Fiction Reviews: Week of 7/17/2006
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 7/17/2006
The Lives of the Rocks
Rick Bass. Houghton Mifflin, $23 (224p) ISBN 0-618-59674-7
Nature is as much a character in this sterling collection of 10 short stories as are any of the oddly off-center but otherwise endearing people who inhabit it. Bass writes with concern about the environment (Caribou Rising), and that same passion infuses his fiction (The Hermit's Story). In "Titan" a man recalls an awesome and awful day in his boyhood when freshwater rivers and streams, engorged by sudden heavy rains, surged into the ocean off the Alabama coast, stunning saltwater fish so they could be scooped up by the thousands. The teenage boys of "Pagans" squeeze inside a diving bell to plunge into a river so polluted it bursts into flame; in "Fiber," a former writer and environmental activist gathers deadfall trees and, as the "log fairy," sneaks the best onto the trucks of other wildcat loggers so they'll cut down fewer trees. And in the elegiac title story, a geologist weak from cancer treatments relies on children from a rigidly fundamentalist family for winter wood; they are happy to help, until she teaches them that the Earth is millions of years old. These graceful stories are connected through Bass's invocation of elemental forces, but at the same time each is deliciously distinct. (Nov.)
The Better Angels of Our NatureS.C. Gylanders. Random, $24.95 (448p) ISBN 1-4000-6514-3
A London native and self-described Civil War autodidact, Gylanders begins her U.S. debut on the eve of the Battle of Shiloh when the Union general William Tecumseh Sherman finds a young boy in oversized blues hiding in the bushes. The boy will say only that he's Jesse Davis, an orphan who comes from "far from here." Jesse is persistent in wanting to stay on, however, and Sherman puts him to work as an orderly in the field hospital. Sherman soon discovers (rather awkwardly) that Jesse is, in fact, a girl of about 15. He threatens to banish her, but never follows through, as Jesse seems talismanic: at Shiloh, Sherman has four horses shot out from under him and survives. The action moves to the siege of Vicksburg and concludes with Sherman's army off to Chattanooga (which surely means a sequel, since it puts us at November 1863, more than a year before war's end). Gylanders knows the era thoroughly (there were several such gender switches documented during the war) and writes convincingly about the horrors of the battlefield and the field hospital. In the enigmatic Jesse, she has a character who gives a compelling perspective on the times. (Nov.)
One Good TurnKate Atkinson. Little, Brown, $24.99 (432p) ISBN 0-316-15484-9
Having won a wide following for her first crime novel (and fifth book), Case Histories (2004), Atkinson sends Det. Jackson Brodie to Edinburgh while girlfriend Julia performs in a Fringe Festival play. When incognito thug "Paul Bradley" is rear-ended by a Honda driver who gets out and bashes Bradley unconscious with a baseball bat, the now-retired Jackson is a reluctant witness. Other bystanders include crime novelist Martin Canning, a valiant milquetoast who saves Bradley's life, and tart-tongued Gloria Hatter, who's plotting to end her 39-year marriage to a shady real estate developer. Jackson walks away from the incident, but keeps running into trouble, including a corpse, the Honda man and sexy, tight-lipped inspector Louise Monroe. Everyone's burdened by a secret—infidelity, unprofessional behavior, murder—adding depth and many diversions. After Martin misses a visit from the Honda man (Martin's wonderfully annoying houseguest isn't so lucky), he enlists Jackson as a bodyguard, pulling the characters into closer orbit before they collide on Gloria Hatter's lawn. Along the way, pieces of plot fall through the cracks between repeatedly shifting points of view, and the final cataclysm feels forced. But crackling one-liners, spot-on set pieces and full-blooded cameos help make this another absorbing character study from the versatile, effervescent Atkinson. (Oct. 11)
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and WondersNeil Gaiman. Morrow, $26.95 (382p) ISBN 0-06-051522-8
Hot off the critical success of Anansi Boys, Gaiman offers this largely disappointing medley that feels like a collection of idea seeds that have yet to mature. Among the ground covered: an old woman eats her cat alive, slowly; two teenage boys fumble through a house party attended by preternaturally attractive aliens; a raven convinces a writer attempting realism to give way to fantastical inclinations. A few poems, heartfelt or playfully musical, pockmark the collection. At his best, Gaiman has a deft touch for surprise and inventiveness, and there are inspired moments, including one story that brings the months of the year to life and imagines them having a board meeting. (September is an "elegant creature of mock solicitude," while April is sensitive but cruel; they don't get along), but most of these stories rely too heavily on the stock-in-trade of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. Gaiman only once or twice gives himself the space necessary to lock the reader's attention.150,000 announced first printing. (Oct.)
The Eighth Wonder of the WorldLeslie Epstein. Other Press/Handsel, $25.95 (472p) ISBN 1-59051-250-2
Epstein's (King of the Jews; San Remo Drive) ninth book imagines a wisecracking American architectural genius, Amos Prince, who, after fleeing America, wows Mussolini with the design for a mile-high skyscraper. The absurdist encounters between these two men—alongside Rome's Arch of Titus or in the staterooms of the Hindenberg—read like scenes from an opera buffa, in which Mussolini's barking, self-aggrandizing oratory is hilariously undercut by Amos's sly wordplay. The novel soon focuses on Amos's young Jewish-American acolyte, Maximilian Shabilian, who shares Prince's obsessive dream of completing the tower and becomes entangled with the architect's dysfunctional family (and, predictably, his beautiful daughter). As World War II intensifies, Amos descends into livid anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, while Max launches a tragic attempt to save the Jews of Rome by enlisting them to work on the skyscraper. The complexly structured narrative leaps between a turbulent present-day plane ride, flashbacks to 1930s and '40s Italy and Amos's rambling journal entries. Some readers may feel uneasy at the mixing of farce and tragic fact, and the novel doesn't shy away from unpleasantness; descriptions of violence are unflinching. But artful writing sustains a novel as ambitious as the Babel-like tower it describes. (Oct. 17)
The Ruby in Her NavelBarry Unsworth. Doubleday/Talese, $26 (416p) ISBN 0-385-50963-4
Enticing titles are typical of Unsworth (Sacred Hunger); his gleam, this time out, is dimmed by the setting. Thurstan Beauchamp, royal purveyor of pleasures and shows in the 12th-century Kingdom of Sicily, laboriously narrates his daily rounds, which involve delicate low-level negotiations and machinations. Four pages are devoted to the sale of three mules, in language as artificially antique and exotic as it is languorous. Relief comes in the sudden appearance of Lady Alicia, who had been Thurstan's love back when he was on a track to knighthood. Bittersweet reflections on his thwarted destiny provide some of the most affecting moments. But the lady is too good to be true, and she proves central to a vile plot in which Thurstan betrays a friend. Perfidy brings epiphany; Thurstan realizes Alicia could not have seduced his soul had he not invested her with the power. And Alicia is not the "Lady" of the title: that distinction belongs to Nesrin, the smolderingly beautiful belly dancer whose name appears on the first page, but whose story is teasingly withheld until further in. It is she who provides the inspiration for Thurstan's self-exploration, burnishing a mind of which we learn rather too much. (Oct.)
