Mexican novelist Fernanda Melchor makes her unforgettable English-language debut with Hurricane Season, the snarled story of a witch murdered in the village of La Matosa. At the outset, five adventurous boys discover her water-logged corpse in an irrigation canal, sparking a series of conflicting accounts that depict the wicked events leading up to her brutal death. The accomplished Sophie Hughes translates from the Spanish, beautifully preserving Melchor's nearly uninterrupted prose, which conjures an intense gravity that can be difficult to escape.

As reviled as the Witch was, the parties she threw were raucous and lively. It's this cruel paradox that Melchor caresses time and again, as those who live in the village grapple with their dependence on, and deep disdain for, the Witch. Men needed her for sex, drugs, booze, money; women needed her to remedy the effects of those tempestuous appetites. Her vicious demise gets recounted in eight bracing chapters, whose menacing and longwinded sentences form the ferocious spiraling arms of Hurricane Season. In the eye of the storm stands Luisimi, a deadbeat who regularly consorted with the Witch. His relationship with her, and implication in her death, swirls into something like focus through vituperative reports from his closest friends and family.

Everyone's transgressions, however, are unmistakably rooted in frank depictions of poverty, need, abuse and addiction, begging empathy for those involved. In La Matosa's economy of violence, Melchor makes awfully clear the ways women bear the most unforgiving burdens of exploitation. Yet Hurricane Season weathers it all into an exquisite work of art. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness

The Last Taxi Driver by Lee Durkee (Rides of the Midway) is the comic story of cab driver Lou Bishoff, a student of Buddhism with rage issues and a failed university professor who recites Shakespeare to keep his mind off the addicts in his backseat. He says, "We are the poor man's ambulance, and we are also, sad to say, the poor man's priest, our cab the confessional in which people litmus test their wildest fears and prejudices."

Lou drives a beat-up Lincoln in Gentry, Miss. Although he's driven so long he thinks he's losing his mind, he nonetheless tries to "come up with theories that make life fair, but of course it isn't." One fare, Cancer Max, is released from rehab after a cancer diagnosis. He heads to the Rebel Motel, a place for transients, because he has nowhere else to go. Lou looks in Max's room and says, "The room is clean enough but smelled of slit wrists." Lou frequently interjects pointed commentary while driving. "Don't take selfies at red lights," he warns. "It makes you look like a superfreak and is so dispiriting for others to behold it shatters their view of God and humanity and makes them desire an alien invasion."

The dialogue crackles with wit on each page. The characters, including fares, other drivers and Lou's miserable boss, Stella, are idiosyncratically pictured. This is a gonzo ride full of dark humor, philosophical insights and shrewd observations about the plight of luckless people in the United States. --Cindy Pauldine, bookseller, the river's end bookstore, Oswego, N.Y.

Mystery readers who enjoy thrillers chock-full of twists and turns will adore Peter Swanson's (Before She Knew Him; The Kind Worth Killing) meta-mystery Eight Perfect Murders. A few years back, indie mystery bookstore owner Malcolm Kershaw created a blog post listing eight mystery novels where "the murderer comes closest to realizing that platonic ideal of a perfect murder." Now, someone is using that list to replicate those murders. When FBI agent Gwen Mulvey contacts Kershaw, it's revealed that he knew some of the victims, and the killer may be trying to frame him for their deaths. Can he figure out who is behind the killings before he's incriminated? 

Kershaw is the novel's narrator and even he notes, "I don't trust narrators any more than I trust the actual people in my life." He has some secrets in his past, including a dead wife and a store cat who figure into the mayhem. A murder mystery with a mystery bookstore owner as its narrator should delight fans as it revolves around analyzing plot points from Agatha Christie's The A.B.C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, Ira Levin's Deathtrap, John D. MacDonald's The Drowner and other classic puzzlers. Swanson uses plenty of clever twists and a tight cast of suspects to construct Eight Perfect Murders, a supremely entertaining whodunit that plays fair with attentive readers.

