Northwest Bookshelf

POLANSKI: Christopher Sandford, Palgrave Macmillan, 356 pages, $29.95. A Seattle writer crafts a lengthy unauthorized biography of the Academy Award-winning film director whose controversial personal life and landmark films ("Chinatown," "Knife in the Water") made him a legend.

SWEETHEART: Chelsea Cain, St. Martin's Minotaur, 325 pages, $24.95. The Portland writer continues her exploration of the serial killer genre with a second breakneck-paced book featuring killer Gretchen Lowell and Portland detective Archie Sheridan, who debuted in the best-selling "Heartsick."

THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD: Patricia A. McKillip, Ace, 277 pages, $23.95. A prolific World Fantasy Award-winning writer, who lives in Oregon, takes readers on another enchanted trip, this one set in a small oceanside town where magic happenings include the daily ringing of a bell at sunset that has never been seen by any of the inhabitants.