The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard:: In 1830, retired New York City detective Gus Landor is living a quiet life at his Hudson Valley cottage, tormented by an unspecified personal sorrow, when Superintendent Thayer summons him to West Point to investigate the hanging and subsequent mutilation of a cadet.
Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer:: Set in Tehran during the aftermath of the 1979 revolution, this understated, beautifully told literary debut follows the Amin family as they cope with their fathers false imprisonment for spying.
Ruby Among Us by Tina Ann Forkner:: When Ruby DiCamillo dies unexpectedly from asthma, her eight-year-old daughter Lucy blames herself for not reaching her mother's inhaler in time. As she grows into a young woman, her grandmother Kitty overprotects her, filling her life with art, music and schoolwork but leaving wide gaps in her knowledge of family history.
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan:: Horan's ambitious first novel is a fictionalization of the life of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, best known as the woman who wrecked Frank Lloyd Wright's first marriage.
Too Little, Too Late by Victoria Christopher Murray:: Jasmine Larson Bush returns to her devious ways in this tale of two marriages -- each threatened by lies and betrayal.