All the March 2024 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all titles from every post. 

Fiction

Mystery

Black, Cara. Murder at la Villette. Soho Crime. (Aimée Leduc Investigation, Bk. 21). Mar. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9781641294478. $27.95. MYSTERY/INTERNATIONAL

Aimée Leduc, Black’s irrepressibly savvy Parisian private investigator, is back with a big problem. She’s been framed for the murder of her testy ex, Melac, the father of her daughter, and must prove herself innocent even as she figures out who wanted Melac dead. As usual, Black takes us to the less-traveled parts of Paris, this time the far-flung, still cobble-streeted 19th arrondissement.

Bowen, Rhys & Clare Broyles. In Sunshine or in Shadow. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Molly Murphy Mysteries, Bk. 20). Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250890788. $28. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

With summer and typhoid descending, an expectant Molly Murphy Sullivan leaves 1907 Manhattan for her mother-in-law’s home in lowkey Westchester County. She soon breaks the monotony by visiting friends in a Catskills artists' colony, where a dead body inevitably pops up. Next in the Anthony– and Agatha Award–winning series from Bowen, writing with daughter Broyles.

Childs, Laura. Murder in the Tea Leaves. Berkley. (Tea Shop Mystery, Bk. 27). Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780593200988. $28. MYSTERY/COZY

Tea maven Theodosia Browning is reading tea leaves on the set of the movie Dark Fortunes when the lights dim, the cameras roll riotously, and the director dies in an electrical accident—but is it? Theodosia and her tea sommelier, Drayton, are soon investigating a motley crew that includes a pot-smoking screenwriter, a reluctant leading lady, and a duplicitous Hollywood agent.

Corbett, Ron. Cape Rage. Berkley. (Danny Barrett, Bk. 2). Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780593440384. $28. MYSTERY/POLICE PROCEDURAL

When a Seattle bank is robbed, the FBI sends undercover agent Danny Barrett to investigate. The chief suspects are the Danby family, longtime smugglers living in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, and Danny is the bureau’s go-to guy for crime beyond city limits. Following the well-received series starter, The Sweet Goodbye.

Cosimano, Elle. Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Finlay Donovan, Bk. 4). Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250846006. $28. Downloadable. MYSTERY

Finlay Donovan is heading to Atlantic City with nanny and sister crimefighter Vero for a relaxing weekend, but that’s just a cover. Actually, they’re hoping to make a deal with a slick loan shark, find a stolen car, and rescue Vero’s childhood crush, Javi, from a nasty kidnapper. Predictably, nothing goes as planned. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Estes, Christina. Off the Air. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250863850. $28. MYSTERY

When controversial talk show host Larry Lemmon dies under murky circumstances in Phoenix, AZ, local TV reporter Jolene Garcia is on the scene (along with a horde of competitors). She was the last person to have interviewed Lemmon, and she’s determined to solve his murder. A Tony Hillerman Prize–winning debut; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Gentill, Sulari. The Mystery Writer. Poisoned Pen: Sourcebooks. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9781728290362. $34.99; pap. ISBN 9781728285184. $16.99. MYSTERY

To complete her novel, Theo Benton eagerly moves from Australia to Kansas City, MO, where she meets and falls in love with the writer she has always idolized. Alas, he is murdered the day after reading her novel, and the prime suspect is Theo’s brother Gus. Gentill penned the USA Today best-selling The Woman in the Library and Ned Kelly–honored After She Wrote Him.

Hall, Tamron. Watch Where They Hide. Morrow. (Jordan Manning). Mar. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780063037083. $29. lrg. prnt. MYSTERY

Having moved in with sister Shelly after fleeing an abusive husband, Marla Hancock gets up one morning, drops her child off at preschool, and vanishes. The police aren’t hustling to find her, so Shelly turns to investigative reporter Jordan Manning, a skilled professional but still feeling the pressure to prove herself as a Black woman. From the Emmy Award–winning Hall, following her well-received debut, As the Wicked Watch; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Horowitz, Anthony. Close to Death. Harper. (Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery). Mar. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780063305649. $30. CD. MYSTERY

A quiet sanctuary comprising six houses that sit behind locked gates in a rumbling city, Riverside Close is suddenly disrupted by the arrival of the Kentworthys, who bring with them loud cars, loud children, and a loud desire to build a swimming pool. The neighbors are appalled, so there’s no dearth of suspects when Charles Kentworthy is found dead with a crossbow bolt through his chest. Mystery book and TV legend Horowitz gets a 100,000-copy first printing.

Pandian, Gigi. A Midnight Puzzle. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Secret Staircase Mysteries, Bk. 3). 352p. ISBN 9781250880208. $28. Downloadable. MYSTERY

When Julian Rhodes fails to kill his wife as planned, he blames her so-called accident on faulty construction by the Secret Staircase Construction, Tempest Raj’s family business. Desperate to save the business, Tempest agrees to meet with Julian after a frantic midnight call—and finds him dead. Next in a popular new series from the multi-award-winning Pandian.

Raybourn, Deanna. A Grave Robbery. Berkley. (Veronica Speedwell Mystery). Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780593545959. $28. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

The lover of ever-sleuthing lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell, Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane is in for a shock when asked to equip a beautiful wax figure with a clockwork mechanism that will make it even more lifelike; the figure is actually a carefully preserved young woman. Soon, Veronica and Stoker are seeking out the killer, hoping to prevent another murder. Next in the Victorian-set series by the Edgar Award–winning Raybourn.

Tintera, Amy. Listen for the Lie. Holt. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781250880314. $26.99. Downloadable. MYSTERY

Best friends Lucy and Savvy are the darlings of their little Texas town, with Lucy marrying her pick of beaus and Savvy boasting several. Then, on a night she cannot recall, Lucy appears covered in Savvy’s blood. Years later, she finally confronts the past when a true-crime podcaster decides to revisit Savvy’s murder. The New York Times best-selling YA author goes adult; with a 150,000-copy first printing.

Trinchieri, Camilla. The Road to Murder. Soho Crime. (Tuscan Mystery, Bk. 4). Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781641295567. $27.95. MYSTERY/INTERNATIONAL

After the death of his wife, NYPD detective Nico Doyle moved to her Italian hometown, Gravigna, and built a new life; the locals even praise his cooking. Sometimes the local carabinieri have needed his help, as they surely do in this latest venture; the one person found at the scene of a local woman’s murder speaks only English. Since widowed Signora Nora had several lovers and two disgruntled adult daughters, suspects abound. A satisfying series.

Literary: Reckonings

Crucet, Jennine Capó. Say Hello to My Little Friend. S. & S. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781668023327. $27.99. LITERARY

Coming of age in Miami, Ismael (Izzy) Reyes isn’t making it as a Pitbull impersonator—he’s living in his aunt’s garage—but then his dreams of being a Tony Montana–like character from Scarface lead him to the tank of the captive orca Lolita (who, sadly, is recently deceased) and a surreal journey through past and present. From the International Latino and Iowa Short Fiction Prize–winning Crucet (Make Your Home Among Strangers).

