FICTION
Reviewing Dan Brown’s new thriller several days after its publication is a little like standing in the middle of the Indy 500 racetrack and announcing that the race has started. But here goes: Dan Brown has written a sequel to his bestselling thriller, “The Da Vinci Code.“ It’s called “The Lost Symbol,“ and you really should consider buying one of the 5 million copies its publisher printed for its first run.

FICTION Sequels often seem the literary equivalent of dessert—worth the wait as well as the reward for eating your veggies first. So fans will enjoy Dorothea Frank’s “Return to Sullivans Island,“ which catches up with the next generation of Hamiltons and Hayeses as they share old heartaches and face new challenges. Frank’s novels celebrate life in South Carolina’s Low Country—the beguiling beaches, close family ties and a more leisurely way of life.

FICTION
During a meeting in Paris between President John F. Kennedy and French President Charles de Gaulle, the imperious Frenchman rid the room of photographers with the flick of a finger. “Don’t you wish you could dismiss photographers like that?“ a reporter asked JFK. “You must remember,“ he replied, “I was not recalled to office as my country’s savior.“

FICTION Isabel Dalhousie has a few problems. But don’t worry. They’re small. After all, she’s a character created by that industrious publishing juggernaut officially known as Alexander McCall Smith, and he isn’t in the habit of giving his creations terminal illnesses or confronting them with armed thugs. So what problems confront Dalhousie, philosopher and editor of the “Review of Applied Ethics”? As “The Lost Art of Gratitude” (the sixth novel to feature Dalhousie) begins, her accountant is unhappy with her record-keeping habits. The previous editor of the review is accusing her of plagiarism.

FICTION E.L. Doctorow is undoubtedly one of our nation’s greatest writers, a skilled chronicler of the American historical canvas from the Civil War to the spiritual dilemmas of the modern age. Whether in “Ragtime,“ “The Book of Daniel,“ “The March” or “City of God,“ Doctorow continually gives us fictional perspectives on grand moments in U.S. history.

Missile-flaunting parades orchestrated by burly, expressionless Soviet leaders in Red Square might be distant memories. But Alex Dryden, a British journalist who reported from Russia during the collapse of communism there, wants us to know we’re still not safe. Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin is simply a continuation of the Soviet regime, no matter what the stories of Russian entrepreneurs might suggest.

You’ve probably never heard of Terrence Holt unless you read literary journals such as Zoetrope and TriQuarterly. His debut short-story collection, “In the Valley of the Kings,“ might lift him from literary obscurity, though. It includes seven stories and a novella, and each one demonstrates why you should know the name Terrence Holt. He writes fiction like nothing else written in recent memory.

Jane Austen may lead the pack, but the Bronte sisters have almost as many fans. The Brontes’ lives, of course, were more dramatic, and fans will especially enjoy Denise Giardina’s intriguing “Emily’s Ghost,“ which offers a fictional backstory for Emily Bronte’s powerful “Wuthering Heights.“ Giardina takes what is known of Emily’s life and transforms it into a moving story of an extraordinary woman. In part, her take on Emily is a challenge to the conventional history offered by sister Charlotte, who is suspected not only of doctoring the truth about Emily but also of even destroying a novel she was working on at the time of her death.

FICTION
Anew Thomas Pynchon novel? Only a scant two years after the publication of his megalithic (and stylistically megalomaniacal) 1,000-plus-page opus, “Against the Day”? And—perhaps most confounding of all—the novel’s easy to read? It’s true, folks. One of American literature’s most reclusive and challenging authors has emerged once again with “Inherent Vice,“ a short and trippy detective story about pot-smoking private investigator Larry “Doc” Sportello and his attempts to solve a confounding murder mystery set against the backdrop of the late 1960s L.A. surf scene. If you had to file this novel under a specific genre, it would be “stoner noir.“

We all have our favorite words that suggest summer, vacation and fun. Beach is one and swimming another: Think waves, lakes and backyard pools, but “Swimming,“ the engaging debut novel of Nicola Keegan, offers a more complex account of the activity. Television advertisements like to remind us to follow our passion, as well as buy the product. Pip, the novel’s narrator, certainly finds her passion early, when as “ a problematic infant,“ only 9 months old, she is taken to the local aquatic center by her worried parents. In the water she feels immediately at home, and the urge to kick things that obstruct her will from then on always have an outlet.

The sins-of-the-fathers plotline has been around since the Old Testament and the Greek myths, but Northern Virginia writer Ellen Crosby gives it her own twist in The Riesling Retribution (272 pages, Scribner, $25). The fourth entry in Crosby’s series featuring vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery begins with a tornado that destroys some grapevines, forces Lucie to take cover under an old bridge and unearths human bones from a shallow grave on her property, which straddles Loudoun and Fauquier counties.

When rhinos come to Texas, you know the world is ending. Or at least it might mark the end of Larry McMurtry’s long career as a novelist. The 73-year-old author of “Lonesome Dove” recently announced that “Rhino Ranch,“ would be his last novel. It’s also the fifth and final installment of a series that McMurtry launched 43 years ago with “The Last Picture Show.“

FICTION
If Dante Alighieri, author of “The Divine Comedy,“ had penned Richard Russo’s new novel, “That Old Cape Magic,“ he might have started it thus: “Midway through the journey of life, Jack Griffin (he was 57, to be precise) awoke to find himself in a dark forest because he had lost the path that does not stray. Actually, he was driving to Cape Cod on a sunny day, but we’re speaking metaphorically.“

FICTION In 1940, Great Britain faced the twin specters of invasion and extinction. But most Britons, in the cherished stiff-upper-lip way, went forward with their lives despite fear. For some, that meant crime. And for astute readers, it means Laura Wilson’s spellbinding new novel, “The Innocent Spy,“ the first in a projected series featuring Detective Inspector Ted Stratton.

FICTION Rebecca Wells’ novel about coming of age in southern Louisiana, “The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder,“ is tugged by the moon. In fact, the moon is more or less a character in the book, shining upon its namesake town of La Luna and particularly on its heroine, Calla Lily Ponder. As Calla Lily navigates her way to adulthood, she is bathed in its glow and always tugged toward home as if by an irresistible tide. The moon, which even speaks in the first person to introduce each of the novel’s sections, is a source of comfort, a beacon to steer by amid life’s uncertainties.