YOUR GUIDE TO BOOKEXPO AMERICA

mainly from the perspective of Lucille and Harold Hargrave—an elderly couple whose 8-year-old son, Jacob, returns to themdecades after he died—and taking place in a small Southerntown that becomes a regional coordination center for handlingthose who come back, this book offers a beautifully written andemotionally astute look at our world gone awry. At the center isa startling and disturbing idea, especially given how many of uswish we could have one more chance to see the ones we’ve lovedand lost to death: What if many of them came back, all at once?Poet and debut author Mott has written a breathtakingnovel that navigates emotional minefields with realism andgrace. (Jason Mott will be signing galleys of The Returned on Thursday,May 30 from 10-11 a.m. at booth 1238. )DOOMEDPalahniuk, ChuckDoubleday (336 pp.)$24.95 | Oct. 8, 2013978-0-385-53303-4Well, what do you know? LittleMaddy Spencer got out of Hell. God helpus all.Palahniuk (Damned, 2011, etc.) israrely known to revisit characters in themanner of Irvine Welsh. But after theheavily experimental voices in Snuff, Pygmy and Tell-All, maybea little more blasphemy by way of Judy Blume is an acceptablecompromise. The author’s muse, 13-year-old Madison Spencer,may be a lot of things—chubby, dead, virginal and sarcastic to thepoint of sadism—but she’s often quite funny in her most shockingmoments. To catch up, Maddy woke up in Hell. It turns outthat Hell has a hell of a lot of rules, and Maddy broke every oneof them trying to figure out her predicament—the last when sheoverstayed a visit to Earth on Halloween. Now, she’s stuck here asa ghost. As a notoriously unreliable narrator, Madison can grateon the nerves, but it’s sort of peek-between-your-fingers interestingto learn more of her gruesome back story. First, Maddy runsinto her dead grandmother, then discovers her billionaire fathershagging her rival from Hell. So there’s that to fix. For better orworse, Madison is guided by Crescent City, a Ketamine-addictedparanormal detective who can see her during his frequent binges.Oh, remember those rules we discussed? Farting, cussing andpicking your nose are all grounds for eternal damnation—exceptlittle dead Maddy told her diva of a mother that they wererequirements for ascendancy to Heaven, and now Mommy Dearesthas founded a new religion based on all of her daughter’sgrossest behaviors. The book’s other revelation—other than along-hatching conspiracy about Maddy’s role in the End of theWorld—turns out to be the real reason that Madison Spencerbelieves she was damned in the first place.If you only read one book this year about a dead teenagerposting on message boards about playing supernaturalistand tempting Satan’s wrath, let it be this one. (ChuckPalahniuk will be signing galleys of Doomed on Friday, May 31 from3-4 p.m. at booth 2739.)THE DOUBLEPelecanos, GeorgeReagan Arthur/Little, Brown (304 pp.)$26.00 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 1, 2013978-0-316-07839-9978-0-316-25591-2 e-bookThe second in a series featuring anew investigator represents an updatefor the veteran mystery novelist.Pelecanos (The Cut, 2011, etc.) has longrotated protagonists rather than settlingon a signature hero. His latest is Spero Lucas, who differs fromhis predecessors in terms of generation, experience and bloodline.And perhaps code of morality as well. A young veteran from theIraq War, he has become a defense attorney’s special investigatorat least partly for “a replication of what he’d experienced thereevery day: a sense of purpose and heightened sensation.” He’s alsoa digital native who knows that “the secret most investigators keepis that the bulk of their modern day work is done via computerprograms.” He comes by his Greek name via adoption, as part of aloving, mixed-race (but dysfunctional) family, and he tends to associatethe music that Pelecanos and his previous protagonists favorwith his late father. What remains constant throughout the workof the novelist is the deep knowledge of local Washington, D.C.(where this and most of his novels are set), popular culture (frommusic to sports to literature and beyond) and the human heart.Here, the murder Lucas begins to investigate soon seems like anafterthought, and the romance with which he becomes obsessedseems more like fantasy (though revelatory of his character) thanreality. The title (fittingly enough) has a double meaning, referringboth to a stolen painting Lucas tries to recover and the adversaryhe finds himself facing (one of them insists that the two of themare very much alike). He seems to scoff at the very notion of “literaryfiction, whatever that was,” while praising “a good story toldwith clean, efficient writing, a plot involving a problem to be solvedor surmounted, and everyday characters the reader could relate to.”A few more loose ends than usual, but this is a novel Spero Lucaswould appreciate.Cult favorite Pelecanos deserves an even wider readership.(The publisher of this title is at booth 1829.) [First reviewed inthe 04/15/13 issue]THE ONE-WAY BRIDGEPelletier, CathieSourcebooks Landmark (304 pp.)$24.99 | May 1, 2013978-1-4022-8073-3Pelletier’s long-awaited addition tothe tragicomic annals of fictional Mattagash,Maine.Mattagash is a town divided by a onewaybridge, a crossing that can only bemade by one car at a time. The bridge willfigure heavily in the at-times-farcical story, but in the meantime,| kirkus.com | fiction | bea special supplement | 13