Race, unions, the Spanish flu, God, and baseball—these are not the staples one associates with the acclaimed crime novels of Dennis Lehane (Mystic River; Gone, Baby, Gone). In The Given Day (Morrow, $27.95), he takes those ingredients and adds a dash of Boston political intrigue to the mix. His tale begins in 1918, with the Great War looming in Europe and anarchists lurking at home. Officer Danny Coughlin walks the cobbled streets to protect the city’s Brahmins, then accepts an assignment to infiltrate the Bolsheviks plotting in coffee shops and moldy basements. To his surprise, he finds himself sympathetic to the union organizers (who shout their slogans from actual soap boxes). Parallel to this labor struggle is a nascent civil-rights movement, and Lehane gives us a second hero, Luther Laurence, a fugitive black man and athlete who, in the novel’s opening chapter, encounters the great Bambino. The Given Day is a Lehane novel, which means dark (especially given the historical setting), but somehow he avoids depressing. His plot is intricate without demanding excessive suspension of disbelief. His characters are at once complicated, elegant, and despicable. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St., 587-5737, www.seattlemystery.com. Free. Noon. Also: Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E., 366-3333, www.thirdplacebooks.com. 7 p.m. LAURA ONSTOT

Wed., Oct. 8, 12 & 7 p.m., 2008