In terms of big-name releases next week, just one title stands out as the leader in holds and copies ordered, Love Letters: A Rose Harbor Novel by Debbie Macomber, (RH/Ballantine; RH Audio; RH Large Print). It is part of a series that is a spin-off of the prolific author’s Cedar Cove books (recently adapted by the Hallmark Channel TV, starring Andie MacDowell and now in its second season).  Most libraries have ordered enough copies to fill current holds.

The titles mentioned here and more notable books arriving next week, with alternate formats, are listed on our downloadable New Title Radar, Week of 8/11:\/14.

Literary Darlings

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; RH Large Print)

The hot literary novel of the season, Murakami’s latest is featured on the cover of this Sunday’s NYT Book Review. Salon calls it an understated triumph. Those who resisted reading his previous book, 1Q84, because of it nearly 1,000 page length, will be happy to know that this one is just 400 pages. Holds in libraries are not heavy, so you may have copies available to recommend.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan, (RH/Knopf)

Picked as one of the two most interesting books on the recently released Man Booker long list (the other was Richard Powers’ Orfeo, Norton), you can expect to see reviews. In the U.K. where you can bet on such things, it now ranks third to win the prize, with odds of 8/1.

More to Recommend

Small Blessings, Martha Woodroof, (Macmillan/ St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio)

Woodroof is the host of The Spark on NPR station WMRA in Harrisonburg, Virginia and has written about the publishing process for this, her debut novel, for NPR’s online pop culture column, Monkey See, so don’t be surprised if the book appears on an NPR show.

It is an Indie Next pick for August:

“A cast of quirky characters — a well-meaning but bumbling college professor, his agoraphobic wife, his sitcom-worthy mother-in-law, and a charming itinerant bookseller — is thrown into a whirl when a small ‘orphan’ boy appears in their midst. The power of love and caring lifts everyone above their flaws in a heartwarming story about finding love and family in unconventional ways.” —Jenny Stroyeck, The Homer Bookstore, Homer, AK

The House We Grew Up In, Lisa Jewell, (S&S/Atria)

This one ranks at #3 on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List — The Top Ten Things We Love This Weekmd,” with this recommendation, “It’s a subject more commonly found on A&E than in literary fiction: compulsive hoarding. In Jewell’s 11th novel, Lorelei Bird’s disorder frames this story of an English family, tracing how tragedy pulls them apart and eventually brings them together again.’

Isla and the Happily Ever After, Stephanie Perkins, (Penguin/Dutton Juvenile; BOT Audio)

If you can wrest this from the hands of your young adult readers, it’s prime for crossover. It brought raptures on YA GalleyChat as well as strong prepub reviews (Kirkus; “Engaging teen characters with page-turning love lives offer ample vicarious pleasures”) and the cover carries a lovely blurb by another crossover success, Rainbow Rowell, “Stephanie Perkins’s characters fall in love the way we all want to, in real time and for good.”

Note to Chris Bohjalian’s fans — his daughter, Grace Blewer, reads the audiobook (she is also the narrator for her father’s latest, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands).

Click on the orange arrow for a sample:

Syfy has ordered a TV series based on John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series (Macmillan/Tor). Although it is titled after the second book, Ghost Brigades (because it sounds “sexier” says the author in his blog post), it will draw from all five books.

Scalzi’s latest, Lock In, (Macmillan/Tor; 8/26/2014) is a LibraryReads pick for August. Read how happy that pick made the author here (and remember to make your favorite authors happy by nominating their upcoming books for LibraryReads). 

Author Sarah Bird escapes the Austin, Texas, heat to be interviewed in cooler Seattle by librarian Nancy Pearl.

She explains why her latest novel,  Above The China Sea,(RH/Knopf, 5/27/14; Recorded Books) is considered a “stunning departure” from her earlier books.

For more of Nancy’s favorites, listen to her on Seattle’s KUOW radio station.

