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Picks of the week, December 1

Peter Mergendahl, Joan Hinkemeyer & Jennifer Miller, Special to the News

Published December 1, 2006 at midnight

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THRILLERS

Chasing the Dead

By Joe Schreiber. Ballantine Books, $16.95

The longest day of the year is Dec. 21, four days before Christmas. In this frightening, tautly coiled tale, a young mother named Susan Young returns home from work on that day to discover that her year-old daughter and her nanny have been kidnapped. The kidnapper has explicit instructions that strike right through Susan's fear and conjure memories of a 20-year-old event that left a man dead and Susan involved. Final word: If you thought the Deep South was the heartland for gothic noir, think again. This thriller set in New England starts out of the gate like a greyhound after a hare. Remember this debut novelist's name; you'll hear it again.

Peter Mergendahl

REGIONAL

Lynching in the West: 1850-1935

By Ken Gonzalez-Day. Duke University Press, $22.95

Although previous lynching studies have focused on the South, the practice was equally prevalent in Western frontier justice. In this carefully researched study, Gonzalez- Day shows that "persons of color" were the most likely targets and cites the 19th century theories of physiognomy that held that a low forehead, a coarse mouth, black hair and deep-set animal-like eyes indicated racial inferiority and a criminal bent. Thus, the increasing number of Anglos, believing themselves true Americans, justified lynching native Californios and other Hispanics, as well as some Asian-Americans. Final word: A very scholarly, well-documented work.

Joan Hinkemeyer

YOUNG ADULT

Crispin: At the Edge of the World

By Avi. Hyperion Books for Children, $16.99, ages 10 to 14

Avi's sequel to his 2003 Newberry Award-winning Crispin: The Cross of Lead is everything you'd hoped it would be: enthralling. No sooner have Crispin and his new father, Bear, become free men than they're running for their lives from a man in a secret brotherhood who accuses Bear of being an informer. Along the way, a pagan hag and a disfigured girl hide them, and Crispin and Bear are taken prisoner by marauding soldiers. Final word: This second in a trilogy transports you so completely to 14th century England that when the book ends, you'll wish you could get back there.

Jennifer Miller