New and noteworthy
USA TODAY’s Jocelyn McClurg scopes out the hottest books on sale each week.
1 Fifty Fifty
by James Patterson and Candice Fox ( Little, Brown, fiction, on sale Monday)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In the second book in a series, Australian Detective Harriet Blue is banished to a small town ( pop. 75), where she finds a diary outlining a killer's plan to wipe out the whole place.
THE BUZZ: Patterson and Fox’s first Harriet Blue thriller, 2017’ s Never Never, made its debut at No. 1 on USA TODAY’s Best- Selling Books list.
2 The Watergate: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address
by Joseph Rodota ( William Morrow, non- fiction, on sale Tuesday)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: The Watergate complex, synonymous with the downfall of President Richard Nixon, gets its own investigation.
THE BUZZ: “Entertaining, gossip- filled,” says Kirkus Reviews.
3 Agent in Place
by Mark Greaney ( Berkley, fiction, on sale Tuesday)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Former covert CIA asset Court Gentry, now known as the Gray Man, is working with a group of Syrian ex- pats to bring down the regime.
THE BUZZ: The latest in a series by Greaney, who also has written a number of bestselling, posthumous “Tom Clancy” thrillers.
4 The Woman in the Water
by Charles Finch ( Minotaur, fiction, on sale Tuesday)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In this prequel to the Charles Lenox mystery series, it’s 1850 London, and the would- be detective hopes to prove himself by solving a murder billed as the “perfect crime.”
THE BUZZ: Finch, a frequent reviewer for USA TODAY and others, is the latest recipient of the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle.
5 Educated
by Tara Westover ( Random House, non- fiction, on sale Tuesday)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Memoir by a Cambridge Ph. D. who was raised by Idaho survivalists and did not enter a classroom until she was 17.
THE BUZZ: It’s an Indie Next pick of independent booksellers. “A testament to Tara’s brilliance and tenacity,” says Emilie Sommer of East City Bookshop in Washington, D. C.