Vanessa “Michael” Munroe is back in “The Innocent,” having agreed to rescue a child who was abducted eight years earlier and brought into a secretive and well-protected cult known as The Chosen, based in Argentina.

Robin Cook’s “Death Benefit” is a slow-paced, but ultimately rewarding reading experience.

The Farmhouse Inn and Restaurant in Rangeley is exactly the kind of place we hoped to find for you when we started writing this column: small, unique, with exceptional food, superb service, comfortable atmosphere and wonderful hosts. And it’s only a short drive away.

If Luke Duplessis could turn every post office location that is closing into a Mainely Brews, people would happily forget about the mail.
After several friends and readers of this column told us how much they like Mainely Brews Tavern, in Waterville’s old post office, we scheduled a visit last week. This is a fun place with a great pub atmosphere, superb micro-brews, and a surprising (and enticing) menu.

“Micro” is a new, posthumous story from the late Michael Crichton, who died in 2008, and finished by Richard Preston, author of the non-fiction best-seller “The Hot Zone.” It’s a thriller about a biotech company in Hawaii and a group of students who end up stranded and endangered in a rain forest.

George Campbell of Turner will be signing copies of his new book, “Busch North Scene: The Busch Years 1987-2007,” at the Northeast Motorsports Expo being held Jan. 6-8 in Augusta.

If it had not caught the attention of a handful of important readers, Jesmyn Ward’s “Salvage the Bones” would most likely have quietly faded into obscurity; many worthy books do. Now, however, this novel about a poor Mississippi family in the weeks leading up to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina has a prominent place in bookstores and boasts the gold medallion that comes with winning the 2011 National Book Award.

The best crime fiction offers equal parts entertainment and social commentary — stories that we remember long after the final chapter.