A woman struggles with memories of her impoverished and disturbing childhood and its effect on the present as she attempts to reconcile with her mother.
The fifth novel featuring the Minneapolis detectives Nikki Liska and Sam Kovac finds them working on separate cases -- hers a 20-year-old murder, his the killing of a professor and his wife with a samurai sword -- that eventually intersect.
A version of this list appears in the February 14, 2016, issue of The New York Times Book Review. Rankings reflect sales for the week ending January 30, 2016.