All My Puny Sorrows

Miriam Toews (Get this book)
Sisters should always want what is best for each other, but what if what one sister really wants is to end her life? This is the dilemma Yoli faces when her ethereal sister, Elf, attempts suicide. The beautiful Elf is a world-renowned pianist who's in a loving relationship and about to start an international tour, but having it all doesn't matter to her when she is drowning in despair. Yoli, as she rightfully points out, is the one struggling; she's twice divorced, with children by two different fathers, and after having achieved some success as a YA series author (though she has nothing like Elf's gifts), her career has stalled. But though she and Elf are close--the bond they forged while growing up in a conservative Mennonite town in Canada is central to the narrative--depression is hard to understand from the outside. Despite the topic, this is not a dark novel. In fact, its gloom comes in the form of dark humor, and Toews ("Irma Voth") does a wonderful job with her characters, none of whom are perfect, which makes them all the more real. It requires a talented author to take a serious subject and write such an engaging, enjoyable work.--Library Journal

The Strange Library

Haruki Murakami (Get this book)
Another off-kilter yarn from master storyteller Murakami: allegorical, shadowy and not at all nice. Murakami loves two things among many: Franz Kafka and secret places. This latest, brief and terse, combines those two passions in the frightening vision of a hapless young man who, returning two books-How to Build a Submarine and Memoirs of a Shepherd-to the library, is sent to Room 107, deep in a basement he didn't know existed. At once beguiling and disquieting-in short, trademark Murakami-a fast read that sticks in the mind.--Kirkus

The Siege

Arturo Perez-Reverto (Get this book)
Perez-Reverte writes two kinds of novels: richly detailed historical thrillers and swashbuckling adventures. Lately, he has been sticking to the latter, but here he combines both forms in a complex, history-drenched tale of the siege of Cdiz by the French in the early nineteenth century. The action takes place in 1812, with the port of Cdiz, nicely protected by water, remaining unconquered as Napoleon's forces sweep across Spain. P'rez-Reverte, an international best-seller and a favorite among booksellers and librarians, has not had a new book since 2010 and will attract plenty of attention with this one. --Booklist

A Map of Betrayal

Ha Jin (Get this book)
A plainspoken, even reticent narrative illuminates the complex loyalties of a Chinese-American spy, who considers himself a patriot of both countries. As a novel of espionage, the latest from the prizewinning author satisfies like the best of John le Carre, similarly demystifying and deglamorizing the process of gathering information and the ambiguous morality that operates in shades of gray. But it's plain that this novel is about more than the plight of one spy, who must forsake his Chinese family in order to embed himself as a master translator for the CIA, becoming "China's ear to the heartbeat of the United States." Subtle, masterful and bittersweet storytelling that operates on a number of different levels.--Kirkus

A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

Eimear McBride (Get this book)
A fresh, emotionally raw debut from Irish-born, U.K.-based author McBride. Written in halting sentences, half-sentences and dangling clauses that tumble through the text like fleeting, undigested thoughts, the story follows the female narrator as she navigates an abusive upbringing-physical, sexual and psychological-and the lingering effects of her brother's early childhood brain trauma. Lovers of straightforward storytelling will shirk, but open-minded readers (specifically those not put off by the unusual language structure) will be surprised, moved and awed by this original novel. McBride's debut garnered the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize in 2013 and the Baileys Women's Prize for fiction in 2014-and deservedly so. This is exhilarating fiction from a voice to watch.--Kirkus

Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel (Get this book)
Mandel's ambitious, magnificent fourth novel examines the collapse of civilization after a deadly flu wipes out most of the world's population. Moving gracefully from the first days of the plague to years before it and decades after, Mandel anchors the story to Arthur Leander, a famous actor who dies of a heart attack while playing King Lear on stage. Mandel's vision is not only achingly beautiful but also startlingly plausible, exposing the fragile beauty of the world we inhabit. In the burgeoning post-apocalyptic literary genre, Mandel's transcendent, haunting novel deserves a place alongside The Road (2006), The Passage (2010), and The Dog Stars (2012).--Booklist

Five Days Left

Julie Lawson Timmer (Get this book)
Timmer's emotional debut about saying goodbye should come with a box of tissues.Scott Coffman has five days until the little boy he's been caring for returns to his birth mother; Mara Nichols is five days away from killing herself before Huntington's disease can steal her independence. The two meet anonymously in an online therapy forum, and although their paths never cross in real life, Timmer deftly compares their shared dilemmas of when and how to let go. As Scott and Mara wrestle with ethical questions, the answers they find are both relatable and debatable.The characters are so affecting it's tough to make it to Day 5. An authentic and powerful story.--Kirkus

