Jay McInerney's eighth novel, Bright, Precious Days, is a sobering sketch of New York City on the eve of the Great Recession, through the eyes of Corinne and Russell Calloway--first seen in his novel Brightness Falls and again in The Good Life--whose midlife marriage is about to endure its own upheaval.

As the novel opens in 2006, the Manhattan the Calloways view from their TriBeCa loft has become for them and their upper-middle-class friends "a collection of luxury brand and franchise outlets: Dubai on the Hudson." Attending the occasional charity gala or hosting an annual summer party at the home they rent in the Hamptons, they fret over how they can afford to purchase the apartment they inhabit when it's converted to a condo in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Each day at work they confront the specter of financial failure.

McInerney offers a convincing portrayal of the ennui that afflicts some marriages in their third decade. But for the Calloways, who've been a couple since their college days at Brown, that malaise seems to arise as much from the sense they'll always have their noses pressed against the glass of the glamorous world spread before them as it does from the nagging frictions that occasionally threaten to undermine even the strongest, lasting relationship.

Since the publication of Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney has served as a kind of cultural anthropologist, reporting on the tribal rituals of a certain slice of New York life. Readers eager for the report of his latest expedition will find Bright, Precious Days more than satisfying. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer

Carousel Court, Joe McGinniss Jr.'s second novel (after The Delivery Man), is the story of a young Boston family's search for the California dream at just the wrong time. Nick and Phoebe Maguire pack up their two-year-old son, Jackson, and meager belongings to drive their Subaru cross-country for Nick's new job with a boutique L.A. film production company. With their marriage on shaky ground after her affair with the uber-rich boss at her previous job, and a car accident that nearly killed Jackson, Nick and Phoebe have a plan: "secure an investment property to upgrade, flip for enough profit to secure their future." Acting quickly, they buy a ranch house on the suburban cul-de-sac Carousel Court, and do the whole California remodel thing. Then comes the Great Recession.

McGinniss writes with a keen feel for the contemporary zeitgeist, but he also might justly lay claim to being the ascending fictional Prince of Darkness. The Delivery Man was about a dangerous teen prostitution ring set amid the glitter of Sin City--a sort of Less Than Zero meets Leaving Las Vegas. His characters in Carousel Court weather broken personal connections, social unrest and financial desperation. Their world is sadly a modern one with which readers are all too familiar--talking via text, hustling to make ends meet, dodging extremes of weather, looking for that lost American Dream. Yet McGinniss opens a window of hope as Nick and Phoebe weather the mess they make of their lives and put their faith in Jackson. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

How I Became a North Korean is Krys Lee's debut novel and follow-up to her acclaimed short story collection, Drifting House. While both concentrate on the varied experiences of people in the fractured Korean peninsula and in diaspora, the novel focuses on the Joseon-jok, "ethnic Koreans who'd lived alongside the Han Chinese in northeastern China," as well as on refugees from famine-stricken North Korea struggling to survive in the border areas.

At first, Lee's trio of protagonists seem to share little aside from their ethnic heritage. Yongju is forced to flee his relatively privileged life in Pyongyang after his high-ranking father is executed by Kim Jong-il. Pregnant and desperate to protect her unborn child, Jangmi finds her way across the border into China thanks to a hastily arranged marriage. Finally, Danny, a misfit Chinese American teen with Korean heritage, flees to the border areas in a questionable attempt to find himself. Their lives intersect and diverge in surprising ways, providing a fictional interpretation of a real-life crisis--the author's time as an activist for North Korean refugees in China's border region no doubt lends to the novel's feeling of authenticity.

Lee's prose style is understated, almost journalistic. She is gifted at conveying the powerful feeling of not belonging that haunts her characters, and how their social disconnection translates into persistent vulnerability. It's a dangerous world that Yongju, Jangmi and Danny inhabit; How I Became a North Korean is a tribute to a people who survive against all odds. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books

Society beauty Brigit Palmer is stepping down from her intense job at an influential New York law office just in time for her wedding to hot Hollywood actor Blake Crawford. But Blake is more than a pretty face--he's also incredibly generous, which dovetails perfectly with Brigit's new career on the board of her father's philanthropic foundation.