Country WivesRebecca Shaw. Three Rivers, $12.95 paper (288p) ISBN 1-4000-9821-1
The second entry in Shaw's Barleybridge series (after A Country Affair) is a charming account of life in and out of a small English town's veterinary hospital. Newcomer Daniel Brown is a temporary vet with a passion for his craft, but his gruff manner costs the practice an influential client, angering his employers. Dan does have a few fans, though, including Miriam Price, the senior partner's wife, and Kate Howard, a receptionist who aspires to be a vet. Both rightly suspect something unfortunate has happened to Dan in his past, and as he takes Kate along on appointments, pieces of his past come to light. Kate, meanwhile, wants to know more about her mother, who abandoned the family when Kate was born, but she doesn't want to hurt her dad or her stepmom, Mia, who raised her. When a tragedy befalls Kate's family, she gets her wish, for better or worse. Though Shaw creates memorable characters, she goes overboard with one villain. That aside, the action at Barleybridge—from catching an animal abuser to the office politics spurred on by the vets' wives—makes for addictive reading. (Oct.)
The Marsh BirdsEva Sallis. Allen & Unwin (IPG, dist.), $14.95 paper (264p) ISBN 1-74114-600-3
An Iraqi boy undergoes a harrowing series of trials in Sallis's fifth novel, a harsh but only partially convincing indictment of the author's native Australia's indifference to political refugees. Twelve-year-old Dhurgham, whose well-to-do father runs afoul of the Hussein regime, gets separated from his family while fleeing Iraq and waits for them for weeks at the Great Mosque in Damascus. Eventually, he is taken in by a Syrian man named Hosni, a pedophile who steals Dhurgham's money and forces the boy into an increasingly abusive relationship that lasts five years, until Hosni fears "the threat of Dhurgham's manhood disrupting everything." Hosni sends Dhurgham to Australia, where he is placed in the Mawirrigun detention camp with hundreds of other Muslim refugees. Dhurgham, now 17 and with his refugee status in limbo, vacillates between violence and depression, ultimately launching a hunger strike that gets him transferred to New Zealand. There, he attempts to rejoin society, but the cultural differences may be too great to overcome. Sallis is well known in Australia for her politically charged fiction (Mahjar and The City of Sealions also deal with the intersection of Australia and the Middle East), but she overplays her hand, creating a portrait that is sympathetic but without much nuance. (Oct.)
The Girls' Almanac: A Novel in StoriesEmily Franklin. Avon, $12.95 paper (288p) ISBN 0-06-087340-X
A weblike illustration mapping the relationships of 30 characters kicks off Franklin's (Liner Notes) collection of interconnected short stories that run the gamut from half-baked to heartbreaking. The latter includes the first story, "Early Girls," about Lucy, who mourns her dead fiancé as she helps prepare for her mother's second wedding. Lucy's friends Jenna, who finds solace in baking, and Gabrielle, a doctor struggling with the idea of motherhood, have rough goes of it in other stories. Franklin has a harder time with male characters, as in "Community Service," in which a teacher who works at a school for "troubled teens" breaks down while supervising his students on a community service outing. Franklin's smart prose sees her characters through rites of passage including first sexual encounters, marriage and motherhood, as well as difficulties such as terminal illness, infidelity and widowhood. Highlights include "Kindling," a story of two roommates and their communal living situation; "A Map of the Area," set in an upscale hippie retreat; and "The Math of the Fourth Child," about two women trying to predict the future of a yet-to-be-conceived child. A handful of shorter pieces feel unfinished, but there are enough thought-provoking stories to pull readers through. (Oct.)
Goodnight, TexasWilliam J. Cobb. Unbridled, $24.95 (272 p) ISBN 1-932961-26-7
Goodnight by the Sea, Tex. (not to be confused with Goodnight in the Plains, 600 miles away), is a dying gulf coast town where global warming and international trade have made the once-reliable vocation of shrimping unprofitable. Alligators run amok while the West Nile virus picks off the elderly. When Russian restaurant owner Gusef learns a gigantic and thought-to-be-extinct zebra fish has beached itself nearby (replete with a dead horse in its belly), he dispatches his good-natured juvenile delinquent fry cook Falk to photograph it. As Gusef concocts schemes to capitalize on the dead fish, a hurricane brews in the gulf, portending possible doom for the town. The characters aren't particularly unique, but Cobb manages to breathe tragicomic life into them: Una, Falk's co-worker who wants more than Goodnight has to offer; Falk's adolescent cousin Leesha, who falls for Una's ex-boyfriend, Gabriel, the drunken bad boy turned driver's-ed instructor who in turn has it in for Falk. Though Cobb (The Fire Eaters) sometimes strives too hard for colloquial legitimacy ("nowadays you'd be lucky to catch a gafftop catfish a pound"), he expertly exploits the claustrophobic and incestuous atmosphere of smalltown Texas. (Oct.)
