"Hope to Die"

Coming soon in the US from William Morrow Paperbacks: Hope to Die: A Novel (DI Fawley series, 6) by Cara Hunter.

About the book, from the publisher:

Self-defense or murder? In the continuation of one of Britain’s most popular crime series from Cara Hunter—the author of the instant New York Times bestseller Murder in the Family—DI Fawley returns to determine if someone has staged a crime scene in connection with another homicide from years past.

Midnight. A grisly murder scene at isolated farm on the outskirts of Oxford.

A man lies dead in the kitchen—shot point blank. The farm’s elderly owners claim the shooting was self-defense against a burglar. But something about the crime scene doesn’t sit right with DI Adam Fawley, whose gut tells him there’s more to their story. If the victim came to rob the house, why wasn’t he wearing gloves or carrying tools? Why didn’t the owner of the house call the police right after the shooting? Why did his wife wash his blood splattered clothes immediately?

Digging deeper, the police realize this is no ordinary burglary gone wrong. There’s an unmistakable link to an infamous case from years earlier involving a child’s murder and an alleged miscarriage of justice. When the news leaks out, the press goes wild.

Suddenly Fawley’s team are under tremendous pressure to crack the case—and to bring one formidable criminal to justice.

Visit Cara Hunter's website.

Q&A with Cara Hunter.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Struggle for Taiwan"

New from Basic Books: The Struggle for Taiwan: A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between by Sulmaan Wasif Khan.

About the book, from the publisher:

A concise, definitive history of the precarious relationship among the US, China, and Taiwan

As tensions over Taiwan escalate, the United States and China stand on the brink of a catastrophic war. Resolving the impasse demands we understand how it began. In 1943, the Allies declared that Japanese-held Taiwan would return to China at the conclusion of World War II. The Chinese civil war led to a change of plans. The Communist Party came to power in China and the defeated Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan, where he was afforded US protection. The specter of conflict has loomed ever since.

In The Struggle for Taiwan, Sulmaan Wasif Khan offers the first comprehensive history of the triangular relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan, exploring America’s ambivalent commitment to Taiwan’s defense, China’s bitterness about the separation, and Taiwan’s impressive transformation into a flourishing democracy. War is not inevitable, Khan shows, but to avoid it, decision-makers must heed the lessons of the past.

From the White Terror to the Taiwan Straits Crises, from the normalization of Sino-American relations to Trump-era rising tensions, The Struggle for Taiwan charts the paths to our present predicament to show what futures might be possible.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Moonstorm"

New from Delacorte Press: Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a society where conformity is valued above all else, a teen girl training to become an Imperial pilot is forced to return to her rebel roots to save her world in this adrenaline-fueled sci-fi adventure—perfect for fans of Iron Widow and Skyward!

Hwa Young was just ten years old when imperial forces destroyed her rebel moon home. Now, six years later, she is a citizen of the very empire that made her an orphan.

Desperate to shake her rebel past, Hwa Young dreams of one day becoming a lancer pilot, an elite group of warriors who fly into battle using the empire’s most advanced tech—giant martial robots. Lancers are powerful, and Hwa Young would do anything to be the strong one for once in her life.

When an attack on their boarding school leaves Hwa Young and her classmates stranded on an imperial space fleet, her dreams quickly become a reality. As it turns out, the fleet is in dire need of pilot candidates, and Hwa Young—along with her brainy best friend Geum, rival Bae, and class clown Seong Su—are quick to volunteer.

But training is nothing like what they expected, and secrets—like the fate of the fleet’s previous lancer squad and hidden truths about the rebellion itself—are stacking up. And when Hwa Young uncovers a conspiracy that puts their entire world at risk, she’s forced to make a choice between her rebel past and an empire she’s no longer sure she can trust.

Visit Yoon Ha Lee's website.

The Page 69 Test: Revenant Gun.

Writers Read: Yoon Ha Lee (June 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Ninefox Gambit.

Q&A with Yoon Ha Lee.

The Page 69 Test: Fox Snare.

Writers Read: Yoon Ha Lee (October 2023).

--Marshal Zeringue

"There Was Nothing There"

New from NYU Press: There Was Nothing There: Williamsburg, The Gentrification of a Brooklyn Neighborhood by Sara Martucci.

About the book, from the publisher:

Explores the daily, lived effects of gentrification for neighborhood residents

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a prominent neighborhood in New York City, has undergone significant transformations through cycles of divestment and gentrification. In 2005, the city’s decision to rezone the Williamsburg waterfront for high-rise housing led to a profound alteration of the physical, cultural, and social landscape. The result was the rapid influx of thousands of new residents, many of them wealthy, giving rise to luxury buildings, upscale dining, and high-end retail stores alongside new norms and expectations for the neighborhood. These new arrivals coexist with earlier gentrifiers as well as working-class Latinx and white ethnic populations, creating a complex and layered community.

