By Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr. and Gordon D. Whitney (Louisiana State University Press, $24.95)
The blurb: Historians have generally dismissed the Union general Jefferson Columbus Davis (1828-1879) as a reckless assassin, a racist, a journeyman soldier at best, and an embarrassment to the Lincoln war effort. This book looks at "Jef" Davis as a grim destructive child of war and replaced it with a more rounded portrait of a complex military leader.
Excerpt: "What did Davis do? A timorous leader might have broken off the fight, then and there, and slipped off during the night, but the capture of Rome was Davis's chance for redemption, and he would take it."
A Night Too Dark
By Dana Stabenow (Minotaur Books, $24.99)
The blurb: Not only are the Park rats disappearing at a an alarming rate, but so is life in the Park as Kate knows it. Alaska state trooper Jim Chopin's workload has increased to where he doesn't make it home three nights out of four, the controversial mine has seduced Jonny and his classmates with summer jobs and divided the Niniltna Native Association -- the aunties are to a woman selling out -- and a hostile environmental activist organization has embraced the Suulutaq Mine as their reason for being.
It's almost a relief when Kate finds a body. This she can handle.
Until the identity of the body vanishes, too."
Excerpt: "She would have reacted the same way to any wrongful death. Lancelot, that's who Kate reminded Jim of, and while she might not be able to swim a moat in a coat of heavy iron mail, she was sure as hell blessed with an iron will. God help anyone who got in her way in this mood.
It wasn't going to be him, that was for sure, and besides, she was making enough sense for him to let her run out the string and see what was there."
-- Compiled by Gretchen Weiss, Anchorage Daily News
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