Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 3-8

Aversion of these stories ran previously in Printers Row Journal, Tribune Newspapers' premium Sunday book section. For more or to subscribe, visit www.printersrowjournal.com. ROUNDUP CRIME FICTION NEW IN PAPERPBACK PRINTERS ROW JOURNAL lillil Some Luck: A Novel By Jane Smiley, Anchor, 416 pages, $15.95 The first book in Smiley's "The Last 100 Years" trilogy, "Some Luck" follows the Langdon clan patriarch Walter, his wife Rosanna and their five children from the 1920s through the early 1950s. Historical events blend with fiction as the Langdon children branch out from their Iowa farm to serve in World War II, have children of their own and move across the country to start their own lives. The Cartel By Don Winslow, Knopf, 623 pages, $27.95 This is the big one from California writer Don Winslow, the El Nino, tsunami and San Andreas Fault shaker of drug novels rolled into one a 600-page immersion that may leave you thinking you knew next to nothing about its seamy subject "War on Torture and killing are so much the norm, the rewards so steep for people still in their 20s, the drug trade in Mexico is like an extreme sport set in hell.

Buyer and seller beware. "You know the old saying, 'The friend of my enemy is my friend one major narco says to beaten-down DEA agent Art Keller. Keller is so consumed with nabbing young kingpin Adan Barrera, JANE SMILEY i ii l), Barrera has put a $2 million bounty on his head. A naive do-gooder when he started patrolling the border 30 years ago, Keller has become coldly attuned to the realities of the cause. He knows the NSC and CIA used the Mexican cartel to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, with the backing of the White House.

He knows where too many bodies are buried. He knows the last time Barrera was in prison, feared by administrators and inmates alike, he turned the facility into his own country club, complete with private cook and girlfriend. Now on lethal cruise control, he's unable to give up the game. A follow-up to Winslow's acclaimed 2005 novel, "The Power of the Dog," "The Cartel" is so relentlessly paced, its probing of daily evil so deep, you're drawn in whether you like it or not. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: 150th-Anniversary Edition By Lewis Carroll, Penguin Classics, 247 pages, $16 This deluxe edition marks the 150th anniversary of Carroll's classic novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and includes the book's sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," originally published in 1871.

This edition features John Ten- Vanishing Games niel's original illustrations and a new introduction by Charlie Lovett. By Roger Hobbs, Knopf, 293 pages, $25.95 Roger Hobbs' 2013 debut, "Ghostman," seemed too good to be true: a work by a writer barely into his 20s that whipped by with such speed and smarts, it could have been the work of a seasoned master. Hobbs' new book, "Vanishing Games," while not quite up to the same level, is proof that he's no fluke, and neither is his likably lonely protagonist, Jack, an operative in the heist trade who "can make anything disappear." He's at a casino in Oregon when he gets an emergency mes-. i 1 1 i kjk i adgc iiuiii iua xauiig xvuiig-Udacu pcu uici cuiu uiic-Liiiic iiiciiLui, niigcict, wiiu LctugiiL lyLgjLHLJjr him the trade when he was a teen but from whom he hasn't heard in six years. An MBBjp 1 operative of hers hired to interrupt a shipment of precious uncut sapphires de- WHtMStBUSm cided to lay claim to them himself.

And there's other bad stuff to take care of. Like trained dance partners, and frequently in disguise, they're quickly moving through the monied sectors and criminal elements of Hong Kong and Macau, killing adversaries as they go. It's not always easy to keep your eye on the money or the MacGuffin, a mysterious object of enormous value. But the action scenes are so skillfully rendered and the character strokes are so deft (Jack takes time out from the chase to engage in a learned discussion of Greek mythology) that the plot doesn't always matter. Watching Jack not break a sweat is as satisfying as watching other action heroes leap from tall buildings.

Lloyd Sachs is a regular contributor to Printer's Row Journal. Friendship: A Novel By Emily Gould, Picador, 258 pages, $16 Bev Tunney and Amy Schein are at a crossroads: Recently 30 and best friends for years, their lives are beginning to pull them in different directions. Bev, still living with roommates, is working temp jobs to pay back her student loans, while Amy's luck and charm are drying up. When Bev becomes pregnant, the two are confronted with the possibility they might need to grow apart to fulfill their lives. Agent Storm By Morten Storm with Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, Grove, 414 pages, $17 Storm documents his time as a jihadi in al-Qaida, rejecting extremism to become a double agent working for the CIA and British and Danish intelligence.

Storm, a native of Denmark, explores his early, troubled life, conversion to Islam, friendship with Anwar al-Awlaki and missions in the Middle East, Britain and Kenya Indonesia, Etc. By Elizabeth Pisani, WW. Norton, 404 pages, $17.95 Pisani travels to Indonesia to explore a country that has more than 300 ethnic groups spread across 13,500 islands. Pisani's travels take her 26,000 miles to search for what links the nation together, encountering poverty, political corruption, child marriages and old traditions that are hard to reform. Jeremy Mikula David McCullough 1 CHICAGOLAND BEST-SELLERS 1.

"The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough (Simon Schuster, $30). 2. "Euphoria" by Lily King (Grove, $16). 3. "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larson (Penguin Random House, $28).

4. "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr (Simon Schuster, $27). 5. "The Girl on the Train: A Novel" by Paula Hawldns (Riverhead, theWRIGHT BROTHERS Participating bookstores: Barbara's Bookstores (Chicago), The Book Cellar (Chicago), Seminary Co-op Bookstore and 57th Street Books (Chicago), Anderson's Bookshop (Naperville), The Book Stall at Chestnut Court (Winnetka), Women St Children First Bookstore (Chicago), The Book Table (Oak Park), The Bookstore (Glen Ellyn), The Book Bin (Northbrook)..