In an unnamed city "swollen by refugees," militants begin a violent encroachment, then secure the city, with "bodies hanging from streetlamps and billboards like a form of festive seasonal decoration." In the midst of the chaos are two young adults who meet in a corporate identity class: Saeed, a religious man with a "studiously maintained stubble," and Nadia, who wears a burqa in public only to ward off advances from men. The protagonists of Exit West, Mohsin Hamid's (How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia) heartrending fourth novel, they're spurred to an unusual form of escape.

Their relationship deepens, and they're eager to leave the city after Saeed's mother is killed in her parked car while searching for a lost earring. That's when they hear rumors of "doors that could take you elsewhere." The first leads to a sandy beach on Mykonos. Subsequent trips take them to a palatial home in London and then to Marin, Calif. Each trip is as jarring as one might expect, with some residents welcoming them into the community and others treating them as unwanted foreigners. The writing throughout this novel about dislocation is gorgeous. Hamid writes that the land around San Francisco Bay stretches down "like a bent thumb, ever poised to meet the curved finger of Marin in a slightly squashed gesture that all would be okay"--a sentiment all emigrants in search of a better life would no doubt like to believe. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Roaming Colombia's rebellious decades at the turn of the 21st century, Julianne Pachico's first novel echoes the surrealistic ambience of that country's most famous modern writer, Gabriel García Márquez. The Lucky Ones navigates from the city of Cali's wealthy youth to paramilitary revolutionaries in mountain jungles, idealistic visiting teachers and even a Colombian expat working the fringes of New York City's cocaine parties. With a mix of first-, third- and second-person narrative, Pachico crafts a fictional world in which, before going to the mall, rich teen girls "yank their jeans down as far as they can go, tug at their tank tops to reveal bra straps underneath, peach and pink and black," and FARC rebels kidnap, incarcerate and murder in "their fatigues. Their berets. With their long, slow jungle marches, slipping and sliding through the mud."

A British citizen pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia, Pachico grew up in Cali, experiencing firsthand the political and social turmoil that she captures so well. It's a world of displacement and inexplicable disappearance in which "it is normal for children to attend school regularly... then abruptly never be seen again. Gangs move in... families move out." A worn-out dissident soldier in the jungle perhaps says it best: "When this--all of this--is over (whatever this means, whatever over means).... I'll come strolling down the mountainside." The dreamlike drama that was Colombia back then ends, in T.S. Eliot's words, "Not with a bang, but a whimper." Pachico's fiction demonstrates how that makes perfect sense. She is one to watch. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

Nickolas Butler struck gold by mining small-town Wisconsin life in his much-lauded first novel, Shotgun Lovesongs. Wisely panning the same motherlode, The Hearts of Men takes place largely at Boy Scout Camp Chippewa in the state's heavily forested rural northwest--a setting that molds three generations of boys trying to become men.

Told in four parts set in 1962, 1996, 2019 and 2022, The Hearts of Men tracks the evolution of the camp as the ways of men are transformed by war, technology and sexual mores. In 1962, the camp bugler Nelson is a nerdy, glasses-wearing reader, an easy target for bullying by his callous fellow scouts. It takes an in-country stint as a tunnel rat in the Vietnam War to turn him into the Eagle Scout he longs to be. In 1996, one of Nelson's only scout "friends" brings his 16-year-old son, Trevor, to camp despite the boy's disdain. In 2019, after Trevor's death, his fragile widow, Rachel, insists their son Thomas go to camp, as his father did, to earn merit badges like orienteering. The only woman chaperone in camp, she endures the bigoted harassment of scout fathers, leading to abrupt violence, bravely subdued by Nelson, who is now camp director.

They leave camp shaken, and in 2022, Rachel buys an isolated cabin on her own, but adopts a pair of protective German shepherds, just in case. If there is an overriding lesson in The Hearts of Men, it might be found in the Boy Scout admonition, "Be prepared." There's no telling what life will throw your way. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

Margaret George's specialty is biographical novels (like Helen of Troy), in which she takes legendary historical figures and unearths the human being buried beneath centuries of myth and propaganda. The Confessions of Young Nero represents one of her most ambitious rehabilitations to date: the first of two novels dedicated to the brief but eventful life of the titular Roman emperor Nero.

