Read more good mysteries this year

Can’t Remember What I Forgot

By Sue Halpern

Harmony Books, $24

Ever walk into a room looking for something and forgot what it was?

Halpern spent five years interviewing top neuroscientists around the world and learned that every single one of us will experience memory loss starting around age 35, and that 1 out of 7 baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists believe flavanols, which are found in red wine and cocoa, may act to prevent or moderate AD but warn it’s too soon to go on a wine and chocolate diet.

There’s plenty of helpful and hopeful information here for every age so… don’t forget to read it.

Midlife Tune-Up

By Tim Burns

Pelican Publishing, $19.95

Without specifically defining the age at which midlife begins, Burns’ advice is valuable to persons of all ages. His six simple steps are alliteratively titled Passion, Purpose, Power, Planning, Perspective and Perseverance and he devotes a chapter to each.

His approach is light-hearted and sprinkled with appropriate quotes, as this from William Feather: “Setting a good example for your children takes all the fun out of middle age.”

Burns, a tax attorney and state representative from St. Tammany Parish, credits this formula for his success in business and government. If it worked for him, it may well work for you, too.

No Regrets

By Hamilton Beazley, PhD

Wiley, $14.95

Sinatra sang that he had “regrets, but too few to mention”… but Dr. Beazley says if we have even just one regret that burdens our lives, cripples relationships and hobbles our future, one is more than enough. If we keep rehashing something we did, or should have done, and can’t correct the mistakes we made and the opportunities we missed, we can still change our reaction to it.

His 10-step program to letting go offers a sensible and practical plan for analyzing regret and coming to terms with it. Utilizing his spiritual and psychological tools may open the way to guilt free happiness.

Angel’s Tip

By Alafair Burke

Harper, $23.95

Burke proves again in this, her fifth novel, that she can hold her own with her famous father, James Lee, in creating a memorable character. Her NYPD detective, Ellie Hatcher, while on her morning jog, comes across the body of a young girl – an obvious murder victim whom she later discovers was a college student on spring break. The girl was partying with friends at a fancy and exclusive lounge and remained behind after her friends left for their hotel. When she didn’t return the next morning for their flight home, her friends called authorities. Ellie was already on the case and soon realized that the killer’s M.O. was similar to two past murders. In each case, the victim was strangled and her hair yanked out.

This one is straight out of today’s headlines and will keep you guessing to the end.

The Monster of Florence

By Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi

Grand Central Publishing, $25.99

The “Monster of Florence” as he is known, killed 14 young lovers who were, as was the local custom, “making out” in their cars at night. Worse still, he would mutilate the females’ bodies and, in fact, inspired the monster in the novel, “Hannibal.”

Preston, who had moved his family to a villa in Florence, was stunned to learn from Spezi, his co-author and a distinguished reporter, that the olive grove next to his home was the site of one of the Monster’s double murders. This led to their joint investigation into the unsolved cases, which ironically made the pair themselves targets of the police investigation. Fans of true serial murder cases will find this book irresistible.

Sail

By James Patterson and

Howard Roughan

Little Brown, $27.99

When Katherine Dunne prepares to set sail with her three alienated children and her new husband in hopes of uniting as family, her hubby, a high-powered Manhattan attorney involved in a trial, cancels. Katherine determined to go on as captain on the Dunne’s “getaway to paradise.” Several days out, the trip turns into a disaster and the family is forced to bond together to save the boat and themselves. After they fail to return home and all attempts to locate them are abandoned, an astonishing thing happens: a message is found in a bottle – the Dunne family is alive!

In typical Patterson fashion the plot breezes along at a brisk and energetic pace.