Recommended Reading

David Baldacci

The Fix

Grand Central Publishing

Amos Decker—whose wife and child were murdered in the first installment, Memory Man, which I still haven’t gotten around to yet—is one of Baldacci’s most complex and tortured characters. This is the third book in the series (the second, The Last Mile, is out in paperback and I highly recommend it) and finds our hero and his scatterbrain investigating a public assassination in front of the FBI building in Washington, D.C. Formulaic to be sure, but the formula still works. And Baldacci has mastered it.

– Chris Manson

China Mieville

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution

Verso

This is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Russian Revolution. Like World War I (also having its hundredth), it’s mainly been relegated to the classrooms and the movies. Mieville’s book is constructed as an introduction and not a detailed political analysis. To that end, he keeps the narrative fast moving and misses no opportunities to highlight dramatic scenes. The revolution toppled a 300-year imperial dynasty, yanked Russia out of a losing war with Germany, and catapulted it to superpower status in a few decades. It would have been hard avoiding the drama. Marx, Lenin and Trotsky deserve story credit.

– Bruce Collier

Karin Slaughter

The Kept Woman (Paperback)

William Morrow

Will Trent and his Georgia Bureau of Investigation cohorts return, along with Trent’s extremely high maintenance sorta-ex. A compulsive page-turner from start to finish, and another masterpiece from one of the rare storytellers that can strike the perfect balance between humor and sick making.

– Chris Manson