Another Year….

Another new list of books! Lots of mysteries and new fiction by Julian Barnes and George Saunders. Years ago I read My Absolute Darling and I am looking forward to reading Crux by the same author, Gabriel Tallent. Happy New Year!

Such Sheltered Lives by Alyssa Sheinmel (Mystery/Thriller)

For fans of Nine Perfect Strangers and The Midnight Feast, a moody, atmospheric psychological suspense set in the secretive world of celebrity rehab centers, from New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Sheinmel.

Rush’s Recovery promises its wealthy guests the utmost discretion. But when a body is discovered, how long can the center’s secrets stay buried?

Tucked among the pristine beaches and lavish manors of the Hamptons sits Rush’s Recovery, a rehabilitation center where ultra-high net worth clients can seek treatment away from prying eyes and paparazzi. The center’s latest guests have just Lord Edward of Essex, a British aristocrat fighting his black-sheep status and a painful addiction; Amelia Blue Harris, the daughter of a 90s rock legend struggling with an eating disorder; and Florence Bloom, a pop star trying to lay low after her latest tabloid scandal. Each has been promised the highest standard of care, from daily therapy and a live-in chef to acupuncture sessions and a personal care manager, available 24/7. Just so long as they stay in their private cottages and never interact with the center’s other guests.

But these three self-destructive B-listers have no intention of playing by the rules. No amount of cold plunges and talk-therapy can prevent Florence’s illicit flirtation with a staff member, or keep Amelia Blue and Lord Edward from sneaking out to wander the snow-covered grounds at night. Celebrities check in to Rush’s Recovery to protect their privacy, but the darkest secrets may lie in the center’s own history—and not every guest will be checking out alive.

The Final Score by Don Winslow

#1 internationally bestselling author Don Winslow—America’s King of Crime Fiction—is back and he’s better than ever in this intense, deeply felt, gripping collection of six all-new, never-before-published short novels. 

In six all-new short novels written with the trademark literary style, trenchant wit, and incisive characterization that have made Don Winslow “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Providence Journal), this repeat New York Times bestselling author serves up a collection of tales sure to delight Winslow’s most devoted fans and first-time readers.

The multi-million-dollar casino heist is impossible—it can’t be done.  That’s what makes it irresistible to a legendary robber facing the rest of his life in prison for his “Final Score.” An ambitious, hard-working college-bound teenager has a side job delivering illegal booze to “The Sunday List” until a crooked cop, a seductive customer, and a fake guru threaten to end his dreams. Two wise guys tell each other a “True Story” over breakfast at a diner. It’s all bullshit and laughs until someone else has to pick up the check. An otherwise honest patrolman has to make an excruciating choice between his loyalty to the job and his love for a ne’er-do-well cousin in “The North Wing.” The entitled, substance-addicted movie star that surfer/PI Boone Daniels and his crew are hired to babysit in “The Lunch Break” is a problem. She also has a problem—someone wants her dead. Finally, the one terrible, momentary mistake that a devoted family man makes sends him to prison and on a “Collision” course between the man he wants to be and the killer he’s forced to become to survive.

With a foreword written by award-winning crime author Reed Farrel Coleman, The Final Score is a propulsive, perceptive, and deeply immersive collection of crime writing — the ultimate testament to Don Winslow’s prowess as a living legend of the genre.

Dandelion is Dead by Rosie Storey

“Dandelion is Dead is breathtakingly original. A brilliant premise, smart, funny and heartbreaking in equal measure. I adored it.”
—Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of Broken Country

Jake has fallen head over heels for Dandelion. The only problem? Dandelion is dead.

When Poppy discovers unanswered messages from a charming stranger in her late sister’s dating app, she makes an impulsive choice: She’ll meet him, just once, on what would have been Dandelion’s fortieth birthday. It’s exactly the kind of wild adventure her vivacious sister would have pushed her toward.

Jake is ready to find something real—and not least because his ex-wife’s twentysomething boyfriend has moved into their old family home. When he meets the intriguing woman who calls herself Dandelion, their connection is undeniable, and he can think of little else.

As their relationship deepens, Poppy finds herself trapped in a double life she never meant to create. Every moment with Jake feels genuine, electric, and totally right—despite the fact they’re tangled in deceit. As the lines between grief and love blur, Poppy faces a choice: keep her sister’s memory alive through her lies, or risk everything for a chance at her own happiness?

