Release Week: 9 January 2024
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Release Week: 9 January 2024
Posted on 2024-01-09 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
Cold: A Novel By: Drew Hayden Taylor, read by Wesley French, Lawrence Bayne, Susan Roman, Jani Lauzon, Cara Gee, and Mirphie Kinanga for McClelland and Stewart -- "Elmore Trent is a professor of Indigenous studies who finds himself entangled in an affair that's ruining his marriage; Paul North plays in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League), struggling to keep up with the game that's passing him by; Detective Ruby Birch is chasing a string of gruesome murders, with clues that conspicuously lead her to both Elmore and Paul. And then there's Fabiola Halan, former journalist-turned-author and famed survivor of a plane crash that sparked a nationwide tour promoting her book. What starts off as a series of subtle connections between isolated characters quickly takes a menacing turn, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone—or something—is hunting them all."
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel By: Shubnum Khan, read by Soneela Nankani for Penguin -- "Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Nearly a century later, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse for eclectic misfits, seeking solely to disappear into the mansion’s dark corridors. Except for Sana. Unlike the others, she is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion: To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the door at its end, locked for decades."
The Fetishist By: Katherine Min, read by Eunice Wong and Kayla Min Andrews for Penguin -- "On a cold, gloomy night, twenty-three-year-old Kyoko stands in the rain with a knife in her hoodie’s pocket. Her target is Daniel, who seduced Kyoko’s mother then callously dropped her, leading to her death. But tonight, there will be repercussions. Following the unsuspecting Daniel home, Kyoko manages to get a rash kidnapping plot off the ground . . . and then nothing goes as planned."
You Dreamed of Empires: A Novel by Álvaro Enrigue, read by Natasha Wimmer for Books on Tape -- "One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan – today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures. Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma – who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods – the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire."
Cold Victory: A Novel By: Karl Marlantes, read by Bronson Pinchot for Blackstone -- "Helsinki, 1947. Finland teeters between the Soviet Union and the West. Everyone is being watched. A wrong look or a wrong word could end in catastrophe. Natalya Bobrova, from Russia, and Louise Koski, from the United States, are young wives of their country’s military attachés. When they meet at an embassy party, their husbands, Arnie and Mikhail, both world-class skiers, drunkenly challenge each other to a friendly—but secret—cross-country wilderness race."
The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski, read by Stacy Gonzalez for Blackstone -- "Riley Diaz was born to fight back. When she’s incarcerated under the authority of a shadowy new defense act, Riley is sent to one of a growing number of American Renewal Centers (ARCs)—institutions modeled after psychiatric facilities—for mandatory reeducation. Forced therapy, involuntary medication, solitary confinement, restricted rations, and more are all in the ARC program’s bag of dirty tricks designed to break down dissidents. Give in, and you go free."
The Heiress: A Novel By: Rachel Hawkins, read by Dan Bittner, Eliza Foss, John Pirhalla, and Patti Murin for Macmillan -- "When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past. Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable."
SERIES WATCH:
Mislaid in Parts Half-Known: Wayward Children, Book 9 by Seanan McGuire, read by Jesse Vilinsky for Macmillan -- "Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children."
The Atlas Complex: Atlas Series, Book 3 by Olivie Blake, read by a full cast for Macmillan -- "An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment."
A Feast for Starving Stone: Chefs of the Five Gods, Book 2 By: Beth Cato, read by Elizabeth Knowelden for Brilliance -- "Two countries at war. A delicious taste of magic. And a fierce princess comes of age in a rousing adventure by the author of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge."
INDIE WATCH:
The Witch of Tophet County by J.H. Schiller, read by Soneela Nankani for Podium -- "The witch of Tophet County has three primary preoccupations: Kentucky bourbon, Amish romance novels . . . and protecting her true identity from the chthonic monsters who rule humanity with an iron tentacle."
They Will Be Coming for Us: The Jovian Universe, Book 1 By: Kim Catanzarite (2021), read by Traci Odom -- "Svetlana Peterman has met her soul mate in Andrew Jovian, a young astronomer who works for Starbright International, the aerospace company his wealthy parents own. Once married, they make a home in Kirksberg, Pennsylvania, a small town famous for a UFO sighting that occurred in the 1960s. Svetlana is, for once, truly happy, except that Andrew’s family is strange, and not in a normal-strange kind of way."
MOST MISSING:
- Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf (Angry Robot) -- "Her purpose is to track down and eliminate her predecessors. Simple, right? In the glitz and glamour of Bubble City even a washed-up film star simply has too much to do, too many places to be. Thank heavens for clones. Lulabelle Rock has twelve, doing the tiresome celebrity rounds. But times have changed: you can have too much of a good thing. And time is up for the twelve Lulabelles. A thirteenth clone, an assassin is created. Killing yourselves should be easy. We’re talking clones, not people; it’s not murder. Not really. But love has a way of complicating things…"
Ooh! Good find, looks interesting! "This "fresh, exciting, and brilliantly unpredictable" thriller (James Patterson) from a "great storyteller" (Michael Connelly) follows four unlikely vigilantes who pit themselves against the villain behind California’s coldest case when they decide to take justice into their own hands."