A woman's disappearance from the Swedish island of Gräsö smoothly leads to an insightful look at families and the secrets they hold dear in The Deathwatch Beetle, the ninth absorbing procedural by Kjell Eriksson (Black Lies, Red Blood) to be translated from the Swedish.

About four years ago, Cecilia Karlsson seemingly abandoned her successful job and left the home of her controlling parents, with whom she lived. It was shortly before her boss, Casper Stefansson, also went missing, presumed murdered. But rumors have cropped up about sightings of Cecilia in Portugal, sparking the interest of former inspector Ann Lindell, who, despite her retirement from the Uppsala police force, remains a detective at heart.

Ann interrupts her vacation on Gräsö with Edvard Risberg, "her great torment but also her great love," for an unofficial investigation. Ann's inquiry ramps up when Cecilia is spotted on the island, attending the funeral of an old friend.

Eriksson delves deeply into Cecilia's motives for vanishing: she was angry at what she saw as betrayal by former friends, tired of being mansplained, especially by her father, who seemed to have her life under constant surveillance. Cecilia would rather hide out in an abandoned, mold-filled cabin where the wood-boring deathwatch beetle is "scratching and gnawing in the wall" than sleep in her parents' comfortable home.

The Deathwatch Beetle strongly examines the vagaries of families, including Ann's relationship with her son, Erik, and her re-connection with Edvard, with whom she plans to live a quiet rural life. But part of Ann admires Cecilia's decision to just leave everything behind. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

Cartoonist Brian Blomerth returns with a second eye-popping paean to the history of psychedelics in Mycelium Wassonii. The book is a spiritual successor to Blomerth's 2019 graphic novel Bicycle Day, an exuberant, surreal account of Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman's discovery of LSD. Here, Blomerth details the careers of R. Gordon and Valentina Wasson, pioneers of ethnomycology and key figures in popularizing psilocybin mushrooms in the West.

The Wassons' adventures in mycology begin in a cabin in Upstate New York, during the couple's honeymoon in 1927, where Tina proselytizes to a reluctant Gordon about the consciousness-expanding powers of fungi. Blomerth's art is likewise expansive. His full-page compositions are boldly designed and richly detailed: mushrooms spring from the earth and chitter away in an alien language; Tina's headscarf resembles a wizard's cap, suggestive of a mystic or a prophet; waterfalls shimmer with multicolor gradients, evoking a heightened state of awareness. 

Years later, the two collaborate on a "cookbook turned treatise," merging mycology and anthropology. Their research eventually brings them to Oaxaca, where they encounter the Mazatec healer María Sabina, a "first-class curandera" (or medicine woman). They document her use of psychoactive mushrooms in ceremonies--despite her warning that "showing the photos or telling anyone will be a betrayal"--and, in so doing, unleash a tide of Western interest that transforms the Mazatecs' relationship to the mushrooms.

While Blomerth is clear-eyed about the pitfalls of Westerners' historical embrace of psychedelics (he prefers "entheogens," a name "unvulgarized by hippy abuse"), Mycellium Wassonii is above all a celebration: an ecstatic visual fantasia in praise of both the mushroom and the movement that has sprung up around it. --Theo Henderson, bookseller at Ravenna Third Place Books in Seattle, Wash.

Poet Raymond Antrobus stunned the literary world with his debut, The Perseverance, which won the Rathbones Folio Prize. His second collection, All the Names Given, proves the depth and clarity of his voice as it draws upon the complicated history of his surname and the interrelation of sound and silence, mingling the tangible with the transparent.

In these poems, Antrobus cross-pollinates time and space, each poem reminding readers of the ways a human can, in fact, be two things at once: here and there; now and then; fluent in the formal and the fractured musicality of language. Inspired by the work of Deaf sound artist Christine Sun Kim, Antrobus (also Deaf) interjects [Caption Poems] throughout, reframing closed captioning as a creative act, each description providing layers of unexpected complexity, such as "[sound of something left out]" or "[sound of mirror refusing reflection]."

