Chief of Police Kate Burkholder knows that to solve the case, she will have to call upon everything she has to give, not only as a cop, but as a woman whose own Amish roots run deep. MINOTAUR

REBECCA MAKKAI will introduce the softcover edition of her popular novel, The Borrower. It centers around a 26-year-old librarian, Lucy, and one of her favorite patrons, Ian, a ten-year-old boy who often takes refuge from his overbearing parents at the library. When his parents sign him up for “anti-gay” classes, Ian decides to run away. Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by him and they go on a wild cross-country adventure. The farther they get, the more Lucy must decide whether she’s doing Ian more harm than good by taking him away from his family. Ultimately, she devises an ingenious (and literary) plan. The book has allusions to children’s literature classics sprinkled throughout. It is basically a novel about acceptance and a serious love of reading. PENGUIN

JOHN SCALZI will introduce his new novel, Red Shirts, which may very well be the science fiction comedy of the year. It features Ensign Andrew Dahl, who is a redshirt, but he doesn’t know it. He reports to his post on the Universal Union’s flagship Intrepid and is confused and concerned when his coworkers disappear every time a senior officer shows up looking for ensigns for an away team. Often those ensigns end up dead. Dahl and a few of his fellow ensigns decide that it’s about time they figure out what exactly is happening on board the Intrepid.

With the laws of space travel, time, and physics thrown out the window, Scalzi gives readers a thoroughly laugh-out-loud novel. With roots going back to Douglas Adams and beyond, this subgenre is on the rise again, and John Scalzi is leading the charge. TOR