ELEGANT BUSINESS SKULDUGGERY and lovely evocations of Marseille and environs enliven a formulaic caper story.

TALE OF AN UNRAVELING family has some truly lovely moments, but falls back too often on easy epiphanies.

MUTANT PSYCHICS BATTLE for control of a post-apocalyptic Earth and its space colony. Lots of action!

DASHING HISTORICAL IS crammed a bit too full, with kinky sex and psychic powers atop court intrigue, battles.

A YOUNG US WRITER’S memoir of three pilgrimages (including the famed Camino de Santiago) has wit, lacks oomph.

UNUSUAL HISTORICAL DRAMA revolves around the smuggling trade that trafficked Flemish lace into 1630s France.

HISTORICAL MYSTERY HAS a fascinating setting—a Maine Shaker settlement in 1795—if a somewhat threadbare plot.

RETURNING TO DETROIT after a mysterious murder, a man and woman find new hope as well as answers. Atmospheric.

INSIDE ARTISANAL MARIJUANA culture in Holland and the US. Fascinating topic marred by smug, annoying writing.

A COLLEGE STUDENT’S OCD crisis and recovery is detailed in this admirably candid yet oddly lackluster memoir.