Joan of Arc, A Life Transfigured

By Kathryn Harrison. (Doubleday, 400 pages, $28.95.)

Joan of Arc, the "Maid of Orleans," was indeed a maiden, and she heard voices. That much is true. But a shepherdess? No. That, like so much else, is legend.

Kathryn Harrison sets about separating the facts from the myths about this epic teenage warrior and reassembles them in a reflective read, "Joan of Arc, A Life Transfigured."

The plain facts are extraordinary. Out of the "marshes of Lorraine" during the Hundred Years War, a young girl emerges and convinces a war-weary France that she has been chosen by God to lead an army into battle. She straps on men's armor, cuts her hair and rides off to oust the entrenched English invaders. She succeeds against all reason, and before long she is escorting a feckless King Charles to his coronation.

Even before the invention of the printing press, this was big news. Word of mouth carried her story to towns near and far. Crowds poured into the streets to glimpse the 15th-century celebrity.

But these were superstitious times. Joan's claims to be inspired by God quickly fed the belief that her powers were devilish. Add in shifting military and political alliances, and before long Joan is on trial for her life.

Harrison retells the three action-packed years of Joan's rise and fall, reminding us that France in 1420 was not today's tourist magnet, but a bloody land carved up by the invading English and the conniving duke of Burgundy. It was a place where village girls rarely left home, did not consort with kings and most definitely did not dress like men.

"The Good Girl," by Mary Kubica

Most people know the outline of Joan's story and remember that it ends badly for her, at a stake in the marketplace at Rouen. Harrison's book helps us see how it came to that. It goes beyond that to show how her true story morphed with each retelling through the centuries, by such luminaries as Shakespeare, Mark Twain and Cecil B. DeMille. In Harrison's telling, Joan loses her mythic accessories, but the unadorned truth is more than enough.

Maureen McCarthy

Metro team leader

The Good Girl

By Mary Kubica. (Harlequin Mira, 350 pages, $24.95.)

Lovely young Mia Dennett, beloved art teacher at an alternative high school and daughter of a prominent and wealthy judge, disappears one night in Chicago, then is found months later at a northern Minnesota cabin. Who took her and why, and what happened while she was gone? Mia can't remember, anything due to acute stress disorder — and she wants to be called Chloe.

First-time novelist Mary Kubica tells the compelling story in three alternating voices: distraught mother Eve; dedicated detective Gabe, and abductor Colin, a Boy Scout gone very bad. They switch between before and after Mia's return, keeping the reader hunting for clues. The characters are complicated to the point of being contradictory, but as Kubica piles on the pathos, the story moves along so quickly that a few unanswered questions aren't apparent until the end. Still, "The Good Girl" provides a very good mystery.

Marci Schmitt

Multiplatform editor