Cunningham, Vinson. Great Expectations. Hogarth: Crown. Mar. 2024. 224p. ISBN 9780593448236. $28. LITERARY

There’s plenty of idealism in the speech given by the senator from Illinois, and David wonders if such idealism can be sustained in the face of inevitable political compromise. Still, he throws himself into the 18-month campaign to elect the first Black U.S. president, even as he reflects on race, religion, art, and fatherhood. New Yorker staffer Cunningham’s debut.

Goodhand, James. The Day Tripper. Mira: Harlequin. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780778369646. $28.99. LITERARY

In 1995, incoming Cambridge student Alex Dean has a run-in with a childhood bully and ends up bloody and nearly drowned, awakening the next day to find that 15 years have passed. He then proceeds to bounce around in time, wondering why his life looks nothing like what he’d expected and whether he can change what he’s seen. British author Goodhand’s adult debut; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Gowda, Shilpi Somaya. A Great Country. Mariner: HarperCollins. Mar. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780063324343. $30. CD. LITERARY

Having arrived in the United States from India, the Shahs have achieved success after 20 years of hard work; they live in a gated community in California with spectacular ocean views. But success doesn’t mean the same thing to their children, which is made clear on the night their 12-year-old son is arrested. From the New York Times best-selling author of Secret Daughter; with a 150,000-copy first printing.

Greer, Sierra. Annie Bot. Mariner: HarperCollins. Mar. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9780063312692. $28. LITERARY

Annie is a robot—and the idealized girlfriend of human owner Doug, there to satisfy his every physical and emotional need while wearing the cute outfits he buys for her. She tries so hard to please him that she’s investigating human emotions like curiosity and longing, which could disrupt everything. Greer’s debut was a runner-up for the publisher’s winter Lead Read. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Hansbury, Griffin. Some Strange Music Draws Me In. Norton. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781324050797. $27.99. LITERARY

In small-town 1984 Massachusetts, Melanie (better known as Mel) meets the vibrant trans woman Sylvia and starts thinking about life’s possibilities. Decades later, Mel has become Max and is on probation from the school where he teaches, ironically for defying speech codes regarding the trans community. A timely plunge into gender and class issues from Lambda Literary Award finalist Hansbury.

Lawrence, Vanessa. Ellipses. Dutton. Mar. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780593472774. $28. LITERARY

Long out as a lesbian, style-setting cosmetics mogul Billie is one formidable businesswoman, while biracial, bisexual Lily finds both her love life and fashion-magazine career stuttering. She’s thrilled that Billie seems eager to act as mentor but soon becomes dangerously obsessed with her. From veteran magazine staff writer Lawrence, currently an MFA candidate.

Obreht, Téa. The Morningside. Random. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781984855503. $29. lrg. prnt. CD. LITERARY

Thrown out of their homeland in a chaotic near-future, Silvia settles with her mother in the Morningside, a seen-better-days luxury tower in the once sparkling, now half-flooded Island City. There, she befriends the superintendent Ena, who shares the history, beauty, and folklore of the country Silvia has lost. Following the National Book Award finalist The Tiger’s Wife and the Southwest Book Award–winning Inland.

Oyeyemi, Helen. Parasol Against the Axe. Riverhead. Mar. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780593192368. $28. LITERARY

Accepting an invitation for a bachelorette party from estranged friend Sofie, Hero Tojosoa lands in Prague, a city full of more than the usual surprises. Unexpected companions appear, and the narrative of a book Hero is reading shape-shifts constantly, telling new stories about Prague even as the city comments on itself. From the Open Book–winning, Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist Oyeyemi.

Rijneveld, Lucas. My Heavenly Favorite. Graywolf. Mar. 2024. 288p. tr. from Dutch by Michele Hutchison. ISBN 9781644452738. $28. LITERARY

A veterinarian whose work frequently takes him to the Dutch countryside becomes infatuated with a near-adolescent farmer’s daughter who wishes she were a boy and sees the visiting vet as a way out of her restrictive life. What results is crime, confession, and punishment unfolded in the aftermath of events. From the author of the Booker International Prize–winning The Discomfort of Evening.

Literary: Reimagining

Cecil, Mark. Bunyan and Henry; Or, the Beautiful Destiny. Anchor. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780593471166. $29. FOLK TALES

Not yet a legendary lumberjack, Paul Bunyan struggles with a mountain of debt while working in the bleak mines owned by grasping industrialist El Boffo. A quest prompted by his wife’s illness brings him to another soon-to-b legend, steel-driving John Henry, who’s escaped from wrongful conviction on a chain gang, and they join forces in a narrative probing race, class, and industrialization. A debut from Thoughtful Bro host Cecil.

Everett, Percival. James. Doubleday. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780385550369. $28. lrg. prnt. LITERARY/HISTORICAL

The enslaved Jim still hides out on Jackson Island when he overhears news that he’s to be sold—and thus separated from his family—and Huck still encounters him while running away from an abusive father and faking his own death. But Pulitzer Prize finalist Everett’s reenvisioning of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn presents Jim in a whole new light.

Lyon, Rachel. Fruit of the Dead. Scribner. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781668020852. $28. LITERARY

In this retelling of the myth of Persephone and Demeter, disaffected 18-year-old camp counselor Cory Ansel is offered a childcare job (complete with a nondisclosure agreement) by the father of one of her campers, a wealthy CEO who’s besotted with her. Living on his private island, Cory tries to ignore her misgivings, but not so Cory’s mother, head of an agricultural NGO, who is determined to track her down. From the author of Self-Portrait with Boy, a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

McNeal, Laura. The Swan’s Nest. Algonquin: Workman: Hachette. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781643753201. $29. Downloadable. LITERARY

In January 1846, struggling poet Robert Browning wrote to famed poet Elizabeth Barrett, chronically ill, expressing his love for both her and her verses. By September 1846, they married in secret (her family disapproved) and headed to the fresh airs of Italy. McNeal, a finalist for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature, goes adult with this retake on a happy literary couple.

Morris, Joel H. All Our Yesterdays. Putnam. Mar. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780593715383. $28. LITERARY

Born into a noble family in 11th-century Scotland and married off young to a sadistic husband, Morris’s protagonist just wants to protect her son from constant warfare. Then, freed of marital bonds by her husband’s downfall and growing more powerful in her own right, she falls in love with the thane Macbeth. Yes, debuter Morris revisits Shakespeare’s grimly brimming Scottish queen.

Literary: Small-Town Worlds

Banks, Russell. American Spirits. Knopf. Mar. 2024. 224p. ISBN 9780593536773. $28. LITERARY

All is not well in the rural New York landscape visited by recently deceased two-time Pulitzer finalist Banks in three enmeshed stories. A man sells property to a mysterious stranger and subsequently questions the buyer’s character online, the children in the strange family that has just moved next door come begging for help, and kidnappers of an elderly couple demand that their grandson pay up what he owes.

Barrett, Colin. Wild Houses. Grove. Mar. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780802160942. $27. LITERARY

Finally, the National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Barrett, author of several multi-award-winning story collections, turns up with a debut novel. In County Mayo, local enforcers Gabe and Sketch Ferdia arrive at the door of their quiet cousin Dev with the battered Doll English in tow and drag Dev into a revenge plot against Doll’s older brother Cillian, a small-time dealer.

Braunstein, Sarah. Bad Animals. Norton. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781324051046. $27.99. LITERARY

Laid off after being accused by a teenager of spying on her trysts in the mezzanine bathroom, Maine public librarian Maeve Cosgrove is struggling to clear her name when she learns that Harrison Riddles, an author she admires, has agreed to her request to speak at the library. He also wants her help in writing a novel about a young Sudanese refugee who frequents the library. From the National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Braunstein, whose The Sweet Relief of Missing Children was short-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

Waldman, Adelle. Help Wanted. Norton. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781324020448. $28.99. LITERARY

In small-town upstate New York, Team Movement members arrive at work at 3:55 a.m., unloading merchandise and stocking shelves before the customers arrive. Then the possibility of a promotion presents itself, and the team bands together in a crazy plot that could help them all. From the author of the multi-best-booked The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.

Literary: Layered with History

Henriquez, Cristina. The Great Divide. Ecco. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780063291324. $30. CD. LITERARY

Working at the construction site of the Panama Canal to earn money for her sister’s surgery, 16-year-old West Indian Ada Bunting aids a young man named Omar who has collapsed. Observing her kindness, John Oswald—a researcher intent on eradicating malaria—quickly hires her to care for his ailing wife. Through these and multiple other characters, Henríquez tells the epic story of the canal. With a 250,000-copy first printing; following The Book of Unknown Americas, The Daily Beast’s Novel of the Year.

Lennon, Ferdia. Glorious Exploits. Holt. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250893697. $26.99. LITERARY

Set during the Peloponnesian War but told in contemporary Irish dialect, this debut features two potter friends in Syracuse, Sicily, as thrilled as their compatriots by the unexpected defeat of the invading Athenians but still eager to hear the words of the great Greek playwright Euripides. So off they head to the quarry where Greek POWs are being held to ask them to recite lines. Born of an Irish mother and a Libyan father, rising-star Lennon has been nominated for the Hennessy Emerging Writer Award; this book was bought in the UK after a major auction. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Marlantes, Karl. Cold Victory. Grove. Jan. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780802161420. $28. LITERARY

In 1947 Finland, Arnie and Mikhail—the military attachés of the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively—meet at an embassy party and as top-notch skiers challenge each other to a good-natured race. It’s supposed to be secret, but Arnie’s wife is using the match-up as a way to raise money for the local orphanage, too late realizing that a loss for Mikhail would likely mean recall and execution. From the author of the best-selling Matterhorn and the multi-starred saga Deep River.

Orange, Tommy. Wandering Stars. Knopf. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780593318256. $29. lrg. prnt. CD. LITERARY

Star, a young survivor of 1864’s Sand Creek Massacre (in present-day Colorado), is held at the Fort Marion Prison Castle and compelled to eschew his language and heritage by a brutal prison guard—as is Star’s son Charles a generation later, at the Carlisle Industrial School for Indians. Charles survives with the help of fellow student Opal Viola, whose own story brings us to 2018 Oakland and events in Orange’s Pulitzer Prize finalist, mega-award-winning There There.

Yuszczuk, Marina. Thirst. Dutton. Mar. 2024. 304p. tr. from Spanish by Heather Cleary. ISBN 9780593472064. $28. MEMOIR

In present-day Buenos Aires, a woman beset with worries about her terminally ill mother and her own heavy self-doubts wanders a cemetery, meeting another woman who turns out to be a vampire, having arrived from Europe in the 19th century. From there, the relationship explodes. A prolific Argentine author and founding editor of a press focusing on women, Yuszczuk makes her U.S. debut.

Thrillers: Names You Know

Bohjalian, Chris. The Princess of Las Vegas. Doubleday. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780385547581. $29. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. THRILLER

Denfeld, Rene. Sleeping Giants. Harper. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780063014732. $28.99. THRILLER

French, Nicci. Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? Morrow. Mar. 2024. 544p. ISBN 9780063298347. $32; pap. ISBN 9780063298354. $19.99. lrg. prnt. THRILLER

French, Tana. The Hunter. Viking. Mar. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780593493434. $32. lrg. prnt. CD. THRILLER

Gardner, Lisa. Still See You Everywhere. Grand Central. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9781538765067. $30. CD/downloadable. THRILLER

Patterson, James & Nancy Allen. The #1 Lawyer. Little, Brown. Mar. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780316499675. $30. lrg. prnt. CD. THRILLER

Patterson, James & Candice Fox. The Murder Inn. Grand Central. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9781538710951. $32; pap. 464p. $19.99. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. THRILLER

Scottoline, Lisa. The Truth About the Devlins. Putnam. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780525539704. $29.95. lrg. prnt. CD. THRILLER

Unger, Lisa. The New Couple in 5B. Park Row: Harlequin. Mar. 2024. 401p. ISBN 9780778333340. $28.99. THRILLER

In the latest from the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Bohjalian, Crissy Dowling is The Princess of Las Vegas, nightly presenting her musical cabaret about the late Diana Spencer at a third-rate casino until its owner is murdered, her sister arrives in town, and organized crime waltzes down the aisle with family secrets. When she investigates the death of her birth mother with the help of a retired police officer, adoptee Amanda awakens Sleeping Giants, discovering she had an older brother, swept out to sea as a child, who was being fostered in a derelict home for disturbed boys; popular Child Finder author Denfeld draws on her experience as a foster mother (50,000-copy first printing). In Nicci French’s Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?, a woman’s disappearance from an English village during the 1990 Christmas season and the subsequent discovery of a drowned neighbor is deemed a murder-suicide until a podcaster comes snooping three decades later (50,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing). In the multi-award-winning Tara French’s The Hunter, Chicago police officer Cal Hooper has retired to Ireland, where he’s building a relationship with a local woman and helping troubled teenager Trey—until her estranged father arrives with a get-rich-quick scheme and an English millionaire in tow. In the No. 1 New York Timesbest-selling Gardner’s Still See You Everywhere, a convicted serial killer with 21 days left before her execution asks Frankie Elkin to find her little sister, who was kidnapped a decade ago (400,000-copy first printing). A Biloxi, MS–based criminal defense lawyer, Stafford Lee Penney finds the tables turned when his wife is murdered and he becomes everyone’s favorite suspect in Patterson and Allen’s The #1 Lawyer (300,000-copy first printing). In Patterson and Fox’s The Murder Inn, former Boston police detective Bill Robinson manages a remote coastal Massachusetts inn housing permanent residents Sheriff Clayton Spears and a passel of well-trained civilians who join forces to protect both town and inn when a crime boss shows up (350,000-copy paperback and 75,000-copy hardcover first printing). The only Devlin not serving as a lawyer in the eponymous family firm (owing to alcohol issues and previous imprisonment), T.J. is instead the resident investigator and must act quickly when his brother kills a client in self-defense in the Edgar Award–winning Scottoline’s The Truth About the Devlins. At first, Rosie and Chad Lowan—The New Couple in 5B—couldn’t be happier to have inherited an apartment from Chad’s uncle in the fabled Windermere building in New York’s Murray Hill area, but with the building’s omnipresent cameras and a history of ugly crimes, they quickly learn that it was all too good to be true; the New York Times best-selling Unger gets a 150,000-copy first printing.

