“The Russian: a Novel” (St. Martin’s Press), by Ben Coes When two American politicians are assassinated by the Russian mafia, the sitting U.S. president whips out a supersecret codicil to the U.S Constitution authorizing him to ignore federal law in an emergency. His plan: create a clandestine hit squad to hunt down and kill those […]

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two relatives of notorious 1930s gangster John Dillinger who plan to have his remains exhumed as part of a television documentary say they have “evidence” the body buried in an Indianapolis cemetery may not be him and that FBI agents possibly killed someone else in 1934. The FBI immediately disputed that idea, […]

“Deep Dive” (The Permanent Press), by Chris Knopf Sam Acquillo’s past lives as a professional boxer, negligent husband and corporate engineer have long been in his rearview mirror. He now spends his days working as a carpenter, sailing on Peconic Bay and playing with his dog Eddie Van Halen in a modest cottage on Long […]

STRATHAM, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire police officer says the kitten he was trying to pick up in a parking lot turned out to be a bobcat, which then jumped onto the roof of a Burger King. Stratham Officer Matt Callahan tells Seacoastonline.com he was on patrol Saturday and saw the “kitten” run under a car. […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Million-selling novelist Julia Alvarez’s next book is a story of identity and immigration that she felt compelled to write. “Afterlife” will be published next April, Algonquin Books announced Tuesday. The novel centers on a literature professor whose grief for her late husband and encounter with an undocumented migrant raise questions about […]