Mark Childress, the author of Crazy in Alabama, has a new book out now, called "One Mississippi", even better than the first. There are places online where you can read the first chapter, for a little taste.

Adam Johnson has written a novel called "Parasites Like Us" which is very good. His previous book was a collection of short stories called "Emporium", which included one killer good one (no pun intended) called "Teen Sniper", sort of Richie Cunningham meets Day of the Jackal.

For true noir fiction, Andrew Vachss has the next in the Burke series coming out, "Mask Market". These books should be required reading for EVERYONE. Ever wonder where those people you see on the news come from?