August 2021 Adult Top 10 Picks

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  1. The Madness of Crowds
    by Louise Penny Canada
    Minotaur Books
    Aug 24, 2021
    FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Traditional
    Hardback
    The Madness of Crowds
    by Louise Penny Canada
    Minotaur Books
    Aug 24, 2021
    FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Traditional
    Hardback

    Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller
    AARP The Magazine – Recommended Summer Reading
    CNN – A Most Anticipated Book of August
    Bustle – A Most Anticipated Book of August


    Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel


    You’re a coward.

    Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.

    It starts innocently enough.

    While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

    He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.

    While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.

    They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart.

    Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.

    Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.

    When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.

    And the madness of crowds.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  2. The Hit List
    by Holly Seddon
    Trapeze
    Aug 10, 2021
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Paperback / softback
    The Hit List
    by Holly Seddon
    Trapeze
    Aug 10, 2021
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Paperback / softback

    What would you do if you found your own name on a hit list? Seddon addresses this terrifying question in an explosive novel. One of the most exciting, brave and clever books I have ever read. The Hit List is my book of the year. Gillian McAllister, author of How to Disappear

    This novel kept me guessing to the end. A twisty, intelligent thrill ride. Excellent! Will Dean, author of Black River

    This meticulously plotted novel will suck you ever deeper into its dark underbelly. Sinister, clever and utterly compelling. Lesley Kara, author of WHO DID YOU TELL?


    On the anniversary of her husband's accidental death, Marianne seeks comfort in everything Greg left behind. She wears his shirt and cologne, reads their love letters and emails. Soon she's following his footsteps across the web, but her desperation to cling to any trace of him leads her to the dark web. And a hit list with her name on it.

    To try to save herself from Sam, the assassin hired to kill her, Marianne must first unpick the wicked web in which Greg became tangled. Was Greg trying to protect her or did he want her dead?

    A gripping and emotional ebook bestseller about a woman who discovers a shocking secret about her late husband that will hook you from the first page

    'Smart, twisty and totally compelling.' Jane Fallon

    'Dark, twisty, beautifully written and very clever. Loved it!' Claire Douglas


    A beautifully written book that tackles complex issues on a very personal level. A dark, fast-paced thriller with a hard-hitting emotional impact. Nikki Smith, author of All In Her Head.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  3. Wait For It
    by Jenn McKinlay
    Berkley
    Aug 10, 2021
    FICTION / Romance / Romantic Comedy
    Paperback / softback
    Wait For It
    by Jenn McKinlay
    Berkley
    Aug 10, 2021
    FICTION / Romance / Romantic Comedy
    Paperback / softback
    A woman looking for a new lease on life moves to Arizona where she rents a guest house on a gorgeous property with a mysterious owner—a man who teaches her about resilience, courage, and ultimately true love, in this funny, bighearted novel about hope and healing from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay.

    Stuck in a dreary Boston winter, Annabelle Martin would like nothing more than to run away from her current life. She's not even thirty years old, twice-divorced, and has just dodged a marriage proposal… from her ex-husband. When she’s offered her dream job as creative director at a cutting-edge graphic design studio in Phoenix, she jumps at the opportunity to start over.

    When she arrives in the Valley of the Sun, Annabelle is instantly intrigued by her anonymous landlord. Based on the cranky, handwritten notes Nick Daire leaves her, she assumes he is an old, rich curmudgeon. Annabelle is shocked when she finally meets Nick and discovers that he’s her age and uses a wheelchair. Nick suffered from a stroke a year ago, and while there's no physical reason for him not to recover, he is struggling to overcome the paralyzing fear that has kept him a prisoner in his own home.

    Despite her promise to herself not to get involved, Annabelle finds herself irresistibly drawn to Nick. And soon she wonders if she and Nick might help each other find the courage to embrace life, happiness, and true love.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  4. Velvet Was the Night
    by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Canada
    Del Rey
    Aug 17, 2021
    FICTION / Historical / General
    Hardback
    Velvet Was the Night
    by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Canada
    Del Rey
    Aug 17, 2021
    FICTION / Historical / General
    Hardback
    GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a simmering historical noir about a daydreaming secretary, a lonesome enforcer, and the mystery of the missing woman they’re both desperate to find.

    ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, New York Public Library, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, BookPage, She Reads, Library Journal • “An adrenalized, darkly romantic journey.”—The Washington Post

    Mexico in the 1970s is a dangerous country, even for Maite, a secretary who spends her life seeking the romance found in cheap comic books and ignoring the activists protesting around the city. When her next-door neighbor, the beautiful art student Leonora, disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman—and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents.

    Mexico in the 1970s is a politically fraught land, even for Elvis, a goon with a passion for rock ’n’ roll who knows more about kidney-smashing than intrigue. When Elvis is assigned to find Leonora, he begins a blood-soaked search for the woman—and his soul.

