexpected turn, she’s forced to turn to the reclusive Jordan instead. “The villain may be a mere foil, but the ingenious way in which he tests the mettle of Hill and Jordan is not to be missed by fans of the unusual sleuthing duo.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Fiona McFarlane, THE NIGHT GUEST, (256 pgs) 10/1 At 75, Ruth Field lives alone in the Australian seaside home she once shared with her husband, Harry. Hers is a structured and solitary existence, punctuated by obligatory calls from her adult sons and the occasional sounds of an imagined jungle tiger strolling through her parlor at night. One morning, the commanding Frida Young arrives, claiming to have been sent by the government as a personal aide. Ruth must adjust her once orderly routine to “Valkyric” Frida, who can “fix everything” and yet is “always wanting... without ever quite admitting it.” Together the women explore the vulnerabilities of loneliness and aging, even as clues mount that Frida is not who she claims to be. “This book is at once a beautifully imagined portrait of isolation and an unsettling psychological thriller.” Publishers Weekly “An enrapturing debut novel that toys with magical realism while delivering a fresh fable.” Kirkus FIRST NOVEL

Jo Nesbo, POLICE, (416 pgs) 10/15 The life of Insp. Harry Hole, who was shot in the head by his surrogate son in the finale of 2012’s Phantom, hangs in the balance for much of Nesbø’s 10th novel featuring the Oslo homicide cop. Secondary players who have helped out along the way step into the spotlight: forensics expert and facial-recognition whiz Beate Lønn; the brilliant but psychologically unstable detective Katrine Bratt; Harry’s longtime friend Bjørn Holm; and the slippery new police chief, Mikael Bellman. The police force itself is at stake when it becomes apparent that the seemingly unrelated deaths of police officers are actually part of a larger pattern: each officer was slain at the site of an unsolved crime. “In Nesbø’s able hands, Harry’s absence is a character unto itself, but this will only make readers more eager to learn Harry’s fate.” Publishers Weekly “Arguably the most densely packed and ambitiously plotted novel in a series that has 14 been getting darker with each volume. A surprise ending promises a fresh start for a series that had appeared to end with its previous novel.” Kirkus (Starred Review)

Michael Nethercott, THE SÉANCE SOCIETY, (304 pgs) 10/1 It's 1956, and Lee Plunkett has taken over the family business as a private investigator despite his reluctance to follow in his father's footsteps. When murder intrudes on a group of ghost seekers, Lee is asked to solve the case by a cop on the verge of retirement. At the urging of his perpetual fiancée Audrey, Lee enlists the help of Mr. O'Nelligan, a scholarly Irishman with a keen eye for solving mysteries. The duo is drawn into a murder investigation involving the “Spectricator," a machine designed to communicate with the dead. Soon, Plunkett and O'Nelligan are knee-deep in a suspect pool that includes a surly medium, a former speakeasy queen, a mysterious Spanish widow, and a whole slew of eccentric servants. “A classically styled Holmesian whodunit.” Publishers Weekly “A pleasantly retro whodunit in which otherworldly spirits compete for attention with flesh-and-blood types.” Kirkus “This clever series opener offers a mid-century take on the traditional drawing-room mystery…There is a sweet charm to this mystery, ensuring that readers will want to see more from O’Nelligan and Plunkett.” Booklist FIRST NOVEL

Sara Paretsky, CRITICAL MASS, (480 pgs) 10/22 V.I. Warshawski’s closest friend in Chicago is the Viennese-born doctor Lotty Herschel, who lost most of her family in the Holocaust. Lotty escaped to London in 1939 on the Kindertransport with a childhood playmate, Kitty Saginor Binder. When Kitty’s daughter finds her life is in danger, she calls Lotty, who, in turn, summons V.I. to help. The daughter’s troubles turn out to be just the tip of an iceberg of lies, secrets, and silence, whose origins go back to the mad competition among America, Germany, Japan and England to develop the first atomic bomb. The secrets are old, but the people who continue to guard them today will not let go of them without a fight. “Stellar…Paretsky builds suspense by deftly weaving the contemporary narrative with flashbacks.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “V.I. has a charismatic and blistering way of bringing old secrets to light.” Kirkus “Paretsky has been on a roll lately, her long-running, trailblazing series at its most dynamic since the early days.” Booklist (Starred Review)