With sparkling wit and aching tenderness, debut author Rosie Storey gives us a modern love story about the courage it takes to live again after loss and finding hope in the most unexpected places.

The Star Society by Gabriella Saab (historical fiction)

Uncover the captivating tale of two extraordinary sisters in The Star Society, a thrilling historical novel that transports readers from the shadows of the Dutch Resistance to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Inspired by the indomitable spirit of Audrey Hepburn, this gripping story follows Ada and Ingrid as they reunite after World War II, embarking on a journey of justice, survival, and secrets amid the backdrop of the Red Scare in Hollywood.

A new name, a new country, and a coveted title as Hollywood’s newest rising star: by 1946, actress Ada Worthington-Fox has discarded the life she left in war-torn Arnhem, where she worked for the Dutch resistance before Gestapo imprisonment prompted her to flee after release. But that life is thrust back into the spotlight when Ingrid–the sister she believed dead–shows up on her doorstep.

Politically-minded Ingrid escaped the Nazi invasion of Arnhem and fled to Washinton, D.C. where she became a private investigator. Now, she has been sent to root out communist influences in Hollywood. Her target: Ada Worthington-Fox, the sister she long thought lost to her. Ingrid must hide her true purpose as she shields Ada from sneaky reporters, damaging rumors, and increasing threats, all while fighting to uncover which side her sister is truly on before Ingrid’s efforts to help her are too late.

Yet, Ada has her own mission: locating the Gestapo agent who terrorized her hometown and bringing him to justice. But delving into her past would risk alerting the press to a life too personal to expose. As the rising fear of communism threatens everyone, she turns to her sister, believing Ingrid’s ties to Washington may be her only hope for success.

But the connections between Ada’s elusive Nazi and Ingrid’s communist witch hunt might be stronger than they realize. Both sisters share the darkest secret of all, one that risks their very lives if ever exposed. As they come closer to identifying Ada’s target and as Ingrid’s investigation intensifies, they will need to decide what is more important: justice or safety, keeping silent or taking a stand, and, above all, if their loyalty to one another is worth risking the post-war lives they’ve fought to build.

Vigil by George Saunders (fiction)

A wise, playful, electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, taking place at the bedside of an oil company CEO, in the twilight hours of his life, as he is ferried from this world into the next.

Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.

She has performed this sacred duty three hundred and forty-three times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the The powerful K.J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?

Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of an epic, complicated life. Crowds of people and animals—worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead—arrive, clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room, a black calf grazes on the loveseat, a man from a distant drought-ravaged village materializes, two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s post-death future.

With the acuity and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.

Skylark by Paula McLain (Historical Fiction)

The New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife weaves a mesmerizing tale of Paris above and below—where a woman’s quest for artistic freedom in 1664 intertwines with a doctor’s dangerous mission during the German occupation in the 1940s, revealing a story of courage and resistance that transcends time.

1664: Alouette Voland is the daughter of a master dyer at the famed Gobelin Tapestry Works, who secretly dreams of escaping her circumstances and creating her own masterpiece. When her father is unjustly imprisoned, Alouette’s efforts to save him lead to her own confinement in the notorious Salpêtrière asylum, where thousands of women are held captive and cruelly treated. But within its grim walls, she discovers a small group of brave allies, and the possibility of a life bigger than she ever imagined.

1939: Kristof Larson is a medical student beginning his psychiatric residency in Paris, whose neighbors on the Rue de Gobelins are a Jewish family who have fled Poland. When Nazi forces descend on the city, Kristof becomes their only hope for survival, even as his work as a doctor is jeopardized.

A spellbinding and transportive look at a side of Paris known to very few—the underground city that is a mirror reflection of the glories above—Paula McLain’s unforgettable new novel chronicles two parallel journeys of defiance and rescue that connect in ways both surprising and deeply moving.

Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven (Historical Fiction)

From #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Jennifer Niven, a novel about America’s favorite TV family, whose perfect façade starts to crack, for fans of Lessons in Chemistry and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s Favorite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now it’s 1964, and the Newmans’ perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch. Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb—literally. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and rock ‘n roll idol Shep may finally be in real trouble.

When Del—the creative motor behind the show— is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman, and a family, in 1964. Can the Newmans hold it together to change television history? Or will they be canceled before they ever have the chance?

Funny, big-hearted, and deeply moving, Meet the Newmans is a rich family story about the dual lives we lead. Because even when our lives aren’t televised weekly, we all have a behind-the-scenes.