In There Was Nothing There, Sara Martucci draws on four decades of residents’ memories and experiences, providing insights into the tensions, contradictions, and inequalities brought about by gentrification. Martucci focuses on the individual level, exploring how residents form connections to their neighborhoods and how these attachments shape their daily experiences of public spaces, local consumption, and evaluations of safety. As established residents, bohemians, and newcomers vie for ownership and belonging, their perceptions give rise to conflicting narratives that define the essence of the neighborhood.

While the book’s primary focus is Williamsburg, it serves as a cautionary tale about the broader impact of state-led gentrification, extending far beyond Brooklyn. The text underscores the potential consequences of such transformations for the future of cities, urging readers to consider the implications of cultural displacement, homogenization, and increased surveillance as gentrification permeates urban landscapes.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Assassin of Venice"

Coming June 18 from Crooked Lane Books: The Assassin of Venice: A Novel by Alyssa Palombo.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Renaissance courtesan must choose between love and duty in this high stakes 16th-century mystery, perfect for fans of Madeline Hunter and Rhys Bowen.

Valentina Riccardi is many things: beautiful, cultured, deadly. As one of Venice’s famous courtesans, she’s perfectly positioned to seduce powerful men, get them alone, and assassinate them. Spies. Traitors. Who they are doesn’t matter—only that they made an enemy of the Council of Ten, the shadowy and seemingly omniscient power from which Valentina takes her orders without question.

Venice is her home, and after losing everything once before to an invading army, there is nothing she won’t do to protect her city, for there is nothing she loves more.

Almost nothing.

She vowed to never fall in love again, but Valentina can’t help but give her heart to Bastiano Bragadin, a fellow assassin. But when Bastiano starts asking the wrong questions, Valentina receives a new assignment: kill him.

Yet the more Valentina learns about the Council of Ten, the more she wonders if they are truly acting in the interest of the Venetian state, or using her for their own dark ambitions. If Valentina is to save Bastiano, she must untangle their conspiracy—with the help of her fellow courtesans—before it’s too late.

The Assassin of Venice is a captivating, sensual, high stakes read that brings 16th-century Venice to life, and draws on the fascinating real history of both Venetian cortigiane oneste—“honest courtesans”—and Renaissance Venice’s sprawling intelligence service.

Visit Alyssa Palombo's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Violinist of Venice.

The Page 69 Test: The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence.

My Book, The Movie: The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel.

My Book, The Movie: The Borgia Confessions.

Writers Read: Alyssa Palombo (February 2020).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Triumph of the Yuppies"

New from Grand Central Publishing: Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation by Tom McGrath.

About the book, from the publisher:

The “entertaining and insightful” first history of the Yuppie phenomenon, chronicling the roots, rise, triumph and (seeming) fall of the young urban professionals who radically altered American life between 1980 and 1987 (New York Times bestselling author Ben Mezrich).

By the time their obituary was being written in the late 1980s, Yuppies—the elite, uber‑educated faction of the Baby Boom generation—had become a cultural punchline. But amidst the Yuppies' preoccupation with money, work, and the latest status symbols, something serious was happening, too, something that continues to have profound ramifications on American culture four decades later.

Brimming with lively and nostalgic details (think Jane Fonda, The Sharper Image, and over-the-top fashion), Triumph of the Yuppies charts Boomers' transformation from hippy idealists in the late 1960s to careerists in the early 1980s, and details how marketers, the media, and politicians pivoted to appeal to this influential new group. Yuppie values had an undeniable impact on the worlds of fashion, food, and fitness, as well as affecting the broader culture—from gentrification and an obsession with career success to an indulgent materialism. Most significantly, the me‑first mindset typical of Yuppieness helped create the largest income inequality in a century.

Tom McGrath’s masterful cultural history reveals how Yuppies reshaped American society. It is a portrait of America just as it was beginning to come apart—and the origin story of the fractured country we live in today.

Visit Tom McGrath's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In the Hour of Crows"

New from MIRA Books: In the Hour of Crows: A Novel by Dana Elmendorf.

About the book, from the publiser:

In a small town in Appalachia, people paint their doorways blue to keep spirits away. Black ferns grow where death will follow. And Weatherly Opal Wilder is a Death Talker.

When called upon, she can talk the death out of the dying and save their lives—only once, never twice. But this truly unique gift comes at a price, rooting Weatherly to people who only want her around when they need her and resent her unfamiliar ways when they don’t.

