A mysterious cargo plane, flanked by a squadron of Russia’s most lethal fighters, has just taken off from a remote airbase. Closely monitored by the United States, no one inside the Pentagon has any idea where it’s going or what it’s carrying. A high-level Russian defector, a walking vault of secrets that could shatter the West, seeks asylum in Norway. Across the continent, in the heart of Paris, a lone French agent stumbles upon a conspiracy so explosive it could ignite a global firestorm. As alarm bells ring in Washington, the CIA’s most lethal weapon, Scot Harvath, is forced to choose between his conscience and his country. You’ll be left breathless as Harvath is swept into a whirlwind of double agents, international intrigue, and heart-stopping chases. Brad Thor is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three thrillers, including Dead Fall, Black Ice (ThrillerFix Best Thriller of the Year), Near Dark (one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of the Year), Backlash (nominated for the Barry Award for Best Thriller of the Year), Spymaster (named “One of the all-time best thriller novels” —The Washington Times), The Last Patriot (nominated Best Thriller of the Year by the International Thriller Writers association), and Blowback (one of the “Top 100 Killer Thrillers of All Time” —NPR). Visit his website at BradThor.com and follow him on Facebook @BradThorOfficial, on Instagram @RealBradThor, and on X @BradThor.People

Waite “Schoolboy” Hoyt’s improbable baseball journey began when the 1915 New York Giants signed him as a high school junior, for no pay and a five dollar bonus. After nearly having both his hands amputated and cavorting with men twice his age in the hardscrabble Minor Leagues, he somehow ended up the best pitcher for the New York Yankees in the 1920s. Based on a trove of Hoyt’s writings and interview transcripts, Tim Manners has reanimated the baseball legend’s untold story, entirely in Hoyt’s own words. Schoolboy dives straight into early twentieth century America and the birth of modern day baseball, as well as Hoyt’s defining conflict: Should he have pursued something more respectable than being the best pitcher on the 1927 New York Yankees, arguably the greatest baseball team of all time? Over his twenty three year professional baseball career, Hoyt won 237 big league games across 3,845 ⅔ innings—and one locker room brawl with Babe Ruth. He also became a vaudeville star who swapped dirty jokes with Mae West and drank champagne with Al Capone, a philosophizer who bonded with Lou Gehrig over the meaning of life, and a funeral director who left a body chilling in his trunk while pitching an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium. Hoyt shares his thoughts on famous moments in the golden age of baseball history; assesses baseball legends, including Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, and Pete Rose; and describes the strategies of baseball managers John McGraw, Miller Huggins, and Connie Mack. He writes at length about the art of pitching and how the game and its players changed—and didn’t—over his lifetime. After retiring from baseball at thirty eight and coming to terms with his alcoholism, Hoyt found some happiness as a family man and a beloved, pioneering Cincinnati Reds radio sportscaster with a Websterian vocabulary spiked with a Brooklyn accent. When Hoyt died in 1984 his foremost legacy may have been as a raconteur who punctuated his life story with awe inspiring and jaw dropping anecdotes. In Schoolboy he never flinches from an unsparing account of his remarkable and paradoxical eighty four year odyssey. Waite Hoyt (1899–1984) pitched twenty one seasons in the Major Leagues, most notably with the Yankees’ first dynasty, leading them to three World Series championships in the 1920s. He played for a total of seven clubs before retiring in 1938. Hoyt became a popular broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Tim Manners is a writer, communications consultant, and baseball fan. He is a native of Norwalk, CT and has lived in Westport, CT for the last 34 years. Bob Costas was a broadcaster for NBC Sports television for four decades and now does play by play and commentary work for MLB, MLB Network, and CNN. #yankees , #yankeesfans

#1 New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson is out with her first stand-alone mystery in many years! The life-longAgatha Christie aficionado, who has delighted countless critics and fans with her Truly Devious series featuring teen sleuth Stevie Bell, now offers DEATH AT MORNING HOUSE. Johnson’s latest features Marlowe Wexler, a queer teen who unlike Stevie, is no detective. Heartbroken after a disastrous date, she finds herself in a summer job working at a grand but dilapidated house on an island in northern New York at the Canadian border. It’s there she stumbles upon two mysteries— one in the present day and one kept concealed since the 1930s.