‘Constance’ is the new mind-bending thriller by Matthew FitzSimmons. Photo: amazon
Matthew FitzSimmons is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling Gibson Vaughn series, which includes “Origami Man,” “Debris Line,” “Cold Harbor,” ‘Poisonfeather,” and “The Short Drop.” Born in Illinois and raised in London, he now lives in Washington, DC, where he taught English literature and theater at a private high school for more than a decade. In his new mind-bending thriller “Constance,” a breakthrough in human cloning becomes one woman’s waking nightmare. (amazon, 2021)
“Constance” – In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it is an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it is terrifying. After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness―stored for that inevitable transition―something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it is eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she is told, is dead. If that is true, what does that make her? The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who is just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder―all over again.
‘Inhuman Trafficking: A Legal Thriller’ is the new novel by Mike Papantonio and Alan Russell, releasing October 5, 2021. Photo: amazon
Mike Papantonio is a senior partner of Levin Papantonio, one of the country’s largest plaintiffs’ law firms, and was one of the youngest inductees into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. He has aggressively taken on Big Pharma, tobacco, weapon manufacturers, and the automobile industry, among other bastions of corporate greed, and uses his own cases as springboards for his novels. Papantonio is also a well-known media presence as host of America’s Lawyer and co-host of the syndicated radio show Ring of Fire. He is based in Pensacola, Florida. Alan Russell is the #1 bestselling author of seventeen mystery and suspense novels, including “Burning Man,” “Shame,” “St. Nick,” and “A Cold War.” Russell’s novels have been nominated for most of the major awards in crime fiction, and he has won a Lefty award for best comedic mystery, a USA Today Critics’ Choice Award, multiple San Diego Book Awards, and the Odin Award for Lifetime Achievement from the San Diego Writers/Editor Guild. They are co-authors in the upcoming new novel “Inhuman Trafficking: A Legal Thriller.” It will be released October 5 and is available for pre-order on amazon. (amazon, 2021)
“Inhuman Trafficking” – For Nick “Deke” Deketomis, going where angels fear to tread in waging legal battles has long been a way of life. As managing partner for one of the nation’s largest plaintiffs’ law firms, Deke has gone toe to toe with some of the largest corporations in the world. His firm specializes in the tough, even quixotic, cases that few lawyers would dare to take on. Like human trafficking. Deke’s target this time is Welcome Mat Hospitality, a firm known for its truck stops and lodging throughout the United States. What Welcome Mat does not advertise is the human trafficking—for sex work and slave labor—going on at many of its properties. For the sake of better profits, Welcome Mat’s ownership has turned a blind eye to this lucrative enterprise. As invested as Deke is in the case, though, it takes on even greater urgency when the past comes calling with word that his fifteen-year-old goddaughter, Lily Reyes, is missing. When Deke learns that Lily has fallen prey to a notorious trafficker, his personal and professional worlds converge. For his goddaughter to survive, Deke must prevail not only in the legal arena but outside of it. This is a fast-paced thriller in the tradition of John Grisham, Joseph Finder, and John Lescroart.
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‘Babe in the Woods’ by Yvonne Wakefield will be released October 26, 2021. Photo: amazon
Yvonne Wakefield, also known as Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield, is an internationally exhibited artist and published author who lives and works from a home and studio on an Oregon-side shore of the Columbia River. Both of her books, “Suitcase Filled with Nails: Lesson Learned from Teaching Art in Kuwait,” and “Babe in the Woods: Building a Life One Log at a Time,” are available in print, digital and audio formats and have been the focus of film, television, and radio interviews across the country, including Rick Steves’ NPR program. They have also been reviewed in print and electronic media, and incorporated into college curricula. In 2018, Yours in Sisterhood, a documentary, premiering at the Berlineal, included an interview with Yvonne at her log cabin with filmmaker Irene Lusztig. “Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait” is the second book in her three-book series that chronicles her over four-decade-long relationship with her wilderness log cabin. “Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait” is releasing October 26, 2021. (Yvonne Wakefield, 2021)
The first book, “Babe in the Woods: Building a Life One Log at a Time” was recently re-released. The first edition received acclaim and outstanding reviews. In it, Wakefield strikes out on her own as an 18-year-old orphan, with a chainsaw and an axe, to build a log cabin in the Oregon woods. The second book in the series, “Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait,” follows Wakefield as an artist as she continues to learn to live with the uncertainties of the wilderness – such as experiences with bears – while independently building her second log structure and exercising her artistic skills. Over forty years later, both the cabin walls and the author show signs of weathering, but both remain rooted in a place of peace, quiet, beauty and repose.
