Editor’s Choice
Execution Dock, by Anne Perry, $26. In this 15th William Monk adventure, the detective has barely settled into his new position as superintendent of the Thames River Police when he witnesses a young couple fall to their deaths from Waterloo Bridge. Was it suicide, accident or murder? Publishers Weekly
FICTION
The Dakota Cipher, by William Dietrich, $26.99. Fast, fun and full of surprises, Dietrich’s rollicking third Ethan Gage escapade (after “The Rosetta Key”) takes the expatriate American diplomat and soldier-of-fortune home to investigate the Louisiana territory, preceding Lewis and Clark, for Napoleon, who claims it was secretly sold back to France. Publishers Weekly
The Glister, by John Burnside, $22.95. In his bleakly beautiful seventh novel, Scottish author Burnside (“The Devil’s Footprint”) delivers a cautionary tale illustrating that greed and an indifference to suffering are the real horrors of modern life. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War On Terror, by Mahmood Mamdani, $226.95. How do we know that genocide is taking place in Darfur? “Because we are told it is,” writes Mamdani (“Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror”), who argues that it is not. Eminently debatable, but a necessary contribution to the literature surrounding both humanitarian aid and African geopolitics. Kirkus
Keepers of the Keys of Heaven: A History of the Papacy, by Roger Collins, $35. Many histories of the papacy are either hagiographical or contentious. Collins’ book is concise, objective and eminently readable — scholarly but accessible to lay readers. He includes the scoundrels as well as the saints but does a fine job of presenting the history without a lot of editorial commentary, deftly letting the events speak for themselves. Library Journal
Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi, by Neal Bascomb, $26. Bascomb (“The Perfect Mile”) details Adolf Eichmann’s wartime atrocities and postwar escapes, and how, in 1960, the Israelis decided to have secret service operatives — mostly Holocaust survivors — secretly kidnap Eichmann and fly him to Israel on El Al, disguised as an airline employee. Publishers Weekly
PAPERBACKS
The Third Angel, by Alice Hoffman, $14.95. In this elegant and stunning novel, veteran heartstring-puller Hoffman (“Here on Earth,” “Seventh Heaven”) examines the lives of three women at different crossroads in their lives, tying their London-centered stories together in devastating retrospect.Publishers Weekly
The Painter of Battles, by Arturo Perez-Reverte. $14. Perez-Reverte delivers a wonderfully suspenseful wartime thriller about a painter and photographer who receives a visit from his troubled past in the form of a man who was the subject of one of his photographs. Publishers Weekly
Watchmen, by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and Barry Marx, $19.99. In a world where superheroes have been outlawed, the murder of amoral government agent and ex-superhero the Comedian leads some of his former colleagues to investigate, and thereby uncover a plot of incredible scope and impact. Library Journal
COMING UP
The Food of a Young America, by Mark Kurlansky, $27.97. Kurlansky (“Cod,” “Salt”) takes us back to the food habits before highways brought the country closer together, before chains imposed uniformity and before freezers negated seasonal foods. (May)