Thrillers: Names To Know

Casale, Alexia. The Best Way To Bury Your Husband. Penguin. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780593654606. pap. $18. THRILLER

Having clobbered to death her violently abusive husband, using an iron skillet, Sally learns that she’s not alone. Ruth’s self-defense during a bleak encounter on the stairs with a fist-swinging spouse led to his accidental death, Samira learns that her husband plans to batter a daughter who’s just come out, and Janey, a first-time mother at 42, knows that monsters aren’t just in fairy tales. Together, they bury their dead and learn to heal. British American author Casale’s first adult novel; once executive editor of a human rights journal, she has specialized in covering male violence against women and girls.

Cavanagh, Steve. Kill for Me, Kill for You. Atria. Mar. 2024. 416p. ISBN 9781668049341. $27.99. THRILLER

Over drinks on New York’s Upper West Side, Wendy and Amanda hatch a plan to avenge their wronged families—if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you—even as Ruth sits alone in her lovely brownstone elsewhere in town, facing a home invasion by a man with dagger-sharp blue eyes. From the best-selling author of the “Eddie Flynn” series.

Gómez-Jurado, Juan. Black Wolf. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Antonia Scott, Bk. 2). Mar. 2025. 368p. ISBN 9781250853691. $28. Downloadable. THRILLER

First seen in the United States in this year’s The Red Queen, which looks to be generating some heat among thriller readers, Antonia Scott is now struggling to move beyond a case with troubling personal ramifications. Then a ship from St. Petersburg arrives with a container bearing nine dead women, a big-time gangster is murdered on the Costa del Sol, and his wife goes on the run, pursued by the Black Wolf. Second in an internationally best-selling series with an Amazon streaming series scheduled for fall 2023; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Kurkov, Andrey. The Silver Bone. HarperVia. (Samson Kolechko Investigates). Mar. 2024. 256p. tr. from Ukrainian by Boris Dralyuk. ISBN 9780063352285. $28. CD. THRILLER

In post–World War I Kyiv, engineer Samson Kolechko seeks to report a suspicious conversation he overheard between two Red Army soldiers and ends up being recruited into the city’s new police force. His first case involves two murders, a beautifully tailored suit, and a gracefully arced silver bone, and he solves it with the help of whip-smart-statistician Nadezhda. Kurkov, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner for the literary title Grey Bees, is here dubbed the Ukrainian Stieg Larsson; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

McTiernan, Dervla. What Happened to Nina? Morrow. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780063042254. $30. lrg. prnt. THRILLER

A young couple named Nina and Simon weekend at his family’s cabin in Vermont, but only Simon returns, vague about what happened to Nina. His wealthy parents quickly encircle him with high-power lawyers, while her parents finally realize they must break the rules to find out what happened to Nina. McTiernan’s The Murder Rule was a New York Times Best Thriller of the Year; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Mahmood, Imran. Finding Sophie. Bantam. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780593723586. $28. THRILLER

Harry and Zara King are frantic; their only child, 17-year-old Sophie, is missing. As days turn into weeks, they become suspicious of a neighbor and dangerously take things into their own hands. A London-based criminal barrister, Mahmood makes his U.S. debut following the Theakston and CWA Gold Dagger Award long-listed You Don’t Know Me.

Masood, S.M. A Dangerous Book. Grand Central. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781538724125. $29. THRILLER

Fresh off his latest job, mercenary Irfan Mirza learns that his estranged wife is in police custody in Karachi, Pakistan, after hiding an artifact she’s discovered that bears an explosive secret. She could be executed for blasphemy—but the police cannot find her. Evidently, she’s been spirited away by someone who will do anything to suppress that artifact, and Mirza has got to find it. Masood goes thriller after the fun and timely The Bad Muslim Discount; originally featured in January 2023 under an alternate author name and with slightly different plot details. With a 30,000-copy first printing.

Winters, Ben H. Big Time. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780316305778. $29. Downloadable. THRILLER

Kidnapped while playing with her baby daughter in the park, Allie awakens in the backseat of a car and manages to escape, landing dazed at a nearby hospital with a portacath in her chest the likes of which no one has seen before. Enter Grace, who works with the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Meanwhile, Allie’s kidnapper is on a deadline. From the author of the Edgar-winning The Last Policeman.

Political Titles

Ackerman, Elliot & Adm. James Stavridis, USN. 2054. Penguin Pr. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780593489864. $28. POLITICAL

As depicted in the New York Times best-selling 2034, war between the United States and China radically reordered U.S. politics. It’s now two decades hence, and when the beleaguered U.S. president falls dead during an address to the nation, computer science, intelligence, and business interests quickly recognize that it was a remote assassination effected by AI. A literary/speculative/thriller blend, BISACed political; from National Book Award finalist Ackerman and navy veteran Stavridis.

Peguero, Robin. One in the Chamber. Grand Central. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781538742464. $29. Downloadable. POLITICAL

New to Capitol Hill, Iowa farm boy Cameron Leann works with a group of polished junior staffers who serve six powerful U.S. senators and look askance at his hayseed background. The infighting gets worse when the first Black chief justice to the Supreme Court is nominated. Born to immigrant parents, Harvard Law graduate Peguero currently serves as chief of staff to a member of Congress. Like his debut, With Prejudice,a laserlike look at how juries function, this book should be approached less as thriller than a deep dive into political understanding.

Pop Fiction

Frost, Caroline. The Last Verse. Morrow. Mar. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780063265486. $30. CD. POP

Gonzalez, Xochitl. Anita de Monte Laughs Last. Flatiron: Macmillan. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781250786210. $28.99. Downloadable. POP

Graves, Tracey Garvis. The Trail of Lost Hearts. St. Martin’s. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250280275. $29. Downloadable. POP

Hunter, Becky. One Moment. Forever: Hachette. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781538741757. $29. Downloadable. FRIENDSHIP

Ko, Lisa. Memory Piece. Riverhead. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780593542101. $28. lrg. prnt. COMING OF AGE

Lapid, Lihi. On Her Own. HarperVia. Mar. 2024. 320p. tr. from Hebrew by Sondra Silverton. ISBN 9780063309760. $30. FAMILY

Lovering, Carola. Bye, Baby. St. Martin’s. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781250289360. $29. Downloadable. POP

Maupin, Armistead. Mona of the Manor. Harper. Mar. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780062973597. $30. CD. POP/LGBTQ+

Quindlen, Anna. After Annie. Random. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780593229804. $30. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. FAMILY

Serle, Rebecca. Expiration Dates. Atria. Mar. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9781982166823. $27. CD. POP

Steel, Danielle. Never Too Late. Delacorte. Mar. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780593498408. $29. POP