This superbly plotted novel, thrilling, fast-paced and psychologically complex, makes the perfect book club choice for fans of Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders and A.J. Finn's The Woman in the Window. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant

In a crime novel reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe, a body is found walled up in the Sheffield mansion of scandalous financier Gerald Cartwright years after his disappearance. Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler hopes to solve the case to revive his career and perhaps redeem his father's disgraced name. The only trouble is, he accidentally slept with Cartwright's college-aged son the other night; this only complicates the already dense web of lies and misdeeds. Meanwhile, Cartwright associates begin turning up dead, all at the hands of a dangerous pyromaniac, escalating the violent mystery Tyler and ambitious constable Amina Rabbani must untangle.

Russ Thomas's debut novel is a crackling, dark mystery perfect for fans of David Peace's Red Riding series and the works of Kate Atkinson. He writes with empathy for (as well as a necessary judgment of) the sins of the past coming back to consume perpetrator and victim alike. In this aspect, Cartwright's blackmailed neighbor Lily is the most painful example, her dementia eating away at even her knowledge of why she would be targeted in the first place.

Firewatching is a superbly written thriller that promises to keep readers on the edge of their seats guessing at the true culprit. As this is the first in a projected Adam Tyler series, readers can look forward to more mysteries from Thomas with this caliber of prose, suggesting a long and healthy career. --C.M. Crockford, freelance reviewer 

In Elizabeth Little's hugely entertaining Pretty as a Picture, film editor Marissa Dahl receives a job offer she can't refuse: work with acclaimed director Tony Rees on his latest movie. The caveats: she must get on a plane immediately, and she won't be told exactly where she's going or anything about the project--other than the story includes a dead girl--until she arrives. Marissa does know the project's previous editor was fired, but no reason is given.

The location turns out to be an island off the coast of Delaware, and Marissa is escorted to the set by the evasive Isaiah, whom she soon realizes is not just a driver but likely former military with lethal skills, e.g., a Navy SEAL. Why would someone like that be needed? The answer reveals itself when a dead body turns up, and the killer is someone on the island.

Like Dear Daughter, Little's well-received debut novel, Pretty as a Picture is propelled by a sharp, sardonic voice and an engaging protagonist. Marissa might lack social skills, but her internal monologue is spiced with snark. When she sees a vending machine that dispenses kale chips and organic cotton socks instead of the usual junk food, she bristles: "What a waste of perfectly good pocket change." Marissa's emotions play out in her brain as movie clips; "Huckleberry Fox, inconsolable, at Debra Winger's bedside" in Terms of Endearment represents sadness. The novel includes many film references to delight cinephiles, and the mystery will keep readers guessing, but the main attractions are Marissa and her vivid inner life. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd

William Boyle's City of Margins is a marvelously nuanced study of light and dark, infusing the gritty, melancholy detachment of The Lonely Witness with a dash of the "screwball noir" abounding in A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself. The early 1990s Southern Brooklyn denizens in City of Margins muddle through thinly partitioned lives, toting their loss, hope, desperation and yearning. When chance encounters increase their overlap, perilous links form between people who might otherwise have rubbed against each other without consequence.

Donnie Parascandolo is the epicenter, an emotionally wrecked cop who lost his son and then his wife, Donna. Donnie is connected to Mikey Baldini by a 1991 night of violence that resulted in the death of Mikey's father and left widowed Rosemarie Baldini with a crushing gambling marker held by Big Tommy Ficalora. Two years later, Donnie has been thrown off the force. His surprising new emotional attachment to widow Ava Bifulco is jeopardized when Ava's son recognizes Donnie. Nick dreams of writing the next great mobster screenplay and sees Donnie, rumored muscle for Big Tommy, as his meal ticket. The web of connections thickens when Mikey finds a note leading him to Donna and his ultimate discovery of the explosive truth behind his father's death.

Boyle's love of books and movies that blend crime and comedy wonderfully informs both his style and the bonds among his characters. The arts bridge generations, start conversations and, in Boyle's masterful hands, provide softening, wide-angle lenses to the broken and tortured souls of the margins. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review

A "nobody" takes over the persona of a Hollywood "it girl" in the psychological thriller The Body Double by first-time author Emily Beyda.

