Editor’sChoice
U Is for Undertow, by Sue Grafton, $27.95. False-memory syndrome provides the core of best-seller Grafton’s intriguing 21st crime novel featuring wry P.I. Kinsey Millhone (after “T Is for Trespass”). Though whodunit purists may be a bit disappointed that the culprit is revealed well before book’s end, loyal Kinsey fans and those new to the canon will find much to like. Publishers Weekly
FICTION
Box 21, by Ander Roslund and Borge Hellström, $26. The Swedish writing team of Roslund and Hellström makes its U.S. debut with a remarkable tale of loss, addiction and revenge set in Stockholm’s seedy underworld. This taut and nuanced thriller should appeal to fans of Mo Hayder, Denise Mina and, of course, Henning Mankell. Publishers Weekly Twisted Tree, by Kent Meyers, $24. In his beautiful and unsettling new novel, Meyers examines the effects of a murder on the residents of a small South Dakota town. Meyers’ small masterpiece deserves comparison to the work of Raymond Carver, Joy Williams and Peter Matthiessen. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
The Vikings, by Robert Ferguson, $32.95. Scandinavian-studies scholar Ferguson puts the violence back in the Viking Age in his knotty, dense, intriguing look at these restless voyagers and conquerors. Ferguson’s scholarly study requires close attention, but the intellectual rewards are plentiful. Kirkus
The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives, edited by Otto Penzler, $25.95. Profiles of fiction’s leading sleuths originally published individually for patrons of editor Penzler’s (“Black Noir”) Mysterious Bookshop. The most notable feature of the collection is the variety of approaches taken by the contributors. Publishers Weekly
My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times, by Harold Evans, $27.99. One of the great editors of our era chronicles his life in news reporting and book publishing. As editor of the London Sunday Times and The Times, and later as president and publisher of Random House, Evans not only told the stories that changed the social and political world, he often was part of them. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, by Chris Greenhalgh, $15. English poet Greenhalgh’s debut novel about Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky’s short, fiery affair provides an intense look at love, passion and heartbreak. This finely wrought study in artistic and romantic passion is remarkable for its explicit depiction of the devastation left in the wake of selfishness. Publishers Weekly
The Journal of Helene Berr, by Helene Berr, $15.95. The diary of a young Sorbonne graduate who died at Bergen-Belsen, this important new addition to the literature on the Holocaust and the French Occupation is sure to be welcomed by general readers and scholars alike. The diary recounts the experiences and private thoughts of the 21-year- old daughter of a prominent Jewish family. Library Journal
Home to Roost: Chasing Chickens Through the Ages, by Bob Sheasley, $15.99. Part-time Pennsylvania farmer and full-time Philadelphia Inquirer editor Sheasley combines firsthand experience and wide-ranging research in his treasury of chicken lore. A diverting excursion through the coop and beyond. Kirkus
COMING UP
Shadow Tag, by Louise Erdrich, $25.99. Erdrich’s bleak latest book (after “The Plague of Doves”) chronicles the collapse of a family. Erdrich ties her various themes together with an intriguing metaphor — riffing on American Indian beliefs about portraits as shadows and shadows as souls — while her steady pacing and remarkable insight into the inner lives of children combine to make this a satisfying and compelling novel. (February)
