Editor’s Choice
Good-Bye and Amen, by Beth Gutcheon, $24.95. Sydney and Laurus Moss, whose lives were the subject of Gutcheon’s “Leeway Cottage,” have died. When their three adult children gather at their summer home in Dundee, Maine, to divide up their parents’ possessions, they feel determined not to fight over tea cozies. Library Journal
FICTION
Chasing Darkness, by Robert Crais, $25.95. The shooting of an apparent serial killer allows the LAPD to close the books on seven murders — but private eye Elvis Cole won’t have it. Some of the twists are more convincing than the last one, which leaves a few loose ends. But it’s great to see Cole (“The Forgotten Man”) back in action. Kirkus
The Glimmer Palace, by Beatrice Colin, $25.95. While Germany falls apart, a determined girl with a dark past becomes a screen goddess in the British author’s intelligent, if lengthy, latest novel (after “Disappearing Act”). Colin’s tale of friendship, fate and fascism begins with an irreverent, quirky tone but soon turns more brooding. Happy endings are few. Kirkus
NONFICTION
The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson, by Kevin J. Hayes, $34.95. Another study of Thomas Jefferson, but with a difference: This one focuses on Jefferson’s thought, especially on its development from his youth. Publishers Weekly
The Man on Mao’s Right: From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square, My Life Inside China’s Foreign Ministry, by Ji Chaozhu, $28. The longtime translator for Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong recounts his arduous and ultimately vindicating life’s journey through China’s darkest decades. A true “fly-on-the-wall” account of the momentous changes in Chinese society and international relations over the last century. Kirkus
The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s by G. Calvin Mackenzie and Robert Weisbrot. Mackenzie and Weisbrot (“Maximum Danger”), professors of government and history respectively at Colby College, provide an insightful and well-argued analysis of the 1960s’ social, economic and policy dynamics that opened both the public and the government to great and necessary social legislation. Publishers Weekly
PAPERBACKS
Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA, by Julia Alvarez, $15. In this fascinating, exhaustively researched book about a girl’s coming of age, bestselling novelist Julia Alvarez studies the ancient ritual that unites the U.S. Latino community and is rapidly evolving and spreading across ethnic lines. Washington Post
The Shadow Walker, by Michael Walters, $14. Set in Mongolia, Walters’ riveting first novel opens with a slew of murders investigated by a local policeman, Nergui, and a visiting British police inspector, Drew McLeish. Publishers Weekly
The Lady in Blue, by Javier Sierra, $14. Destiny propels an agnostic journalist to rediscover his faith in this intriguing paranormal puzzler about a mysterious, bilocating “lady in blue” from bestseller Sierra (“The Secret Supper”). Publishers Weekly
COMING UP
Heat Lightning, by John Sandford, $26.95. Virgil Flowers, the protege of Sandford’s “Prey” series protagonist, Lucas Davenport, is back in this story of bodies showing up at Vietnam memorials around the Twin Cities. Flowers becomes convinced the killers are professionals working for a list. (September)
Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners, by Laura Claridge, $30. A biography of Post, a daughter of high society who, after a scandalous divorce, became a tireless advocate for middle-class and immigrant Americans in books, radio and a newspaper column. (October)