The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams (Historical Fiction)

From the two-time Emmy Award–winning producer and host of the Black and Published podcast comes a sweeping multi-generational epic following seven generations of Dupree women as they navigate love, loss, and the unyielding ties of family in the tradition of Homegoing and The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois.

It’s 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her grandmother Gladys remains silent about the family’s past, including why she left Land’s End, Alabama, in 1953. As Tati digs deeper, she uncovers a legacy of family secrets, where every generation of Dupree women has posed more questions than answers.

From Jubi in 1917, whose attempt to pass for white ends when she gives birth to Ruby; to Ruby’s fiery lust for Sampson in 1934 that leads to a baby of her own; to the night in 1980 that changed Nadia’s future forever, the Dupree women carry the weight of their heritage. Bound by a mysterious malediction that means they will only give birth to daughters, the Dupree women confront a legacy of pain, resilience, and survival that began with an enslaved ancestor who risked everything for freedom.

The Seven Daughters of Dupree masterfully weaves together themes of generational trauma, Black women’s resilience, and unbreakable familial bonds. Echoing the literary power of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, Nikesha Elise Williams delivers a feminist literary fiction that explores the ripple effects of actions, secrets, and love through seven generations of Black women.

Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden (Thriller/Mystery)

A brand new twisted thriller that will have you cheering “good for her!” from the #1 New York Times bestselling and global sensation Freida McFadden, author of The Housemaid!

Sometimes, enough is enough…

Debbie Mullen is losing it. For years, she has compiled all of her best advice into her column, Dear Debbie, where the wives of New England come for sympathy and neighborly advice. Through her work, Debbie has heard from countless women who are ignored, belittled, or even abused by their husbands. And Debbie does her best to guide them in the right direction.

Or at least, she did.

These days, Debbie’s life seems to be spiraling out of control. She just lost her job. Something strange is happening with her teenage daughters. And her husband is keeping secrets, according to the tracking app she installed on his phone. Now, Debbie’s done being the bigger person. She’s done being reasonable and practical. It’s time to take her own advice.

And now it’s time for payback against all the people in her life who deserve it the most.

From #1 New York Times and international bestselling author Freida McFadden comes a biting, subversive thriller about what happens when women finally choose to take justice into their own hands – with killer results.

My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney (Thriller/Mystery)

The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists is back with a psychological masterpiece that will leave you questioning everything you know about love, identity, and revenge.

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.

One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.

Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.

My Husband’s Wife is a tangled web of deception, obsession, and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass – if you dare – to experience a story where nothing is as it seems.

Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston (Thriller/Mystery)

FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FIRST LIE WINS

A tense, feverish thriller about two women’s lives that are forever intertwined when a murder threatens to expose them both.

“Elston expertly unravels a web of secrets and lies. You won’t be able to put this excellent thriller down until the final shocking page.” —Megan Miranda

Everyone at Chantilly’s Bar noticed out-of-towner Camille Bayliss. Red lips, designer heels, sipping a Negroni. But that woman wasn’t Camille Bayliss. It was Aubrey Price.

Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life; she’s married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can’t find proof because he tracks her every move.

Aubrey Price has been haunted by the terrible night that changed her life a decade ago, and she’s convinced Benjamin Bayliss knows something about it. Living in a house full of criminals, Aubrey understands there’s more than one way to get to the truth—and she may have found the best way in.

Aubrey and Camille hatch a plan. It sounds simple: For twelve hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place. Camille will spy on Ben, and the two women will get the answers they desperately seek.

Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it. And one false step is all it takes for everything to come undone.

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins

St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984.

When Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears a writer is coming to town to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she’s less interested in solving a whodunnit than in how a successful true crime book might help the struggling inn’s bottom line. But to her surprise, August Fletcher doesn’t come to St. Medard’s Bay alone. With him is none other than Lo Bailey herself. Lo says she’s returned to her hometown to clear her name once and for all, but the closer Geneva gets to both Lo and August, the more she wonders if Lo is actually back to settle old scores.

As the summer heats up and another monster storm begins twisting its way towards St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva learns that some people can be just as destructive—and as deadly—as any hurricane, and that the truth of what happened to Landon Fitzroy may not be the only secret Lo is keeping…

The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave (Thriller)

Laura Dave continues Hannah Hall’s pulse-pounding journey in the riveting and deeply moving sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling blockbuster and Apple TV+ show, The Last Thing He Told Me.