Martian DawnMichael Friedman. Turtle Point, $15.95 paper (149p) ISBN 1-885586-44-2
A Richard obviously based on Gere and a Julia obviously based on Roberts are called back to work reshooting—on Mars—the botched ending to a science fiction movie, Martian Dawn. Julia, in an earlier life an exotic dancer at the Baby Doll lounge in Phoenix, has just finished work on Cat Fight at the OK Corral, the story of "supermodels on the loose in Manhattan." Richard, a devout Buddhist, has been following his dharma (and his spiritual teacher, Rinpoche) around the country, bedding women on the side. Meanwhile, two of the sequestered inhabitants of a self-contained biosphere experiment in the Arizona desert are sneaking out at night for pizza, while Russian and American astronauts, two women and two men, orbit overhead flirting with each other. And elsewhere in the comically off-kilter universe of this larky debut novel from poet Friedman (Species), a man in a bar is obsessed by Monstro, a pet baby whale who has been freed into the Atlantic. Friedman (by day a commercial law attorney in Denver) skewers Hollywood pomposity, environmental idealism, spiritual empowerment—and the surprising banality of a human outpost on Mars—with prose that's a marvel of economy, sardonic without excess sarcasm and rife with deadpan humor. Slight but sly, this is a scrumptious literary trifle. (Oct.)
The Dawning of the Day: A Jerusalem TaleHaim Sabato, trans. from the Hebrew by Yaacob Dweck. Toby, $22.95 (200p) ISBN 1-59264-140-7
With a keen eye for custom, award-winning Sabato (Aleppo Tales) beautifully captures the daily rhythms of an Israeli Sephardic community. Ezra Siman Tov has worked in the same laundry next to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehudah market for 50 years, cleaning and pressing prayer shawls to adorn a bevy of grooms as they await their brides under the bridal canopy. But Ezra is also a storyteller, and the characters at his command include a blind violinist whose plaintive tunes melt even the hardest of hearts; a frustrated scholar who pulls a prank and pretends his own verse is really the creation of a famous medieval poet; a yeshiva student whose planned treatise on the Talmud is threatened by writer's block; and a judge whose sight is miraculously restored after its loss is falsely rumored to be divine punishment for taking bribes. A pious, simple man who is generally content with his lot in life, Ezra must contend with the gentrification that threatens the laundry and with his beloved daughter's defection to Christian missionaries. His measured response conveys a community's timelessness. (Oct.)
A Spot of BotherMark Haddon. Doubleday, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-385-52051-4
Recent retiree George Hall, convinced that his eczema is cancer, goes into a tailspin in Haddon's (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) laugh-out-loud slice of British domestic life. George, 61, is clearly channeling a host of other worries into the discoloration on his hip (the "spot of bother"): daughter Katie, who has a toddler, Jacob, from her disastrous first-marriage to the horrid Graham, is about to marry the equally unlikable Ray; inattentive wife Jean is having an affair—with George's former co-worker, David Symmonds; and son Jamie doesn't think George is OK with Jamie's being queer. Haddon gets into their heads wonderfully, from Jean's waffling about her affair to Katie's being overwhelmed (by Jacob, and by her impending marriage) and Jamie's takes on men (and boyfriend Tony in particular, who wants to come to the wedding). Mild-mannered George, meanwhile, despairing over his health, slinks into a depression; his major coping strategies involve hiding behind furniture on all fours and lowing like a cow. It's an odd, slight plot—something like the movie Father of the Bride crossed with Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" (as skin rash)—but it zips along, and Haddon subtly pulls it all together with sparkling asides and a genuine sympathy for his poor Halls. No bother at all, this comic follow-up to Haddon's blockbuster (and nicely selling book of poems) is great fun. (Sept.)
The Meaning of Night: A Confession Michael Cox. Norton, $26.95 (672p) ISBN 0-393-06203-1
Resonant with echoes of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, Cox's richly imagined thriller features an unreliable narrator, Edward Glyver, who opens his chilling "confession" with a cold-blooded account of an anonymous murder that he commits one night on the streets of 1854 London. That killing is mere training for his planned assassination of Phoebus Daunt, an acquaintance Glyver blames for virtually every downturn in his life. Glyver feels Daunt's insidious influence in everything from his humiliating expulsion from school to his dismal career as a law firm factotum. The narrative ultimately centers on the monomaniacal Glyver's discovery of a usurped inheritance that should have been his birthright, the byzantine particulars of which are drawing him into a final, fatal confrontation with Daunt. Cox's tale abounds with startling surprises that are made credible by its scrupulously researched background and details of everyday Victorian life. Its exemplary blend of intrigue, history and romance mark a stand-out literary debut. Cox is also the author of M.R. James, a biography of the classic ghost-story writer. 10-city author tour. (Sept.)
DisobedienceNaomi Alderman. S&S/Touchstone, $24 (240p) ISBN 0-7432-9156-5
Alderman draws on her Orthodox Jewish upbringing and current life in Hendon, England, for her entertaining debut, which won the Orange Prize for New Writers after it was published in the U.K. in March. In writing about the inhabitants of this small, gossipy society, Alderman cleverly uses a slightly sinister, omniscient "we" to represent a community that speaks with one voice, and her descriptions of Orthodox customs are richly embroidered. Alternating with this perspective is the first-person narrative of Ronit Krushka, a woman who has left the community and is now a financial analyst in New York. After the death of her estranged father, a powerful rabbi, Ronit returns to England to mourn her father and to confront her past, including a female lover. But Ronit's shock that an Orthodox lesbian would marry a man rings false, as does her casually condescending attitude toward the community. By the time of the theatrical, unrealistic climax, Ronit's struggle between religious and secular imperatives gets reduced to cliché ("all we have, in the end, are the choices we make"), but Ronit works well as a vehicle for the opinion that even the most alienated New York Judaism is preferable to the English version, where "the Jewish fear of being noticed and the natural British reticence interact." (Sept.)
