‘These Toxic Things’ is the new thriller by Rachel Howzell Hall. Photo: amazon
Rachel Howzell Hall is the author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize– and Lefty Award–nominated “And Now She’s Gone;” and the Anthony Award–, Lefty Award–, and International Thriller Writers Award–nominated “They All Fall Down.” She also writes the acclaimed Detective Elouise Norton series, including “Land of Shadows,” “Skies of Ash,” “Trail of Echoes,” and “City of Saviors.” Rachel is also the coauthor of “The Good Sister” with James Patterson, which was included in the New York Times bestseller The Family Lawyer.” She lives in Los Angeles. In her new book “These Toxic Things: A Thriller,” a dead woman’s cherished trinkets become pieces to a terrifying puzzle. (amazon, 2021)
“These Toxic Things” – Mickie Lambert creates “digital scrapbooks” for clients, ensuring that precious souvenirs are not forgotten or lost. When her latest client, Nadia Denham, a curio shop owner, dies from an apparent suicide, Mickie honors the old woman’s last wish and begins curating her peculiar objets d’art. A music box, a hair clip, a key chain―twelve mementos in all that must have meant so much to Nadia, who collected them on her flea market scavenges across the country. But these tokens mean a lot to someone else, too. Mickie has been receiving threatening messages to leave Nadia’s past alone. It is becoming a mystery Mickie is driven to solve. Who once owned these odd treasures? How did Nadia really come to possess them? Discovering the truth means crossing paths with a long-dormant serial killer and navigating the secrets of a sinister past. One that might, Mickie fears, be inescapably entwined with her own.
‘Apples Never Fall’ by Liane Moriarty will be released September 14, 2021. Photo: amazon
Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of eight internationally best-selling novels: “Three Wishes,” “The Last Anniversary,” “What Alice Forgot,” “The Hypnotist’s Love Story,” “Nine Perfect Strangers,” and the number one New York Times bestsellers: “The Husband’s Secret,” “Big Little Lies,” and “Truly Madly Guilty.” Her books have been translated into over forty languages and sold more than 20 million copies. “Big Little Lies” and “Truly Madly Guilty” both debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list – the first time this was ever achieved by an Australian author. “Big Little Lies” was adapted into a multiple award-winning HBO series with a star-studded cast including Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. Hulu adapted “Nine Perfect Strangers” into a limited series starring Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy. Her new novel “Apples Never Fall” will be released September 14, 2021. It is a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest. (amazon, 2021)
“Apples Never Fall” – The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They are killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they have finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable? The four Delaney children―Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke―were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that is okay, now they are all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.
One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted. Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure―but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.
‘Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost’ is the new thriller by Lindsay Marcott. Photo: google
Lindsay Marcott is the Amazon bestseller-rated author of “Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost” and “The Producer’s Daughter” as well as six previous novels written as Lindsay Maracotta. Her books have been translated into eleven languages and adapted for several cable movies. She also wrote for the Emmy-nominated HBO series The Hitchhiker and coproduced a number of films, including Hallmark’s The Hollywood Moms Mystery (based on her Fabulously Dead mystery series) and the feature Breaking at the Edge. Before writing novels, she held down a variety of jobs ranging from screenwriter to magazine contributor to waitress in a grunge bar — all of which supplied rich material for her future fiction. Her new novel, “Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost,” is a modern and twisty retelling of Jane Eyre about a young woman who must question everything she knows about love, loyalty, and murder. (amazon, 2021)
“Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost” – Jane has lost everything: job, mother, relationship, even her home. A friend calls to offer an unusual deal―a cottage above the crashing surf of Big Sur on the estate of his employer, Evan Rochester. In return, Jane will tutor his teenage daughter. She accepts. But nothing is quite as it seems at the Rochester estate. Though he has been accused of murdering his glamorous and troubled wife, Evan Rochester insists she drowned herself. Jane is skeptical, but she still finds herself falling for the brilliant and secretive entrepreneur and growing close to his daughter. And yet her deepening feelings for Evan cannot disguise dark suspicions that arouse when a ghostly presence repeatedly appears in the night’s mist and fog. Jane embarks on an intense search for answers and uncovers evidence that soon puts Evan’s innocence into question. She is determined to discover what really happened that fateful night, but what will the truth cost her?
‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ by Anthony Doerr. Photo: amazon
A new month means new books on the horizon. These are some notable new releases for the month of September in my favorite categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, History & Biography, Mystery & Thriller, Science fiction, Fantasy, and Historical fiction. If I could pick just one this month, it would be “The All-Consuming World” by Cassandra Khaw because the topics of artificial intelligence and robots fascinate me. (amazon, Goodreads, 2021)
Fiction: “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr Release date: September 28, 2021 Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless and insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, drafted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross. Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. She has never set foot on our planet.
Nonfiction: “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters” by Steven Pinker Release date: September 28, 2021 In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding–and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical cliche that humans are an irrational species–cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives, and discovered the benchmarks for rationality itself. Instead, he explains that we think in ways that are sensible in the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning our best thinkers have discovered over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and optimal ways to update beliefs and commit to choices individually and with others. These tools are not a standard part of our educational curricula, and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book–until now.
History & Biography: “True Raiders: The Untold Story of the 1909 Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant” by Brad Ricca Release date: September 21, 2021 This book tells the untold true story of Monty Parker, a British rogue nobleman who, after being dared to do so by Ava Astor, the so-called “most beautiful woman in the world,” headed a secret 1909 expedition to find the fabled Ark of the Covenant. Like a real-life version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, this incredible story of adventure and mystery has almost been completely forgotten today. In 1908, Monty is approached by a strange Finnish scholar named Valter Juvelius who claims to have discovered a secret code in the Bible that reveals the location of the Ark. Monty assembles a ragtag group of blueblood adventurers, a renowned psychic, and a Franciscan father, to engage in a secret excavation just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
Mystery & Thriller: “My Sweet Girl” by Amanda Jayatissa Release date: September 14, 2021 Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she is about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you. Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she will never live up to them. Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma’s darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country.
Science fiction: “The All-Consuming World” by Cassandra Khaw Release date: September 7, 2021 A diverse team of broken, diminished former criminals get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade, but they are not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir. The highly-evolved AI of the universe have their own agenda and will do whatever it takes to keep humans from ever controlling the universe again. This band of dangerous women, half-clone and half-machine, must battle their own traumas and a universe of sapient ageships who want them dead, in order to settle their affairs once and for all.
Fantasy: “The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina” by Zoraida Córdova Release date: September 7, 2021 The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch never leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed, leaving them with more questions than answers. Seven years later, her gifts have manifested in different ways for Marimar, Rey, and Tatinelly’s daughter, Rhiannon, granting them unexpected blessings. But soon, a hidden figure begins to tear through their family tree, picking them off one by one as it seeks to destroy Orquídea’s line. Determined to save what is left of their family and uncover the truth behind their inheritance, the four descendants travel to Ecuador—to the place where Orquídea buried her secrets and broken promises and never looked back.
Historical fiction: “Matrix” by Lauren Groff Release date: September 7, 2021 Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease. At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her: devotion to her sisters, and a conviction in her own divine visions. Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough?
‘Rock Paper Scissors’ is the new novel by Alice Feeney. Photo: amazon
Alice Feeney is a bestselling author and journalist. Her debut novel “Sometimes I Lie” was an international bestseller and has been translated into over twenty languages. She spent fifteen years with BBC News where she worked as a reporter, news editor, arts and entertainment producer, and One O’Clock news producer. Alice has lived in London and Sydney and has now settled in the Surrey countryside, where she lives with her husband and dog. In her new novel “Rock Paper Scissors,” things have been wrong with Mr. and Mrs. wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. It will be released on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. (amazon, 2021)
“Rock Paper Scissors” – Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He cannot recognize friends or family, or even his own wife. Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts–paper, cotton, pottery, tin–and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they did not randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone does not want them to live happily ever after. Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget. “Rock Paper Scissors” is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, bestselling author Alice Feeney.
‘Me (Moth)’ is the debut YA novel by Amber McBride. Photo: amazon
Amber McBride teaches English literature at Northern Virginia Community College and has a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Her work has been published in Ploughshares, Provincetown Arts, Decomp, and more. “Me (Moth),” her debut YA novel-in-verse, is about a teen girl who is grieving the deaths of her family, and a teen boy who crosses her path. (amazon, 2021)
“Me (Moth)” – Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted. Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he will be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones. Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable. Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe.