Originally released in the 1970’s, George R.R. Martin’s out-of-print Y.A. book (or, as Martin clarifies on his blog, “actually an illustrated and edited version of a short story that I wrote back in the 70s”), The Ice Dragon, will be re-released this fall, with new illustrations by Luis Royo (publisher Tor shows several of them off here).

The publisher also explains how the book fits in to  the world of A Song of Ice and Fire.

The Ice Dragon
George R. R. Martin, Luis Royo

Macmillan/ Tor Teen: October 21, 2014
9780765378774, 0765378779
Hardback / With dust jacket
$14.99 USD / $17.50 CAD
Ages 12 to 18, Grades 7 to 12

Following in the footsteps of Gillian Flynn, author Liane Moriarty has been discovered by Hollywood. Three of her six novels are now in development.

Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon’s production companies just joined forces to option her latest, Big Little Lies, (Penguin/Putnam/Einhorn; Penguin Audio; Recorded Books; Thorndike). Released last week, it got a prepub rave from the NYT‘s Janet Maslin, followed by another stellar review in the Washington Post. Unsurprisingly, given that her previous title, The Husband’s Secret, (Penguin/Putnam/Einhorn, 2013), only recently began dropping on best seller lists, it arrives at #3 on today’s USA Today list.

Both actress/producers seem to have developed a taste for domestic thrillers. Kidman stars in Before I Go to Sleep, opening Sept. 12, based on the novel by S.J. Watson (Harper, 2011). She’s also bought the rights to The Silent Wife, by A. S. A. Harrison (Penguin original trade pbk, 2013). Witherspoon is a producer for Gone Girl, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn (RH/Crown, 2012), which releases on Oct. 2

It may be a race to see which Moriarty title makes it to the screen first. What Alice Forgot, (Penguin/Putnam/Einhorn, 2011) is in development, with David Frankel attached as director. Also in development, but with no director attached as yet, is The Husband’s Secret to be produced by CBS Films.

Moriarty talks about The Husband’s Secret below (the video was produced by the author’s U.K. publisher and therefore features the U.K. cover):

We’re trying desperately to avoid all the “back from the dead” cliches, but there’s proof that we’ve fallen prey to them in the past.

After several years in development, with multiple actresses announced for the lead (Natalie Portman — who is still attached as a producer — Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Mia Wasikowska and Rooney Mara), the adaptation of the godmother of the mashup genre, Pride Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (Quirk Books, 2009) is set to begin filming in September, with Lily James as Elizabeth Bennett, Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy and Bella Heathcote as Elizabeth’s sister. The box office disaster of that other mashup adaptation, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, put the studios off for a while, but now it seems that the success of various zombie vehicles have made them forget all that.

Below are some other book-to-movie projects that are getting new life:

Philip Roth, American Pastoral, (Houghton Mifflin, 1997) — to begin filming in Pittsburgh in March, starring Ewan McGregor and Jennifer Connelly.

Kevin Wilson, The Family Fang, (HarperCollins/ Ecco, 2011) — finally filming, as proven by shots of Nicole Kidman on the set.

Maziar Bahari, Then They Came For Me, (Random House, 2011) — Jon Stewart took a hiatus last year to direct this adaptation, titled Rosewater. The release date is now set for 11/7/2014.

Joe Hill,  Horns, (HarperCollins/Morrow, 2010) — U.S. release date of 10/31/2014 finally announced (it hit theaters in the U.K. last year), sending the book up Amazon’s sales ranking.

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, (1871) — titled Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to the 2010 live-action Alice in Wonderland, is currently filming and scheduled for release on 5/27/2016, with returning cast, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and Mia Wasikowska as Alice Kingsleigh, as well as new actors, Sacha Baron Cohen as Time, Rhys Ifans as the Mad Hatter’s father and Ed Speelers as James Harcourt.

For more on upcoming adaptations, check our spreadsheet, EarlyWord, Books to Movies (download and sort by date for the latest stories).