The Righteous MenSam Bourne. HarperCollins, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-113829-0
Bourne's first novel, with a jacket that promises ancient secrets and mysterious manuscripts, has all the obligatory religious-thriller elements. Unfortunately, his hero, fledgling New York Times reporter Will Monroe Jr., is clueless, the structure unoriginal, the code-breaking boring, the earth-shattering threat unbelievable and the writing often clumsy ("Will felt his eyes soaking with tears"). Will, while investigating his first murder story, discovers that the victim, a pimp with multiple stab wounds, has a heart of gold and is indeed a "righteous man." After Will writes about another righteous man's murder, Will's wife, Beth, is abducted. Will's search for Beth leads him to the insular Hasidic community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he undergoes a bit of torture while learning the history of Judaism. Eventually, Will unearths a vast conspiracy whose goal is Armageddon, the end of the world. Bourne, the pseudonym of British journalist Jonathan Freedland, has done his homework, but the heavy breathing one senses is not the sound of captivated readers whipping through the pages but rather that of an anxious author frantically attempting to hammer his extensive research into the mold of bestselling fiction. Rights sold in 24 countries. (Sept.)
The Devil in the Junior LeagueLinda Francis Lee. St. Martin's, $22.95 (336p) ISBN 0-312-35495-9
Fredericka Mercedes Hildebrand Ware ("Frede" to her friends) is a 28-year-old extremely moneyed member of the "très exclusive" Junior League of Willow Creek, Tex., and lives her life according to unwritten club rules about fashion and etiquette. So when her husband, Gordon, has an affair, steals her family money and flees the country, Frede wants to keep the disaster quiet to maintain her elite status. The only person in town she can turn to is her tactless neighbor, Howard Grout, who agrees to be her lawyer if Frede gets his wife, Nikki, who is far from a charming Southern belle, into the Junior League. As Frede sands down Nikki's gaudy edges, she learns a few simple lessons about life (paramount among them is that money doesn't buy love and happiness). Howard, meanwhile, proves to be a formidable attorney and follows Gordon's money trail all the way to a satisfyingly vengeful ending. Lee (Simply Sexy; Sinfully Sexy), a former debutante, certainly knows her material, though it's hard to muster much sympathy for an airy narrator who lives and dies by the shallow strictures of Texas society, maddeningly refers to herself as "moi" and prefers to spell, but not say, m-o-n-e-y. 100,000 announced first printing. (Sept.)
Ancestor StonesAminatta Forna. Atlantic Monthly, $24 (336p) ISBN 0-87113-944-8
Acclaimed memoirist Forna (The Devil That Danced on the Water) glides into fiction with this sweeping portrayal of the lives of five Sierra Leonean women. Abie—a young woman born and raised in Sierra Leone, who now lives in London with her Portuguese-Scottish husband and their children—receives a letter from her aunts informing her they're bequeathing her the family coffee plantation. When Abie returns, her aunts offer her another gift: their stories. A native of Sierra Leone, Forna unpacks Abie's family history (and that of Sierra Leone) using the alternating points of view of Abie's four aunts—Asana, Mary, Hawa and Serah. Asana outlives two husbands and eventually opens her own store, "relinquishing the birthright of womanhood in exchange for the liberty of a man." Mary addresses the changes brought to Africa by the Europeans (prominent among them, the mirror she uses to examine her disfigured face). Hawa trades her gold earrings for bus fare in order to see the sea just once in her life. And Serah opens a voting station during corrupt national elections. Though it's a stretch to call this a novel (each chapter is a self-contained story), Forna's work sheds light on the history of a long-struggling nation. (Sept.)
Sleight of HandKate Wilhelm. Mira, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-7783-2340-2
At the start of Wilhelm's compelling eighth novel to feature DA Barbara Holloway (after 2003's Clear and Convincing Proof), Wally Lederer, a former pickpocket who once served jail time, has retired from a successful Las Vegas stage career and returned home to Eugene, Ore., with his devoted wife, Meg, only to be accused of the theft of a valuable antique by an old childhood friend, Jay Wilkins. When someone kills Jay with a blow to the head, the police charge Wally, who turns for help to Barbara and her team. Their investigation unearths secrets about Jay and his family that will force Barbara to make a challenging ethical decision. The fast-paced plot, marred only by Barbara's inability to deal effectively with her relationship with her boyfriend, leads to an exciting trial with closing arguments sure to delight any legal-thriller fan. (Sept.)
The Boy Detective FailsJoe Meno. Punk Planet & Akashic, $14.95 paper (318p) ISBN 1-933354-10-0
Playing such mysteries as "The Case of the Brown Bunny" against the mysteries of mortality and mankind's capacity for evil, the latest from Meno (Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir) presents former child sleuth Billy Argo at 30, having just finished a 10-year stint in a mental hospital, where he was confined after his teenage sister Caroline's suicide. Unhappy, painfully shy and doped up on antianxiety drugs, Billy arrives in New York City and is admitted to a psych halfway house. Haunted by the mystery of his sister's death and feeling that a lapse in his sleuthing may be to blame, Billy is determined to find out the reason for her suicide and to punish those responsible. He soon finds allies in two bright and unpopular children who live across the street, and clues to relevant past cases from lifelong arch-enemy Professor Von Golum (who happens to live across the hall). Not all the plot strands pan out, and the effect is more impressionistic than narrative (various codes strewn throughout have their own digressive pleasures). But the story of Billy's search for truth, love and redemption is surprising and absorbing. Swaddled in melancholy and gentle humor, it builds in power as the clues pile up. (Sept.)
Francesca's KitchenPeter Pezzelli. Kensington, $14 paper (352p) ISBN 0-7582-1327-1
Pezzelli (Home to Italy) returns with another tale of an everyday Italian-American family, this one an empty nest. Mamma and all-around good egg Francesca Campanile, widowed with children and grandchildren all elsewhere, is floating aimlessly in her Providence, R.I., house. When she decides what she needs is to be needed, Francesca answers the babysitter-wanted ad of Loretta Simmons, a single mother working full-time. Pezzelli nicely renders Loretta's anxieties as she first rejects, and then, out of desperation, hires Francesca, who is not the student-type sitter she'd imagined. He's also lovely on Francesca's reminiscing about husband Leo and on the mutual sniffing-out processes as Francesca parses Loretta's harried home, and neglected children Penny and Will slowly learn to trust Francesca. Francesca's adult son Joey then unexpectedly returns to the nest. He meets Loretta, sparks fly, and suddenly Francesca isn't certain any of this was such a good idea. Most of the action happens in kitchens: home cooking, good pasta and traditional family values conquer all in this amusing and touching story. (Sept.)
