It’s that time of year again! No, we have about 4 months until the holiday season is upon us. I am talking about the start of the fall season, my favorite time of the year! There is no better way to celebrate the beginning of the beautiful amber colors and the wonderful crisp fall air with a good book. And we slide into the fall season, September brings us a bundle of exciting new titles that will match perfectly with your beloved fall activity. September brings the books and book lovers of all interests will not be disappointed!

Featured Book of the Month

Styx: The River by Nikita Gill

Expected Publication Date: September 15

Beginning a generation before Hekate, Styx sings the story of the goddess of the underworld river that bears her name.

The firstborn child of Titans, Styx is revered as the first of her kind–until she is eclipsed and forgotten amid her scores of siblings, the Oceanids and the Potamoi.Coming of age in a world simmering with paranoia and unspoken fear of Zeus, Styx learns to conceal the rage ignited by her growing disillusionment with her parents and her vain and unkind siblings.

Instead, she finds solace and sisterhood in her cousin, Asteria. Together, they train in the arts of creation and magic. And as they seek to learn their divine purpose and their place within the Titanomachy, they discover both the joy sparked by true love and the fierce resilience birthed from motherhood.

In this lyrical and heartrending tale of sisterhood, identity, love, and war, Styx must carve her own path to womanhood–and ultimately, godhood. (Credit: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

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Murder in St. James’s Park by Vanessa Riley

Confessions from beyond the grave throw Lady Worthing into turmoil . . .

London, 1807. Lady Abigail Worthing’s marriage of convenience to James Monroe, the Lord Worthing, is over. But James is out of her life quicker than Abigail anticipated when she finds his body in St. James’s Park.

Shocked by her husband’s brutal murder, Abigail is determined to catch his killer. But when she discovers that James’s transgressions ran far deeper and darker than she thought possible, Abigail questions her own judgment. Did she make a terrible mistake when solving a past crime, and does the key to James’s death lie in the letters he was writing shortly before his demise?

With her neighbor and good friend Stapleton Henderson by her side, Abigail confronts jealousy, resentment, and stunning betrayal that will shake her to her core . . . (Credit: Severn House)

Tell The Ghosts I’m Gone by Kalynn Bayron

Moll, Redd, Agnes, and Ossie are powerful-and dangerous. But they don’t want people to fear them. They’ve spent their lives trying to understand and control their supernatural gifts, trying to help people instead of hurt them.

That’s why they offer paranormal investigative services to anyone who needs them. But when the case of a missing young woman brings them to an old (and potentially haunted) Victorian mansion, soon it’s the four teens who are in the greatest danger. The secrets they uncover about the paranormal forces inhabiting the house may shed light on the darkness that exists at the edge of their powers and finally help them gain control-if they can make it out alive. (Credit: Bloomsbury YA)

The Silent Appeal by Janice Hallett

Welcome back to Lower Lockwood. The Fairway Players return with Sarah-Jane and Kevin MacDonald as committee cochairs. This year, they have chosen to stage Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. But auditions aren’t their only problem: Sarah-Jane’s sister, Nicky-Rose, is suddenly back in town under mysterious circumstances, having sold her home in Barbados, left her business providing entertainment on cruise ships, and moved back into their mother Carol’s house.

As always, they’re short on men, and new Player Fran Elroy-Jones enlists a young married couple and the husband’s cousin to join. But no one wants to play the part of the hated Gerda, leaving Kevin and Sarah-Jane with no option but to reach out to an old member they know would be happy to perform in any role.

As with any production, tensions run high, and our intrepid lawyers Femi and Charlotte are tasked with uncovering exactly what happened on the opening night of The Hollow—and whether the correct person has taken the blame. (Credit: Atria Books)

Accidental Assassin Vol. 1 by Molly Ni Chéileachair and illustrated by Vi 

To her peers, office worker Bonnie isn’t cut out for a high-powered corporate life. Sweet, bubbly, and a lover of all things feminine and cute, she hardly fits in. Little do her coworkers know, Bonnie had an unusual, isolated upbringing where her father taught her a very uncommon curriculum.

Then a late-night office attack reveals the unexpected: Bonnie is as sharp and capable as she is deadly. 

Catching the attention of a secret organization of assassins called Fianna, she is recruited as an apprentice. Inspired by a group of legendary Irish heroes, the Fianna are a covert, highly trained group dedicated to defending the world from chaos. Through any means necessary. 

In this dangerous new world, Bonnie thrives—but she still hasn’t won everyone over. Ronan Clarke, the organization’s top operative, sees her as a joke. Forced to work together, Bonnie fights to prove herself to her cold new partner—no matter what it takes.

This first volume collects episodes 1 to 14 of the hit WEBTOON Accidental Assassin. (Credit: WEBTOON Unscrolled)

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour—it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions around the village.

Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi household are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music. Death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house. Soon, amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi is on the scene to investigate what will become a legendary murder case, but can this scruffy sleuth solve a seemingly impossible crime?

Yokomizo is perhaps the most popular and beloved crime writer in his country’s history. His classic mysteries are a treat for any fan of Golden Age whodunits, taking the reader all over post-war Japan, from remote mountain villages to pirate-plagued islands to the bustling streets of Tokyo.

Featuring stunning French flaps and a beautiful, wintry wrap-around cover, this deluxe gift paperback will delight Yokomizo fans old and new seeking the ingenious puzzle plot that started it all! (Credit: Pushkin Vertigo)

The Judas Window by Carter Dickson

James Answell is paying a visit to his future father-in-law, the champion archer Avory Hume, at his Grosvenor Street townhouse. Invited into the study and offered a drink, Answell suddenly swoons–and awakes to find the door and windows locked from the inside. His host is dead, skewered with an arrow, and Answell is prime suspect. The devilish puzzle constructed, Carter Dickson unravels an ingenious courtroom thriller, in which the razor-sharp amateur detective Sir Henry Merrivale argues for the defense in all of his outlandish glory–and the mystery of the ‘Judas Window’ is unveiled.