    Swirling in parallel trajectories, Maite and Elvis attempt to discover the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance, encountering hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies. Because Mexico in the 1970s is a noir, where life is cheap and the price of truth is high.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  5. The Royals Next Door
    by Karina Halle Canada
    Berkley
    Aug 31, 2021
    FICTION / Romance / Royalty
    Paperback / softback
    The Royals Next Door
    by Karina Halle Canada
    Berkley
    Aug 31, 2021
    FICTION / Romance / Royalty
    Paperback / softback
    One of PopSugar's Top Summer Reads of 2021!

    An ordinary summer goes royally awry when a prince and princess move next door, bringing their handsome bodyguard with them, from New York Times bestselling author Karina Halle.

    Piper Evans: elementary school teacher by day--avid romance reader and anonymous podcaster by night. She has a quiet, reclusive life, taking care of her mother, who lives with mental illness, avoiding her regrettable ex, who bartends in town, and trying to make inroads in the tight-knit island community that still sees her, five years in, as an outsider.
    And she's happy with how things are--really--until British royals rent the property next to hers and their brooding bodyguard decides she's a security threat. Piper quickly realizes that one person's fairy tale is an ordinary woman's nightmare as a media frenzy takes over the island and each run-in with Harrison Cole is hotter and more confusing than the last. But beneath Harrison's no-nonsense exterior lies a soft heart, one that could tempt a woman who's sworn off attachments into believing in white knights.

    But when Piper finds herself smack in the middle of a royal scandal that rocks the island she'll need more than Harrison's strong arms to shield her--she'll have to do a little rescuing herself. With careers, hearts, and friendships on the line, Piper and Harrison will have to decide what they're willing to give up for a chance at their own happily ever after.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  6. Missed Connections
    by Brian Francis Canada
    McClelland & Stewart
    Aug 17, 2021
    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / LGBTQ+
    Paperback / softback
    Missed Connections
    by Brian Francis Canada
    McClelland & Stewart
    Aug 17, 2021
    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / LGBTQ+
    Paperback / softback
    An entertaining and moving memoir about coming out, looking inwards, and the search for connection, inspired by the responses to a personal ad. A Loan Stars Top 10 Pick of the Month and one of Daily Hive's 10 Essential LGBTQ2+ Books to Celebrate Pride.

    In 1992, Brian Francis placed a personal ad in a local newspaper. He was a twenty-one-year-old university student, still very much in the closet, and looking for love. He received twenty-five responses, but there were thirteen letters that went unanswered and spent years tucked away, forgotten, inside a cardboard box. Now, nearly thirty years later, and at a much different stage in his life, Brian has written replies to those letters. Using the letters as a springboard to reflect on all that has changed for him as a gay man over the past three decades, Brian's responses cover a range of topics, including body image, aging, desire, the price of secrecy, and the courage it takes to be unapologetically yourself.

    Missed Connections is an open-hearted, irreverent, often hilarious, and always bracingly honest examination of the pieces of our past we hold close -- and all that we lose along the way. It is also a profoundly affecting meditation on how Brian's generation, the queer people who emerged following the generation hit hardest by AIDS, were able to step out from the shadows and into the light. In an age when the promise of love is just a tap or swipe away, this extraordinary memoir reminds us that our yearning for connection and self-acceptance is timeless.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  7. Mrs. March
    by Virginia Feito
    Liveright
    Aug 17, 2021
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    Mrs. March
    by Virginia Feito
    Liveright
    Aug 17, 2021
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    George March’s latest novel is a smash. No one could be prouder than his dutiful wife, Mrs. March, who revels in his accolades. A careful creature of routine and decorum, she lives a precariously controlled existence on the Upper East Side until one morning, when the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that her husband’s latest protagonist—a detestable character named Johanna—is based on Mrs. March herself. Clutching her ostrich leather pocketbook and mint-colored gloves, she flees the shop. What could have merited this humiliation?

    That one casual remark robs Mrs. March of the belief that she knew everything about her husband—and herself—thus sending her on an increasingly paranoid journey that begins within the pages of a book. While snooping in George’s office, Mrs. March finds a newspaper clipping about a missing woman. Did George have anything to do with her disappearance? He’s been going on a lot of “hunting trips” up north with his editor lately, leaving Mrs. March all alone at night with her tormented thoughts, and the cockroaches that have suddenly started to appear, and strange breathing noises . . . As she begins to decode her husband’s secrets, her deafening anxiety and fierce determination threaten everyone in her wake—including her stoic housekeeper, Martha, and her unobtrusive son, Jonathan, whom she loves so profoundly, when she remembers to love him at all.

    Combining a Hitchcockian sensibility with wickedly dark humor, Virginia Feito, a brilliantly talented and, at times, mischievous newcomer, offers a razor-sharp exploration of the fragility of identity. A mesmerizing novel of psychological suspense and casebook insecurity turned full-blown neurosis, Mrs. March will have you second-guessing your own seemingly familiar reflection in the mirror.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  8. The Family Plot
    by Megan Collins
    Atria Books
    Aug 17, 2021
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    The Family Plot
    by Megan Collins
    Atria Books
    Aug 17, 2021
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    A family obsessed with true crime gathers to bury their patriarch—only to find another body already in his grave in this “moody and atmospheric” (USA TODAY) thriller.

    Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, twenty-six-year-old Dahlia Lighthouse is still haunted by her twin brother Andy’s disappearance a decade ago.

    After several years away and following her father’s death, Dahlia returns home, where the family makes a gruesome discovery: buried in their father’s plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax.

    Dahlia is quick to blame Andy’s murder on the serial killer who terrorized the island for decades, while the rest of her family reacts to the revelation in unsettling ways. Her brother, Charlie, pours his energy into creating a family memorial museum, highlighting their research into the lives of famous murder victims; her sister, Tate, forges ahead with her popular dioramas portraying crime scenes; and their mother affects a cheerfully domestic facade, becoming unrecognizable as the woman who performed murder reenactments for her children. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin in this “gorgeously wrought and deliciously creepy…twisted delight” (Kathleen Barber, author of Follow Me).
    View this title on BNC CataList
  9. The Guide
    by Peter Heller
    Knopf
    Aug 24, 2021
    FICTION / Action & Adventure
    Hardback
    The Guide
    by Peter Heller
    Knopf
    Aug 24, 2021
    FICTION / Action & Adventure
    Hardback
    NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The best-selling author of The River returns with a heart-racing thriller about a young man who is hired by an elite fishing lodge in Colorado, where he uncovers a plot of shocking menace amid the natural beauty of sun-drenched streams and forests.

    “Peter Heller is the poet laureate of the literary thriller." —Michael Koryta, New York Times best-selling author of Those Who Wish Me Dead

    Kingfisher Lodge, nestled in a canyon on a mile and a half of the most pristine river water on the planet, is known by locals as "Billionaire's Mile" and is locked behind a heavy gate. Sandwiched between barbed wire and a meadow with a sign that reads "Don't Get Shot!" the resort boasts boutique fishing at its finest. Safe from viruses that have plagued America for years, Kingfisher offers a respite for wealthy clients. Now it also promises a second chance for Jack, a return to normalcy after a young life filled with loss. When he is assigned to guide a well-known singer, his only job is to rig her line, carry her gear, and steer her to the best trout he can find.

    But then a human scream pierces the night, and Jack soon realizes that this idyllic fishing lodge may be merely a cover for a far more sinister operation. A novel as gripping as it is lyrical, as frightening as it is moving, The Guide is another masterpiece from Peter Heller

    Look for Peter Heller's new novel, The Last Ranger, coming soon!
    View this title on BNC CataList
  10. The Perfect Family
    by Robyn Harding Canada
    Simon & Schuster
    Aug 10, 2021
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Paperback / softback
    The Perfect Family
    by Robyn Harding Canada
    Simon & Schuster
    Aug 10, 2021
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Paperback / softback
    In The Perfect Family—which has received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist—#1 bestselling author Robyn Harding explores what happens when a seemingly perfect family is pushed to the edge...and beyond.

    Thomas and Viv Adler have a picture-perfect family. Affluent and attractive, with two well-mannered kids almost out of the nest, they live in a beautifully restored Craftsman house in a well-to-do neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Their jobs are secure; their children are thriving; the world is their oyster.

    Until one morning, when they wake up to find that their house and car have been pelted with eggs. Thomas dismisses it as the work of a few out-of-control kids, but when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and the tires on their BMW are punctured, he begins to worry. The family installs surveillance cameras but they show nothing but grainy images of shadowy figures in hoodies. Unable to identify the perpetrators, they are helpless as the assaults escalate. The police assure them that this is just the work of bored teenagers. But no one in the Adler family believes it. After all, each of them has a secret—kept not only from the outside world but from each other.

    Seventeen-year-old Tarryn is dabbling in a seedy online world; her older brother, Eli, has dropped out of college and refuses to tell his parents why; and Thomas and Viv have their own secrets that began as harmless fun and relief from the pressures of everyday life, but have grown into something darker and more dangerous. As the Adlers grapple with their guilt, fear, and shame, the assaults grow deadly. Their “perfect” façade is crumbling, and it may be too late for any of them to do anything about it in this addictive and twisty suspense novel that will keep you turning pages until its explosive ending.
    View this title on BNC CataList

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