New Edelweiss E-galleys (11/8/2023)

Hello e-galley readers! Check out some of the exciting e-galleys that were recently added to Edelweiss for your downloading pleasure:

UNDER A ROCK by Chris Stein
9781250286727 | 6/11/24

The golden age of the East Village in all its creative ferment and the codependent love story between the author and Debbie Harry in founding Blondie.

Debbie Harry defined iconic band Blondie’s look. Chris Stein—her performing partner, lover, and lifelong friend—defined its sound. Parallel Lines, their third album, catapulted to #1, sold 20 million copies, and launched singles like “Heart of Glass” and “Hanging on the Telephone,” providing the beat when Bianca Jagger and Halston danced at Studio 54 and the soundtrack to every 1970’s dorm-room kegger.

Chris Stein is a musician, photographer and excellent writer, who knows how to tell a story. UNDER A ROCK is an old-fashioned, nothing-spared, autobiography. Far from trying to puff himself up to crow about his eventual redemption, Stein reveals himself to be a screw-up. And while that made his and others’ lives miserable, it makes for entertaining reading.

UNDER A ROCK is a rags-to-riches-to-rags story. In one week, Stein went from living in a shoddy East Village apartment to buying a limestone townhouse with Harry on the Upper East Side. And then, due to their twinned heroin habit, that townhouse fell to near-ruin. Harry, in a seeming instant, got sober. But Stein, hospitalized for months just two blocks from their once-elegant house, almost died.

Famous names march through these pages—Warhol, Bowie, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and more–but you can get famous names anywhere. What you can’t get in many other places is a plunge into the moments that make a giant artistic sensation. Stein takes us there in this revelatory memoir.

THE HAUNTING OF HECATE CAVENDISH by Paula Brackston
9781250284020 | 7/23/24

England, 1881. Hereford cathedral stands sentinel over the city, keeping its secrets, holding long forgotten souls in its stony embrace. Hecate Cavendish speeds through the cobbled streets on her bicycle, skirts hitched daringly high, heading for her new life as Assistant Librarian. But this is no ordinary collection of books. The cathedral houses an ancient chained library, wisdom guarded for centuries, mysteries and stories locked onto its worn, humble shelves. The most prized artifact, however, is the medieval world map which hangs next to Hecate’s desk. Little does she know how much the curious people and mythical creatures depicted on it will come to mean to her. Nor does she suspect that there are lost souls waiting for her in the haunted cathedral. Some will become her dearest friends. Some will seek her help in finding peace. Others will put her in great peril, and, as she quickly learns, threaten the lives of everyone she loves.

BLOOD IN THE CUT by Alejandro Nodarse
9781250326515 | 6/4/24

Iggy Guerra returns home from prison to find his beloved mother dead and buried, his father Armando a beer-soaked mess, and the Miami butcher shop that has been in their family for generations about to be gentrified into bankruptcy.

When Iggy’s mistakes plunged his family into debt, his heartbroken and furious father got in too deep with a group of suspected poachers who are forcing him to use the shop for their illegal operations. But if Iggy will do some work for them, tracking down an animal rights investigator in the swamps of the Everglades, maybe they’ll let his old man off the hook. Only the activist might not be the only body they’re looking to bury.

Sharp as a butcher knife gleaming in the Miami sun, Blood in the Cut is a story of fathers and sons, bloody conflict, fast cars, community, and the lines a family will and won’t cross to survive. From the Miami streets behind the glitz to the untamable, deadly Everglades, Iggy will revel in the beauty and the danger of the place he calls home as he tries to save his family—without losing himself forever.

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 12 SHIPWRECKS by David Gibbins
9781250325372 | 4/2/24

Since we first set sail on the open sea, ships and their wrecks have been an inevitable part of human history. Archaeologists have made spectacular discoveries excavating these sunken ships, their protective underwater cocoon keeping evidence of past civilizations preserved. Now, for the first time, world renowned maritime archeologist David Gibbins ties together the stories of some of the most significant shipwrecks in time to form a single overarching narrative of world history.