First published in 1938, this landmark novel remains one of the greatest locked-room murder mysteries of all time, and a dazzling showcase of the author’s unsurpassed flair for narrative legerdemain and jaw-dropping twists. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)

Tom Burne Has Left The Chat by Seán Farrelly

A tragic death. A chance at a new life. Could one phone hold all the answers?

This wasn’t my phone. This was real. Tom had died today, literally died, and here I was, picking through the digital carrion like some sort of virtual vulture.

When micro-influencer Tom Burne takes his own life, he leaves behind his phone, its password, and a cryptic message that needs decoding.

Seventeen-year-old Jamie doesn’t intend to take the phone, but once he does, he knows it was meant for him. Fuelled by his own sense of isolation and the recent passing of his father, Jamie loses himself in uncovering the truth. The more he investigates the digital fragments contained within the phone, the deeper into Tom’s dark world he falls.

As his own grief resurfaces and with his mother pushing for them to move to a different country for a fresh start, Jamie has very little time to find out the harsh reality that led to Tom’s tragic end.

Can he clear Tom’s name before it is too late? (Credit: Faber & Faber Children’s)

Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell 

Katherine Rundell, one of the most accomplished modern children’s writers, offers an extended essay about the pleasures and benefits of reading children’s literature as an adult.

Rundell explores how children’s books ignite—and can re-ignite—the imagination; how children’s fiction, with its unabashed emotion and playfulness, can awaken old hungers and create new perspectives on the world.

Infinitely wise and thought-provoking, Rundell’s short book is a perfect one-sitting read, and a terrific gift for the book-lover in your life. (Credit: Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Buried In The Woods Below by Daniel G. Miller

When Charlotte Hoffman’s picture-perfect career implodes overnight, she retreats to the one place she swore she’d never return: Big Island, Minnesota. Home to her childhood best friend, Olivia Parker, and the place where her life first fell apart.

Eighteen years ago, tragedy struck, and Charlotte’s blamed herself for that bloody night ever since. Now she’s back, staying with the Parkers in their isolated lakeside home, surrounded by dark woods shrouded in mist and the decaying remains of a long-abandoned amusement park.

But something isn’t right.

The Parkers’ young twin girls whisper about ghosts in the trees. Threatening notes appear on doors. An old carousel screams in the wind. And every night the island claims another victim.

As Charlotte wades ever-deeper into danger, she can’t shake the feeling that someone brought her back to the isolated island for a reason.

Someone who wants to finish what was started all those years ago. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)

The Twelve by Liz Hyder and illustrated by Tom de Freston

It’s supposed to be a treat for Kit, a winter holiday by the Welsh coast with her sister Libby and their mum. But as the solstice moon rises high in the sky, Kit and Libby are drawn to a mysterious white tower, only to face disaster when Libby vanishes. The world has rewritten itself, leaving Kit to navigate a reality where her sister has never existed. Even their mum doesn’t remember her.

But then Kit meets Story, a local boy who remembers Libby perfectly. They team up to embark on a perilous journey across time, through a world steeped in ancient folklore and fraught with dangers beyond their wildest imagination. Will they be able to uncover the secret of the Twelve and rescue Libby before Time itself vanishes?

Set against the mystical backdrop of the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales, The Twelve is a dark and dreamy time travel fantasy that explores how we can care for both each other and our planet in the face of the rising climate emergency. With 30 stunning black and white illustrations interspersed throughout its pages, this modern classic in the making from award-winning author Liz Hyder draws on folklore, ritual and mystery to create an utterly mesmerizing fantasy book for teens ages 13-15. (Credit: Pushkin Children’s Books)

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Recca Wait

Alice and Hanna haven’t spoken in years—but where better to reconnect with an estranged sister than at a funeral?

Years earlier, their mother Celia and aunt Katy had their own tempestuous relationship. Katy was pretty and easy to love; Celia was unassuming and “unprepossessing,” according to their mother. But in her teens, Katy began to change, in bits, then bounds— until finally, her doctors arrived at a diagnosis that then took all the family’s energy, though they refused to admit it. Celia was on her own, developing hang-ups that come from a family suffering in silence.

When Celia has her own children—twins Alice and Hanna, saint and sinner, and their eternally disapproving brother Michael—her parenting is, predictably, unconventional. Alice and Hanna seem caught in the unforgiving hands of fate, doomed to repeat the cycle of Celia and Katy as Hanna spins out of control upon entering university.

At the wryly beating heart of I’m Sorry You Feel That Way are sisters, grappling with how family dynamics curdle or calcify over time. Bookended by funerals, where the foibles of human nature and the humor found at the nexus of denial and despair are inevitably on display, I’m Sorry You Feel That Way is a whipsmart addition to a growing body of work by a gifted stylist. (Credit: Harper Perennial)

A Past Without Pictures by Jonathan Ames

Maria Cole’s life has never been a walk in the park. Raised in foster care and with a history of abuse, her journey to the force was winding and loaded with heartache. When the LAPD detective is involved in a tragic shooting and, soon after, learns that her estranged ex-con father has been murdered, she finds her past surging back in a double-bout of grief.

There is an estate to settle and a funeral to attend, so Maria travels to her father’s rural home in coastal Alabama and starts asking questions about his murder. But the tight-lipped locals don’t take kindly to inquisitive outsiders, and she has to tangle with corrupt small-town officials, bigoted cops, and home-grown criminal conspiracies to get answers. In the process, she uncovers shocking revelations about her father’s life—and her own.

