5 Hot New Titles for April

Check out these five popular adult titles that hit the shelves in April. To see more titles, including new titles in popular series, check out the booklist New April '19 Books You'll Want to Read and our new titles, opens a new window page.

The Mother-in-law, by Sally Hepworth, is a twisty, compelling new novel about one woman's relationship with her mother-in-law that ends in death.


Lucy was always kept at arm's length with her husband's mother, Diana. Diana is polite and friendly, but Lucy knew that she was not who Diana envisioned to be with her son. She's also a pillar of the community as an advocate for social justice who helped female refugees settle into their new country. Now Diana has been found dead, a suicide note close to her body claiming she no longer wants to live due to a battle with cancer. The autopsy doesn't find any trace of cancer . . . but it does find traces of poison and suffocation. Who could possibly want Diana dead, and why was her will changed to disinherit both of her children and their spouses? Lucy finds her relationship with her mother-in-law more complex than ever as she uncovers dark secrets.


A courtroom thriller comes to life in Miracle Creek, by Angie Kim.


In Miracle Creek, Virginia, the Yoo family are fairly new immigrants to the United States. Pak, the father, runs a business using hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat conditions from autism to infertility. When a horrendous accident occurs on-site, Pak's client Elizabeth Ward is charged with creating an explosion that killed her autistic son and injured multiple others. During the four-day trial, startling secrets between the Yoos and their clients emerge. 


In a Diary of A Dead Man on Leave, by David Downing, a communist spy plot is revealed through one of the most tumultuous years in German history.


April 1938: a man calling himself Josef Hofmann arrives at a boarding house in Hamm, Germany, to rent a room. Fifty years later, the owner of the boarding house's son, Walter Gersdorff, discovers a hidden diary in the room of the mysterious boarder - a diary of things he should have never written down. What unfolds is narrated by a secret agent on a deadly mission - a communist Russian spy who hoped to connect with remnants of Germany's communist party. But as Hofmann grows closer to Walter and his widowed mother, he begins to wish for another kind of hope in his life.


Normal People, by Sally Rooney, is a universal story of love, friendship, and growing up.


High school students Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. Connell is well-adjusted, star of the football team, while Marianne is lonely, proud, and private. But when Connell has a run-in with Marianne, a strange connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal. A year later, both are studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Throughout their years, the pair continue their secret, always straying toward others, but almost magically drawn back together. As Marianne starts down a path of self-destruction and Connell searches for meaning elsewhere, each must discover how far they are willing to go to save each other.


From Jennifer McMahon, author of The Winter People comes The Invited, a chilling ghost story with a twist.


1924, Vermont: Young mother Hattie Breckenridge is hanged from a tree in her yard by an angry town mob after she was accused of a crime her daughter committed. A century later, married couple Helen and Nate abandon the city life, bent on a large do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams on the same forty-some acre farm where Hattie once lived. Helen discovers the violent past of the land, becoming consumed by Hattie's tragic story and the three generations of Breckenridge women  - which sheds light on the mysterious and ominous series of supernatural events that begin to unfold. The Breckenridge women are still around, seeking the truth.


BONUS TITLE! The Memory Man returns in David Baldacci's new installment, Redemption.


Detective Amos Decker and his partner Alex Jamison are visiting Decker's hometown in Ohio when they are approached by a strange man. But Decker immediately recognizes the man's name - Meryl Hawkins. He's the first person Decker ever arrested for murder. Years of prison has reshaped Hawkins' appearance and left him terminally ill, but one thing hasn't changed: he maintains he never committed the murders Decker arrested him for. Could it be possible that Decker made a mistake all those years ago? As he and Alex begin digging into the case, Decker finds a startling connection to a new crime.