The Red Lotus

Chris Bohjalian (fiction, Doubleday)

A couple goes on a bike tour in Vietnam, but only one comes home: The man, Austin, vanishes one night on the road, leaving only a pack of yellow energy gel in his wake. As his girlfriend Alexis struggles to put together the pieces back home, she uncovers a trail of lies — and realizes she may have not known Austin very well at all.

Darling Rose Gold

Stephanie Wrobel (fiction, Berkley)

Rose Gold Watts spent the first 18 years of her life constantly sick, in and out of hospitals. No one could ever figure out what was really wrong — turns out her mother Patty was an expert liar. After Rose Gold testified against her, Patty served 5 years in prison and is about to get out. To everyone’s surprise, Rose takes her in. The question: How far will Patty go to settle the score?

Privilege

Mary Adkins (fiction, Harper)

At Carter University, otherwise known as “The Harvard of the South,” the lives of three young women intersect when fourth-year student Tyler Brand is accused of sexual assault.

Beheld

TaraShea Nesbit (fiction, Bloomsbury)

Ten years after the Mayflower colony began, all is not well in Plymouth. The town is led by hardcore puritans who control most aspects of their constituents’ lives. One day an unfamiliar ship arrives, full of new colonists. Then a murder shakes the little community to its core.

Man on Edge

Humphrey Hawksley (fiction, Severn House Publishers)

State secrets abound in this new Cold War-era thriller, in which trauma surgeon Carrie Walker travels to Moscow to meet with a man who claims he has an explosive piece of information that will help the West. Meanwhile, Carrie’s plans are upended when she finds herself stranded in Moscow, with only one person to turn to for help.

Voyage of Mercy

Stephen Puleo (nonfiction, St. Martin’s Press)

Thousands of ships left Ireland during the Potato Famine in the 1840s, packed with poor and starving crowds fleeing their homeland for the promise of the United States. One ship, the USS Jamestown, headed from Boston in the other direction, loaded with food for the Irish. It was the first humanitarian mission by the United States and it set the precedent for many more such efforts to come. A moving historic tribute.