The Bone Clocks

David Mitchell (Get this book)
Is The Bone Clocks the most ambitious novel ever written, or just the most Mitchell-esque? We begin in the punk years with a teenage Talking Heads obsessed runaway from Gravesend, England, named Holly Sykes. She becomes a pawn in a spiritual war between the mysterious "Radio People" and the benevolent Horologists, led by the body-shifting immortal Marinus. Many more characters and places soon find themselves worked into Marinus's "Script" across the book's six sections. With its wayward thoughts, chance meetings, and attention to detail, Mitchell's novel is a thing of beauty.--Publisher's Weekly

The Secret Place

Tana French (Get this book)
A hint of the supernatural spices the latest from a mystery master as two detectives try to probe the secrets teenage girls keep-and the lies they tell-after murder at a posh boarding school. The Dublin novelist has few peers in her combination of literary stylishness and intricate, clockwork plotting. Here, French challenges herself and her readers with a narrative strategy that finds chapters alternating between two different time frames and points of view. Beyond the murder mystery, which leaves the reader in suspense throughout, the novel explores the mysteries of friendship, loyalty and betrayal, not only among adolescents, but within the police force as well. Everyone is this meticulously crafted novel might be playing-or being played by-everyone else.--Kirkus

One Kick

Chelsea Cain (Get this book)
Abducted by a child pornography ring when she was 6 and held captive for five years, Kick Lannigan, 21, has turned herself into a lean, mean fighting machine. When a boy named Adam is reported missing, she springs into action to save him. The first book in a new series by Cain captures the age of the Amber Alert with hard-edged insight. Distinguished by a wealth of details about how child porn rings operate, this is a gripping thriller in which Kick must apply everything she's learned, and things she's forgotten, to survive again.An unsettling, near-perfect effort by Cain (Let Me Go, 2013, etc.) that leaves you eagerly awaiting the next installment.--Kirkus

Perfidia

James Ellroy (Get this book)
Though it pivots on the Pearl Harbor attack, this worm's-eye view from thoroughly corrupt Los Angeles is a war novel-like no other.It's complicated, and the author wouldn't have it any other way. There's no telling the good guys from the bad in Ellroy's Los Angeles, because there are no good guys. The major distinction between cops and criminals is that the former have the power to frame the latter and kill the innocent with impunity, which they do without conscience or moral compunction, often in complicity with the government and even the Catholic Church. With his outrageously oversized ambition, Ellroy has announced that this sprawling but compelling novel is the beginning of a Second L.A. Quartet. The plot follows a tick-tock progression over the courseof three weeks, in which "dark desires sizzle" and explode with a furious climax. Ellroy is not only back in form-he's raised the stakes.--Kirkus

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Haruki Murakami (Get this book)
Murakami turns in a trademark story that blends the commonplace with the nightmarish in a Japan full of hollow men. Poor achromatic Tsukuru. For some inexplicable reason, his four best friends, two males, two females, have cut him off without a word. Perhaps, he reckons between thoughts of suicide, it's because they can pair off more easily without a fifth wheel; perhaps it's because his name means "builder," while all theirs have to do with colors: red pine, blue sea, white root, black field. Murakami writes with the same murky sense of time that characterized 1Q84, but this book, short and haunting, is really of a piece with older work such as Norwegian Wood and, yes, Kafka on the Shore. The reader will enjoy watching Murakami play with color symbolism down to the very last line of the story, even as Tsukuru sinks deeper into a dangerous enigma.Another tour de force from Japan's greatest living novelist.--Kirkus

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

David A. Shafer (Get this book)
A droll, all-too-plausible contemporary thriller pulls a mismatched trio of stressed-out 30-somethings into underground guerilla warfare against a sinister conspiracy to own the information superhighway.On one side of the world, you have Leila Majnoun, an increasingly jaded operative for a global nonprofit agency struggling to do good deeds despite the brutal, stonewalling autocrats who run Myanmar (Burma). On another side is Mark Deveraux, a self-loathing self-improvement guru living a glamorous and debt-ridden lifestyle in the promised land of Brooklyn. Somewhere in the middle (Portland, Oregon, to be precise) is Mark's old school chum Leo Crane, a misanthropic poor-little-rich-kid grown into a trouble-prone, substance-abusing and seedily paranoid adult. An edgy, darkly comedic debut novel whose characters and premise are as up-to-the-minute as an online news feed but as classic as the counterculture rebellions once evoked by Edward Abbey and Ken Kesey.--Kirkus

