Audition

Katie Kitamura

One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. A mesmerizing Mobius strip of a novel that asks who we are to the people we love. Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an elegant and accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, and young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her – and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us best. Taut, hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best.

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In What World

Bridget Morrissey

A sapphic contemporary romance with a speculative element in which two high school rivals begrudgingly reunite as adults to investigate the disappearance of their former theater teacher and end up traveling through a series of alternate realities together, forcing them to find the answer to a question they’d never admit to being curious about—in what world would the two of them ever be in love with each other?

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The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.

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Dead in the Frame (Pentecost and Parker, #5)

Stephen Spotswood

The most dramatic installment yet in the Nero Award-winning Pentecost and Parker series, as Will scrambles to solve a shocking murder before Lillian takes the fall for the crime.NEW YORK CITY, 1947: Wealthy financier and ghoulish connoisseur of crime, Jessup Quincannon, is dead, and famed detective Lillian Pentecost is under arrest for his murder. Means, motive, and a mountain of evidence leave everyone believing she's guilty. Everyone, that is, except Willowjean “Will” Parker, who knows for a fact her boss is innocent. She just doesn’t know if she can prove it.With Lillian locked away in the House of D–New York City’s infamous women’s prison–Will is left to root out the real killer. Was it a member of Quincannon’s murder-obsessed Black Museum Club? Maybe it was his jilted lover? Or his beautiful, certainly-sociopathic bodyguard? And what about the mob hit-man who just happened to disappear after the shots were fired? With the city barreling toward the trial of the century, each day brings fresh headlines and hints of long-buried scandals from Lillian’s past. Will is desperate to get her boss out from behind bars before her reputation is destroyed. Because the House of D is no kind place, especially for a woman with multiple sclerosis. Or one with so many enemies. Her health failing and targeted by someone who wants her dead, Lillian needs to survive long enough to take the stand. With time running out on both sides of the prison walls, Will and Lillian must wager everything to uncover who put their thumb on the scales and a bullet in Quincannon’s head. Before Lady Justice brings her sword down, ending Pentecost and Parker's adventures once and for all.

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Murder Crossed Her Mind (Pentecost and Parker, #4)

Stephen Spotswood

The latest action-packed installment in the Nero Award-winning Pentecost & Parker Mystery series follows Lillian and Will tracking the suspicious disappearance of a woman who might have known too much. From the author of Fortune Favors the Dead and Murder Under Her Skin. Vera Bodine, an elderly shut-in with an exceptional memory, has gone missing and famed detective Lillian Pentecost and her crackerjack assistant Willowjean "Will" Parker have been hired to track her down. But the New York City of 1947 can be a dangerous place, and there's no shortage of people who might like to get ahold of what's in Bodine's head. Does her disappearance have to do with the high-profile law firm whose secrets she still keeps; the violent murder of a young woman, with which Bodine had lately become obsessed; or is it the work she did with the FBI hunting Nazi spies intent on wartime sabotage? Any and all are on the suspect list, including their client, Forest Whitsun, hotshot defense attorney and no friend to Pentecost and Parker. The clock is ticking to get Bodine back alive, but circumstances conspire to pull both investigators away from the case. Will is hot on the trail of a stickup team who are using her name--and maybe her gun--for their own ends. While Lillian again finds herself up against murder-obsessed millionaire Jessup Quincannon, who has discovered a secret from her past--something he plans to use to either rein the great detective in . . . or destroy her. To solve this mystery, and defeat their own personal demons, the pair will have to go nose-to-nose with murderous gangsters, make deals with conniving federal agents, confront Nazi spies, and bend their own ethical rules to the point of breaking. Before time runs out for everyone.

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Secrets Typed in Blood (Pentecost and Parker #3)

Stephen Spotswood

In the newest entry into the Nero Award-winning Parker & Pentecost Mystery series, Lillian and Will are hot on the trail of a serial killer whose murders are stranger than fiction. New York City, 1947: For years, Holly Quick has made a good living off of murder, filling up the pages of pulp detective magazines with gruesome tales of revenge. Now someone is bringing her stories to life and leaving a trail of blood-soaked bodies behind. With the threat of another murder looming, and reluctant to go to the police, Holly turns to the best crime-solving duo in or out of the pulps, Willowjean "Will" Parker and her boss, famed detective Lillian Pentecost. The pair are handed the seemingly-impossible task of investigating three murders at once without tipping off the cops or the press that the crimes are connected. A tall order made even more difficult by the fact that Will is already signed up to spend her daylight hours undercover as a guileless secretary in the hopes of digging up a lead on an old adversary, Dr. Olivia Waterhouse. But even if Will is stuck in pencil skirts and sensible shoes, she's not about to let her boss have all the fun. Soon she's diving into an underground world of people obsessed with murder and the men and women who commit them. Can the killer be found in the Black Museum Club, run by a philanthropist whose collection of grim murder memorabilia may not be enough to satisfy his lust for the homicidal? Or is it Holly Quick's pair of editors, who read about murder all day, but clearly aren't telling the full story? With victims seemingly chosen at random and a murderer who thrives on spectacle, the case has the great Lillian Pentecost questioning her methods. But whatever she does, she'd better do it fast. Holly Quick has a secret, too and it's about to bring death right to Pentecost and Parker's doorstep.

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Murder Under Her Skin (Pentecost and Parker, #2)

Stephen Spotswood

Stephen Spotswood hard-boils with the best of 'em! --Alan Bradley, bestselling author of the Flavia de Luce mystery seriesSomeone's put a blade in the back of the Amazing Tattooed Woman, and Willowjean "Will" Parker's former knife-throwing mentor has been stitched up for the crime. To uncover the truth, Will and her boss, world-famous detective Lillian Pentecost, travel south into a snakepit of old grudges, small-town crime, and secrets worth killing for. New York, 1946: The last time Will Parker let a case get personal, she walked away with a broken face, a bruised ego, and the solemn promise never again to let her heart get in the way of her job. But she called Hart and Halloway's Travelling Circus and Sideshow home for five years, and Ruby Donner, the circus's tattooed ingenue, was her friend. To make matters worse the prime suspect is Valentin Kalishenko, the man who taught Will everything she knows about putting a knife where it needs to go. To uncover the real killer and keep Kalishenko from a date with the electric chair, Will and Ms. Pentecost join the circus in sleepy Stoppard, Virginia, where the locals like their cocktails mild, the past buried, and big-city detectives not at all. The two swiftly find themselves lost in a funhouse of lies as Will begins to realize that her former circus compatriots aren't playing it straight, and that her murdered friend might have been hiding a lot of secrets beneath all that ink. Dodging fistfights, firebombs, and flying lead, Will puts a lot more than her heart on the line in the search of the truth. Can she find it before someone stops her ticker for good? Step right up! Murder Under Her Skin is a delightfully hardboiled high-wire act starring two daring heroines dead set on justice.

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Fortune Favors the Dead (Pentecost and Parker, #1)

Stephen Spotswood

Introducing Pentecost and Parker, two unconventional female detectives who couldn’t care less about playing by the rules, in their cases and in their lives. It's 1942 and Willowjean "Will" Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of New York's best, and most unorthodox, private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. When the dapper detective summons Will a few days later, she doesn't expect to be offered a life-changing proposition: Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will will receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation. Three years later, Will and Lillian are on the Collins case: Abigail Collins was found bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball following a big, boozy Halloween party at her home--her body slumped in the same chair where her steel magnate husband shot himself the year before. With rumors flying that Abigail was bumped off by the vengeful spirit of her husband (who else could have gotten inside the locked room?), the family has tasked the detectives with finding answers where the police have failed. But that's easier said than done in a case that involves messages from the dead, a seductive spiritualist, and Becca Collins--the beautiful daughter of the deceased, who Will quickly starts falling for. When Will and Becca's relationship dances beyond the professional, Will finds herself in dangerous territory, and discovers she may have become the murderer's next target. A wildly charming and fast-paced mystery written with all the panache of 1940s New York, Fortune Favors the Dead is a fresh homage to Holmes and Watson reads like the best of Dashiell Hammett and introduces an audacious detective duo for the ages.

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Dreamland

Olivie Blake

An intimate, contemporary, and visceral Gothic novel about family secrets, unsolved murders, and ill-fated summer love, by multiple-New York Times bestselling sensation Olivie Blake. The headlines are calling it the "summer of exsanguination" in LA—girls are being murdered, the Santa Ana winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, and all signs point to fire season. But Anya Morris has other things to worry about, like whatever it takes to get a foot in the door of an unfeeling, ever-changing industry after losing the TV pilot that should have been her big break. Enter William de Witt, a movie star of generational acclaim who poses an his son, Jude, has a rare condition that forces him into a reclusive lifestyle. In exchange for spending time with him, Anya will gain entry to Hollywood’s most powerful circles. Just like that, a world of money, access, and industry clout sprawls at Anya's feet, like the city below the mysterious de Witt villa in the hills. But behind the gilded veneer of fame lies decades of bloodstained secrets, and it just may be that an occult family curse lives within the villa’s walls—or within Jude himself. But there’s a dark magnetism to Jude that Anya can’t resist, despite warning signs that scream like sirens in the night. And as the murders across the city continue to ratchet up with the summer heat, something has to give. There’s smoke in the air, but who will be the one to strike the match?

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Dreamland

Olivie Blake

An intimate, contemporary, and visceral Gothic novel about family secrets, unsolved murders, and ill-fated summer love, by multiple-New York Times bestselling sensation Olivie Blake. The headlines are calling it the "summer of exsanguination" in LA—girls are being murdered, the Santa Ana winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, and all signs point to fire season. But Anya Morris has other things to worry about, like whatever it takes to get a foot in the door of an unfeeling, ever-changing industry after losing the TV pilot that should have been her big break. Enter William de Witt, a movie star of generational acclaim who poses an his son, Jude, has a rare condition that forces him into a reclusive lifestyle. In exchange for spending time with him, Anya will gain entry to Hollywood’s most powerful circles. Just like that, a world of money, access, and industry clout sprawls at Anya's feet, like the city below the mysterious de Witt villa in the hills. But behind the gilded veneer of fame lies decades of bloodstained secrets, and it just may be that an occult family curse lives within the villa’s walls—or within Jude himself. But there’s a dark magnetism to Jude that Anya can’t resist, despite warning signs that scream like sirens in the night. And as the murders across the city continue to ratchet up with the summer heat, something has to give. There’s smoke in the air, but who will be the one to strike the match?

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Didn't See That Coming

Alaina Erdell

Rebecca Jenkins is comfortable in her career as a child psychologist, supporting her bereaved sister, and spending time with her beloved nephews. But when she sees the same beautiful treble clef tattoo she pressed her lips to on steamy Berkeley nights fifteen years earlier on the ankle of the new first violinist of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, she’s shaken more than she ever thought possible. Allison O’Leary has finally achieved her lifelong dream of becoming concertmaster in a top-tier orchestra, a career move that stirs up good and bad memories when it returns her to the Bay Area, where she broke the heart of her first love. Hell, her only love. And when she sees her in the audience, no amount of discipline she’s developed over the years can help her. She has to find a way to talk to her. When they agree to forge a friendship, they discover similarities and differences from the women they were in their college days, but they’re both drawn closer by the rekindled heat that still smolders between them. Can Rebecca find forgiveness in her heart and Allison avoid making the same mistake twice so they can have a second chance at love?

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