Poor Richard’s Books suggests some fun, fictional escapism for fall

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun's literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, staff from Poor Richard's Books in Colorado Springs recommends a mystery shrouded in mysticism, an espionage thriller and a magical island fantasy.

From the publisher: The disappearance of a local politician's teenaged daughter is major news in Minnesota. As a huge manhunt is launched to find her, Cork O'Connor's grandson stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman—but nobody seems that interested. Nobody, that is, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police. As Cork and the tribal officers dig into the circumstances of this mysterious and grim discovery, they uncover a connection to the missing teenager. And soon, it's clear that Cork's grandson is in danger of being the killer's next victim.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: William Kent Krueger is a wonderful storyteller. In "Spirit Crossing" we get a welcomed dose of Native American mysticism with a heaping layer of significant real-world issues. Krueger has touched on missing Indigenous people in previous writings; in this book he expands on the emotions, reality and politics of the troubling matter. We are drawn into the complicated and nuanced realm of territory, boundaries and belief.

With this latest novel in the Cork O'Connor mystery series, we are annoyed by the idiocy of bureaucracy, awed by the strength of character and weep at that strength.

From the publisher: 1945. In the waning months of World War II, Japan hid vast quantities of gold and other stolen valuables in boobytrapped underground caches all across the Philippines. By 1947 some of that loot was recovered, not by treasure hunters, but by the United States government, which told no one about the find. Instead, those assets were stamped classified, shipped to Europe, and secretly assimilated into something called the Black Eagle Trust.

Retired Justice Department Operative Cotton Malone is in Switzerland doing a favor for a friend. But what was supposed to be a simple operation turns violent and Cotton is thrust into a war between the world's oldest bank and the CIA. He quickly discovers that everything hinges on a woman from his past, who suddenly reappears harboring a host of explosive secrets.

From the stolid banking halls of Luxembourg, to the secret vaults of Switzerland, and finally up into the treacherous mountains of southern Morocco, Cotton Malone is stymied at every turn-until he finally comes face-to-face with the Atlas Maneuver.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: I have learned more about world history and the reasons why things are the way they are from a Steve Berry novel than any class I have taken. Yes, Mr. Berry might add a bit of flourishing to that history but the knowledge he imparts is amazing.

In "The Atlas Maneuver," the twists and turns, in usual Berry fashion, keep the reader saying to themselves, "just one more page" repeatedly. Forgotten caches of WWII gold, international conspiracies and, finally, someone explains how cryptocurrencies work and can be manipulated — all of these are part of a gripping, unputdownable thrilling read.

From the publisher: A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life, built on the ashes of a bad one. He's the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six magical and so-called dangerous children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. And he is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth; Zoe Chapelwhite, the island's sprite; and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: All right, I told myself I wouldn't read another TJ Klune book because they make me tear up a bit....and yet here I am...page four...not tearing up...nope...

In "Somewhere Beyond the Sea," we are reunited with the beloved magically gifted and quirky family from the previous book, "The House in the Cerulean Sea," and are delighted to meet the newest addition. Klune takes on complicated themes, adroitly navigating reason and emotion without being overly heavy-handed. This is a queer-positive, heart-felt story about doing the right thing and taking chances to do so. Dare you not to tear up a tiny bit.