The Sense of PaperTaylor Holden. Bantam, $14 paper (384p) ISBN 0-553-80394-8
British journalist Holden (Shell Shock) delivers a superior novel of suspense in her well-plotted fiction debut. Charlotte "Charlie" Hudson, a former reporter suffering from physical and psychological wounds incurred while covering the war in Kosovo, decides to give up on the book she's writing about Kosovo and begin one on her new passion—handmade art papers and the use thereof by the great 19th-century British painter, J.M.W. Turner. Part of this passion involves a growing romantic attraction to world-famous painter Sir Alan Matheson. Holden weaves pages of esoteric paper lore into a tale that involves Charlie's tenuous mental stability and the growing mystery surrounding the suicide death of Sir Alan's daughter, Angela. Readers who are interested in art history and artists' lives will find themselves enthralled with the depth and scope of information, while those with less intellectual tastes may find themselves guiltily skipping ahead. Holden is the pseudonym of Wendy Holden, who has covered wars for the Daily Telegraph. (Sept.)
A King's Trade: An Alan Lewrie Naval AdventureDewey Lambdin. St. Martin's/Dunne, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-31549-X
The 13th title in Lambdin's popular series finds salacious Royal Navy captain Alan Lewrie in hot water for "liberating" a dozen slaves from their Caribbean plantation and putting them to work on his ship, the HMS Proteus. Facing the prospect of court martial and a civil trial, Lewrie reluctantly agrees when Zachariah Twigg of the Foreign Office suggests a scheme that might save his career: recasting the incorrigible captain as an abolitionist hero. Noting that Lewrie is "a much easier man to extol at long-distance," Twigg arranges for him to convoy some merchantmen and an unlikely floating Russian circus between St. Helena and Cape Town. As usual, Lambdin (The Captain's Vengeance) provides realistic detail of naval life in the late 18th century, but here the plot is slender and the action brief and sporadic. The circus ship offers a potential romantic interest in an exotic "raven-haired wench" named Eudoxia, but nothing comes of it. There are two skirmishes with French raiders—the second a decisive victory for Lewrie. Even so, the cloud over Lewrie's career lingers, perhaps to be dissipated in the next title in a series that has proven popular with fans of nautical fiction. (Sept.)
Mona Lisa AwakeningSunny. Berkley, $14 paper (288p) ISBN 0-425-21160-6
Once readers get past the silly premise of Sunny's sizzling debut—a humanoid race called the Monère came to Earth from the moon 4,000 years ago—they'll find much to like in this intrigue-filled erotic paranormal. The "children of the moon" are ruled by "Queens," rare females whose ability to pull down the moon's rays allows them to heal rapidly and live 300 years. Gorgeous, shape-changing males protect, serve and have sex with the often ruthless Queens, who sometimes cruelly abuse them. After treating one of these males, Gryphon, at Manhattan's St. Vincent's Hospital one night, 21-year-old ER nurse Lisa discovers she's not only a part-human Monère herself but also the first "Mixed Blood" Queen, Mona Lisa. Her human blood makes her impervious to sunlight and silver—the banes of the Monère—and her latent powers pose a threat to the nastier Queens, who want to destroy her. Mona Lisa shares many traits with Laurell K. Hamilton's heroines, including having lots of hot sex for good causes, but mercifully without their kvetching and self-doubt. (Sept.)
Somewhere in GermanyStefanie Zweig, trans. from the German by Marlies Comjean. Univ. of Wisconsin/Terrace, $24.95 (268p) ISBN 0-299-21010-3
Published in Germany in 1996, this autobiographical sequel to Zweig's noteworthy Nowhere in Africa follows the Redlichs as they return to Germany in 1947 after 10 years in exile from National Socialism on a Kenyan farm. Walter is so desperate to practice law again that he uproots his complaining wife, Jettel, his clever, nurturing daughter, Regina, and baby Max to Frankfurt, where gentiles either make snide anti-Semitic comments or claim that they saved Jews and used to have many Jewish friends. Zweig has a deft hand with telling anecdotes. A gas company employee and his wife are evicted when they lack the necessary clout to defend themselves against political charges. In the deprivations of postwar Frankfurt, steel helmets become saucepans and a care package containing American foodstuffs elicits joyful tears. Also vividly described are bighearted Walter's staunch belief in the existence of "the decent German" and budding journalist Regina's meeting with Otto Frank, who tells her how much she reminds him of his daughter, Anne. Although its setting isn't the exotic Kenya of the original novel and Comjean's translation is stiff and prolix, this is a worthy meditation on homelessness, exile and belonging. (Sept. 1)
Welcome to the Real WorldCarole Matthews. Red Dress Ink, $21.95 (448p) ISBN 0-373-89590-9
Fern Kendal, London bartender and underappreciated lounge crooner, wants a break as a singer. But, she asks herself in Briton Matthews's latest (after With or Without You), how can she get her big break when she's working two jobs to help support her brother, Joe (he cares full-time for his severely asthmatic son), and to subsidize her gambling father, who takes up residence on Fern's lumpy couch. She lands a part-time job as personal assistant to Evan David, a handsome opera singer, and, not shockingly, sparks fly. She's hesitant to tell him when Carl, her high school boyfriend and current accompanist, talks her into trying out with him for the reality talent show Fame Game (her "attempts seem so feeble compared to [Evan's]"). The show's judges ask her to appear on the show—but without Carl's accompaniment. Fern is torn between her deep friendship with Carl, her developing relationship with Evan and her quickly building career, but the knockout punch comes when Lana, a fiery Maria Callas–like diva, appears to set her sexy hooks into Evan. Matthews has a knack for snappy dialogue, though the plot twists involving Evan and Lana feel contrived. An apropos tearjerker ending caps this likable heroine's journey from lager-slinger to pop singer. (Sept.)
