PAULINE KAEL: A LIFE IN THE DARK

By Brian Kellow (Penguin Group, 417 pages, $27.95)

It may seem odd that an author best known for writing about opera would tackle a biography about a film critic, but it quickly makes perfect sense, as Pauline Kael was her profession's leading diva -- rich, dramatic, temperamental and often a downright spectacle. Brian Kellow manages to pay respects to the late writer while still exposing her flaws, which include a shaky ethical code and a strange, even selfish, relationship with her daughter. A lot of Kael's favorites aren't interviewed for the book, most notably Warren Beatty and Brian De Palma, but Kellow makes up for their absence with in-depth research and extensive interviewers with other critics, both those who loved her and those who loathed her.

NEAL JUSTIN

TV CRITIC

SHUT YOUR EYES TIGHT

By John Verdon (Crown Publishers, 528 pages, $24)

It's a shocking crime: A bride is beheaded during her wedding party. The suspect is a mysterious immigrant gardener, who apparently disappeared without a trace after the crime. John Verdon has a winner here, his second thriller featuring NYPD homicide investigator Dave Gurney. The retired cop is reluctant to help on the case because his involvement in a previous case (Verdon's debut novel "Think of a Number") threatened his life and put a strain on his marriage. Ultimately, the details prove too much for him to resist, and he finds himself pulled into a world of sexual perversion and missing young women. The book's plot is well thought out and filled with surprises that will creep you out and keep you up late reading.

JUDY ROMANOWICH SMITH

NEWS DESIGNER