‘Such a Quiet Place’ is the new suspense novel by Megan Miranda. Photo: amazon
Megan Miranda is The New York Times bestselling author of “All the Missing Girls,” “The Perfect Stranger,” and “The Last House Guest,” a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. She has also written several books for young adults, including “Come Find Me,” “Fragments of the Lost,” and “The Safest Lies.” She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Her new book “Such a Quiet Place” is a riveting suspense novel about a mysterious murder in an idyllic and close-knit neighborhood. (amazon, 2021)
“Such a Quiet Place” – Welcome to Hollow’s Edge – a picture-perfect neighborhood where everyone has each other’s backs. At least, that is how it used to be, until the night Brandon and Fiona Truett were found dead. Two years ago, branded a grifter, thief and sociopath by her friends and neighbors, Ruby Fletcher was convicted of murdering the Truetts. Now, freed by mistrial, Ruby has returned to Hollow’s Edge. But why would she come back? No one wants her there, least of all her old housemate, Harper Nash. As Ruby’s return sends shockwaves through the community, terrified residents turn on each other, and it soon becomes clear that not everyone was honest about the night the Truetts died. When Harper begins to receive threatening, anonymous notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else gets hurt. Someone like her.
‘Mastermind’ by Andrew Mayne will be released on September 7, 2021. Photo: amazon
Andrew Mayne is the Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author of “The Girl Beneath the Sea” and “Black Coral” in his Underwater Investigation Unit series; “The Naturalist,” “Looking Glass,” “Murder Theory,” and “Dark Pattern” in his Naturalist series; “Angel Killer,” “Fire in the Sky,” “Name of the Devil,” and the Edgar Award–nominated “Black Fall” in his Jessica Blackwood series; and the Station Breaker novels. The star of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week special Andrew Mayne: Ghost Diver and A&E’s Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne, he is also a magician who started his first world tour as an illusionist when he was a teenager and went on to work behind the scenes for Penn & Teller, David Blaine, and David Copperfield. Ranked as the fifth-bestselling independent author of the year by Amazon UK, he currently works with OpenAI on applied artificial intelligence. In his upcoming new novel, “Mastermind: A Theo Cray and Jessica Blackwood thriller,” Dr. Theo Cray and Jessica Blackwood confront a cataclysmic conspiracy. It will be released on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. (amazon, 2021)
“Mastermind” – A mysterious electrical storm plunges Manhattan into darkness. As a strange, smothering fog rolls in, all communication crashes. In the blink of an eye, the island seems to vanish into a void. FBI special agent Jessica Blackwood and brilliant scientist Dr. Theo Cray know this is not a freak accident. It is a sinister sleight of hand. Their greatest adversary, a serial killer and cultist known as the Warlock, has escaped during a prison transfer in New York. A depraved master of manipulation, he promised the end of days. He is making good on it. One by one, cities across the globe are erupting in chaos as they disappear into the same black holes. Even for two ingenious trackers like Jessica and Theo, there is still so much to learn about the pattern to the Warlock’s madness. The voids are just a warm-up for something bigger. To discover it―to stop it―Jessica and Theo must descend into the darkest of shadows―and minds.
‘Tunnel 29’ is the new book by Helena Merriman. Photo: google
Helena Merriman is an award-winning journalist, author and documentary-maker. Helena wrote, produced and presented Tunnel 29 – the BBC podcast series about a group of students who dug a tunnel under the Berlin Wall in 1962. The podcast has had over 6m downloads and was listed by The New Yorker as one of their top five podcasts of 2019. It won the Foreign Press Association’s Podcast of the Year, Rose D’Or Best Audio Entertainment and Best Radio Podcast and Moment of the Year at the British Podcast Awards. Helena has worked as a reporter all over the world, with long stints in Jerusalem, Egypt and Washington DC. She has spent time with resistance fighters on the frontline in Libya, reported on the Egyptian uprising from Cairo, interviewed protesters in Yemen, investigated illegal fishing in Sierra Leone and covered Obama’s re-election campaign. Her new book “Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall” is the true story of the most remarkable Cold War rescue mission. (amazon, 2021)
“Tunnel 29” – He escaped from one of the world’s most brutal regimes. Then, he decided to tunnel back in. In the summer of 1962, a young student named Joachim Rudolph dug a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin were dozens of men, women, and children—all willing to risk everything to escape. Drawing on interviews with the survivors and Stasi files, Helena Merriman brilliantly reveals the stranger-than-fiction story of the ingenious group of student-diggers, the glamorous red-haired messenger, the Stasi spy who threatened the whole enterprise, and the love story that became its surprising epilogue. “Tunnel 29” was also the first made-for-TV event of its kind; it was funded by NBC, who wanted to film an escape in real time. Their documentary—which was nearly blocked from airing by the Kennedy administration, which wanted to control the media during the Cold War—revolutionized TV journalism. “Tunnel 29” is a success story about freedom: the valiant citizens risking everything to win it back, and the larger world rooting for them to triumph.