Robert Parker and Helen Brann, SILENT NIGHT: A Spenser Holiday Novel, (256 pgs) 10/22 It’s December in Boston, and Spenser is busy planning the menu for Christmas dinner when he’s confronted in his office by a young boy named Slide. Homeless and alone, Slide has found refuge with an organization 15 named Street Business, which gives shelter and seeks job opportunities for the homeless and lost. Slide’s mentor, Jackie Alvarez, is being threatened, and Street Business is in danger of losing its tenuous foothold in the community, turning Slide and many others like him back on the street. But it’s not a simple case of intimidation – Spenser, aided by Hawk, finds a trail that leads to a dangerous drug kingpin, whose hold on the at-risk community Street Business serves threatens not just the boys’ safety and security, but their lives as well. “Brann, the longtime agent of Robert B. Parker (1932–2010), does a seamless job of completing the unfinished manuscript of what’s billed as a Spenser holiday novel. Diehard Parker fans will be delighted.” Publishers Weekly

Richard North Patterson, LOSS OF INNOCENCE, (368 pgs) 10/1 America is in a state of turbulence, engulfed in civil unrest and uncertainty. Yet for Whitney Dane- spending the summer of her twenty- second year on Martha’s Vineyard—life could not be safer, nor the future more certain. Educated at Wheaton, soon to be married, and the youngest daughter of the all-American Dane family, Whitney has everything she has ever wanted, and is everything her all-powerful and doting father, Charles Dane, wants her to be. But the Vineyard’s still waters are disturbed by the appearance of Benjamin Blaine. An underprivileged, yet fiercely ambitious and charismatic figure, Blaine is a force of nature neither Whitney nor her family could have prepared for. As Ben’s presence begins to awaken independence within Whitney, it also brings deep-rooted family tensions to a dangerous head. And soon Whitney’s set-in-stone future becomes far from satisfactory, and her picture-perfect family far from pretty. “Patterson's (Fall from Grace, 2012, etc.) second effort in a planned trilogy continues his foray into personal drama and away from geopolitical intrigue and suspense . . . a family saga of class and money, power and pretense, love and loyalty.” Kirkus “Patterson’s latest offers up an appealing family drama set against the backdrop of a radically tumultuous and influential time.” Booklist

Jayne Anne Phillips, QUIET DELL, (480 pgs) 10/15 In Chicago in 1931, Asta Eicher, mother of three, is lonely and despairing, pressed for money after the sudden death of her husband. She begins to receive seductive letters from a chivalrous, elegant man named Harry Powers, who promises to cherish and protect her, ultimately to marry her and to care for her and her children. Weeks later, all four Eichers are dead. Emily Thornhill, one of the few women journalists in the Chicago press, becomes deeply invested in understanding what happened to this beautiful family, particularly to the youngest child, Annabel, an enchanting girl with a precocious imagination and sense of . Bold and intrepid, Emily allies herself with a banker who is wracked by guilt for not saving Asta. Emily goes to West Virginia to cover the murder trial and to 16 investigate the story herself, accompanied by a charming and unconventional photographer who is equally drawn to the case. “Phillips (Lark and Termite, 2009) fuses the established facts surrounding the 1931 trial of serial killer Harry Powers with her imagined version of the victims' inner lives and the fictional lives of a handful of characters connected by the crimes. Phillips' prose is as haunting as the questions she raises about the natures of sin, evil and grace.” Kirkus “An astonishingly effective novel based on a true crime that took place in Phillips native West Virginia in the early 1930s, material that has been brewing in her consciousness for years. Booklist (Starred Review)

Valerie Plame and Sarah Lovett, BLOWBACK, (336 pgs) 10/1 Having told her real-life story in the memoir Fair Game (2007), former CIA agent Plame teams with Lovett, author of the Dr. Sylvia Strange series, to relate the adventures of undercover CIA operative Vanessa Pierson. Covert CIA ops officer Vanessa Pierson is finally close to capturing the world’s most dangerous international nuclear arms dealer: Bhoot, alias the ghost. One of her assets has information about Bhoot’s upcoming visit to a secret underground nuclear weapons facility in Iran—in only a few days. But just as Pierson’s informant is about to give her the location, they’re ambushed by an expert sniper. Pierson narrowly escapes. Her asset: dead. Desperate to capture Bhoot and the sniper before they inflict more damage, Pierson enlists all of the Agency’s resources to find them. But with each day, the pressure of the manhunt mounts, causing her to push her forbidden romance with a fellow ops officer to its limit when she asks him to do the impossible. Despite the risks, she refuses to halt her pursuit of the terrorists, and she puts her cover and her career—and her life—at risk. “Readers looking for a strong female lead will be rewarded.” Publishers Weekly “A tightly wound, vigorously deployed thriller echoing the real-life stories of CIA agents and their enemies.” Library Journal (Starred Review) “Making her spy fiction debut, Plame, with the seasoned Lovett's help, delivers a solid, entertaining thriller.” Kirkus FIRST NOVEL

