It began as a mystery blog that unexpectedly swelled into an Internet sensation. Someone was posting a scathingly hilarious fake diary of Apple CEO Steve Jobs online, and a tech-savvy audience ate it up. When the blog’s author was revealed to be Daniel Lyons, a senior editor of Forbes, Lyons was far from apologetic. He wrote a 248-page satirical novel narrated by Fake Steve Jobs, an exaggerated parody of the eccentric computer wiz who built a multi-billion dollar company from scratch.

by Brock Clarke
305 pages, Algonquin Books, 2007

“I been there before,” Mark Twain writes at the conclusion of “Huckleberry Finn.”  This sentiment of familiarity could easily be applied to Brock Clarke’s catchy but flawed latest novel, “An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England.” Occasionally, redundancy is a good thing. Readers need to be metaphorically hit over the head with themes in certain books. Yet, Clarke’s fake memoir, focusing on the rambling tales of an accidental arsonist burning down Emily Dickinson’s home, fails to spark more than a small flame of a well-executed novel.

As Mazeppa, the trumpet-playing burlesque dancer from “Gypsy,” pointed out, “Kid, you gotta have a gimmick if you want to get ahead.” Rudolph Delson’s first novel certainly has that. “Maynard and Jennica” tells the story of, er, Maynard and Jennica. Their New York City romance is told through the voices of no less than 35 different narrators. And, like Mazeppa herself, the story is revealed to us a little bit at a time.

For decades, Dexter Morgan has been dealing with a dark secret—he’s not like everyone else. Sure, on the outside, he’s likable Dexter, with a doting girlfriend, a close relationship with his sister and a great job working as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police department. But, on the inside, he’s governed by the Dark Passenger, a sinister presence who dictates the true Dexter’s every move and helps him live out his real desire: killing people.