The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins ($8.99)

Scholastic Press brought Harry Potter to the U.S. and probably raised its caché and stock price in the process. Once again, Scholastic has a blockbuster series which is appropriate for teen and adult readers. It begins with The Hunger Games, a story set in the future when life in the U.S. has been altered by another civil war.

Most parts of the country have been turned into "districts" with specialties. The ruling class lives somewhere in the Rockies in the Capitol. Katniss Everdeen, the 16-year-old heroine, lives in "District 12," an impoverished, hard luck community, dependent on coal mining, somewhere in Appalachia. (So what's changed, you ask.) Her district has a fence around it, stepping outside of which is punishable by death. But because her miner father is dead and her mother and sister would starve otherwise, Katniss has learned to hunt in the woods outside the compound. Very few in Katniss' community escape the hounding poverty, so people turn a blind eye to her activities. She finds food for her family and to sell in the black market.

In a ritual designed to never let the other districts forget who the boss is, the Capitol requires tributes. (Very ancient Rome and, as we later find out, many of the Capitol people have ancient Roman-sounding names.) It would be hard to pay a tribute if it were just money or coal but far easier than what the Capitol wants. Each year one girl and one boy between 12 and 18 are chosen to be sent to the Capitol to take part in The Hunger Games. Like a ramped-up "Survivor" game, with death as the loser's punishment, the children compete to be the last one standing.

Katniss' sister's name is drawn as the girl tribute. Gentle Prim wouldn't survive a minute, so Katniss volunteers. In a "reaping" ceremony televised throughout the country, people witness Katniss' first sacrifice. She is joined by Peeta, a boy she doesn't know very well but who saved her from starving when she was younger and whose kindness she has never forgotten. And now he is one of the 23 kids she must outlive.

All the tributes are transported to the arena, an area designed to accommodate the game. Like the TV show "Survivor," the arena changes each year, and this year it is a wooded area, not unlike what Katniss is used to. Maybe she has a chance after all, she thinks.

Collins manages to accomplish a lot in an exciting, moving, well-paced 374 pages. She gives us a look at a community in dire straits, a Capitol in which most of its citizens are pampered and morally corrupt, and a clever and heart-breaking "game" of survival among children who should be getting tattoos, sassing their parents, and listening to indecipherable music instead of trying to kill each other.

Collins has given us unforgettable side characters: from alcoholic and barely articulate Haymitch, the last winner District 12 had thirty years ago, who becomes Katniss and Peeta's mentor, to Cinna, Katniss' stylist from the Capitol. Yes, stylist. The Hunger Game is a televised event which spawns betting and promotions. It's a big deal in the Capitol and the contestants better look good and they better die well, too.

I am longing  for the next book in the series, Catching Fire, and may move it way up to the top of a toppling pile of must-reads.

The Jaguar, by T. Jefferson Parker (hardcover, $26.95) (due out 1/10/12)

T. Jefferson Parker's Charlie Hood series now deals with the violent world of the drug cartels, with their sadistically bent code of honor. Money brings only evil in its wake, and Parker tells the story of once-lovely parts of Mexico that are given over to gangs and gang feuds.

Parker's writing in this series is more poetic, channeling the soul, perhaps, of his younger protagonist, Bradley Jones. Bradley was a bright but criminal teenager when Charlie, a sheriff's deputy, first met him through his mother, Charlie's lover. Over the years, although Charlie has tried to help him, Bradley has gone his own twisted way and is now a member of a vicious drug cartel out of Mexico. And Bradley, too, is a sheriff's deputy. Both Charlie and Bradley mix with the federal ATF agents, tough and independent-minded people for whom there is no border, only crime.

Bradley has found his one true love, Erin. She is expecting their first child when a rival ganglord kidnaps Erin for ransom. Bradley enlists Charlie's help to get her back from deep in the jungles of Mexico. Whatever their differences, whatever their lack of trust in each other, they are united in wanting Erin back. Up until this point Erin and Charlie had no firm idea that Bradley is as deeply involved on the other side of the law as he is.

This is an unusual book for Parker, although he has dealt with the unknowable before. There's more of an ethereal, philosophical air to it. The ending showcases the steps Parker has taken outside the box. This odd book can't quite be categorized as a simple mystery or thriller. It should be remembered that Bradley's mother kept the head of one of her ancestors in a jar of alcohol. That sets the stage quite well, actually.

