SCOTLAND’S MOST ECCENTRIC DETECTIVE, Hamish Macbeth, is back with another taut mystery all snuggled up in cozy.

AN IRANIAN-AMERICAN WRITER looks at her mother’s experiences, including marriage at age 13. Moving, revelatory.

RACY, ENGAGING, SCHOLARLY but never dry, this history of 18th-century London’s red-light spots is eye-opening.

CLEVER MASHUP OF society novels and supernatural thrillers features a plucky heroine, a mother-in-law from Hell.

IMPRESSIONISTIC AND MOVING writer’s memoir of her 1960s fascination with male artists, her later self-discovery.

COZY SEASIDE MYSTERY is as brilliant as its sixty-something sleuths, a New Age healer and her civil servant pal.

A YOUNG MAN’S EXPERIENCES of schizophrenia, told in his own words and by his journalist father. Deeply moving.

INTRIGUING BIOGRAPHY of Rome’s most (in)famous empress looks beyond the cartoon villainess of fiction and myth.

COZY MINNESOTA COOKING mystery is as charming as its 13 predecessors, but skimping on central whodunnit annoys.

REALITY-BENDING EXPERIMENTAL novel offers moments of simple poetry, enigmatic doublings in cool graphic design.