Bobbi Kristina Brown

12No. The Best New Books

Passion and peril in the roaring ’20s, a crime writer losing his grip and domestic drama chez Emily Dickinson

EDITED BY KIM HUBBARD

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Nuala O’Connor Miss Emily

NOVEL Working as a maid for the Dickinsons of Amherst, Mass., young Ada Concannon draws close to the family’s spinster daughter Emily, even as the poet withdraws from the world. But when an act of violence challenges the friendship, Emily must overcome her fears and help Ada. A beautifully imagined account of an unlikely bond.

Paul Cleave Trust No One

THRILLER Jerry Grey, a thriller writer with earlyonset Alzheimer’s, confesses a horrific murder to the police. Or is his jumbled mind just reciting the plot of his first bestseller? And why are cops convinced he really has killed someone—a crime he can’t remember? Cleave’s whirligig plot mesmerizes as Jerry fights his decline and tries to put together the pieces.

Liza Klaussmann Villa America

NOVEL In this fictionalized look at 1920s socialites Sara and Gerald Murphy—real-life inspirations for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night—party central is the Côte d’Azur, and the players include novelists, painters and a stoic WWI pilot. Fitzgerald fans may go mad trying to separate truth from fantasy, but Klaussmann’s portrait of a marriage that endured many temptations (including Hemingway!) is intriguing and tender to the bone.

FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL: NEW SEUSS!

Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, gave the world 44 beloved, wildly imaginative picture books before he died in 1991. Now his fans are in for a treat: An unfinished tale his widow found among his papers in 2013 has just been published. Edited by his longtime art director Cathy Goldsmith, What Pet Should I Get? features the siblings from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, this time on a mission to bring home the perfect furry, finned or fantastical friend. Seuss had pasted multiple versions of text on many of the pages, “so we had some sorting to do,” says Goldsmith, but she’s proud of the finished product. “At the end of the day, I think he would be pleased.” Dr. Seuss in 1986.

BOBBI KRISTINA BROWN

1993-2015

THE DEATH OF WHITNEY HOUSTON AND BOBBY BROWN’S ONLY DAUGHTER LEAVES HER FAMILY MOURNING—AND QUESTIONING IF SHE WAS THE VICTIM OF FOUL PLAY

By PATRICK GOMEZ

It’s a phone call Bobby Brown hoped he’d never have to make. But after nearly six months of vigils by daughter Bobbi Kristina’s bedside, he picked up the phone on July 26 to inform family members that his only child with the late Whitney Houston had died. “Our loss is unimaginable,” Bobby said following the 22-year-old’s death. “Krissy was and is an angel. I am completely numb at this time.” Amid the sadness and pain following Brown’s death, her loved ones face lingering questions about how their beloved “Krissy” ended up facedown and unconscious in a bathtub at her Roswell, Ga., home on Jan. 31—a scene eerily reminiscent of Houston’s 2012 death, when she was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton. (Brown suffered global and irreversible brain damage as a result of the incident, and after months in various medical facilities, she was transferred to a hospice in June.) At the center of the speculation is 26-yearold Nick Gordon, who was raised by Houston like a son before his relationship with Brown turned romantic following Houston’s death. In recent years he has clashed with Brown’s family, including her grandmother Cissy Houston and her aunt Pat Houston, who is a co-legal guardian of Brown’s. According to a lawsuit filed by Brown’s courtappointed conservator, Gordon—who lived with Brown and was one of the first people to find her body—allegedly physically abused her, isolated her from her family and stole money from her. While Gordon’s legal team has refused to comment, a close relative of Gordon’s insists he’s simply a scapegoat. “Nick says he didn’t do anything to hurt her,” says the relative. “He’s innocent of any wrongdoing. He has people who are helping him with the legal part, but that’s actually

FROM LEFT: RANDEE ST. NICHOLAS/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES; TSUNI/GAMMA

A DAUGHTER’S LEGACY “My family must find a way to live with her in spirit and honor her memory,” Bobby Brown said on July 27.