The 1963 Newbery Award winner, A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle (Macmillan/FSG BYR) is set for a new adaptation. Disney just announced that Jennifer Lee who wrote and co-directed the animated mega-hit, Frozen, will write the adaptation.

The book was adapted previously as a TV movie, to middling success. In an interview with Newsweek, L’Engle was asked if the film “met her expectations.”

She replied, “Yes, I expected it to be bad, and it is.”

The interview was conducted when L’Engle was 85, and therefore felt she could “say what I want” and she did, letting loose on fundamentalists and saying of the Harry Potter series, “I read one of them. It’s a nice story but there’s nothing underneath it.”

Another children’s classic is getting a new look. Universal is adapting Clifford The Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic, 1963) as a live-actio, 3D movie, scheduled for release on April 8, 2016. It was loosely adapted in 2004 as the animated Clifford’s Really Big Movie and as a PBS series.

Universal also announced that they have bought the rights to the best selling picture book, The Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt, (Penguin/Philomel, 2013).

The trailer for a new adaptation of Vera Brittain’s classic WWI memoir, Testament Of Youth (1933) was recently released.

Alicia Vikander stars as Brittain in the film which is scheduled to open in January in the U.K. (the U.S. date has not yet been set).

Book-to-movie fans will be seeing a lot of Vikander, a Swedish actress, in the future. She has a supporting role in the upcoming Seventh Son (opening Feb. 6, based on Joseph, Delaney’s Revenge of the Witch), stars in Tulip Fever (based on the book by Deborah Moggach, currently filming), and has signed to star in The Light Between Oceans (based on the 2012 best seller by M.L. Stedman), as well as The Danish Girl, (based on the 2002 book by David Ebershoff),

Co-starring is Kit Harington (the heart-throb from Game of Thrones, he will also appear with Vikander in Seventh Son) as Brittain’s fiancé, who dies in the war).

Attending the recent PBS press tour were Tom Branson, Lady Edith, Anna Bates, and Lady Mary (in real life, Downton Abbey cast members Allen Leech, Laura Carmichael, Joanne Froggatt, and Michelle Dockery). Parade magazine examines the few hints they gave about what the new season may bring. The Christian Post, of all places, thinks they’ve sussed out some spoilers. The season begins in the U.S. on Jan. 4, but U.K. audiences will get to see it this fall.

A tie-in has been announced, complete with an “exclusive cover reveal” (based on the set photo, above) by Entertainment Weekly. Titled A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey, it is organized by month and includes “research on great houses in 1924 and detail on how the production operates over the year,” says the author Jessica Fellowes, niece of the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes.

A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes
Jessica Fellowes, Julian Fellowes
Macmillan/St. Martin’s: October 28, 2014
9781250065384, 1250065380
Hardback / With dust jacket
$29.99 USD / $34.50 CAD

Also coming,

Downton Abbey: Rules for Household Staff
by “Carson” (the show’s head butler )
Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin: November 25, 2014
9781250066329, 1250066328
Hardback / Paper over boards
$14.99 USD / $17.50 CAD

Teaser trailer:

On The Daily Show tonight, Jon Stewart will feature Helen Thorpe, the author of Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War,  (S&S/Scribner; Dreamscape audio), which follows three women soldiers’s deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan and their struggles on returning home. Prepub reviews are strong, with stars from both PW and Kirkus.

The Colbert Report hosts John Dean, a key player in the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon. In his new book, The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It, (Penguin/Viking), he reflects on what he learned by listening to Nixon’s recently-released secret tapes of White House conversations. The book has been widely covered, including in a review in the Washington Post by a person very familiar with the story, Bob Woodward. Along with Carl Bernstein, he broke the story about the Watergate coverup.

Libraries have ordered modest quantities of each.

. 

At #3 on Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List” in the new issue is Dear Daughter, by Elizabeth Little, (Penguin; Recorded Books). a book we suggested as one to recommend to readers who can’t get their hands on Big Little Lies.

