ACTOR/SLEUTH CHARLES PARIS is back, older and sadder but no wiser, in another sharp English theater cozy. SOLID B

A DECENT INTERVAL (CHARLES PARIS SERIES #18)
Severn House Publishers
2013

AMAZING STORY OF THE real-life 1889 race around the world between journalists Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Bisland. B PLUS

EIGHTY DAYS : NELLIE BLY AND ELIZABETH BISLAND’S HISTORY-MAKING RACE AROUND THE WORLD
Ballantine Books
2013

AMAZING STORY OF THE real-life 1889 race around the world between journalists Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Bisland.

EXQUISITELY CRAFTED NOVEL about the inner lives of a dwindling group of elderly friends in rural England.

SLY, ACID SATIRE follows a slacker turned hero after he averts a high-school massacre. Grimly funny and true.

THEATER AND MAGIC HISTORIAN Jim Steinmeyer looks into the inspirations for Bram Stoker’s DRACULA. Spooky fun!

ENGAGING HISTORY LOOKS at eight 19th-century US women attorneys, reveals much about challenges they faced.

SPLENDID HISTORICAL NOVEL tracks a courtier-physician’s quest for self-knowledge during Charles II’s reign. A MINUS

MERIVEL: A MAN OF HIS TIME
W. W. Norton & Company
2013

A FRESH LOOK AT FRANKENSTEIN puts the novel in the context of the scientific and cultural ferment of its era. B PLUS

THE LADY AND HER MONSTERS: A TALE OF DISSECTIONS, REAL-LIFE DR. FRANKENSTEINS, AND THE CREATION OF MARY SHELLEY’S MASTERPIECE
HarperCollins Publishers
2013

A PUNK ROCK DIVA, legendary hairstylist’s memoir of her ups and downs in the wild 1980s East Village scene. SOLID B

HARLEY LOCO : A MEMOIR OF HARD LIVING, HAIR, AND POST-PUNK, FROM THE MIDDLE EAST TO THE LOWER EAST SIDE
Viking Books
2013