Whether you read on a tablet, Kindle, or still prefer the smell of a freshly cracked paperback, finding your next book is never easy. You could never read all the new novels, biographies, or nonfiction tomes released each week, so we’re here to help. These are a handful of the new or upcoming books we think deserve a space on your eReader or nightstand.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
Michelle McNamara
Available Now
The Golden State Killer is one of history’s many, many serial killers. He is also the only one who ever had dogged journalist Michelle McNamara investigating him. Her book is an amazingly thorough look at her investigation into the killer, as well as an excellent look into the effect the killer had on the communities he terrified. Few true crime stories do such a good job of transporting the reader or listener to the relevant time and place, but McNamara’s work is so good we almost guarantee people are going to start using this book as a blueprint for how to write the genre. Expect copycat after copycat to try and replicate this book and expect them all to come up short. $17
The House of Broken Angels
Luis Alberto Urrea
Available Now
Death is usually a sad event, though if you handle it the way Miguel Angel de La Cruz does in The House of Broken Angels, it sheds at least a bit of the melancholy. He turns his upcoming death into a huge family party, allowing people to gather and celebrate the de La Cruz family’s history. Their history is a common one in America, where a generation of relatives grow up on either side of a border. For some it was the Atlantic Ocean and others the Pacific, for the de La Cruz family, it was the US/Mexico border. $18
Eat the Apple
Matt Young
Available Now
It might still be happening, but we’re far enough away from the start of the Iraq War that veterans from the beginning have the benefit of hindsight when looking at the conflict. Matt Young is one such veteran and his hindsight comes in the form of Eat the Apple. It seems like there are a dozen different writing styles happening here, from standard nonfiction to poetry to infographics, but they all come together to describe the experiences of Young during training and his three tours in Iraq. Modern warfare is rapidly changing and there’s no better place to learn about it than the men who experienced the change firsthand. $18
Chicago
David Mamet
Available Now
David Mamet’s dialogue is famous in literary and civilian circles for its unique flow, punch, and intelligence and it makes a formidable showing in Chicago. This “Mamet Speak,” as it’s come to be known, is perfect for mob dominated 1920s Chicago, a time and place we already associate with forceful figures who aren’t afraid to share their opinion and back it up with a hefty flow of bullets. The novel follows a Great War vet on his journey to find, and presumably harshly punish, the man who killed the woman he loved. This is Mamet’s first book in more than 20 years, so obviously we’re paying attention. $18
Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men
Harold Schechter
Available Now
You don’t hear too often about female serial killers. We don’t know if that’s because there are fewer of them or because Belle Gunness was so insanely violent and effective that she puts all other the lady killers to shame. It could also totally be that Gunnes was such an overachiever that every woman who might have been a serial killer called it off when she found out about Gunnes. What makes her so terrifying, beyond her seemingly insatiable bloodlust, was how she didn’t have a type. As long as they were dudes, she killed them. $10
An American Marriage
Tayari Jones
Available Now
Incarceration is increasingly a huge problem for American families. It tears them apart in a unique way, changing the relationships between spouses, parents, and children. An American Marriage explores exactly that. Celestial and Roy are a newly married couple that has sees Roy imprisoned soon after the ceremony. As you’d expect, their lives move in separate directions with Roy in prison and they have reconcile both his incarceration and his sudden release. This is a fascinating look at how people change when their loved ones are locked away. $17
The Fisherman’s Tomb: The True Story of the Vatican’s Secret Search
John O’Neill
April 5
We’re pretty much always up for a religious treasure hunt. It’s why we watch the original Indiana Jones trilogy at least once a year, why we go one Wikipedia binges about early Christian artifacts and the Knights Templar, and why we shamelessly await Dan Brown’s publications. The Fisherman’s Tomb lets us indulge that particular interest but in a way we’ve almost never done it. That is, nonfiction. This book tells the story of a seven and a half decade search under the Vatican as a secretive team works to find the lost tomb of the Apostle Peter. It promises new information on a new story and in a way that all those true story History Channel documentaries could never deliver. $17
Macbeth
Jo Nesbo
April 10
Macbeth, aside from being cursed, is one of Shakespeare’s more updatable plays. There are a few notable versions, including a particularly grim rendition from Michael Fassbender, and Jo Nesbo’s Macbeth decaying Rust Belt town overrun by drugs looks like it’s going to join those versions. It might be a little on the nose for what’s been consuming modern politics, but we’ll excuse that in the interest of reading an engaging police story. And it’s always fun to see what parallels people draw from one era to another. The Rust Belt and Scotland might have more in common that we thought. $18
