The most exciting books coming in June
From Bill Clinton’s presidential thriller to the story of writer Truman Capote, here are June release books we can’t wait to read.
1. The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
There are things only a President can know. There are things only a President can do. And then there are times when the only option is unthinkable- The President Is Missing. The thriller only a president could write.
2. Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
A dazzling debut about Truman Capote, the literary icon of his age, and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his Swans.
Over countless martini-soaked Manhattan lunches, they shared their deepest secrets and greatest fears. On exclusive yachts sailing the Mediterranean, on private jets streaming towards Jamaica, on Yucatán beaches in secluded bays, they gossiped about sex, power, money, love and fame. They never imagined he would betray them so absolutely.
In the autumn of 1975, after two decades of intimate friendships, Truman Capote detonated a literary grenade, forever rupturing the elite circle he’d worked so hard to infiltrate. Why did he do it, knowing what he stood to lose? Was it to punish them? To make them pay for their manners, money and celebrated names? Or did he simply refuse to believe that they could ever stop loving him? Whatever the motive, one thing remains indisputable: nine years after achieving wild success with In Cold Blood, Capote committed an act of professional and social suicide with his most lethal of weapons . . . Words.
A dazzling debut about the line between gossip and slander, self-creation and self-preservation, Swan Song is the tragic story of the literary icon of his age and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his Swans.
3. The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
Two summers, decades apart. Two women whose lives are forever entwined. And a house that holds the secrets that could free them both.
At twenty-six, Lillian feels ancient and exhausted. Her marriage to Charles Oberon has not turned out the way she thought it would. To her it seems she is just another beautiful object captured within the walls of Cloudesley, her husband's Chilterns manor house. But, with a young step-son and a sister to care for, Lillian accepts there is no way out for her. Then Charles makes an arrangement with an enigmatic artist visiting their home and her world is turned on its head.
Maggie Oberon ran from the hurt and resentment she caused. Half a world away, in Australia, it was easier to forget, to pretend she didn't care. But when her grandmother, Lillian, falls ill she must head back to Cloudesley. Forced to face her past, she will learn that all she thought was real, all that she held so close, was never as it seemed.
An utterly compelling story of secrets, betrayals and the consequences of a long-ago summer from the internationally bestselling author of Secrets of the Tides and The Shadow Year.
4. Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar by Virginia Vallejo
VIRGINIA VALLEJO: Top Colombian television journalist, cover model and socialite.
PABLO ESCOBAR: Head of the Medellin cartel, the founder of the global cocaine industry and one of the most ambitious - and brutal - criminals in history.
Over the course of their tempestuous love affair, Vallejo witnessed first-hand the bloodshed, fear and corruption that accompanied the rise of Escobar's crime empire. In this explosive tale of drugs, sex, wealth and violence, Vallejo describes the man she knew and loved. But by the end of their dramatic five-year romance, increasingly plagued by threats of kidnap and death for her knowledge on Escobar's ties to the political establishment, Vallejo would fear for her life - forced to give up her career as a TV anchorwoman and cover model and flee Colombia for the United States. Her testimony would reopen one of the most important criminal cases in Colombian history.
Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar tracks the birth and boom of the cocaine industry and follows Escobar's evolution from billionaire benefactor to ruthless terrorist, responsible for the historic tragedies that forever altered the course of the Colombia conflict and its relationship with the world.
5. The Nowhere Child By Christian White
On a break between teaching photography classes, Kim Leamy is approached by a stranger investigating the disappearance of a little girl from her Kentucky home twenty-eight years earlier. He believes Kim is that girl. At first she brushes it off, but when Kim scratches the surface of her family background in Australia, questions arise that aren't easily answered. To find the truth, she must travel to Sammy's home of Manson, Kentucky, and into a dark past.
As the mystery unravels and the town's secrets are revealed, this superb novel builds towards a tense, terrifying and entirely unexpected climax. Inspired by Gillian Flynn's frenetic suspense and Stephen King's masterful world-building, The Nowhere Child is a combustible tale of trauma, cult, conspiracy and memory. It is the remarkable debut of Christian White, an exhilarating new Australian talent who is attracting worldwide attention.