A round-up of the latest paperbacks.
The Mercurial Emperor, Peter Marshall. Pimlico, £12.99
The Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II (1552-1612), established "a magic circle" at Prague Castle, the seat of his power, into which he invited some of the most creative and subversive minds of his time. Rudolf was not interested in political power because he already had that, but in "power over nature, and power over life and death". A typical Renaissance man in his love of knowledge, he became obsessed with the alchemists' dream of finding the Philosophers' Stone capable of turning base metal into gold and prolonging life indefinitely. When alchemy, astrology and magic failed, he became attracted to the dark arts. But he faced political and religious discord, suffered from a deepening melancholy, and had an ambitious younger brother who coveted his throne. The upshot was that he lost his empire and almost his sanity, but the story of how Prague enjoyed a flowering of late Renaissance science and art under his reign makes a fascinating read. - Brian Maye
This Is Charlie Bird. Charlie Bird with Kevin Rafter, Gill & Macmillan, £12.99
Bird tells the story of his life, personal and professional, starting off with his Sandymount childhood and his fringe involvement in socialist politics in the 1960s and progressing through his dogged climbing of the RTÉ news ladder. Along the way he gives insights into some of the biggest news stories of the last 30-odd years, in Ireland and abroad. The book covers the Haughey years, Brian Keenan's release, the two Gulf Wars, the IRA ceasefire in 1994 (Bird's descriptions of making contacts with IRA figures is particularly illuminating of the inner workings of journalism), 9/11, the Asian tsunami, Mary Robinson's presidency, and the NIB scandal and Beverley Flynn libel trial. Along the way, Bird brings the characters of Irish and international politics and journalism to life. And all told in a refreshingly unadorned writing style. - Ciaran Murray
Winter's Bone. Daniel Woodrell, Sceptre, £7.99
Up on charges of cooking crack, Jessup Dolly signs over his house as bail collateral. When he disappears before facing the judge, his 16-year-old daughter Ree, already struggling to put food on the table for her addled mother and two younger brothers, sets out to find Jessup before the bail bondsman claims the roof over their heads. Shotgun-toting Ree is a tough, flinty survivor, and her wintertime odyssey through the byways and backroads of the Missouri Ozarks brings her in close contact with her violent kin, including such memorably named unlovelies as Thump Milton and the terrifyingly scarred Uncle Teardrop. The colours are as desaturated as the characters and it always feels like night is about to fall in this brooding, atmospheric eighth novel by critics' favourite Woodrell. - Kevin Sweeney
The Moment You Were Gone. Nicci Gerrard, Penguin, £6.99
Nicci Gerrard, co-author with Sean French of the successful Nicci French thrillers, has once again stepped out of the crime genre into more domestic territory for her third novel. Marriage, friendships and secrets are her dominant themes and the story centres around the long-married Gaby and Connor and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Gaby's best friend, Nancy, when they were in their 20s. A chance sighting of Nancy on TV leads Gaby to find her and to uncover the secret which, it transpires, has the power and potential to destroy her marriage and change a whole series of relationships. Some of the characters are too slight to carry the weight of the narrative thrust upon them, but Gerrard's pacey, observational style and carefully plotted story carries through to a most satisfying end. - Bernice Harrison
Two Doors Down. Annie McCartney, Sphere £7.99
Sally O'Neill travels across Belfast every day on her trusty moped to the leafy, middle-class suburb of Marlborough Road. To the residents of that street she is more than just a cleaning lady - she is their confidante, the one who turns chaos into tranquillity. Give this woman an umbrella and she'd be a regular Mary Poppins. But in Sally's personal life all is not sweetness and light, especially when her jailbird husband, Charlie, makes an unwelcome return. Perhaps it's time Sally had a little bit of magic in her own life - could the arrival of dishy tenor Fintan spell romance for the domestic goddess? McCartney's follow-up novel to the hilarious Your Cheatin' Heart shows us a refreshingly different take on Belfast life. This is kitchen sink drama, with really big sinks - Marlborough Road is the essence of chic suburbia, after all. - Claire Looby
What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Terrorist Threat. Louise Richardson, John Murray, £8.99
Harvard lecturer Louise Richardson set herself the ambitious task of exploring what motivates the average person to take up the gun in pursuit of political, ideological or religious aims. This is an exhaustive and rigorous analysis of what drives terrorist organisations, and Irish-born Richardson brings her expertise and personal experience to bear on the topic. The book takes in the ongoing "War on Terror " (which Richardson claims can never be won), as well as more recent struggles in Ireland, Peru, Spain and the Middle East. The crux of the argument is that while terrorism cannot be defeated, it can be contained, by tackling it at the root and holding fast to democratic values, something the US has pointedly chosen not to do in Iraq. This book is eminently intelligent and provocative, and deftly combines scholarly research with an utterly accessible writing style. - Laurence Mackin