JACK & JILL James Patterson (Warner Vision, $7.50, first published in 1996) Popular murder detective Alex Cross (Kiss the Girls) returns to the D.C. streets to solve two seemingly unrelated homicides.

GOOD HAIR Benilde Little (Scribner, $11) A Terry McMillanesque novel about the relationship between a journalist from the wrong side of the tracks and a surgeon from a snobby Boston family.

DOWN WITH THE OLD CANOE: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE TITANIC DISASTER Steven Biel (Norton, $13) The author intriguingly deconstructs the Titanic cult (which rivals that of Star Trek in its obsessiveness) that has thrived for nearly a century.