SUSPENSEFUL DANISH MYSTERY ties a local nurse to crime in the Philippines. Intense, action-packed. B PLUS

THE CONSIDERATE KILLER
Soho Crime
2016

EXPLORING AN ALIEN PLANET, the men and women raised on a colony ship face hardships and adventures. Cool SF! B PLUS

ARRIVAL
Ryk Brown
2016

AN EXILE’S RETURN to 1980s Romania causes upheavals in his family circle as well as for the secret police. B PLUS

THE ENCOUNTER
Dalkey Archive Press
2016

SHARP, FUNNY MYSTERY follows a reporter turned detective trying to expose a Casanova of a TV psychic. Clever! B PLUS

HITS & MRS.
Karen Stollznow
2016

A VOICE FROM DEATH ROW speaks in this powerful, haunting novel set in a Zimbabwe women’s prison. Chilling. B PLUS

BOOK OF MEMORY
Farrar Straus Giroux
2016

AN EMT TURNS SLEUTH after she stumbles on a skeleton. Thoughtful mystery touches on race, class, corruption. SOLID B

THE SKELETON FRIEND
R. C. Johansen
2016

SMART, ACTION-PACKED THRILLER sets a young writer with secret evidence of alien contact against the world. B PLUS

NOT ALONE
Craig A. Falconer
2015

A TIGER-DEMON IN VEGAS? Clever fantasy brings a shape-shifter from India to the US for a new start on life. SOLID B

THE KING OF LAS VEGAS
John Van Stry
2016

THE SHADOW OF TWO WORLD WARS brings two strangers, both British Army veterans, together in an unusual bond. B PLUS

WHERE MY HEART USED TO BEAT
Henry Holt & Company
2016

A SUPERVILLAIN WITH A CONSCIENCE? Sharp SFF thriller set in a “Teslaverse” where costumed heroes are real. A MINUS

DIRE : SEED
Andrew Seiple
2016