About a former celebrity, accused of killing her mother, a crime she does not remember committing,  Entertainment Weekly says ”The debut novel’s plot twists will easily hook you, but it’s the narrator’s dark wit and sharp obesrvations that make this a truly fun read.”

Meanwhile, People magazine’s “Book of the Week” is the title sure to follow the author’s previous title, The Husband’s Secret to a long run on best seller lists, Big Little Lies. It also gets an A from Entertainment Weekly in the review section

In the reviews, Entertainment Weekly also covers a debut:

Life Drawing, (Random House)

A GalleyChat discovery back in March, this novel is about a couple who follow their dreams and move to the country. The idyll is interrupted when a younger woman appears on the scene. In a review that gets an A-, Entertainment Weekly says, “Black — a prizewinning short-story writer — writes assuredly and gracefully, and her examination of a complicated relationship is as riveting as it is occasionally heartbreaking.”

The other two titles on People‘s “Best New Books’ list are:

The Fortune Hunter, Daisy Goodwin, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Macmillan Audio; Thorndike) — “Downton Abbey fans will gallop like Thoroughbreds through this entertaining historical novel.”  This was one of Wendy Bartlett’s picks back in May.

Lucky Us, Amy Bloom, (Random House) — a “luminous 1940’s-era tale of families surviving hard knocks.” It also gets an A from Entertainment Weekly and is a LibraryReads pick.

    VS    

The unexpected success of the film adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars (unexpected by Hollywood, that is. Librarians saw it coming) has turned producers’ heads to “grounded teen movies,” or “stories that resemble the modern young adult experience.” The real attraction, however, is probably economic, since these films don’t require expensive special effects.

The category is so hot, that a Y.A. novel that won’t be published until January,  All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven, (RH/Knopf Young Readers), has not only been optioned, but Elle Fanning is already set to star.

Nevertheless, dystopia will continue to reign in theaters and not just via the sequels to already established hits, The Hunger Games and Divergent.  Coming August 15 is the long-awaited adaptation of the godmother of the genre, The Giver, Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal-winning novel (Lowry talks about how Y.A. literature has changed since she first published the book in today’s NYT Magazine). Twenty years after her book was first published, Lowry had the fun of appearing on a Comic-Con panel with Jeff Bridges last week (click through to see how happy she looks as Bridges gives her a squeeze).

Close on its heels, The Maze Runner based on the book by James Dasher, (RH/Delacorte, 2009), will arrive on Sept. 19. A new trailer was  released on Tuesday (official Web site — TheMazeRunnerMovie.com)

Following in February, Bridges again stars in a Y.A. film, this time a fantasy, The Seventh Son, based on The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney (HarperCollins/Greenwillow, 2005).  Originally scheduled for release in February, 2013, it has been postponed so often that many began to wonder if it was ever going to arrive, but it now appears that the date is firm. If successful, it could be the beginning of a new franchise. The producers have a plenty of material to draw on, the 13th and final volume in the series is coming in April, 2015.

Looking further ahead, another potential franchise is in the works, with the adaptation of Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave is in the midst of casting. Chloe Grace Moretz is set to star as Cassie Sullivan, a 16-year-old trying to save her brother after a series of alien invasions. Production is scheduled to begin in September.

Moretz has already completed work on the more “grounded” Y.A. movie,  If I Stay, based on the novel by Gayle Forman. Like fellow YA movie star Shailene Woodley, who plays the lead in both the “grounded” The Fault in Our Stars and the dystopian franchise, Divergent, this places Moretz’s feet in both camps. A new trailer was released last week, which amps up the romance over the first one:

The trailer brought new attention to the book’s sequel, Where She Went, (Penguin/Dutton, 2011), which spiked on Amazon’s sales rankings after it was released.

As far as other “grounded” YA titles on the horizon, if one John Green adaptation is a hit, how about another?  His 2008 novel, Paper Towns, is in preproduction with TFIOS actor Nat Wolff signed to star. A release date of 7/31/15 has just been set.

