Paperbacks

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. Picador, £8.99

In his latest funny and enthralling book, Jon Ronson poses the question of whether madmen inordinately occupy the boardrooms of multinationals worldwide. He takes some dark turns in pursuit of the answer, from psychiatric institutions and high-security prisons to the backrooms where the bible of psychiatry, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is created. Ronson’s pose is that of the ingenue sleuth: Colombo with added neuroses. When he finally confronts the villain of the piece – a ruthless chief executive who fits the “psychopath” bill rather well – the man acquits himself with vigour, leaving Ronson’s thesis in shards. In the end, though, his refusal to shrink from his unsettling conclusion – that “madness”, in endless guises and gradations, is everywhere and, as a consequence, nowhere – is a testament to the author’s intellectual consistency and his integrity. And also, perhaps, his madness. John Lane

Bossypants by Tina Fey. Sphere, £8.99

If you’re looking for a showbiz memoir packed with anxious self-analysis, then you’ve picked the wrong book in Bossypants. Readers unfamiliar with one of the most successful female comedy writers of her generation, and head writer of the US cult TV comedy shows Saturday Night Liveand 30 Rock, will be entertained by a funny, sarcastic woman. Those more au fait with Fey might be disappointed by the lack of celebrity gossip. The cover image of Fey’s head Photoshopped on to the body of a large, hairy man is a pretty good representation of the contradictory image that Fey has of herself. It also sets the tone for a chronological romp through this Greek-German-American girl’s life, from her comfortable childhood in Pennsylvania to one of the most male-dominated areas of show business, taking in tours with an improv comedy company and a career-cementing impersonation of the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It’s really no surprise she’s a bit bossy these days, pants notwithstanding. Claire Looby

Blood Count by Reggie Nadelson. Atlantic, £7.99

Artie Cohen, Soviet-born detective with the NYPD, again demonstrates his uncanny talent for sniffing out crime in New York’s unlikeliest nooks and crannies. This time the setting is a grand old apartment building in Harlem, where an elderly Russian neighbour of Artie’s sometime paramour Lily Hanes, a nervy investigative journalist, is found dead in her apartment. Naturally, Artie hopes to get back together with Lily, but she’s dating a younger black detective on the case. And, naturally, when the death appears connected to several killings involving hoods from the old country, Artie counts on back-up from his best friend, the flamboyant Russian businessman Tolya Sverdloff. Nadelson’s ninth Cohen thriller, set in the giddy days after Barack Obama’s election, lumbers along as a contrived, plot-heavy police procedural. But it’s well worth reading for the author’s sympathetic depiction of a historic neighbourhood in the throes of gentrification and struggling with ongoing issues of race and class. Kevin Sweeney

Treasure Islands: Dirty Money, Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole Your Cash by Nicholas Shaxson. Vintage Books, £8.99

Tax havens have been spreading through the global economy since the 1970s, and those who use them aren’t too bothered by any obligations to society. Imagine the world’s third-richest man paying less tax than his receptionist. One of the main reasons that poor countries stay poor, and why western society is so unequal, is the existence of tax havens, and Shaxson’s chapter on how they harm poor countries is shocking. But it’s only one of 12 shocking chapters in a book that’s an indictment of capitalism’s ugliness. And it’s not just the Cayman Islands, Switzerland or Panama. “Britain sits, spider-like, at the centre of a vast international web of tax havens;” the US is another huge example. A characteristic of a tax haven is having financial-service sectors that are big compared with the domestic economy. That sounds quite close to home. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the world we live in. Brian Maye

Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party the Making of America by Benjamin L Carp. Yale, £12.99

This book elucidates the escalating tensions that led to the dumping of 42 tonnes of tea into Boston harbour on December 16th, 1773. The East India Company, propped up by a British Empire hungry for revenue, held a monopoly over the importation of tea to the American colonies. The Boston Tea Party was a rebellion against interference from a far-off parliament that in no way represented the interests of those it taxed. Carp effectively explores the ambiguity of the Tea Party’s legacy. Although it was a peaceful uprising, there was the threat of violence, and it was an instance of mob rule as much as it was “a dramatic example of popular sovereignty in action”. The book lacks the immediacy and vividness that really bring historical works to life, but it is a highly detailed account of a critical precursor to the American Revolution and a formative event in US cultural identity. Colm Farren