Clay's Quilt by Silas House (Algonquin: $22.95). The story of an orphaned Kentucky boy who grows up to become a coal miner and the people he has drawn close to him as a kind of substitute family. Mr. House is a mail carrier in rural Kentucky and a native of the Bluegrass State. Signing: 7 p.m. Thursday, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Edwards and Madison roads, Norwood, 396-8960.

        Real Boys' Voices: Boys Speak Out About Drugs, Sex, Violence, Bullying, Sports, School, Parents and So Much More by William S. Pollack (Penguin; $14). Boys from age 10 to 20 talk candidly about their lives, and Mr. Pollock (director of the Center for MenMcLean Hospital) offers a 15-step program for mentoring boys. Signings: 7 p.m. Wednesday , Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Edwards and Madison roads, Norwood, 396-8960; and 7 p.m. Thursday, Books & Co., 350 E. Stroop Road, Kettering (937) 298-6540.

        P Is for Peril by Sue Grafton (Putnam; $26.95). Ms. Grafton's popular alphabet mystery series continues with California private eye Kinsey Millhone trying to find the administrator of a nursing home. He's gone missing. His ex thinks he has run away from his new wife. His new wife thinks he's dead. His co-workers think he's been kidnapped. Unlike the most recent books, this one is set back in the 1980s, which means we get the old Kinsey (and, yes, she is living in that funky, remodeled garage).

        Gunman's Rhapsody by Robert B. Parker (Putnam; $22.95). Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp in a novel from the guru of gumshoe? Uh huh. Mr. Parker heads west in this classic gunfightin' tale. But he retains his hard-bitten style. As the Library Journal review of the book puts it: “Wyatt Earp is Spenser with spurs, and the supporting characters all have alter egos in Spenser's Boston. The theme of hard, violent men in conflict over love and their own codes of honor is standard Parker fare, but no one does it better.”

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