“I'm just a guy passing through. . . . [I’m] a coincidence.” That's how Jack Reacher explains his presence in the tiny Oklahoma town of Mother’s Rest. A laconic ex-military detective with no fixed address, Reacher got off the train with no deeper motivation than a desire to know the source of the town’s strange name. Once there, he finds a reason to stay—Michelle Chang, a private detective on the hunt for her missing partner. The sleuth disappeared shortly after calling her to Mother’s Rest for help on a case. But what mystery could he have been solving in the middle of nowhere? Was it really dangerous enough to cause his disappearance? And just why are the townspeople in such a hurry for Reacher to leave?

The pair team up to find answers. To do it, they’ll have to track down the mysterious client who hired Chang’s partner just before he went missing. Their search will take them to from Oklahoma City to Chicago to LA, and bring them into contact with strange characters, like a genius computer programmer who’s obsessed with searching the dark web. The closer they get to the truth, the more people want to keep them away from it—from Ukranian crime bosses to angry hog farmers. None of them particularly scare the effortlessly competent Reacher; his opponents may be armed and dangerous, but, as he points out, “only temporarily.”

Though this is the 20th Jack Reacher novel, newcomers will be won over by the pleasures of identifying with a noirish-badass hero who can outthink, out-punch, out-shoot and out-quip a bad guy at lightning speed. Lee Child is brilliant at generating suspense, but amid all the heart-stopping action scenes, Make Me also offers flashes of deadpan wit and captures the spare, dusty rhythms of Oklahoma farm life. The book’s opening coincidence is just the first of many ingenious plot devices, and a series of masterfully timed revelations will lay bare the chilling truth about Mother’s Rest.

Italian-born author Elsa Hart lived in China for a time, absorbing knowledge of its history, customs and manners, and in her exceptional debut mystery, Jade Dragon Mountain, she evokes its essence for readers in often dreamlike, mesmerizing prose.

Scholar Li Du is in exile, wandering the geographic borders of 18th-century China, far from the imperial capital and his former role of librarian in the Forbidden City. Traveling alone, he arrives in the city of Dayan just a few days before a visit by the Emperor of China, an event carefully planned to demonstrate the ruler’s ability to predict a solar eclipse—a wondrous and frightening occurrence to be viewed by thousands, acknowledging the Emperor’s infinite power to command the heavens. Just before Li Du prepares to leave the city, an elderly Jesuit scholar is murdered in the home of a local magistrate, who insists Li Du delay his departure and apprehend the killer before the Emperor arrives.

The former librarian uses his observational acuity, scientific learning and familiarity with Jesuit culture to seek out the criminal. In this ancient culture where manners often conceal impulse, he begins to discover the secrets of those with a possible motive: a foreign merchant who brings wondrous instruments of science to entice the ruler; an anxious young priest; the magistrate’s consort, who finds her political power has become tenuous; a quiet and efficient secretary; and a traveling storyteller whose tales promise magic and mystery.

China’s ancient custom of taking tea is central to the Jesuit’s murder, and the author describes the journey of the leaves over many miles to reach the cities, as they absorb “the scents of the caravan: horse sweat, the musk of meadow herbs, and the frosty loam of the northern forest,” allowing those tasting the tea to “follow in their mind the entire journey of the leaves, a mapped trajectory of taste and fragrance.” A similar journey of the senses awaits readers of this book. The intricate, detailed mystery never disappoints, but Hart’s descriptions set the book apart, illuminating a world for readers to savor.

Jade Dragon Mountain is a compelling look into an ancient culture driven by intellectual curiosity, powerful symbolism and customs, overlaid by the gauze of appearances.

The fictional town of Idyll, Connecticut, is anything but idyllic for a gay police chief in 1997.

Former New York City detective Thomas Lynch recently became the Idyll police chief in an attempt to flee his guilt regarding his NYC partner’s on-duty death. In the 1997 macho police world, gay jokes are abundant, and though Lynch is out to his family, he keeps his personal life hidden from his colleagues. Everything threatens to collide when a chance sexual encounter places Lynch in the path of a young woman who’s murdered on a golf course only a few hours later. Lynch decides to solve the murder without revealing he had encountered the victim. Leading his team of officers is his first true test as chief, and he must balance being a confident leader with being one of the boys. Adding further drama is the town’s mayor, who wants the murder solved quickly to avoid negatively influencing the town’s huge festival, Idyll Days. Lynch’s diligent police work, mixed with intuition and a bit of subterfuge, ultimately triumphs, both in solving the murder and earning his men’s respect.

The story’s backdrop features small-town staples such as a Founders Day festival, a postal worker who knows everything and relatives who work in the various town departments. Author Stephanie Gayle’s attention to realistic details creates a fun portrait of small-town America.

Readers will hope that Gayle won’t be idle, and that this book will be the first of many with Thomas Lynch as the multidimensional and likable police chief.