‘Red Deception’ by Gary Grossman and Ed Fuller is book two in the Red Hotel series. Photo: amazon
Gary Grossman’s first novel “Executive Actions” propelled him into the world of geopolitical thrillers. “Executive Treason,” “Executive Command,” and “Executive Force” further tapped Grossman’s experience as a journalist, newspaper columnist, documentary television producer, reporter, and media historian. In addition to the bestselling Executive series, Grossman wrote the international award-winning “Old Earth,” a geological thriller that spans all of time. With “Red Hotel” and “Red Deception,” his collaborations with Ed Fuller, Grossman entered a new realm of globe-hopping thriller writing. Ed Fuller is a hospitality industry leader, educator, and bestselling author. He is also director of the FBI National Academy Associates (FBINAA). The plots for “Red Hotel” and “Red Deception” draw heavily on his experience and exploits. “Red Deception” is the second book in The Red Hotel series and the newest novel by Gary Grossman and Ed Fuller – when terrorists bomb bridges across the country and threaten the Hoover Dam, the vulnerability of America’s infrastructure becomes a matter of national security.
“Red Deception” begins with real world news headlines such as North Korean spies, Russia looking to get its former nations back, and other news-worthy world events. The Prologue consists of three separate foreign insurgents slipping into the country, one through the US/Canadian border in Maine (an eyewitness eventually calls in to a radio show (page 125), one in the Los Angeles International Airport, and the other fifteen nautical miles East of Fort Lauderdale, Florida with more to come. The rest of the novel is divided into three parts, Part One: The Long Fuse, Part Two: Trip Wire, and Part Three: Shock Waves.
Dan Reilly is a former Army intelligence officer who is on a taxi on his way to a meeting when an explosion rocks the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. He survives only because his taxi was behind an armored car and he immediately goes into crisis mode and tries to help as many people as he can. Years earlier, he predicted similar attacks in a top secret State Department report. It is practically a virtual blueprint for disaster and now that the report has been leaked and in the hands of foreign operatives, the events taking place eerily mirror this report. With Washington and the nation distracted by domestic crises, (bridges and tunnels being bombed) Russian President Nicolai Gorshkov sends troops to the borders of Ukraine and Latvia, ready to reclaim what he feels is Russia’s rightful territory. Tensions in Europe threaten to boil over as the American president balances multiple crises that threaten to upend the geopolitical order. With the US at the mercy of an egomaniacal leader, who takes over after the president ends up in the hospital after an assassination attempt, and reporters and covert agents on his tail, Reilly may be the one man who can connect the dots before an even bigger catastrophe unfolds.
If current world events are not enough drama, “Red Deception” makes for an excellent read for fans of espionage thrillers. It is the second book in the Red Hotel series but stands well on its own. Ed Fuller has a background in the hospitality industry and that gives the writing an authentic voice when Reilly, who owns hotels around the world, has to deal with hotel business. This is especially true during the heart-pounding action that begins in Chapter 63 as guests in his Kiev hotel have to be evacuated as war is breaking out. The long list of principal characters in the beginning seems irrelevant at first but it serves its purpose when trying to keep up with the different plotlines. The action is mostly dialogue driven and flows effortlessly from page to page and it is hard not to finish reading it in one sitting. Some of the best books are those that teach readers something along the way and this time it is interesting to learn about North Korean spies, who have to obey every command or they will bring shame to their families or worse, their families will be killed. They are always under suicide orders if caught by the ‘enemy.’ The highlight has to be when a quick thinking housekeeper in a Virginia motel, who actually read the employee manual about what to watch out for, calls the FBI to report that she found a significant amount of battery packaging in the trash in one of the rooms. While it is true that there are multiple storylines, it serves to prove that everything that happens is interconnected, even if it is halfway around the world. Hopefully there will be more books in this exciting series. With relatable characters and intriguing, fast paced action, “Red Deception” is a must-read thriller. It is recommended for fans of spy thrillers similar to the Robert Ludlum novels and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series.
“Now, as President of Kensington Royal Hotels’ international division and the force behind the creation of the company’s global threat assessment program known as Red Hotel, Reilly relied on instinct. He was, after all, Army-trained and State Department-tempered. Experience drove the dark-haired, six foot, 180-pound corporate executive in this new moment of crisis.”
*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.
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