Dark matter A novel

NOBODY: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond, by Marc Lamont Hill. (Atria, $16.) Hill analyzes such high-profile deaths as Michael Brown's, Sandra Bland's and Trayvon Martin's to explore a system of negligence and indifference. The state has effectively abandoned those whom Hill calls "Nobodies": people marked as black, brown, immigrant, queer. LOSING IT, by Emma Rathbone. (Riverhead, $16.) Julia, the heroine of Rathbone's novel, is 26, professionally adrift and - most vexing of all - still a virgin. During previous opportunities, she always demurred, certain that a better one would come along, but now, "my virginity composed about 99 percent of my thought traffic." When she goes to live with her aunt, her quest to finally have a sexual encounter is complicated by a family member's revelation. THE WICKED BOY: An Infamous Murder in Victorian London, by Kate Summerscale. (Penguin, $17.) In 1895,13-year-old Robert Coombes and his younger brother were traipsing alone around East London. Days later, their mother was found dead, and Robert was sent to one of England's most infamous prisons. Summerscale reconstructs the case and its aftermath with forensic care. DARK MATTER, by Blake Crouch. (Broadway, $16.) After he is violently kidnapped, Jason, a married professor in Chicago, awakes as a different man entirely: His wife is not his wife, his child has not been born and he is working on a brilliant project. As Jason's various selves confront one another and he embarks on multiple paths, he must grapple with the question of which of his lives is real. Crouch draws on disparate influences in his thriller, which our reviewer, Andrew O'Hehir, called "alternate-universe science fiction bolstered by a smidgen of theoretical physics." UNFORBIDDEN PLEASURES, by Adam Phillips. (Picador, $16.) In a series of essays, Phillips, a British psychoanalyst, explores the meaning and the role of everyday indulgences in contemporary life. While others focus on the taboo, Phillips writes, "the seekers of unforbidden pleasures may know something about pleasure that has never occurred to the transgressive." SWEET LAMB OF HEAVEN, by Lydia Millet. (Norton, $15.95.) After her daughter, Lena, is born, Anna begins hearing streams of voices - both foreign and English, and not violent - a hallucination that resists diagnosis. When her marriage dissolves, she and Lena escape from Alaska, where they were living, to a hotel in Maine; but when her husband considers a political run, they must constantly evade his reach.

Physics professor Jason Dessen is walking home after attending a party for a friend who has just won a prestigious science award. Awaiting him at his Chicago home is his artist wife Daniela and their teenage son, Charlie. Shortly after leaving the bar, Jason is snatched off the street and wakes up in a laboratory surrounded by strangers who seem to know him quite well, launching a nightmarish experience for the young professor. It seems that an alternate-world version of him has invented a way to travel into the far corners of the multiverse. Jason is faced with a variety of options, none of which seem to lead back to his own reality. Narrator Jon Lindstrom does what he can with a story that is often difficult to follow. With a bit of judicious pruning, this would have been a taut, challenging thriller. Many listeners who enjoy novels filled to bursting with plot twists, blind alleys, and numerous endings will find this a feast; this reviewer found it to be more of a fast-food overdose. VERDICT An optional purchase for public libraries. ["While stories of the multi-verse are not new, Crouch ("Wayward Pines" trilogy) brings a welcome intensity to the trope": LJ 6/15/16 review of the Crown hc.]-Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.