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Faladé, David Wright. Black Cloud Rising . Grove. Feb. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9780802159199. $27. HISTORICAL

In fall 1863, the Union Army is moving toward North Carolina as thousands of formerly enslaved people join its ranks. The African Brigade is formed to run down Confederate irregulars, with abolitionist general Edward Augustus Wild in command and Sgt. Richard Etheridge, the son of an enslaved woman and her enslaver, at te heart of this story’s. From a Hurston / Wright Award winner; already excerpted in The New Yorker.

Gramont, Nina de. The Christie Affair. St. Martin’s. Feb. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781250274618. $27.99. HISTORICAL

Taking on the oft-visited question of what happened to Agatha Christie during her 11-day disappearance in 1926, Gramont (The Last September) offers the backstory of Nan O'Dea, who insinuated herself into the lives of Agatha Christie and her husband, Archie, and became Archie’s mistress. A fictional character based on someone real, Nan had a hard upbringing in Ireland, and we see her plotting for years to disrupt this marriage. With a 250,000-copy first printing.

Pataki, Allison. The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post. Ballantine. Feb. 2022. 400p. ISBN 9780593355688. $28. HISTORICAL

The New York Times best-selling author Pataki (Sisi) specializes in reimagining the lives of prominent women, and now she takes on heiress, hostess, and all-’round mover and shaker Marjorie Merriweather Post. Emphasized here: her taste for activism and adventure, which led her from attempting to save the tsar’s treasures in Moscow to skirting the Nazis during World War II to surviving four tempestuous marriages.

Turnbull, Bryn. The Last Grand Duchess: A Novel of Olga Romanov, Imperial Russia, and Revolution. Mira: Harlequin. Feb. 2022. 384p. ISBN 9780778386360. $28.99; pap. ISBN 9780778311706. $16.99. HISTORICAL

Having debuted with The Woman Before Wallis, Turnbull turns to a young woman whose name is well known but whose personal life is not: Grand Duchess Olga, the first daughter of Russia’s last tsar. Here we see Olga’s sheltered personal life within the whirlwind of tea parties, balls, and court intrigue before the Russian Revolution; her tending to injured military officers during the war; a possibility of romance; and the blazing end of the Romanov dynasty. With a 150,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing.

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