Brigit, Blake and the rest of their friends and family are enjoying a luxurious week on the Greek island of Santorini leading up to the couple's nuptials. But to Brigit's horror, her ex-husband Nathaniel, a reporter for HELLO! magazine, shows up. It turns out that Blake has sold the exclusive rights to their wedding story to HELLO! and is donating the $2 million to charity. Since it's for a good cause, Brigit decides to forgive Blake, grit her teeth and bear it, but will she be able to survive Nathaniel's interference all week? Or will the memories that her ex brings back disrupt her plans for a beautiful wedding?

With typical rom-com humor, and a few deeper thoughts as Brigit's family members reflect on the peccadilloes in their pasts, Anita Hughes (Lake Como, Rome in Love) has created a charming, somewhat clichéd, light read. Hughes's luscious descriptions of Greek food and history, and the beauty of the island and its beaches, serve as the backdrop for some frothy fun, making Santorini Sunsets an excellent beach read. It may also make readers research a trip to Santorini for themselves. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm

In the wake of the 2016 "Brexit" vote, the state of the European Union and its de facto capital, Brussels, seems a bit uncertain--as it does in several of the stories in Brussels Noir. Showcasing this generally delightful city, the anthology takes a look at the dark underside of many of its charming old neighborhoods.

Featuring stories originally written in French, English and Spanish, Brussels Noir contains many fictions that have grains of truth--like Paul Colize's "A Fraction of a Second" about the Mad Killers of Brabant and Alfredo Noriega's "Ecuador," homage to a prisoner who was killed by Belgian police. Others don't--like Katia Lanero Zamora's "Daedelus," set in a depressing, futuristic Brussels where electricity is limited and rebellions are on the rise. In spite of many stories' brevity, the collection is filled with fascinating and dynamic characters, including the obsessive mother who ends up driving her son to commit murder, the Korean geneticist who has a chance encounter on a train, and the quiet man who secretly grows cannabis in the king's gardens.

A perfect choice for those who love noir or those who love armchair traveling, this assortment of short stories gives the reader a glimpse into what life in the Belgian capital is like. An excellent entry in Akashic Books' noir series, which began with Brooklyn Noir more than a decade ago, Brussels Noir takes readers through the underbelly of yet another fascinating locale. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm

Cheryl Honigford introduces a spunky, engaging amateur detective in her debut novel, The Darkness Knows. Vivian Witchell is a radio actress on the rise in 1930s Chicago. She's just landed a plum role, and she might finally be catching the attention of her handsome-and-he-knows-it co-star Graham Yarborough. But when Vivian stumbles across Marjorie Fox's body in the station's lounge one night, all signs point to murder--and to Vivian as the next victim. 

Marjorie was perhaps Vivian's least popular co-star at the radio station. Unfortunately, that means everyone's a suspect. With the help of attractive but taciturn private eye Charlie Haverman, Vivian starts digging into the dead woman's personal life and discreetly questioning her colleagues. Meanwhile, she struggles to keep her job in the face of constantly shifting politics (and an increasing number of reporters) around the station.

Honigford has done her research on the particulars of radio production in the 1930s; the scenes at the station shine, mixing dramatic tension (on and off the air) and perfect period detail. Some supporting characters, like Charlie, are interesting; others, such as Vivian's best friend Imogene, don't quite get their due. Vivian's contentious relationship with her socialite mother is a distraction rather than an extra plot layer, and Viv's tenacity sometimes tips over into bullheadedness. But for mystery lovers who like a go-getter heroine and a bit of history with their murder, The Darkness Knows is a promising start to a new series. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Several generations before the events of the sci-fi classic Ender's Game, the alien antagonists attacked Earth. The Formics, as these insectoids are called, initially descended in the First Formic War trilogy (Earth Unaware, Earth Afire and Earth Awakens). Forty million people died when a single Formic scout ship ravaged China. Mazer Rackham (a central character in Ender's Game) and a handful of other humans managed to destroy that ship, only to discover a full fleet of warships were en route to the solar system.

