These stories should please readers  readers who enjoy depth of character and social context along with a gripping mystery. In Angels Burning by Tawni O’Dell, a 17-year-old girl, the white sheep in a severely dysfunctional family, is found murdered. Who would have wanted her dead? The rust belt setting adds an air of social realism but don’t let that deter you: “”This book had me on the edge of my seat. You won’t be able to put it down (NY Times).”   In River Road by Carol Goodman, a writing professor at an Upstate New York university is accused of killing her favorite student in a hit-and-run accident.  The professor insists that the blood and dents on her car were from a deer. This is an “atmospheric thriller, but one with a racing story line.” Finally, The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian, begins with a bachelor party that goes way off course when the hired ‘entertainers’ assault their escorts and flee into the night.  Bohjalian “couples the urgency of a compulsively readable crime thriller with a quiet meditation on the meaning of family (Geraldine Brooks).”