FICTION
1. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. (Putnam) In a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a young woman who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect.
2. The Guardians, by John Grisham. (Doubleday) Cullen Post, a lawyer and Episcopal minister, antagonizes some ruthless killers when he takes on a wrongful-conviction case.
3. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid. (Putnam) Tumult ensues when Alix Chamberlain's babysitter is mistakenly accused of kidnapping her charge.
4. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides. (Celadon) Theo Faber looks into the mystery of a famous painter who stops speaking after shooting her husband.
5. The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett. (Harper) A sibling relationship is impacted when the family goes from poverty to wealth and back again over the course of many decades.
6. Criss Cross, by James Patterson. (Little, Brown) The 27th book in the Alex Cross series. Copycat crimes make the detective question whether an innocent man was executed.
7. The Institute, by Stephen King. (Scribner) Children with special talents are abducted and sequestered in an institution where the sinister staff seeks to extract their gifts through harsh methods.
8. The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes. (Pamela Dorman/Viking) In Depression-era Kentucky, five women refuse to be cowed by men or convention as they deliver books.