Of her series, Yvonne says, “Whether it is one book or the entire series, it is for anyone who wants to read a story that is simply told about surviving the wilderness within and outside of oneself. I wrote the series because one book could not contain my over a four-decade-long relationship with this wilderness, and the cabin.”
Beyond her time in the woods, Yvonne delves into her younger years and life as an orphan. For most of her childhood, Yvonne floated about in a Catholic Middle-Class system. Detailing her ongoing sexual, physical, psychological and financial manipulation and abuse, she explores the important differences between caring and grooming that she was unable to differentiate as a child. Once Yvonne was able to build the cabin and reflect with her art, this distinction came to light. Follow Yvonne Wakefield in her triumph over adversity, and her experiences in the rawness of nature.
“Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait” by Yvonne Wakefield is available for pre-order on Amazon. ISBN: 978-1737459118 Price: $16.95 Publisher: Pepin Enterprises
‘The Bone Code’ is the new Temperance Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs. Photo: amazon
Kathy Reichs’s first novel “Déjà Dead,” published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Kathy was a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama, Bones, which is based on her work and her novels. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Kathy divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec. Her new novel “The Bone Code” is Kathy’s twentieth entry in her series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. This time around, Temperance’s examinations, fifteen years apart, of unidentified bodies ignite a terrifying series of events. (amazon, 2021)
“The Bone Code” – On the way to the hurricane-ravaged Isle of Palms, a barrier island off the South Carolina coast, Tempe receives a call from the Charleston coroner. The storm has tossed ashore a medical waste container. Inside are two decomposed bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting and bound with electrical wire. Tempe recognizes many of the details as identical to those of an unsolved case she handled in Quebec years earlier. With a growing sense of foreboding, she travels to Montreal to gather evidence. Meanwhile, health authorities in South Carolina become increasingly alarmed as a human flesh-eating contagion spreads. So focused is Tempe on identifying the container victims that, initially, she does not register how their murders and the pestilence may be related. But she does recognize one unsettling fact. Someone is protecting a dark secret—and willing to do anything to keep it hidden. An absorbing look at the sinister uses to which genetics can be put, and featuring a cascade of ever-more-shocking revelations, “The Bone Code” is Temperance Brennan’s most astonishing case yet—one that gives new meaning to today’s headlines.
‘The Girl in the Red Boots’ is the new book by Judith Ruskay Rabinor, PhD. Photo: amazon
Judith Ruskay Rabinor, PhD is a clinician, author, writing coach, speaker, and workshop leader. In addition to her New York City private psychotherapy practice, she offers remote consultations for writers, clinicians, and families. She has published dozens of articles for both the public and professionals and has authored two books, “A Starving Madness: Tales of Hunger, Hope and Healing” (Gurze Books, 2002) and “Befriending Your Ex After Divorce: Making Life Better for You, Your Ex and Yes, Your Ex!” (New Harbinger Publications, 2012). A sought-after speaker and workshop leader, Judy speaks at national and international mental health conferences and runs workshops at spas, colleges and universities, and retreat centers such as the Esalon Institute, California. Her new book “The Girl in the Red Boots: Making Peace with My Mother” weaves together tales from Rabinor’s psychotherapy practice and her life to help readers appreciate how painful childhood experiences can linger and leave emotional scars.
