Shaun Hamill’s debut novel, “A Cosmology of Monsters,” is about a family that struggles with sickness, loss, finances, communication — all sorts of metaphorical monsters in the room. But this family is also haunted by real monsters.

“Lady in the Lake,” the new novel from Laura Lippman, is a lot of things. It is part newspaper procedural, part psychological drama, part social history — and, taken as a whole, thoroughly gripping.

“MacTrump” is a caustically funny, frighteningly cautionary play in the fashion of William Shakespeare. Its authors call it “a fictionalized satire of the first two years of the Trump era, which means it’s very fake.”

Bruce Holsinger’s new novel “The Gifted School” is going to seem snatched straight from recent headlines, even though he first conceived the book a decade-and-a-half ago.

“A Cosmology of Monsters” is the first novel from Shaun Hamill, a recent Texas transplant to Alabama. The book is a family saga about the anguish of coming of age. It is a horror novel about the horrors of living. It is also very much about the redemptive nature of love.

 “The Secrets We Kept,” the compelling debut novel from Lara Prescott, has already been called one of the most anticipated new books of the fall. It is an often-moving mash-up of recent political and literary history, cleverly arguing that art can be as important a weapon as firearms.

The eight stories that comprise “Everything Inside” are simply breathtaking.

It’s a crowded couple of weeks in August during which “The Girl Who Lived Twice” unfolds. The thriller is the sixth Lisbeth Salander novel in what has come to be known as The Millennium Series, begun by Swedish author Steig Larsson a decade-and-a-half ago.

Javier Marías is the author of 15 novels and three collections of short stories. His work has been translated into 46 languages. “Berta Isla” was first published in Spain in 2017 and in Britain last year in Margaret Jull Costa’s provocative translation.

“Chances Are …” is Richard Russo’s first stand-alone novel in a decade. It also makes use of a literary form that is rarely found among the author’s works. However, it still spills over with the humanity that is the cornerstone of Russo’s work, even as it reminds us, as he most frequently do…

Once again, retired Virginia circuit court judge Martin Clark proves how adept he is at writing the contemporary legal thriller. “The Substitution Order” is his newest since “The Jezebel Remedy” in 2015, and he continues to give more widely read authors like John Grisham a run for their money.

Sequels are often notoriously disappointing. How lucky, then, that “Hope Rides Again: An Obama Biden Mystery” isn’t. 

“Knife,” the 12th Harry Hole (pronounced “Hooley”) thriller from Jo Nesbø, pretty much begins where “The Thirst,” the most recent Hole case, leaves off. 

The cover of “Giraffes on Horseback Salad” calls it “The Strangest Movie Never Made!” 

It’s going to be difficult to find a novel more timely than Oscar Cásares’ “Where We Come From.” This latest book from the author of “Brownsville” and “Amigoland” is an affecting study of family, and at the same time, is a book whose premise seems straight from the headlines.

“The Flight Portfolio,” the new novel from the author of the best-selling “The Invisible Bridge,” is a literary epic, intimate romance and page-turning historical thriller.

The advice comes from sports figures and entrepreneurs, and is often movingly down-to-earth.

Growing into their worlds — essentially “growing up” — is still hard for the characters that populate the works of Karen Russell. Witness any of the eight astonishing stories in “Orange World and Other Stories,” her latest book.

“Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells,” the new book from Time magazine travel writer Pico Iyer, is a poignant meditation on the evanescent nature of life in general and of traditional Japan in particular.

Of all the writers who have speculated as to why Harper Lee abandoned her true-crime book, I believe that Casey Cep comes closest to the truth.

The crime at the core of “Murder by the Book” by Claire Harman stunned London for months. Yet Harman’s book is not so much focused on the uncovering of a murderer as it is on dissecting the London not only of Queen Victoria, but the London of Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray as well.

“Cemetery Road” is the new book from Greg Iles, author of the Natchez Burning Trilogy. That trilogy brought to a close the exploits of Mississippi lawyer Penn Cage (who first appeared in “The Devil’s Punchbowl”) and his efforts to put to rest the Double Eagles, a clandestine offshoot of the …