Whether confronting the raw truth of new love or shared pain, Antrobus creates unforgettable images, simultaneously searing and tender, as in "For Cousin John": "I prepare silence,/ practise each time for a calm dinner/ but you lift a fork, unsettle the territory." And later: "Cousin,/ we all alone in these streets. I wish you/ horses in rain and fields of broken gates," before concluding "Cousin, why couldn't you/ let us see what you were burying? Cousin/ I wish sunlight on all your fields." Often bold and direct, these poems are stunning in their generosity: two hands open, offering abundance. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian

"Objects just seem to collect me, of their own volition," insists Haruki Murakami (First Person Singular): LPs, books, magazine clippings, pencil stubs and, of course, T-shirts. Murakami T might detour from his global bestsellers, but it's a delightful glimpse into iconic Murakami through his casual wardrobe. "Now that I've lived this long, and find myself with enough T-shirts to write a whole book about them, frankly it seems kind of scary," he muses. Murakami T originated as a series of essays for the Japanese men's magazine Popeye. Each essay loosely groups the shirts by theme, enhanced here with photographs of the featured choices. The collection's first photo proves especially memorable--a yellow T emblazoned with "Tony" Takitani House D that inspired a short story and film.

Not every shirt engenders such long life. Some are contemplative: "Meaning Unknown." Some are just for fun: "Whiskey." Some are comically self-referential: "Keep Calm and Read Murakami." Some underscore his well-known passions for music--"Record Stores Are a Blast"--and running--"Can't Help Thinking About a Nice Cold Beer." Interwoven throughout are sly, revealing comments about what he'll actually wear: no Ivy League names, cute animals, Superman and Batman logos; yes to no-images-but-has-random-writing, Volkswagen, plain. An invitingly chatty ending interview with writer Kunichi Nomura spotlights additional Ts left out of essays, including a most striking "DONALD ERES UN PENDEJO," a gift from fellow author Paul Theroux.

Murakami is both a savvy consumer, especially of international thrift stores, and an entertaining guide through personal and pop culture history. Translated by Philip Gabriel, every page is a whimsical discovery, especially satisfying for voyeuristic groupies. --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon

While much of the public dialogue about Covid-19 centers on reducing harm, on recovery and on the resumption of "normal life," Bruno Latour's After Lockdown: A Metamorphosis, translated from French by Julie Rose, analyzes humanity's changed existence in the pandemic. He does this in parallel with close reading of Franz Kafka's legendary novella, The Metamorphosis, and argues that the pandemic's first 20 months are a preview of the world ahead. He foresees a world in which life on Earth will increasingly be determined by confrontations between humanity's way of life and the limitations of a deteriorating environment that is no longer as much a natural world as it is a world built by and for humans.

Though After Lockdown is a thought-provoking, philosophical text, one need not be a French theorist to appreciate its penetrating analysis of the stultifying lockdown experience and the networked essence of life, the eccentric humor of its allegorical fables, and Latour's intense commitment to understanding the world. Latour writes with intellectual gravitas, but in his style complexity feels almost like a compliment to the reader. He does not condescend by dumbing things down, and instead treats the reader as an equal mind.

So buckle in to learn new words--e.g., bioclastic, holobiont--and new facts about termites. While sobering in its vision of the future, Latour's After Lockdown is a constant reminder of the pleasures of a passionate theoretical and literary mind, the kind of mind that one can hope will persist through whatever comes. --Walker Minot, teacher, freelance writer and book reviewer

Tony Messenger spent years traveling across Missouri, uncovering the stories of people affected by court fees and fines--work that he calls "the most important work I have ever produced as a journalist." That work, which earned him the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, ultimately resulted in Profit and Punishment, a timely and important revelation of "a national crisis hidden in plain sight."

