"The Eyre Affair," by Jasper Fforde (Penguin, $15) A delightfully unique heist novel that takes place in an imagined, alternate London where literature is so valuable that police have a special unit to fight literary crimes. Fforde's page-turning tale focuses on detective Thursday Next, who seeks to take down criminal mastermind Acheron Hades, who's guilty of numerous literary crimes, including stealing the manuscript of Charles Dickens' "Martin Chuzzlewit" and plotting to kidnap Jane Eyre. Quirky and wonderful fun for book lovers.

"Other People's Money: A Novel," by Justin Cartwright (Bloomsbury, $15) Cartwright's wickedly dark comedy puts a human face on the recent banking crisis. The author brings readers inside the life of Julian Tubal, manager of a hedge fund that's teetering on the brink of collapse. As Tubal works to cover up the toxic nature of the hedge fund's assets, he fears that his investors will discover the truth and pull their money out, ruining him. Cartwright's sharply drawn characters are fueled by excess and self-serving ethics.

"An Atlas of Impossible Longing," by Anuradha Roy (Free Press, $14) Roy's prose soars with a lyricism that can take your breath away. In describing three generations of a family in Bengal, India, Roy paints a picture of loss and longing. From her whirlwind opening sentences, readers know they're in for a ride: "In the warm glow of fires that lit the clearing at the centre of straw-roofed mud huts, palm-leaf cups of toddy flew from hand to hand. Men in loincloths and women in saris had begun to dance barefoot, kicking up dust."

"City of Lost Girls," by Declan Hughes (Harper, $14.99) Dublin-based thriller writer Hughes offers readers another adventure with Irish private eye Ed Loy. After the disappearances of three beautiful young women from a movie set, Loy gets called in to find the killer, who might be the film's larger-than-life Irish director, Jack Donovan. Hughes' terrific creation of the charismatic, carousing Donovan propels the story forward, as does Loy's dogged investigation. Hughes also has great fun writing about famous Irish actors and the "blarney-filled" Hollywood movie industry.

"Every Last One," by Anna Quindlen (Random House, $15) In this grippingly dark family drama, Quindlen follows the parenting challenges of Mary Beth Latham and her three teenage kids as they navigate summer camp, soccer games and romantic entanglements. But things change horribly after daughter Ruby dumps her next-door-neighbor boyfriend. As Quindlen told an interviewer: "I've [long] been thinking about illusions of security and control, especially in terms of motherhood. We think that if we do the right things ... we can keep our children safe." This tragic novel shows otherwise.

"Pearl of China," by Anchee Min (Bloomsbury, $15) In this engrossing and exotic novel, Min tells the life story of Nobel-Award winning author Pearl S. Buck and her friendship with a fictionalized Chinese friend, Willow Yee. Much of the novel's drama comes from the historical backdrop of China's Communist Revolution, as Buck is forced to flee China, and Yee is ordered to denounce her friend. This is an epic, sweeping historical tale of cross-cultural friendship, showing how human relationships can transcend the forces of history.

Star Tribune, Star Tribune

"To Hell on a Fast Horse: The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett," by Mark Lee Gardner (Harper, $14.99) Gardner demystifies one of the great Old West legends, meticulously describing how Sheriff Pat Garrett hunted down outlaw Billy the Kid after his 1881 escape from a jail in Lincoln County, N.M. Billy comes off as reckless, homicidal and improvisational. Sheriff Garrett is cold-blooded, methodical and every bit as wily as his foe. On July 14, 1881, Garrett finally caught up with Billy the Kid. The rest is history. Gardner's exhaustive research brings this legend back to life.

"The Mystery of Lewis Carroll," by Jenny Woolf (St. Martin's, $16.99) Woolf has uncovered new evidence, mostly in the form of letters, about the mysterious, often-contradictory life of Charles Lutwidge Dodson (aka Lewis Carroll), the brilliant author of "Alice in Wonderland." Woolf admires Carroll, and works hard to answer long-standing questions about his life and work. In the end, we see Carroll as a brilliant product of the Victorian Age, and a literary master whose wonderfully imaginative stories have continued to entertain generations of readers.

"Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster," by Jonathan Eig (Simon & Schuster, $16) In this vivid biography of the legendary Jazz Age gangster, Eig shows that Capone's bottomless appetite for publicity put a bull's-eye on his back. "Scarface" became the nation's "leading symbol of lawlessness" and attracted the animosity of President Herbert Hoover. Eig explains how Hoover took a personal interest, giving "the order to the top officials in every relevant agency: Get Capone." The feds eventually "got" Capone for tax evasion, while readers get to experience a page-turning cat-and-mouse story.

  • Chuck Leddy is a book critic in Boston