Check out these five popular adult titles that hit the shelves in March. To see more titles, including new titles in popular series, check out our new titles page.
Summaries provided by the publisher.
My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell, is a debut novel that bestselling author Gillian Flynn calls "Brilliant and stunning...an absolute must read."
Seventeen years ago, 15-year-old Vanessa Wye became entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic 42-year-old English teacher. Now, amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due for Jacob Strane. He has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa for help. Suddenly, Vanessa finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in the relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager - and who professed to worship only her - may be far different from what she has always believed? Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood.
From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, comes an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events: The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel.
On the night Vincent (a bartender at the five-star Hotel Caiette) meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls "Why don't you swallow broken glass" on the lobby's glass wall. But high above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed by Jonathan as he moves imaginary sums of money through clients' accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it devastates lives, and Vincent, who has been posting as Jonathan's wife, walks away into the night, never to be seen again. But years later, a victim of Jonathan's scheme is hired to investigate a strange disappearance that may have more connections to the past than it appears. In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in federal prison.
Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day, - comes a striking, powerful, and moving love story: In Five Years: A Novel by Rebecca Serle.
Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan has nailed the most important interview of her life and accepted her boyfriend’s marriage proposal. She goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve the five-year plan she has so delicately planned. But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night - December 15 - but 2025, five years in the future. After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind. That is, until four and a half years later, when, by chance, Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.
In The Return, by Rachel Harrison, a group of friends reunites after one of them has returned from a mysterious two-year disappearance in this edgy and haunting debut.
Julie is missing, and no one believes she will ever return - except her best friend Elise. Elise knows Julie better than anyone and feels it in her bones that she is out there somewhere, that one day Julie will come back...and she’s right. Two years to the day that Julie went missing, she reappears with no memory of where she’s been or what happened to her. Along with Molly and Mae, their two close friends from college, the women decide to reunite at a remote inn. But the second Elise sees Julie, she knows something is wrong - she’s emaciated, with sallow skin and odd appetites. And as the weekend unfurls, it becomes impossible to deny that the Julie who vanished two years ago is not the same Julie who came back. But then who - or what - is she?
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant comes a twisting story of love and deceit in The Red Lotus, by Chris Bohjalian.
Alexis and Austin didn't meet in a bar, but instead at the emergency room where Alexis tended to a bullet wound in Austin's arm. Six months later, the lovers travel to Vietnam to take a bike tour, so Austin can share his passion for cycling and pay his respects to the place where his father and uncle fought in the war. But suddenly, Austin vanishes into thin air. As Alexis grapples with this bewildering loss, she uncovers a series of strange lies that force her to wonder: Where did Austin go? Why did he really bring her to Vietnam? And how much danger has he left her in? The Red Lotus is a global thriller about those who dedicate their lives to saving people - and those who peddle death to the highest bidder.
Bonus Title: Veronica Speedwell returns as a royal scandal is connected to a brutal serial killer in A Murderous Relation, by Deanna Raybourn.
Autumn 1888. Prince Albert Victor is a regular visitor to the most exclusive private club in London, and the proprietress, Madame Aurore, has received an expensive gift that can be traced back to the prince. Lady Wellie would like Veronica and her colleague Stoker to retrieve it from the club before scandal can break. Worse yet, London is being terrorized by what would become the most notorious and elusive serial killer in history, Jack the Ripper, and Lady Wellie suspects the prince may be responsible. Veronica and Stoker reluctantly agree to go undercover at Madame Auroreʼs high-class brothel, where a body soon turns up. Secrets are swirling around the royal family - and it is up to Veronica and Stoker to find the truth before it is too late for all of them.