Gripping, tightly plotted, and action-packed, A Past Without Pictures is a twisty noir narrative that condenses its sprawling scope into a forcefully fast-paced novella. (Credit: The Mysterious Press)

First Chance by Kasey Lansdale

Chance Kirby isn’t new to detective work, but starting over in Hopeful, Texas, is a big step. Determined to leave behind her father and stepmother’s shadow and carve out a future of her own, she opens a small PI agency, expecting missing heirlooms and marital disputes. But when the cold case of a murdered teenage girl is dropped on her doorstep, Chance finds herself in the middle of an investigation with no leads.

With her adopted sister Tia, her loyal dog Sissy, and the town’s newly arrived police chief Isabella Lopez at her side, Chance soon begins to suspect this murder may be only one piece of a much bigger, and more disturbing, pattern.

To stop a predator who, it seems, has managed to evade authorities for decades, Chance must stay one step ahead … or risk becoming the next target. (Credit: Blackstone Publishing)

Miss Greene’s Secret: Based on the True Story of the Black Librarian Who Shaped the Morgan Library by Nicolas Antona and illustrated by Nina Jacqmin

At the dawn of the twentieth century, American society continued to draw a strict racial line. Even the faintest trace of African ancestry was enough to classify a person as Black, shaping every aspect of life in a deeply segregated nation.

It was under these conditions that Belle Greener reinvented herself as Belle da Costa Greene. A young woman from Washington, D.C., she made the difficult decision to conceal her African heritage and rose to become one of the most influential cultural figures of her time, running the prestigious Morgan Library for forty-three years.

For decades, she sustained this delicate balance. But what does it mean to build an extraordinary life on a truth that must remain unspoken? What is lost, when you trade one identity for another?

This graphic novel biography draws from the few remaining primary sources to bring Belle’s story to life through careful research and thoughtful fictionalization where the historical record falls silent. (Credit: Abrams Comicarts)

Wicked Endeavors by Kamilah Cole

Caya lived a charmed life under the protection of Coventry’s royal family … until the three witch Houses seized power and wiped them out.

Now eighteen, she’s ready to take revenge. With the help of a mysterious benefactor, Caya slips into the witches’ glittering world under a new identity: Marisol Vinyet, a disarmingly beautiful aristocrat. As Marisol, she’ll attend the annual Coronet, the witches’ cutthroat social season designed to strengthen their power. Even the prince of neighboring Domingo–Tomás Castellan–will attend, just in time for “Marisol” to kill him.

After all, his family set the witches upon Coventry in the first place.

But Tomás is more charming than Caya anticipated. Worse the prince is protected by her estranged childhood friend, Bas Arroyo, who stirs up frustrating feelings that waver between attraction and hatred.

To destroy the witches from within, Caya will have to keep her identity hidden, her heart in check, and her mission front and center. Because even though she’s made herself a weapon, she might be the one to bleed. (Credit: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Receipts from the Bookshop: A Bookseller’s Year in an English Seaside Town by Katie Clapham

One summer not long ago, bookseller Katie Clapham began chronicling life at the small independent bookstore she runs with her mother in the English seaside town of Lytham St Annes. Her cozy bookshop diaries detail the romance and frustration of running your own bookstore – from the loyal customers to the feisty passers-by, and the deliveries filled with tempting new stock to the never-ending aftermath of cardboard boxes. Katie faithfully records the change of seasons from sad January to exhausting December, punctuated with visits from inquisitive dogs, adorable children, and people just looking for a good place to get an omelette around here.

Tender, funny, and thoughtful, Receipts from the Bookshop is a love letter to everything we hold dear: small towns, family, book chat, hot cups of tea, and just the right snack at 11 AM….

• A valentine for book lovers everywhere.
• Cozy armchair travel for anyone who loves England.
• Reminds readers why bookstores are our happy place.
• The perfect story of a small family business built on love and commitment.
• A warm, funny look at community in a small seaside town. (Credit: William Morrow)

Little Red Death by Alexandra Benedict

This is once upon a time, like you’ve never read it before

For twenty-five years, DI Lyla Rondell has lived with one unsolved case: her best friend’s disappearance. The only clue–a poisoned apple–earned it the nickname “Snow White.” It’s haunted her ever since.

Now, when a woman is taken in a crime that has striking similarities to the story of Cinderella, Lyla is charged with investigating. And as more murders take place, each one based on a different classic fairytale, Lyla is determined to finally uncover the truth.

But these deaths are far from the stuff of bedtime stories. And worse, it becomes increasingly clear that these killings, and the messages left within them, are addressed directly to Lyla.

As the murders get more gruesome, Lyla becomes entangled in a web of crime and storytelling that goes far deeper than she ever could have imagined. Because someone out there is pulling her strings, and to turn the final page on the killings, Lyla will have to take a little creative license of her own. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)

Laws of Solomon by Eriq La Salle

Redemption isn’t given. It’s fought for.

After years of violence, Solomon leaves the brutal backdrop of New York and its underworld to find peace in California where he settles for the quiet life of a gardener defined by routine, restraint, and a fragile kind of peace that had alluded him. Having been a former child soldier, mercenary, and hit man, he is determined to put his past behind him. But as violence erupts on the grounds he tends, his hard-won tranquility shatters when he encounters a young boy named Gaby whose life is in danger.

Protecting the child pulls Solomon back into a world he swore he’d buried. As they set out on an unexpected journey, hunted by men who will stop at nothing to get what they want, Solomon must confront not only the threat closing in but the darkness he carries within.

Propulsive and deeply human, Laws of Solomon is a story of redemption, found family, and the cost of choosing compassion in a brutal world. In saving Gaby, Solomon may finally discover whether peace is something a man like him can earn–or something he must sacrifice everything to protect. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)

Queenie Is Working on It by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie Jenkins is moving on up.