The Chemistry of DeathSimon Beckett. Delacorte, $22 (320p) ISBN 0-385-34004-4
British author Beckett (Fine Lines) delivers a promising serial-killer whodunit, the first of a new crime series. Dr. David Hunter, a successful forensic anthropologist, retreats to the quiet Norfolk village of Manham, where he works as a general practitioner, after a drunk driver claims the lives of his wife and daughter. Three years after this tragedy, the shattering discovery of the mutilated corpse of a neighbor, Sally Palmer, forces Hunter back into the world of studying decomposing corpses. When another woman disappears, Hunter and the police conclude that a serial predator is at work, and they race against time to prevent a second murder. High quality prose and a compelling if flawed hero haunted by the memory of his family help compensate for a plot that starts strongly but winds down to a somewhat predictable resolution. (Sept.)
Swimming Upstream, SlowlyMelissa Clark. Broadway, $12.95 paper (256p) ISBN 0-7679-2526-2
Ambitious Sasha Salter, whose master's thesis was turned into a hit children's television show, isn't ready for kids of her own. So when her gynecologist tells her she's pregnant, Sasha is incredulous; she hasn't had sex in two years. Sasha's next appointment is with unorthodox researcher Dr. Rusmeuth, who hypothesizes that "lazy sperm" can rest in a "very hospitable environment" until ready to fertilize an egg. But whose sperm are so lazy that they hang out for two years? As Sasha searches for the father of her babe-to-be, her best buddies Erika (pregnant via the usual speedy method) and Jordan (who seems too snarky to be straight, but is) lend moral support and light comic relief. The novel's convoluted plot affords Sasha the opportunity to catch up with former boyfriends and the odd one-night-stand, all the while trying to decide whether she wants to abort. Dr. Rusmeuth, meanwhile, abuses the doctor-patient relationship to further his career. Television writer Clark tries gallantly to express the precariousness of her heroine's predicament, but the unflaggingly strong and willful Sasha is never out of control, which strips dramatic potential from the novel as it swims toward a happy conclusion. (Sept.)
Norah's ArkJudy Baer. Steeple Hill, $13.95 paper (336p) ISBN 0-373-78566-6
Meet Norah Kent, a pet store owner who has her hands full, sharing her Christian faith with her best friend, Lilly, and caring for elderly Auntie Lou. Though she plans to one day become "the most enthusiastic wife and homemaker ever," for now she's single and devoted to animals. Norah's gifted at matching people, especially kids, with new puppies and kittens, but she's a little less talented at getting matched up herself. A number of local bachelors are interested, but she's not sure she reciprocates. Connor Trevain, a naval commander, pays more attention to Norah than to Lilly, who really has the hots for him. Also bidding for Norah's affections is Joe Collier, who keeps asking Norah out; everyone in town thinks she should snap him up, but she's not interested. The third in Norah's trio of potential mates is Nick Haley, a hunky cop who can sometimes be seen riding around town on a horse. Will one of these men capture Norah's heart? And will the inevitable love triangles with Lilly spoil a close friendship? Even though the characters could use more development, fans of Baer's Whitney Chronicles will enjoy this lighthearted Christian romance. (Sept.)
Do Not Pass GoBeatriz Rivera. Arte Público, $14.95 paper (368p) ISBN 1-55885-464-9
An unbelievable romance blooms amid family rivalries, office politics and scandalous rumors in Rivera's third novel, a strange and disappointing read. Melody More, a savvy, sexy reporter for the Hudson County, N.J., newspaper Chronotope, is covering a congressman's speech at a high school when the school, inexplicably, is bombed. More survives, but the congressman and his wife are "blown to smithereens" along with 425 others. A year later, the congressman's brother-in-law, Mateo Irigaray, returns to town to clear out the congressman's house, and More recognizes him as the child prodigy who had dominated local news decades earlier. When she interviews him, she finds he is now an unemployed, belligerent and suicidal drunk. Even so, she is attracted to him—much to the dismay of her editor and ex-lover, Xoan Xavier Contreras. Melody works on winning Mateo over, but the affair is jeopardized by revelations about their intertwined histories. The cast of woefully single-minded characters (who speak in bursts of campy dialogue) do little to temper the plot's ridiculous twists. (Sept. 30)
Mystery
A Dead Man in AthensMichael Pearce. Carroll & Graf, $25.95 (224p) ISBN 0-78671-828-5
Pearce hits his stride with his third mystery (after 2005's A Dead Man in Istanbul) to chronicle the international exploits of Sandor Seymour, a polyglot Scotland Yard detective who's just as engaging as Owen Gareth, the hero of Pearce's Mamur Zapt series set in early 20th-century Egypt. In 1912, Seymour leaves London's East End for Athens to investigate the poisoning of the cat of the Sultan of Turkey, who has been exiled to Greece. Given the perpetually strained relations between the Greeks and Ottomans and the broader political turmoil on the eve of WWI, the authorities fear the cat's death may presage an attempt on the sultan himself. Sure enough, a human death follows, and Seymour's mission gathers momentum and urgency. By effectively wedding prewar intrigue to an often humorous plot, Pearce should retain the loyalty of fans and attract new readers. (Oct.)
Playing God Kate Flora. Five Star, $25.95 (397p) ISBN 1-59414-461-3
Flora's dazzling debut police procedural introduces Sgt. Joe Burgess, a crusty but bighearted Portland, Maine, cop. "This case has everything," Joe says of a murder he's investigating, "unhappy wife, angry ex. Hookers. Drugs. Money problems. Maybe blackmail." The distinctly unsympathetic victim, Dr. Stephen Pleasant, is found in his Mercedes with his pants down, a rod rammed down his throat and two shades of lipstick smeared on his chest. It turns out he had a three-hooker-a-week habit, and one of the suspects is Alana Black, a sexy young prostitute Burgess has been trying to help for years. But evidence suggests another woman at the scene and tracking her down proves difficult and dangerous for Alana and Joe, testing his tenacity, patience and faith—not only as he pursues justice but as he faces his personal demons. Flora (Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine) leaves some tantalizing loose ends at the conclusion, hinting at future entries in this promising new series. (Sept.)
Love, Lies and Liquor: An Agatha Raisin MysteryM.C. Beaton. St. Martin's Minotaur, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 0-312-34910-6
In bestseller Beaton's mildly entertaining 17th Agatha Raisin mystery (after 2005's The Perfect Paragon), Agatha still carries a torch for her ex-husband, James Lacey, who invites her on holiday after moving back to the cottage next door to hers in the small English village of Carsely. Unfortunately, the surprise destination is a rundown British seaside town, Snoth-on-Sea, where a fellow guest at their hotel is murdered, strangled with Agatha's scarf. Before Agatha can make much headway in her investigation, two more guests are killed. More engaging than the crime solving—the underdeveloped victims and suspects are hard to tell apart, let alone care about—is the back-and-forth between Agatha and James. Driven by Agatha's strong personality, this predictable cozy will please devoted fans, but is unlikely to win new readers. (Sept.)
Secondhand SmokeKaren E. Olson. Mysterious, $22.99 (272p) ISBN 0-89296-025-6
Authentic urban atmosphere, generous wit and winning characters lift Olson's second outing for Annie Seymour (after 2005's Sacred Cows), which takes the intrepid New Haven, Conn., reporter to a possible arson scene. When a cherished local Italian restaurant, Prego, burns down, a corpse in the rubble is believed to be that of the owner, Sal Amato. The police later determine that the deceased is Prego's hostess, whose history of domestic violence with her boyfriend, Prego's chef, leads to the chef's arrest. But when Annie stumbles on Amato, just after he's shot dead, it looks as if the mob may be responsible. Enter Annie's father, who's in town from Las Vegas. Annie worries her dad is somehow involved, and when his fingerprints show up in suspicious places, the cops and the Feds agree. To clear his name, Annie joins forces up with sexy Vinny DeLucia, marine biologist–turned–gumshoe, who conveniently turns up in all the wrong places at the right times to save Annie's derriere. Readers are sure to look forward to Annie's further adventures. (Sept.)
BorderlineMark Schorr. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (224p) ISBN 0-312-35915-2
In this gripping if uneven mystery, the first in a new series from Schorr (Ace of Diamonds), Brian Hansen, a Vietnam vet and recovering addict, works as a psychologist at a Portland, Ore., mental health and addiction clinic. Soon after his patient Tammy LaFleur misses her weekly appointment, Hansen is chilled to learn that she has killed herself. Despite her paranoia, Tammy had seemed optimistic; the suicide method arouses his suspicions, as does the victim's connection to an influential Portland police family. Schorr weaves Hansen's inquiry with an investigation into a vigilante serial killer who targets recidivist criminals. The resolution, which involves a sadistic deputy mayor, shifts the novel from a gritty look at corruption and substance abuse toward unlikely fantasy. Still, Hansen is a complex, compelling amateur sleuth who deserves further development in future installments. (Sept.)
Family Business: A Port Silva MysteryJanet LaPierre. Perseverance (SCB, dist.), $13.95 paper (296p) ISBN 1-880284-85-5
Set in 2002, LaPierre's crisply plotted ninth Port Silva mystery features mother-daughter sleuths Patience and Verity Mackellar (after2004's Death Duties), who once again must deal with violence in the picturesque Northern California coastal town. A rally against the march to war in Iraq turns ugly when several protesters struggling with police tumble off a cliff into the ocean. Among the casualties is Daniel Soto, a worker Verity has hired to help remodel her new home. Though Daniel is missing, he's presumed dead. But Soto's grief-stricken girlfriend, Grace Beaubien, refuses to accept his death and hires the Mackellars to find him—and to uncover the past he had never disclosed to her. Lending support are Verity's hunky boyfriend, Det. Johnny Hebert, and her engaging soon-to-be-adopted daughter, nine-year-old Sylvie. Blending contemporary issues and family conflicts with a solid mystery plot, the author reaffirms her fluid mastery of the cozy. (Sept.)
Gunpowder Plot: A Daisy Dalrymple MysteryCarola Dunn. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (272p) ISBN 0-312-34989-0
At the start of Dunn's diverting 15th Daisy Dalrymple mystery (after 2005's Fall of a Philanderer), a pregnant Daisy joins her former school chum Gwen Tyndall at Edge Manor in Didmarsh-under-Edge for the Tyndalls' 1924 Guy Fawkes fete, an annual celebration the illustrious family has observed since 1606. As fireworks explode above the manor, Daisy realizes all is not well among the fractious family members, who include Gwen's sisters, Adelaide and Barbara; her prodigal brother, Jack; her fragile mother; and irascible father, Sir Harold. When Jack discovers the bodies of his father and an Australian visitor, Mrs. Gooch, it appears Sir Harold shot Mrs. Gooch and then himself. Daisy's husband, DCI Alec Fletcher, arrives to investigate the case, while Daisy exhibits her usual common sense and charm in solving it. (Sept.)
The Thief TakerJanet Gleeson. Simon & Schuster, $14 paper (320p) ISBN 0-7432-9018-6
Following the cabinetmakers of The Grenadillo Box (2004) and the portraitists of The Serpent in the Garden (2005), Gleeson hangs her solid third historical on another group of artisans—a family of silversmiths, the Blanchards, who have fallen on uncertain times in 18th-century London. When an apprentice is murdered, the kitchen maid vanishes and the business's most valuable commission—a huge wine cooler—is stolen, the Blanchards' cook, Agnes Meadowes, becomes the improbable prime sleuth. Meadowes first negotiates with the corrupt character of the novel's title, who's suspected of engineering the crime to profit from recovering the stolen item. She takes a more active role after she begins to suspect an accomplice inside the Blanchard household. Meadowes's eventual success owes more to bravery and doggedness than actual deduction, making her a less interesting sleuth than her fictional peers in the late Bruce Alexander's Sir John Fielding mystery series, also set in Georgian England. (Sept.)
Chow Down: A Melanie Travis MysteryLaurien Berenson. Kensington, $22 (304p) ISBN 0-7582-0815-4
In Berenson's enjoyable 13th dog-themed cozy (after 2005's Raining Cats and Dogs), Melanie Travis's standard poodle, Faith, is a finalist in a contest sponsored by Champions Dog Food company, which is in search of the next "spokesdog" for a new dog food. Though Melanie and her new husband, Sam, have no modeling ambitions for Faith—her nine-year-old son, Davey, entered the pooch without her knowing—the other finalists' competitive owners are lured by the promise of a $100,000 contract. What begins as a matter of grooming and carriage becomes the stuff of life and death when Larry Kim, the handler of a Yorkshire terrier, plunges to his death down a stairwell. Once again, Melanie, a Greenwich, Conn., teacher, sets about carefully piecing together the clues to solve the crime. Berenson creatively combines a multitude of red herrings with plenty of twists and turns for a tight suspenseful package. (Sept.)