The Lost Island: A Gideon Crew Novel

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Get this book)
In Preston and Child's sparkling third Gideon Crew novel, Eli Glinn of Effective Engineering Solutions orders Crew to steal the Book of Kells, "the finest illuminated book in existence, " from New York's Morgan Library, where it's on loan from the Irish government and protected by a highly sophisticated security system. When the success of this nearly impossible mission reveals a treasure map with links to ancient Greek history, Glinn sends Gideon and Amy, another operative in his employ, on a jaunt to the Caribbean. There Gideon and Amy, who briefly poses as his wife, face dangers from treasure hunters, nature, and an erosion of trust in each other. Gideon refreshingly doesn't fit the superhero mold, and the enigmatic Amy is more than his equal in daring and intelligence.--Publisher's Weekly

No Safe House

Linwood Barclay (Get this book)
Seven years after barely surviving the terrors of "No Time for Goodbye "2007), the Archer family of Milford, Conn., once again tempts fate in this darkly comic if decidedly creepy thriller from Arthur Ellis Award winner Barclay. History seems to be repeating itself as mom Cynthia fights to set limits on 14-year-old Grace, who defies her much as the rebellious 14-year-old Cynthia herself did the night she got drunk with local hood Vince Fleming and her parents and brother disappeared. The twisty, craftily-plotted action accelerates along with the body count, providing plenty of suspense and a surprising number of laughs for readers willing to tolerate very bad things befalling some pretty good people.--Publisher's Weekly

Hounded

David Rosenfelt (Get this book)
In Edgar finalist Rosenfelt's heartwarming 12th Andy Carpenter mystery, the DA and his partner, Laurie Collins, agree to foster eight-year-old Ricky Diaz, a murder victim's son, and his dog, Sebastian. Then Andy's friend and respected Paterson, N.J., police captain Pete Stanton is arrested for killing Ricky's father, Danny, an ex-con turned police informant. Danny had reported Pete for dealing drugs, and the case solidifies when investigators find $100,000 worth of heroin in Pete's home. Pete believes that several apparently natural deaths are really contract murders, and Andy, certain that Pete is being framed, plans his friend's legal defense while searching for the killer. Meanwhile, Laurie asks Andy to consider adopting Ricky and Sebastian, who have adjusted to life with them and their dog, Tara. Despite a few plot holes, this is an entertaining, feel-good read, populated with Jersey gangsters, ruthless criminals, and likable protagonists. Longtime fans and new readers alike will be charmed by wise-cracking, canine-loving Andy. --Publisher's Weekly

Dear Daughter

Elizabeth Little (Get this book)
Janie Jenkins was a rich pain in the neck who lived in L.A. and had it all--until the night when she was arrested and then sentenced to prison for ten years for killing her mother. Now she is out on a technicality with people still calling for her blood. Especially a blogger known as Trace, who writes passionate screeds about why Janie should be put back in prison. Once out, Janie is determined to track down who really killed her mother as she is convinced she is innocent. Her journey takes her to a small South Dakota town where she meets quite the cast of characters in the local residents. Little makes a thrilling debut with this gripping read.--Library Journal

Big Little Lies

Liane Moriarty (Get this book)
After last year's best-selling The Husband's Secret, Australian Moriarty brings the edginess of her less-known The Hypnotist's Love Story (2012) to bear in this darkly comic mystery surrounding a disastrous parents' night at an elementary school fundraiser. Thanks to strong cocktails and a lack of appetizers, Pirriwee Public's Trivia Night turns ugly when sloshed parents in Audrey Hepburn and Elvis costumes start fights at the main entrance. To make matters worse, out on the balcony where a smaller group of parents have gathered, someone falls over the railing and dies. Was it an accident or murder? Who is the victim? And who, if anyone, is the murderer? Deservedly popular Moriarty invigorates the tired social-issue formula of women's fiction through wit, good humor, sharp insight into human nature and addictive storytelling. --Kirkus