With less than five years to prepare for an impossible second war, the nations of Earth have ceded global political control to a Hegemon and military control to a Strategos and Polemarch. Earth's efforts are bent on survival, with characters from the First Formic War series caught up in the struggle. Mazor Rackham is testing experimental weaponry when he faces a court martial for standing up to a corrupt officer. Lem Jukes, son of the Hegemon and new CEO of his father's former company, deals with impossible technical challenges. Victor Delgado is out in the Kuiper Belt on a mining ship, and Bingwen, in the vein of future Ender Wiggin, is training as a child soldier/commander. The Formic attack is already coming too soon, but, as The Swarm unfolds, these characters discover it might be much closer than they'd feared.

Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (also co-author of the First Formic War trilogy) deliver another dose of satisfying genre action. The Swarm stands on its own merits, though it's recommended to read at least the original Ender's Game first. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer

Casey Griffin launches a romantic comedy series with Must Love Wieners. Set in San Francisco, this enjoyable, dog-centered novel is about two rescued dachshunds and how they bring together an unlikely couple.

Piper Summers is a 26-year-old veterinary student who moonlights at three jobs: driving taxis, delivering pizza and performing singing telegrams. She also volunteers at a Dachshund Rescue Center and is the owner of the lovable doxie Colin. One day, Piper sashays into a high-powered investment firm dressed as a sexy cowgirl, intent on delivering a country-western singing telegram professing love and bestowing chocolates on Aiden Caldwell, whom she thinks is a crotchety old business tycoon. Inside a crowded boardroom, Piper takes a misstep amid her song-and-dance number, tumbling into the lap of a gorgeous, Armani-clad young businessman who turns out to be Caldwell, a charismatic billionaire. Piper's embarrassment is compounded when she later loses two of her three jobs.

But Aiden, with his playboy reputation, is smitten with Piper. The two keep crossing paths until Aiden offers Piper a job walking his beloved rescued doxie, Sophie, who happens to be well acquainted with Colin. As the relationship between the dogs and their masters deepens, issues of trust and compatibility arise, as do a series of harrowing threats that bring unexpected challenges and danger to their lives. Is someone jealous of their romance?

Griffin's spirited, wholesome love story escalates into a deeper mystery offering playful comic relief en route to revealing whodunit. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Jeffrey Toobin (The Run of His Life) brings context, nuance and new sources to a dramatic story in American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst.

The 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patricia Campbell Hearst by the radical group self-styled as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a media sensation. A nation watched with shock as the victim joined her captors in bank robberies and other crimes. Decades later, Toobin helpfully sets this salacious story against its backdrop: the influence of the Hearst name; the fledgling nature of televised media, particularly live news feeds; and the cultural upheavals underway via the radical political left, especially in the San Francisco area where Hearst lived. Surreally, a bumbling, incompetent SLA plagued by internal strife managed to elude federal investigators for many months. Jim Jones, Bill Walton and Ronald Reagan make cameo appearances.

American Heiress avoids firm conclusions about Hearst's level of agency in her own crimes. As Toobin observes, the phrase "Stockholm syndrome" was not yet in use at the time, but psychological coercion was the focus of Hearst's criminal defense. With the information uncovered, Toobin can reveal only a woman making the best of circumstances, "a clear thinker, if not a deep one." 

While most older readers will have preconceptions about the events, Toobin's ample research and new sources offer a fresh version. An author's note states that Hearst declined to comment, and explains the research methods. This history satisfies with its level of detail and emotional distance from a subject who remains mysterious. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Elizabeth Greenwood had recently quit teaching public school in New York City to return to school herself, and her student loan debt had hit six figures. She was feeling desperate, trapped and bored with her day-to-day existence. When a friend made a joke about faking her death to get away from it all, she was intrigued.

The idea became the research project that consumed her time and imagination for years, and resulted in Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud. Greenwood explores the world of pseudocide from several angles. She speaks with several subjects of infamous botched cases, but fails to identify any successful fraudsters (by definition, they are hard to find). She visits with the investigators who pursue these attempted frauds on behalf of the insurance companies frequently scammed, as well as with professionals in the field of helping people disappear. When Greenwood sits down with family members who have been left behind, she finds the most damage inflicted. Finally, in the Philippines, she sets out to purchase her own death certificate.

This energetic exploration of a world many readers may not have ever considered is perhaps slightly macabre, but ultimately very human; it involves a questioning of how we seek satisfaction in life, and when we cut and run. Greenwood's narrative voice is humble and approachable, but as an investigator she is tenacious, going the distance--to death and back--to bring this oddly fascinating story to her readers. Playing Dead will please those attracted to the eccentric, as well as anyone who has ever fantasized about leaving it all behind. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

In the first three acts, Randy Cecil (Brontorina) tells a similar story of a little stray dog named Lucy in three different ways, and children will revel in spotting the clever additions and changes, big and small, that shape the narrative.

The first act begins: "As the sun rose over Bloomville,/ a distant trumpet began to play--/ doodle-de-doodle-doo." The notes drift into the dreams of a little white dog, but a car door slams: "She was awake now." She runs past Bertolt's Butcher Shop, "the diner with the questionable scraps," a one-eyed cat and some park pigeons, until she finds her spot... the stoop of a red-doored apartment building. Here she waits for Eleanor Wische, the girl with the toaster-shaped head, to lower a bit of sausage on a string from an upstairs window. Inside, Eleanor's father is juggling his snow-globe collection, so absorbed he's late for work, and almost trips on the little dog on his way out. Small moments are captured in few words and many pictures, like sniffing a neighborhood mailbox (Lucy) or buying a cheese sandwich (Eleanor).

All acts but the fourth end with a nightmare: Eleanor's father paralyzed with stage fright as he tries to juggle on stage at the Palace Theater. In the satisfying denouement, dog, girl and father all find what they seek, be it sausage, love or courage. Cecil's circular duotone illustrations have the pleasingly odd, architectural starkness of Edward Gorey's compositions, but with the soft texture of sandstone. Lucy is a sweet stray dog story and an extraordinary exploration of persistence and perspective. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Inspector Flytrap is actually a carnivorous plant, a Venus flytrap in a clay pot. The intrepid plant detective is able to zoom around town solving mysteries for distraught clients because his assistant, an omnivorous goat named Nina, pushes him around on a skateboard.

In this giddy series debut written by Tom Angleberger (the Origami Yoda series; Horton Halfpott) and illustrated by Newbery Honor author Cece Bell (El Deafo), Inspector Flytrap and Nina solve three "BIG DEAL" mysteries (not just any silly "small-deal" mysteries like missing pickle paperweights). Indeed, Inspector Flytrap cracks only serious cases, such as the "Da Vinci Cold," in which a Da Vinci painting has a mysterious yellow blob on it (kind of disgusting, really); the "Mystery of the Stinky Cookies" in which the cookies at Koko Dodo's Cookie Shop are not stinky, but the bathtub-sized shoe on the top of the building sure is; and the "Mystery of the Missing Rose" at Snooty la Tooty Gardens, in which a rose is stolen by yet another goat with a skateboard, that later crashes into--surprise!--a pickle paperweight. Nina the goat's eagerness to eat or lick anything is the key to solving most of the cases. On the other hand, her indiscriminate voraciousness creates all sorts of new disasters.

Bell's comical black-and-white illustrations, large type, snappy dialogue and rampant hilarity guarantee fly-through reading, and comic book-style inserts à la Captain Underpants serve as clever asides to the detective duo's silly antics. Readers will snap up this series debut like a Venus flytrap in a cloud of gnats. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness