GENEALOGIST DETECTIVE returns for a second complex mystery tale of tough UK neighborhoods, at-risk kids, and cults. B PLUS

BLOOD ATONEMENT
Minotaur Books
2009

CRISPLY PLOTTED WHODUNNIT features a murdered architect, a genius hitman, and a world-weary, witty detective duo. B PLUS

SHOOTERS AND CHASERS
Cengage Gale
2009

ASTONISHING, INSPIRING MEMOIR by a man who spent his twenties in a colony for Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) patients. B PLUS

SQUINT: MY JOURNEY WITH LEPROSY
University Press of Mississippi
2009

A BLEAK IRISH-AMERICAN CHILDHOOD in working-class Philadelphia in a surprisingly vivid and searingly funny memoir. B PLUS

CLOSING TIME: A MEMOIR
Penguin Group (USA)
2009

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND comes alive in this fast-paced mystery rich in historical detail, vivid characters. B PLUS

MARTYR: A NOVEL OF TUDOR INTRIGUE
Bantam
2009

ABSORBING LOOK at 19th-c. man who led 2 lives: publicly as a white scientist, privately as a black Pullman porter. B PLUS

PASSING STRANGE: A GILDED AGE TALE OF LOVE AND DECEPTION ACROSS THE COLOR LINE
Penguin Group (USA)
2009

TURKEY’S HISTORY, politics, and culture are the rich background to this vivid, quirky, spooky, Nabokov-esque novel. B PLUS

SONGS MY MOTHER NEVER TAUGHT ME
Telegram Books
2009

BIGFOOT SIGHTINGS, research, controversies are put into cultural context in this fascinating, well-researched book. B PLUS

BIGFOOT: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A LEGEND
University Of Chicago Press
2009

RUTHLESSLY CANDID, fresh memoir looks at a writer’s addiction to sex and love with a series of inappropriate men. B PLUS

LOVE JUNKIE: A MEMOIR
Bloomsbury USA
2008

APPEALINGLY GEEKY LITTLE BOOK about the culinary and cultural history of pie has offbeat facts, interesting recipes. B PLUS

PIE: A GLOBAL HISTORY
Reaktion Books
2009