USA TODAY International Edition
Sager and Robards serve up thrillers to add to a book bag
In search of something good to read? USA TODAY’s Barbara VanDenburgh scopes out the shelves for this week’s hottest new book releases. All books are on sale Tuesday.
‘ The Only One Left’ By Riley Sager ( Dutton, fiction)
What it’s about: Suspense master Sager (“The House Across the Lake,” “Survive the Night”) returns with a gothic thriller about a home health aide assigned to care for 70something Lenora, mute and in a wheelchair after a series of strokes. She’s the same Lenora accused of killing her family in a Lizzie Borden- like massacre decades earlier, and it’s clear there’s more to the tale than people know.
The buzz: “Fans of Daphne du Maurier will enjoy this superior nail- biter,” says Publishers Weekly.
‘ I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home’ By Lorrie Moore ( Knopf, fiction)
What it’s about: Moore’s first novel since “A Gate at the Stairs” is a meditation on mortality and letting go, in which a man returns home to the Midwest after his ex dies by suicide to find her seemingly undead.
The buzz: “The author’s fans will love it, and those new to Moore will want ( to) see what else they’ve been missing,” says Publishers Weekly.
‘ The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard’ By Kate Robards ( Crooked Lane Books, fiction)
What it’s about: When Willa is found dead in her apartment, her sister Sawyer knows it can’t be the suicide it appears to be. She becomes even more convinced of foul play when she discovers that her sister was writing a true- crime book about the decades- old disappearance of a child that rocked a small- town community.
The buzz: “A welcome debut that’s both a fleet thriller and a pathology of sisterhood at its most harrowing,” says a starred Kirkus review.
‘ Through the Groves’ By Anne Hull ( Holt, nonfiction)
What it’s about: The Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist recounts her childhood in rural Central Florida in a coming- ofage memoir as her parents’ marriage crumbled and her queer sexual identity began to take shape.
The buzz: “This is a stirring account of growing up at odds with one’s environment and making it out on the other side,” says Publishers Weekly.
‘ Lucky Red’ By Claudia Cravens ( Dial Press, fiction)
What it’s about: Plucky 16year- old Bridget arrives in 1877 Dodge City without a penny to her name and soon finds herself working at the Buffalo Queen, the town’s only brothel run by women, in this vibrant reimagining of the Western. The buzz: “Cravens shakes the dust off tired tropes and delivers a shining example of what an old- fashioned page- turner can accomplish,” says a starred Kirkus review.