Book Reviews

This week, the NPR Books Time Machine is rewinding Elizabeth Hand's gritty, punk-inflected Cass Neary mystery series. "Scary Neary" is an aging rocker with addiction issues and a talent for trouble.

Justin Cronin's blood-and-thunder tale of a viral vampire apocalypse began in 2010 with The Passage. He brings it to a rousing conclusion in his new book, hitting all the beats fans have waited for.

Dan Vyleta's new novel imagines an alternate Victorian England where ill deeds (and even ill thoughts) are made visible by vile black Smoke; it's a marker not just of personal worth but also class.

Two new volumes of work by the legendary music writer Ralph J. Gleason are out this spring. Though he grew up during the Jazz Age, Gleason loved acts like Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead too.

Stephen Dixon's new book is a loopy, madcap tale with a simple premise: A young man is trying to call an old friend. But he's foiled at every turn, by a series of events that get increasingly weird.

Young adult author Robin Wasserman's new novel is definitely just for grown-ups — it's a tangled, thrilling story of two friends gone very wrong; hard to put down, with a twist you won't see coming.

Rivka Galchen's meditation on motherhood is wry, low-key and non-linear, inspired by the 11th-century Japanese classic The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon — and the sleep-deprived brains of new parents.

Jennifer Mason-Black's new novel has echoes of The Odyssey. It follows a young musician who makes a deal with a devil at the crossroads: her voice, in exchange for a way to find her missing sister.