A young woman--the nameless narrator--working a dead-end job in a nowhere town gets the opportunity of a lifetime. On her behalf, her boss answers an ad seeking a look-alike for a reclusive celebrity named Rosanna Feld, to whom the young woman bears an uncanny resemblance. Rosanna's handler, Max, explains Rosanna has had a nervous breakdown due to the demands of celebrity life, and Max offers the young woman the chance to take Rosanna's place in public appearances until Rosanna recovers. The job comes with a huge paycheck.

The only catch is, the young woman must fully commit to becoming Rosanna and can never return to her current life. After she fulfills her contract, the young woman will be set up with a new life overseas.

It's an easy decision, since her current life entails living friendless in her foster mother's basement and working ungodly hours for minimum wage. But there's something cold and untrustworthy about Max. The more the young woman appears as Rosanna and interacts with her celebrity friends, the more she realizes Rosanna didn't just have a breakdown.

The Body Double adeptly dissects the lure and, conversely, the demands that come with celebrity life in Hollywood, especially the loneliness of being famous for only being famous. Beyda shines especially in detailing the emotional, nail-biting transition of the faux Rosanna from a nobody to a somebody, and then descending into the madness of no longer knowing who she truly is. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer

In 1947, Edith Farnsworth, a Chicago physician and art collector, wrote of German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: "Those of us who know him intimately know him to be a great man, a great teacher, and a great architect." A few years later, Farnsworth was eating her words. Alex Beam has titled his scintillating look at Mies and Farnsworth's public feud Broken Glass, although the name of his earlier book A Great Idea at the Time would have worked for this one as well.

Mies and Farnsworth met at a dinner party in Chicago in 1945. Farnsworth asked Mies if he knew of an architect who would build her a weekend retreat along the Fox River. They struck up a friendship--it briefly turned romantic--and Mies accepted the challenge. Begun in 1949 and completed in 1951, the Farnsworth House was Mies's minimalist masterwork. The space had an open plan--not even the bedroom had walls--and the four exterior walls were made of glass. Some of Broken Glass's three-dozen-plus black-and-white photos show why architects and aesthetes loved the place. But they didn't have to live in it.

Farnsworth would discover when she moved in that the glass walls made the house unbearably hot in summer and excruciatingly cold in winter. There were structural problems with the house, but the biggest affront was Mies's bill, which ran well beyond the original estimate. For six weeks in 1952, they duked it out in court.

Nonetheless, Beam sees the comedy within the high drama, the cleverness behind the jabs. Broken Glass spotlights a timeless concern: whether the artist owes anything beyond the work itself. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

Bloody Okinawa: The Last Great Battle of World War II by Joseph Wheelan (Midnight in the Pacific; Terrible Swift Sword) is a comprehensive overview of the Battle of Okinawa, released in time for its 75th anniversary.

On April 1, 1945, the United States launched the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific theater of World War II against the Japanese island of Okinawa. Over the following 82 days, 184,000 U.S. troops fought 140,000 Japanese soldiers and Okinawan conscripts in a grueling battle of attrition. The Japanese had abandoned their former strategy of contesting beach landings, instead concentrating their forces into elaborate underground fortifications that turned every hill, ravine and valley into mutually supporting fortresses. Meanwhile, in the air, Japanese kamikaze pilots launched waves of mass attacks against American ships. The resulting carnage on land and at sea made clear that the planned invasion of mainland Japan would entail catastrophic casualties, and influenced the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The battle for Okinawa ultimately killed 7,500 U.S. ground forces and 5,000 seamen, 125,000 Japanese soldiers and 100,000 civilians. Kamikazes sank 36 ships and damaged 368 others.

Wheelan provides a firm background to both sides and manages to keep track of disparate units and commanders without overwhelming readers. His use of first-hand accounts from the Americans, the Japanese and Okinawan civilians caught in between gives life to broader descriptions of unit actions. Still, the many formation movements and officer names make Bloody Okinawa more of interest to military history buffs than to general readers. For those already keen on the subject, Wheelan's book makes for grim yet fascinating reading. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer

Opinions on the existence of UFOs vary, but what's known about the people who investigate them? In They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers, science writer Sarah Scoles (Making Contact) breezily marries journalism and sociological study to introduce professionals and hobbyists who make up the misunderstood UFO community.

