Fiction
Gone, by Mo Hayder
When Rose Bradley’s car is stolen with her 11-year-old daughter, Martha, inside, it it appears to be a routine snatch-and-grab. It becomes clear, however, that the carjacker had his sights set on the girl, not the vehicle, when he begins taunting the police, who scramble to find clues to Martha’s whereabouts. Publishers Weekly
The Anatomy of Ghosts, by Andrew Taylor.
Award-winning British crime fiction author Taylor sets his latest novel in 18th-century Cambridge, England, where the elite collegiate aristocracy is investigating a sighting of a local woman’s ghost. While the supernatural element is used more as a mechanism to weave the mystery rather than being the focus of the story, the result remains a successful piece of compelling suspense literature and sophisticated historical crime fiction. Library Journal
We, The Drowned, by Carsten Jensen.
An international hit, this bold seafaring epic spans 100 years in the lives of the men and women from a small town on an island off the Danish coast. Starting with the war between Germany and Denmark in 1848 and continuing through World War II, the men of Marstal sail, fight, trade and die at sea while the women raise their children and wait for their husbands’ and sons’ uncertain return. Publishers Weekly
Nonfiction
Moneymakers, by Ben Tarnoff.
This tale of the most famous counterfeiters in American history is intriguing. The first was busted after a loud, drunken fight with his wife was overheard by neighbors in Colonial Boston. The last, a Philadelphia shopkeeper, sold bogus Confederate bills as souvenirs. Library Journal
Harlem, by Jonathan Gill.
Historian Gill documents Harlem’s transformation from the early days of Dutch settlements and farms to its apogee as the site of one of the 20th century’s most influential musical and literary flowerings in a dense, deftly told history. Gill makes a persuasive case that “change is Harlem’s defining characteristic,” and readers of this vibrant history will appreciate every step of its singular evolution. Publishers Weekly
J.D. Salinger: A Life, by Kenneth Slawenski.
After nearly a decade’s research and an obvious empathy with his reclusive subject’s search for emotional and philosophical equilibrium, Slawenski has compiled an exemplary biography, released in the week of the first anniversary of J.D. Salinger’s death. It’s a highly informative effort to assess the arc of Salinger’s career, the themes of his fiction and his influence on 20th-century American literature. Publishers Weekly
Paperbacks
The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, by Ken Gormley.
A restrained, fair-minded, soup-to-nuts history of the largely fruitless investigations of Bill Clinton that shadowed so much of his presidency. All but the most unregenerate partisans should deem this book fair, even if individual judgments can be challenged. The Washington Post
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine’s Greatest Mysteries, by Molly Caldwell Crosby.
Here’s medical curiosity combining history, mystery and riveting storytelling. Crosby (“The American Plague”) relates the vexing appearance during World War I of encephalitis lethargica — sleeping sickness — through the stories of patients, doctors and public-health servants swept up in an epidemic that affected as many as 5 million people worldwide in a little over a decade. Publishers Weekly
Gator A-Go-Go, by Tim Dorsey.
Spring break, from its innocuous beginnings in 1935 to its drunken orgiastic present, provides the theme for best seller Dorsey’s dizzy 12th adventure to feature vigilante serial killer Serge A. Storms. As usual, Dorsey leavens the slapstick humor with intriguing bits of Florida historical lore. Publishers Weekly
Coming Up
Tabloid City, by Pete Hamill.
Not many know New York City as well as newspaperman Pete Hamill. In his new book, the murders of a wealthy socialite and her secretary turn the city upside down. (May)