Five years after her husband, Owen, disappeared, Hannah Hall and her stepdaughter, Bailey, have settled into a new life in Southern California. Together, they’ve forged a relationship with Bailey’s grandfather Nicholas and are putting the past behind them.

But when Owen shows up at Hannah’s new exhibition, she knows that she and Bailey are in danger again.

Hannah and Bailey are forced to go on the run in a relentless race to keep their past from catching up with them. As a thrilling drama unfolds, Hannah risks everything to get Bailey to safety—and finds there just might be a way back to Owen and their long-awaited second chance.

A gripping, rich, and deeply moving novel about the power of forgiveness, The First Time I Saw Him picks up right where the epilogue for the “genuinely moving” (The New York Times) The Last Thing He Told Me left off, giving listeners the eagerly awaited and absolutely exhilarating sequel to Dave’s global blockbuster.

The Devil’s Daughter by Danielle Steele

Two diametrically different sisters—one calculating and egotistical, the other honorable, kind, and compassionate—clash in this compelling novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel.

Graduating magna cum laude from MIT is the happiest day of Billie Banks’s life, although her family is not part of it. Her mother, who always supported her, died when Billie was seventeen. Since then, her father has been slowly drinking himself to death on the family farm in Iowa, and she and her younger sister, Mickie, have grown even more estranged.

Growing up, the siblings could not have been more different. Billie was shy, small, bookish, more like their mother; tall, blond Mickie was boldly sexual, craving attention, and lacking empathy for anyone, like their father. Despite Billie’s attempts to look after Mickie following their mother’s death, her sister consistently treated her with cruelty.

So when Mickie invites Billie to move in with her in Los Angeles, Billie is both wary and hopeful. Taking a leap of faith, she joins her sister on the West Coast. While Mickie lands a questionable modeling job and falls in with a fast crowd, Billie begins working at a pathology lab and starts dating a warm, supportive reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

But then the siblings’ difficult history once again rises to the surface. This gripping story of a sisterly bond strained to the breaking point by narcissism and temptation is an unforgettable tale of good and evil from Danielle Steel.

Crux by Gabriel Tallent

In this story of intense friendship and grit, two down-and-out teens escape the hopelessness of their lives and chase a different future through rock-climbing — from the New York Timesbestselling author of My Absolute Darling.

Dan and Tamma are two teenagers in their last year of high school in the southern Mojave Desert. One is a gifted golden child, the other a mouthy burnout. Climbing boulders in trash-strewn parking lots during cold desert nights, they seal their unique bond and dream of a life of adventure.

As the year progresses and adult reality looms, they are rocked by change and pulled apart by irreconcilable obligations. Differences of class, talent, and prospects take on new importance; options dwindle, and their decisions grow ever more consequential and perilous. It feels inevitable, finally, that something must give.

With a magnificent gift for nature writing and a joyful appreciation for the redemptive power of friendship, Gabriel Tallent gives readers a rollicking, adrenaline-filled, and soul-searching novel about risking everything to change your life.

Departures by Julian Barnes

On the occasion of his eightieth birthday, one of our great novelists delivers a playful and profound work about memory, love, and the writer’s endgame.

Shortly after our narrator, a writer named Julian, begins this compact book by discussing the workings of involuntary memory, he interrupts himself with a bulletin to the reader: “There will be a story—or a story within the story—but not just yet.”

Of course, whether Departure(s) is mostly fiction or not, there is a lot of its author in it, including Barnes’s reckoning with the blood disorder he has been living with since he was diagnosed in 2020, his long preoccupation with dying and grief, and his mordant sense of the indignities and lost opportunities we’re prey to in love. The story he promises to deliver is a love story, that of two friends he met at university in the 1960s, that time of touted but rarely experienced sexual freedom. Julian played matchmaker to Stephen (tall, gangling, uncertain) and Jean (tart and attractive); as the third wheel he was deeply invested in the success of their love and insulted when they broke up. Time is swift, and forty years later, he tries again, watching as their rekindled affair produces joys, betrayals, and disappointments of a different order.

“Life and memory can be so . . . quixotic, don’t you find?” Barnes uses both his novelistic memory and his (real?) personal diary entries to examine not just the quixotic relationship of Jean and Stephen but his writer’s eye upon it, and how his efforts in their behalf add up in the end. Having promised them he’d never write about them, he breaks the promise to fulfill one, amply, to his readers, in this delightful and poignant novelist’s game that only Julian Barnes knows how to play.