Sight Unseen

Iris Johansen (Get this book)
Based solely on the fleeting images seen on a restaurant's TV screen, Kendra Michaels knew that the multicar pileup on San Diego's Cabrillo Bridge was no accident. The staged tableau was designed to get her attention by re-creating grisly elements from a number of serial murders Michaels had helped solve. Now a copycat killer has Michaels in his sights, with plans to both honor and discredit her as he draws an ever-tightening noose around Michaels, her FBI cohorts, and the people she loves most. The Johansens do a page-turning job of tying up all the loose ends in this complex cat-and-mouse game, but they always manage to leave one thread dangling: just the kind of ploy designed to keep loyal series fans eagerly anticipating the next installment.--Booklist

The Forsaken

Ace Atkins (Get this book)
Cases both hot and cold force a Mississippi sheriff to confront issues from the past. For now at least, former Army Ranger Quinn Colson is the sheriff of Tibbehah County. Hidden behind the county's down-home atmosphere is a seething mass of corruption, drug dealing and violent crime. Quinn and his sharpshooting deputy, Lillie Virgil, are under investigation for shooting a crooked sheriff and stealing money. Former sheriff Johnny Stagg remains Tibbehah's political power. Atkins is at the top of his game in Quinn's fourth appearance, filled with nonstop action and moral ambiguities. The sheriff's many flaws only enhance his human appeal.--Kirkus

The Bone Orchard

Paul Doiron (Get this book)
Having quit the Maine Warden Service for various personal reasons, Mike Bowditch barely ekes out a living as a fishing guide, showing off Maine's North Woods to tourists, in Edgar finalist Doiron's excellent fifth series installment. Though he still spends most of his time outdoors, Mike is acutely aware that he no longer has the authority to arrest lawbreakers, nor does he have the respect of his former colleagues. Mike realizes just how much of an outsider he is when his mentor and former boss, Sgt. Kathy Frost, kills Jimmy Gammon, a distraught Afghan war veteran and former military policeman, in self-defense. Later, a gunman seriously wounds Kathy outside her farmhouse. Despite his lack of authority, Mike joins the investigation into Kathy's shooting, sorting through the list of suspects, who include members of Gammon's politically connected family, his former platoon mates, and Kathy's vengeful neighbor. Or was Kathy's alcoholic brother with a gambling problem the real target? Thoughtful plotting and strong characters raise this above the crime novel pack.--Publisher's Weekly

The Book of Life

Deborah Harkness (Get this book)
In the final installment of Harkness's All Souls Trilogy witch historian Diana Bishop and her vampiric husband, Matthew Clairmont, freshly returned to the present from their sojourn in Elizabethan England, have ample challenges to contend with. They still seek the missing pages of Ashmole 782, the mystical manuscript known as the Book of Life and the key to the origin of all supernatural beings, and now must negotiate the internal politics of Matthew's extended vampire family. The storytelling is lively and energetic, and Diana remains an appealing heroine even as her life becomes ever more extraordinary. A delightful wrap-up to the trilogy.--Publisher's Weekly

The Butcher

Jennifer Hillier (Get this book)
Thirty years ago, Seattle Police Capt. Edward Shank put down a serial killer dubbed the Butcher. Edward's bullet ended Rufus Wedge's sorry life. But did the killings end? Hillier's third thriller fairly shudders with tension. Edward is ready to retire to an assisted living facility and give his grandson, Matt, the family home, a beloved Victorian in a posh neighborhood. An up-and-coming chef, Matt has parlayed his successful food-truck business into Adobo, the hottest restaurant in town, and the reality show networks are calling. There's no escape from the brutal truths exposed.The secrets of the past refuse to keep quiet in this disquieting, taut thriller. --Kirkus

Days of Rage: A Pike Logan Thriller

Brad Taylor (Get this book)
A Pike Logan thriller filled with heart-thumping action and insane heroics. In Munich in 1972, terrorists murder the entire Israeli team at the Summer Olympics. Echoes reverberate to the present day when a MOSSAD agent sniffs out intelligence in Bulgaria and Turkey. A nefarious Nigerian is up to no good. Two of Logan's Taskforce members die. The Russians have a mole in President Peyton Warren's administration. All this sets up the story of a terrorist plot to strike again in the spirit of the Munich attacks but far, far worse. A fun, satisfying adventure.--Kirkus

