July 25, 2025
New Fiction
The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline -One awful night, Julia Pritzker witnesses the murder of her beloved husband, during a mugging on a Philadelphia street. Later, while she’s grieving him, she’s shocked to discover that his death was predicted by her horoscope. She becomes obsessed with astrology and begins to spiral, fearing that her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands. Her luck seems to change when stunning news arrives from Italy, informing her that she’s inherited a fortune, a Tuscan Villa, and a vineyard. But the inheritance mystifies her because she doesn’t know her Italian benefactor, a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia was adopted and has no information about her biological family, so she hopes Rossi was a blood relative. She flies to Tuscany for answers. There, Julia learns that Rossi suffered from paranoia and delusions of grandeur, believing herself to be a descendent of Duchess Caterina Sforza, who ruled during the renaissance. Julia doubts that it’s true but she can’t deny the uncanny resemblance between her, Caterina and Rossi. She starts to unearth eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology. Before long, Julia fears she’s being followed and experiences delusions of her own. Even meeting a romantic Florentine doesn’t ease her disturbed mind. Then events turn deadly, and Julia’s search for identity becomes a harrowing struggle for sanity – and survival.
Writers and Liars by Carol Goodman – Fifteen years ago, Maia Gold attended a prestigious – and very exclusive – writers retreat hosted by billionaire Argos Alexander on the Greek island Eris. It’s where she wrote her first book, the one that should have launched a brilliant career. But something dark happened on that island, a betrayal that has hung over Maia ever since. Now Maia finds a familiar envelope in the mail. It’s an invitation to return to Eris, and according to social media, she’s not the only one from the first retreat who’s been invited back. This could be the second chance Maia needs to jump-start her dreams. A chance for reconciliation…or revenge. Almost all of the writers from fifteen years ago have returned to Eris, bringing unresolved resentments with them. Soon, the guests learn that their illustrious host is absent, though he has left instructions for them to participate in a contest: whoever can write the most suspenseful mystery while on the island will win a fortune and literary acclaim. But this is no harmless game – when the guests gather in the morning to share their first chapters, they find Argos Alexander, dead. Tensions simmer as the guests try to determine who’s behind the murder, and why they’ve really been invited to Eris. On an island full of mystery writers, anyone could be the killer – and anyone could be the next victim. Trapped together until the next boat arrives from the mainland, they must sort out old grievances and figure out how to trust one another, or die one by one.
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – “Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva – stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales. In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and becomes obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances. As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch. Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.
Valentine in Montreal by Heather O’Neill – One morning Valentine spots her look-alike through the convenience store window. As she follows this seeming twin onto the subway and out into the city, her world is changed. She meets gangsters, composers, ballet dancers, Westmount matriarchs, and a cricket playing a mournful tune, experiencing the city in all its teeming energy and discovering at last the connections she has always wanted.