BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BIO of Pulitzer-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein is hampered by its subject’s reserve.

AMUSING CHICK-LIT FLUFF about a family whose women are cursed with romantic disaster never quite takes off.

UNFORGETTABLE, VIVID, POETIC tale of a teenage girl’s hardscrabble Mississippi life as Hurricane Katrina hits.

A TOUGH OLD DETECTIVE surrounded by over-the-top theater types and murders in an historic Bath playhouse. Fun!

FASCINATING REAL-LIFE ADVENTURE follows conservation biologists fighting invasive species on remote islands.

A WRITER’S LOVE LETTER to the psychiatrist who saved her life is quirkily touching, if a bit chaotic.

LONDON’S HIGH SOCIETY, titled Russian expatriates, and complex murders add up to a snazzy 1922-set procedural!

INTENSE, SENSITIVE, EVOCATIVE story of the impact of a hate crime in a small town; YA that resonates for adults.

SEARING AND ELOQUENT memoir of child sexual abuse, family dysfunction, and the healing power of nature.

RUTH RENDELL’S WEXFORD, now retired, shines in his first case as a London consultant. Complex and well-wrought.