The Associate, by John Grisham

A: David Gernert P: Doubleday G: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

NYT: 4 LAT: 3 BOOKSENSE: 4

Kyle McAvoy grew up in his father's small-town law office in York, Pennsylvania. He excelled in college, was elected editor-in-chief of The Yale Law Journal, and his future has limitless potential. But Kyle has a secret, a dark one, an episode from college that he has tried to forget. The secret, though, falls into the hands of the wrong people, and Kyle is forced to take a job he doesn't want -- even though it's a job most law students can only dream about. Three months after leaving Yale, Kyle becomes an associate at the largest law firm in the world, where, in addition to practicing law, he is expected to lie, steal, and take part in a scheme that could send him to prison, if not get him killed. With an unforgettable cast of characters and villains -- from Baxter Tate, a drug-addled trust fund kid and possible rapist, to Dale, a pretty but seemingly quiet former math teacher who shares Kyle's "cubicle" at the law firm, to two of the most powerful and fiercely competitive defense contractors in the country -- and featuring all the twists and turns that have made John Grisham the most popular storyteller in the world, The Associate is vintage Grisham.

 

Run for Your Life, by James Patterson

 

A: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh P: Little, Brown G: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

NYT: 3 LAT: 2 BOOKSENSE: 3

A calculating killer who calls himself The Teacher is taking on New York City, killing the powerful and the arrogant. Discovering a secret pattern to The Teacher's lessons, Detective Mike Bennett realizes he has just hours to save New York from the greatest disaster in history.

Heart and Soul, by Maeve Binchy (debut)

A: - P: Knopf G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: 1 LAT: - BOOKSENSE: 1

With the warmth, humor, and compassion readers have come to expect from her, Binchy tells a story of family, friends, patients, and staff who are part of a heart clinic in a community caught between the old and the new in Ireland.

The Host: A Novel, by Stephenie Meyer

A: Jodi Reamer P: Little, Brown G: Science Fiction/Fantasy

NYT: 41 LAT: 28 BOOKSENSE: 34

The author of the bestselling Twilight series delivers her brilliant first novel for adults that are also suitable for teen readers: a gripping story of love and betrayal with the fate of humanity at stake, featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies.

Fool: A Novel, by Christopher Moore.

A: Nicholas Ellison P: Morrow G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: 2 LAT: 1 BOOKSENSE: 2

The wildly inventive "New York Times"-bestselling author of "You Suck!" is back, in this modern take on "King Lear." It's 1288, and the king's fool, Pocket, and his dimwit apprentice, Drool, set out to clean up the mess Lear has made of his kingdom, his family, and his fortune.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

A: Amy Renhert P: Dial G: Historical Fiction

NYT: 23 LAT: 29 BOOKSENSE: 30

London, 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of Guernsey during the German occupation, and about a society as extraordinary as its name.

Dog on It, by Spencer Quinn

A: Molly Friedrich P: Atria G: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

NYT: 1 LAT: - BOOKSENSE: -

Meet Chet, the wise and lovable canine narrator of Dog on It, who works alongside Bernie, a down-on-his-luck private investigator. Chet might have flunked out of police school ("I'd been the best leaper in K-9 class, which had led to all the trouble in a way I couldn't remember exactly, although blood was involved"), but he's a detective through and through. In this, their first adventure, Chet and Bernie investigate the disappearance of Madison, a teenage girl who may or may not have been kidnapped, but who has definitely gotten mixed up with some very unsavory characters. A well-behaved, gifted student, she didn't arrive home after school and her divorced mother is frantic. Bernie is quick to take the case -- something about a cash flow problem that Chet's not all that clear about -- and he's relieved, if vaguely suspicious, when Madison turns up unharmed with a story that doesn't add up. But when she disappears for a second time in a week, Bernie and Chet aren't taking any chances; they launch a full-blown investigation. Without a ransom demand, they're not convinced it's a kidnapping, but they are sure of one thing: something smells funny. Their search for clues takes them into the desert to biker bars and other exotic locals, with Chet's highly trained nose leading the way. Both Chet and Bernie bring their own special skills to the hunt, one that puts each of them in peril. But even as the bad guys try to turn the tables, this duo is nothing if not resourceful, and the result is an uncommonly satisfying adventure. With his doggy ways and his endearingly hardboiled voice, Chet is full of heart and occasionally prone to mischief. He is intensely loyal to Bernie, who, though distracted by issues that Chet has difficulty understanding -- like divorce, child custody, and other peculiar human concerns -- is enormously likable himself, in his flawed, all-too-human way.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski

A: Elenor Jackson P: Ecco G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: 37 LAT: - BOOKSENSE: 37

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar's paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles' once peaceful home. When Edgar's father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm-and into Edgar's mother's affections. Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father's death, but his plan backfires-spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs that follow him. But his need to face his father's murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward. David Wroblewski is a master storyteller...

Among the Mad, by Jacqueline Winspear (debut)

A: Amy Rennert P: Holt G: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

NYT: 1 LAT: - BOOKSENSE: 1

In the thrilling new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of An Incomplete Revenge, Maisie Dobbs must catch a madman before he commits murder on an unimaginable scale It’s Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister’s office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met—and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard’s elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane’s personal fiefdom as a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie’s trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy as his wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia’s abyss. Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men. In Among the Mad, Jacqueline Winspear combines a heart-stopping story with a rich evocation of a fascinating period to create her most compelling and satisfying novel yet.

True Colors, by Kristin Hannah

A: Andrea Cirillo P: St. Martin’s G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: 3 LAT: - BOOKSENSE: -

True Colors is New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah’s most provocative, compelling, and heart-wrenching story yet. With the luminous writing and unforgettable characters that are her trademarks, she tells the story of three sisters whose once-solid world is broken apart by jealousy, betrayal, and the kind of passion that rarely comes along.

The Women, by T. C. Boyle

A: Georges Borchardt P: Viking G: Literatur/Fiction

NYT: 2 LAT: 2 BOOKSENSE: 2

Having brought to life eccentric cereal king John Harvey Kellogg in "The Road to Wellville" and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in "The Inner Circle," Boyle now turns his fictional sights on an even more colorful and outlandish character: Frank Lloyd Wright.

Bone Crossed, by Patricia Briggs

A: Linn Prentis P: Ace G: Science Fiction/Fantasy

NYT: 3 LAT: 2 BOOKSENSE: -

By day, Mercy Thompson is a car mechanic. By night, she explores her preternatural side and finds herself maintaining a tenuous harmony between the human and the not-so-human world, in the latest entry in the #1 "New York Times"-bestselling series.

Very Valentine, by Adriana Trigiani

A: Suzanne Gluck P: Harper G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: 3 LAT: - BOOKSENSE:

This first novel in a new trilogy from bestselling author Trigiani offers a heartwarming and hilarious story of Valentine Roncalli and the decades-old family business she struggles to save, finding love and the life she wants along the way.

While My Sister Sleeps, by Barbara Delinsky

A: Amy Berkower P: Doubleday G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: 1 LAT: - BOOKSENSE: -

Following the success of "The Secret between Us," a book the "Boston Globe" hailed as one of her best, Delinsky returns with another moving and deeply satisfying novel, this one about the unique and emotionally complex world of siblings.

Lethal Legacy, by Linda Fairstein

A: - P: Doubleday G: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

NYT: 1 LAT: BOOKSENSE: -

Assistant district attorney Alex Cooper and her crew are drawn into the strange and privileged world of rich collectors, eccentric library trustees, and the treasures of the great New York Public Library, in this latest breathtaking thriller from "New York Times"-bestselling author Fairstein.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney

A: Aaron Priest P: Amulet G: Children’s/Young Adult

NYT: - LAT: 5 BOOKSENSE: -

Boys don't keep diaries -- or do they? … The launch of an exciting and innovatively illustrated new series narrated by an unforgettable kid every family can relate to. It's a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you're ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary. In book one of this debut series, Greg is happy to have Rowley, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley's star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend's newfound popularity to his own advantage, kicking off a chain of events that will test their friendship in hilarious fashion.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

A: Jodi Reamer P: Little, Brown G: Young Adult

NYT: - LAT: 32 BOOKSENSE: -

Readers captivated by Twilight and New Moon will eagerly devour Eclipse, the much anticipated third book in Stephenie Meyer's riveting vampire love saga. As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob -- knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

A: Jodi Reamer P: Little, Brown G: Young Adult

NYT: - LAT: 29 BOOKSENSE: -

"New York Times"-bestselling author Meyer returns to her teen vampire Twilight saga with this much-anticipated fourth book in the series. In this riveting novel, questions will be answered and the fate of Bella and Edward will be revealed.

The Renegades by T. Jefferson Parker

A: Robert Gottlieb P: Dutton G: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

NYT: - LAT: 1 BOOKSENSE: -

Some say that outlaws no longer exist, that the true spirit of the American West died with the legendary bandits of pulp novels and bedtime stories. Deputy Charlie Hood knows that nothing could be further from the truth. These days he patrols vast stretches of the new American West, not on horseback but in his police cruiser.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

A: Amanda Urban P: Knopf G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: - LAT: 13 BOOKSENSE: 15

A powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece by the Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier. In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root. Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in flesh, he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady. Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved. There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens' mother. These are all men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness. A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment. Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.

Drood by Dan Simmons

A: Richard Curtis P: Little, Brown G: Horror

NYT: - LAT: 1 BOOKSENSE: -

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever. Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, and the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying? Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.

The Silent Man by Alex Berenson

A: Heather Schroder P: Putnam G: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

NYT: - LAT: 1 BOOKSENSE: -

With real-world threats, authentic details, a scenario as dramatic as it is chillingly plausible, Berenson's new novel is another timely reminder of the extremely precarious way we live now.

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

A: Theresa Park P: Viking G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: - LAT: 4 BOOKSENSE: 6

In the sweeping tradition of The English Patient, a gripping tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world. Will is sent to an internment camp, where he and other foreigners struggle daily for survival. Meanwhile, Trudy remains outside, forced to form dangerous alliances with the Japanesein particular, the malevolent head of the gendarmerie, whose desperate attempts to locate a priceless collection of Chinese art lead to a chain of terrible betrayals. Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the heady social life of the expatriate community. At one of its elegant cocktail parties, she meets Will, to whom she is instantly attractedbut as their affair intensifies; Claire discovers that Wills enigmatic persona hides a devastating past. As she begins to understand the true nature of the world she has entered, and long-buried secrets start to emerge, Claire learns that sometimes the price of survival is love.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

A: Gray Tan P: Knopf G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: - LAT: - BOOKSENSE: 3

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him. (An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

A: Susan Ramer P: Putnam G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: - LAT: - BOOKSENSE: 2

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

A: - P: Knopf G: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

NYT: - LAT: - BOOKSENSE: 23

In this European publishing sensation, a crusading journalist joins forces with a 24-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker to investigate the whereabouts of a missing woman from one of the wealthiest families in Sweden.

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

A: Laurie Fox P: Harper G: Literature/Fiction

NYT: - LAT: - BOOKSENSE: 15

The #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author and two-time Oprah's Book Club pick delivers his first novel in over a decade--an extraordinary work of prodigious scope and ambition that explores the consequences of violent events, and the chaos that ensues.