Messenger's work lies at the "intersection of poverty and criminal justice," drawing deeply on the experiences of three single mothers--and a multitude of other individual stories in passing--to illustrate how the justice system has evolved to become a money-making scheme, often "shouldered by the most vulnerable among us." Through court fees and fines, as well as pay-to-stay bills ("board bills") charged in many states for time spent in jail, the system generates income to support itself, "money earmarked by lawmakers as a backdoor tax" and funneled into municipal budgets, sheriff retirement funds, judge and clerk salaries and more. Messenger posits that more than 80% of the cases that go through the court system are for misdemeanor charges, and the vast majority of those paying into the system are living below the federal poverty line.

Messenger grounds relevant data and theory of a broken system in the experiences of those who interact with it. With each case, Messenger drives home the point: this is the criminalization of poverty in action. It's "an American epidemic... [a] tragic cycle of profit and abuse" that should enrage anyone who comes to understand it--and Profit and Punishment is the perfect place to start that understanding. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

In this funny, action-packed graphic novel, readers are introduced to Portico Reeves (aka Stuntboy), a Black fourth-grader and superhero. Portico lives in the biggest house on the block, Skylight Gardens, and suffers from terrible cases of "the frets" (anxiety). Apartment 4D is home to Portico, his mom and dad, Gran Gran and their cat, A New Name Every Day. One-and-a-half doors down in apartment 4E is Zola Brawner, Portico's best friend and the only person who can get him to de-fret. Herbert Singletary the Worst, Portico's arch-nemesis and bully, lives behind the half-sized door between 4D and 4E. Herbert, who causes many of Portico's cases of the frets, also triggers Portico's realization that he is a superhero--his superpower is sacrificing himself to make sure all the other heroes stay safe. Those heroes? The eclectic group of people who live in Skylight Gardens. As Portico tries to dodge Herbert's bullying and cope with his parents' constant arguing, Stuntboy swoops in to save his neighbors and, hopefully, his parents' marriage.

This easily accessible and hilarious graphic novel is broken up into short episodes interrupted by commercial breaks with helpful tips on stunts. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Jason Reynolds (Track series) creates a text that makes for a quick and easy read and the accompanying digital illustrations by Raúl the Third (Strollercoaster) match the tone perfectly. The artist uses loose, sketchy lines to show movement and adds pops of color to his black-and-white art to focus the eye on important details. Stuntboy, in the Meantime is a perfect book for seven- to 12-year-olds. --Natasha Harris, freelance reviewer

Dream Street by cousins Tricia Elam Walker (Nana Akua Goes to School) and Ekua Holmes (Voice of Freedom; Saving American Beach) is a formidable, potent antidote to a world that is often unkind to children, especially children of color. Here, "the children who live and play on Dream Street can become whatever and whoever they want, because their dreams are nourished and cared for."

On Dream Street, brothers Yusef and Biko never leave their home without crowns because, their mother reminds them, "their ancestors... were queens and kings with dreams they never gave up on." Belle, who is going to be a lepidopterist, catches butterflies but she never traps them for long because "everything has a right to be free." Future librarian Zion is already in the library, transported by "skyscraper-tall piles of books that take him on adventures around the world." While the children dream, elders enable. Mr. Phillips plans a jazz band with his five sons; Ms. Paula teaches African dance; Ms. Sarah, Dream Street's longest resident, has endless stories to share.

Dream Street is real--and why shouldn't it be? It's based on Walker and Holmes's Roxbury, Mass., childhood neighborhood. The two had a dream that someday they'd "create a picture book together about everyone they [knew] and [met] on Dream Street." Their gratifying dream-come-true is made magnificent by Caldecott Honor artist Holmes's gorgeously vibrant, multi-layered and multi-textured collages. Each illustration features the residents of Dream Street, making people and their stories the soul of the book. Readers are welcomed into a landscape of acceptance, respect, nurturing and endless possibilities in Dream Street. --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon