Newly Notable: The Casual Vacancy

Speaking of people who are baaaaaaaack: you can now put a hold on J.K. Rowling's new book The Casual Vacancy.

According to her publisher, Little, Brown, the book is "blackly comic" and Rowling is now aiming for a more adult audience.  The publisher has offered the following description of the book:
When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty fa?ade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
The worldwide release date is September 27--sadly, just in time to not make it onto your beach reading list.