Happy New Year!
And welcome to a new year of books!
A new year can take you on new adventures and create new memories for yourself. And the January releases I have for you will do just that! The first month of 2025 brings an abundance of rich stories that will not only entertain you but create engaging and insightful conversations. What are you in the mood for this January? There is a historical revenge thriller to speed right through. Or maybe you are looking for that heartwarming romance to warm you the long winter nights? With these new books, you’ll have a great beginning with your 2025 Reading Year!
Featured Book of the Month
The Queen’s Spade by Sarah Raughley
Expected Publication Date: January 14
A young lady can take only so many injuries before humiliation and insult forge a vow of revenge. . . .
The year is 1862 and murderous desires are simmering in England. Nineteen-year-old Sarah Bonetta Forbes (Sally), once a princess of the Egbado Clan, desires one thing above all else: revenge against the British Crown and its system of colonial “humanitarianism,” which stole her dignity and transformed her into royal property. From military men to political leaders, she’s vowed to ruin all who’ve had a hand in her afflictions. The top of her list? Her godmother, Britain’s mighty monarch, Queen Victoria herself.
Taking down the Crown means entering into a twisted game of court politics and manipulating the Queen’s inner circle–even if that means aligning with a dangerous yet alluring crime lord in London’s underworld and exploiting the affections of Queen Victoria’s own son, Prince Albert, as a means to an end. But when Queen Victoria begins to suspect Sally’s true intentions, she plays the only card in Victorian society that could possibly cage Sally once again: marriage. Because if there’s one thing Sally desires more than revenge, it’s her freedom. With time running out and her wedding day looming, Sally’s vengeful game of cat and mouse turns deadly as she’s faced with the striking revelation that the price for vengeance isn’t just paid in blood. It means sacrificing your heart.
Inspired by the true story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s African goddaughter, The Queen’s Spade is a lush and riveting historical thriller for fans of This Ravenous Fate, A Dowry of Blood, and Grave Mercy. (Credit: HarperCollins)
The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O’Donnell
Something is troubling Inspector Henry Cutter. Sergeant Gideon Bliss is accustomed to his ill-tempered outbursts, but lately the inspector has grown silent and withdrawn.
Then, the murders begin. The first to die is the elderly Sir Aneurin Considine, a decorated but obscure civil servant who long ago retired to tend his orchids. If the motive for his killing is a mystery, the manner of his death is more bewildering still. The victims that follow suffer similar fates, their deaths gruesome but immaculately orchestrated. The murderer comes and goes like a ghost, leaving only carefully considered traces. As the hunt for this implacable adversary mounts, the inspector’s gloom deepens, and to Sergeant Bliss, his methods seem as mystifying as the crimes themselves.
Why is he digging through dusty archives while the murderer stalks further victims? And as hints of past wrongdoing emerge–and with them the faint promise of a motive–why does Cutter seem haunted by some long-ago failing of his own?
To find the answers, the meek and hapless sergeant must step out of the inspector’s shadow. Aided by Octavia Hillingdon, a steely and resourceful journalist, Bliss will uncover truths that test his deepest beliefs. (Credit: Tin House Books)
Ruridragon, Vol. 1 by Masaoki Shindo
Ruri faces the usual high school issues: pushy classmates, annoying teachers, and…waking up with dragon horns?!
Just after starting high school, Ruri gets hit with the biggest reveal of her life–she’s a dragon!
Well, a half dragon. Her mom admits Ruri inherited her draconic traits from her father, who, yes, is actually a dragon. As if dealing with curious classmates wasn’t already challenging enough, Ruri and her dragon genes literally turn up the heat in the middle of a lecture. Her ordinary life is about to be anything but! (Credit: Viz Media)
Murder By The Clock by Rufus King
NYPD’s Lieutenant Valcour investigates how a philandering husband could have been murdered twice in one night in this Jazz Age whodunit.
The body of Herbert Endicott is discovered by his wife at 8:37 PM, dead in his walk-in closet. The circumstances seem suspicious but there is no evidence of foul play, so Lieutenant Valcour, New York’s most astute investigator, orders an autopsy on site. The doctor discovers a faint heartbeat and, with an injection of adrenaline, Endicott is alive again. But just a few hours later, he has been shot dead—this time for good.
From this puzzling set-up, an atmospheric and tense mystery ensues, with Valcour’s research turning up more questions than answers. Before twenty-four hours are up, the solution will be uncovered. (Credit: American Mystery Classics)
King: A Life (Young Adult Edition) by Jonathan Eig and adapated by Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long
Hailed as “the most compelling account of King’s life in a generation” by The Washington Post, this Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., is now adapted for young adults by two National Book Award Longlisted authors—to be published simultaneously with the paperback edition of the adult book.
From his Georgia childhood in the historically Black neighborhood of Sweet Auburn to his rise as a civil rights leader on the well-walked streets of Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr., was many things throughout his storied life: an activist, a preacher, a dreamer. At times treated as more myth than man. But in this invigorating, inspiring adaptation of the triumphant bestseller, readers will meet a Dr. King like no other. A human being with his own triumphs and flaws, his own complexities and contradictions.
Condensing the 565-page original into a compact, compulsively readable 190-page narrative, this young adult edition of King: A Life highlights key aspects of the author’s never-before-seen research as it reaffirms and recontextualizes the lasting effects and implications of MLK’s work for present-day teens, crafting a nuanced portrayal of a man as devoted to his cause as he was complicated by it. (Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold
Masquerading as the season’s most enviable debutante, Quinn puts on a brilliant act that earns her entrance into the grand drawing rooms and lavish balls of high society—and propels her straight into the inner circle of her target: the charismatic Kendals. Among those she must convince are the handsome bachelor heir, the rebellious younger sister, and the esteemed duchess eager to see her son married.
The world is about to end. Again.
Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned bookstore in suburban New Jersey where she used to work, trading books for supplies with the few remaining survivors. It’s the one place left that feels safe to her.
Until she learns that another earth-shattering Storm is coming . . . and everything changes.
Enter Maeve, a prickly and potentially dangerous out-of-towner who breaks into the bookstore looking for shelter one night. Though the two girls are immediately at odds, Maeve has what Liz needs–the skills to repair the dilapidated store before the next climate disaster strikes–and Liz reluctantly agrees to let her stay.
As the girls grow closer and undeniable feelings spring up between them, they realize that they face greater threats than the impending Storm. And when Maeve’s secrets and Liz’s inner demons come back to haunt them both, they find themselves fighting for their lives as their world crumbles around them. (Credit: Delacorte Press)
Revolutionary Algorithms: A TikTok Manifesto by Torey Akers
In Revolutionary Algorithms, Torey Akers approaches TikTok with a deep understanding of the app, as both a prolific creator and consumer of its content. In these essays, she interrogates how the TikTok ban and the multiple genocides happening around the world are deeply intertwined; how the app can empower creators, amplify social movements, and document abuses of power. She addresses the good, bad, and sometimes uncanny parts of maneuvering and communicating in a digital space.
As a new era of social media looms, Akers makes the case for techno-progressivism, looking toward a future where TikTok continues to connect, inspire, and create space for more intersectionality, equity, and joy. (Credit: Grand Central Publishing)
The Day After The Party by Nicole Trope
The perfect birthday or the perfect nightmare?
Katelyn smiles at her husband and friends, gathered to celebrate her thirty-sixth birthday in their beautiful home decorated with fairy lights. But the next day Katelyn wakes up shaken and terrified in a hospital bed…
She doesn’t remember the sweet taste of birthday cake icing, or how angry her best friend was at midnight, or the terrible things her husband said. She doesn’t remember the party at all.
When she asks her husband what happened the night of the party he says ‘nothing’. But her blood runs cold at the way his voice lilts slightly. The way it always does when he is lying.
Did someone at the party harm her? What is her husband hiding? Or did Katelyn herself do something terrible?
Only one thing is certain. Nobody can be trusted. And if Katelyn’s memories of the party do come back, it will tear them all apart… (Credit: Grand Central Publishing)
The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens: A History by Nicola Clark
Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen’s ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.
The Waiting Game explores the daily lives of ladies-in-waiting, revealing the secrets of recruitment, costume, what they ate, where (and with whom) they slept. We meet María de Salinas, who traveled to England with Catherine of Aragon when just a teenager and spied for her during the divorce from Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn’s lady-in-waiting Jane Parker was instrumental in the execution of not one, but two queens. And maid-of-honor Anne Basset kept her place through the last four consorts, negotiating the conflicting loyalties of her birth family, her mistress the Queen, and even the desires of the King himself.
As Henry changed wives–and changed the very fabric of the country’s structure besides–these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn’t exist before. The Waiting Game is the first time their vital story has been told. (Credit: Pegasus Books)
No Place Left To Hide by Megan Lally
To Brooke, image is everything. She works hard to maintain perfect grades, perfect looks, a perfect life—especially after “the incident” that threatened it all. Getting into her dream university puts her that much closer to a fresh start. How can she say no to celebrating with all her classmates?
Hanging out with her crush by the bonfire is the perfect end to the night. Except it isn’t the end. An old truck starts aggressively tailing Brooke and her best friend on the isolated road toward home. Someone thinks they know the truth about “the incident,” and they won’t stop until it’s all out in the open. This terrifying drive is about to bring out Brooke’s worst fears… if she survives it. (Credit: Sourcebooks Fire)
Frankie by Graham Norton
Expected Publication Date: January 14
Always on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take center stage–after all, life had already judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before.
Then Damian, a young Irish caretaker, arrives at her London flat, there to keep an eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked, and the past crackles into life as Damian listens to the story Frankie has kept stored away all these years.
Traveling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York–a city full of art, larger-than-life characters and turmoil–Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide. A place where, for a while, life blazes with an intensity that can’t last but will perhaps live on in other ways and in other people. (Credit: HarperVia)
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
Expected Publication Date: January 14
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.
Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.
A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do. (Credit: Flatiron Books)
Babylonia by Costanza Casati
Expected Publication Date: January 14
A common woman. The governor she married. The king who loved them both.
Babylonia across the centuries has become the embodiment of lust, excess, and dissolute power that ruled Ancient Assyria. In this world you had to kill to be king. Or, in the case of Semiramis, an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire:
Queen.
Nothing about Semiramis’s upbringing could have foretold her legacy. But when she meets a young representative of the new Assyrian king, a prophecy unfolds before her, one that puts her in the center of a brutal world and in the hearts of two men – one who happens to be king.
Now a risen lady in a court of vipers, Semiramis becomes caught in the politics and viciousness of ancient Assyria. Instead of bartering with fate, Semiramis trains in war and diplomacy. And with each move, she rises in rank, embroiled in a game of power, desire, love, and betrayal, until she can ascend to the only position that will ever keep her safe.
In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis, the only female ruler of the Assyrian Empire, a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her. (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)
Welcome to Camp Killer by Cynthia Murphy
Expected Publication Date: January 14
When an American-style residential camp is set up in the grounds of an English stately home, the teenage instructors are looking forward to a summer of fun activities. But right from the start, things don’t feel quite right at Camp Miller.
There are rumours of a tragedy that took place in the grounds and unexplained sightings of a ghostly presence. Then the incidents begin–a near-drowning out on the lake, a fatal fall from a cliff-face . . . Are these tragic accidents or is there something more sinister going on at Camp Killer . . . ? (Credit: Union Square & Co.)
Firefly Wedding, Vol. 1 by Oreco Tachibana
Expected Publication Date: January 14
Satoko is bound by duty to marry a noble, but can’t escape the assassin who has her in his sights.
Afflicted with a heart condition, Meiji-era noblewoman Satoko is determined to secure a marriage that will benefit her family before she dies. But before she can realize her goal, she’s targeted by a mysterious assassin named Shinpei. In a last-ditch effort to save her life, Satoko asks her would-be murderer to marry her. Her proposal isn’t sincere, but unfortunately for her, Shinpei loves as intensely as he kills. Can Satoko find a way to break the engagement without losing her life?
On the surface, Satoko has it all–she’s beautiful, the daughter of a nobleman, and at a prime age for marriage. Unfortunately, she is also quite ill and only has a short time left to live. Before she can secure a marriage that will redeem her worth in her family’s eyes, she finds herself the target of the mysterious assassin Shinpei, and her plans are put in jeopardy. In order to save herself, she makes a desperate proposal–of marriage! When it comes to love, however, Shinpei takes “until death do we part” seriously. (Credit: Viz Media)
Strange Pictures by Uketsu
Expected Publication Date: January 14
An exploration of the macabre, where the seemingly mundane takes on a terrifying significance. . . .
A pregnant woman’s sketches on a seemingly innocuous blog conceal a chilling warning.
A child’s picture of his home contains a dark secret message.
A sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth down a rabbithole that will reveal a horrifying reality.
Structured around these nine childlike drawings, each holding a disturbing clue, Uketsu invites readers to piece together the mystery behind each and the over-arching backstory that connects them all. Strange Pictures is the internationally bestselling debut from mystery horror YouTube sensation Uketsu–an enigmatic masked figure who has become one of Japan’s most talked about contemporary authors.(Credit: HarperVia)
The Trauma of Burnout: How to Manage Your Nervous System Before It Manages You by Claire Plumbly
Expected Publication Date: January 14
Our human nervous system has the power to cope with high stress, but not when it’s been ground down by the relentless stimuli of today’s world. Over time, these persistent demands leave us burnt out because our nervous system is stuck in survival mode, making it hard to make decisions, rest, solve problems, be mindful, and set boundaries. We slip into autopilot, making us prone to mistakes, and toxic behaviors that impact professional and personal relationships.
Trauma of Burnout will help you avoid these vicious cycles by teaching you:
-Why stress is different from burnout
-How burnout stifles your ability to think clearly
-Why you cannot ‘think’ your way out of it
-Cultural beliefs and psychological patterns that cause burnout
-How to soothe your nervous system back to full capacity using techniques and compassion.
By the end of this book, you will have tools to thrive amidst the challenges of modern life through positive interactions and relationships. (Credit: Balance)
As You Wish by Nashae Jones
Expected Publication Date: January 14
Birdie has big plans for eighth grade. This is the year that she gets a boyfriend, and since she and her best friend, Deve, do everything together, it makes sense that Deve will get a girlfriend. This is the kind of math Birdie doesn’t find intimidating–it’s Eighth Grade 101. (Birdie + Boyfriend) + (Deve + Girlfriend) = Normal Eighth Grade Experience. And normal is something Birdie craves, especially with a mom as overprotective as hers.She doesn’t expect Deve to be so against her plan, or for their fight to blow up in her face. So when the West African god Anansi appears to her, claiming to be able to make everything right again, Birdie pushes past her skepticism and makes a wish for the whole mess to go away. But with a trickster god, your wish is bound to come true in a way you never imagined.Before long, Birdie regrets her rash words…especially when she realizes what’s really going on with her and Deve. With her reality upended, can Birdie figure out how to undo her wish? (Credit: Aladdin Paperbacks)
The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey by Astrid Dahl
Expected Publication Date: January 14
Meet the Garden State Goddesses, the cast of Huzzah’s third most popular show:
“I may play for both teams, but when it comes to being real, I always bring my A game.” —Renee Ricci
“When life gives me lemons, I make citron presse´ on my yacht in Saint- Tropez.” —Birdie St. Clair
“I don’t bite, but I do scratch, and these talons are 100 percent Italian.” —Carmela Fontana
When Hope Bennett marries Carmela’s brother Leo she not only becomes a Fontana, but a Garden State Goddess—and not everyone is happy.
Secrets will be revealed, decades-long rivalries will surface, and a sudden murder will lead to a reality reckoning no one is prepared for, least of all the show’s producer Eden who must race to catch a killer and save the most dramatic season of all time. (Credit: Simon & Schuster)
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zeinab Badawi
Expected Publication Date: January 14
Everyone is originally from Africa, and this book is therefore for everyone.
For too long, Africa’s history has been dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, or simply ignored. Now, Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight.
In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history–from the very origins of our species, through ancient civilizations and medieval empires with remarkable queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence. Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, she unearths buried histories from across the continent and gives Africa its rightful place in our global story.
The result is a gripping new account of Africa: an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves. (Credit: Mariner Books)
The Reunion by Beth Reekles
Expected Publication Date: January 14
Ten years after graduating, the class of 2014 are back at Tisdale Comprehensive for the reunion, packed into a school gym full of familiar faces—and plenty of new secrets.
MOST LIKELY TO END UP TOGETHER – Shaun and Steph were each other’s first love. Now, they’re settled and planning the perfect wedding— to other people. Could reconnecting spark a new romance?
MOST LIKELY TO BECOME FAMOUS – Bryony was supposed to travel the world, rule the West End, have a dazzling career as a TV actress… Now, she’s a drama teacher who’s exaggerated her whole life on Instagram, and is desperate to save face.
MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED – Hayden was told he’d achieve great things, like be on the cover of TIME, win a Nobel prize… or, the accolade his daughters just awarded him: World’s Best Dad. Is it too late for him to turn things around, and more importantly, does he even want to?
MOST LIKELY TO KILL EACH OTHER – Ashleigh was an A+ student, and Ryan the star of the school rugby team. After years of putting each other down, they left school each convinced they would have the better life. Now, that old rivalry finds them drawn back together in a new, intoxicating way—one they’re both determined to hide.
With an evening of power cuts, fire alarms, sneaking off to explore classrooms in the dark, stolen kisses and heated fights—it’s like they never left at all.
Where The Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan
Expected Publication Date: January 21
Ireland is starving, and a poor Irish scullery maid falls in love with the British heir to the land. Can their romance stay hidden during the devastating famine? The potatoes are black, people are dying, and in the midst of it all, Nell must do everything she can to keep her family together and everyone she loves alive.
It is hard to tell a love story
and also the story of a people
being torn apart. (Credit: Greenwillow Books)
Lochs and Legends: A Scotsman’s Guide to the Heart of Scotland by Andy the Highlander and Lilly Hurd
Expected Publication Date: January 21
A Scotsman’s guide to the extraordinary tapestry of the land, history, folklore and stories of his homeland.
From the majestic beauty of the wild Scottish landscape to the hidden traces of its history waiting to be uncovered in every town and village, Andrew McAlindon is enthralled by the country he is lucky enough to call home. As one of Scotland’s busiest tour guides in real life and online, Andy travels around the country to ancient sites such as castles, cemeteries, burial chambers and prisons, celebrating the history, folklore, superstitions and the fascinating people that make Scotland so unique.
Lochs and Legends is Andy’s love letter to Scotland, a love that began when he landed a part on the worldwide phenomenon Outlander, and led to him dedicating his life to learning more about the true star of the show – Scotland. A social media sensation as Andy the Highlander, his first book opens up Scotland’s secrets to anyone, even if they can only explore it from the comfort of their armchair. It invites you to time travel with Andy, walking in the footsteps of kings and queens, lairds and ladies, murderers, farmers, poets, invading armies, and everyday folks like himself. It is Scotland as you’ve never seen it before. (Credit: HarperCollins)
Eleanor and the Cold War by Ellen Yardley
Expected Publication Date: January 21
New York City and Washington, DC, 1951.Kay Thompson–secretary to Eleanor Roosevelt–is a young woman of conviction navigating the post-World War II period. But can she expose the dark truth about a transatlantic murder mystery unfolding before her eyes?
Previously fired for speaking out against workplace injustices, twenty-five-year-old Kay Thompson finds her true calling once appointed to support Eleanor Roosevelt, a champion of human rights known as ER among those in her inner circle. Kay fully embraces her new role as the former First Lady’s right hand–typing up daily columns and juggling a blur of political meetings, ribbon cuttings, and charitable dinners. It’s not until a dead body is discovered on a train that her most compelling task comes into focus . . .Stunning Susie Taylor had star quality. Judging from her photos, it’s clear why she left Sweden with plans to make it big on Broadway. But when ER enlists Kay’s help on a discreet investigation about her sudden disappearance, the two suspect the up-and-comer was concealing secrets about her real identity and motives–all leading to her murder at Washington’s Union Station . . .Plunged into a living Alfred Hitchcock film, an unseasoned Kay and a shrewd ER side with a handsome detective on a search for answers. What was Susie’s connection with a charismatic Soviet UN delegate and an atomic energy researcher? As ER makes it her mission to find out, danger looms upon the discovery of another body. Now, Kay must play a central role in exposing the killer–before she becomes the next rising beauty to meet a cruel fate . . . (Credit: Kensington Publishing Corporation)
The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay
Expected Publication Date: January 21
I. The Mark II. The Intrusion. III. The Ballyhoo. IV. The Knot. V. All In.
There may be many counter-strikes along the way, for such is the nature of the game; it contains so many sides, so many endless possibilities…
1898. Quinn le Blanc, London’s most talented con woman, has five days to pull off her most ambitious plot yet: trap a highly eligible duke into marriage and lift a fortune from the richest family in England.
But the deeper she forges into their world, the more Quinn finds herself tangled in a complicated web of love, lies, and loyalty. The Kendals all have secrets of their own, and she may not be the only one playing a game of high deception… (Credit: Graydon House)
Manga Classics Sherlock Holmes Vol.1: A Study in Scarlet adapted by Crystal Chan
Expected Publication Date: January 21
“There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”
It is 1887 and a man has been murdered in an abandoned house. On his face is an expression of utter horror; in his pocket is a woman’s wedding ring. On the wall above him is the word RACHE, written in blood. But whose blood is it?
Thus begins the story of one of the world’s most famous partnerships. Join Manga Classics now as we return to the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes, in which he and his newfound partner Dr. John Watson unravel the mystery behind a murder that spans the globe! (Credit: Manga Classics)
Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson
Expected Publication Date: January 28
She gets people to confess their crimes for a living. He knows she’s hiding a terrible secret. It’s time for the truth to come out…
Poe Webb, host of a popular true crime podcast, invites people to anonymously confess crimes they’ve committed to her audience. She can’t guarantee the police won’t come after her “guests,” but her show grants simultaneous anonymity and instant fame–a potent combination that’s proven difficult to resist. After an episode recording, Poe usually erases both criminal and crime from her mind.
But when a strange and oddly familiar man appears on her show, Poe is forced to take a second look. Not only because he claims to be her mother’s murderer from years ago, but because Poe knows something no one else does. Her mother’s murderer is dead.
Poe killed him. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)
The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Expected Publication Date: January 28
Mercury Carter is a deliveryman and he takes his job very seriously. When a parcel is under his care, he will stop at nothing to deliver it directly to its intended recipient. Not even, as in the current case, when he finds a crew of violent men at the indicated address that threaten his life and take the woman who lives there hostage. That’s because Carter has special skills from his former life as a federal agent with the postal inspection service, skills that make him particularly useful for delivering items in circumstances as dangerous as these.
After Carter dispatches the goons sent to kill him, he enters a home besieged by criminals—but the leader of the gang escapes with attorney Rachel Stanfield before the mailman can complete his assignment. With Rachel’s husband Glenn in tow, Carter takes off in pursuit of the kidnapper and his quarry, hunting them across Indiana, up to Chicago, and into small-town Illinois. Along the way, he slowly picks off members of the crew and uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy and a powerful crime syndicate, all in service of his main objective: to hand the package over to Rachel. Carter has never missed a delivery and isn’t about to start now. (Credit: Mysterious Press)
The Dark Hours by Amy Jordan
Expected Publication Date: January 28
Julia Harte has found the perfect place to disappear: Cuan Beag, a secluded coastal village on the east coast of Ireland. Home to less than one thousand residents, a popular daytrip for tourists, it has proven to be a scenic corner in which to erase a life. This corner of the world is so peaceful, at times it feels uninhabited; that’s why she chose to disappear here. But Julia knows anything is possible in the dark hours.
Thirty years ago, Julia helped to bring down the most prolific serial killer Ireland had ever seen, and while that case spurred a successful career and a bestselling book, it’s also the reason she’s in hiding now, all alone and haunted by the things tha happened all those years ago, without the husband she had depended upon. When a copycat killer strikes, Julia is called back to active duty, but this time, she’s not the young, naive officer she was then. She knows killers like this one, who hunt for sport, and she’s determined to put a stop to his plans–or die trying.
The Scorpion Queen by Mina Fears
Expected Publication Date: January 28
Deep within the imperial palace at Timbuktu, Amie has suffered a devastating loss. Once the daughter of a prosperous salt merchant Amie’s life was cruelly overturned in a matter of months. At sixteen, Amie now finds herself disinherited, framed for a scandalous crime, and forced to serve Princess Mariama of Mali . Her father, Emperor Sulyeman, has created a series of impossible trials for his daughter’s suitors. When they fail, he publicly boils them alive, littering Mariama’s path to marriage with ninety-nine corpses.
At first, Amie’s life at court is drudgery—the chores are difficult, the servants despise her, and Princess Mariama is prone to mood swings—but the more she learns about the princess’s circumstances, the closer the two girls become. Amie and her intended, Kader, plan to escape Timbuktu and make a new life far away from the shadow of death that has fallen upon the emperor’s court, but she finds herself increasingly drawn to the princess in ways she doesn’t understand.
When a mysterious discovery forces her hand, she must choose between fleeing with the boy she loves or helping the princess to end the trials forever. Amie will need to draw on all of her strength and courage to make the perilous journey through the desert to seek the aid of an exiled god in a final, desperate attempt to take charge of her own destiny. (Credit Flatiron Books)
The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King by Harry Trevaldwyn
Expected Publication Date: January 28
Patch Simmons has decided that this is the year he will get a boyfriend, so it’s goodbye to his French pen-pal Jean-Pierre and hello to the world!
Unfortunately, the only other “out” boys in his school year are dating each other, so finding a boyfriend isn’t going to be easy… Until fate finally intervenes and two new mysterious boys join drama club: Peter, who’s just moved from New York (very chic) and his best friend, Sam.
Patch is confident that one of them (although either of them will do!) will be his first boyfriend. So armed with his single mum’s outdated self-help books, his over-supportive best friend Jean and an alarming level of self-confidence, Patch is confident that this mission will be a complete success. Whether or not they actually like boys or him is a problem for later. (Credit: Wednesday Books)
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