Editor’s Choice
The Darkest Evening of the Year, by Dean Koontz, $27. Set mostly in Southern California, this top-notch thriller from best seller Koontz (“The Good Guy”) depicts with unabashed emotion and wit the magical powers of golden retrievers — in particular, a female named Nickie, who will stop at nothing to save innocent children and protect their guardians. Publishers Weekly
FICTION
Bloodline, by F. Paul Wilson, $25.95. A monstrous scheme to create an evil superman through crude efforts at gene jiggering bedevils urban mercenary Repairman Jack in his 11th outing (after 2006’s “Harbingers”). Like its predecessors, this novel shows why Jack’s saga has become the most entertaining and dependable modern horror-thriller series. Publishers Weekly
Matrimony, by Joshua Henkin, $23.95. Henkin (“Swimming Across the Hudson,” 1997) is the most unassuming of storytellers, his scenes consistently low-key and his prose refreshingly unadorned. Yet, slowly and steadily, he builds a deeply affecting portrait of a marriage, tracking its evolution over 20 years. Booklist
NONFICTION
A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza da Vaca, by Andres Resendez, $26.95. In 1528, 300 conquistadores embarked on the mission of colonizing Florida. They all disappeared. Eight years later, a band of Spanish slave-traders espied a group of men who appeared to be natives. One was white. Just as astonishingly, a companion of his was African. Who were these strange figures? They, and two others, were the last survivors of the lost expedition. The author tells the tale from the Spanish, African and Indian points of view. Publishers Weekly
The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner, compiled by Page Stegner, $30. The letters reveal much about Stegner’s personal life and innermost thoughts, thus acting as a substitute for the autobiography he never wrote. Particularly illuminating are passages that give insight into the background of some of his books, including “Angle of Repose,” which won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1972. Publishers Weekly
Endgame, 1945: The Missing Final Chapter of World War II, by David Stafford, $26.99. Hitler’s death did not end the war in Europe in 1945. Instead, as diplomat-historian Stafford writes, the fighting dragged on for three more momentous months, during which Europe was reshaped. Drawing on the memoirs of participants and on an impressive body of historical work, Stafford delivers a useful survey of a transformative time. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
Heyday, by Kurt Andersen, $15.95. In 1848, young English aristocrat Benjamin Knowles, inspired by regime change he witnessed in France, immigrates to America in search of “vulgarity and strangeness,” enlightened attitudes and democracy in action. He finds them in Manhattan’s Bowery. Booklist
Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, by Karen DeYoung, $17.95. Washington Post reporter DeYoung covers Powell’s entire career in this nuanced, comprehensively researched, first complete biography to bring to life the Jamaican immigrants’ son who became chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretary of state and a widely supported potential candidate for president. Publishers Weekly
COMING UP
The Prince of Bagram Prison, by Alex Carr, $13.95. Carr, which is a pseudonym for accomplished novelist Jenny Siler (“Iced,” “Shot,” “Flashback”) is the story of a young Moroccan boy who is on the run after claiming to have seen the fugitive terrorist Hamid Bagheri. Army intelligence reservist Katharine Caldwell must find the boy before Bagheri does. (March)
