NEW BOOKS
— Fiction —
Hatchet Island
by Paul Doiron
Mike Bowditch Mysteries (Volume 13)
In book thirteen of Paul Doiron's USA-Today bestselling series, Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend, Stacey Stevens, take a kayaking trip to an island research station off the coast of Maine. There, they end up investigating a double murder. Two of the researchers have been killed and the third has disappeared.
Published by Minotaur Books (June 28, 2022)
Horse
The latest by Pulitzer Prize-winning Geraldine Brooks is a sweeping novel inspired by a great American racehorse, Lexington. The story spans from 1850 Kentucky to 1954 New York City to 2019 Washington, DC. Its characters—including an enslaved groom, a gallery owner, a Smithsonian scientist, and an art historian—are connected by their love and obsession with the racehorse. As the story unfolds, so too does the lost history of the Black horsemen behind the stallion’s success.
Published by Viking (June 14, 2022)
by Julia Glass
In the near future, an insular coastal village copes with rising climate instability and political violence across the country. Shortly after the stepson of a local architect returns home from college, two strangers arrive—a charming traveler and a mysterious widow—and have dangerous and dramatic repercussions on the whole town.
Julia Glass’s new novel is told across multiple, braided voices with a plot full of suspense and heart.
Published by Pantheon, an imprint of Penguin Random House (May 3, 2022)
by Jodi Picoult
In Jodi Picoult’s latest novel, Diana O’Toole’s romantic getaway with her boyfriend to the Galápagos Islands turns into a life-changing quarantine in which she stays with a local family and rethinks her entire life. She had thought she was on track—enjoying career success, about to be engaged, and planning to have kids before she turns 35. But now, stranded and outside of her comfort zone, she’s not so sure.
Published by Ballantine Books (June 14, 2022)
Strout’s latest is a literary fiction novel featuring a writer protagonist, Lucy Barton, and her ex-husband, William, who has always been a bit of a mystery to her. As Lucy helps William unravel a recently uncovered family secret, she also reflects on William and what holds them together despite their failed marriage.
Published by Random House (April 26, 2022)
The Children on the Hill
McMahon’s new novel is inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The story is told between 1978, when psychiatrist Dr. Helen Hildreth brought a strange girl into her family, and 2019, when an abduction and monster sighting rocks the town.
Published by Gallery/Scout Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster (April 26, 2022)
A Dream Life
A Dream Life is a novella about a woman moving from New York to Australia in the 1970s. Both Alice and her family must redefine themselves in this strange new world full of lies and self-deception.
Published by Tablo Tales (January 15, 2022), an independent publisher focusing on short novels by great women writers around the world.
Coronado: Stories
Bestselling novelist LeHane’s new collection of riveting contemporary crime fiction contains five previously published short stories and one play.
“Locations are vivid and crisp, characters are memorable and, most importantly, the story lines dig into you and leave their mark.” —Boston Herald
Published by William Morrow (January 11, 2022)
Influential and inventive author Clarence Major’s latest novel tells the story of two old friends, one Black and one white, who met as children in a New York shelter. It is April 1976, and Ray has won the lottery and might finally be able to help his friend Scotty, whose life has been an unstable montage of short-lived relationships and jobs. But on the way to reconnect with Scotty in San Francisco, Ray meets a woman who tempts him to cut his trip short.
Published by Triquarterly Books (October 15, 2021)
Also check out the 25th Anniversary Edition of Dirty Bird Blues, Major’s Penguin Classics debut! Published on February 8, 2022.
Bridge Across the Ocean
Bridge Across the Ocean is the story of the entrepreneurs behind Smithworks, a high-end custom bicycle maker, who want to bring their new bicycle technology—a drive that can store the energy from pedaling and release it when the cyclist needs it—to the growing market of city bikes. Their colleague, Shieh-Seng “Luke” Lin, has set up a meeting with the CEO of Joyful Bike, the world’s largest bicycle maker, in Taiwan. But just as they are about to leave, Luke is killed in a hit-and-run. Now, brokenhearted but determined to bring Luke’s vision to reality, the guys are off to Taiwan without the one person who might have helped them forge the business partnership of their dreams.
When they arrive in Taipei, Smithworks CEO, Jed Smith, finds himself on the cusp of another sort of partnership—a romantic relationship with their guide, Jung-Shan, who also happens to be the daughter of Joyful Bike’s president, Mr. Zheng. Jung-Shan and Jed have an immediate connection, but neither has had luck in love, and cultural differences threaten to halt their relationship before it has a chance to thrive.
Available now from:
Cenotaphs
Rich Marcello’s latest novel is a platonic love story between retiree Ben Sanna and New York City hedgefund manager Samantha Beckett. After meeting in a small Vermont town, the two open up about their pasts, including the deep losses that have caused them to be closed off for so long.
Published by Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC (June 21, 2021)
Landslide
by Susan Conley
Conley’s latest novel is a beautiful, modern portrait of a family living in a Maine fishing village. It contemplates the difficulties of marriage, motherhood, and the inner lives of teenage boys.
Published by Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House (Feb 02, 2021)
Prospects
Mining Maine for Riches — A Novel
When Canadian miner Clarence Potter moves to Maine in 1897 to make his fortune working the Oxford County pegmatite mines, he finds himself immersed in a welcoming community of native Mainers. One exception is widow Aphia Stevens, an herbalist who has not been able to escape her personal demons. She makes life difficult for Potter and his new wife from Massachusetts, and for the family of successful dressmaker Lizzie Millett. The story takes place with a backdrop of the Maine mining scene at the turn of the twentieth century.
Published by Maine Authors Publishing
BRIDGTON BOOKS
The Edge of Freedom
by Dana Vacca
A Civil War slave with a will to be free, a New Bedford sea captain, a Native American Lakota Sioux, shape each other's destinies in a powerful, moving and spiritual journey.
A Dangerous Quest For Freedom, A Forbidden Love, A Grueling Test Of Courage, ...A Painful Choice. The Second Book from The Freedom Calling Series saga.
The Misfortunes of Family
WHAT BRINGS A FAMILY TOGETHER CAN ALSO TEAR IT APART
The Bright family is the picture of perfection—attractive, competitive and a bit badly behaved. As the four adult sons of retired senator John Bright head with their partners to the annual family reunion, they have everything they need, except self-awareness. This year the senator has agreed to let a producer document the reunion at the lake house. Of course, they let their guard down.
As petty jealousies surface, Philip, the youngest, reveals a surprising personal decision that earns the ribbing—or is it scorn?—of his brothers, JJ, Spencer and Charlie. Then the senator unexpectedly announces his desire for another political run. Not everyone is on board, especially matriarch Patty, who is keenly aware of the toll it will take on their private lives. Suddenly closely held family secrets start tumbling out and keep coming, including the biggest one that will rock this family to the core.
Published by MIRA Books
by Cassie Fancher
In this powerful debut collection of stories, small town American women navigate grief and loss. Piecing together images from her own life, a young author creates stories that prioritize not the trauma itself but the relationships these women find in order to survive. This collection, and the characters within, consider home from afar, from close up, from the past and the present.
Published by Green Writers Press