"KOP"

New from Tor Books: Warren Hammond's KOP.

About the book, from the author's website:

Juno is a dirty cop with a difficult past and an uncertain future. When his family and thousands of others emigrated to the colony world of Lagarto, they were promised a bright future on a planet with a booming economy. But before the colonists arrived, everything changed. An opportunistic Earth-based company developed a way to produce a cheaper version of Lagarto’s main export, thus effectively paupering the planet and all its inhabitants.

Growing up on post-boom Lagarto, Juno is but one of the many who live in despair. Once he was a young cop in the police department of the capital city of Koba. That was before he started taking bribes from Koba’s powerful organized crime syndicate. Yet despite his past sins, some small part of him has not given up hope. So he risks his life, his marriage and his job to expose a cabal that would enslave the planet for its own profit.

But he's got more pressing problems, when he's confronted with a dead man, a short-list of leads, and the obligatory question: who done it? Set up for a fall, partnered with a beautiful young woman whose main job is to betray him, and caught in a squeeze between the police chief and the crooked mayor, Juno is a compelling, sympathetic hero on a world that has no heroes.

An exciting science fiction adventure and a dark, gritty noir thriller told in taut, powerful prose, this is a remarkable debut novel.

"Inside the Red Mansion"

Coming this month from Houghton Mifflin: Oliver August's Inside the Red Mansion.

About the book, from the publisher:

Inside the Red Mansion is a suspenseful, slyly entertaining journey into the heart of the new China. Due to a mix-up in a routine reporting assignment, Oliver August stumbles onto the hunt for China’s most wanted man, Lai Changxing, an illiterate tycoon on the run from corruption charges. Sensing something emblematic in this outsized tale of rise and fall, August sets out to find the self-made billionaire, hoping that if he can understand how Lai reinvented himself, he will also better understand the tectonic forces transforming modern China. Lai embodies the story of China’s recent success as well as its Achilles’ heel: its command economy, blended with the free market, is riddled with corruption. Moving ever closer to the elusive tycoon, August introduces us to a people in the midst of head-spinning self-transformation. We meet a nightclub hostess and her gaggle of “Miss Temporaries”; powerful businessmen on a debt-settling round of nocturnal golf; and a foie gras king who markets his goose liver by the ton and prefers it deep fried. This is a China seething with desire, engaged in a slapstick fight with its past, and hell-bent on the future. Inside the Red Mansion is the first book to capture the giddy vibe of contemporary China and its darker vulnerabilities.

Visit Oliver August's website to learn more about Inside the Red Mansion.

"Kushiel's Justice"

New from Grand Central Publishing: Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Justice.

About the book, from the publisher:

Imriel de la Courcel's blood parents are history's most reviled traitors, while his adoptive parents, Phedre and Joscelin, are Terre d'Ange's greatest champions. Stolen, tortured, and enslaved as a young boy, Imriel is now a Prince of the Blood, third in line for the throne in a land that revels in beauty, art, and desire.

After a year abroad to study at university, Imriel returns from his adventures a little older and somewhat wiser. But perhaps not wise enough. What was once a mere spark of interest between himself and his cousin Sidonie now ignites into a white-hot blaze. But from commoner to peer, the whole realm would recoil from any alliance between Sidonie, heir to the throne, and Imriel, who bears the stigma of his mother's misdeeds and betrayals.

Praying that their passion will peak and fade, Imriel and Sidonie embark on an intense, secret affair. Blessed Elua founded Terre d'Ange and bestowed one simple precept to guide his people, love as thou wilt. When duty calls, Imriel honors his role as a member of the royal family by leaving to marry a lovely, if merely sweet, Alban princess.

By choosing duty over love, Imriel and Sidonie may have unwittingly trespassed against Elua's law. But when dark powers in Alba, who fear an invasion by Terre d'Ange, seek to use the lovers' passion to bind Imriel, the gods themselves take notice. Before the end, Kushiel's justice will be felt in heaven and on earth.

"Revenge of the Homecoming Queen"

New this month from Berkley Jam: Stephanie Hale's Revenge of the Homecoming Queen.

About the book, from the author's website:

I, the flawless Aspen Brooks, was born to be Homecoming Queen. Naturally, I'm dating Lucas Riley, the quarterback, and the most popular guy in school. Blessed with stunning good looks, excellent style, and mega brains, I had that crown in the bag.

So please tell me why, oh why, the tiara is being placed on the skanky head of Angel Ives and not me? My confusion only grows after I hear that the school didn't vote my hottie bf to be Homecoming King, but ultra-dork Rand Bachrach instead. To my total shock and horror, Angel actually accuses me of being behind this! As if! Then she goes all Carrie on me, vowing revenge. Like, I'm really worried.

But then something goes terribly, terribly wrong. Strange things are happening-even stranger than Angel beating me out. And now someone's leaving me threatening messages and slashing the tires on my precious car. I know it's that beyotch Angel doing these things, so if she wants a war, by Dooney & Bourke she'll get one!

"I Heart My In-Laws"

New this summer from Henry Holt and Owl Books: Dina K. Poch's I Heart My In-Laws.

About the book, from the author's website:

A practical, laugh-out-loud guide to adopting your man’s family -- from your first date to your firstborn

Girlfriends, fiancées, and wives rejoice! Here, at last, is a book you can turn to in times of stress, panic, and family vacations to the smallest cottage ever built on the island of Nantucket. Mirroring the natural progression of a relationship and incorporating interviews from women just like you, this hilarious, savvy guide will help you survive your first meeting with future in-laws, from the holidays, weddings, and new babies, to the day they retire to the house next door because “it’s a great real estate investment.”

Discover a wide array of sanity-retention techniques and tips on scoring major points with each and every in-law. Learn how to sweet-talk his sister, mollify his mother, and defuse potentially explosive situations -- like when your pumpkin pie gives Nana a bad case of hives. Stories range from the tragic “my father-in-law just pinched my ass and not in that sportsmanship kind of way,” to the triumphant “I’m now CEO of my grandfather-in-law’s cement company -- Thanks Pupup!”

Offering handy translation charts with curse words in Persian and compliments in Cantonese, a list of gifts and how to interpret their hidden meaning, tips for reclaiming the holidays one Bastille Day at a time, and your very own set of Mother-in-Law MadLibs, I Heart My In-laws embodies the old saying, “It’s funny because it’s true.”

"The Pursuit of Glory"

New from Penguin/Viking: The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 by Tim Blanning.

About the book, from the publisher:

The new volume in the acclaimed Penguin History of Europe series takes on the greater eighteenth century in all its revolutionary glory

Here is an enormously entertaining, rich, and provocative account of a vivid and magnificent era in Europe’s history. Tim Blanning has for many years been one of the foremost writers on the eighteenth century. The culmination of many years’ work, The Pursuit of Glory is an accessible and enjoyable account of Europe from the end of the Thirty Years’ War to the Battle of Waterloo — an era of immense change and cultural, political, and technological ferment. Spanning the years 1648–1815, The Pursuit of Glory takes us from the Enlightenment through the French Revolution and Napoleonic era. As interested in the art and music of the period as in the great dynastic and revolutionary wars, as concerned with the lives of ordinary people as with the great rulers on horseback, The Pursuit of Glory turns a compelling spotlight on one of history’s most unique and fascinating eras.

"Safe and Sound"

New this month from St. Martin's Minotaur: J.D. Rhoades's Safe and Sound.

About the book, from the publisher:

Bounty hunter Jack Keller faces his most dangerous and sadistic enemy yet in this explosive Southern thriller

Jack Keller works in fugitive apprehension, and never feels more alive than when he’s hunting down a skip. But when a young girl goes missing, and Keller finds out that the father is an AWOL member of the army’s elite Delta Force, he knows immediately that this case will be anything but fun and games.

Keller is a Gulf War vet who knows his way around the Army’s red tape, but the psychological scars from his experiences in the gulf have only just started to recede enough for him to live and love again. No one is sure how taking on the kidnapping case will affect him, least of all his girlfriend Marie, who’s counting on Jack’s recovery if they are going to have any future together. But a young girl’s life hangs in the balance, and a shadowy group of missing Delta commandos seems to be the key to finding her. For Jack Keller, it’s not an easy decision, but it’s the only one he can make: consequences be damned, he’s going after the girl.

Visit J.D. Rhoades's blog.

"Austenland"

New from Bloomsbury USA: Shannon Hale's Austenland.

About the book, from the author's website:

Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen — or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It’s all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

Visit Shannon Hale's website.

"Sammy's House"

New from Hyperion: Kristin Gore's new novel, Sammy's House.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sammy is in the House!

"The stakes, the pressure, the perpetual potential for both extraordinary progress and crippling failure -- everything was ratcheted up to a spectacular intensity, now that I worked for the president and vice president of the United States."

In this incisive comedy, late twenty-something Sammy Joyce -- hypochondriac, klutz, jumper-to-conclusions -- is in the White House as a health-care advisor to the newly elected administration. All the chips seem to be falling into place: She's living with her best friend, successfully keeping her pet Japanese fighting fish alive, and reveling in her romance with Charlie Lawton, an up-and-coming Washington Post reporter.

However, soon after taking office, the administration finds itself deep in a red-hot White House scandal. President Wye's old problem with the bottle re-emerges. His family is creating havoc. And an informant within the administration begins leaking damaging information. On top of it all, a secret deal with an Indian pharmaceutical company for an experimental drug unleashes a fury that threatens to shake the administration to its core. While the White House braces for a fiery response within the Beltway, Sammy fights to distance herself from the turmoil that surrounds her personally and professionally. But at a time when she needs Charlie more than ever, he gets promoted and moves to New York. As the heat surrounding the Oval Office intensifies, the political climate and Sammy's love life spiral out of control. Can she hold her ground when her relationships, ideals, and most importantly, her ability to trust are all coming apart at the seams?

In Sammy's House, Kristin Gore brings a novelist's eye to the inner workings of the White House, giving hilarious insight and a fresh perspective on political life.

"The Last Nightingale"

New from Mortalis Books: Anthony Flacco's The Last Nightingale.

About the book, from the publisher:

San Francisco, 1906. The great West Coast city is a center of industry and excitement – and also, to many, of sin. When the Great Earthquake hits, some believe it is the day of reckoning for the immoral masses.

Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Shane Nightingale is witness to the violent deaths of his adoptive mother and sisters–not from the earthquake, but at the hands of a serial killer. As Shane wanders the city appearing to be just another anonymous orphan, he keeps what he has seen a secret. But when his path crosses that of Sergeant Randall Blackburn, who is in pursuit of the killer, the two become an investigative team that will use both a youth’s intuitive gifts and a policeman’s new deductive techniques and crime-fighting tools to unmask a vicious murderer whose fury can be as intense as that of Mother Nature herself.

Visit Anthony Flacco's website.