She’s thirty-three, the editorial director for The Good Sis, a thriving media network amplifying the voices of Black women—a far cry from her former toxic workplace. With a great platform and a renewed sense of purpose, she’s fighting the good fight.

So when an appointment for research goes haywire and reveals startling truths about her own fertility, Queenie is confronted with a racing biological clock when she’s not even sure she wants kids in the first place. She’s sort of seeing someone, but it’s not that serious (according to him), and her mom, grandma, and aunt Maggie all mean well, but they keep asking when she’s going to settle down.

Surrounded by loyal friends who seem to fall in love with their person and get pregnant at the drop of a hat and the reappearance of an old flame she never stopped loving while being pulled into a series of confusing “situationships” that really do NOT go anywhere means that for Queenie, time is running out in all parts of her life. She’s determined to do what she thinks is best to get back on track, no matter how many mistakes it takes to get this right.

Bigger. Not better. Older. Not wiser. The beloved and flawed Queenie Jenkins is scared, she is frustrated, she is confused…but she is working on it. (Credit: Gallery/Scout Press)

Disenchanted by Lucy Jane Wood

Sage Hemlock has no interest in embracing her witchy side. Magic has betrayed her before, bringing nothing but heartache, and she will not let something so foolish happen again.

Instead, Sage has thrown herself into her work and studies, running the local museum and largely preferring the company of her library and her cat to other humans. Her one goal is to fly under the coven’s radar so that she can finally shed her blasted powers forever.

But when a strange historical book accidentally sets off a curse, Sage’s quiet small-town life is suddenly overrun and magic is running rife. A beanstalk grows in her garden, and her friend and coworker Casimir starts to look an awful lot like a handsome prince. Fairy tales are coming true. . . .

Now, with the threat of the coven on her tail, Sage must confront the magic she’s always denied to solve the mysteries of the book and save everyone she’s come to love from being lost to a fairy tale forever. The question is, can she finally learn to be her own happily ever after? (Credit: Ace)

And Then There Were None adapted by Aya Nikaido

Expected Publication Date: September 15

The official manga adaptation of Agatha Christie’s best-selling mystery classic!

Ten people are sent an invitation to a secluded island by someone none of them seem to remember knowing. Isolated from the world, they soon realize that this is no ordinary excursion. They are all trapped. And no one is coming to their rescue!

As the guests arrive at the island enclave, they discover that there is no obvious link between them and that nobody is quite sure who lured them there. They resolve to enjoy themselves regardless of their missing host’s whereabouts. But when past crimes are brought to light, it becomes clear that their host’s intentions are not benevolent. (Credit: Viz Media)

Murder School by Paul B. Rainey 

Expected Publication Date: September 15

A memoir of British middle school bullying and one precocious comic nerd’s fight to make it through while remaining as invisible as possible.

Paul B. Rainey takes a look back at his middle school education and the indignities suffered—a mix of stalled friendships, pitched battles with martinets, and exasperated pleading with intractable parents. Playground games take on outsized importance as Paul and his friends seek respite from a particularly abusive science teacher. Paul jockeys to hold his place in the complicated hierarchy of school bullying. 

Rainey takes a classic “school daze” tale—both wistful and hilarious—and manages to turn it on its head with a couple of his now famous twists. Find out the truth behind The Murder School and the effect it’s had on Rainey well into middle-age. (Credit: Drawn & Quarterly)

American Nightmare by Kelly McWilliams

Expected Publication Date: September 15

Clark Wendell White first encountered the Nightmare as a child during the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906, when he and his father stood guard over their family home. In the eyes of the mob surging through his neighborhood, Clark sensed this malevolent presence. It was then that the Nightmare took shape, burrowing deep into his mind and feeding on his fear.

Years later, the same evil presence drives Clark to the NAACP’s headquarters in New York City, where he answers an ad seeking light-skinned Black men for dangerous undercover work. As a spy for the NAACP, Clark investigates lynchings, impersonating the very Nightmare that once tormented him.

As Clark descends deeper into this double life, another force rises: a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, finding a foothold in the storied streets of New York City. Among its eager recruits is Sam Cahill—the one man who can see past his disguise. Now Clark must outwit both the living and the dead, as he confronts a past that refuses to stay buried and a future where the act of passing exacts a soul-deep price.

Inspired by the life of civil rights activist Walter White, who passed as a white man to expose the brutality of lynchings from the South to the Midwest, American Nightmare is a gripping historical thriller that reveals the most terrifying monsters aren’t those that go bump in the night but those that walk among us. (Credit: Crown)

Sanctuary by Garry Disher

Expected Publication Date: September 15

Grace is a thief—a good one. She was taught by experts and she’s been practising since she was a kid, specializing in small, high-value items like stamps and watches. But it’s a solitary life, always watchful, always moving. It’s not the life she wants.

Then a run-in with an old associate forces her to lie low in a small rural town, where she happens across an antiques shop. The owner Erin is timid but friendly, and has a room to rent. And Grace glimpses a different life, and perhaps a home.

But there are dangerous men watching her, and Grace should know better than to let her guard slip. Because no matter how far she runs, her past is always just a few steps behind. . . (Credit: The Mysterious Press)

Turncloak by L.K. Steven

Expected Publication Date: September 15

Revenge drove Saffron Killoran to go undercover in the Bloodmoon gang. But now, with any chance of retribution gone, she sees only one path forward: harnessing a long-dormant power to fix her ruinous mistakes.

Meanwhile, the new kingpin of the Bloodmoons has discovered Saffron’s true identity as a Silvercloak—and her ultimate goal of bringing his empire down. As old wounds resurface and fresh enemies close in, he finds himself torn between the cause to which he has devoted his life and the fate of the traitorous mage he loves.

