"The Killer in the House"

Coming soon from Thomas & Mercer: The Killer in the House by Lauren Reding.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this chilling domestic thriller debut, a young woman working as a housekeeper―for the subject of a trending true crime podcast―finds herself in a deadly mess when the truth catches up to the hype.

Renee Beale is done settling for dead-end jobs and living on her parents’ tree farm in rural Virginia. But just as her life starts to look up, personal tragedy knocks her back down. Desperate for an escape, her only prospect is working for a wealthy Richmond couple with a deadly backstory.

Ed Weatherup is a family man, successful, and the perfect employer―except for the fact that he may quite possibly be a murderer. He served five years for his wife’s death before the Innocent Blood podcast helped overturn his conviction. Now he’s back home with his second wife and blended family, vowing publicly to find the real killer.

With her past coming to collect, Renee has no choice but to become the Weatherups’ new housekeeper. Suddenly privy to their family secrets and furtive phone calls, she turns to the podcast to learn more about her mysterious employers. But the details don’t add up. And the closer Renee gets to the truth, the more sure she becomes that the killer will strike again.

Visit Lauren Reding's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Death or Victory"

New from LSU Press: Death or Victory: The Louisiana Native Guards and the Black Military’s Significance in the Civil War by A.J. Cade.

About the book, from the publisher:

A. J. Cade’s Death or Victory offers the first in-depth history of the Louisiana Native Guards, pioneering African American regiments within the Union army. Originating as a division of the New Orleans Home Guards in May 1861, the Native Guards consisted of free Black and Creole men who leveraged the city’s established military customs to gain entry into the Home Guards. Although not officially part of the Confederate forces, their involvement compelled the federal government to contemplate forming a similar regiment, setting the stage for their transition to the Union army the following year.

Cade’s research highlights the Native Guards’ crucial role as a testing ground for Black participation in the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln, the War Department, and the entire nation regarded these early regiments as an experiment in understanding the implications of Black service. The Native Guards exceeded expectations, engaging in significant battles and sieges. Their achievements paved the way for broader Black involvement in Louisiana and eventually throughout the Union army. Prominent figures such as Frederick Douglass cited the Native Guards as evidence of Black Americans’ entitlement to full citizenship and postwar freedom, an opinion later echoed by Lincoln. Cade’s work challenges existing Civil War narratives by shedding light on the overlooked contributions of the Louisiana Native Guards, rectifying misconceptions, and highlighting Black and Creole individuals who fought for their nation.

In addition to revising Civil War historiography, Cade’s study also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of race and class in nineteenth-century New Orleans. Cade shows how the Native Guards reflected the unique racial dynamics of the city, where free Black and Creole men of color had long enjoyed a degree of social and economic autonomy. These men were often educated, property owning, and deeply invested in the city’s civic life. Their service in the Native Guards was not just about fighting for the Union; it was also about asserting their rights as citizens and challenging the racial hierarchies that sought to deny them full participation in American society. By examining the motivations and experiences of these men, Cade provides a compelling portrait of a community that defied easy categorization and played a pivotal role in shaping the course of the Civil War.

Visit A. J. Cade's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The House of Hidden Letters"

Coming soon from Berkley: The House of Hidden Letters by Izzy Broom.

About the book, from the publisher:

A beautiful and escapist novel full of heart, for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and readers who love book club fiction.

For sale: Greek cottage. One euro.

Skye MacKinnon is desperate for an escape. When she wins a lottery to buy a run-down cottage on a Greek island for only one euro, Skye jumps at the chance to get out of England and start over. As she unlocks the tattered blue door of her whitewashed new cottage, the sun-kissed sea glinting in the bay outside her windows, Skye immediately feels like she’s found her true home.

Skye and the other lottery winners—the first residents in these houses since the 1940s—form a tight-knit group, finding in one another the strong relationships they’d been missing in their own lives. When Skye and local contractor Andreas find a set of mysterious letters, they begin to unravel the history of the prior residents, and the truth about life on Folegandros during World War II.

Sweeping, escapist, and full of heart, The House of Hidden Letters reminds us of the importance of human connection. Izzy Broom has written a poignant and hopeful novel for those who have found love and family in unexpected places.

Follow Isabelle Broom on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Programming Literature"

New from Oxford University Press: Programming Literature by Rebecca Roach.

About the book, from the publisher:

This is a book about the messy, archival worlds of literature and computing, and the myriad of relations that have existed between the two. Before J. M. Coetzee was a writer of Nobel-Prize winning novels, the South African was a programmer for one of the most significant Cold War supercomputer projects in Britain. Experimental British writer Christine Brooke-Rose worked at Bletchley Park with Alan Turing. When not opining about modernism, Canadian literary critic Hugh Kenner was a devoted computer hobbyist. Literary scholars have often not known what to make of these 'other careers': intimidating, irrelevant, outside of the scope of literary studies, surely? When they do make links, it is often via the frame of formal logic that has dominated discussions of both computer history and literary modernism.

This book starts from a different assumption: that, far from irrelevant, these material experiences were significant in the development of the literary projects of writers including Coetzee, Brooke-Rose, Kenner, William Gaddis, and Kamau Brathwaite. It contends that it is in the practice and the archive, rather than on the plane of abstraction, that we can best see this influence. Addressing literary scholars, media and computer historians, and digital theorists alike, Programming Literature productively reframes contemporary debates around artificial intelligence, the value of the humanities, and tech culture by emphasizing just how material these worlds have always been.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Darkening Song"

New from Saturday Books: Darkening Song by Delphine Seddon.

About the book, from the publisher:

For fans of DAISY JONES AND THE SIX, EUPHORIA, and LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE, DARKENING SONG is a fiercely feminist debut about two young women; one a recording artist failed by

the industry which made her an idol, and the other her ambitious manager, forced to make an impossible choice between friendship and power.

Eva is just 18 years old and interning at a record label when she discovers 16 year old Alora online. Never has she heard a voice like Alora’s and when it’s clear there isn’t anyone at the label interested in hearing this phenomenal talent, Eva takes matters into her own hands. On a whim, Eva offers Alora representation as her manager without knowing the first thing about artist management or what’s about to happen to both of them.

And it turns out Eva was right... Alora is swiftly catapulted into the spotlight of major superstardom, and as the two navigate the whirling vortex of fame—the parties, the money, the paparazzi, and power—they form a deep bond, becoming found family for one another.

But when Alora’s dark and mysterious past begins to infiltrate her present and Eva’s ambition and success blind her to the obvious signs that her client and, most importantly, her friend is in trouble, their lives unravel with disastrous consequences.

DARKENING SONG is a story about friendship and betrayal. It’s a love story, and a story about growing up in an industry which sometimes disregards the needs of young girls and women in favor of self-interest. But more than anything, it’s a story about redemption, and the ways that hopes and dreams can come true in ways we least expect.

Visit Delphine Seddon's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"American Peril"

Coming soon from the University of California Press: American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism by Scott Kurashige.

About the book, from the publisher:

This probing account shines a new light on the problem of anti-Asian violence and inspires us to build lasting solidarity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, racist demagoguery fomented a campaign of terror against Asian Americans. But these attacks were part of a much longer pattern that made anti-Asian racism integral to the outbreak of white supremacist, misogynist, and colonial violence across 175 years of U.S. history. Written in the radical spirit of Howard Zinn, American Peril represents the culmination of thirty-five years of study and activism by award-winning scholar Scott Kurashige.

From the lynching of Asian immigrants during the exclusion era to the U.S. military's slaughter of Asian civilians, the book connects domestic and global events that have been erased from the official record. Going beyond victimhood, it traces the rise of Asian American community protest and activism in response to the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin and other overlooked tragedies. While many have worked to legislate and prosecute hate crimes, Kurashige argues that hope lies in grassroots activism for multiracial solidarity.

Visit Scott Kurashige's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Shifting Grounds of Race.

--Marshal Zeringue

"She Fell Away"

New from Atria/Emily Bestler Books: She Fell Away: A Novel by Lenore Nash.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A State Department diplomat must confront the ghosts of her past as she searches for a missing American woman in New Zealand in this pulse-pounding and unputdownable thriller.

Lake Harlowe may not appear to be your typical State Department diplomat. With the number of skeletons in her closet exceeding the tattoos on her skin, she moves to a new country every few years to keep one step ahead of her personal demons. After two grueling years working in Cambodia, Lake’s desperate for a break and a new posting to sleepy Wellington, New Zealand, seems like a dream come true.

That is, until eighteen-year-old singer-songwriter Bowie Bishop mysteriously vanishes shortly after American NFL player Bruce Walter is found dead in his hotel room. An exchange student from Las Vegas, Bowie was a world away from her possessive, washed-up stage mom who won’t stop calling until Lake finds her superstar daughter.

All at once, Lake finds herself ensnared in a network of deception involving Bowie’s high-profile host family, a shadowy music producer, a casino magnate, and the US ambassador—her boss. Obsessed with finding the truth, Lake soon realizes that to find the missing girl, she must confront her own dark past in this unputdownable thriller that will keep you guessing until the final page.

Visit Lenore Nash's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"American Metropolis"

New from Cambridge University Press: American Metropolis: The Making of Mexico City by Tatiana Seijas.

About the book, from the publisher:

Mexico City was America's largest city in the seventeenth century – a genuine metropolis. In this deeply researched book, Tatiana Seijas reveals a rich tapestry of stories about essential workers who remade and transformed the city during this period. Her narrative style carries readers to a unique place and time with residents from around the world who sold food, facilitated transportation, provided care, and valued the city's silver. Free and enslaved people from Africa and Asia, immigrants, and Native Americans pursued opportunities in a wealthy, yet deeply unequal environment, where working people claimed parts of the city for themselves. They carved out spaces to create new businesses and protect their livelihoods, altering the cityscape itself in the process. American Metropolis brings Mexico City to life from the perspective of the working people who transformed this early modern metropolis.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Down Time"

New from Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Down Time: A Novel by Andrew Martin.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A terribly funny and lovably louche novel about five friends growing older, if not always up, from Andrew Martin, author of Early Work and Cool for America.

Without Cassandra, Aaron would probably be dead. Fortunately, she won’t leave him—despite the drinking, flirting, solipsism, armchair socialism, overspending, infidelity, catastrophic depression, and disparate but increasingly frequent spells of drug- and booze-addled debauchery. Unfortunately, she might be reaching the end of her rope.

Cass and Aaron, like the other neurotic, ambivalent intellectuals in their orbit, are getting older. There’s Malcolm, with his own alcoholism and marginally more successful writing career; his partner, Violet, a doctor with little patience for both; Antonia, a teaching fellow whose book about ecocide may get her tenure at a prestigious university near Harvard Square—yes, that one. When Sam, a charming trust-fund punk at the center of this loose network, dies suddenly, and a global pandemic takes hold, all five must contend with the lives they’ve made: their desires and disappointments, habits and hang-ups, pathologies and addictions, and the possibilities of making art and being good as the earth whirls to its end.

Down Time marks the delightful return of Andrew Martin, the author of the pitch-perfect slacker classics Early Work and Cool for America. Compulsively readable and contagiously intelligent, this is a wryly comic social novel of settling down, selling out, growing up, and getting out that turns a terribly funny and hyper-literate eye on our most desperately guarded ambitions: to love and be loved, to know and be known, to stay sane, if only just.

Visit Andrew Martin's website.

--Mashal Zeringue

"The Bright Edges of the World"

New from the University of New Mexico Press: The Bright Edges of the World: Willa Cather and Her Archbishop by Garrett Peck.

About the book, from the publisher:

Author and historian Garrett Peck traces Willa Cather’s adventures in the Southwest and how they influenced her best book.

Six months before she died, Willa Cather called her 1927 novel Death Comes for the Archbishop her “best book.” The Atlantic magazine concurred, including Archbishop on its Great American Novels list in 2024. A perennial favorite for people who love New Mexico, the novel tells an unusual story of two French priests and best friends serving on the American frontier before the arrival of the railroad. This Western work of fiction is loosely based on two historical figures, Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Bishop Joseph Machebeuf.

In The Bright Edges of the World, Garrett Peck explores how Cather’s travels to the Southwest inspired her writing. She visited the Southwest six times between 1912 and 1926, and from these journeys came three novels, the last of which was Death Comes for the Archbishop. Through Cather’s letters, postcards, articles, and interviews, Peck traces how integral travel was to Cather’s imagination while highlighting the vital contribution that Cather’s longtime partner, Edith Lewis, made to the story. The Bright Edges of the World is richly illustrated to highlight Cather and Lewis’s extensive Southwestern adventures.

Though Archbishop is a work of fiction, Peck explores how Cather wove some of the most legendary people in New Mexican history into her novel, such as Archbishop Lamy, Kit Carson, and Padre Antonio José Martínez, while subtly hinting toward the complexity of Pueblo Indian and Navajo (Diné) faith. Archbishop is a multicultural novel that reflects the diversity of New Mexico’s people.

Death Comes for the Archbishop remains a timeless book of friendship on the American frontier and an inspiration for people who, as Cather wrote, “have gone a-journeying in New Mexico on the trail of the Archbishop.”

Learn more about the book and author at Garrett Peck's website.

Garrett Peck's best books about Prohibition.

Writers Read: Garrett Peck (January 2010).

The Page 99 Test: The Prohibition Hangover.

The Page 99 Test: Capital Beer.

The Page 99 Test: A Decade of Disruption.

--Marshal Zeringue