If you liked Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” you might want to check out “The Last Templar,” by Raymond Khoury. On the nonfiction front, look for Ted Morgan’s new memoir, “My Battle of Algiers.” In paperback, “The Harmony Silk Factory,” from Tash Aw, tells the story of a boy from British Malaya. Coming in May is Mark Bowden’s look at the Iranian revolution, during which American hostages were held for more than 400 days.
FICTION
The Last Templar, by Raymond Khoury, Penguin, 416 pages, $24.95| Khoury’s debut novel blends history with religious speculation to tell the story of the secretive Knights of the Templar and their relationship with early Christianity.
The Old Wine Shades, by Martha Grimes, Viking, 341 pages, $25.95 |In her 21st Richard Jury novel, Grimes offers up a tale of a missing woman and child (but the dog shows up). Of course, there is also a body involved.
The Amalgamation Polka, by Stephen Wright, Knopf, 323 pages, $24.95|Wright, author of “Meditations in Green,” tells the story of the Civil War through the eyes of a young man who has grown up in the North while his mother’s family are slave owners in the South.
NONFICTION
My Battle of Algiers, by Ted Morgan, Collins, 284 pages, $24.95|Biographer and historian Morgan was drafted into the French army and served in Algeria in 1956 and 1957. Here he relives a conflict in which every Arab was considered a terrorist.
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, by James Risen, Free Press, 240 pages, $26|The author, a New York Times reporter, opened a can of worms with this account of, among other things, the use of the National Security Agency to monitor telephone calls.
Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore, by Bettany Hughes, Knopf, 458 pages, $30 |British historian Hughes uses archaeology and literature to flesh out the story of the woman who has been idolized and scorned for three millennia.
PAPERBACK
The Harmony Silk Factory, by Tash Aw, Penguin, 404 pages, $15|Johnny Lim is a successful Malaysian businessman whose power ascended after the Japanese occupation during World War II. He’s at odds with his son, Jasper, who sees his father as inherently evil.
Boss Tweed, by Kenneth D. Ackerman, Avalon, 437 pages, $16.95|This is the first biography of the infamous Tammany Hall politician in about 30 years and relies on primary sources for the story of a man whose name is synonymous with graft and greed.
The Ice Queen, by Alice Hoffman, Back Bay Books, 211 pages, $13.95|A quiet woman is struck by lightning and is transformed into a powerful person who enters a relationship with another survivor of a lightning strike.
COMING UP
Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America’s War With Militant Islam, by Mark Bowden, Atlantic Monthly, 676 pages, $24, May|Bowden has turned America’s little wars into a cottage industry with “Black Hawk Down” and “Killing Pablo.” Here he takes on the story of the Iranian students who held 52 Americans hostage for more than a year beginning in November 1979.
The Faithful Spy, by Alex Berenson, Random House, 352 pages, $24.95, April|The first American spy to infiltrate the al-Qaeda terrorist network is sent back to spy on the Americans, and no one is really sure which side he’s on.
Night Watch, by Sarah Waters, Riverhead, 448 pages, $25.95, March|Known for her Victorian historical novels, Waters sets this one among a group of people surviving World War II’s air raids, rationing and blackouts.
