If you are looking for a new thriller, you could do a lot worse than “Faithless,” by veteran writer Karin Slaughter, while in the nonfiction category NBC’s Andrea Mitchell tells us about her career in “Talking Back.” Rayo has reissued Richard Vasquez’s acclaimed novel “Chicano.” And, you, can look forward to a new biography of China’s historical giant, Mao.
FICTION
“Faithless,” by Karin Slaughter, Delacorte, 392 pages, $25|Slaughter’s medical examiner Sara Linton and her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, stumble upon the body of a pretty young woman and set out to find out what happened.
“In the Province of Saints,” by Thomas O’Malley, Little, Brown, 306 pages, $23.95 |The story of a young boy growing up among the feuds in a small, rural Irish community. He learns his own family is wrapped up in one of its deepest secrets.
“Backward Facing Man,” by Don Silver, Ecco, 309 pages, $24.95|A tale of the death of a ’60s radical and her children, particularly daughter Stardust, become wrapped up in the past era and its echoes that continue today.
NONFICTION
“Talking Back …To Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels,” by Andrea Mitchell, Viking, 414 pages, $25.95 |The NBC television news chief foreign affairs correspondent tells the story of her professional life, beginning with her stint as a radio reporter in Philadelphia.
“The Interpreter,” by Alice Kaplan, Free Press, 240 pages, $25|When American troops liberated France at the end of World War II, commanders vowed to severely punish troops who mistreated the French, particularly women. Although they were a small fraction of the whole, black servicemen were convicted of an inordinate number of capital crimes. Kaplan explores the issue.
“Roberts Ridge: A Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan,” by Malcolm MacPherson, Delacorte, 338 pages, $25|Using interviews with the fighters who were there, the author re-creates the harrowing 17-hour battle to rescue some of their own who were shot down during Operation Anaconda.
PAPERBACKS
“Chicano,” by Richard Vasquez, Rayo, 437 pages, $13.95|This is a reprinting of the famous 1970 novel that tells of the Sandoval family, who flee the Mexican Revolution to make a new life in the United States.
“Banishing Verona,” by Margot Livesey, Picador, 353 pages, $14|Verona, who is pregnant, meets a carpenter and painter named Zeke, and the two fall in love. Within a day, Verona disappears. But an undeterred Zeke follows.
“Capote: A Biography,” by Gerald Clarke, Carroll & Graf, 636 pages, $17.95|Clarke spent hundreds of hours interviewing the author and nearly everyone who ever knew him to tell Capote’s story from childhood in Alabama to the New York cultural scene.
COMING UP
“Mao: The Unknown Story,” by Jung Chang and John Halliday, Knopf, 832 pages, $35, October|The authors spent a decade researching this book, spending time with Mao’s inner circle and those who knew him around the world.
“Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq,” by Jason Christopher Hartley, HarperCollins, 336 pages, $22.95, October|The author takes the reader along as he follows the day-to-day life of an infantryman, with days of extreme boredom and adrenaline rushes.
“Queen of the Underworld,” by Gail Godwin, Random House, 352 pages, $24.95, January|The story of a young woman who moves to Miami to work for a newspaper and cover the burgeoning Cuban community recently exiled from its native island.
