New Book Releases: August 17, 2021

Each week, I’ll catalog the biggest and most exciting adult and YA fiction — and the occasional nonfiction — coming out that Tuesday.

VELVET WAS THE NIGHT, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. In 1970s Mexico City, a beautiful art student disappears, sending her romance novel-reading neighbor and a criminal working for a shadowy political organization on a journey to find her. “A noir masterpiece,” writes Kirkus in a starred review. Bookshop.

THE FAMILY PLOT, Megan Collins. A woman returns to the childhood home where her parents raised her and her twin brother, who disappeared when they were teens, but as she’s walking the grounds she discovers her twin’s skull — split open with an ax. “This is an entertaining as well as chilling tale of family secrets, lies, and primordial fears,” writes Publisher’s Weekly. Bookshop.

HOW TO KILL YOUR BEST FRIEND, Lexie Elliott. A group of best friends, who had always connected over their love of swimming, are baffled when one among them mysteriously drowns. “Elliott makes her characters feel like real people. Fans of Lucy Foley’s The Guest List will be…