More beguiling criminal diversion from the ever-dependable Janet Evanovich, Metro Girl may not introduce any new elements into the quirky Evanovich universe, but fans won't give a damn-all the usual fingerprints are well in evidence. Previously, her carefully numbered Stephanie Plum novels offered real delight for those who could get past the arch name of the heroine, and her brilliantly drawn New Jersey settings were counterbalanced by machine-tooled plotting and a cherishable sardonic wit. Metro Girl has a slew of unlikely elements stirred into a heady brew: treasures sunk beneath the ocean, bloody murder and (believe it or not) a highly sensuous stock car racer. The unreliable `Wild' Bill Barnaby has vanished, and his not-to-be-messed with sister Alex makes her way to Miami to track him down. Alex fights to keep body and soul together in the sultry climate, as both unmanageable coiffure and vicious thugs threaten her equilibrium. She discovers that Bill unwisely appropriated the yacht of the formidable Sam Hooker, and Sam realises that keeping close to Alex may lead him to Bill, with a little score-settling on the menu. Soon, both are heading into dangerous waters (both literally and figuratively) with Cuban gold and leftovers from the Cuban missile crisis making things very hot for the protagonists. Alex is one hell of a heroine, and the perfect conduit for the reader through the unlikely (but strangely plausible) narrative. You've heard books described as a wild ride before-this is one time where that description really fits the bill. Get your ticket and climb aboard-and don't forget your hairspray. [+]

Stephanie Plum, Janet Evanovich's bounty hunter star of Seven Up, is good at her job partly because of her infinite resourcefulness and partly because her world is one in which everyone on all sides of the law knows at least one member of her extended family. In this, the seventh offering in the Stephanie Plum series, she is chasing an elderly mobster who used to go out with her grandmother. Eddie DeChooch, though, is no less formidable for being old and he constantly eludes Stephanie, the police who want to question him about the corpse Stephanie found in his garage and Joyce, her arch-rival in the bail bond enforcement business. Stephanie's crowded social life gets ever more intense with her family pressing her to name a date for her wedding to Joe, her unreliable cop fiancé, her drastically attractive colleague Ranger, asking her for a night of bliss, her horribly perfect sister Valerie back from California with a down on men and the idiot stoners Moonman and Doug wandering around in super-hero costumes. Evanovich constantly ups the comic ante; DeChooch and his sidekicks manage to be menacingly obnoxious while remaining credibly characters in a farce. The social observation of families is as acute as ever while never passing up the chance for snappy one-liners. Above all, Stephanie herself remains a delightful tone of voice-a heroine considerably braver than she ever lets herself notice and rather smarter an investigator than she or anyone else gives her credit for being. -Roz Kaveney.

Tragedy is a word too often used. Nevertheless, in Star of the Sea Joseph O'Connor manages to achieve a real sense of the tragic, as personal dramas of the most distressing kind play themselves out against the background of the Irish potato famine and the almost equal nightmare of the mass emigration that it caused. As passengers die of starvation and disease in steerage, a drama of adultery, inadvertent incest and inherited disease plays itself out in first class. O'Connor raises, and does not attempt definitively to answer, real questions about responsibility and choice. Bankrupt aristocrat Meredith is emigrating, pursued by the hatred of his tenants and the memory of his mad-hero father. His children's nurse, Mary, has memories of lost love to torment her, as well as of the husband and child who died of hunger. And the ballad singer Mulvey has both his monstrous past and the certain promise that he will be tortured to death by the Liable Men should he not kill Meredith. This is a kaleidoscopic novel, whose events are seen in many idioms, from many points of view-it is a rich novel that knows that there are limits to the sense that can be made of history. -Roz Kaveney.

When your everyday life is filled with death it's easy to find yourself a little edgy. The audio version of Patricia Cornwell's Point of Origin gives fans of her familiar heroine, Dr Kay Scarpetta, a little something extra, a chance to hear the deep hurt and burning cynicism of the chief medical examiner's biting words. "You don't put your hands inside their ruined bodies and touch and measure their wounds. You see clean case files and glossy photos and cold crime scenes. You spend more time with the killers than with those they ripped from life. And maybe you sleep better than I do, too. Maybe you still dream because you aren't afraid to. [+]