"Aquino's debut novel explores complex ideas: how things that are threatening can also be attractive and whether a debt is owed to the people and places that shaped you."— WASHINGTON POST

"I was crying like I lost my best friend as I finished. . . . This book is an act of love . . . It will break you apart and remind you that we can all be put back together again, stronger, and wiser than before." — XOCHITL GONZALEZ, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming

An emotionally riveting coming-of-age drama about two cousins lured into the underground drug trade at a young age and the inextricable ties that bind them, as one woman seeks power and the other seeks a way out—the debut of a vibrant and stunningly original new voice in fiction.

Carmen and Grace have been inseparable since they were little girls—more like sisters than cousins, survivors of a childhood marked by neglect and addiction and a system that never valued them. For too long, all they had was each other. That is, until Doña Durka swept into their lives and changed everything, taking Grace into her home, providing stability and support, and playing an outsize role in Carmen's upbringing too.

Durka is more than a beneficent force in their Bronx neighborhood, though. She's also the leader of an underground drug empire, a larger-than-life matriarch who understands the vital importance of taking what power she can in a world too often ruled by violent men. So, when Durka dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances, Carmen and Grace's lives are thrown into chaos. Grace has been primed to take over and has grand plans to expand the business. While Carmen is ready to move on—from the shadow of Durka and her high expectations and, most of all, from always looking over her shoulder in fear. She's also harboring a secret: she's pregnant and starting to show, and desperate to build a new life before the baby arrives.

But how can Carmen leave the only family she's ever known—this tight sisterhood of women known as the D. O. D., a group of lost girls turned skilled professionals under Durka's guiding hand, all bonded in their spirituality and merciless support for one another—especially now, when outside threats are circling, and Grace's plans are speeding recklessly forward?

As tough and tender as its main characters, Carmen and Grace will grab readers from the first page with its raw beauty, depth of feeling, and heart-pounding plot. A moving meditation on the choices of women and the legacy of violence, it's a devastatingly wise and intimate story about the bonds of female friendship, ambition, and found family.

"Melissa Coss Aquino brilliantly delivers a loving novel with characters you are inspired to ride or die with. . . . If you love reading novels about creative, ambitious, and relentless women who are committed to community and making a way out of no way, read this book!" — ANGIE CRUZ, author of How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water and Dominicana

"Electric, heartrending, and exceptionally tender . . . Every sentence of Melissa Coss Aquino's debut feels acute and deliberate, a shard of glass held up to the light." — DANYA KUKAFKA, bestselling author of Notes on an Execution

A debut novel full of magic, adventure, and romance, The Book of Doors opens up a thrilling world of contemporary fantasy for readers of The Midnight Library, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, The Night Circus, and any modern story that mixes the wonder of the unknown with just a tinge of darkness.

Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.

But this is no ordinary book...

It is the Book of Doors.

Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.

Then she's approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He's a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie's possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them.

Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library's care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie's book can get them there.

But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.

She writes “high speed comic mayhem” (Detroit Free Press); she's “a blast of fresh air” (Washington Post), “side-splittingly funny” (Publishers Weekly) and “a winner” (Glamour). In other words, she's Janet Evanovich. And she's back with another blockbuster thriller.

Alexandra Barnaby, mechanic extraordinaire. Sam Hooker, a sexy race car driver who can rev any woman's engine. Barnaby's wacky brother, Wild Bill, who's always in trouble. The outrageous Cuban cigar-rolling women, sure to provide comic relief. They're fabulous characters, they're still hanging out in sunny Florida, and they're off on another crazy adventure, in the super-duper, stupendous, magnifico sequel to Metro Girl.

'An instant classic' Daily Mail
The ship was doomed before it ever left port. His fate was sealed before he ever stepped on board. From R. L. Graham, Death on the Lusitania is an immersive WW1 historical novel set aboard the ill-fated ocean liner.
'Set on a doomed ocean liner, this engaging and well researched mystery is perfect for lovers of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers' - Philip Gray, author of Two Storm Wood, The Times Thriller of the Year
Welcome on board the Lusitania's final voyage . . .
New York, 1915. RMS Lusitania, one of the world's most luxurious ocean liners, departs for war-torn Europe. Among those on board is Patrick Gallagher, a civil servant in Her Majesty's government tasked with escorting a British diplomat back to England.
When a fellow passenger is believed to have shot himself in his cabin, Gallagher is asked by the captain to investigate the scene but one crucial detail doesn't fit. The man's body was discovered in a locked cabin with the key inside and no gun to be found. Was it really suicide? Or murder?
Gallagher believes one of the passengers is a deadly killer - one who could strike again at any moment. And all the while, the ship sails on towards Europe, where enemy submarines patrol dark waters . . .

Piper is a lich-doctor, a physician who works among the dead, determining causes of death for the city guard's investigations. It's a peaceful, if solitary profession...until the day when he's called to the river to examine the latest in a series of mysterious bodies, mangled by some unknown force.

Galen is a paladin of a dead god, lost to holiness and no longer entirely sane. He has long since given up on any hope of love. But when the two men and a brave gnole constable are drawn into the web of the mysterious killer, it's Galen's job to protect Piper from the traps that await them.

He's just not sure if he can protect Piper from the most dangerous threat of all...

A PEOPLE Magazine Must-Read Book for Fall 2023
Standort: Overdrive Onleihbibliothek
ISBN: 978-0-06-326535-6

The Sunday Times Bestseller
'The Lamplighters is a whodunnit, horror novel, ghost story and fantastically gripping psychological investigation rolled into one.' - Guardian
Cornwall, 1972. Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper's weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week.
What happened to those three men, out on the tower? The heavy sea whispers their names. The tide shifts beneath the swell, drowning ghosts. Can their secrets ever be recovered from the waves?
Twenty years later, the women they left behind are still struggling to move on. Helen, Jenny and Michelle should have been united by the tragedy, but instead it drove them apart. And then a writer approaches them. He wants to give them a chance to tell their side of the story. But only in confronting their darkest fears can the truth begin to surface . . .
Rich with the salty air of the Cornish coast, The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex is an intoxicating and suspenseful mystery, an unforgettable story of love and grief that explores the way our fears blur the line between the real and the imagined.
'A mystery, a love story and a ghost story, all at once' - SJ Watson, author of Before I Go To Sleep
'Riveting' - Independent
'Excellent' - Observer
'A triumph' - Daily Mail