Hot on their heels is an ambitious rookie detective sent to stake out the Bloodmoons’ growing rivals. She will stop at nothing to destroy both gangs—and anything or anyone who dares to stand in her way.

Caught in a cat-and-mouse game of trust and betrayal spanning continents, Saffron must choose where her loyalties lie—and determine if her quest to unmake time itself is worth becoming a villain to the whole world. (Credit: Del Rey)

Ashes at the Altar by LaDarrion Williams

Expected Publication Date: September 15

Malik Baron has learned a lot since he first came to Caiman University: History is power. Family is more than just blood. You can’t escape your past. And magic always comes with a price.

But nothing he’s been taught could have prepared him for what this semester will bring. Even after he risked it all to trap the evil spirit Marinette that has been possessing his mother, her power continues to grow. And with her and the Bokors still at large, the cracks in the magical community have reached a breaking point. Just as Malik begins to get to know his father’s family, the Bonclairs’ power is challenged, leaving him to decide where his loyalties lie. And it’s not just the future of Caiman at stake, but the very magic that runs in his veins.

In the propulsive and emotional conclusion to this powerful trilogy, the future and the family Malik has fought so hard to build and protect is in greater danger than ever. But with the power of ancestors and the strength of his loved ones behind him, can he fight for what the world has always said is impossible for a Black boy like him—a happy ending? (Credit: Labyrinth Road)

Corpse Creek by Vincent Ralph

Expected Publication Date: September 15

In 2008, Ethan’s older brother drowned in Bleak Haven’s cursed creek. While the coroner ruled out foul play, Ethan has always suspected that there’s more to the story.

Four years later, 18-year-old Ethan chooses the anniversary of the tragedy to finally return to the creek, attempting to gain the closure that has always eluded him.

What starts as a healing process aided by his loyal friends turns sinister when something emerges from the shadows: a figure that looks unnervingly like Ethan’s dead brother, begging for a sacrifice that could change everything.

As Ethan digs deeper into the creek’s dark history, he discovers that someone did return when all seemed lost. Maybe they were the ‘miracle’ child the news reports painted them as. Or perhaps they only came back because someone took their place.

If that’s true, Ethan really could bring his lost brother home. But how far is he willing to go…and at what cost? (Credit: Wednesday Books)

The Swifts: A Garden of Vipers by Beth Lincoln

Expected Publication Date: September 22

After catching a murderer at the family reunion and solving a century-old art caper, the Swift children have built a reputation as expert sleuths. But when cousin Atrocious needs help to solve a murder in New York City, Shenanigan is wary until she finds out the victim is connected to their old friend Daisy DeMille and her family’s flower empire. Trapped by a snowstorm in the DeMille’s high-rise greenhouse headquarters, Shenanigan will have to weed out the poisoner hiding among the plants.

For their new adventure, Shenanigan and the beloved Swifts are joined by another eccentric, and fabulously fatal, family—the American DeMilles, including flamboyant heir-apparent Dandelion, ambitious brother Basil, and tenacious siblings Moss and Delphinium. The Swifts are back with their trademark witty wordplay, murder mysteries, and, of course, shenanigans. (Credit: Dutton Books for Young Readers)

School Bus Graveyard Vol. 2 by Red

Expected Publication Date: September 22

After the worst field trip ever, Ashlyn and her friends now spend nights fighting to escape an alternate world where they’re hunted by murderous monsters. It’s been a desparate fight, but they’ve managed to stay alive. Just barely. But how much longer can they keep this up? Until something goes horribly wrong? Ashlyn and the others need to unravel the mystery of the curse fast, but that may not be as easy as they hope. Because there’s more to what’s happening to them than a simple haunting…

This volume collects episodes 33-61 of the hit WEBTOON with over 250 million views, School Bus Graveyard. Featuring additional artwork from the author, this will be a must-have for fans! (Credit: Ink Pop)

It’s Not What You Think by Clare Mackintosh

Expected Publication Date: September 22

He has a secret. She knows he’s lying…

Nadeeka is certain Jamie is having an affair. She knows the tell-tale signs. She’s been here before.

When Jamie claims to be at work late, she knows he’s lying. He’s with another woman, and she’s determined to catch him in the act.

But when Nadeeka arrives home to confront him, Jamie can’t explain himself. The house has become a crime scene…Jamie is dead.

YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE

YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHO YOU CAN TRUST

YOU THINK YOU KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK. (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)

Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain by David Pakman

Expected Publication Date: September 22

Has the dystopian future of 1984 and Brave New World arrived? As Pakman forewarns in Pay Attention, we confront a very Orwellian threat of totalitarianism, as technological “advancements” have rendered us not just passive but willing participants in a Huxleyesque world where our humanity becomes swallowed by the Attention Economy. Drawing on his experience fighting in the digital trenches, Pakman illustrates how and why political news and commentary has become more fragmented, extreme, and divisive in a self-fulfilling, self-feeding media environment. His reports from the front line of the media and culture wars are beyond eye-opening, including:

• How he rose to prominence by methodical trial and error in an ever-changing media landscape
• How a requirement for controversy means we are already losing the battle for truth
• How audience capture is rewiring our brains
• The dark science behind thumbnails
• Why the Right is built for the Attention Economy
• The myth of media “independence”
• How the user has become the product…and why we no longer even need human creators to mine this product.
• The future is already here—and with AI creep, it’s only accelerating!

Sure to speak to his millions of avidly engaged viewers, as well as to readers of such titles as Chris Hayes’ The Sirens’ Call, Jenny Odell’s How To Do Nothing, and Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized, Pay Attention is a perfectly timed book that will show us how “the machine” works…and what we must do lest we become part of it. (Credit: Harper)

The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing by Marshall J. Moore

Expected Publication Date: September 22

As the laboratory assistant to the brilliant but demanding Doctor, Igor spends his nights robbing graves, stitching together body parts, and ensuring that his master doesn’t electrocute himself (too badly).