Eden in Winter

Richard North Patterson (Get this book)
Patterson concludes his Blaine family trilogy with Adam home on Martha's Vineyard coping with the fallout from the death of his estranged father, Benjamin, a world-famous novelist. Opening with Ben dead, this novel chronologically follows the first in the series, Fall from Grace (2012). The state is determining Ben's cause of death-an accidental fall or murder, with Ben pushed from a steep promontory. Adam knows it was murder, and he knows the killer. Nevertheless, given a multigenerational web of betrayals, infidelity and abuse, Adam decides to protect the murderer. An intriguing psychological examination of a damaged family.--Kirkus

Half a King

Joe Abercrombie (Get this book)
In this superb fantasy trilogy kickoff, Abercrombie regales readers with the tale of a young man who is thrust onto the throne by unexpected betrayal. Yarvi, the king's second son, is not destined for the Black Chair or kingship of Gettland: he has a withered left hand, and is bound to become a minister. But everything changes when his brother and father are murdered. Yarvi is clever and knowledgeable, thanks to the years he spent studying for the ministry, but none of that will amount to much unless he can survive the sheer cruelty of being raised to the crown, nearly murdered, and traded into slavery in the span of days. Abercrombie's stellar prose style and clever plot twists will be sure to please both adult and teen readers.--Publisher's Weekly

Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country

CJ Box (Get this book)
Box isn't known for short stories, he's so busy writing full-length novels that it's hard to imagine he has time to do anything else but he has, over the years, published some, not all of them easy to find. This collection includes 10 in all, 3 of them new. The surprise for some readers may be that only 4 of these tie in to the Joe Pickett series. And, while those are a pleasure, it's the others that are most interesting, demonstrating the author's versatility with a diverse array of ideas. Here's hoping we won't have to wait long for more short stuff from Box.--Booklist

Last Orders (War That Came Early)

Harry Turtledove (Get this book)
Turtledove delivers the final installment-and there's room for a maybe in there-of his series developing an alternate-history version of World War II. What if, for instance, the Spanish Civil War had dragged on? Imagine, then, a 1943 where fascist Nationalists backed by Nazi Germany wage trench warfare against Republican communists assisted by independently operating Americans and Europeans. Further suppose that in 1938, when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, Britain and France had allied themselves with Nazi Germany to battle the communist Soviet Union. Disdaining broad brush strokes, Turtledove's focus on the characters serves to fill out the big picture with patient, nitty-gritty detail. It's all quite plausible, sure, and armchair warriors will have much to ponder.Some readers may find the conclusion messy and unsatisfying, but that's part of Turtledove's argument: War often is.--Kirkus

Wayfaring Stranger

James Lee Burke (Get this book)
Early in this epic American saga, Weldon Holland, the grandson of lawman and series character Hackberry Holland, has a chance run-in with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in Texas, shortly before the notorious bank robbers are gunned down in Louisiana. Weldon has another, more significant coming-of-age experience toward the end of WWII. As an Army second lieutenant, he rescues Sgt. Hershel Pine when both are trapped behind German lines. Weldon later saves Rosita Lowenstein, a concentration camp prisoner, who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Burke, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series, writes with great assurance and wisdom, as well as a kind of bitter nostalgia for lost innocence.--Publisher's Weekly

The Hundred-Year House

Rebecca Makkai (Get this book)
Charmingly clever and mischievously funny, Makkai follows her enthusiastically praised first novel, The Borrower, with an intriguingly structured taleeach section takes a step back in timeset on a fabled, possibly haunted estate north of Chicago. After the alleged suicide of its beautiful first matriarch, Laurelfield was turned into an artists' colony in 1906 and thrived until an even more mysterious turn of events led to the property's return to strictly private use. Her offbeat characters and suspenseful story could have added up to a stylish romp. Instead, Makkai offers that and much more as she stealthily investigates the complexities of ambition, sexism, violence, creativity, and love in this diverting yet richly dimensional novel.--Booklist

California

Edan Lepucki (Get this book)
In her suspenseful debut, Lepucki envisions a postapocalyptic America and the people left behind. After fleeing a decaying, ransacked Los Angeles to begin anew in the wilderness, married couple Cal and Frida are faced with dwindling supplies and an uncertain future. When Frida discovers she might be pregnant, the need to connect with other survivors becomes all the more imperative. The couple finds hope after stumbling upon a fortified rogue encampment in the woods with startling connections to Frida's past. As seen in chapters told from their alternating perspectives, the less they trust each other, the more tension mounts, building to an explosive climax that few readers will see coming.--Publisher's Weekly

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands

Chris Bohjalian (Get this book)
Even before catastrophe strikes the Cape Abenaki nuclear power plant that her father manages, 16-year-old Emily Shepard's world is less than ideal. As the child of alcoholics she's seen more drama than most people twice her age, but the ordinary insanity of life pales beside the reactor meltdown that turns Vermont's Northeast Kingdom into a wasteland. After losing her parents, home, and dog to the disaster that her father is suspected of causing, Emily is left homeless and alone except for the similarly dispossessed nine-year-old boy that she's taken under her wing. Before long, Emily is cutting herself to relieve her grief, isolation, and overwhelming fear of what she's supposed to do with the rest of her life. No stranger to tough issues, Bohjalian tackles nuclear power, homelessness, and self-mutilation with his trademark sensitivity, careful research, and elegant prose. These are heavy subjects to read about--Emily's story is both heartbreaking and frightening, and even the final denouement is afflicted with sorrow. Nevertheless, the book rings with poetry and truth. Neither Bohjalian's fans nor book clubs will be disappointed.--Library Journl

The Competition

Marcia Clark (Get this book)
In a horrific scene torn from the headlines, two masked gunmen massacre students and staff at a pep rally in the gym of their suburban L.A. high school. Two bodies found in the library, masks at their sides, are presumably the shooters, who committed mutual suicide. But it's soon apparent that the library scene was staged and the real shooters escaped, having not only exceeded Columbine's body count but also having walked away alive. Clark handles sometimes painfully raw scenes with great sensitivity and skillfully works in material about what makes a mass murderer, as she ratchets up suspense to a deadly conclusion. Her fourth legal thriller featuring Knight is another tour de force.--Booklist

The Dead Will Tell

Linda Castillo (Get this book)
A pair of cold cases turns hot for an Ohio police chief with an Amish background. Painters Mill Police Chief Kate Burkholder is just settling into a romantic relationship with Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent John Tomasetti when two cases from the past throw their lives into turmoil. Tomasetti learns that one of the men who murdered his wife and children has gotten off on a technicality. His violent reaction is understandable but still disturbing to Kate, who thought he had put the past behind him; she has little time to ponder, though, when the gruesome killing of a solid citizen demands all her attention. No one who picks up Kate's stunning sixth case, a marriage of thriller and police procedural, will put it down unfinished.--Kirkus

Landline

Rainbow Rowell (Get this book)
A marriage in crisis, a magical intervention and a bittersweet choice. TV writer Georgie McCool is trying to have it all, but it becomes clear that she's failing when her husband, Neal, heads to Nebraska for a family Christmas with their kids-without her. The career opportunity of a lifetime has appeared, but now her marriage may be ending as a result. What seems to be the setup for just another contemporary novel about midlife struggles takes a near-paranormal turn when Georgie finds a way to talk to Neal, but he's not the Neal who's just left her. Though some teens might not be interested in the story, adult fans will love Rowell's return to a story close to their hearts.The realities of a grown-up relationship are leavened by the buoyancy and wonder of falling in love all over again.--Kirkus

Dry Bones in the Valley

Tom Bouman (Get this book)
When an unidentified body is found under a boulder on an old man's land in rural Pennsylvania, the murder investigation reveals that the patchwork assembly of area law enforcement is paper-thin. And, when a second body is discovered, the lawmen find themselves even more shorthanded. Wild Thyme Township police officer Henry Farrell, a bearded, brooding veteran, throws himself into the case, working past the point of exhaustion and neglecting his own health as he navigates personal boundaries that must be considered in the context of property lines. A dark ending unearths a long-held secret but leaves enough ambiguity to suggest plenty of tales to tell in future installments. A strong debut for readers who like their woods dark and deep.--Booklist

House Reckoning

Mike Lawson (Get this book)
In Lawson's enjoyable ninth Joe DeMarco thriller, the Congressional fix-it man steps out of the Washington, D.C., political mud to focus on a personal quest: tracking down the man who murdered his father decades ago. DeMarco has long known that his father, Gino, worked for a violent mobster in New York City. Now a dying mobster who knew Gino reveals that a corrupt cop, whose career has since blossomed, was the killer. A well-balanced plot reveals the intriguing backstory of the likable DeMarco, who knows that handling life's problems is often a matter of compromise.--Publisher's Weekly

