New fiction in August
Think you don't have time to fit in some of this new fiction this fall? Think again, because these five picks are irresistible. Later bedtimes are in store for you. For die-hard readers, it's coffee to the rescue!
1. Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst
Penguin Books
The Hammond family's oldest daughter, Tilly, is developing abnormally--a mix of off-the-charts genius and social incompetence. Once Tilly--whose condition is deemed undiagnosable--is kicked out of the last school in the area, her mother Alexandra is out of ideas. The family turns to Camp Harmony and the wisdom of child behavior guru Scott Bean for a solution. But what they discover in the woods of New Hampshire will push them to the very limit.
2. The Nix by Nathan Hill
Amazon
Astonished to see the mother who abandoned him in childhood throwing rocks at a presidential candidate, a bored college professor struggles to reconcile the radical media depictions of his mother with his small-town memories and decides to draw her out by penning a tell-all biography.
3. Good as Gone by Amy Gentry
Goodreads
Thirteen-year-old Julie Whitaker was kidnapped from her bedroom in the middle of the night. Her family was shattered, but managed to stick together, hoping against hope that Julie is still alive. And then one night: the doorbell rings. A young woman who appears to be Julie is finally home safe. The family is ecstatic—but Anna, Julie’s mother, has whispers of doubts. When she is contacted by a former detective turned private eye, she begins a torturous search for the truth about the woman she desperately hopes is her daughter.
Propulsive and suspenseful, Good as Gone will appeal to fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, and keep readers guessing until the final page.
4. Carousel Court by Joe McGinniss Jr.
Simon and Schuster
Nick and Phoebe Maguire move across the country to California in search of a fresh start for themselves and their infant son following a devastating trauma. But they move at the worst possible time, into an economic crisis that spares few. Instead of landing in a beachside property, strolling the organic food aisles and selecting private preschools, Nick and Phoebe find themselves living in the dark heart of foreclosure alley, surrounded by neighbors who set fire to their belongings, flee in the dead of night and eye one another with suspicion while keeping twelve-gauge shotguns by their beds. Trapped, broke and increasingly desperate, Nick and Phoebe each devise their own plan to claw their way back into the middle class and beyond. Hatched under one roof, their two separate, secret agendas collide in spectacular fashion.
5. Surrender, New York by Caleb Carr
Penguin Random House
"Twenty years after the success of The Alienist (1994) and The Angel of Darkness (1997), Carr once again delivers a high-stakes thriller featuring a new band of clever, determined outcasts." - Booklist Reviews
In the small town of Surrender in upstate New York, Trajan Jones, a psychological profiler, and Dr. Michael Li, a trace evidence expert, teach online courses in profiling and forensic science from Jones’s family farm. Once famed advisors to the New York City Police Department, Trajan and Li now work in exile, having made enemies of those in power. Protected only by farmhands and Jones’s unusual pet cheetah, the outcast pair is unexpectedly called in to consult on a disturbing case.
