Maynard has had a long and varied writing career starting with the article “An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back on Life” for the New York Times Magazine in 1972. She surprised readers with her memoir, At Home in the World, which chronicles her affair with J. D. Salinger and wrote To Die For which became the Gus Van Sant film of the same name.
While I knew her work by reputation, I first read her 2009 novel Labor Day, an unnerving, dreamlike, suspenseful coming-of-age novel that was an Indie Next bestseller and widely praised with comments like this from NPR:
“[A]n unexpected examination of how character determines not only destiny, but also family…Some readers will simply see Labor Day as an upbeat version of Cape Fear, a book that alternates between despair and delusion even more than Adele. But apart from being a successful thriller, this book is a fascinating portrait of what causes a family to founder, and how much it can cost to put it back on the right path.”
Maynard followed that up with The Good Daughters which was again met with great success in the Indie world, terrific advance reviews and great coverage like this from People: Maynard’s spare prose packs a rich emotional punch…a can’t put-it-down mystery.”
After Her gives us another suspenseful, character-driven story. The backdrop derives from a true story—a string of serial killings in Marin County, CA in the 1970s. Sisters Rachel and Patty live in the area where the “Sunset Strangler” starts terrorizing the community; the girls’ father is a homicide detective working the case. What I like about Maynard is how she takes that notorious story and pushes it to the background. In the foreground is the story of these young sisters dealing with their parents’ divorce and their father, defeated by the case he never cracks. Years later when Rachel is an adult the case that has haunted her family life becomes terrifyingly real once again.
After Her will be a September Indie Next Pick and I have no doubt that we’re going to see the same glowing reviews we’ve seen for Maynard’s previous books. Given her track, lots of the majors have already signed on to cover this: the NYT, Harper’s Bazaar, O, Good Housekeeping, People, Associated Press, Elle, Real Simple and the Washington Post.
Maynard captures the way that memory works in fragments: Rachel recalls ‘My Sharona’ as the soundtrack of the summer, fusing her perspective with that of the killer, who sings it to his victims. Her retelling also flip-flops seamlessly from her teenage anxieties to the front-page news—a testament to Maynard’s narrative dexterity. This cinematic coming-of-age murder mystery satisfyingly blends suspense with nostalgia.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Joyce Maynard has, again, managed to tap flawlessly into the voice of a teenage girl–part hope, part fiction, and all heart. After Her is page-turning mystery, wrapped in a beautifully rendered story of sisterhood; and reading it is a journey through one’s own memory of what it meant to be thirteen, when the world was equally terrifying and fascinating. Books this compelling just don’t come around very often.”
— Jodi Picoult
Here’s a sexy, smart, sinister summer read for fans of books like Perfume and An Instance of the Fingerpost. The plot involves a young man in 18th century England who is looking to make his place in society with the aid of a wealthy godfather. The godfather, who has led a quiet life, wants to vicariously take in some extremes of human experience. He enlists his godson to go out then write him of his adventures. Young Richard Fenwick is soon drawn into an increasingly dangerous life of hedonism and we come to see that he is a pawn in an elaborate game his godfather is constructing. The story turns dark—betrayal, danger and ruined lives face Richard unless he can think several steps ahead and find a way out of this Faustian bargain.
Sheffield’s 2007 debut, Love is a Mix Tape, was a bestseller and remains an indie fave. While Mix Tape was a coming-of-age story and a romance, Bright Eyes is a look at adult love—how a man picks himself up and rejoins the world after losing his first wife. a journey that forces him to face loss and depression, but ultimately leads to a newfound trust in love. Sheffield incorporates music into his stories and that’s where the karaoke comes in. As the editor says, “In this book, he leads readers through an unforgettable night of karaoke with a sing along soundtrack that will be stuck in your head for days. His song choices are both memorable and amazingly cringe worthy—but by the end you’ll be dying to pick up the microphone yourself.”
Don’t underestimate the potential audience for this one. Our music and entertainment imprint, It Books, has had good success with music books like Charlie Louvin’s Satan is Real and the recently published Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville. Skaggs’ book really captures his voice and is filled with behind-the-scenes stories of a classic era in modern bluegrass from a man whose relationship goes all the way back to Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, not to mentioning bringing a bluegrass influence to artists like Emmy Lou Harris and Bruce Hornsby.
Veronica Roth announced tour stops for her forthcoming conclusion to the Divergent series on her blog earlier this month. The lucky winners are:
Advance Readers Edition 