The novel opens with Caligula throwing a very young Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, later Nero, in the water to drown, an early introduction to the dangers of absolute power. Growing up in exile, Lucius might never have become Nero were it not for the murder of Caligula and his family, along with the ruthless machinations of his mother, Agrippina. Seen through young Nero's eyes, Agrippina's brutal ways inspire mixed emotions from her son, as well as harsh lessons: "Let them call me cruel. Better that than dead."

However much Nero might wish to live a simple life as a poet or a musician, his hopes are frustrated by Agrippina's ambitions. His priorities are forced to shift drastically as he's simultaneously imbued with enormous power and increasingly threatened by Agrippina's attempts to usurp his authority.

The Confessions of Young Nero asks what responsibilities a leader has to his people, especially if the demands of leadership interfere with personal happiness. In retrospect, Nero's major folly seems to be in thinking of himself as a person, rather than the living embodiment of the state.

George's novel may not prove to be the definitive historical interpretation of Nero, but her thoughtful, humane treatment of the man will inspire readers to question his status in the popular imagination as a depraved pleasure-seeker. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, N.C.

The 15 stories in Lyndsay Faye's The Whole Art of Detection will prove purely delightful for fans of the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. With two entirely new stories, and 13 others culled from previous anthologies and magazine contributions, the collection stands as a tribute to Faye's way with words and witticisms, both of which combine to reinvigorate Holmes and Watson (as well as their surrounding casts of miscreants, assistants and unassuming bystanders).

Like Doyle, Faye brings mystery and adventure to Holmes and Watson in various settings. At times that is 221B Baker Street, and at others it is a hospital, a wine shop and even (most entertainingly, for those who know Holmes's unsocial ways) an elite garden party. These variations allow Faye to explore myriad aspects of Victorian London, with its seedy underbelly, political intrigues and aristocratic traditions. No less diversity is found in the timing of Faye's stories, which span Holmes's pre-Baker years through his time with Watson, past his return from the dead and to the pair's later capers.

What stands out most completely in The Whole Art of Detection is Faye's ability to capture the style, tone and approach that made original Doyle stories so enduringly captivating, and maintain that style throughout clever new adventures. These capers are as entertaining as the originals, but even more wonderful is the new depth Faye brings to the characters--and their complicated and exceptional friendship. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm

Michael L. Printz Award-winning novelist Marcus Sedgwick (She Is Not Invisible) moves away from his young adult roots for a psychologically complex mystery that explores the nature of memory in shaping identity and personal history.

Marcel Després is a cabaret performer who murdered his wife and has been imprisoned at Salpêtrière Asylum under the care of Dr. Morel. Marcel's case, while open and shut with his confession, piques the curiosity of police Inspector Laurent Petit, who seeks to investigate Marcel's crime against the wishes of his superiors. Flashbacks reveal how naiveté has put Marcel in his current predicament: the man born with a perfect memory fails to hold down an adult job due to his constant "daydreaming"--until he scores a cabaret act as Mister Memory in the seedy underbelly of Paris. There, Marcel meets and marries the beautiful dancer Ondine, whose sordid past unravels their marriage and leads to further intrigue and destruction.

Sedgwick's story develops as a cinematic fairy tale that plays "forward and backward, left to right and back again and each and every time feeling everything he felt at that time, as if it were happening to him over again, for real." Marcel's memory becomes the focal point of the story, the centerpiece from which to explore the pliability of recall and its role in influencing the interpretation of truth for the characters.

"It is only the story we make by linking such moments together, and the narrative that creates, that gives us any meaning, that gives us personality." --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant

Bromley, London, 1994: teenagers trespassing in a construction site uncover human bones and a clay urn hundreds of years old. Robert Chambers, an American forensic pathologist, travels to the British Museum to examine these remains, replacing the museum's previous pathologist, who stabbed out his own eyes after touching the bones. Chambers could be forgiven for refusing such an ominous assignment, but he is no stranger to weird and dangerous artifacts. As part of the Human Protection League, sometimes called the Lovecraft Squad, Chambers is familiar with the otherworldly terrors lurking behind everyday reality, cosmic horrors once published as fiction by H.P. Lovecraft.

The mysterious bones lead to All Hallows Church, an ancient site with a long history of unexplained deaths. Thanks to a meddlesome journalist, Chambers's research turns into a tabloid publicity stunt. He and six others are locked inside the church for four days to conduct a paranormal investigation. Almost as soon as the doors of All Hallows are sealed, that investigation becomes a horrifying descent into madness, death and supernatural abominations beyond the scope of human understanding.

The Lovecraft Squad: All Hallows Horror is the first of a promised trilogy written by John Llewellyn Probert and created by Stephen Jones. It sometimes feels like two concepts inorganically fused into one book: partly a story about a secret agency combating cosmic horrors, partly a story about a paranormal investigation that goes hellishly wrong. This jarring duality is, however, overshadowed by what turns into a grisly, gripping tale of terror with roots in medieval English history and Lovecraftian horror. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer

Giles Tremlett (Catherine of Aragon) sums up the theme of his accomplished biography of Isabella of Castile in the subtitle: Europe's First Great Queen. Isabella of Castile opens with a vivid set piece: 23-year-old Isabella marching through the streets of Segovia preceded by a knight carrying the royal sword. It was a symbol of power and of the will to use it. Isabella would prove to have both.

The odds were against her. When Isabella seized the throne after the death of her brother in December 1474, she inherited a weak monarchy and nobles accustomed to ruling their territories without deference to their feudal overlord. The powerful men who supported her questionable claim to the throne assumed her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, would rule in her stead. Thanks to a prenuptial agreement, which she negotiated, Isabella governed Castile in her own right, with Ferdinand as a trusted partner. Together they transformed Castile and Aragon from a congeries of medieval feudatories into a modern state led by a powerful monarch. They also ended Spain's long history of relative religious tolerance, with the creation of the Spanish Inquisition and attacks on Muslims, Jews and Christians of Muslim and Jewish descent.

Tremlett paints a sympathetic picture of Isabella without whitewashing the fact that she was often ruthless and intolerant, with a sense of Realpolitik that rivaled that of Machiavelli. Isabella of Castile will appeal to readers who enjoyed Helen Castor's She-Wolves and Sarah Gristwood's Game of Queens. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins

Forward magazine Sisterhood editor Phoebe Maltz Bovy delves into the virtue of a single word from the English language for her first book, The Perils of "Privilege." The cultural phenomenon concerning the idea of unearned advantages has taken on considerable power in business, political, educational and even social situations. Individuals are told to "check your privilege" at the slightest possible offense, or are informed that "your privilege is showing" (YPIS) when exhibiting any ignorance toward the plights of those in some way less fortunate than themselves. But Bovy argues that the function of privilege, originally intended to promote empathy and encourage change, has instead become a detriment to those ideals.

By looking at the rise of the concept of privilege since the turn of the century--in areas like journalism, social media and casual conversation--Bovy identifies how privilege call-outs impede the conversations that should be taking place and supplant them with meaningless debate or navel-gazing: "Privilege once had that nuanced, reasoned use, but once checking started to enter into it--certainly once the 'your' got involved--the problems with it began."

Bovy also examines possible alternatives, which would be more than just a change in terms. "If you're wondering what to hurl instead of a YPIS, my advice would be to simply refrain from hurling, period." The rich complexity of the subject matter makes for a slower read, demanding reflection and analysis for a complete and comprehensive understanding of Bovy's argument. But the result of such an investment can have profound results. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

It's a perfect day for Cat, who loves to feel the warmth of the sun while lying in a flower bed, and for Dog, who sits in the wading pool his friend Bert filled for him, and for Chickadee and Squirrel, too, who enjoy birdseed from the feeder and a corncob on the grass. Perfect for everyone... until Bear comes along and decides to make it a perfect day for himself. He chomps on the corncob, gobbles the birdseed, gives himself a wading pool shower and rolls in the garden, scattering the other critters in his wake. "The warmth of the sun./ The cool of the water./ A belly full of corn and seed./ A flower bed for a nap." This confirms it: "It was a perfect day for Bear." The others? Not so much anymore.

