Editor’s Choice
Point Omega, by Don DeLillo, $24. DeLillo’s crisp, precisely understated, hauntingly elliptical narrative frames a haltingly revealed story of moral compromise between two viewings of a piece of conceptual art, fashioned from the classic Hitchcock film “Psycho,” displayed at a small museum in the southwestern United States. An icy, disturbing and masterfully composed study of guilt, loss and regret — quite possibly the author’s finest yet. Kirkus
FICTION
Hester: The Missing Years of the Scarlet Letter, by Paula Reed, $24.99. In “The Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne hints that after Hester Prynne’s husband and lover die, Hester and her daughter, Pearl, travel abroad. In her inventive if implausible debut, Reed takes this suggestion and runs wild with it, beginning with Pearl’s inheritance of a small fortune. Publishers Weekly
The Dead Hand, by Paul Theroux, $26. The prolific and well-traveled Theroux follows “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star” with a crime novel set in India. While it’s all good light fun, the real pleasure is Theroux’s talent for rendering place and his irreverent comments on everything from the British royals to pop culture and aging. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, by Ken Gormley. $35. Gormley, a professor of law at Duquesne, reviews the entire sordid business of Clinton’s actions and his enemies’ efforts to bring down his presidency. It’s not an edifying tale. Very few of the book’s cast come off well, except for Secret Service officials and a judge or two. Publishers Weekly
Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent Into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death, by Jim Frederick, $26. Frederick recounts the events leading up to and following the rape and murder of 14-year-old Iraqi Abeer al-Janabi and the subsequent murder of her family. . . . In the end, no one comes away blameless, but readers will better understand how wartime conditions can, on either side, spark unimaginable, catastrophic crimes. Publishers Weekly
The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives, by Brian Dillon, $25. The story of hypochondria through the lens of a few of its famous sufferers. Though the concept has evolved over the centuries, its victims have continued to suffer horribly and to make enormous demands on others. Sturdy research and subtle analysis of these extreme cases produce some startling insights into human suffering. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
The Weight of Heaven, by Thrity Umrigar, $14.99. Umrigar (“The Space Between Us”) continues her exploration of cultural divides in this beautifully written and incisive novel about an American couple’s experience in India. Umrigar establishes herself as a singularly gifted storyteller. Publishers Weekly
The Long Fall, by Walter Mosley, $14. Mosley leaves behind the Los Angeles setting of his Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones series (“Devil in a Blue Dress”) to introduce Leonid McGill, a New York City private detective, who promises to be as complex and rewarding a character as Mosley ever has produced. Publishers Weekly
Look Again, by Lisa Scottolini, $13,99. Legal and illegal shenanigans take a back seat to mother love and its vicissitudes in Scottolini’s barn-burning crossover novel about every adoptive mother’s worst nightmare. Her best book yet. Kirkus
COMING UP
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness and Obsession, by David Grann, $26.95. The author of “The Lost City of Oz” returns on a quest to solve a dozen real-life mysteries. (March)
