I can't believe it's going to be August next week! Where is this summer going? Good thing there's plenty of summer reading yet to be had, so readers can soak up as much summer fiction as possible. Here's what's made my list for August!
The Misfortune of Marion Palm, by Emily Culliton. This debut has been getting lots of great reviews already. Marion has always lived on the cusp of poverty, and along the way, she's developed a talent for sticky fingers and doctoring numbers in order to make ends meet. When she meets and marries a rich, successful poet, she thinks those hard days are behind her, only to find he's not as wealthy as she thought and that her talents will be called for once again. Readers meet her on the day she leaves her family with $40,000 in a backpack that she's embezzled from her daughter's private school. Wickedly clever, this is a debut I expect will be in high demand.
How To Find Love in a Bookshop, by Veronica Henry. Emilia's final promise to her father upon his deathbed is that she'll take over his small-town bookstore, and after his death, she seeks to fill his role at Nightingale Books. What she hasn't realized is that her father was a beloved fixture of their small English town, and she has very large shoes to fill. This is sure to charm Anglophiles and bibliophiles alike--I'm recommending this for fans of Jenny Colgan and Nina George in particular.
Afterlife, by Marcus Sakey. Already slated to be turned into a movie produced by Ron Howard, this otherworldly thriller follows two FBI agents as they explore the "echo", a postmortem plane, in a manhunt that defies death, even as a subterranean battle between gods and monsters rages. Part fable, part gruesome thriller, I'd recommend this to fans of The Walking Dead as well as Sakey's earlier work.
Girl in Snow, by Danya Kukafka. For fans of tautly-plotted thrillers comes a new voice. The life and death of 15-year-old Lucinda Hayes is examined by three residents of Broomsville, CO. Suspicion immediately falls on Cameron, disturbed son of a disgraced cop who abandoned his family, who loved Lucinda from afar. Then there's Jade, who took Lucinda's babysitting job and her best friend. And Russ, Cameron's dad's former partner, who promised that he'd look out for Cameron, but what if Cameron's guilty? If your beach read of choice is page-turning suspense, add this to your beach bag.
Are You Sleeping, by Kathleen Barber. Billed as Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood meets Serial. When mega-hit true-crime podcast hosted by a journalist drags an old murder case back into the light, it is with the claim that the man convicted for the crime is actually innocent. But one of the victim's surviving family members, daughter Josie, has worked hard to escape from the fallout that followed her father's murder and has established a quiet life for herself. This is completely upended as more new episodes of the podcast are released, each creating bigger waves for Josie and her estranged family members. An intense plot and character study should make for a gripping read.
A Stranger in the House, by Shari Lapena. Lapena won a following with her first thriller, 2016's The Couple Next Door, and her second outing will win her more. A woman awakes after an accident where a dead body was found, but has no memory of the incident, nor what caused her to be there at the time. The police and her own husband are suspicious. Now she must piece together the events of that night, her best friend the only one who seems to believe her, and discover what happened, and what it may mean for her future.
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