“The Girl in the Red Boots” begins with a Prologue where the author writes that one lesson she has learned from over forty years of specializing in mother-daughter relationships is that stories are excellent teachers. She hopes “the tales from my office and my life may help you untangle your stuck places and develop compassion for yourself and, possibly, for your mother.” While leading a seminar exploring the importance of the mother-daughter relationship, she is blindsided by a memory of a childhood trauma. As an eight year old girl, her mother tricked her by telling her that she was going to a birthday party but instead she ended up in the hospital having her tonsils removed. When she realizes that this trauma has haunted her for most of her life, she sets out to heal herself. She shares her personal journey from becoming a therapist with her own issues to eventually making peace with her mother and herself as well as stories from her psychotherapy practice. The book is divided into eight parts: Part One: Welcome to Womanhood, Part Two: The Secret, Part Three: Becoming a Therapist, Part Four: Love, Marriage, and Divorce, Part Five: Mother-Daughter Complications, Part Six: Making Peace, Part Seven: When “When” is Now, and Part Eight: Retelling Our Stories. Each chapter begins with an active imagination/guided-imagery exercise that introduces the topic and lays the ground work for the work to be done. At the end of the book, these exercises are listed together in an appendix to make them easier to access.
Therapists are usually taught not to talk about their own issues with their patients, but Judith Rabinor often shared her experiences with them in the hopes that by doing so, they might find common ground. This might seem unconventional to some, but it does help people realize that their troubles are more common than they think. In this case, she worked with mother-daughter clients and by helping them deal with their problems, she found that it is never too late to let go of her own trauma, hurt, and disappointments and learn compassion for her own mother. For readers, this memoir hits home because we all have disputes with our mothers and no mother-daughter relationship is perfect. It is not a ‘how to’ manual, but rather a series of life lessons the author learned the hard way. Her reflections are poetic sometimes: ‘A low-flying airplane flashed by, illuminating a grove of leafless maples trees swaying in the wind.’ Sometimes the flashbacks disrupt the time line, but for the most part, the narration is easy to follow, in part because she does not use complicated language or psychology terms. It is no wonder her clients trust her. “The Girl in the Red Boots” is a must-read poignant memoir about one woman’s journey from troubled little girl to an adult who learns to see her mother as a flawed but compassionate woman. It is recommended for readers who enjoy memoirs that entertain and help them grow as individuals.
*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.
‘Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo’ is the new novel by Sandra Cisneros. Photo: amazon
Poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist and artist, Sandra Cisneros is the author of “Bad Boys,” “My Wicked Wicked Ways,” “Loose Woman,” “Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories,” “The House on Mango Street,” “Caramelo,” “Have You Seen Marie?” “Vintage Cisneros”—a compilation of her works— and “Bravo, Bruno.” Her most recent books are “A House of My Own: Stories from My Life,” which is illustrated with photographs, and “Puro Amor” in a dual-language edition translated by Liliana Valenzuela and featuring illustrations by the author. In her new book “Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo: A Story in English and Spanish,” a long-forgotten letter sets off a charged encounter with the past. (amazon, 2021)
“Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo” – As a young woman, Corina leaves her Mexican family in Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer in the cafés of Paris. Instead, she spends her brief time in the City of Light running out of money and lining up with other immigrants to call home from a broken pay phone. But the months of befriending panhandling artists in the métro, sleeping on crowded floors, and dancing the tango at underground parties are given a lasting glow by her intense friendships with Martita and Paola. Over the years the three women disperse to three continents, falling out of touch and out of mind—until a rediscovered letter brings Corina’s days in Paris back with breathtaking immediacy. “Martita, I Remember You” is a rare bottle from Sandra Cisneros’s own special reserve, preserving the smoke and the sparkle of an exceptional year. Told with intimacy and searing tenderness, this tribute to the life-changing power of youthful friendship is Cisneros at her vintage best, in a beautiful dual-language edition.
‘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?
SA Examiner 