Notable new releases making their debut in April
compiled by Sally Brewster
The Road To Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
At 63, lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left — he’s had three heart attacks already. But when PJ realizes his high-school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again, he is filled with a new enthusiasm for life and decides to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win Michelle back. Before he can hit the road, tragedy strikes, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town, and he asks Sophie, his adult daughter, to come along to babysit. This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for — a fresh shot at love and parenting — but does he have the strength to do both of those things again?
Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh
Four years after their bitter divorce, Claire and Aaron Litvak get a phone call no parent is prepared for: Their 22-year-old daughter Lindsey, teaching English in China during a college gap year, has been critically injured in a hit-and-run accident. At a Shanghai hospital they wait at her bedside, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. The accident unearths a deeper fissure in the family: the shocking event that ended the Litvaks’ marriage and turned Lindsey against them. Estranged from her parents, she has confided only in her younger sister, Grace, adopted as an infant from China. As Claire and Aaron struggle to get their bearings in bustling, cosmopolitan Shanghai, they face troubling questions about Lindsey’s life there, in which nothing is quite as it seems.
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
A group of friends gather at an Airbnb on New Year’s Eve. It is Benjamin’s birthday, and his sister Abigail is throwing him a jazz-age, murder mystery-themed party. As the night plays out, Champagne is drunk, hors d’oeuvres consumed, and relationships forged, consolidated or frayed. In the morning, all of the friends wake up — except Benjamin. As Abigail attempts to wrap her mind around her brother’s death, a detective arrives determined to find Benjamin’s killer. In this mansion, suddenly complete with a butler, gardener and housekeeper, everyone is a suspect and nothing is quite as it seems. Will the culprit be revealed? And how can Abigail piece herself back together in the wake of this loss?
The Pretender by Jo Harkin
In 1480, the arrival of a stranger from London upends John Collan’s life forever: he learns he is not John Collan, the son of Will Collan, but Lambert Simnel, the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, and has been hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown. Removed from his humble origins, Lambert is sent to Oxford to be educated in a manner befitting the throne’s rightful heir. He learns the rules of etiquette in Burgundy and the machinations of the court in Ireland, where he encounters Joan, the delightfully strong-willed and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons who has two paths available to her — marry or become a nun. Lambert’s choices are similarly stark: become king or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy. The Pretender is inspired by the true story of the little-known Simnel, a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion who ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII.
Miracles and Wonder by Elaine Pagels
In Miracles and Wonder, Pagels sets out to discover how a poor young Jewish man inspired a religion that shaped the world. The book reads like a historical mystery, with each chapter addressing a fascinating question and answering it based on the gospels Jesus’ followers left behind. Why is Jesus said to have had a virgin birth? Why do we say he rose from the dead? Did his miracles really happen, and what did they mean? The story Pagels tells is thrilling and tense, and we realize that some of the most compelling details of Jesus’ life are the explanations his disciples created to paper over inconvenient facts. These necessary fabrications were the very details and promises that electrified their listeners and helped his followers’ numbers grow. In Miracles and Wonder, Pagels does more than solve a historical mystery — she sheds light on Jesus’ enduring power to inspire and attract. SP
Sally Brewster is the proprietor of Park Road Books, 4139 Park Rd.
