“Micro” is a new, posthumous story from the late Michael Crichton, who died in 2008, and finished by Richard Preston, author of the non-fiction best-seller “The Hot Zone.” It’s a thriller about a biotech company in Hawaii and a group of students who end up stranded and endangered in a rain forest.

George Campbell of Turner will be signing copies of his new book, “Busch North Scene: The Busch Years 1987-2007,” at the Northeast Motorsports Expo being held Jan. 6-8 in Augusta.

If it had not caught the attention of a handful of important readers, Jesmyn Ward’s “Salvage the Bones” would most likely have quietly faded into obscurity; many worthy books do. Now, however, this novel about a poor Mississippi family in the weeks leading up to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina has a prominent place in bookstores and boasts the gold medallion that comes with winning the 2011 National Book Award.

The best crime fiction offers equal parts entertainment and social commentary — stories that we remember long after the final chapter.