Book Mail – Playing Catch Up This Month – Part Two!

So much book mail, not enough space for one post! The usual thank you to the mentioned publishers for any gifted copies!

WE MADE IT ALL UP – Margot Harrison (Releasing July 12th, 2022 – Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Novel Suspects for the copy)

Celeste is the talk of the town when she moves to Montana from Montreal, but the only friend she makes is Vivvy, the heir to the town’s name and a social pariah. Inspired by a passion-fueled school incident, they begin writing a love-story fan fic between the popular guy and the school stoner, one that gradually reveals Celeste’s past. While their bond makes Celeste feel safe and alive again, Vivvy keeps prodding Celeste to turn fantasy into reality. When they finally try, one drunken night on a dark mountainside, Celeste is the one who ends up kissing golden boy Joss. And Joss ends up dead.

Celeste doesn’t remember the end of that night and can’t be sure she didn’t deliver the killing blow. Could she still be that scared of getting close to a boy? Secrets are hard to keep in a small town, and even Vivvy seems to suspect her. Exploring the winding passages of the cave where Joss died, Celeste learns he had his own dark secrets, as does Vivvy. The town isn’t as innocent as it appears.

AURORA – David Koepp (Released June 7th, 2022 – Thanks to Harper Books for the copy)

From the author of Cold Storage comes a riveting, eerily plausible thriller, told with the menace and flair of Under the Dome or Project Hail Mary, in which a worldwide cataclysm plays out in the lives of one complicated Midwestern family.

In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son.

Then the lights go out–not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood.

Across the country lives Aubrey’s estranged brother, Thom. A fantastically wealthy, neurotically over-prepared Silicon Valley CEO, he plans to ride out the crisis in a gilded desert bunker he built for maximum comfort and security.

But the complicated history between the siblings is far from over, and what feels like the end of the world is just the beginning of several long-overdue reckonings–which not everyone will survive . . .

Aurora is suspenseful storytelling–both large scale and small–at its finest.

HATCHET ISLAND – Paul Doiron (Releasing June 28th, 2022 – Thanks to Minotaur Books for the copy)

An eerie, windswept island off the coast of Maine becomes the site of a double murder and a disappearance in Hatchet Island, the next thriller in Paul Doiron’s bestselling Mike Bowditch series.

A call for help from a former colleague leads Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend Stacey Stevens on a sea kayaking trip to a research station far off the coast. Stacey spent summers interning on the island, a sanctuary for endangered seabirds, and they are shocked by what they hear when they come ashore. The biologists are being threatened by local fishermen and stalked by a mysterious boatman who seems intent on trespassing on the refuge. Even worse, their leader, whose mind is slowly unraveling after the unexplained suicide of a young intern, has now gone missing.

Camped on a nearby islet for the night, Mike and Stacey waken to the sound of a gunshot. When they return to the refuge at dawn, their darkest fears are confirmed: two of the three researchers have been brutally murdered and the third has disappeared, along with the island skiff. Mike’s quest to find the missing man reveals new suspects including a Marine Patrol officer with a history of violence and the sanctuary’s enigmatic founder, who conveniently reappears after the killings. The search expands to a nearby island owned by a world-renowned photographer with a scandalous reputation. The artist and his equally brilliant wife wield a powerful hold over the inhabitants of their private kingdom, and Mike increasingly comes to believe that someone in the village knows more about the killings than they dare admit.

With no one to trust and miles from shore, Mike Bowditch must stop a ruthless murderer determined to make sure a terrifying secret never sees the light of day.

THE DARKNESS OF OTHERS – Cate Holahan (Releasing August 23rd, 2022 – Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and Novel Suspects for the copy)

Psychiatrist Imani Banks and her restauranteur husband Philip are living the New York City dream. They own a posh townhouse in Brooklyn Heights, their two children are standouts at their private school, and they are well-liked in their affluent community.

Tonya Sayre is living the NYC nightmare. After moving to Manhattan with dreams of becoming a Broadway star, she has found herself stuck in a waitressing job and struggling to support her teen daughter, Layla. She also fears Layla’s father, Brad, who is back in their life.

When Philip’s restaurant closes due to the lockdown, they decide to take on a renter and let the extra rooms to Tonya and Layla. As Tonya begins skipping payments, the tension with Imani grows. She becomes convinced that Tonya is a professional grifter who preys upon the sympathies of men to live rent free. She even thinks Tonya might have been involved in the shocking murders of the Walkers, a neighboring family.

But evicting someone during a pandemic is no easy feat. Imani soon finds herself stuck with a woman whom she believes to be a killer.