March is full of notable new releases

compiled by Sally Brewster

James by Percival Everett

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place, Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. 

The Hunter by Tana French

It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the west of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die. Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less: He’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting — what she wants is revenge.

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it — the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over 20 years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake. But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that — if he found out —would break his heart.

The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson

Ever since he was a kid, kicking broken soccer balls on the run-down streets of East London, Gary Stevenson dreamed of something bigger. As luck would have it, he was good at numbers. At the London School of Economics, wearing tracksuits and sneakers, Stevenson shocked his posh classmates by winning a competition called The Trading Game. The prize? A golden ticket to a new life as the youngest trader at Citibank. A place where you could make more money than you’d ever imagined. Where, against the odds, you become the bank’s most profitable trader, closing deals worth nearly a trillion dollars a day. But what happens when winning starts to feel like losing? You’re making a killing betting on millions of people becoming poorer — like the very people you grew up with. The economy is slipping off a precipice, and your own sanity starts slipping with it. You want to stop, but you can’t. Would you stick, or quit, even if it meant risking everything?

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

It’s 1965, and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’ night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly 60 years later, when Frances is found murdered. In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’ lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?  SP

Sally Brewster is the proprietor of Park Road Books. 4139 Park Rd.