[Manabi]

This month's Kindle First selections are out, they are:

Interference by Amélie Antoine (Author), Maren Baudet-Lackner (Translator) [Genre: Psychological Suspense]

They were the perfect couple—but not all is as it seems.

Young married couple Gabriel and Chloé have a picture-perfect life. But when athletic Chloé suddenly drowns, Gabriel is left to grapple with the mysterious circumstances of her death. Brokenhearted, he pours out his grief in a bereavement group and is consoled by photographer Emma. While the two grow closer, Gabriel can’t help but feel Chloé’s presence everywhere he goes. And as revelations about Chloé slowly emerge, he begins to wonder, is Emma really that different?

From prize-winning and bestselling author Amélie Antoine comes a dark and evocative novel that will keep readers guessing until the final moments—will Gabriel be able to move on with Emma, or will the mystery of Chloé’s death consume him?

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

The series of twists and turns in this book had me gasping—I didn’t see any of them coming. Not one. As an avid reader of psychological thrillers like The Girl on the Train and Wreckage, I approached Interference thinking that I’d be able to figure out where the book was going within a few chapters. How wrong I was! Instantly captivated by the plight of grieving widower Gabriel trying to put his life back together after the drowning death of his athletic wife, Chloé, I found myself enthralled by the eerie series of events that unfolded from page to page.

Marvelously, this book stymied my efforts to decipher the puzzle, and kept me reading as quickly as I could until the final pages. Then I went back and read it again to see where I’d missed the clues. Author Amélie Antoine’s skillful, fast-paced writing confounded my every theory about what was behind Chloé’s death, and what role her and her husband’s cast of friends and coworkers played in her life and untimely demise.

I’m eager to share this well-crafted psychological thriller with fans and challenge you to be faster in figuring out what’s going on than I was. Once you’ve finished, you’ll likely find yourself biting your tongue to keep from giving away the book’s secrets!

- Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor

The Things We Wish Were True by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen [Genre: Contemporary Fiction]

In an idyllic small-town neighborhood, a near tragedy triggers a series of dark revelations.

From the outside, Sycamore Glen, North Carolina, might look like the perfect all-American neighborhood. But behind the white picket fences lies a web of secrets that reach from house to house.

Up and down the streets, neighbors quietly bear the weight of their own pasts—until an accident at the community pool upsets the delicate equilibrium. And when tragic circumstances compel a woman to return to Sycamore Glen after years of self-imposed banishment, the tangle of the neighbors’ intertwined lives begins to unravel.

During the course of a sweltering summer, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the neighbors learn that it’s impossible to really know those closest to us. But is it impossible to love and forgive them?

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I like to think I know my neighbors. We’re very friendly. We chitchat, bake cookies for each other, and look out for one another’s kids. But after reading The Things We Wish Were True, I had to ask myself, just how well do I really know these people? Is the perfectly mown lawn any indicator of a tidy personal life? Could that cheery wave each morning be a cover for some sort of deep distress?

That’s what I love about this book—the tension that bubbles up from the assumption that everything is just as it seems from the outside. When in reality, it’s anything but. In this small neighborhood in North Carolina, secrets and heartache lie hidden behind closed doors. As the hot days of summer unspool, truths begin to come to light, revealing an intricate network of deception.

In Marybeth Mayhew Whalen’s telling, we see that it’s not only damage that can have far-reaching effects but also compassion and forgiveness. As this tightly knit community unravels, the neighbors find in each thread a chance to start anew. Which makes me breathe a sigh of relief as I look out the window, admiring my neighbor’s precisely pruned hedges.

- Jodi Warshaw, Editor

Tier One (Tier One Series Book 1) by Jeffrey Wilson [Genre: Military Thriller]

In a world violated by terror, the old lines have blurred. Meet the next generation of covert ops.

John Dempsey’s life—as an elite Tier One Navy SEAL named Jack Kemper—is over. A devastating terrorist action catapults him from a world of moral certainty and decisive orders into the shadowy realm of espionage, where ambiguity is the only rule. His new mission: hunt down those responsible for the greatest tragedy in the history of the US Special Ops and bring them to justice.

But how does a man torn between duty and revenge walk the line and preserve his soul?

As Dempsey struggles with the games of spies, the case propels him across the globe in a desperate effort to prevent a new, horrifying attack on American soil.

Once, John Dempsey followed orders blindly. Now he sees behind the curtain, and the security of the civilized world rests on one question: Can a Tier One Navy SEAL adapt and become the world’s most lethal spy?

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I first heard Tier One described as the story of an elite covert team that is part espionage and part special ops, led by a Navy SEAL with a stalwart sense of honor and patriotism. As a fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp, I desperately wanted to meet the new hero who had earned the moniker. This book’s protagonist—SEAL Jack Kemper, who is later reinvented as spook John Dempsey—blew my expectations out of the water in the very first scene.

Dempsey and his highly skilled team of operators are hunting terrorists with guns blazing and curse words and acronyms flying, which help to create a world and characters that feel authentic, that are so credible and rich. It was easy to become part of their mission, to forget that I was reading fiction created by two very talented veterans, Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson. I laughed. I cried. I started to parrot the characters’ dialogue with clipped responses of “copy,” and I had to bite back more than one hooyah. SITREP: Tier One delivers.

