First, click HERE to see the cool cover reveal vid.
What’s Abandoned about you ask? Well here’s the official cover copy.
The woman’s body was found in the early morning, on a bench in a New York City playground. She was clean, her hair neatly arranged, her makeup carefully applied. But other things were very wrong—like the tattoo and piercings, clearly new. The clothes, decades out of date. The fatal wound hidden beneath a ribbon around her neck. And the note: Bad Mommy, written in crayon as if by a child.
Eve Dallas turns to the department’s top profiler, who confirms what seems obvious to Eve: They’re dealing with a killer whose childhood involved some sort of trauma—a situation with which Eve is all too familiar. Yet the clues suggest a perpetrator who’d be roughly sixty years old, and there are no records of old crimes with a similar MO. What was the trigger that apparently reopened such an old wound and sent someone over the edge?
When Eve discovers that other young women—who physically resemble the first victim—have vanished, the clock starts ticking louder. But to solve this case she will need to find her way into a hidden place of dim light and concrete, into the distant past, and into the cold depths of a shattered mind.
A surprise for this Sunday — I’m pleased to present the cover of Nora’s next summer book, Nightwork — out May 24, 2022.
Here’s the official cover copy:
Harry Booth started stealing at nine to keep a roof over his ailing mother’s head, slipping into luxurious, empty homes at night to find items he could trade for precious cash. When his mother finally succumbed to cancer, he left Chicago—but kept up his nightwork.
Wandering from the Outer Banks to Savannah to New Orleans, he dons new identities and stays careful, observant, distant. He can’t afford to attract attention—or get attached. Still, he can’t help letting his guard down when he meets Miranda Emerson. But the powerful bond between them cannot last—because not all thieves follow Harry’s code of honor. Some pay others to take risks so they can hoard more treasures. Some are driven by a desire to own people the way they own paintings and jewels. And after Harry takes a lucrative job commissioned by Carter LaPorte, LaPorte sees a tool he can use, and decides he wants to own Harry.
The man is a predator more frightening than the alligators that haunt the bayou—and when he strongarms Harry into robbing a Baltimore museum, Harry abandons Miranda—cruelly, with no explanation—and disappears. But no matter what name he uses or where he goes, LaPorte casts a shadow over Harry’s life. To truly free himself, he must face down his enemy once and for all. Only then can he hope to possess something more valuable than anything he has ever stolen…
US and Canadian readers can pre-order from the following links:
I’m writing this post on Groundhog’s Day (though we’ve pretty much experienced THAT for 11 months, right?) and it looks like six more weeks of winter. But that doesn’t mean we can’t dream about reading under warm, sunny skies while sipping a cool beverage, right?
Unless, of course, you’re in the southern hemisphere and dream of cold days and warm cocoa.
Personally, I think Legacy (out May 23) fits the bill for any kind of reading experience and I’m pleased to share the first chapter.
The official cover copy reads:
Adrian Rizzo met her father for the first time when she was seven. It was the same day he nearly killed her mother, Lina.
A decade later, Adrian is as cool-headed and ambitious as her mother. They aren’t close, but they’re cordial as long as neither crosses the other. And then the vicious letters begin to arrive. While Lina dismisses the death threats as a routine part of her daughter’s growing celebrity, Adrian can’t help but find the vicious rhymes unsettling.
Year after year, they arrive with different postmarks, but the same menacing tone.
Sometimes it even seems like the terrifying messages are indeed routine, like nothing will come of them. Until the murders start, and the escalation begins.
Life as we know it is a bit upended right now. I thought it would be fun to bring a little excitement of the book kind into this St. Patrick’s Day 2020 so I’m pleased to share the cover reveal video for The Awakening, the first book in the Dragon Heart Legacy.
My favorite cover – ever. ~Laura
Right now, all I can tell you is the Awakening is the first book in Nora’s latest trilogy where parallel worlds clash over the struggle between good and evil.
You can pre-order The Awakening at your favorite retailer now:
I think it’s pretty safe to say this year hasn’t followed the traditional path so far. As you’ve seen over the years, routine – in her work days, workouts, spa trips and vacations – is sacred to Nora.
As the calendar turned to 2019 both of us assumed the posts during the winter would follow the years prior, from Nora’s whole house clear out, to the adventures of being Home Alone while BW was away, then a smooth glide into Spa Girls, Derby, then summer.
But February happened, #copypastecris sat front and center in Nora’s head, and the winter slipped away. Nora wasn’t in the place to share regular happy updates of hearth, home and grandkids. I didn’t think humorous or cranky bits quite suited the mood here. So we — meaning I — let things slide.
Now I’m working at the beach office where I find my balance. Nora’s hit a run of relatively peaceful work days which brings her balance. And so I thought it was time to bring this space back to life with far more regular check ins.
Let’s start with the current book news.
Golden In Death is the 50th book in the series and to celebrate, Entertainment Weekly had the exclusive cover reveal.
Then St. Martins Press created this book trailer which features pulsating music and the cover on a stack of the In Deaths that came before.
Honestly I can’t wait to read it.
Here’s the cover in all it’s glory:
“But, Laura!” I can hear you all say, “What’s it about????
Everyone is mum on that right now, including that crafty JD. All she’ll say is it’s about murder (duh) with a mysterious motive―and a terrifying weapon. Now I really can’t wait to read it.
You’ll find all the US pre-order links here. Nora’s other publishers will have links up well ahead of time. Promise.
That’s all I have up my sleeve at the moment. There will be a few St. Martin’s Press Golden promotions I’ll share as we head into the fall. Plus, there’s something in the works with Little Brown UK. So stay tuned.
Add to that, we have Under Currents in July, Vendetta in Death in September and the run up to The Rise of The Magicks in December. Not to mention the girls + Griffin trip to Greenbrier in July and Nora’s family vacation in Ireland in August. The rest of the year will pick up the pace quite nicely.
Now to take care of the dust bunnies in the media library.
Under Currents is Nora’s single title release this year — due in stores on July 9. (Isn’t the cover gorgeous?)
The official cover copy reads:
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, a novel about the power of family to harm—and to heal.
Within the walls of a tasteful, perfectly kept house in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, young Zane Bigelow feels like a prisoner of war. Strangers—and even Zane’s own aunt across the lake—see his parents as a successful surgeon and his stylish wife, making appearances at their children’s ballet recitals and baseball games. Zane and his sister know the truth: There is something terribly wrong.
As his father’s violent, controlling rages—and his mother’s complicity—become more and more oppressive, Zane counts the years, months, days until he can escape. He looks out for little Britt, warning her Be smart. Be careful. In fear for his very life, he plays along with the insidious lie that everything is fine, while scribbling his real thoughts in a secret journal he must carefully hide away.
When one brutal, shattering night finally reveals cracks in the façade, Zane begins to understand that some people are willing to face the truth, even when it hurts. As he grows into manhood and builds a new kind of family, he will find that while the darkness of his past may always shadow him, it will also show him what is necessary for good to triumph—and give him strength to draw on when he once again must stand up and defend himself and the ones he loves…
Happy New Year — here’s something to help with your plans: The Rise of Magicks is in stores November 26, 2019 (a little earlier than we originally announced). Details, excerpts, conversations to come but in the meantime you can slot that in for 329 days from now.
Here are some of the early pre-order links. I’ll add more once St. Martin’s Press reopens for business.