When a mob of peasants wielding torches and pitchforks drives them out of town (again), Igor and the Doctor relocate to the isolated Ravenwald Manor to resume their experiments creating new life from dead flesh. But Igor and the Doctor are not the only ones seeking refuge within the walls of Ravenwald. The manor is already home to a vampiric Count and his highly dissatisfied bride, Cornelia—and an enigmatic witch and her feline familiar, Grimalkin, intend to use it as the site of a magical ritual.

At Igor’s suggestion, the three pairs come to an uneasy agreement to cohabitate in Ravenwald, lest they attract the suspicion of the nearby village. In the wake of this truce, Igor, Cornelia, and Grimalkin soon begin to realize that they might have more common with one another than their respective masters. When the trio discovers that they’ve been unwitting participants in a horrible plan to destroy the world as they know it, they must work together to stop their masters from bringing on armageddon . . . and stop the increasingly suspicious villagers from reaching for their pitchforks and torches.

Igor, Grim, and Cornelia must unite to cast off the chains of their masters and embrace life on their own terms in the hilarious, heartwarming, and just-scary-enough The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing. (Credit: Bantam)

Mazywood by Tananarive Due

Expected Publication Date: September 22

When Johnny—a filmmaker and grandson of the famous Black actress Mazelle Washington—brings his family to Mazywood, the secluded California mountain lodge left behind by his grandmother, he expects a quiet retreat. Instead, he uncovers a legacy of rage, secrets, and terror that has haunted his family for generations.

Set primarily in the present day, with haunting flashbacks to Hollywood’s Golden Age, Mazywood explores three generations while following Johnny as he pieces together the true story of his grandmother. As a young Black actress whose career spanned from the 1920s to the 1940s, Mazelle brushed shoulders with giants like Lena Horne, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel. But beneath her public appearance, she carried a secret she had kept and nurtured since she was a child, when a dark wish came true and changed the course of her life forever.

Now, fifty years after Mazelle’s death, Johnny finds himself confronting the truth she buried—and the consequences she left behind. For a monster lurks outside Mazywood, hidden for generations, and Johnny brought his family to its hunting grounds. (Credit: S&S/Saga Press)

Mobu’s Diary: Earning Your Paté Volume 1 by Kathy Lam

Expected Publication Date: September 22

Meet Mobu: she’s a three-year-old calico with pink toe beans and a big dream: stop being a pampered house cat and earn her own keep. Shy and easily spooked, Mobu takes a fearful leap by applying for a job at the Chat Chat Café.

In her search for freedom, Mobu learns that community helps more than self-reliance ever could. Can Mobu overcome her fears to help strangers, co-exist with other cats, and even save the day?

• International sensation Kathy Lam’s English debut
• Delightfully weird and relatable cat gags
• Uplifting celebration of small wins and gradual progress
• Wholesome charm and laughs for all ages
• Bonus comics, gallery, and exclusive author interview
• Perfect for fans of Pusheen and A Man and His Cat

Pick up this charming manga and celebrate the healing power of cat companionship. (Credit: Andrews McMeel Publishing)

Kill Your Darlings by Yuvashri Harish

Expected Publication Date: September 22

Thulasi is the perfect daughter: she’s responsible, she never breaks the rules, and she’s always willing to babysit her seven-year-old cousin. Even on Halloween night. 

But the night takes a horrifying turn when a simple playdate leads to accidentally summoning a horde of monsters out of a book of horror tales, along with her small town’s most famous author, Addison Greer—Thulasi’s literary hero. Except Addison has a more sinister scheme planned for her miraculous return: revenge on the family that wronged her.  

Drawn into a bloodthirsty bargain with Addison, Thulasi will have to team up with Sam, the super cute quarterback in her class, and the only other teen stuck with babysitting duty on Halloween. They only have until midnight to foil Addison’s plans—while keeping their seven-year-old charges safe—or her monsters will destroy their town and everyone they love. (Credit: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)

Things We Found in the Ground: Discovering the History Buried Beneath Our Feet by Ellie Bruce and Lucie Gray

Expected Publication Date: September 22

When you search for the past, you just might find yourself

Cousins Ellie and Lucie set out to find buried treasure. Instead, they stumble into an unexpected journey–one that uncovers forgotten histories, rekindles family bonds, and digs deep into who they are becoming.

Reuniting for the first time in over twenty years at their grandfather’s home, the two quickly discover a shared fascination with hunting for the past. What begins as a tentative hobby soon becomes a shared obsession, sending them across fields and footpaths in search of objects lost to time.

Across months of digging, Ellie and Lucie make surprising finds: artifacts that illuminate the lives of those who came before them, revelations about their own identities and family ties, and the joy of belonging to a community of villagers, detectorists, and history lovers who welcome them in.

Heartfelt, humorous, and quietly profound, this charming tale of (self-)discovery will enchant anyone drawn to the magic of the past–and the hidden stories lying just beneath our feet. (Credit: Sourcebooks)

Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm

Expected Publication Date: September 22

There is something haunting Nuhad’s childhood home in Haifa. Cats avoid its perimeter, strange noises come from within, and residents have mysteriously vanished without a trace. Although Nuhad has not returned to her home since the Nakba in 1948, she always held a place for the house in her heart.

And, in return, the house did the same for her.

After Nuhad passes away, her granddaughter, Marina, is determined to visit her grandmother’s home after a lifetime of being kept in the dark about her culture and family history. Marina’s mother, Haifa – named for the city that was lost to their family – reluctantly agrees to her trip, though she knows firsthand that some secrets are better left buried.

