FICTION That chance meetings can be life-changing is no secret. That a talented novelist can turn one into a gem of a story is no surprise. That such a story can be moving beyond words is no small accomplishment. And that is what Canadian poet and novelist Helen Humphreys has done in “Coventry,“ a small but affecting masterpiece that centers on the Nazi Blitz of England and three people caught in its midst. Add Humphreys’ spare but elegant and often arresting prose, and the reader is in for an intellectual and emotional feast.

Does winter have you longing to go somewhere new, try something different, simply escape? That’s the beauty of books, and these five mysteries—set in South Africa, France, Canada, Austria and Turkey—are just the ticket.

. . . In the benighted days of apartheid, South Africa was a cauldron of passion, intrigue and inequality, all of which Malla Nunn brings into play in her debut novel, A Beautiful Place to Die (388 pages, Atria, $25).

FICTION
If Glen Duncan’s new novel, “A Day and a Night and a Day,“ were a movie, it would open with a series of extreme close-ups meant to throw its audience off-balance. A variety of jarring details—most prominently, a pair of handcuffs—would flash across the screen without context. Inter-cut with these close-ups would be longer shots, with a more recognizable environment. Savvy viewers would soon understand that these longer shots were flashbacks hinting at a lost relationship.

FICTION
Late 17th-century America, as depicted in Toni Morrison’s magnificent new novel, “A Mercy,“ is a volatile wilderness, a land whose destiny is still in the making. As one character remarks in one of the novel’s many beautiful passages: “Remembering how the curate described what existed before Creation, Scully saw dark matter out there, thick, unknowable, aching to be made into a world.“

FICTION Many thrillers come filled with bodies (a serial killer at work), a flawed hero, less-than-helpful cops, a relationship-based subplot and page-turning suspense. Richard North Patterson’s novels often have the same ingredients—and qualities that raise his work above the genre’s bar: intellectual depth, political viewpoints and provocative ideas.

FICTION Like television shows, books about friends getting together are always popular. This explains why Kate Jacobs’ “The Friday Night Knitting Club” was a best-seller—and why fans will welcome “Knit Two,“ the sequel. Their popularity is probably a legacy of childhood when we consumed books about friends who solved mysteries and fought crime, and a good writer can make much of a genre that relies on familiarity as much as plot. Jacobs, though, is more conventional than original, and the characters are a central-casting cliché.

The isolated, decrepit country house with the sinister history has long been a staple of the thriller—and what’s wrong with that?—but the frights need not be the sole focus.

MYSTERIES
If you’re looking for some murderous diversion after the holidays but find your budget stressed from seasonal gift-giving, cheer up. These five mysteries are all original—they are not reprints of hardcover books—and all come in the form of mass-market paperbacks, so your wallet won’t fall victim to killer prices.

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Is the season sapping your spirit? Do you need a little mayhem, right this very minute? Two experienced Virginia authors are here to rescue you from the revelry with Christmas-themed murder mysteries.

Like a lot of teenagers, Kenny Lugo awkwardly straddles two worlds. At 17, Kenny, the narrator and protagonist of Sheri Reynolds’ short but powerfully moving novel “The Sweet In-Between,“ is too old to feign ignorance of the world’s varied dangers.

FICTION Her father was a consummate politician who became, in many historians’ judgment, a near-great president. Her mother disdained politics and treasured her privacy. Margaret Truman was equal parts her father’s child and her mother’s. As the author of 24 mysteries set in Washington and its environs, she melded her insider’s view of the capital with contempt for those who corrupt it. And in her final mystery—she died in February—Bess and Harry S. Truman’s only child does the Truman name proud.

Learn the latest about “The Future of Fiction” from industry insiders at the James River Writers’ next Writing Show. The first show of 2009 will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at The Eureka Theater, Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 W. Broad St. Alan Cheuse, book critic for National Public Radio, and Joshua Kendall, senior editor at Viking/Penguin, will be the featured guests. Style Weekly’s Brandon Reynolds will serve as host.

FICTION Novels about siblings, especially sisters, can be as much clichés as ones about mothers and daughters. Sometimes inches away from formulaic, they often irritate or bore, but Julia Glass’ third novel “I See you Everywhere,“ which describes the lives of two sisters, does neither. But it does lack the richness and emotional depth of her acclaimed “Three Junes.“

FICTION Ihave good news for fans of Alexander McCall Smith. Another novel has appeared from the pen of the stunningly productive British writer, who seems to write more books in a year than most people read in two. “The World According to Bertie” is the fourth novel in a series that began as a serialization in The Scotsman newspaper. Each installment follows the lives of people connected to a single apartment building in Edinburgh—44 Scotland Street—from which the series takes its name.

MYSTERIES Many mystery writers find a formula and are content to stick with it. That’s not necessarily bad—some are top-rate—but the pattern can become tedious. Elizabeth Ironside—the pseudonym of Lady Catherine Manning, wife of a former British ambassador to the United States—pens no series, repeats no story and follows only one rule: exceptional quality. The latest of her five books to make its initial American appearance, A Good Death (336 pages, Felony & Mayhem, $24.95) is no exception.