Editor’s Choice
The Poison Tree, by Erin Kelly, $26.95.
British author Kelly deftly weaves past and present in her highly satisfying debut novel of psychological suspense, which reveals how a convicted murderer came to be released after serving 10 years in prison. The surprises don’t end until the last page of this twisted tale with its wonderfully evocative London atmosphere. Publishers Weekly
Fiction
The Judas Gate, by Jack Higgins, $26.95.
The massacre of 12 U.S. Army Rangers and a British medical team in Afghanistan reveals that an Irishman, code- named Shamrock, is applying IRA tactics to the Taliban’s struggle against the West in Higgins’ less-than-satisfying 18th Sean Dillon thriller. Publishers Weekly
Heartstone, by C.J. Sansom, $7.95. Few contemporary authors are as adept as Sansom at blending a whodunit with a sweeping historical epic, as shown by his fifth mystery featuring English attorney Matthew Shardlake. Strong prose makes Tudor England instantly accessible, and the clockwork plotting sustains deep interest throughout. Publishers Weekly
Nonfiction
Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant, by Paul Clemens, $25.95.
Detroit native Clemens puts an unusual spin on his study of the decline of American manufacturing in this firsthand account of what happens after a plant closes its doors. The author spent a year with the workers responsible for disassembling the plant and revels in the conversation, mannerisms and expertise of the “ordinary” working men. Publishers Weekly
Cocaine’s Son: A Memoir, by Dave Itzkoff, $24.
In his second memoir, New York Times reporter Itzkoff (“Lads”) turns his attention to his father, an outlandish man who was a drug addict for most of his life. His prose proves at once entertaining and sensitive enough to make this a worthy addition to the recent array of addiction-based memoirs. Publishers Weekly
Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World, by John Szwed, $29.95.
Columbia music professor Szwed recounts Lomax’s six decades of field trips seeking out and recording folk music untainted by commercial jazz and pop influences, especially in the American South, where he discovered blues luminaries Muddy Waters and Lead Belly. Publishers Weekly
Paperbacks
Where the God of Love Hangs Out, by Amy Bloom, $15.
Bloom’s new collection features two sets of connected stories that characterize the far-reaching trajectory of love within memorable groups of characters. An eminently readable new collection. Library Journal
Gangs in Garden City: How Immigration, Segregation, and Youth Violence Are Changing America’s Suburbs, by Sarah Garland, $16.95.
A comprehensive history of the transition of Nassau County, N.Y., from idyllic Long Island retreat to posse-plagued demilitarized zone. In muscular, Hemingway-esque prose, Garland weaves an economic and social history of Latino gangs in suburbia around unrelentingly bleak personal narratives of gang members. Washington Post
The Lotus Eaters, by Tatjana Soli, $14.99.
Seen through the lens of young American freelance photographer Helen Adams, this evocative debut novel is a well researched exploration of Vietnam between 1963 and 1975, when the United States pulled out of the conflict. Like Marianne Wiggins’ “Eveless Eden” and Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” before it, Soli’s poignant work will grab the attention of most readers. Library Journal
Coming Up
Heart of the City: Nine Stories of Love and Serendipity on the Streets of New York, by Ariel Sabar, $24.
The National Book Critics Circle Award-winner returns with stories of people who meet in New York and go on from there. (February)