But the house is no longer a home. It is a painful, festering wound that infects everything it touches. The more Marina digs into her family’s past, the sicker she becomes. Despite Nuhad’s ghostly warnings, Haifa rushes to help her daughter.

As the three women converge in their ancestral home, they must put the haunting to rest before the secrets of the past drown them all. (Credit: Tor Nightfire)

More Trouble Than It’s Worth by Lisa Moore Ramée 

Expected Publication Date: September 22

After a hard seventh grade year full of misunderstandings, face plants, and bullies, all Shayla wants is a hassle-free summer. Her ticket to a summer of fun? Joining the club track team! However, Shayla struggles to fit in with new friends, to set a personal best that will secure her a spot in the exclusive Junior Olympics and reluctantly earns the title of “Prank Queen.”

But Shayla discovers that sometimes trying so hard to stay out of trouble ends up making things a whole lot worse. Will she risk new friendships by owning up to a big mistake? And is she ready to speak out against another social injustice? In this powerful and heartfelt follow-up to A Good Kind of Trouble from acclaimed author Lisa Moore Ramée, Shayla will learn the true definition of personal best. (Credit: HarperCollins)

Second Generation Blues by Julia Anta & Red Dryer

Expected Publication Date: September 29

Luis Menendez wants to be free from his immigrant Cuban-American parents’ expectations. Instead, he’s spending the summer delivering food for his family’s faltering restaurant, sweating under the hot sun and the crushing weight of a future he didn’t choose.

At least there’s Yara. Confident, assertive, and basically Luis’s dream girl, she might be the only person who understands him. If only he had any free time to spend with her.

Amid the chaos, Luis starts carving out his own path. But when trying to be the son his parents need clashes with the life he wants, he’s forced to face the question he’s most afraid of answering: Is family loyalty worth sacrificing his own happiness? (Credit: HarperAlley)

A Game of Cat and Killer by Jiro Akagawa

Expected Publication Date: September 29

Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and … women. When a young female student is found murdered, he’s given two choices–review the harrowing crime-scene photographs or head to Hagoromo Women’s College to investigate–and reluctantly opts for the latter.

But the threat escalates with additional murders, and soon Katayama has a different surprise on his hands: a calico cat named Holmes, orphaned when the dean himself falls victim.

Surely that’s the last thing Katayama needs. Until Holmes begins to display some uncanny investigative instincts of her own … (Credit: Grand Central Publishing)

Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce

Expected Publication Date: September 29

Let the Witch Trial begin . . .

When eighteen-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in a park, the city of Edinburgh is stunned—and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with the murder. As social media explodes in a tizzy of theories and headlines scream for justice, rumors of bullying are overshadowed by something more wicked and frightening: whispers of dark rituals, feverish obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong.

When the trial begins, everyone in Edinburgh clamors for a front-row ticket to the show: to look upon the murderous Eliza and Isobel with their own eyes. Everyone, that is, but Matthew Phillips, a respected heart surgeon picked for the jury. But, as the trial unfolds—and the girls’ lawyers offer a surprising and unsettling defense—the reluctant Matthew finds himself questioning everything: the motives, the evidence, even his own judgement. Then he begins to have strange visions of terrifying things—hallucinations he tells himself. After all, witchcraft isn’t real . . . or is it?

Who is telling the truth? Who can be trusted?

And what really happened to Christian Shaw? (Credit: Harper Perennial)

The Cutting Garden by Darcy Van Poelgeest and illustrated by Erin Connally

Expected Publication Date: September 29

On a quiet street in early twentieth-century New Orleans, a florist works through the night to craft a floral arrangement for a peculiar customer—a precocious young girl named Adeil who pays the florist in stories. For every new flower the florist adds to the bouquet, Adeil offers another dissonant detail in her narrative: a chance meeting with a disillusioned jazz singer, a dilapidated family home, an idyllic life on the fringes of an imperfect world. As dawn approaches and the arrangement takes shape, the florist is left to piece together the final details of Adeil’s mysterious life and ponder what this means for her own story.

From Eisner Award-winning writer Darcy Van Poelgeest (Little Bird, Precious Metal) and rising-star watercolor artist Erin Connally comes The Cutting Garden, a gorgeously rendered meditation on companionship, family, and sacrifice. (Credit: Image Comics)

The Ghost and the Dead Librarian by Cleo Coyle

Expected Publication Date: September 29

As a young widow, Penelope moved back to her quaint Rhode Island town to give her young son a safer home and her aunt’s dying bookshop new life. Using her late husband’s insurance money, Pen polished the store into a local treasure. But her updates did more than attract new customers. They roused a dead private eye from his big sleep.

With Pen’s affection for hardboiled detective stories, it’s no surprise she’s developed a fondness for the wisecracking yet oddly likeable spirit. Sure, Jack’s cold spots are exasperating, along with his proclivity for putting noir fiction in the cozy section. But murder was Jack’s business in life, and his PI skills come in awfully handy when the body of an eccentric librarian is found amid the bookshop’s mystery aisles.

For years, Dory jokingly called herself “The Dead Librarian” because of her hobby of collecting local obituaries. Now, in death, she’s discovered holding her own eerily pre-written obit. Was it a suicide note? Jack and Pen say no and their certainty takes them from a ghost town’s ancient cemetery to a prominent family’s Newport estate. Then an intriguing stranger comes to town. Nikki Burnside takes a keen interest in Dory’s death and makes Pen a shocking offer, one that may change her life—and Jack’s afterlife. But unless Jack can help Pen prove who “checked out” the librarian, a ruthless killer may close the book on her. (Credit: Kensington Cozies)

Madame Composer: The Virtuosic Genius of Clara Schumann by Sarah Fritz 

Expected Publication Date: September 29

A child prodigy equal to Mozart, Paganini called her a “genuine artist;” Goethe said “she plays with the strength of six boys.” She premiered the “unplayable” works of Chopin at age twelve and brought Bach fugues and Beethoven sonatas into the concert hall at sixteen. During her sixty-year career, she made Robert Schumann a household name and premiered Brahms’s famous “Lullaby.” Many critics—who dubbed her “Saint Cecilia,” “queen of the piano,” and a “priestess of art”—preferred her piano playing to her rival Franz Liszt.

Why is her name not uttered in the breath as Liszt, Brahms, or Mozart today? In MadameComposer, Sarah Fritz reveals how and why Clara Weick Schumann, a giant of Romantic music, has been diminished and sometimes deliberately obscured. By exposing the Nazi propaganda which buried Clara Schumann’s achievements, the power Clara once wielded in the industry comes to the fore. Fritz exposes the truth behind why Clara devoted her career to promoting men’s works instead of her own creations, even though her melodies were quoted in famous works by Brahms, Liszt, and others, which is revealed in print for the first time.

Clara’s life was more fascinating than fiction. A neurodivergent child, she shared a forbidden love with the poor composer Robert Schumann, whose tragic death in an asylum left her a single parent of seven children. And her forty-year relationship with Brahms is one of the most important artist-mentor partnerships in cultural history yet has long been relegated to tabloid scandal.

Filled with new discoveries and insight, Sarah Fritz’s fierce and dynamic Madame Composer is the definitive biography on a singular musical force and reveals Clara as a woman in full. (Credit: Pegaus Books)

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw

Expected Publication Date: September 29

From the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior, she’s been labeled too brash and too “of the world” by church folks who grudgingly accepted her into their fold, and too holy by her estranged childhood bestie Petra. Schar doesn’t have many allies, but that hasn’t stopped her from building an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded products, and living the comfortable life her husband’s power affords her.

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Schar gets the final bit of validation she’s always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors’ wives—First Ladies—who are “like Jesus’ disciples if they had been a group of mean girls.” Finally, blissfully, the ice between Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw.

But as the pageant nears, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center, and her carefully curated life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible secrets from her childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church, optics can matter more than the truth.

Unflinchingly funny, frank, and splendidly unruly, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman exults in the luscious, messy pleasure of finally feeling free. (Credit: Mariner Books)

The Midnight Guests by Alex Hay

Expected Publication Date: September 29

1926. Diana Gold, owner and impresario, throws open the doors to the most opulent new hotel in London. As the champagne flows and the chandeliers shimmer, millionaires and gamblers rub shoulders with film stars and royalty.

Though, things at the Hotel Artemis aren’t quite what they seem–including the two guests Diana expects at midnight. Powerful and dangerous, they’ve dragged her from the gutter and taught her all she knows. Now Diana must take perfect care of them–unless they take care of her first.

But when a body is found in the hotel’s finest suite, the lavish opening night begins to spiral out of control. And over twenty-four fateful hours, the staff and guests of the Artemis will find out why they are really there. (Credit: Hanover Square Press)

Mornings in Jenin by susan abulhawa

Expected Publication Date: September 29

The 20th anniversary edition of one of the biggest contributions to anglophone Palestinian literature, with over a million copies sold worldwide, featuring a new introduction from Maaza Mengiste.

Mornings in Jenin tells the “powerful and passionate” (Michael Palin, actor and bestselling author) story of Amal, one of three Palestinian siblings, born in the Jenin refugee camp to parents displaced from their ancestral village in 1948 by the newly formed Jewish state.

Amal grows up in the shadow of a family and community shattered by loss—of home, country, heritage. Her brother Ismael is stolen as an infant and raised as an Israeli soldier named David. Her older, beloved brother Yousef is transformed from professor to prisoner to fighter. Through war, occupation, and exile, over the course of six decades, three continents, and four generations, Amal emerges as the family’s heart—a girl who was read poetry by her father, a woman who finds love only to lose it in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and a mother raising her daughter Sara alone in America while carrying the weight of a homeland she cannot reclaim.

When her brother David finally appears, searching for his origins, the three siblings’ fractured lives converge in a powerful reckoning with identity, belonging, and the brutal price of a colonial injustice that has defined them all. (Credit: Washington Press)

Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives by Nao-Cola Yamazaki

Art student Isogai first models for one of his tutors, the much older Yuri, then begins a passionate affair with her. As he gets to know her better, he struggles to understand his own emotions and place in the world, just as he yearns to be closer to her and for her to share more of herself with him.

A touching portrait of late adolescence, Isogai captured with exasperation, humor, and tenderness, Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives is above all else an exploration of the exhilarating and destabilizing experience of a first love that defies prediction or explanation. (Credit: SJP Lit)

Chasing the Headless Horseman: The History, Hijinks, and Halloweens of the Real Sleepy Hollow by J W Ocker

This immersive travelogue investigates the town that inspired Washington Irving’s famous short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and dives into the storied history of the Headless Horseman’s stomping grounds. Within the pages you’ll visit the village’s graveyard where Irving himself is buried and explore all the present-day spookiness of one of the strangest towns in the country.

Blending cultural criticism and behind-the-scenes reporting, Ocker uncovers the tensions between tourism and tradition, profit and preservation, fiction and fact. With wit and curiosity, Chasing the Headless Horseman tells the story of how one small town reinvented itself as America’s Halloween capital, complete with statues, street signs, and an 18-foot-tall Headless Horseman. A must-read for anyone who loves ghost stories, Halloween, or small-town drama, Ocker’s new book does for Sleepy Hollow, New York, what his A Season with the Witch did for Salem, Massachusetts. (Credit: Countryman Press)

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