QUIRKY TALE of Jefferson’s quest to send a giant moose to a French naturalist illuminates science, patriotism. B PLUS

MR. JEFFERSON AND THE GIANT MOOSE: NATURAL HISTORY IN EARLY AMERICA
The University of Chicago Press
2009

ABSORBING, DETAILED recounting of a far-reaching case of scientific fraud, its implications for science, media. SOLID B

PLASTIC FANTASTIC: HOW THE BIGGEST FRAUD IN PHYSICS SHOOK THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD
Palgrave Macmillan
2010

SARDONIC, TAUT LITERARY thriller centers on a has-been ghostwriter caught up in a notorious serial killer’s web. B PLUS

THE SERIALIST
Simon & Schuster
2010

GRIM, GRIPPING tale of diplomat Roger Casement’s 1912 human rights battle with abusive Peruvian rubber magnates. B PLUS

THE DEVIL AND MR. CASEMENT: ONE MAN’S BATTLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN SOUTH AMERICA’S HEART OF DARKNESS
Farrar Straus Giroux
2010

UNDEAD 1930s BANK ROBBERS. Genius premise, well executed fable; evokes Dillinger, James, other US Robin Hoods. A MINUS

THE MANY DEATHS OF THE FIREFLY BROTHERS
Random House Publishing Group
2010

SURPRISINGLY POETIC, gently suspenseful novel about a search for a man with dementia and the searchers’ secrets. B PLUS

LOST
Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
2010

SWEET BUT NOT SUGARY fable about love and resilience and a marriage bureau in a small Indian city. Charming! A MINUS

THE MARRIAGE BUREAU FOR RICH PEOPLE
Amy Einhorn Books
2009

EVOCATIVE POLICE PROCEDURAL set in 1990s Shanghai features a poet/cop solving a mystery with Mao connections. B PLUS

THE MAO CASE
Minotaur Books
2009

IMPECCABLY RESEARCHED true-crime tale of a particularly grisly, grim 1953 Kansas City kidnapping and murder. SOLID B

ZERO AT THE BONE: THE PLAYBOY, THE PROSTITUTE, AND THE MURDER OF BOBBY GREENLEASE
St. Martin’s Press
2009

CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY details shine in an otherwise formulaic thriller about family secrets and lost memory. B MINUS

BLOOD VINES
St. Martin’s Press
2010