- JoVon Sotak, Editor

Black Rain by Matthew B.J. Delaney [Genre: Thriller]

In a darkly warped near future, lucrative disease cures are brokered on Wall Street’s Genetic Stock Exchange. And the hottest consumer products are artificially synthesized humans that serve as everything from domestic slaves to combatants in savage gladiatorial games. For Jack Saxton, the young heir to genetic design powerhouse Genico Inc., these Synthates are just a fact of life…until the murder of a high-profile genetic scientist leads a pair of seasoned NYPD detectives to Genico’s door.

As a small band of Synthate rebels steps up its attack on the status quo, Jack encounters a pleasure-parlor girl who opens his eyes to their cause. When he dares to sympathize with the rebels, Jack is hunted down and arrested for the murder. Sentenced to die in the brutal games on Bloomberg Island, Jack will be forced to fight—for his life, for the future of all Synthates, and for a chance to uncover the mind-bending secret buried in his past.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I very rarely read a book twice, but when I first finished Black Rain—which hurtles through a breakneck plot set in a near-future New York City and ends with a revelation that casts everything that came before it in a new light—I went immediately back to the first page and dived in again.

The book begins at a masquerade party, where a prominent geneticist and his wife are assassinated by a mysterious assailant for reasons unknown. Our hero and protagonist, Jack Saxton, is framed for the killing, and the mile-a-minute tale that follows features an art heist, a romance, a gladiatorial tournament (think The Hunger Games recast as famous historical battles), and a relentless parade of canny plot twists that culminates in a truly grand finale that turns the whole story on its head.

Fans of genre novels from science fiction to political suspense and police procedurals—author Matthew Delaney is a decorated member of the NYPD and writes the law-enforcement perspective really well—will find that Black Rain serves up all of the above at a whirlwind pace. So make yourself some popcorn and get comfortable as Delaney takes you for a long con that just might leave you wanting to do it all over again.

- Jason Kirk, Editor

After Disasters by Viet Dinh [Genre: Literary Fiction]

Beautifully and hauntingly written, After Disasters is told through the eyes of four people in the wake of a life-shattering earthquake in India. An intricate story of love and loss weaves together the emotional and intimate narratives of Ted, a pharmaceutical salesman turned member of the Disaster Assistance Response Team; his colleague Piotr, who still carries with him the scars of the Bosnia conflict; Andy, a young firefighter eager to prove his worth; and Dev, a doctor on the ground racing against time and dwindling resources. Through time and place, hope and tragedy, love and lust, these four men put their lives at risk in a country where danger lurks everywhere.

O. Henry Prize–winning author Viet Dinh takes us on a moving and evocative journey through an India set with smoky funeral pyres, winding rivers that hold prayers and the deceased, and the rubble of Gujarat, a crumbling place wavering between life and death. As the four men fight to impose order on an increasingly chaotic city, where looting and threats of violence become more severe, they realize the first lives they save might be their own.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

A character in After Disasters categorizes aid workers into two types: the first is running toward something—like God, or at least a higher purpose—and the second is running away from something. The question of whether you are a fight or flight type of person has long fascinated me, which is one of the myriad reasons I gravitated toward this story. Amid all the turmoil and grief, we seek answers no matter which direction we move.

After Disasters is a novel brimming with beautiful and heart-wrenching scenes. This intricate story of love and loss weaves together the emotional and intimate narratives of four disaster relief workers struggling in a crumbling city that is on the precipice of life and death. In the immediate wake of a devastating earthquake in India, each man hopes to gain clarity through his work, but when they arrive, they—and we readers who are along for the ride—are dropped right in the middle of the chaos. O. Henry Prize–winning author Viet Dinh expertly gives us glimpses of the disorientation, the lack of information, the yearning to form human connections in the throes of disaster, while we travel through scenes set with smoky funeral pyres, winding rivers that hold prayers and the deceased, and the evocative landscapes of India.

I am so very proud to have had the honor to edit this book, and I hope this moving story will touch you the way it has touched me.

- Vivian Lee, Editor

The Shelf Life of Happiness by David Machado (Author), Hillary Locke (Translator) [Genre: Modern Fiction]

Ripped apart by Portugal’s financial crisis, Daniel’s family is struggling to adjust to circumstances beyond their control. His wife and children move out to live with family hours away, but Daniel believes against all odds that he will find a job and everything will return to normal.

Even as he loses his home, suffers severe damage to his car, and finds himself living in his old, abandoned office building, Daniel fights the realization that things have changed. He’s unable to see what remains among the rubble—friendship, his family’s love, and people’s deep desire to connect. If Daniel can let go of the past and find his true self, he just might save not only himself but also everyone that really matters to him.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

What do we need to be happy? After reading David Machado’s The Shelf Life of Happiness, I’ve returned to the novel’s central question repeatedly. This emotionally resonant story details lives torn asunder by the global economic crisis of 2008 in Portugal, providing a darkly funny look at a world made nearly unrecognizable for its inhabitants.

Before the crisis swamped Portugal, Daniel and his friends had created a formula to quantify the factors that contribute to happiness, but as their world loses its familiar structure, even the most fundamental aspects of the equation seem in danger of disappearing. Despite the chaos around them, the characters in this humorous and poignant book ultimately reach for what is best about themselves—and discover that helping someone else, even when it seems you have nothing to offer, may be the most critical component of happiness.

As a reader, I felt echoes of the characters’ despair and rejoiced in the moments when they were able to reconnect with their essential humanity. It’s an uplifting read that I hope will contribute to your happiness, as it did mine.

- Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor