The Torqued Man
By Peter Mann. (Harper, 372 pages, $26.99.)
I can't resist books involving discovered manuscripts. In Mann's distinctive hard-to-categorize debut, there are two. Jackpot! Each manuscript is found in the rubble of a Berlin bombing at the end of World War II. Each tells different stories of an Irish spy, Frank Pike, who operated during the Third Reich. In one, the Irish spy is Finn McCool, a "mighty hunter," a "scourge of Nazi doctors," and an ambidextrous assassin. It's a story right out of an adventure novel. The other manuscript is a first-person narrative, capturing the escapades of the same Irish spy, a task that may be the narrator's "final testimony." This book is a wildly entertaining spy thriller based on a true story.
Homicide and Halo-Halo
By Mia P. Manansala. (Berkeley Crime, 264 pages, $16.)
If you missed Manansala's "Arsenic and Adobo" last year, start with that one before eating … I mean, reading your way into the latest in Manansala's cozy cuisine series. In this latest one, Lila, an intrepid amateur sleuth and professional chef at her aunt's Filipino American restaurant, is a judge in a beauty pageant when murder crosses the catwalk. Halo-halo is considered the Philippines' national dessert, a "mix-mix" of evaporated milk, ice cream, shaved ice and fruits (the book includes recipes). Halo-halo is also a metaphor for this novel, which candidly and skillfully scoops serious mental health issues into its mix.
The Fields
By Erin Young. (Flatiron, 348 pages, $21.)
Sgt. Riley Fisher holds "something clenched and angry" inside because she knows if her colleagues in the Iowa sheriff's department knew what she'd done in her past, she'd lose her badge. Black Hawk County is the kind of place where "stores still close on Sundays and strangers were noticed." It's also where Big Ag has taken over most of the family farms and there's a killer loose in their fields. This is a harrowing, haunting first in a new series.
The Verifiers
By Jane Pek. (Vintage, 368 pages, $17.)
Want to make sure the gorgeous date you met online is really a heart surgeon who loves children and pets, and bakes the best cookies? Oh, and they're not married with children. Claudia Lin will investigate. Claudia works for a digital company that verifies the identity of dating app clients. Claudia is single, gutsy (she's a cyclist in New York), and a funny narrator of this wonderfully entertaining mystery. She quotes romantic advice from "The Canterbury Tales" and explicates matchmaking posts to help solve a murder. Claudia's boss "thinks she's Catherine from 'Northanger Abbey.' " Claudia wonders if maybe she's Jane Eyre "and there's a crazy person banging around in the attic."
Carole E. Barrowman teaches at Alverno College in Milwaukee.