Lionsgate is “close to hiring a director” for an adaptation of Wonder, by R.J. Palacio (RH/Knopf Young Readers). Describing his hopes for it in Hollywood speak, co-president of the company, Erik Feig said, “If Fault is the Love Story of now, Wonder is the Mask of now.”

Two other Y.A. adaptations in the works are less classifiable. Director Edgar Wright has been hired to adapt Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle (Panguin/Dutton, Feb. 2014), which will require some interesting special effects to portray those six-foot tall copulating praying mantises.

Tim Burton is at work on Miss Peregrine’s Home, with the title shortened from the book by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Pecular Children, (Quirk Books, 2011). Eve Green is set to star, with release scheduled for 3/4/16.

For the latest on upcoming movies, check our spreadsheet, EarlyWord, Books to Movies.

Publishing, like the fashion industry, and unlike most of the rest of us, views August as the beginning of the fall season. The first full week of the month, however, are early days, so there’s just a few reliable big names to take the spotlight (the real heat doesn’t begin until the last week of August, with a new James Patterson).

The titles mentioned here, and more, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, with alternative formats, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of 8/4/14.

Usual Suspects 

Leading in holds and numbers of copies ordered by libraries is The Lost Island by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, (Hachette.Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print), the third in the Gideon Crew series, in which the Crew is ordered to steal the Book of Kells. Booklist stars it and calls it “sparkling.”

The man & dog detective team, Chet and Bernie, are back in their seventh punny title, Paw and Order by Spencer Quinn (S&S/Atria; Recorded Books).

Another familiar team, coming in a distant third in holds and orders, is father and son authors, W E B Griffin and William E. Butterworth with the first title in their new series set during the Cold War, Top Secret: Clandestine Operations #1 (Penguin/Putnam,Brilliance).

Several titles will be grabbing attention in the news media.

Media Hits

Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone), Elizabeth Green, (Norton)

Reminding us that the beginning of the school year is around the corner, an excerpt of this book was featured on the cover of last Sunday’s NYT Magazine.

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, Rick Perlstein, (S&S; Brilliance Audio)

It’s the 40th anniversary of Nixon resigning over the Watergate scandal (last week, both The Nixon Tapes and John Dean’s The Nixon Defense were published). Perlstein’s book is featured on the cover of this Sunday’s NYT Book Review, “In what has become his signature style, Rick Perlstein has hoovered up a staggering array of … revealing figures and anecdotes to recount that grim time in his engrossing new book … The Invisible Bridge is the third doorstop volume in this man of the left’s mission to explain the rise of the right.” Much more media is line up, including NPR’s Fresh Air.

The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal The Hidden Lives Of The Presidents, Ronald Kessler (RH/Crown Forum)

Kessler made a big splash in 2009 with his first book on the Secret Service, in which he managed to get some agents (who are supposed to carry their stories to the grave) to dish about the people they had protected, causing it to rise to #3 the NYT Nonfiction best seller list. Here, he uses that method again to make claims about the Clintons, who have already issued a statement, saying, “With Klein [Blood Feud], Halper [Clinton Inc.] and [author Ronald] Kessler, we now have a Hat Trick of despicable actors concocting trashy nonsense for a quick buck, at the expense of anything even remotely resembling the truth.” Tabloids are already having a field day with some of the claims.

Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War, Helen Thorpe (S&S/Scribner; Dreamscape audio)

We suspect libraries will have to scramble to buy more copies of this one. The subject is appealing, the undertold story of women at war, and the method is personal, journalist Helen Thorpe followed three women soldiers, who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, for 12 years. Prepub reviews are strong, with both PW and Kirkus starring it. The author is set to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on August 5 as well as on NPR’s Weekend Edition on August 10.

For those who just want “something good to read,” below are six titles that are already hits with you colleagues.