Nora Roberts, DARK WITCH, (368 pgs) 10/29 Nora Roberts' new romance trilogy begins with a call back to deep Celtic mysteries. When beautiful young Iona Sheehan leaves America for the lush forests of Ireland's Mayo County, she has no idea where her search for family and destiny will lead. She does not yet know the parts that her cousins Branna and Connor O'Dwyer will play in her epic battle with a centuries-old curse; nor does she yet realize that a willful stable owner and horseman will capture her heart. (First in the new Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy)

17 John Sandford, STORM FRONT, (400 pgs) 10/8 When an archeological dig in Israel turns up a stele—an inscribed piece of stone—with the potential to shake the roots of Biblical faith, Elijah Jones, a college professor who fears he’s dying, steals the precious artifact and flees home to Mankuto, Minn. Virgil Flowers, a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent, at first simply attempts to recover the stolen object, but soon finds himself trying to outwit mercenary Turks as well as agents of the Mossad, Hezbollah, and Texas gazillionares, all of whom want the artifact for their own purposes. Despite the bloodthirsty fanaticism the participants display, the quest for the stone provides many opportunities for cross-cultural verbal confusion and violent slapstick. Though attracted to a sexy local criminal who’s become Jones’s accomplice, the exasperated Virgil mainly tries to stop the commotion before anyone gets seriously hurt. “Thriller Award–winner Sandford ventures into Da Vinci Code territory in his clever, quirky seventh Virgil Flowers novel (after 2012’s Mad River). Unusually good-natured intrigue distinguishes this outing.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Lisa Scottoline, ACCUSED: A Rosato & Associates Novel (400 pgs) 10/29 Mary DiNunzio faces two daunting changes in bestseller Scottoline's 12th novel featuring the all-woman Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Associates (after 2010's Think Twice): she has become a partner in the firm, which affects her relationships with former fellow associates; and boyfriend Anthony Rotunno gets a lot more serious. Mary's first client as a partner is 13-year-old Allegra Gardner, who wants to retain the firm to prove that Lonnie Stall, imprisoned for the murder of Allegra's older sister, Fiona, six years earlier, is innocent and to find the real killer. Allegra may be precocious, and she has her own funds, but her wealthy parents oppose her actions directly and forcibly. Myriad legal and ethical problems complicate the case, including Stall's own confession, as does the help, wanted and unwanted, of the DiNunzio and Rotunno families. “Mary follows her heart and gut into danger in this welcome series return after three stand-alones.” Publishers Weekly “Everything Scottoline writes sells big, but her Rosato series leads the way. Fans have been waiting three years for this one and will respond enthusiastically.” Booklist

Michael Sears, MORTAL BONDS, (352 pgs) 10/1 Jason Stafford, on probation after imprisonment for fraud, certainly has the necessary skills to be a financial fraud consultant. When William von Becker is convicted of a huge Ponzi scheme and commits suicide, his son hires Stafford to find several billion dollars unaccounted for. The FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission naturally are interested, but so are Honduran drug dealers, Balkan thugs, and several von Becker family members. At the same time, Stafford must juggle care for his autistic six- year-old son and a visit from his alcoholic ex-wife seeking reconciliation. 18 As bodies pile up and peril stalks Stafford from more than one direction, his hard-earned prison smarts, math skills, and Wall Street knowledge prove invaluable. “Sears’s knowledge of investment banking makes the plot compelling . . . Deft, witty prose is a plus.” Publishers Weekly “A touching, tense, and terrific thriller.” Library Journal “Sears has a good feel for New York, where most of the action is set, for the world of finance (intelligently explained), for dialogue, and for the thriller genre.” Booklist

