"In the Woods They Wait"

Coming September 22 from Little, Brown and Company: In the Woods They Wait: A Novel by Carrie Lee South.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Years ago, she lost her brother. Now the woods have taken another.

From a powerful new voice, a story that's at once a haunting southern gothic and a satisfying page-turner, perfect for fans of Stephen King and Liz Moore alike.

Fifteen years ago, Audrey Figg's little brother, Benny, vanished on a family vacation to Devil's Den state park, a day that split her life in two. Now, Audrey is a park ranger in the very same woods with expertise in wilderness search and rescue. Audrey has found a rhythm to her days: training new rangers, tending to injured hikers, protecting the backcountry, and still, searching.

When a little girl, Ivy, suddenly goes missing on the trails, Audrey can’t help but notice the similarities to her own brother’s case. As Audrey widens the scope of her search, she begins to believe Ivy wasn't merely lost; it looks like she was taken by something―and maybe Benny was too. Yet the closer Audrey comes to answers, the more old memories push to the surface. Audrey is haunted not only by her brother's loss, but a terrible secret from that day. A secret she has never shared with anyone.

Utterly absorbing and disquieting, In the Woods They Wait is an enthralling page-turner, one that asks how far you would go for a sense of closure―and what would you be willing to face to get it.

Visit Carrie Lee South's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Jefferson's Landmark Deal"

New from the University Press of Kansas: Jefferson's Landmark Deal: The Politics of the Louisiana Purchase by Lara M. Brown.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this concise history of the Louisiana Purchase, renowned presidential scholar Lara M. Brown explores how Thomas Jefferson’s skilled diplomacy and political strategy helped secure the historic bargain and changed the course of American history.

Thomas Jefferson is one of the more inscrutable characters in American history. While he is best known for the Declaration of Independence and his conflicting legacy on race and slavery, his pursuit of the Louisiana Purchase was a crucial decision for the trajectory of the country and the development of the presidency. In this volume of the Landmark Presidential Decisions series Lara M. Brown casts Jefferson as a shrewd and calculating politician. Brown examines the historical and political circumstances that led to the Louisiana Purchase, in which Jefferson’s inclination to pursue a strategy of misinformation and patient persuasion rather than engaging in a direct confrontation or a show of force with Napoleon helped to transform a series of accidents into a historic moment of luck.

In addition to exploring the international politics and domestic pressures that helped bring about this deal, Brown examines the larger theoretical issues related to the presidency itself. While Jefferson expressed concern about the constitutionality of the agreement and briefly considered passing a constitutional amendment, his decision to follow Madison’s advice and move quickly on the purchase established the “national emergency” rationale upon which the “imperial presidency” was partly constructed. Moreover, Jefferson relied on American ministers to act as his representatives in executing the deal, underlining the importance of governance, communication, and the management of a burgeoning executive branch.

The Louisiana Purchase is essential to understanding territorial expansion, foreign policy in the early republic, and the perennial political dilemmas surrounding the ambiguity of Article II in the Constitution. Lara Brown expertly guides readers through one of the most consequential decisions in early American history.

Visit Lara M. Brown's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sisters Alone"

Coming soon from G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers: Sisters Alone by Shifa Saltagi Safadi.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the National Book Award–winning author of Kareem Between comes a powerful novel in verse about two sisters trapped in a blizzard in a heart-wrenching story of sisterhood and survival.

Two sisters. One storm. A fight for their lives.

Rama is all fire—fierce, quick to anger, and trying to hold her family together while battling the monster of intrusive thoughts. Leena is all ice—quiet, numbed to the vibrancy of the world, as she silently blames herself for their mother’s death.

When their father must travel for work, a sudden blizzard traps the sisters alone at their rural home. As the storm tears through their house, they’re left without power, without food, without shelter—and with no one to rely on but each other.

Told in powerful, poetic verse, Sisters Alone is a heart-stopping story of sisterhood, survival, and the quiet strength it takes to keep going, even when the world feels like it's falling apart.

Visit Shifa Safadi's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Out of Chaos"

New from Basic Books: Out of Chaos: How the Nation State Emerged from the Ruins of World War II by Jon Wilson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A provocative history of how nation states arose out of the ashes of World War II, showing how catastrophe, compromise, and contested visions forged the fragile order we still live in today.

Nation states―self-contained territories with their own economy, population, and culture―dominate today’s world. Nationalists claim the modern nation state is rooted in deep historical time, while many scholars say it was a nineteenth-century creation. In Out of Chaos, historian Jon Wilson challenges these narratives, arguing instead that the nation state emerged suddenly and unexpectedly in the years following World War II and brought order to a world in crisis.

Wilson traces how political leaders still reeling from the chaos of war debated how to partition the people, land, and economies of the world. The nation state emerged as the only form of organization leaders from different ideological positions―communist and capitalist, former colonizer and former colonized―could agree upon. But this new order never fully displaced other ways of imagining political power.

From separatist movements in Nigeria and Indonesia, to apologists for empire, to human rights activists fighting for universal justice, non-national groups continued to challenge the nation state’s authority. Out of Chaos restores the history of the nation state, revealing it as a recent and contested construction that has ordered global society for the past seventy-five years and will continue to shape geopolitics in the future.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Call Off the Dark"

Coming September 22 from William Morrow: Call Off the Dark: A Haunting Atmospheric Thriller of Love, Grief, Connection, and Off-Grid Life by Hallie Shepherd.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A haunting, atmospheric debut thriller with a love story at its heart, following a feisty young woman caught between her husband and a mysterious stranger who disturbs their off-grid life in rural Washington--currently in development as a television series with Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions!

Helen and Tyler were soulmates, a couple with a storybook beginning and an enduring bond, until Tyler’s sudden murder shattered her world. Numb with grief and desperate for escape, Helen impulsively marries Wade—a near stranger—and goes off-grid with him to a farmhouse in rural Washington.

Trading her polished Seattle existence for a tradwife life of canning vegetables and sewing during the day, she battles insomnia, PTSD, and haunting memories of Tyler at night…until Wade's brother Isaac shows up. The problem: Isaac died years ago in a farm accident, and Wade insists they're now in danger.

Helen isn’t sure what to believe. Is Isaac back from the dead? Is Wade manipulating her? Or is Helen's mind unraveling? As her suspicions close in from every side, Helen must navigate a maze of secrets, grief, and uncertainty—where trusting the wrong person could be fatal.

A stunningly original debut, Call Off the Dark blends a spine-tingling thriller, an immersive psychological drama, and a heart-piercing love story that reminds us of the magic in human connection and that our truest partners in life can keep us tethered to the world, even from the grave.

Visit Hallie Shepherd's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Destabilized"

New from Cambridge University Press: Destabilized: Why White Americans Accept Racist Political Rhetoric by Leah Christiani.

About the book, from the publisher:

In recent years, the United States has witnessed a resurgence in mainstream acceptance of overt, racist rhetoric from politicians. This increased tolerance arises despite previous evidence suggesting that white Americans reject racist appeals when they are explicit. Destabilized examines this shift and points to a perception of threat to white dominance as the root cause. The book finds that when white Americans feel their dominance in the racial hierarchy is unstable, their prejudice activates, and they seek to 'restabilize' the racial hierarchy by accepting negative, explicit racial appeals. Analyses of survey experiments, observational survey data, and political media demonstrate this phenomenon. Finding that this link exists among both white Republicans and white Democrats, Destabilized speaks broadly to the nature of whiteness as a racial identity rooted in the desire for dominance.

Visit Leah Christiani's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"One Split Second"

New from Thomas & Mercer: One Split Second (Tracy Crosswhite) by Robert Dugoni.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A girl’s unsolved disappearance. A tragic shooting. Two crimes, forty-five years apart, with a blood-chilling connection in a gripping new Tracy Crosswhite novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia, and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing―and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community.

More than forty years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers. Digging deeper into both the past and the present, she discovers a complex web of sinister motives and long-buried secrets, unearthing them one by one.

As a decades-old mystery casts its dark shadow on a small town, only the truth will finally set the innocent free.

