54 Miles.
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
July 2024. 344p. Agate, paper, $19.95 (9781572843370).
Critically acclaimed novelist Pitts returns to the characters featured in his powerful WWII tale, The Last Thing You Surrender (2019). After the war, George and Thelma Simon, a biracial couple, fled Alabama, where their union was illegal, for the hopefully more progressive streets of New York City. Now, 20 years later, the country is once again at a crucial tipping point as the civil rights movement gains traction, and another violent tempest is brewing in Vietnam. The Simons’ son Adam leaves college to join Martin Luther King Jr. and other nonviolent marchers in Selma, Alabama, hoping to earn the right to vote for Black citizens. When Adam is injured, Thelma’s brother Luther, a WWII hero, is called upon to help. Adam will soon learn about his family history and a long-buried secret. Pitts’ mastery of the historical context pulls the reader into this bracing story. The characters are three-dimensionally rendered with motivations and fears authentically driving their actions. Each is scarred, either physically or emotionally, but each discovers that only through forgiveness can one at last be free. —Bill Kelly
The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye.
By Briony Cameron.
June 2024. 368p. Atria, $28.99 (9781668051023); e-book (9781668051047).
From starting out as a poor shipwright forced to pay her father for her meager freedoms to becoming a notorious pirate captain in her own right, Jacquotte Delahaye has led a storied life. The novel begins in 1665 with her in prison, then goes back to tell her story. The young shipwright dreamt of honing her skills and one day leaving her stifling life in Yáquimo, Santo Domingo. However, a series of events culminating in the deaths of her father and the governor of Yáquimo spur Jacquotte to flee to the open sea, hoping to protect the people she loves. As Jacquotte navigates her new life of piracy, she must take charge and make decisions that will save or doom her crew, demonstrating her incredible strength of will and sharp intellect. Debut novelist Cameron reimagines historical events in portraying her larger-than-life protagonist in a tale of triumph over a male pirate captain, racial inequality, sexism, slavery, and violence. This is a wonderfully gripping adventure story about a lesbian pirate of color who rose from obscurity to infamy at the height of the age of piracy. Fans of LGBTQ+ historical fiction and those who relish tales of notorious figures from the past will find that this novel is an absolute treasure. —Taylor Horner
The Briar Club.
By Kate Quinn.
July 2024. 400p. Morrow, $28.99 (9780063244740).
Thanksgiving 1954. There’s a dead body in Briarwood House in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood of Washington, DC. Then the story flashes back several years, when stingy landlady Mrs. Nilsson rents the fourth-floor room to widow Grace March. The other residents of Briarwood House don’t have much to do with each other until Grace starts hosting illicit Thursday night dinners when Mrs. Nilsson is out at her weekly bridge game. As young mother Fliss, grumpy Hungarian Reka, career girl Nora, baseball-obsessed Bea, secretive Claire, and Commie-obsessed Arlene become friends (well, not so much harpish Arlene), a section of the novel is told from each woman’s point of view, leading up to that fateful Thanksgiving. Quinn (, 2024, with Janie Chang) excels at presenting a moment in each woman’s full life as it abuts will find eager readers in those who love woman-led historical fiction with rich, appealing characters. —