Inside Man

Jeff Abbott (Get this book)
Thriller Award winner Abbott draws on Shakespeare's "King Lear" for his outstanding fourth Sam Capra novel. When Steve Robles, an old friend of Sam's, is shot dead outside the Miami bar that Sam runs, Sam, a former CIA agent, resolves to find Steve's killer. Under the name Sam Chevalier, Sam goes "inside" the luxurious Varela family compound in Puerto Rico, where Steve was working a security job for frightened Cordelia Varela. Abbott injects enough of Sam's back story to make his intricate plot believable, judiciously spices his tale with tasteful but usually interrupted romance, and convincingly makes Sam a genuine contemporary "chevalier."--Publisher's Weekly

One Plus One

Jojo Moyes (Get this book)
One Plus One equals one fine novel. With its ensemble cast of skillfully crafted characters from single-mom Jess Thomas to tortured goth teen Nicky and gifted sister Tanzie to Ed Nicholls, technology millionaire each person's story flows on its own, yet they all meld together into an uncommonly good story about family, trust, and love. Bravo to Moyes for delivering toothsome characters in a story readers will truly care about.--Booklist

Peter Pan Must Die

John Verdon (Get this book)
Verdon hit the ground running with his debut novel, and he hasn't lost a step through three more fine thrillers. Here retired NYPD homicide detective Dave Gurney is asked to investigate what may be a cooked guilty verdict in the murder of real-estate tycoon and gubernatorial candidate Carl Spalter. He quickly finds evidence that will overturn the conviction and release Spalter's wife from prison, but he also finds hints that the real culprit is a bizarre, almost-diabolical European assassin known as Peter Pan. Mix in bent cops, gangsters, politics, big money, lies, and hints of incest, and you have a wonderfully compelling page-turner.--Booklist

The Prime Minister's Secret Agent

Susan Elia MacNeal (Get this book)
Back from a deadly undercover mission in Berlin in 1941, agent Maggie Hope feels dead inside. Working as an instructor at the Scottish black-ops base where she herself was trained, Maggie is plagued with what Churchill calls the black dog of depression. But when she takes time off to see a friend's ballet performance in Edinburgh and becomes involved in a murder investigation, her senses are reawakened. In her fourth solidly researched Maggie Hope mystery, MacNeal details small slips that lead to great tragedies as she lays the groundwork for a post-Pearl mission for Maggie. A treat for WWII buffs and mystery lovers alike.--Booklist

Phantom Instinct

Meg Gardiner (Get this book)
A year after Harper Flynn's boyfriend was murdered when gunmen stormed the nightclub where she worked, Harper is still struggling with survivor's guilt and lingering questions. The LAPD investigation concluded that the two gunmen found dead in the club acted alone, but Harper saw three shooters. When she spots someone stalking her, Harper is convinced the third shooter is back. Harper and Aiden's alliance is full of heady chemistry, but a layer of mutual distrust lends a suspense-building unpredictability that thriller fans will love.--Booklist

The Arsonist

Sue Miller (Get this book)
With her trademark elegant prose and masterful command of subtle psychological nuance, Miller explores the tensions between the summer people and the locals in a small New Hampshire town. Frankie Rowley, after years spent doing relief work abroad, has returned to her parents' summer home, unsure of whether she will ever go back to East Africa, feeling depleted by that region's seemingly endless suffering. But the reassuring comfort of the small town she has been coming to since she was a girl is shattered by a series of fires set by an arsonist who has targeted the rambling summer homes of the wealthy. In this suspenseful and romantic novel, Miller delicately parses the value of commitment and community, the risky nature of relationships, and the yearning for meaningful work.--Booklist

Cop Town

Karin Slaughter (Get this book)
In her first stand-alone novel, Slaughter revisits the themes of her best-selling 1970s-set Criminal (2012). In Atlanta in 1974, Kate Murphy shows up for her first day of work at the Atlanta Police Department. Brought up in the genteel section of town, the daughter of a wealthy psychiatrist, Kate is wholly unprepared for the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of a department that is openly hostile to women. Slaughter graphically exposes the rampant racism, homophobia, and misogyny of cop culture in the 1970s, made all the more jarring by its contrast with Kate's cultured upbringing. Winning leads, the retro setting, and a riveting plot make this one of Slaughter's best.--Booklist

The Beekeeper's Ball

Susan Wiggs (Get this book)
The unconscionable incident with Calvin Sharp caused Isabel Johansen to leave culinary school and flee to her family's home, Bella Vista, nestled in the Sonoma wine country. Isabel continues to hone her culinary skills while turning Bella Vista into a destination for food lovers. She even adds a cooking school and is eagerly planning Bella Vista's first major event, her sister Tess' wedding. But Isabel's hard-earned happiness is shattered when Calvin, now a famous TV chef, chooses her town as the venue for his new restaurant. Wiggs' carefully detailed plotlines, one contemporary and one historical, with their candid look at relationships and their long-term effects, are sure to captivate readers.--Booklist

The Silkworm

Robert Galbraith (Get this book)
J.K. Rowling, under her Galbraith pseudonym, again demonstrates her adroitness at crafting a classic fair-play whodunit in a contemporary setting, peopled with fully realized primary and secondary characters. PI Cormoran Strike, who debuted in 2013's The Cuckoo's Calling, has had a professional renaissance after his success in that book. To spite an uppity client, he accepts Leonora Quine's request to trace her missing husband, novelist Owen Quine. Leonora is pretty sure that Owen is at a writer's retreat, but has hit a dead end trying to get its address. Meanwhile, someone is following Leonora, and excrement is being shoved through her mail slot. Strike begins his search in London's literary circles, aided by his resourceful assistant, Robin Ellacott. He eventually finds a horrifically mutilated Owen, who was killed in a manner apparently copied from a controversial unpublished manuscript. The evolving relationship between Strike and Robin, whose fiance objects to her choice of work, is realistically portrayed, and Golden Age fans will be delighted by passages that could have been written by John Dickson Carr.--Publisher's Weekly

The Fever

Megan Abbott (Get this book)
The lives of teenage girls are dangerous, beautiful things in Abbott's stunning seventh novel.At Dryden High School, 16-year-old Deenie Nash and her best friends Lise Daniels and Gabby Bishop are an inseparable trio. The daughter of Tom, a popular teacher, and younger sister of hockey star Eli, Deenie radiates the typical teenage mixture of confidence and vulnerability. When Lise suffers an unexplained and violent seizure in the middle of class, no one is quite sure how to react. Until another girl and then another exhibit the same symptoms. Nothing should be taken at face value in this jealousy- and hormone-soaked world except that Abbott is certainly our very best guide.--Kirkus

The Red Room

Ridley Pearson (Get this book)
Previous Risk Agent ops in Shanghai and Amsterdam featured Rutherford Risk operatives John Knox and Grace Chu on the hunt, but this installment is all about impossible escapes and elusive spycraft. The plan is for Knox and Chu to travel to Istanbul, broker the sale of a long-buried antiquity to one of Knox's current import/export clients, and finagle five minutes in the room with their mark, the client's brother. Another hit in this knockout thriller series featuring nonstop danger, casually clever descriptions of exotic locales, evolving characterization, and evenhanded sociopolitical commentary. Recommended for every beach bag.--Booklist

Rogues

Martin, George R R, Dozois, Gardner (Get this book)
Martin and Dozois assemble a lively collection of original stories across several fictional genres that have in common Conan-like qualities.The biggest draw in this sprawling collection is a new Song of Ice and Fire yarn by Martin, giving back story to a mid-Targaryen dynasty scamp whose "bold deeds, black crimes and heroic death in the carnage that followed are well known to all." But then, arguably, all the men of Westeros are rogues. Of particular interest, too, are a grandly whimsical piece by Neil Gaiman that begs to be turned into a Wes Anderson film; a shaggy dog tale by Paul Cornell of a Flashman-ish character gone to seed. Rambunctious, rowdy and occasionally R-rated: a worthy entertainment, without a dud in the bunch, that easily moves from swords and sorcery to hard-boiled Chandler-esque.--Kirkus

The Last Magazine

Michael Hastings (Get this book)
The promise of this remarkable novel will never be fulfilled because it is that saddest of literary phenomenathe brilliant but posthumous first novel. Hastings, former Rolling Stone journalist and author of the memoir I Lost My Love in Baghdad (2008), was killed when his automobile crashed in June 2013. Here, in an apparently completed novel found in Hastings' files after his death, the protagonist Michael Hastings is an intern at The Magazine, a newsweekly, and author Hastings has keen and considerable insight into the functioning of a Time-like periodical between 2002 and 2005, Iraq to Katrina. This is powerful, sharp, often funny, and very compelling reading.--Booklist