In The Last Verse, Frost’s follow-up to her award-winning debut, Shadows of Pecan Hollow, aspiring country-music singer Twyla Finch is anxious about laying claim to a song she performed just once but later hears sung by someone else on the radio; it’s about a terrible crime in which she was inadvertently involved (75,000-copy first printing). In Anita de Monte Laughs Last, Gonzalez’s follow-up to her multi-best-booked Olga Dies Dreaming, first-generation Ivy League student Raquel discovers the remarkable work of forgotten artist Anita de Monte, whose tangled relationships before her suspicious death eerily echo Raquel’s own (200,000-copy first printing). After her fiancé’s death, Wren Waters learns that he was married with children and follows The Trail of Lost Hearts as she goes geocaching (something like treasure hunting) in the Pacific Northwest, where fellow geocacher Marshall Hendricks helps her overcome her grief; New York Times best-selling Graves’s latest (50,000-copy first printing). In only One Moment, Scarlett has died, but she can’t seem to let go, watching the effects of her death on best friend Evie, who furiously blames Nate for Scarlett’s passing even as he keeps showing up proactively in her life; former UK book publicist Hunter’s debut (50,000-copy first printing). Following Ko’s National Book Award finalist, PEN/Bellwether–winning The Leavers, Memory Piece visits teenagers Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng in the early 1980s, then revisits them as adults, when performance activist Giselle, coder Jackie, and community activist Ellen find their dreams getting bent. In best-selling Israeli novelist Lapid’s On Her Own, Russian immigrant teenager Nina runs away from her just-scraping-by homelife and after witnessing a murder ends up terrified in the stairwell of a Tel Aviv apartment, where a lonesome widow mistakes her for her granddaughter (40,000-copy first printing). Following Hulu hit Tell Me Lies, Lovering’s Bye, Baby features Cassie, now married, wealthy, and eager to leave behind single, lusterless Billie, who knows Cassie’s worst secrets and has just kidnapped her baby (100,000-copy first printing). Having married Lord Teddy Roughton to allow him to remain in San Francisco, Mona Ramsey finds herself Mona of the Manor, the widowed lady of a grand Cotswolds estate, and with adopted son Wilfred sets about repairing both the house and the troubles of some U.S. visitors; 10th in Maupin’s durable “Tales of the City” series (50,000-copy first printing). The redoubtable Quindlen’s After Annie contemplates the effect of Annie Brown’s death on her husband, best friend, and daughter Ali, the eldest of Annie’s four young children, who is now responsible for holding everyone else together. In the New York Times best-selling Serle’s Expiration Dates, every time Daphne Bell starts dating someone new, she mysteriously receives a slip of paper indicating how long the relationship will last—but not when she meets blind date Jake. For the recently widowed Kezia Cooper Hobson, it’s Never Too Late to start life afresh, as she moves from San Francisco to New York, a city she loves where her daughters now live, and draws close to her movie-star neighbor Sam as they volunteer together when a crisis hits the city; the second of seven Steel originals in 2024.

Pop Fiction Debuts

Bullwinkel, Rita. Headshot. Viking. Mar. 2024. 224p. ISBN 9780593654101. $28. MARRIAGE

From personal tragedy to family expectations to the desire simply to be the best, eight teenage girl boxers each have their own reasons for competing in a national competition held in Reno, NV. Whiting Award winner Bullwinkel, who won the Believer Book Award for her collection Belly Up, articulates the tensions and sheer physical joy they experience.

Hazell, Lottie. Piglet. Hot. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250289841. $27.99. Downloadable. POP

A rising-star cookbook editor in London, Piglet is about to get married to upper-class fiancée Kit and loves everything about her life except maybe her childhood nickname. Then, two weeks before the wedding, Kit confesses to a betrayal, and Piglet doesn’t know how to proceed—except now she’s suddenly really, really hungry. Bought at auction and one of the publisher’s biggest 2024 fiction titles; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Kuku, Damilare. Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad: Stories. HarperVia. Mar. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780063316362. $26. SHORT STORIES

A hardworking woman protects her business interests by defusing allegations that her pastor husband has cheated. Another threatens to cut off her slovenly husband’s penis if he doesn’t shape up. Yet another, fed up with Nigerian men, decides to date only white men but finds they’re just as bad. Kuku’s boldly envelope-pushing collection was a huge hit in her native Nigeria. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Lee, Ela. Jaded. S. & S. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781668010990. $27.99. COMING OF AGE

The daughter of immigrant parents, stuck with a Starbucks name (something many children of immigrants can claim), Jade has worked hard to succeed at her London law firm. Now, with no memory of getting home from a work gala, she’s worried that she’s blown it all. London-based Lee’s parents emigrated from South Korea and Turkey.

Rapp, Adam. Wolf at the Table. Little, Brown. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780316434164. $30. Downloadable. FAMILY

Haunted by a triple murder that occurred down the street in the 1950s, the Larkin children spin far from home when they grow up, with Myra serving as a prison nurse, sisters Lexy and Fiona washing up on opposite sides of the class-and-power divide, and former altar-boy Alex thrown out of the house and drifting. Then their mother starts receiving threatening postcards, with a hint that there’s a serial killer in their midst. From Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award finalist Rapp.

Wan, Sophie. Women of Good Fortune. Graydon House: Harlequin. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781525804304. $28.99. FRIENDSHIP

Lulu is not in love, but how can she refuse when one of Shanghai’s most eligible bachelors unexpectedly proposes? It will help her struggling parents, and the wedding will be the event of the season. But Lulu’s not ready for marriage and with two friends, career-focused Rina and unhappily married Jane, plans to steal the wedding money on the big day to achieve their own dreams. Lots of in-house excitement; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Yablon, Hillary. Sylvia’s Second Act. Pamela Dorman: Viking. Mar. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780593493618. $29. POP

When 63-year-old Sylvia discovers her husband cheating on her at their Boca Raton retirement home, she does what any sensible woman would do. Realizing that she’s fed up with her life, she escapes Florida with widowed best friend Eva for ever-exciting New York, never mind the shrimp-sized apartment she lands. She even revives her old wedding-planning business, but she’s not so sure about dating. Billed as the perfect book club book.

Historical Fiction

Auci, Stefania. The Triumph of the Lions. HarperVia. Mar. 2024. 304p. tr. from Italian by Katherine Gregor. ISBN 9780062931702. pap. $18.99. HISTORICAL

The Florios are known as the Lions of Sicily, with ruthlessly ambitious Vincenzo having built a vast empire of palaces and factories from scratch. But he gave up his true love in the process, and son Ignazziddu is a gentle soul who wants nothing to do with his family’s fame and fortune. Look for a forthcoming Hulu series.

Beaird, Rowan. The Divorcées. Flatiron: Macmillan. Mar. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9781250896582. $28.99. Downloadable. HISTORICAL

Having married in the 1950s to escape loneliness, Lois Saunders now wants to escape her empty marriage. So she heads to a divorce ranch in Reno, NV, where she enjoys a brisk frivolity she never knew in her heartlands suburb and meets a woman who changes her life. Beaird debuts with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Conley, Garrard. All the World Beside. Riverhead. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780525537335. $28. Downloadable. HISTORICAL

In 1700s Puritan New England, stern, pious Rev. Nathaniel Whitfield dominates his congregation and attracts followers from afar. One such congregant is physician Arthur Lyman, and the growing passion between the two men threatens their earthly existence and their relationship with their God. From the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Boy Erased.

Labuskes, Brianna. The Lost Book of Bonn. Morrow. Mar. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780063259287. pap. $18.99. HISTORICAL

Sent to post–World War II Germany by the Library of Congress to help retrieve and catalog books looted by German forces, librarian Emmy Clarke finds a touching handwritten dedication, “To Annelise, my brave Edelweiss Pirate,” in a collection of Rilke’s poetry. She’s determined to find out more about this story. Following the best-selling The Librarian of Burned Books; with a 150,000-copy paperback first printing.

