Editor’s Choice
The Treasure, by Iris Johansen, $25 Set largely in 12th-century Europe, this intricately plotted historical romance from best-seller Johansen, the sequel to Lion’s Bride (1996), is replete with majestic castles, ruthless assassins and gentlemen rogues. Publishers Weekly
FICTION
The Charlemagne Pursuit, by Steve Berry, $26. In best-seller Berry’s fourth thriller to feature ex-Justice Department agent Cotton Malone, Malone embarks on a search for answers about his father, Capt. Forrest Malone, after learning that instead of dying in 1971 in a nuclear sub accident in the North Atlantic, his father actually died while on a secret submarine mission to the Antarctic. Publishers Weekly
Mean Town Blues, by Sam Reaves, $25. At the start of Reaves’ intricate standalone thriller, 27-year-old Tommy McLain suffers a stomach wound in the current Iraq war that ends his army career. Back in the U.S., he decides to seek a new life in Chicago, where he has an old high school friend, Brian Dawson. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher, $21. Fisher has fictionalized her life in several novels (notably “Postcards from the Edge”), but her first memoir (she calls it “a really, really detailed personals ad”) proves that truth is stranger than fiction. There are more juicy confessions and outrageously funny observations packed in these honest pages than most celebrity bios twice the length. Publishers Weekly
Big Boy Rules: America’s Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq, by Steve Fainaru, $26. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post correspondent Fainaru embedded with some of the thousands of “private security contractors” who chauffeur officials, escort convoys and add their own touch of mayhem to the conflict. Fainaru’s vivid reportage makes the mercenary’s dubious motives and chaotic methods a microcosm of a misbegotten war. Publishers Weekly
Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Arch enemy Betrayed the American Revolution — And What It Means for America Today, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, $25.95. (DiLorenzo) blames the Hamiltonian philosophies of a strong central government, a state-run bank, protectionist trade policies, government-subsidized industries and centralized economic planning. DiLorenzo argues that these policies are in direct opposition to the intent of the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution, which sought to limit the control of a central government. Library Journal
PAPERBACKS
The Appeal, by John Grisham, $14. (Grisham) focuses on the absurdity, no matter which side you are on, of judicial elections. Unlike a lot of novels and TV docudramas that selectively latch onto facts to create a false picture, “The Appeal” delivers a real picture of a real problem. And it all goes down easily because he spins it around such a gripping tale. The New York Times
No Place Safe, by Kim Reid, $15. Reid’s well-composed, straightforward memoir recounts the two fraught years of her adolescence when a serial killer terrorized Atlanta. Reid’s mother, an investigator in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office in 1979, told her every detail of the quest for the murderer of 29 victims, mostly young black boys. Publishers Weekly
Remember Me?, by Sophie Kinsella, $14. Kinsella’s engaging tale of a woman who loses her memory of the past three years after an accident and tries to put the pieces together, only to discover that her life inexplicably underwent a Cinderella-esque transformation in those three years. Publishers Weekly
COMING UP
A Darker Place, by Jack Higgins, $26.95. A famous Russian writer is fed up with his government and wants to head West. He makes plans with Sean Dillon and others in the “prime minister’s private army.” There’s one problem, though. He’s still working for the Russians. (February)
