Fiction

1. “Simple Genius,” by David Baldacci (Warner, $26.99). Two former Secret Service agents investigate a scientist’s murder while one fights her own demons.

2. “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins, $26.95). A detective investigates the murder of a neighbor in a Jewish settlement in Alaska.

3 “The Children of Hðrin,” by J. R. R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin, $26). In Middle-earth, an evil lord wants to destroy his rival’s children.

4. “The Woods,” by Harlan Coben (Dutton, $26.95). New evidence about a case of murder and disappearance at a summer camp 20 years earlier forces a county prosecutor to confront family secrets.

5. “Rant,” by Chuck Palahniuk (Doubleday, $24.95). The “oral biography” of a serial killer.