Michaels, Anne. Held. Knopf. Jan. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9780593536865. $27. Downloadable. HISTORICAL

Badly injured during World War I and nearly lost under a blanket of falling snow, John returns to North Yorkshire, Canada, and tries to get on with his life. But his trauma affects the following generations. From the internationally best-selling Michaels, whose honors include the Orange and Guardian Fiction prizes.

Ryan, Jennifer. The Underground Library. Ballantine. Mar. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9780593500385. $28.99. Downloadable. HISTORICAL

The Blitz may have descended upon Britain, but deputy librarian Juliet Lansdown is determined to revive the ailing Bethnal Green Library as a source of solace for the community. She’s helped by Jewish refugee Sofie and university student Katie, whose boyfriend was killed in the war. Then the bombs hit close to home. From the author of the beloved The Chilbury Ladies' Choir.

Nonfiction

Current

Bucks, Garrett. The Right Kind of White: A Memoir. S. & S. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781982197209. $28.99. MEMOIR

Butler, Judith. Who’s Afraid of Gender? Farrar. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780374608224. $30. Downloadable. SOCIAL SCIENCE/GENDER STUDIES

Heilbrunn, Jacob. America Last: The Right’s Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators. Liveright: Norton. Mar. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9781324094661. $28.99. POLITICAL SCIENCE

Hunt-Hendrix, Leah & Astra Taylor. Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Pantheon. Mar. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780593701249. $30. POLITICAL SCIENCE

Sciutto, Jim. The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War. Dutton. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593474136. $30. POLITICAL SCIENCE

Steinmetz-Jenkins, Daniel, ed. Did It Happen Here?: Perspectives on Fascism and America. Norton. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781324074397. $28.99. POLITICAL SCIENCE

Troiano, Nick. The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes. S. & S. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781668028254. $30. POLITICAL SCIENCE

Founder of the Barnraisers Project, which works to organize majority-white communities for racial and social justice, Bucks looks at his own life to find an expansive definition of whiteness not based on exclusion in The Right Kind of White. An influential and sometimes controversial philosopher and gender theorist, Butler goes mainstream by asking Who’s Afraid of Gender? and responding that anti-gender sentiment is at the core of right-wing movements (75,000-copy first printing). Puzzling though the America Last bias of many U.S. right-wingers, with their support (for instance) of Vladimir Putin and Victor Orbán, National Interest editor Heilbrunn points out that since World War I this slice of U.S. society has often been enamored of authoritarians abroad, from Kaiser Wilhelm to Hitler to Pinochet. Founder of Solidaire, a national network of philanthropists dedicated to funding progressive movements, oil heiress Hunt-Hendrix (recently profiled in The New Yorker) joins with documentarian and Debt Collective cofounder Taylor to examine the concept of Solidarity throughout history as a means of crossing class, race, and national borders. CNN anchor and chief national security correspondent Sciutto argues that after the post–Cold War quiet we’re experiencing a “1939 moment” defined by The Return of Great Powers and their fierce jockeying for dominance. To answer the question Did It Happen Here? —that is, did fascism enter the U.S. mainstream with the 2016 election?—Wesleyan professor Steinmetz-Jenkins organizes crucial readings on the subject from classics by Hannah Arendt and Angela Davis to contemporary commentary by the likes of Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Pankaj Mishra. Founding executive director of Unite America, Troiano asserts in The Primary Solution that the underlying cause of today’s political dysfunction is the U.S. primary system.

The Abrahamic Religions

Coldstream, Catherine. Cloistered: My Years as a Nun. St. Martin’s. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781250323514. $30. Downloadable. RELIGION/MEMOIR

Having converted to Catholicism after her father’s death, Coldstream became a Carmelite nun for 12 years but left the order at age 39, abhorring the cult of personality that had replaced the venerable concept of religious obedience. Here she peers intently at her journey into and out of the priory while contemplating the joys and dangers of living within an enclosed community. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

Feldman, Noah. Bad Jew: A Perplexed Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People. Farrar. Mar. 2024. 416p. ISBN 9780374298340. $32. RELIGION

At a time of intermarriage and differing approaches to spirituality, Feldman looks at Judaism in contemporary times, ranging across its different forms to ponder how to be a Jew today. His bedrock approach: the ancient teaching claiming that there is no such thing as a “bad Jew.” Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard and founding director of its Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law.

Gazmarian, Anna. Devout: A Memoir of Doubt. S. & S. Mar. 2024. 192p. ISBN 9781668004036. $27.99. RELIGION/MEMOIR

In 2011, Gazmarian was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which suddenly made sense of her life but was viewed by the Evangelical community in which she was raised as an affliction of the spirit instead of a medical condition. Here she explains how she spent years finding a way to square her mental health issues with her religious beliefs.

Habib, M.A.R. & Bruce B. Lawrence. The Qur’an: A Verse Translation. Liveright: Norton. Feb. 2024. 752p. ISBN 9780871404992. $49.99. RELIGION

Ten years in the making, this verse translation of the Qur’an is the work of two qualified scholars: Rutgers English professor Habib, a poet whose many volumes include Shades of Islam, and Duke professor Lawrence, a scholar of Islam who focuses on the complexities of translation. Billed as an accessible and lyrically rendered work for all comers.

Held, Shai. Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life. Farrar. Mar. 2024. 560p. ISBN 9780374192440. $35. CD/downloadable. RELIGION

President, dean, and chair in Jewish thought at New York’s Hadar Institute, Held (The Heart of Torah) plumbs tradition, current practice, and a belief in full equality for all people to counter the long-held perception that Christianity is meant to embody loving kindness while Judaism focuses on the law. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

McCammon, Sarah. The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church. St. Martin’s. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250284471. $30. Downloadable. RELIGION/MEMOIR

A national political correspondent for NPR, McCammon was raised evangelical and was a believer entertaining some doubts until the 2016 election. Then she saw how powerfully evangelical Christianity influenced the political Right and discovered that she belonged to a rising tide of younger people raised in the faith and now fleeing it. With a 125,000-copy first printing.

Moss, Candida. God’s Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible. Little, Brown. Mar. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780316564670. $30. Downloadable. RELIGION/HISTORY

The New Testament is generally attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul, but Moss, an award-winning biblical scholar who serves as Edward Cadbury Chair of Theology at the University of Birmingham, argues that they worked with enslaved coauthors and collaborators who have gone uncredited. These collaborators produced the earliest manuscripts, edited the final works, and carried the texts throughout the Mediterranean, reading them aloud to crowds. With a 45,000-copy first printing.

Nixey, Catherine. Heretic: The Many Lives and Deaths of Jesus Christ. Mariner: HarperCollins. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780358652915. $32.50. CD. RELIGION

The daughter of a monk and a nun, classicist-turned-journalist Nixey shook things up with her multi-best-booked The Darkening Age, which argued that early Christians were hardly meek but instead aggressively attacked classical thought and anyone who disagreed with them. Here, she presents the multiple versions of Christ, from one who traveled to India and another who killed opponents, that prevailed in the religion’s early centuries. With a 25,000-copy first printing.

Robinson, Marilynne. Reading Genesis. Farrar. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780374299408. $29. Downloadable. RELIGION

While believers argue over the literal truth of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and scholars examine how it derives from other beliefs and stories of the time, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Robinson argues for its importance as literature and its expression of the unbreakable covenant between God and humans. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Memoir

Alford, Natasha S. American Negra. Harper. Mar. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780063237100. $29.99. CD. MEMOIR

DeRuiter, Geraldine. If You Can’t Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury. Crown. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780593444481. $28.99. MEMOIR

Figueroa, Jamie. Mother Island: A Daughter Claims Puerto Rico. Pantheon. Mar. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780553387681. $29. MEMOIR

Hulls, Tessa. Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir. MCD: Farrar. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780374601652. $40. MEMOIR

Lieu, Susan. The Manicurist’s Daughter: A Memoir. Celadon: Macmillan. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250835048. $30. Downloadable. MEMOIR

Raboteau, Emily. Lessons for Survival. Holt. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250809766. $29.99. Downloadable. MEMOIR

Russell, Cameron. How To Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone: A Memoir. Random. Mar. 2024. 224p. ISBN 9780593595480. $29. MEMOIR

Slater, Lyn. How To Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon. Plume: Random. Mar. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780593471791. $28. MEMOIR

Sun, Carrie. Private Equity: A Memoir. Penguin Pr. Feb. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780593654996. $29. MEMOIR

Yang, Kao Kalia. Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother’s Life. Atria. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781982185299. $28.99. MEMOIR

An award-winning journalist who created and hosts TheGrio network and website, Alford examines her dual sense of self as a Black woman and a Puerto Rican woman in America Negra (20,000-copy first printing). Responding to Mario Batali’s wan apology for sexual harassment, the James Beard Award–winning blogger DeRuiter wrote an essay that drew millions of readers (and physical threats); If You Can’t Take the Heat covers her ups and downs in the world of gastronomy. Novelist Figueroa (Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer) was raised by a Puerto Rican mother abandoned by her family and intent on assimilation; in Mother Island, Figueroa discusses healing from a fractured childhood and discovering her Puerto Rican self as an adult. In the graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts, author/illustrator Hulls surveys three generations of women, starting with her Chinese grandmother, a Shanghai-based journalist who fled the 1949 Communist takeover for Hong Kong with her daughter, and ending with her own flight from family and subsequent return to understand how it has shaped her (75,000-copy first printing). In The Manicurist’s Daughter, playwright/performer Lieu tells the heartbreaking story of her family’s 1980s escape from Vietnam after five attempts and their opening two successful nail salons in the United States, only to have her mother die following unnecessary plastic surgery; a related solo theater show had a successful 10-city tour. A Hurston/Wright finalist for Searching for Zion , Raboteau contemplates race, climate change, and social justice as she considers how best to raise children today in Lessons for Survival (100,000-copy first printing). In How To Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone, TED-talking fashion model Russell explains how and why she helped organize a movement to bring more equity (and less distance between appearance and self) to her industry. Founder of the fashion blog Accidental Icon, septuagenarian Slater explains How To Be Old—naturally, happily, and with self-acceptance. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Sun triumphed in school and (with some detours) clambered successfully up the corporate ladder but found herself physically and mentally devastated by her job; Private Equity reminds us of the need to examine our relationship to work. Recalling Yang’s The Latehomecomer, an NEA Big Read, Where Rivers Part follows Yang’s Hmong mother, who fled Laos with her family, separated from them (forever) to marry while in a refugee camp, and with her husband eventually brought their children to the United States, where the parents enrolled in high school at age 30 while still working to support the family.

Arts

Bernstein, Richard. Only in America: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer. Schocken: Pantheon. Mar. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9780805243673. $28. PERFORMING ARTS/BIOGRAPHY

Having emigrated from a Lithuanian shtetl in 1894 to Washington, DC, where his father got a job as a rabbi, Al Jolson soon rose to become the best-known and best-paid entertainer in the United States. He’s especially noted for the history-making The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length film with synchronized music and dialogue and a groundbreaker in its depiction of Jewish life. A new tact for Bernstein, long a New York Times foreign correspondent with numerous Asia-focused books to his credit.

Carr, Cynthia. Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar. Farrar. Mar. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9781250066350. $30. Downloadable. PERFORMING ARTS/BIOGRAPHY

A Warhol superstar who appeared at the renowned nightclub Max's Kansas City, inspired songs by Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones, posed for Richard Avedon, and performed in a Tennessee Williams play with the playwright himself, transgender icon Candy Darling blazed forth just as discussions about gender were emerging and died at age 29 without seeing her full impact. Following Carr’s Lambda-winning Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz, also a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

de Visé, Daniel. The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic. Atlantic Monthly. Mar. 2024. 480p. ISBN 9780802160980. $28. FILM

Author of King of the Blues, award-winning journalist de Visé reveals how Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi joined forces to play the Blues Brothers in the legendary 1980 film of the same name, ostensibly about a mission to save a Chicago orphanage but also meant as a celebration of the noble tradition of rhythm and blues, then somewhat in the shadows.

Dubus, Andre III. Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin. Norton. Mar. 2024. 272p. ISBN 9781324000440. $28.99. LITERATURE/MEMOIR

Novelist Dubus, whose House of Sand and Fog was a National Book Award finalist and an Oprah's Book Club selection, follows up the best-selling memoir Townie with a series of self-reflective essays. They range from his work as a bounty hunter to fatherhood to the dangerous pressures of masculinity; the longest essay ponders the empowerment and yet conflicted feelings that came with owning a gun and the shame that finally made him decide to give it up.

Dykstra, Natalie. Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Mariner: HarperCollins. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781328515759. $32.50. CD. FINE ARTS/BIOGRAPHY

Winner of the inaugural Robert and Ina Caro Fellowship, this new biography from Dykstra (Clover Adams) examines the life of noted art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, who built the eponymous Boston museum to house her cherished collection— paintings, tapestries, porcelains, and more, including the first Raphael and the first Botticelli in the United States. With a 20,000-copy first printing.

Gooch, Brad. Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring. Harper. Mar. 2024. 448p. ISBN 9780062698261. $42. CD. FINE ARTS/BIOGRAPHY

Wiggly, squiggly, energetic, and entertaining, Keith Haring’s famed black-line art transformed New York City in the 1980s and willfully ignored the line between high art and popular culture, fusing them into one. The noted biographer of Frank O’Hara and Flannery O’Connor worked with Haring’s friends and associates and the Keith Haring Foundation to create this portrait. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Kaplan, James. 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool. Penguin Pr. Mar. 2024. 480p. ISBN 9780525561002. $32. MUSIC

Author of the multi-best-booked Sinatra, Kaplan assays three jazz giants—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans—to show how jazz reached dizzying heights in terms of popularity and creativity in the 1950s even as these musicians joined to create what many consider the greatest jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue.

RuPaul. The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir. Dey Street: Morrow. Mar. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9780063263901. $29.99. CD. PERFORMING ARTS/MEMOIR

From his coming-of-age as a queer Black child in San Diego and his difficult dance with an absent father and mercurial mother to his triumph on the punk and drag scenes of Atlanta and New York and embrace of sobriety, love with his husband Georges LeBar, and the idea of the chosen family, RuPaul says it all. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

Salisbury, Katie Gee. Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong. Dutton. Mar. 480p. ISBN 9780593183984. $32. Downloadable. FILM/BIOGRAPHY

As evidenced by Yunte Huang’s biography Daughter of the Dragon and Gail Tsukiyama’s novel The Brightest Star, both published in 2023, Anna May Wong is beginning to get her due. A fifth-generation Chinese American, Salisbury goes beyond Wong’s Hollywood years to her life and career in Europe, where she mingled with royalty and made films in Berlin, Paris, and London.

Shakespeare, Nicholas. Ian Fleming: The Complete Man. Mar. 2024. 864p. ISBN 9780063012240. $35. LITERATURE

We all know James Bond, but do we really know Ian Fleming? Raised by a determined mother to be “the complete man,” Fleming became a wildly successful thriller writer only in the last 12 years of his life; before that, he built an impressive career in naval Intelligence that took him ’round the world. The Somerset Maugham Award–winning biographer Shakespeare relied on the Fleming family papers to craft his narrative. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Targoff, Ramie. Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance. Knopf. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780525658030. $33. LITERATURE

Mary Sidney, an accomplished poet and the sister of the celebrated Sir Philip Sidney. Amelia Lanyer, the first professional woman poet in England. Elizabeth Cary, the first professional woman playwright. And diarist Anne Clifford, who fought a long inheritance battle to keep her lands. Brandeis humanities professor Targoff (Renaissance Woman) celebrate four women who became writers in 1600s England despite the odds.

Social Science 

Abdurraqib, Hanif. There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension. Random. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780593448793. $32. Downloadable. SOCIAL SCIENCE

Charter, David. Royal Audience: 70 Years, 13 Presidents—One Queen's Special Relationship with America. Putnam. Mar. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780593712870. $30. Downloadable. HISTORY

Coll, Steve. The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq. Penguin Pr. Mar. 2024. 576p. ISBN 9780525562269. $35. Downloadable. HISTORY

De León, Jason. Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling. Viking. Mar. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780593298589. $32. Downloadable. POLITICS

Hahn, Steven. Illiberal America: A History. Norton. Mar. 2024. 544p. ISBN 9780393635928. $35. HISTORY

Haidt, Jonathan. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penguin Pr. Mar. 2024. ISBN 9780593655030. $30. Downloadable. PSYCHOLOGY

Parker, Morgan. You Get What You Pay For: Essays. One World: Random. Mar. 2024. 224p. ISBN 9780525511441. Downloadable. ESSAYS

Popper, Nathaniel. The Trolls of Wall Street: How the Outcasts and Insurgents Are Hacking the Markets. Dey Street: Morrow. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780063205864. $32.50. BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Tesfamariam, Rahiel. Imagine Freedom: Transforming Pain into Political and Spiritual Power. Amistad. Mar. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780063253087. $29.99. SOCIAL SCIENCE

In There’s Always This Year, Macarthur fellow Abdurraqib takes a break from poetry and criticism to reflect on growing up in Ohio when basketball had a special LeBron James and what it means to be successful. The U.S. editor of the Times of London, Charter considers Queen Elizabeth II’s special relationship with the United States in Royal Audience. In The Achilles Trap, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Coll limns Saddam Hussein’s decades-long relationship with the United States and considers the cultural misapprehensions that led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. To tell the story of human smuggling in Soldiers and Kings, MacArthur fellow and UCLA professor De León traveled over seven years with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico. Moving from pre–Civil War state laws excluding Black people and reformer Margaret Sanger’s advocacy of birth control via eugenics to the mainstreaming of George Wallace and the January 6 insurrection, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Hahn reveals that despite professed ideals, what predominates is an Illiberal America. Coauthor of the New York Times best-selling The Coddling of the American Mind, NYU social psychologist Haidt investigates The Anxious Generation, arguing that today’s crisis in youth mental health results mainly from excessive supervision and structure by adults. In You Get What You Pay For, the National Book Critics Circle Award–winning poet Parker offers intimate essays combing through years of loneliness (and subsequent therapy) stemming from feeling unsafe and reckoning with the history of slavery. In The Trolls of Wall Street, acclaimed finance and technology journalist Popper tracks a group of predominantly young men who banded together on Reddit and, calling themselves degenerates, are changing the rules of how money is made in the markets. A former Washington Post columnist and founder of the activist online community Urban Cusp, Tesfamariam argues that people of African descent can break their cycle of trauma and Imagine Freedom only by decolonizing their thinking and clarifying their relationship with Africa (60,000-copy first printing).

STEM

Cliff, Harry. Space Oddities: The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe. Doubleday. Mar. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780385549035. $29. Downloadable. ASTROPHYSICS

A Cambridge University–based particle physicist who pushes the envelope in his work on CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, Cliff reveals strange new phenomena—hyper-energized particles beneath the Antarctic ice, unknown forces tugging away at the essentials of matter—that don’t fit into our current understanding of physics. Have we reached the end of physics (the title of his TED talk, viewed by nearly three million)? Or are we on the cusp of something new?

Lauretta, Dante. The Asteroid Hunter: A Scientist’s Journey to the Dawn of Our Solar System. Grand Central. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781538722947. $30. Downloadable. SPACE SCIENCE

The principal investigator of NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission, which aims to retrieve an asteroid sample for study, Lauretta introduces readers to a massive asteroid named Bennu. Bennu, which is as big as an aircraft carrier and looms taller than the Empire State Building, has the potential to explain the origins of life on Earth but could also end it; it seems set to collide with Earth on September 24, 2182. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Lustgarten, Abrahm. On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America. Farrar. Mar. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780374171735. $30. CLIMATE CHANGE

A Pulitzer Prize finalist for his series on drought in the U.S. West, investigative reporter Lustgarten considers how climate change will reshape life across the country, with coastal flooding, wildfires to the west, heat and humidity to the south, and agriculture-destroying drought everywhere driving populations northward and hurting poor communities particularly. Chats with homeowners from California to Florida reveal that the migration is already afoot. With a 35,000-copy first printing.

Rus, Daniela & Gregory Mone. The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots. Norton. Mar. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9781324050230. $29.99. ROBOTICS

With over three million robots currently doing everything from assembling computers to monitoring air quality, the robotics revolution has already arrived. Cutting-edge roboticist Rus, a MacArthur fellow who serves as the first woman director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, shares what’s happening.

Smith, Andrew. Devil in the Stack: Searching for the Soul of the New Machine. Atlantic Monthly. Mar. 2024. 417p. ISBN 9780802158840. $28. TECHNOLOGY

Algorithmic codes are so integral to everyday life that we don’t even notice them, yet how many of us understand how they work? And if we can’t understand them, how can we control their impact on society? Author of the internationally best-selling Moondust, Smith decided to provide some clarity by learning coding himself.

Swisher, Kara. Burn Book: A Tech Love Story. S. & S. Mar. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781982163891. $30. TECHNOLOGY

Swisher is a technology reporter so renowned that Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg once said: “It is a constant joke in the Valley when people write memos for them to say, ‘I hope Kara never sees this.’” Having interviewed pretty much everyone who’s anyone in technology, she here provides a sweeping view of Silicon Valley and the impact—and dangers—of the internet.