GRITTY, NOIR THRILLER features a San Francisco setting and an ex-spy protagonist in unrelievedly grim conflict. B MINUS

NAKED MOON (NORTH BEACH MYSTERY)
Minotaur Books
2010

BEAUTIFULLY DONE HISTORICAL fiction looks at the Tudor courts through the eyes of Elizabeth’s beloved governess. B PLUS

THE QUEEN’S GOVERNESS
Putnam Adult
2010

A WRITER’S SPIRITUAL SEARCH captured in a thoughtful memoir; her family stories are the best parts by far. SOLID B

DEVOTION: A MEMOIR
Harper
2010

SLICK, EVENTFUL gangsta soap opera offers high life and loads of drama; less well crafted than Turner’s best. B MINUS

RELAPSE
One World
2010

SHAKESPEARE’S TEMPEST REIMAGINED as dystopian steampunk in an intense multivocal mashup. Amazing first novel. A MINUS

THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION
St. Martin’s Press
2010

EERIE, UNSETTLING LITTLE FABLE about a wandering little-girl philosopher and the people she encounters. SOLID B

THE PEOPLE WHO WATCHED HER PASS BY
Two Dollar Radio
2010

FROTHY YET KEENLY OBSERVED COMEDY of manners follows teenage rites of passage in a wealthy Washington DC suburb. B PLUS

BEACH WEEK
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2010

ENGAGING, FUNNY, MIND-BENDING look inside the world of professional taxidermy, where offbeat characters abound. B PLUS

STILL LIFE: ADVENTURES IN TAXIDERMY
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
2010

BRUTAL, UNSETTLING THRILLER set in the organized crime world of South Africa. Graphic violence, racism, terror. B PLUS

WAKE UP DEAD: A THRILLER
Henry Holt & Company
2010

TOUCHING, FUNNY, INSIGHTFUL Canadian novel about incompatible people brought together by an unexpected crisis. B PLUS

GOOD TO A FAULT
Harper
2010