71.   Crutcher, a family therapist and child-protection specialist in Spokane, is back with his first novel in six years.

72.   Darius is a writer, struggling with his first novel.

73.   Deft perceptions and deep emotions, set against a real world most Westerners know little about, create a pleasing and promising first novel.

74.   Ellroy eventually sobered up, scraped out a living lugging golf bags and wrote his first novel, a work in progress for most of his life.

75.   Evans said Random House also turned to the buyers while deciding whether to buy a first novel from a British author for publication in the United States.

76.   Evans has been a screenwriter, and his first novel is more cinematic than literary.

77.   First novels are like first dates.

78.   First novels in particular are often no more than thinly veiled personal histories.

79.   First novels will get extra shelf space this fall, some of it left by the summer defectors.

80.   For myself, I prefer only good news, so here are eight first novels about which the news is largely good.