In A Perfect Day, Lane Smith--Carle Honor Artist, Society of Illustrators' Lifetime Achievement award recipient and two-time Caldecott Honor winner (The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka; Grandpa Green)--gives young readers a sweet little taste of perspective. It's natural to find oneself at the center of the world when one is a child. Bear's oblivious upheaval of everyone else's perfect day in the pursuit of his own is a gentle nudge toward recognizing others' points of view. The image of a massive and utterly serene Bear snoozing among the flowers so recently abandoned by the panicked cat juxtaposes tellingly with the final picture of boy, dog, cat, bird and squirrel huddled wide-eyed around the window. Smith's trademark textured, scratchy, mixed-media artwork is, as always, captivating; his comic storytelling: perfect. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Historian Lucy Worsley transports readers back to 16th-century Tudor England in her debut novel, Maid of the King's Court. Twelve-year-old Elizabeth Camperdowne expects her fate to be the same as any girl: to wed and bear children. As the sole heir to Stoneton, her ancient but impoverished family estate, Elizabeth assumes she'll marry "into a family at least equal to ours in dignity and antiquity." An unforeseen turn of events instead brings her to the court of Henry VIII. Accompanied by her beautiful and vivacious cousin Katherine Howard, Elizabeth is named a "maid of honour," or attendant, to the king's new German bride, Anne of Cleves. As Katherine's charm captivates the courtiers, Elizabeth struggles to control her outspoken nature and catches the attention of Master Ned Barsby, the bastard son of a nobleman. In a land where even a queen may be executed, Elizabeth knows she must quickly learn the rules of the dangerous game of courtly life.

Long stretches between glamorous feasts and festivities lead to boredom in the royal household, and dullness can be shattered by the king's whims. Fictional and historical figures and events are woven together seamlessly in Worsley's tale, which challenges readers to reimagine the lives of courtiers and two of Henry's wives, Anne and Katherine, through the eyes of the fictional Elizabeth. While Elizabeth's fate is always in focus, the fates of those around her often feel just as significant. Every bit as captivating as Katherine herself, Maid of the King's Court is not to be missed. --Kyla Paterno, former children's & YA book buyer

The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and His Ex opens with a real-life unsolved mystery: "On August 2, 1986, a group calling itself the Australian Cultural Terrorists stole one of the world's most iconic paintings--Picasso's Weeping Woman--off the walls of the National Gallery of Victoria." The thieves were never apprehended--which provides Melbourne author Gabrielle Williams (Beatle Meets Destiny) the ideal premise for this rollicking what-could-have-been escapade.

The guy--his name really is Guy--has been deceiving his parents about his plummeting grades. Convinced failure is imminent, he hardly protests when friends pressure him into hosting a party while his parents are away. The girl--Rafi, originally from Mexico--leaves the toddler she's supposed to be babysitting with her mother and goes to the party where she runs into Guy... literally. The toddler's father--artist Luke--is impossibly talented, but also arrogant and irresponsible, which only makes him more irresistible to his ex, Penny, his son's mother. Thrown into this salmagundi of titular characters is a motley supporting cast that includes a mourning mother, a drowned brother, an international con artist, an unsalable artist-turned-security-guard and an equine apparition called La Llorona. One fateful night, the Weeping Woman will threaten life, limb and liberty of these unsuspecting many.

As Williams imagines the artful machinations of one of history's greatest heists, she manages shrewdly to balance extremes--love and dismissal, nurturing and abuse, loyalty and betrayal--making her characters multi-dimensional, her fiction immediately convincing and her novel one to remember. --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon