Paige Daniels’s NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR starts with a great premise. In her imagined dystopian future, governments mandate high-tech neural implants as a way to make social processes, from economics to national defense, move more smoothly. Those who reject the technology are exiled to a Non-Compliance Sector, a combination ghetto, refugee camp, and frontier settlement.

Set against this intriguing backdrop, Daniels creates a complex outlaw heroine. Shea Kelly is a tough lady, a skilled computer and electronics hacker, and a fiercely loyal friend. She’s ready to fight when she needs to, which in the rough world of the Non-Compliance Sector is often, but she’s also capable of love, trust, and even yearning. It says a lot for Daniels’s skill that she’s found new twists to put on the noir hero(ine)’s outsider code, and the nuances of Shea’s rebellion and resistance are compelling.

NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR is a fast-paced read that delivers plenty of action along with its intriguingly imagined world. And it has a sequel, NON-COMPLIANCE: THE TRANSITION, for those wanting further Shea Kelly adventure!

COMPELLING DYSTOPIAN FUTURE noir focuses on rebels scratching out a living without mandated brain implants.

Science fiction and humor can be a tricky combination. When done well, the result can be as memorable as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; when handled clumsily…well, it’s best to pass over those books in silence. In his book Sequence, Adam Moon shows a gift for incorporating everyday humor into a familiar science-fiction plot.

Moon’s protagonist, Chris, is an average bro abducted by advanced aliens onto an ark-style spaceship for experimental breeding purposes. Where Moon absolutely shines is in catching the comedy inherent in a completely ordinary guy’s reaction to an extraordinary, and often imagined, situation. Chris knows enough about the conventions of UFO stories to understand that he’s an unlikely hero, but he’s also comfortable enough in his own skin to talk back to the aliens he encounters, and to trust in his own instincts even in these bizarre circumstances.

Comedy is hard, and Moon’s skill with it is impressive. Where the book falls a bit short is in its mechanics; the prose is still rough enough to distract from the story in places. All in all, though, Sequence is an enjoyable read.

ENGAGING RIFF ON the science-fiction standby of alien abduction shines with its humor, but could use editing.

The last book about a meat processing plant that made me cry was The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair; the last book about a deadly fire that made me cry was Stewart O’Nan’s The Circus Fire. In A Southern Tragedy, In Crimson and Yellow, Lawrence Naumoff combines the clarity and passion of Sinclair and other 20th-century social realists with the same poet’s eye for telling, humanizing details and vivid touches of regional culture that mark the very best of today’s Southern writing, and creates a heart-wrenching and sobering tale.

A Southern Tragedy takes as its basic material the horrific 1991 fire at a Hamlet, North Carolina chicken processing plant, which killed dozens of workers and injured dozens more. In a heartbreaking echo of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, plant management had locked emergency doors and workers were trapped inside.

The basic story is tragic enough. Where Naumoff’s novelization brings additional emotional power is in his vivid evocation of the town and its people, and of the intermeshed destinies and choices that brought both victims and survivors together. That human element is what gives the story its lasting power as a haunting elegy and a call to action.

IMPASSIONED, TOUCHING, POETIC novel based on a real-life tragedy: a chicken plant fire that killed dozens.

Mixing the charm of chick lit with the suspense of a thriller requires a deft hand; in her debut novel, From Bangkok with Despair: (Mis)adventures in D. C., Tichakorn Khroopan Hill is well up to the task. The book follows Joyjira, a Thai reporter trying to make a new life in the US after a nasty breakup back in Bangkok. Joy’s an engaging character, whose breathless love for Hello Kitty and designer shoes is balanced by her practical approach to the challenges of her new life and new job.

The camaraderie (and occasional savage backbiting) of a city newsroom is vividly depicted here, as are perspectives of the Thai community in the US, from restaurant chefs to international students. If there’s fault to find with From Bangkok with Despair, it’s that the book does so much at once: it’s a coming of age story, a Beltway thriller, and a romance. Joy’s distinctive voice and character are strong enough to tie the book together, though, and delightful enough to leave readers wanting more from Tichakorn Khroopan Hill.

A FRESH THAI TWIST on the chick-lit thriller! Charming novel stars a Bangkok reporter new to Washington, DC.

THE LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLES of Wall Street, of the Spanish bullring, and of family life, compellingly drawn.

KELLER’S BACK IN BUSINESS! Lawrence Block’s stamp-collecting, philosophical hit man makes a welcome return.