Dan Simmons, THE ABOMINABLE, (672 pgs) 10/22 It's 1924 and the race to summit the world's highest mountain has been brought to a terrified pause by the shocking disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine high on the shoulder of Mt. Everest. By the following year, three climbers -- a British poet and veteran of the Great War, a young French Chamonix guide, and an idealistic young American -- find a way to take their shot at the top. They arrange funding from the grieving Lady Bromley, whose son also disappeared on Mt. Everest in 1924. Young Bromley must be dead, but his mother refuses to believe it and pays the trio to bring him home. Deep in Tibet and high on Everest, the three climbers -- joined by the missing boy's female cousin -- find themselves being pursued through the night by someone . . . or something. This nightmare becomes a matter of life and death at 28,000 feet - but what is pursuing them? And what is the truth behind the 1924 disappearances on Everest? As they fight their way to the top of the world, the friends uncover a secret far more abominable than any mythical creature could ever be. “Lovers of Simmons’s blend of alternate history, mystery, and myth will appreciate this three-act thriller set in the interwar years. As usual, Simmons doesn’t answer all the questions he’s raised when the mysteries surrounding the loss of Percy Bromley are resolved, but his fans, like Jake, are sure to enjoy the journey.” Publishers Weekly “Simmons proves his versatility once again with this dizzying adventure. Historical fiction and thriller fans will find plenty to like.” Library Journal

Graeme C. Simsion, THE ROSIE PROJECT, (304 pgs) 10/1 Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially challenged professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. And so, in the orderly, evidence- based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers. Rosie Jarman is all these things. She also is strangely beguiling, fiery, and intelligent. And while Don quickly disqualifies her as a candidate for the Wife Project, as a DNA expert Don is particularly suited to help Rosie on her own quest: identifying her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on the Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the 19 realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you. “Read-out-loud laughter begins by page two in Simsion’s debut novel about a 39-year-old genetics professor with Asperger’s—but utterly unaware of it—looking to solve his Wife Problem. With Asperger’s growing visibility in pop culture in recent years, as on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, this novel is perfectly timed.” Publishers Weekly “Simsion can plot a story, set a scene, write a sentence, and finesse a detail. A pity more popular fiction isn't this well-written . . . A sparkling, laugh-out-loud novel.” Kirkus FIRST NOVEL

Lee Smith, GUESTS ON EARTH, (368 pgs) 10/15 Evalina Toussaint, orphaned child of an exotic dancer in New Orleans, is just thirteen when she is admitted to Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. The year is 1936, and the mental hospital is under the direction of the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Robert S. Carroll, whose innovative treatment for nervous disorders and addictions is based upon fresh air, diet, exercise, gardening, art, dance, music, theater, and therapies of the day such as rest cures, freeze wraps, and insulin shock. Talented Evalina is soon taken under the wing of the doctor’s wife, a famous concert pianist, and eventually becomes the accompanist for all musical programs at the hospital, including the many dances and theatricals choreographed by longtime patient Zelda Fitzgerald. Evalina’s role gives her privileged access to the lives and secrets of other patients and staff swept into a cascading series of events leading up to the tragic fire of 1948 that killed nine women in a locked ward on the top floor. She offers a solution for the still-unsolved mystery of that fire, as well as her own ideas about the very thin line between sanity and insanity; her opinion of the psychiatric treatment of women and girls who failed to fit into prevailing male ideals; and her insights into the resonance between art and madness. “Smith’s novel takes a while to blossom, but really takes off once it does . . . engaging and touching.” Publishers Weekly “Perennially best-selling Smith presents an impeccably researched historical novel that reveals the early twentieth century’s antediluvian attitudes toward mental health and women’s independence.” Booklist

Wilbur Smith, VICIOUS CIRCLE, (448 pgs) 10/8 Hector Cross left behind a career of high risks and warfare when he married his beloved Hazel Bannock. But after his new life is tragically upended, he recognizes the ruthless hand of an old enemy behind the attack. Determined to fight back, Hector draws together a team of his most loyal friends and fellow warriors to hunt down those who pursue him and his loved ones. For he and Hazel have a child, a precious daughter, whom he will go to the ends of the earth to protect. Soon, however, Hector learns that the threat comes not just from his old enemies, but also Hazel’s. Brutal figures from her family’s past—thought long gone—are 20 returning, with an agenda so sinister that Hector realizes he is facing a new type of adversary . . . One whose deadly methods and dark secrets will lead Hector to a series of crimes so shocking that he has no choice but to settle the score. (Sequel to Smith’s 2011 Those In Peril) “The exciting action scenes and larger-than-life characters … will appeal to a broad range of thriller fans.” Publishers Weekly

