In her 19th novel, the prolific author of You Must Remember This dishes up a heady concoction of lust, murder and courtroom drama. Ian and Glynnis McCullough, an apparently happy couple for 26 years, orbit painlessly in the academic universe of the prestigious Institute for Independent Research in the Social Sciences in upstate New York. Glynnis is a noted food writer working on a cookbook titled American Appetites , while Ian is a demographic expert whose destiny, ``the seemingly benign verso of fate,'' will by the tale's end seem astonishingly altered from its original course. When a drunken quarrel over suspected infidelity degenerates into a brawl, Glynnis falls through a plate glass window and is fatally injured. Ian is charged wtih murder; during his ensuing trial ambiguities abound as guilt and responsibility must be treated as separate issues. In her usual nuanced, stylized voice, Oates offers incriminating evidence against American appetites for food, wine, drink, power and sex, as she knowingly observes the smugly comfortable lives of the smart and tenured. A zippy story about successful lives dramatically altered by one sudden and inexplicable lapse of judgment, this is definitely Oates in her bestseller metier. (Jan.)

Quite a departure for Oates, this thriller is set in an affluent neighborhood on the Hudson. Ian McCullough is a researcher at a social science think tank, long married to the elegant Glynnis, who entertains beautifully and writes trendy cookbooks. Glynnis also dabbles in people, taking up with struggling artists and the like for short spells. Such a case is Sigrid Hunt, a dancer whose troubled life leads her to seek help from Ian when Glynnis is no longer interested. Glynnis eventually comes to suspect something's up between Ian and Sigrid (it isn't), and in a drunken argument Ian shoves his wife through their plate glass wallor did she fall? An absorbing, well-told story full of suspense. Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.

In this elaborate combination of mystery, courtroom drama, searing social satire, and character study, Keith Carradine and B.J. Ward are exceptional at voicing the emotional layers of a successful couple, Professor Ian McCullough and his wife, Glynnis. Although they’re the pillars of a prestigious academic institute and their small town’s social scene, they find themselves set on a tragic course when the professor offers friendship and money to a troubled dance student. Nick Olcott’s stand-out audio adaptation and sound design use short scenes, quick transitions, and musical interludes to capture the essence of Oates’s fine sense of pace, ear for language, and eye for detail. The listener will hear the audience’s reaction when the story takes off in an unexpected direction. Top-notch contemporary audio drama. B.P. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine