Gone Girl (Crown), by Gillian Flynn.

• Author: Durst, Will
• Position: Our Favorite Books of 2013 - 'Light of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel' and 'The Hunter and Other Stories' - Book review

Gone Girl (Crown), by Gillian Flynn. On her fifth wedding anniversary, beautiful, lonely, formerly rich, possibly pregnant, ex-New Yorker Amy Elliott Dunne disappears from her suburban Missouri subdivision on the banks of the Mississippi River. Husband Nick is suspected by the police, the neighbors, his in-laws, the media, and not less than a couple of times the reader. This book digs way below the Marianas Trench of marital discord. There are protagonists with secret agendas and enough plot twists to keep an AMC miniseries busy for three seasons.

Light of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Simon & Schuster), by James Lee Burke.

While vacationing in Montana along with their daughters, Alafair and Gretchen, Dave Robicheaux and his partner, Clete Purcell, stumble upon a resurrected serial killer, and typically gothic complications ensue. Robicheaux's twentieth adventure has all the requisite treats we've come to expect from creator James Lee Burke: inner demons that refuse to die, long philosophical meanderings on good and evil, Clete limbering up Dave's id, noir desperation, and much more. Sit back, dear reader, and prepare to be treated to another exciting trip through the heart of darkness by the master of the...