Danielle Steel, WINNERS, (352 pgs) 10/29 Olympian hopeful Lily Thomas is injured in a freak ski-lift accident while on vacation in Squaw Valley. Her father, business tycoon Bill Thomas, refuses to accept that his talented daughter, on her way to the Ivy League, will never again walk—let alone ski. He blames Lily’s neurosurgeon, Jessie Matthews, for missing something and vows to go to the best specialists until he finds his . Jessie understands how Bill feels, as she is forced to face new parenting challenges of her own when her husband is killed in a car crash the same night as Lily’s accident, leaving Jessie alone to care for her four children. Although Jessie and Bill start out as adversaries, they quickly become partners in Lily’s treatment and, as Bill plows ahead with his plans for a state-of-the-art rehab facility for kids, they become colleagues. “Steel skillfully weaves the strands of the Matthews and Thomas families together in a layered story about loneliness and companionship.” Publishers Weekly

Mark T. Sullivan, OUTLAW, (368 pgs) 10/22 While the U.S. secretary of state, Agnes Lawton, is secretly negotiating with the foreign ministers of China and India aboard a freighter in the South China Sea, armed terrorists seize the ship. The group claiming responsibility, the Sons of Prophecy, demands the release of all political prisoners in the U.S., China, and India, as well as a ransom of $500 million from each country. Meanwhile, the man pulling the intricate strings of the operation, wealthy Cantonese triad chief Long Chan-Juan (aka the Moon Dragon), has a multilayered plan that he expects will secure him billions of dollars and immense power. Ex-CIA agent Monarch and Chinese Ministry of State Security agent Song Le have less than five days to save Lawton and the others. “Thriller fans fond of high-stakes rescue scenarios will be more than satisfied.” Publishers Weekly

Donna Tartt, GOLDFINCH, (784 pgs) 10/22 It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into 21 the underworld of art. As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. “There's a bewitching urgency to the narration that's impossible to resist. Theo is magnetic....The Goldfinch is a pleasure to read.” Publishers Weekly “Tartt's trenchant, defiant, engrossing, and rocketing novel conducts a grand inquiry into the mystery and sorrow of survival, beauty and obsession, and the promise of art.” Booklist (Starred Review) “A standout--and well worth the wait.” Kirkus (Starred Review)

Nancy Thayer, A NANTUCKET CHRISTMAS, (224 pgs) 10/29 Holidays on this Massachusetts island are nothing short of magical, and the season’s wonderful traditions are much loved by Nicole Somerset, new to Nantucket and recently married to a handsome former attorney. Their home is already full of enticing scents of pine, baking spices, and homemade pie. But the warm, festive mood is soon tempered by Nicole’s chilly stepdaughter, Kennedy, who arrives without a hint of holiday spirit. Determined to keep her stepmother at arm’s length—or, better yet, out of the picture altogether—Kennedy schemes to sabotage Nicole’s holiday preparations. Nicole, however, is not about to let anyone or anything tarnish her first Christmas with her new husband.

Joanna Trollope, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, (384 pgs) 10/29 Elinor Dashwood, an architecture student, values patience and reliability. Her impulsive sister, Marianne, takes after their mother, Belle, and is fiery and creative, filling the house with her dramas and guitar playing while dreaming of going to art school. But when their father, Henry Dashwood, dies suddenly, his whole family finds itself forced out of Norland Park, their beloved home for twenty years. Without the comfort of status, they discover that their values are severely put to the test. Can Elinor remain stoic and restrained knowing that the man she really likes has already been ensnared by another girl? Will Marianne's faith in a one-and-only lifetime love be shaken by meeting the hottest boy in the county, John Willoughby? And in a world where social media and its opinions are the controlling forces at play, can love ever triumph over conventions and disapproval? “By updating Austen’s first published novel to reflect modern slang, dress, and conveniences, Trollope brings accessibility to this romantic comedy of manners that may appeal to the Bridget Jones crowd.” Booklist This will more than satisfy Trollope fans as well as most Austen devotees; with its sprightly mix of the old and new told in streamlined prose, this twice-told tale highlights the issue of what has changed in 200 years, and what has remained constant.” Library Journal

