Notable new releases
compiled by Sally Brewster
A Dog in Georgia by Lauren Grodstein
Amy Webb is a chef. Or rather, she was a chef. Somewhere along the way, she also became a wife and a stepmother and an emergency contact, and the part of her that was a chef disappeared entirely — along with her sense of self. Which is why she is currently in the republic of Georgia, on a mission to find a lost dog named Angel, and, more importantly, the life’s purpose she once took for granted. For months, Amy has escaped by watching YouTube videos of Angel walking the children of Tbilisi to school. When Angel goes missing, Amy volunteers to go find him. But to her surprise, Angel proves elusive. What she finds in Tbilisi is entirely human. Helping her on this journey of self-discovery is a rebellious teenager, a mysterious and attractive Russian, and several post-Soviet grandmothers. And, of course, the rich food and culture and complicated politics of Georgia itself. After a lifetime of looking away from her own needs and appetites, Amy is forced to confront what she really wants and how to finally find herself — and a dog.
Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham
Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her 18th birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist … until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home. To pass the time, Claire accepts a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished. But as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary that begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire starts to obsess over the diary’s contents … as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister’s disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces by Seth Harp
In December 2020, a deer hunter discovered two dead bodies riddled with bullets and dumped in a forested corner of Fort Bragg. One of the dead men, Master Sgt. William “Billy” Lavigne, was a member of Delta Force, the most secretive “black ops” unit in the military. A deeply traumatized veteran of America’s classified assassination program, Lavigne had done more than a dozen deployments, was addicted to crack cocaine, dealt drugs on base and had committed a series of violent crimes before he was mysteriously killed. The other victim, Chief Warrant Officer Timothy Dumas, was a quartermaster attached to the Special Forces who used his proximity to clandestine missions to steal guns and traffic drugs into the United States from abroad. As soon as Seth Harp, an Iraq war veteran and investigative reporter, begins looking into the double murder, he learns of many more unexplained deaths at Fort Bragg, other murders connected to drug trafficking in elite units, and dozens of fatal overdoses. Drawing on declassified documents, trial transcripts, police records and hundreds of interviews, Harp tells a scathing story of narco-trafficking in the Special Forces, drug conspiracies abetted by corrupt police, blatant military cover-ups, American complicity in the Afghan heroin trade, and the pernicious consequences of continuous war.
Sheepdogs by Elliot Ackerman
Skwerl and Cheese are down on their luck and about to find themselves tangled in the heist of their lives. Skwerl, once an elite member of the CIA’s paramilitary unit, was cast out after a raid gone wrong in Afghanistan. Big Cheese Aziz, a former Afghan pilot of legendary skill, now works the graveyard shift at a gas station. Recruited into a shadowy network of “sheepdogs,” they embark on a mission to repossess a multimillion-dollar private jet stranded on a remote African airfield. But as they wind through a labyrinth of lies and hidden agendas, they discover that nothing is as it seems. Their contact vanishes, their handler’s motives are suspect, and the true source of their payday remains a mystery. With the stakes skyrocketing and the women in their lives drawn into the fray, this unlikely spy duo find themselves deep in the underbelly of modern war and intelligence. SP
Sally Brewster is the proprietor of Park Road Books, 4139 Park Rd.
