Although she’s dreamed of getting her pilot’s license for years, Beth has been too busy waitressing in a diner outside Arlington so she can pay for her mom’s medical bills and the mortgage on their fixer-upper house. When her beloved, wealthy brother arranges for his friend George Bunsen to give Beth a flight in his plane, she’s thrilled to be up in the air, until engine failure leads to George having to execute an emergency landing. Beth is terrified by the situation but turned on by his composure. She’s shocked to find that she’s crushing on a man who actively tries to ignore her most of the time, and when he offers to teach her to fly—for free—she can’t say no. She tries to balance her time between flying and work, but she also worries about the ticking countdown to when she’ll have to admit a secret she’s been keeping from her brother. Also, her libido is out of control around her stoic instructor, and the closer she gets to him, the more enamored she becomes. Go-getter, people-pleasing Beth is relatable as she tries so hard to keep everything under control and provide for her loved ones while also yearning to pursue her dreams. Her desire for hot pilot George is entertaining, but the driving conflicts in this story don’t feel plausible, and it’s frustrating that the tension relies on secrets that could easily be hashed out through open conversation. Connolly thoughtfully handles elements of class and gender, and the sibling relationship is adorable; however, there’s not enough push-pull in the central romantic relationship to make it feel fully formed.

Hyman Tuchverderber was born to a Jewish family in Manchester, England. He was just 13 when Germany’s invasion of Poland incited World War II. He and his family survived the devastating 1940 Manchester bombings, which left the Tuchverderbers, like many others, financially strapped. Sixteen-year-old Hyman studied to be a wireless operator in the British Merchant Navy (he was too young for the Royal Navy). This often-dangerous wartime job at sea, on Dutch and Norwegian ships, took the teenager around the world. Shortly after the war (and after his father legally changed Hyman’s name to Harold Derber), the British pound dropped in value, as did Derber’s already meager pay. He turned to smuggling contraband, moving “surplus weapons” in Germany to the Dominican Republic. By the 1960s, his business ventures appeared more legit; he bought a luxury cruise liner that he filled with slot machines, as gambling was permitted in international waters. However, he spent more of that decade facing off against the U.S. government: With the Bay of Pigs invasion stoking tension between Cuba and America, Derber offered to transport Cuban refugees to the U.S. The government, apparently believing he had a hidden agenda, deemed him a national security threat and slapped him with “unclear” criminal and immigration charges. As the 1970s approached, Derber returned to smuggling (this time marijuana), leading to his “invention” of a drug mothership that became a model for drug traffickers.

Tuch’s true story deftly zeroes in on Derber’s life, providing equal focus on his early years, his 1960s wranglings with the U.S. government, and his drug trafficking in the 1970s. The author, who uses an impressive number of sources, makes it abundantly clear when specifics surrounding certain events aren’t entirely clarified. For example, Derber, while he was still with the BMN, fought on Israel’s side during the Arab-Israeli War; after the conflict concluded, he “lingered” in Israel, where his work history was “shrouded in mystery.” Although his entanglement in the drug trade isn’t as significant (in the narrative) as the title suggests, Derber’s life was truly fascinating—he committed various types of fraud and got arrested almost as frequently as he evaded authorities. His story doesn’t always involve law-breaking—Tuch also covers his serious relationship with Sari Lesley, an entertainer on his cruise ship. Sari herself, whose unpublished memoir provided one of Tuch’s sources, was remarkable, harboring such secrets as her real name and her connection to a U.S. agency. This book’s prose is a refreshing blend of detail-oriented writing and more colorful passages: “Without warning, a patrol boat roared through the waves, aiming straight for the Nana. With a sharp twist of the wheel, Derber swerved, barely avoiding a collision. Passengers screamed, clutching the railing as the boat tilted, cold spray hitting their faces.” Photos also appear throughout, including pictures from Derber’s school days in Manchester and some captured moments with Sari.

Twenty-two-year-old Vera is living with her adoptive parents, the proprietors of the George and Pilgrims Hotel in Glastonbury, and grieving the loss of her love, Vincent, whom she met two years earlier at university in Bristol. (Their blissful life together ended when he was killed four months ago in a car crash.) When a stranger comes to the hotel claiming that Vera is actually Guinevere of Arthurian lore, and that she urgently needs to come back to the time of King Arthur to save the future of England, her sense of self is totally upended. The stranger is Merlin; using a “a magically stabilized wormhole,” he transports himself and Vera to Camelot. Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain, and other well-known figures of Arthurian legend are present and fleshed out in charmingly modern ways. Humorous situations abound as Vera must navigate a world she knows little about: She struggles to control her swearing, which is quite out of character for Guinevere; she also teaches the Knights to play poker and suggests that they use a round table. These amusing threads compellingly contrast with the pressure on Vera to be “a vessel for Guinevere’s memories,” concerns about the power and loyalty of Merlin and the other mages, and the chaos being incited by Arthur’s nemesis Mordred and the Frankish Kingdoms. All of this is overlaid with an engaging burgeoning romance between Vera and Arthur as Vera comes to accept herself as “broken and messy and utterly, wondrously human” and learns to use the magical power she has. Debut author Lafferty successfully weaves together multiple genres in this story of King Arthur’s time as seen through the eyes of a modern-day Guinevere. Like Vera, the reader does not have to be an expert on Arthurian legend to follow the story. The fresh takes on legendary characters and propulsive plot twists make this a page-turner that will leave readers hoping for a sequel.

Mick Mulligan was fired from his job as a Disney animator when he refused to name names to the FBI. Now that his wife has left him and taken their toddler daughter, he’s hung out his shingle as a private eye. When Duke Rogowski, president of the United Taxi and Limousine Drivers, asks Mick to reopen the case of Harold Williams, a Black communist on death row for shooting his boss, cab company owner Irwin Johnson, Mick’s intrigued by the call. But he has questions of his own. What possible leads can there be that the police haven’t already investigated? Why did Duke wait a year after Williams’ conviction to make this move, only two weeks before his scheduled execution? And how can Mick tack between the wishes of Duke’s two vice presidents, self-identified communist Sol Rosen, who’s eager to see Williams exonerated, and mob boss Vincent Forlini, who’s firmly opposed to troubling the waters? The more deeply involved Mick gets with the richly detailed cast of interested parties—rabid anti-communists, communists and socialist organizers of every stripe, FBI informers, and three beautiful women: Duke’s wife, Cynthia; Johnson’s widow, Eva; and Elena DeMarco, the sister of Williams’ co-worker and friend—the more he realizes that the conflicts that led to Johnson’s murder are a lot more complicated than J. Edgar Hoover evidently assumes.

Narrator Paul Delamare knows he’s out of his depth from the moment he sets foot on Maldemer, the superyacht his friend Xéra de Sully, a former patisserie owner, has reserved for her post-wedding celebration. A struggling British food writer, Paul suddenly finds himself surrounded by the bride and groom’s high society friends and family who are anything but his kind of people. Paul’s discomfort only grows after he’s wrongfully suspected of stealing an expensive necklace from Xéra’s stateroom. His uneasiness turns to devastation when a cake he bakes to cheer Xéra up gets linked to her sudden death a day after the theft. Seeking justice, Paul makes several chilling discoveries that suggest not all is as it seems aboard the impossibly beautiful Maldemer. The yacht is way off course and heading toward a small volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic. Worse still, non-British female deckhands he sees get abused by crew members live locked away at the bottom of the ship. Murrin’s deft handling of the many subplots layered into this well-crafted mystery is only part of what makes the story so readable. Quirky characters (like the ship’s eye-patch wearing chef, who inspires Paul to go back into the kitchen), unexpected twists (like Paul’s email correspondence with a tarot-reading friend whose cards reveal just how dangerous his sleuthing will become), and a small collection of mouthwatering recipes at the end of the book work together to create a unique novel that tantalizes as it entertains.