Librarian Picks

The Magician’s Land, Lev Grossman, (Penguin/Viking; Penguin Audio)

LibraryReads recommendation:

“Even if you haven’t read the first two books in the wonderful Magicians Trilogy, you will enjoy the escapades of Quentin Coldwater. Now 30 years old, Quentin finds himself back at Brakebills, experiencing school from the teacher’s side of the desk. But his adventures are far from over! Although I’m not generally a fantasy reader, I’ve been rooting for Quentin ever since I first picked up this series and am sad to see it end.” — Kelly Currie, Delphi Public Library, Delphi, IN

The Syfy channel has greenlighted a pilot for an adaptation of the trilogy.

2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas, Marie-Helene Bertino, (RH/Crown)

This verdict from Library Journal is convincing; “By the fourth sentence of the first page, readers will fall in love with debut author Bertino .. This assured, moving, brilliantly funny tale of music, mourning, and off-kilter romance entrances with its extraordinarily inventive language. Be prepared for a quick reread of this novel to try to answer the question: How did Bertino do that?” — Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

A Colder War, Charles Cumming, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio)

Booklist stars this one, saying, “Over several novels, Cumming has established himself, along with Olen Steinhauer, as one of the best of today’s old-school espionage novelists.” Naturally, it’s also recommended for fans of John le Carre, on readers’s minds again because of the attention to the adaptation of his A Most Wanted Man, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Bookseller Picks (Indie Next)

#1 Pick: Painted Horses: A Novel, by Malcolm Brooks, (Grove Press)

During the influential BEA Editors Buzz Panel, Grove publisher Morgan Entrekin, compared Painted Horses to another book he published and championed, Cold Mountain. Booksellers are sharing his enthusiasm, making it the #1 Indie Next pick for August, with the following annotation:

“Brooks sweeps post-WWII American prosperity, ancient native traditions, and the rush to tame the still-wild West together in a novel driven by diverse and deeply realized characters that come together in a heart-pounding story. Catherine Lemay is a talented young archeologist defying the traditions of a ‘man’s world’ by accepting the challenge to explore a Montana canyon slated for flooding for hydroelectric power. What she discovers is beauty, history, threats, and John H — a former mustanger, Army veteran, and enigmatic canyon dweller. Far from her comfortable New York home, Catherine embraces Montana’s stark conditions and with John H uncovers both secrets of the region and truths within herself. A breathtaking debut!” —Cheryl McKeon, Book Passage, San Francisco, CA

In the Kingdom of Ice:The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, Hampton Sides(RH.Doubleday; RH Audio; RH Large Print)

Indie Next annotation:

“Sides tells more than a fateful story of exploration, he brings to life an entire era of discovery and the passions that drove it. We meet a wild newspaper magnate who, in addition to racing carriages at midnight in the nude, exiled himself to France after drunkenly urinating in his then-fiancée’s grand piano; an obsessive German cartographer who staunchly believed in a warm, open polar sea at the North Pole; and a strong-willed captain who fell madly in love with the impossible, glaciered grandeur of Earth above the 80th parallel. The meeting of these three eccentric minds led to the voyage of the USS Jeanette, and Sides tells the ship’s tragic story well in cinematic prose with a keen sense of his characters and their changing world.” —Michael Wallenfels, University Book Store, Seattle, WA

The Library Journal review adds, “Using De Long’s correspondence with his wife as an especially effective tool to bring the explorer to life,”

The Home Place, Carrie La Seur, (HarperCollins/ Morrow; HarperLuxe)

Indie Next annotation:

“Alma Terrebonne, a rising star in a Seattle law firm, has left behind her complicated family and past tragedies in Billings, Montana, until one morning when a call for help pulls her back. Returning to identify her sister, dead apparently from exposure, and to care for her 11-year-old niece, Alma is overcome by guilt, fragile family relations, powerful memories from the past, and the hold the family homestead has over her. Both a tense, page-turning police procedural and a delightful romance with carefully drawn characters, The Home Place will resonate with the reader long after the book is finished.” —Darwin Ellis, Books on the Common, Ridgefield, CT