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Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Returns!

When Gamache receives a phone call at his home in Three Pines, instructing him to go to a remote, forgotten area in Quebec to find a dead body, a mystery unspools that tangles the past, the present and the future.

Lee Child and Andrew Child Team Up Once Again for a New Jack Reacher Thriller

Our reviewer Ray Palen calls CHAIN REACTION "classic Jack Reacher, full of violence and intrigue that is pretty much nonstop."

Mary Beth Keane's Latest Novel is November's "Good Morning America" Book Club Pick

WHALE HARBOR follows 11 brothers as they are set on different paths between Ireland, England, Montana and New York.

THE FAMILY CROSS is the 36th Installment in James Patterson's Alex Cross Series

This time, Cross investigates a series of baffling murders while balancing a family crisis that threatens to upend his entire world.

Ambition. Sorcery. Treason. How Far Will One Woman Dare to Go?

Find out in Philippa Gregory’s new novel about Eleanor Cobham, a lowborn woman who rises to become the Duchess of Gloucester.

Tracy Daughterty Has Penned a Must-Read Biography of Cormac McCarthy

CORMAC McCARTHY recounts his story from poverty to riches, obscurity to worldwide acclaim, and unveils the man behind the myth.

Latest Features and Contests


Bookreporter.com Bets On: THE VANISHING FAMILY: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia, by Robert Kolker

In THE VANISHING FAMILY, Robert Kolker brings readers the story of a family whose lives have been upended by a rare form of frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

For a long time, this unnamed family with nine children from Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, has no idea what is happening to their matriarch. After years of taking care of everyone, she suddenly shows no interest in Barb --- the youngest child, who is living at home and was born a decade after her eight other siblings --- or herself. Instead she becomes withdrawn, and no one can figure out why this once vibrant woman has changed so dramatically. Her husband has left their marriage, and for a time there are thoughts that maybe that had something to do with it. She dies from cancer before they can learn anything else. 

But then one of the daughters begins to exhibit very similar tendencies in her 40s, followed by another. The family realizes that this may be something bigger than just getting older and retreating.

» Click here to read more of Carol's Bets On commentary.
» Click here to read our review.


Bookreporter.com's Word of Mouth Contest: Tell Us What You've Read --- and You Can Win Two Books!

Let us know by Friday, November 6th at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have a chance to win MISS WOLCOTT'S GHOST by Louise Penny and PECK & PECK by Bonnie Garmus in our Word of Mouth contest.

When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache receives a puzzling phone call at his home in Three Pines, instructing him to go to a remote, forgotten area in Quebec to find a dead body, a puzzling mystery unspools that tangles the past, the present and the future in MISS WOLCOTT’S GHOST.

PECK & PECK is an irresistible, delightful and tender story about a young man whose life turns upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world: the renowned Peck & Peck.

» Click here to enter the contest.

Bookreporter Talks To...

As part of our mission to expand The Book Report Network, we have been shooting video interviews with authors and posting them on our YouTube channel. We also have been making them available as podcasts. Carol loves interviewing authors, so this feels like a natural.

Bonnie Garmus' new novel, PECK & PECK, is set in 1980s New York City and centers on a young man named Batter Gray, who has an entry level job at a downtown Manhattan poetry journal, which is very quirky. Bonnie had a memory of a high school English teacher who read a poem aloud every day and urged students to do the same for life. She admitted that she did not keep that promise and did not read poetry seriously again for about 20 years. Bonnie was “blown away” during her poetry research for the book, validating her teacher’s advice. She also discusses the pressure on her to follow up on the success of her debut novel, LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

THE BIRTHING TREE is a Bets On title, just like Amanda Peters' debut novel, THE BERRY PICKERS. Amanda shares the personal and professional inspirations behind the book. They include a childhood memory involving her grandmother, who had dementia and told her about a tree near the water where Mi'kmaq women used to give birth, as well as Amanda’s work with Nova Scotia's midwifery regulation committee. The conversation explores the importance of preserving Mi'kmaq traditions, intergenerational storytelling, and Amanda's personal journey reconnecting with her Indigenous heritage. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

Carol had a wonderful conversation with Jonathan Santlofer about his new thriller, TEN PERFECT GUESTS, which is a Bets On pick. Jonathan describes the book as a classic whodunit featuring 10 characters brought to an isolated island for a memorial, with an inheritance at stake. He wanted to use all classic tropes --- locked room, large cast, hidden motives --- without a detective figure. He explains that managing so many distinct characters was more difficult than anticipated, requiring a character chart and careful differentiation so readers would not need to look back. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

» Click here for a complete list of our "Bookreporter Talks To" videos and podcasts, along with upcoming interviews.

Latest Reviews

Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li - Historical Fiction

In Dublin, as the 18th century nears its end, a young musical virtuoso comes of age. John Field is preternaturally gifted, and his family has visions of him becoming the next Mozart. His talent eventually takes him to Russia, where he becomes a famous pianist and composes dreamy, languorous melodies that enchant the night air. John calls them nocturnes, but the prodigy who immortalizes them is Chopin. Oceans away in Pondicherry, in French India, Adelaide Percheron is raised by her imperious, enterprising grandmother. Her cousins give her the name Percherette, an impish reminder that she is not one of the crowd. Without a connection to aristocracy or the luxury of riches, only marriage seems to offer prosperity --- until she sets her sights on a pianoforte.

Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas - Historical Fiction

In Victorian England, no woman --- not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin --- is allowed to open her own bank account. Together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women’s bank, where women can manage their own financial security. But soon she is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective. He’s been assigned to investigate Farlow, who’s suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive that it could destabilize the British economy. Pembroke needs Reina’s expertise for a high-stakes nighttime heist to obtain incriminating evidence. Now she faces the agonizing choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything.

The Game by Peter King - Sports

For 40 years, Peter King’s unmatched access, curiosity and passion have made him synonymous with the National Football League. He broke countless stories, giving us the human side of the sport and influencing countless reporters. Players trusted him; coaches and owners revealed information to him. He gathered it all into notebooks and columns that kept fans riveted. Now, in THE GAME, King has brought all his knowledge and insight together in one place to tell the story of the modern NFL as no one else could. Moving from the mid-1980s, when the league went head-to-head with baseball in popularity, to the present, when it dominates every other entertainment in America, King narrates the NFL’s explosive rise from the inside.

Die Famous by Michael Koryta - Historical Thriller

On the day Savannah Cody spots her first gray hair, she decides it’s time to murder the father of her only child. Edward “Nickel” Terhune is the getaway driver for the Brady Gang, one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals. Dragging her son, Alford, and her father, Wendell, a retired railroad detective, along for the quest, Savannah embarks to find the man she once loved and the nation now fears, journeying across an America transformed by the Great Depression. But Alford --- and soon, the FBI --- notices that the closer the family gets to Nickel, the less clear Savannah’s motivations seem to be. As the Brady Gang races to escape the law (or get rich trying), Nickel realizes he might not be able to outrun his mistakes.

In the fall of 2014, Deacon Ronnie Lastovica visited a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas, and gave communion to the women on death row. Moved by the meeting, the Deacon vowed to return weekly, but he knew he couldn’t help these women alone. He called upon the Sisters of Mary Morning Star, a group of contemplative nuns in Waco, Texas, to visit the seven condemned women with him. What follows is an incredible story of a spiritual alliance between two groups of women who, though they couldn't seem more different, are living uniquely similar lives. Lawrence Wright takes us into the death row unit, laying bare their stories.

Whether it’s a local indie bookshop, an online mega-retailer or a chain bookstore, the place we buy books is an essential part of our reading lives. Bookstores connect books to potential buyers and convert idle browsers into committed readers. Yet, as historian Andrew Pettegree reveals, it took more than five centuries after Gutenberg for bookstores as we know them to emerge. THE BOOKSHOP tells a sweeping history of the bookstore. It celebrates the ingenuity of booksellers, from the smugglers who carried contraband books across borders, to the innovators who created the global distribution networks that define books and bookselling today. 

Passengers by Alexander Maksik - Dystopian Fiction

Ivan is a solitary man in his 70s, set in his ways and haunted by the failures of his past. His daughter, Nina, is in the twilight of her 20s and has long kept a distance from her sentimental father. But when Ivan proposes a trip to Europe in hopes that it will bring them closer together, Nina reluctantly agrees. They meet at LAX, where their departure is delayed. And delayed again. And again. As the hours drag on, their sharp, caustic and wide-ranging conversation reveals a lifetime of misunderstandings, unhealed wounds and stubborn love. Soon more flights are canceled, security tightens, airport staff grow evasive, and it becomes clear to Ivan and Nina that something is wrong. At last, the surreal starts to overtake the mundane, and their need to escape --- and to protect each other --- turns increasingly urgent.