By Lawrence Block (Mulholland, $25.99)
A prequel to the beloved Matthew Scudder series, this taut suspense story finds its recovering alcoholic private eye caught up in the dark underworld of a childhood friend — a brazenly simple plot premise, executed faultlessly. — Maureen Corrigan
THE EVOLUTION OF BRUNO LITTLEMORE
By Benjamin Hale (Twelve, $25.99)
Swinging through this absurd tale of a talking chimpanzee, Hale wraps his prehensile wit around humanity’s deepest philosophical questions — from the magic of consciousness to the reifying function of language and the value of art and the morality of science. — RC
By Jennifer Haigh (Harper, $25.99)
Haigh brings a refreshing degree of humanity to a story you think you know well: sexual abuse by Catholic priests. In chapters both riveting and profound, she catches the avalanche of guilt this tragedy unleashes in one devout family. — RC
By Karin Slaughter (Delacorte, $26)
Slaughter’s gripping thriller about a good cop who tries to find her kidnapped mother and protect her two children balances brutality with a compassionate view of her complex and all-too-human characters. — Patrick Anderson
By Philip Kerr (Marian Wood/Putnam, $26.95)
Kerr’s indomitable hero, anti-Nazi P.I. Bernie Gunther, is captured and forced to reveal his wartime exploits. What emerges is a vivid yarn that propels Bernie across Europe and ratchets up the moral complexities of the battered, defiant German Everyman. — PA
By Anne Enright (Norton, $25.95)
Set in modern Ireland, Enright’s beautifully written drama centers on an adulterous woman and her conflicted emotions, deftly exploring connections between desire and responsibility. — Roxana Robinson
By Leah Hager Cohen (Riverhead, $26.95)
After the loss of their infant son, a couple’s life unravels, but thanks to Cohen’s vibrant prose, there’s hope threaded through this book’s sad heart. — Sarah Pekkanen
By Carol Birch (Doubleday, $25.95)
This exciting sea tale about a boy searching for a Komodo dragon will take you back to those great 19th-century maritime adventures. — RC
By Philip Hensher (Faber & Faber, $26)
Savage with a soupcon of tenderness, Hensher’s satire set in a sleepy British town abounds with colorful characters — and a dash of suspense centering on the disappearance of a child. — Lisa Zeidner
By Aravind Adiga (Knopf, $26.95)
Adiga, a Man Booker Prize-winning novelist and former financial journalist, captures the economic and moral turmoil of modern India in his novel about real estate and the conflicting interests of community and development. — MV
By Tom Perrotta (St. Martin’s, $25.99)
Three years after a Rapture-like event in which millions of people disappeared, the surviving residents of a small town are left to figure out what it meant. Perrotta’s insightful novel, leavened with humor and tinged with creepiness, draws us into some very dark corners of the human psyche. — RC
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