22 Scott Turow, IDENTICAL, (384 pgs) 10/15 Best-selling author Turow's (Innocent; Presumed Innocent) personal and professional fascination with identical inspired this story, based loosely on the myth of Castor and Pollux, of Paul and Cass Giannis and the convoluted relationship between their family and their longtime neighbors the Kronons. In 2008, Paul is running for mayor of Kindle County, while Cass is being released from the penitentiary, having served 25 years for the murder of his girlfriend Dita Kronon. However, Hal Kronon, Dita's grieving brother, hires ex-FBI agent Evon Miller and Tom Brodie, a former homicide detective, to reinvestigate her murder. Dr. Hassam Yavem, an expert in genetic research, conducts a thorough DNA analysis and reveals startling results—unearthing long-buried secrets involving family betrayal, incest, and chilling deceit. “Amid the supermodernity of DNA tests, the austerity of case law and the tangles of contemporary politics, Turow never loses sight of the ancient underpinnings of his story, with a conclusion that places Hal, Zeus, Hermione and Aphrodite in the vicinity of Olympus, their true neighborhood . . . Classic (in more senses than one) Turow.” Kirkus

Rebecca Walker, ADE, (128 pgs) 10/29 When Farida, a sophisticated college student, falls in love with Adé, a young Swahili man living on an idyllic island off the coast of Kenya, the two plan to marry and envision a simple life together—free of worldly possessions and concerns. But when Farida contracts malaria and finds herself caught in the middle of a civil war, reality crashes in around them. The lovers’ solitude is interrupted by a world in the throes of massive upheaval that threatens to tear them apart, along with all they cherish. “Walker’s prose is evocative and poetic.” Publishers Weekly “Memoirist Walker makes her fiction debut with a short, sad tale of love that flowers but cannot take root in Kenya. The prose is gorgeous.” Kirkus FIRST NOVEL

Peter Warner, MOLE: The Cold War Memoir of Winston Bates, (336 pgs) 10/22 Recruited by a foreign power in postwar Paris and sent to Washington, Winston Bates is without training or talent. He might be a walking definition of the anti-spy. Yet he makes his way onto the staff of the powerful Senator Richard Russell, head of the Armed Services Committee. From that perch, Bates has extensive and revealing contacts with the Dulles brothers, Richard Bissell, Richard Helms, Lyndon Johnson, Joe Alsop, Walter Lippman, Roy Cohn, and even Ollie North to name but a few of the historical players in the American experience Winston befriends— and haplessly betrays for a quarter century. A comedy of manners set within the circles of power and information, The Mole is a social history of Washington in the latter half of the twentieth century that presents the 23 question: How much damage can be done by the wrong person in the right place at the right time? “Warner’s prose is first-rate, and his research is prodigious.” Publishers Weekly “Winston’s first-person account of the people he meets and the secrets he hears make for interesting reading…An intelligent fictional memoir.” Kirkus FIRST NOVEL

Stuart Woods, DOING HARD TIME, (320 pgs) 10/8 Edgar-winner Woods’s 27th Stone Barrington novel (after Unintended Consequences) takes the New York City attorney to Los Angeles, where Stone’s son, Peter; Peter’s girlfriend, Hattie Patrick; and friend Dino Bacchetti’s son, Benito, are headed to begin work on their first film for Centurion Studios after graduating from the Yale School of Drama. Two assassins, dispatched by Yuri Majorov, a powerful Russian, are tailing the young people on their drive west, but fugitive and ex-CIA employee Teddy Fay, who’s lying low as a gas station attendant in a small New Mexico town, ensures the thugs do no harm. Stone and Fay, who crossed paths once before, form an unlikely alliance as Majorov continues to send operatives to find and eliminate both Fay and the Barringtons for interfering with his various plans. “Stone—wealthy, handsome, and suave—displays a father’s ruthless streak to protect Peter, while Fay brings a welcome gritty edge to his crowd-pleasing series.” Publishers Weekly “The nonstop action is certain to keep fans turning pages.” Kirkus