Featuring: David Baldacci, Sash Bischoff, Ron Currie, Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry, Amy Gamerman, Lev Grossman, Bella Mackie, Brittany Newell, Robin Niblett, Gail Simone, Elissa R. Sloan, Maggie Su

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David Baldacci, TO DIE FOR (Grand Central)

The 6:20 Man returns, this time sent to the Pacific Northwest to aid the in a complicated FBI case — and he’s about to come face-to-face with his nemesis, the girl on the train.

Travis Devine has become a pro at accomplishing any mission he’s given.But this time it’s not his skills that send him to Seattle to aid the FBI in escorting orphaned, twelve-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who’s under investigation for RICO charges. Instead, he’s hoping to lay low and keep off the radar of an enemy — the girl on the train.

But as Devine gets to know Betsy, questions begin to arise around the death of her parents. Devine digs for answers, and what he finds points to a conspiracy bigger than he could’ve ever imagined.

It might finally be time for Devine and the girl on the train to come face-to-face. Devine is going to find out the difference between his friends and his enemies — and in some cases, they might well be both.

This is the third novel in Baldacci’s Travis Devine/6:20 Man series. I read the first two earlier this year, and I’ve been looking forward to this new book ever since finishing The Edge. I’ll be reading this very soon, and hopefully have the review up well before release. To Die Fore is due to be published by Grand Central Publishing in North America (November 12th) and Macmillan in the UK (November 7th).

Also on CR: Reviews of The 6:20 Man, The Edge, Stone Cold, Divine Justice, Hell’s Corner, Bullseye, The Innocent, The Hit, The Target, The Guilty, End Game, Whole Truth, First Family, Memory Man, True Blue, and Deliver Us From Evil

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Review copy received via NetGalley

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Sash Bischoff, SWEET FURY (Simon & Schuster)

When movie star Lila Crayne and her film director fiancé embark on a feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night, Lila enters therapy in preparation for her leading role — but in doing so, she finds herself the victim in a deadly game of revenge in which everyone, on screen and off, is playing a part.

Lila Crayne is America’s sweetheart: she’s generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. She and her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning new West Village apartment and are set to begin filming their feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night.

To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins working with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila’s impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch — and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, and no one is quite who they seem.

A twisty, thought-provoking novel of construction and deconstruction in conversation with the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and told through the lens of the film industry, Sweet Fury is an incisive and bold critique of America’s deep-rooted misogyny. With this novel, Bischoff examines the narratives we tell ourselves, and what happens when we co-opt others into those stories; and she probes the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator and the true meaning of justice.

Hadn’t heard of this novel before it popped up on Edelweiss. Thought it sounded interesting, so decided to give it a try. I’ll be reading it pretty soon, I think, but I’ll try to hold off on posting a review until closer to release. Sweet Fury is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America (January 7th, 2025) and Bantam in the UK (February 6th).

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Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Ron Currie, THE SAVAGE, NOBLE DEATH OF BABS DIONNE (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

A mythic, propulsive novel about the tangled fates of a matriarchal crime family in Maine.

Your ancestors breathe through you. Sometimes, they call for vengeance.

Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction.

When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs’s youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn’t seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath.

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a crime saga like no other, with a ferocious matriarch at its bruised, beating heart. With sharp wit and profound empathy, award-winning author Ron Currie, delivers an unforgettable novel exploring love, retribution, and the ancestral roots that both nurture and trap us.

The synopsis caught my attention, as did the blurb from Richard Russo. I haven’t read any of Currie’s other works, but I have since ordered the other four — they all sound interesting. Looking forward to this. (Side-note: I wish publishers would be consistent with DRC format across platforms — ePub should be the only version offered. If you offer it on one, certainly have it on the others. I got a PDF, which is infuriating…) The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is due to be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, on March 25th, 2025.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry, OATHBREAKERS (Harper)

The story of the Carolingian Civil War, a bloody, protracted battle pitting brother against brother, father against son, that would end an empire, upend a continent, and lay down the modern borders of Europe.

By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons overthrew him — and then placed their knives at the other’s neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other’s blood.