Weatherly’s cousin Adaire also has a gift: she’s a Scryer and can see the future reflected back in dark surfaces. Right before she is killed in an accident, Adaire saw something unnerving, and that’s why Weatherly believes she was murdered—never thinking for a moment that it was an accident. But when Weatherly, for the first time, is unable to talk the death out of the mayor’s son, the whole town suspects she is out for revenge, that she wouldn’t save him.

With the help of clues Adaire left behind and her family’s Granny Witch recipe box, Weatherly sets out to find the truth behind her cousin’s death, whatever it takes.

Imbued with magic, witchery, and suspense, Dana Elmendorf’s In the Hour of Crows is a thrilling tale of friendship, identity, and love.

Visit Dana Elmendorf's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Fragmentary City"

New from Cornell University Press: The Fragmentary City: Migration, Modernity, and Difference in the Urban Landscape of Doha, Qatar by Andrew M. Gardner.

About the book, from the publisher:

As Andrew M. Gardner explains in The Fragmentary City, in Qatar and elsewhere on the Arabian Peninsula, nearly nine out of every ten residents are foreign noncitizens. Many of these foreigners reside in the cities that have arisen in Qatar and neighboring states. The book provides an overview of the gulf migration system with its diverse migrant experiences. Gardner focuses on the ways that demography and global mobility have shaped the city of Doha and the urban characteristics of the Arabian Peninsula in general. Building on those migrant experiences, the book turns to the spatial politics of the modern Arabian city, exploring who is placed where in the city and how this social landscape came into historical existence. The author reflects on what we might learn from these cities and the societies that inhabit them.

In The Fragmentary City, Andrew M. Gardner frames the contemporary cities of the Arabian Peninsula not as poor imitations of Western urban modernity, but instead as cities on the frontiers of a global, neoliberal, and increasingly urban future.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lady of Steel and Straw"

New from Peachtree Teen: Lady of Steel and Straw by Erica Ivy Rodgers.

About the book, from the publisher:

Star-crossed lovers grapple with forbidden attraction and a growing army of ghostly dead in this swashbuckling YA fantasy debut.

After ten years of exile, following regicide in the House of Tristain, an alarming royal edict is delivered to the immortal scarecrow Guardians who once defended the crown: surrender themselves to the church of the Silent Gods, or stand accused of further treason. But with a puppet prince set to take the throne and vengeful wraiths appearing with alarming frequency, something foul and sinister is at work in the kingdom of Niveaux.

Lady Charlotte Sand was born to calm the restless dead. A headstrong heroine, she refuses to relinquish her family’s lavender Guardian to the Cardinal’s Watch—a rash misstep that costs her brother his life and sets her on a path for revenge.

For pious and handsome Captain Luc de Montaigne, it’s an excruciating predicament. His long-lost, childhood love has triggered a faction war that could tear the realm asunder. Now Charlotte and Luc must choose between killing one another and stepping closer to victory—or yielding to the electricity between them.

Heartily inspired by The Three Musketeers, this multiple-perspective narrative features a unique system of bone and herbal magic, sultry banter, and a feisty cast of well-rounded supporting characters. This rousing first entry in the Waking Hearts fantasy duology is a gorgeous read and an excellent pick for fans of Rin Chupeco and Margaret Rogerson.

Visit Erica Ivy Rodgers's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Minneapolis Reckoning"

New from Princeton University Press: The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America by Michelle S. Phelps.

About the book, from the publisher:

Challenges to racialized policing, from early reform efforts to BLM protests and the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder

The eruption of Black Lives Matter protests against police violence in 2014 spurred a wave of police reform. One of the places to embrace this reform was Minneapolis, Minnesota, a city long known for its liberal politics. Yet in May 2020, four of its officers murdered George Floyd. Fiery protests followed, making the city a national emblem for the failures of police reform. In response, members of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to “end” the Minneapolis Police Department. In The Minneapolis Reckoning, Michelle Phelps describes how Minneapolis arrived at the brink of police abolition.

Phelps explains that the council’s pledge did not come out of a single moment of rage, but decades of organizing efforts. Yet the politics of transforming policing were more complex than they first appeared. Despite public outrage over police brutality, the council’s initiatives faced stiff opposition, including by Black community leaders who called for more police protection against crime as well as police reform. In 2021, voters ultimately rejected the ballot measure to end the department. Yet change continued on the ground, as state and federal investigations pushed police reform and city leaders and residents began to develop alternative models of safety.

The Minneapolis Reckoning shows how the dualized meaning of the police—as both the promise of state protection and the threat of state violence—creates the complex politics of policing that thwart change. Phelps’s account of the city's struggles over what constitutes real accountability, justice, and safety offers a vivid picture of the possibilities and limits of challenging police power today.

Visit Michelle S. Phelps's website.

--Marshal Zeringue