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 12 SHIPWRECKS is not just the story of those ships, the people who sailed on them, and the cargo and treasure they carried, but also the story of the spread of people, religion, and ideas around the world; it is a story of colonialism, migration, and the indominable human spirit that continues today. From the glittering Bronze Age, to the world of Caesar’s Rome, through the era of the Vikings, to the exploration of the Arctic, Gibbins uses shipwrecks to tell all.

Drawing on decades of experience excavating shipwrecks around the world, Gibbins reveals the riches beneath the waves and shows us how the treasures found there can be a porthole to the past that tell a new story about the world and its underwater secrets.

DISTURBING THE DEAD: A Rip Through Time Novel by Kelley Armstrong
9781250321282 | 5/7/24

DISTURBING THE DEAD is the latest in a unique series with one foot in the 1860s and the other in the present day. The Rip Through Time crime novels are a genre-blending, atmospheric romp from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.
Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. Though inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray, and is developing true friends—and feelings—in this century.

So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn’t that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.

THE DEAD CAT TAIL ASSASSINS by P. Djèlí Clark
9781250767042 | 4/23/24

Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins—resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories—have only three unbreakable vows.

First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.

Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.

The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A ?nal death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.

THE COVEN by Harper L. Woods
9781250346742 | 8/6/24

Revenge.

Raised to be my father’s weapon against the Coven that took away his sister and his birthright, I would do anything to protect my younger brother from suffering the same fate. My duty forces me to the secret town of Crystal Hollow and the prestigious Hollow’s Grove University—where the best and brightest of my kind learn to practice their magic free from human judgment.

There are no whispered words here. No condemnation for the blood that flows through my veins. The only animosity I face comes from the beautiful and infuriating Headmaster, Alaric Grayson Thorne, a man who despises me just as much as I loathe him and everything he stands for.

But that doesn’t mean secrets don’t threaten to tear the school in two. No one talks about the bloody massacre that forced it to close decades prior, only the opportunity it can afford to those fortunate enough to attend.

Because for the first time in fifty years, the Coven will open its wards to the Thirteen.

Thirteen promising students destined to change the world.

If the ghosts of Hollow’s Grove’s victims don’t kill them first.

THE SILVERBLOOD PROMISE by James Logan
9781250345806 | 5/6/24

Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and—thanks to a duel that ended badly—the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away.

When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father’s death.

His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin. Lukan only seeks the truth, but instead he finds danger and secrets in every shadow.

For in Saphrona, everything has a price—and the price of truth is the deadliest of all.

CHLOE BAKER’S LOST DATE by Katie Wicks
9781990778605 | 5/7/24

Chloe Baker’s making a new life for herself in New York. A new job, a new apartment, a new start. All that’s missing is a jump start to her love life. So when her best friend sets her up with a coworker, Chloe takes a chance. Only her date is late. Ten minutes. Twenty. When he finally shows up, they have the most amazing day. There’s only one problem: her date had cancelled. So who did Chloe spend the day with? As she uncovers the mystery of her lost date, her life changes in every possible way.

THE RED GROVE by Tessa Fontaine
9780374605810 | 5/14/24

The Red Grove is a special place, protected. Some say a spell was cast by the community’s founder, Tamsen Nightingale. Some say the mountain lions who stalk the nearby hills guard its mysteries and its people. Some say the mighty redwoods keep them safe.

Yet Luce’s mother, Gloria, has gone missing. A man came seeking answers among the Red Grove’s mysteries—a connection to the beyond—and died. And then Gloria vanished. The Red Grove is Luce’s whole world. She is devoted to its mission, its rituals and myths. But she knows that her mother, frustrated free spirit though she might be, wouldn’t just leave without a word, wouldn’t leave her little brother, Roo, and especially their aunt Gem, whose care in that suspended state of everdream depends on Gloria in every way. But as Luce tries to figure out what has happened to her mother, she discovers that this special place is not what it seems and that protection comes at a cost.

The debut novel by the acclaimed author of THE ELECTRIC WOMAN, Tessa Fontaine’s THE RED GROVE is an exploration of the legacies of violence, the price of safety, and the choices we make to protect what we love.