Visit Robert Dugoni's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

My Book, The Movie: Bodily Harm.

The Page 69 Test: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: The Eighth Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Eighth Sister.

My Book, The Movie: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Agent.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Agent.

Q&A with Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: In Her Tracks.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Killing on the Hill.

My Book, The Movie: A Killing on the Hill.

The Page 69 Test: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

My Book, The Movie: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (October 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Her Cold Justice.

The Page 69 Test: Her Cold Justice.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (February 2026).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Strangers and Settlers"

New from Oxford University Press: Strangers and Settlers: Migration Politics in a Local's World by Bethany Lacina.

About the book, from the publisher:

Do people have special rights in a place if they are one of the locals there? The belief that they do is common worldwide. Yet, entitlement to place has little role in most accounts of migration politics. Instead, migration politics commentary is a showdown between culture and economics, in-group identities and material incentives.

In Strangers and Settlers, Bethany Lacina provides the first global study of nativism that features a unified account of the drivers of backlash against international and domestic migration. Drawing from forty years of global public opinion surveys conducted in 146 countries; detailed census records from 70 countries spanning the mid-1950s to now; and a wealth of comparative information on both migration policy and nativist activism, Lacina describes a world of nested hierarchies of locals, offering new insights about migration politics. As she shows, both domestic and international migration politics take place within a nativist status quo. Being local is normative even within national and ethnic groups and when the material stakes of migration are low. Governments use a range of policies to ensure locals maintain political and economic superiority over newcomers, particularly international migrants.

An unprecedentedly comprehensive study, Strangers and Settlers shows that the status quo throughout the world is nativism, but the key to making sense of its variety is understanding whether and how regimes, residents, and newcomers clash over controlling who is local.

Visit Bethany Lacina's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"How to Survive Camping: The Ancient Things"

New from S&S/Saga Press: How to Survive Camping: The Ancient Things by Bonnie Quinn.

About the book, from the publisher:

Welcome to Night Vale meets Rachel Harrison in this campy, cozy supernatural horror series from Reddit sensation Bonnie Quinn, as a campground manager must do everything she can to keep her campers alive.

Every year, campground manager Kate sends out a pamphlet titled “How to Survive Your Camping Experience.” In it is a list of rules to help campers have an enjoyable experience and hopefully survive any encounters with the campground’s…other…inhabitants.

With the land turning ancient, it is no longer just the campers who are in danger. Kate is the key and every inhuman entity is out for her blood. All the lesser creatures are making attempts on her life, but Kate isn’t willing to let her land go without a fight. If these creatures are going to hunt her, then she’ll hunt them in turn and eradicate everything from her land that cannot coexist with humanity. With the help of both her inhuman and human allies, it looks like Kate might actually have a chance at controlling the campground. But ancient land attracts ancient things, and the town has a bad history with ancient creatures.

A new entity has come to the campground, bearing an old grudge against one of the inhabitants. Its malevolent designs will put the entire land at risk—unless Kate can stop it.

Visit Bonnie Quinn's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Peripheral Citizenship"

New from the University of California Press: Peripheral Citizenship: Popular Movements and the Progressive Catholic Church in Urban Brazil by Daniel McDonald.

About the book, from the publisher:

How is citizenship constructed from the margins? Peripheral Citizenship examines this question by placing the urban outskirts of South America’s most populous city, São Paulo, amid processes that transformed twentieth-century Latin America: rural-urban migration and rapid urbanization, the advent of liberation theology, and the rise and fall of military dictatorships. Drawing on oral histories and grassroots archives, Daniel McDonald traces the emergence of a remarkable bottom-up rights campaign through the lives of rural migrants, progressive clergy, and allied activists in São Paulo during Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964–1985) and the subsequent democratic transition. He unveils how popular movements, aligned with the progressive Catholic Church and leftist political parties, forged a vision of citizenship that combined rights grounded in everyday life with innovative forms of participatory democracy. In the process, they reshaped the city, the Church, and the nation from the periphery.

Visit Daniel McDonald's website.

--Marshal Zeringue