Books

Blake Butler's new novel, 300,000,000, is not for the squeamish. This portrait of a serial killer and the detective who hunts him will curdle the blood — and possibly the soul — of any reader.

In his second poetry collection, The New Testament, Jericho Brown weaves together strains of religious invocations with his uneasy identity as a southern, gay, black man into a beguiling self myth.

The art of letter writing is also an act of preserving history. The correspondences gathered in the book Letters Of Note tell stories of delight, hope and loss — and the nature of human connection.

Author G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona introduce the new Ms. Marvel — a 16-year-old Muslim girl from Jersey City — with elegant line work and utterly believable characterizations.

Ben Tripp's young adult debut is a charming romp through a thoroughly theatrical 18th-century England populated by swashbuckling highwaymen, fairies and circus performers.

After meeting backlash, the author apologized for lamenting the long prison sentences handed to some users of child pornography. Also: Stirrings are afoot in the worlds of Harry Potter and Twin Peaks.