The Carolingian Civil War would rage for years as kings fought kings, brother faced off against brother, and sons challenged fathers. Oathbreakers is the dramatic history of this brutal, turbulent time. Medieval historians David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele illuminate what happens when a once unshakeable political and cultural order breaks down and long suppressed tensions flare into deadly violence. Drawn from rich primary sources, featuring a wide cast of characters, packed with dramatic twists and turns, this is history that rivals the greatest fictional epics — with consequences that continue to shape our own world.

Oathbreakers offers lessons of what deep cracks in a once-stable social and political fabric might reveal, and the bloody consequences of disagreeing on facts and reality. The Civil War at the heart of this tale asks: who is “in” and who is “out”? And what happens when things fall apart?

?? Oathbreakers is due to be published by Harper in North America (December 10th) and in the UK (January 16th, 2025).

Follow the Author (Gabrielle): Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Amy Gamerman, THE CRAZIES (Simon & Schuster)

A dazzling piece of narrative nonfiction about land lust and the American West, The Crazies tells the story of a wind farm that triggers a 21st century range war between a struggling fifth-generation rancher and the billionaires next door.

Big Timber, Montana (population 1,673) is one of the windiest towns in one of the windiest states in the country. Arctic chinooks and slashing westerlies howl down from the Crazy Mountains like a pack of coyotes, nudging semi-trucks sideways on Interstate 90. Most locals learn to live with the wind. Rick Jarrett sought his fortune in it. Like his pioneer ancestors who staked their claims in the Treasure State, he believed in his right to make a living off the land — and a newly precious resource, its million-dollar wind.

The trouble was, Jarrett’s neighbors were some of the wealthiest and most well-connected men in America, trophy ranchers who’d come West to enjoy magnificent mountain views, not stare at 500-foot wind turbines.

And so began an epic showdown: a wildly entertaining yarn that would pull in an ever-widening cast of characters, including a Texas oil and gas tycoon, a roguish wind prospector, a Crow activist fighting for his tribe’s rights to the mountains they hold sacred, and an Olympic athlete-turned-attorney whose path to redemption would lead to Jarrett’s wind farm. All the while, the most coveted rangeland in the West was being threatened by forces more powerful than anything one man could muster: dwindling snowpack, record drought, raging wildfires. In time, the brawl over Crazy Mountain Wind would become a fight over the future of an iconic landscape — and the values that define us as Americans.

The Crazies is a Western for a warming planet, full of cowboys and billionaires and billionaire cowboys — a real-life Yellowstone. But it’s also so much more. It’s an exquisitely reported, ruggedly beautiful elegy for a vanishing way of life, and an electrifying inquiry into what it means to love the land.

Spotted this on Edelweiss, and thought it sounded interesting — a look at some key current issues, but from a bit of a different direction. Really looking forward to reading it (hopefully soon, but I’ll probably hold off on posting a review until a bit closer to the release date). The Crazies is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America and in the UK, on January 7th, 2025.

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Lev Grossman, THE BRIGHT SWORD (Viking)

A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find that he’s too late. The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, leaving no heir, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table survive.

They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Table, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight, and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords lay siege to Camelot and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell, and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.

The first major Arthurian epic of the new millennium, The Bright Sword is steeped in tradition, full of duels and quests, battles and tournaments, magic swords and Fisher Kings. It also sheds a fresh light on Arthur’s Britain, a diverse, complex nation struggling to come to terms with its bloody history. The Bright Sword is a story about imperfect men and women, full of strength and pain, who are looking for a way to reforge a broken land in spite of being broken themselves.

I’m a long-time fan of Lev Grossman’s writing — I have very fond memories of reading his columns for Time magazine, way back when, and also The Magicians series. (My first of his novels, though, was 2004’s Codex.) I’m generally not a fan of re-tellings of the Arthurian legend, but I think Grossman will have come up with a compelling novel, so I’m looking forward to it. (Sidenote: another very good, interesting and original re-telling of the Arthurian legend is Lavie Tidhar’s By Force Alone, which I’d also recommend.) The Bright Sword is out now, published by Viking in North America and Del Rey in the UK.

Also on CR: Reviews of The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land

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Brittany Newell, SOFT CORE (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

A young woman’s madcap search for her missing ex-boyfriend takes her into the sexual underground…

Ruth is lost. She’s living in a drafty Victorian with her ex-boyfriend Dino, a ketamine dealer with a lingerie habit, overdosing on television and regretting her master’s degree. When she starts dancing at a strip club, she becomes Baby Blue, seductress of crypto bros, outcasts, and old lovers alike. Plunged into this swirling underworld of beautiful women, fast cash, ungodly hours, and strangers’ secrets, Baby’s grip on reality begins to loosen. She is sure she can handle it — until one autumn morning when Dino disappears without a trace.

Thus begins a nocturnal quest for the one she still loves — through the misty hills of San Francisco; in dive bars and bus depots; at the BDSM dungeon where she takes a part-time gig. Along the way, she meets Simon, a recluse who pays her for increasingly bizarre favors; a philosophizing suicide fetishist named Nobody; and Emeline, the beautiful and balletic new hire who reminds Baby of someone…

A brutally funny, propulsive story of power, fantasy, love, and loss, Brittany Newell’s Soft Core is an ode to the heartbroken and unhinged, to those whose appetites lead them astray. It is a hallucinogenic romp about a girl coming undone, whose longing for friendship, romance, and revenge will take her over the edge and back again.

Thought this sounded interesting. Hope to read it soon. Soft Core is due to be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, on February 4th, 2025.

Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Bella Mackie, WHAT A WAY TO GO (Borough Press)

‘I was immensely grateful that despite the gruesome way my husband died, he’d done it with his clothes on.’

Anthony Wistern is wealthy beyond imagination. Fragrant wife, gaggle of photogenic children, French chateau, Cotswold manor, plethora of mistresses, penchant for cutting moral corners, tick tick tick tick tick tick.

Unfortunately for him, he’s also dead. Suddenly poised to inherit his fortune, each member of the family falls under suspicion.

And that’s when the lying starts…

The new novel from the author of the hit How to Kill Your Family. I somehow missed the author’s debut when it came out (and have still yet to read it, though I’ve heard plenty of good things), but Mackie’s third novel also sounded interesting, so I thought I’d give it a go. Looking forward to it. What a Way to Go is due to be published by Borough Press in the UK, on September 12th.

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Robin Niblett, THE NEW COLD WAR (Atlantic Books)

An urgent and essential assessment of the global contest between the US and China, and how looking to history will help us to navigate it, from former Director of Chatham House

We have entered a new Cold War. The contest between America and China is global and unbridgeable, and it encompasses all major instruments of statecraft – economic, political and military. It has its tinder box: Taiwan. And both protagonists are working hard to draw allies to their side from across the world.

We stand at its beginning. But this Cold War is nothing like the conflict between the Soviet Union and the West which defined the second half of the twentieth century. We need new ideas to navigate its risks and avoid a globally devastating hot war. In this urgent and necessary book, Robin Niblett argues that only by looking back can we learn the lessons to guide us through this new reality: he goes through the ten ways in which the New Cold War is different and offers five rules for navigating its onset.

How we manage this contest will determine not only whether there is still space for international cooperation to deal with our many global challenges, from the climate emergency to the technological revolution, but also who will lead the twenty-first century and, quite simply, the course of all our futures.

I’ve been falling behind on my non-fiction/politics reading, but I saw this as a Kindle deal, and thought I’d give it a read. Looking forward to reading it hopefully soon. The New Cold War is due to be published by Atlantic Books, in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

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Gail Simone, RED SONJA: CONSUMED (Orbit)

Red Sonja, the iconic, fiery, she-devil with a sword, is reinvented for a new generation of readers in this action-packed epic fantasy…

The gutsy, wild, tortured free spirit, forged in pain yet unafraid of life or death, Red Sonja, the famous, fiery She-Devil and barbarian of Hyrkania has never concerned herself with the consequences of her actions. She’s taken what she wanted, from treasure to drink to the companionship of bedfellows. She’s fought who deserved it (and sometimes those who didn’t). And she’s never looked back.

But when rumors start bubbling up from her homeland—rumors of unknown horrors emerging from the ground and pulling their unsuspecting victims to their deaths—and a strange voice begins whispering to her in her sleep, she realizes she may have to return to the country that abandoned her. And finally do the only thing that has ever scared her: confront her past.

I remember watching the original Red Sonja movie many moons ago. I don’t really remember much about the movie, save for the general feel, tone, and idea of the character. Since then, I’ve read some of the comics (ranging from the good to great to terrible to uninspired). I’ve always had a fondness for the character, and when I saw that Gail Simone — long-time writer of the Red Sonja comics, among many others — had written a prose novel starring the character, I was intrigued. I’ve enjoyed many of Simone’s comic series, so I’m looking forward to reading this, and hopefully it’ll live up to expectations.  Red Sonja: Consumed is due to be published by Orbit Books, in North America (November 19th) and in the UK (November 21st).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Elissa R. Sloan, DOUBLE EXPOSURE (William Morrow)

A sweeping drama about two A-list stars—a former star couple—as they cross each other’s paths over and over again through the years, in a story that examines the work we have to do in order to grow into the people we want to become.

Maiko Fox and Adrian Hightower were young, beautiful, in love…and famous. The latest model to grace the Valentina Posh runway show and the hottest new superhero actor were Hollywood’s breakout couple. They were in every magazine, all over the most popular celebrity-blogs, and on countless E! News stories.

They starred in a blockbuster film together, reaping box-office gold. Fans were at a fever pitch. No one could get enough of Madrian, the couple that printed money for the studios, for the paparazzi, for themselves.

But then, their relationship crumbled.

Years later, with Adrian topping the Hollywood A-list as a writer and director, dating the country’s biggest pop star, and Maiko starring in movies for her celebrated producer-director husband, they live totally different lives. But they can never be too far apart. Madrian is still a box office draw, and the studios keep throwing them together.

As the two grow more and more entangled again professionally, Maiko and Adrian have to reckon with themselves: are they happy with their current lives? Or have they grown to be better people when with each other?

I enjoyed Sloan’s debut novel, The Unravelling of Cassidy Holmes, and I have Hayley Aldridge is Still Here rapidly climbing my TBR mountain. The author’s third novel, however, leaped to the top of the pile, as I was very much in the mood for something like this when I received the DRC. I read it quite quickly, and have already posted a review (see below for link). Double Exposure is due to be published by William Morrow, in North America and in the UK, on September 10th.

Also on CR: Review of The Unravelling of Cassidy Holmes and Double Exposure

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Maggie Su, BLOB (Harper)

The daughter of a Taiwanese father and white mother, Vi Liu has never quite fit into her Midwestern college town. Aimless after getting dumped by her boyfriend and dropping out of college, Vi works at the front desk of a hotel where she greets guests, refills cucumber water samovars, and tries to evade her bubbly blond coworker, Rachel. Little does Vi know her life is about to be permanently transformed when she agrees to a night out with Rachel. In the alley outside the bar, Vi discovers a strange blob—a small living creature with beady black eyes. In a moment of concern and drunken desperation, she takes it home.

But the blob is no ordinary pet. Becoming increasingly sentient, it begins to grow, shift shape, and obey Vi’s commands. As the entity continues to change, Vi is struck with a daring idea: she’ll mold the creature into her ideal partner. Feeding it a stream of sweet breakfast cereals and American pop culture, the creature grows into a movie-star handsome white man. But when Vi’s desire to be loved unconditionally threatens to spiral out of control, she is forced to confront her lonely childhood, her aloof ex-boyfriend, and the racial marginalization that has defined her relationships—a journey of self-discovery that teaches her it’s impossible to control those you love.

Blending the familiar with the surreal, Blob is a witty, heartfelt story about the search for love and self and what it means to be human

I spotted this on Edelweiss, and thought the synopsis sounded interesting, and just on the right side of odd. This is Su’s debut, so I don’t know what to expect, but I have high expectations. I’ll be reading this very soon, but will probably delay posting a review until at least a little bit closer to release date. Blob is due to be published by Harper in North America (January 28th) and Sceptre in the UK (February 6th).

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via Edelweiss