Scoles is intrigued by those obsessed with UFOs, wondering why people "spent so much time on a phenomenon that they weren't even sure was a phenomenon." Beyond the expected scientists and military personnel, she discovers people like Tom DeLonge, former member of the rock band Blink-182, whose focus on studying UFOs has been at odds with his music career. His goal was to acquire funding to "reverse-engineer UFO type technology." Nevada businessman Robert Bigelow bought a Utah ranch consisting of almost 500 acres, then hired scientists and engineers to study all sorts of "phenomena," including UFOs, spending tens of millions of his own dollars.

What makes a person believe they've seen a UFO? One reason, says political theorist Jodi Dean, is that "raw information that feeds into our sensory organs has to be processed by our brain's algorithms, which were forged by our unique social, economic, geographic, political, historical, cultural circumstances." Scoles acknowledges unanswered questions about UFOs, and affirms the sincerity of believers. A skeptic to the end, she thinks, "Maybe our own world... is just stranger than we are ready to believe." This engrossing and well-sourced investigation will leave readers contemplating the human condition of "universal uncertainty." --Cindy Pauldine, bookseller, the river's end bookstore, Oswego, N.Y.

A lyrical contemporary YA with a dose of magical realism, Tigers, Not Daughters is an empowering portrait of grief, sisterhood and resilience.

Ever since their mother died in childbirth, the four Torres sisters are desperate to get away from their crushingly needy father. Two months after a failed escape, Ana, the eldest, falls to her death from her bedroom window. A year later, the destroyed sisters and their "disaster of a dad" still mourn. Jessica seethes with anger as she dates Ana's abusive former boyfriend. Iridian, inspired by Ana's romance novels, pens her own, writing down her father's harshest insults to "feel less insignificant." Rosa, magically in tune with nature, believes an escaped hyena is linked to Ana. The three soon see signs of Ana's ghost--her shadow, handwriting and laughter--which convince them she's returned for revenge, and each has her own theory against whom.

The sisters in Tigers, Not Daughters face discrete battles, yet Ana's ghost unites them and forces them to confront the palpable grief eclipsing their powerful bond. Samantha Mabry's characters express their pain with achingly raw vulnerability: Jessica "knew what it was like to... pick pieces of other people's skin from beneath her fingernails"; Rosa had "a part of her snapped off, leaving her with a big, raw hole"; "Iridian felt like Ana was the itch in her skin." At the same time, Mabry (All the Wind in the World) gracefully shows their delicate paths forward as they leave behind guilt and regret and find romantic love and renewed strength. In a beautiful display of sisterly love, the girls summon the fight within, protect each other from their fears and move forward through their loss. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer

Avenging Assamese warrior queens fight to save America's Heartland from an evil spirit in this humorous whodunnit that dismantles popularity, prejudice and the dubious perks of being a high school superhero.

As a brown girl in a mostly white town, 16-year-old Violet Choudhury feels the safest way for her to get through high school is to blend in. Unfortunately, Violet's heritage is at odds with her chosen method of survival. Her "great-great-multiplied-by-like-a-hundred-more-greats-grandmother" Ananya was the queen of the ancient kingdom of Assam, located in present-day India. Ananya used her supernatural powers to help the gods, who then honored her by making her and all of her future female lineage "Aiedeo": warriors tasked with protecting the world from demon kings.

Since there can be only one Aiedeo per generation, all of Violet's teachers have been immortal spirits. In middle school, she could hide the fact that her dead relatives were teaching her how to shape-shift, but, after an accident when she was 13, she began ignoring their existence. The Aiedeo are getting more persistent, though, demanding that she resume her training. When Naomi, "cheer captain and all-around head bitch," turns up dead after a sex tape surfaces, Violet is charged by the Aiedeo--and a vengeful Naomi fresh from the "Ghost World"--to find her killer.

Mintie Das does a terrific job blending the everyday concerns of her heroine with the awesome responsibilities her legacy demands. Violet's journey to claim her inheritance is a compelling one that is also plenty of fun. Snappy banter, plenty of action and a host of supernatural beings make Brown Girl Ghosted, the author's U.S. debut, a refreshing choice. --Lynn Becker, blogger and host of Book Talk, a monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI