Dennis Lehane is known for his tough-minded crime novels like “Mystic River.” He’s back with a collection of stories and play in “Coronado.” In nonfiction, two Times-Picayune newspaper reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Hurrican Katrina tell us what they’ve learned in “Path of Destruction.” One of our best authors, Jim Harrison, known for novels and novellas alike (“Legends of the Fall”) has a collection of new novellas, “The Summer He Didn’t Die,” just out in paperback. Coming in October, look for a new Spenser novel from Robert B. Parker, titled “Hundred-Dollar Baby.”
FICTION
Coronado, by Dennis Lehane, HarperCollins, 240 pages, $24.95 |In this collection of five stories and a play, crime fiction writer Lehane (“Mystic River”) gets down to the nitty gritty in detailing the lives of characters on the margins of society.
The Unyielding Clamor of the Night, by Neil Bissoondath, Bloomsbury, 347 pages, $24.95|Here is an old-fashioned novel, complete with a dysfunctional family, poverty and terrorism thrown in for good measure.
The Second Horseman, by Kyle Mills, St. Martin’s, 304 pages, $24.95|Mills (“Fade,” “Smoke Screen,” “Sphere of Influence”) offers up another thriller, this one centered on a Ukranian crime organization that is putting a dozen nuclear warheads up for sale.
NONFICTION
Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms, by John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein, Little, Brown, 384 pages, $25.99|The authors, winners of the Pulitzer Prize for covering Hurricane Katrina at the Times- Picayune, tell not only the story of the storm, but how and why it happened.
The Things Between Us, by Lee Montgomery, Free Press, 222 pages, $23|A memoir of a family torn apart by alcohol and other problems, coming back together when the patriarch learns he is dying of cancer.
Americans and Their Land: The House Built on Abundance, by Anne Mackin, University of Michigan, 264 pages, $29.95| Mackin takes a look at the history of land use and at its future, particularly in the West, where the availability of water plays a major role, as always.
PAPERBACKS
The Summer He Didn’t Die, by Jim Harrison, Grove/Atlantic, 288 pages, $13|The author’s fifth collection of novellas showcases Harrison’s facility with the language and his storytelling abilities.
The Tender Bar, by J.R. Moehringer, Hyperion, 413 pages, $14.95|A poignant memoir about a young boy on his way to manhood and the people who inspired him along the way.
An Atomic Romance, by Bobbie Ann Mason, Random House, 266 pages, $13.95| Reed Futrell is falling in love, which is hard enough. But he also has to deal with radioactive contamination and a midlife crisis at the same time.
COMING UP
Hundred-Dollar Baby, by Robert B. Parker, Penquin, 304 pages, $24.95, October| Spenser comes to the aid of April Kyle, a streetwalker in earlier Parker books who has graduated to a madam trying to protect her turf.
Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran, by Jason Elliot, St. Martin’s, 320 pages, $25.95, October|The author of “An Unexpected Light” takes a look at the real Iran, an ancient culture that is both sophisticated and isolated from the rest of the world.
Fire With Fire, by Allan Kahane, Pyro, 334 pages, $24.95, October|When Jake Burke’s wife and daughter are killed by a suicide bomber, he uses his considerable wealth to track down the guilty.