In Mayan mythology, the jaguar is sometimes the night sun, god of the underworld. Who is the jaguar in this story? Is he the psychopathic kidnapper, Benjamin Armenta, a man who has both lost and gained by violence? Or is he the mysterious Mike Finnegan, someone Charlie views as a devil and Bradley sees as his savior? It will help to read the other books in this series. Bradley's background becomes a little clearer, as does the reason that Charlie is searching for Mike. However, this book is capable of standing alone.

Parker has stated (http://tinyurl.com/7v252re) that he is planning to write six Charlie Parker books. I can see where this one, number five, is heralding the denouement of the series. It will be interesting to see how much over the edge Parker goes to bring his series to a conclusion, if that is his intention.

The Baker Street Letters, by Michael Robertson ($13.99)

Love the premise. Reggie Heath, a lawyer in London leases a building. His good-hearted but odd brother, Nigel,  does penance by working for him. One of Nigel's jobs is to answer mail of a peculiar sort. Reggie's too much of a high-powered lawyer and man-on-the-way-up to realize just what sort of historical building he has leased. If there were in fact a 221-B Baker Street, legendary home of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, it would be somewhere in Reggie's building. Stipulated in the lease Reggie carelessly signed was a provision that all mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes must be answered. It is Nigel's duty to fill out and mail back the appropriate form. No personal contact of any sort should be made with the writers.

Nigel tries to tell Reggie about a letter they have received and how it's imperative that they do something about it. Reggie is dismissive, Nigel does a bunk to L.A., where the letter-writer lives, Reggie's girlfriend, Laura, is aloof, the body of Reggie's nasty clerk is found in Nigel's office, another body is discovered in L.A., and Nigel is suspected of murder on two continents.

Nigel barely appears in the book, which is a pity because he appears to be the more interesting of the two brothers. Perhaps the second book, The Brothers of Baker Street, fulfills the promise of such a creative idea, but this one meanders a bit and spends far too much time in Los Angeles. Also, there's an unnecessary complication with the vaguely characterized girlfriend. Sherlock Holmes means England, not Beverly Hills!

However, here's another pat on the author's back for another great idea: The letter in question was written 20 years ago by a young girl worried about her father. Nigel has received another letter from the now-grown woman wanting the original enclosures back. This was such a sweet idea that a young girl would write to her hero, Sherlock Holmes, to request his help. Robertson definitely is worth another look.

Believing the Lie, by Elizabeth George (hardcover, $28.95) (due date 1/10/12)

Believing the Lie is so long and takes so long to finish, rife as it is with plot and setting details and character descriptions, that it felt like a member of the family had died when I finally finished it. It  had had breakfast and lunch with me for so many days that I now have forgotten what I used to do while eating before this 624-page guest came to stay.

Lynley and Haver have their own personal turmoils to contend with while solving a crime in the far-off Lake District. The Lake District, where Peter Rabbit frolicked and daffodils grow in great abundance in Spring. The Lake District, where the body of the presumed heir to a bathroom fixtures fortune has been found in the family boathouse, expired by way of drowning.

It's a tortured path that brings Lynley to the victim's family estate incognito. He co-opts Havers into performing her own brand of subterfuge to get research past acting superintendent Isabelle Ardery, the bane of Havers' existence and Lynley's erstwhile lover, because no one must know that Lynley is in the Lake District. Sorry. That's a little too contrived. Nevertheless, there sits Lynley, far from the madding crowd of London.

Even more contrived is the involvement of Simon St. James, forensic scientist, and his wife, Deborah St. James. Deborah, although she is a photographer and not a law enforcement officer, plays a part in the deception to discover who might want Ian Caldwell dead. Deborah's part of the book takes a good fourth, and her part makes for a sad tale in the end. 

Apart from the ongoing soap opera involving George's standard players, there are three distinct mysteries that George sets before us. Who killed Ian Caldwell? Who is the mysterious Argentinian wife of the victim's cousin? What is Ian's young son's terrible secret?

It's hard to swallow all the stories George creates; some are more sympathetic than others and some are too outrageous. Each of the non-recurring characters is the carrier of his or her own salvation or destruction, and heavy lie the heads with that burden. At this stage in her series, Believing the Lie is neither the best nor the worst of her stories. George always gets an A+ for effort. I admit to a heavily tilted prejudice in favor of the stories with Barbara Havers over the other main characters, and the more Barbara the better. That being said, I really enjoyed the fourth of the book that was Barbara's and less the fourth that was Deborah's.