Category: Staff Picks

“This was my first Richard Osman book, but it definitely won’t be my last. A delightful, engaging cozy mystery, full of wonderful characters and fun locales.”  
-Robin, Bookseller and Social Media Manager

From the #1 bestselling author of The Thursday Murder Club Series. A brand new mystery. An iconic new detective duo. And a thrilling new murder to solve . . .

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .

As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer?

Solving murders. It’s a family business.

Richard Osman is an author and television presenter. His novels, The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, and The Last Devil to Die, were number one, million-copy international bestsellers as well as New York Times bestsellers. He lives in London with his wife, Ingrid, and Liesl the cat. We Solve Murders is his fifth novel. The movie adaptation for The Thursday Murder Club will start filming in 2024, produced by Amblin Entertainment.

What a dynamic book, it pulled me into Frankie’s life and her service in Viet Nam as an army nurse during this turbulent time in history of a nation divided by war and politics.  I could not put it down  Kristin Hannah is a master in writing. 
-Betty, Store Volunteer

A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times!

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah’s The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam. 

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

About as steamy as any novel I’ve ever read, but also profounding eye-opening politically, having nothing to do with sex. More twists than plateful of fusilli.  
-George, store co-founder

June 2024 Indie Next List

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“A suspenseful story of two women forced to stay in a house in the Dutch countryside. This novel gives tremendous insight on how the Dutch handled the repercussions of the Holocaust, and how a generation lost affects those who survive.” 
— Josie Williams, Invitation Bookshop, Gig Harbor, WA 

Description

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LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 

“Remarkable…Compelling…Fine and taut…Indelible” —The New York Times • “Mesmerizing and shockingly good…I was utterly blown away.” —Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace • “A brilliant debut, as multifaceted as a gem.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) • “Moving, unnerving, and deeply sexy.” —Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with the Pearl Earring • “Fans of Patricia Highsmith and Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen will find much to admire here.”—Vulture

An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

A house is a precious thing…

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget.

Simone St. James is back with an exciting new book! A young couple on their honeymoon (with plenty of secrets of their own) are caught up in the search for a serial killer on a lonely stretch of backwoods road. Scary good fun!
-Lori, Bookstore Staff

A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases.

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.

A 2019 STAFF REC OF THE MONTH PICK

MOSTLY DEAD THINGS by Kristen Arnett is a painfully accurate depiction of grief – and I can’t decide if it is made more or less moving, more or less profound, by how incredibly grisly it is. It is incredibly grisly, full of literal blood and guts, but despite being someone who leaves the room when the CSIs uncover the body on TV, this novel completely fascinated me.

It’s a story of misguided love, repressed artistic vision, grief of various kinds and all things taxidermy. Jessa-Lynn Morton is trying to keep her father’s taxidermy shop operating after his suicide, while contending with her mother’s alternate vision for the animals as art. Business matters are complicated by Jessa’s romantic misadventures, foremost of which is that she and her brother, Milo, share a love interest – his wife – who loved and left them both.

MOSTLY DEAD THINGS sometimes jumps fully into the absurd, but it is grounded by Arnett’s talent for concrete detail.

Late in the book the characters have a conversation about art:

“It’s a good thing when you can’t stop thinking about a piece,” she said. That’s when you know it’s done the work. When you can’t get it out of your head afterward.”

I can’t get this book out of my head – and I’m looking forward to hearing what you all make of peacocks, a bear rug and bondage gear.

CLICK HERE TO READ A Q&A WITH ARNETT IN OUR AUGUST 2024 NEWSLETTER