SF/Fantasy/Horror
Roman Dusk: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Tor, $27.95 (368p) ISBN 0-765-31391-X
Set in decadent third-century C.E. Rome, Yarbro's 19th volume in her majestic fantasy series (after 2005's Dark of the Sun) is one of her finest yet to feature heroic vampire Saint-Germain, here known as Ragoczy Germainus Sanct-Franciscus. Despite his wealth, discretion and careful observance of the social niceties, Sanct-Franciscus must be careful as a foreigner. All his precautions, however, can't prevent an official from placing a spy in his household and targeting him for tax evasion and worse. Even as Sanct-Franciscus shelters and aids an abused courtesan, doctors a dying noblewoman and befriends her virginal daughter, he must contend with a fanatical young follower of one of the many religions of the day, Christianity. Sensuous scenes are lush with language ("her sumptuous body still quivering in apolaustic abandon") rather than the explicitly erotic. Meticulous attention to historic detail and vivid writing bring an ancient era to life. Unlike most generic vampiric novels that can be quaffed in a quick if entertaining gulp, this book should be savored like a fine wine. (Sept.)
The HarrowingAlexandra Sokoloff. St. Martin's, $21.95 (256p) ISBN 0-312-35748-6
At the start of screenwriter Sokoloff's first novel, a teen terror flick in prose, generic Baird College is emptying out for Thanksgiving break, but a few stalwart students have decided to stay on campus to avoid going home to their dysfunctional families. One night, under the influence of booze and drugs, they whip out a ouija board and inadvertently summon what they believe is the spirit of a student who died there decades before. In truth, it's something nastier, and the quintet spend the rest of the story desperately trying to send back to the void an evil entity that won't go gently. The characters, who include the mousy good girl and the nerd whose scholarly skepticism grows increasingly grating with each repeat expression, develop little personality outside of their carefully crafted types. The pyrotechnic climax, in which the kids prove unusually adept at occult subterfuge, stretches credibility but provides a suitably cinematic finale. (Sept.)
The Disunited States of America: Crosstime Traffic—Book FourHarry Turtledove. Tor, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-765-31485-1
In Turtledove's fast-paced fourth Crosstime Traffic novel (after 2005's In High Places), two teenage protagonists from different versions of the United States meet in Elizabeth, Va., a backwater town in a balkanized North America. Beckie Royer, an inadvertent gunrunner from Los Angeles, accompanies her grandmother and uncle in a car loaded with assault rifles meant for African-American rebels in Virginia. The state, known as a country in this alternate history, is on the brink of a race-related civil war—and a war with Ohio. Into the chaos comes Justin Monroe, a Crosstime Traffic traveler on a trade mission with his mother. Becky and Justin solidify their friendship as the mayhem escalates to biological warfare, and they and their families face ethical and space-time dilemmas. Via sympathetic characters, Turtledove delivers lessons on racism and diplomacy for a young adult audience. (Sept.)
Killing with the Edge of the Moon: A Graphic Novel (without illustrations)A.A. Attanasio. Prime (www.primebooks.com), $27.95 (156p) ISBN 0-8095-5697-9; $14.95 paper ISBN 0-8095-5698-7
In this lyrical fairy tale from fantasy veteran Attanasio (The Crow: Hellbound), geeky teen Chester "Chet" Hubert must rescue flame-haired daydreamer Flannery Lake from the Otherworld, when all he really wanted was a date. Flannery's grandmother, Nedra Fell, screws up a Wiccan ritual in an attempt to cheat Death, who decides Flannery will make a welcome substitute. After Flannery is hit by a school bus, she falls into a coma and her soul is lured to the Otherworld by a deceitful "techno-pagan" who promises her love but plans on feeding her to a demonic dragon. Luckily, Nedra convinces the smitten Chet to rescue Flannery in a colorful adventure reminiscent of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth and as magical as the best work of Charles de Lint, Jane Yolen and Holly Black. (Sept.)
Variable StarRobert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson. Tor, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-765-31312-X
Like a good Ganymedean farmer in the sky, Robinson (Callahan's Key) plants both feet firmly in Heinlein territory with this mostly credible pastiche of a Heinlein young adult novel circa 1955. Working from an unfinished outline and notes, Robinson tells the coming-of-age tale of Joel Johnston, who flees a broken romance to the new colony planet Brasil Novo 85 light-years away. Joel and his companions demonstrate the odd mixture of innocence and sexual experimentation that Heinlein employed, as Robinson captures the naïve yet advanced tone of Heinlein's future history. But the strain of a contemporary author trying to fit his sensibility about the future (in which nonaggression is a way of life, for example) into Heinlein's more notably militaristic mindset leaves its traces on the characters and plot, with some unexplained role reversals. Nostalgia for Heinlein's early work may pique interest in this posthumous collaboration, but old Heinlein hands may be disappointed that the book is incomplete, being all journey and no arrival. (Sept.)
Eyes EverywhereMatthew Warner. Raw Dog Screaming (www.rawdogscreaming.com), $29.95 (236p) ISBN 1-933293-18-7
While horror fiction often deals with madness as a reaction to some violation of natural law or as a metaphor for the darker parts of the human condition, Warner's disturbing third novel (after The Organ Donor and Death Sentences) takes a realistic look at a case of paranoid schizophrenia. Charlie Fields, a 30-year-old male secretary at a Washington, D.C., law firm, suffers many stresses all too common in our modern life: fear of having his job eliminated, fear of not being able to provide for his family, fear of terrorism. Warner subtly depicts the progression of Charlie's paranoia and delusions. As Charlie retreats into a world where he's in control and has power, he becomes increasingly estranged from all that he loves. Warner has created an everyman for our time, and if the result is not pleasant or escapist, it is compelling and insightful. (Aug.)
Mass Market
Morrigan's Cross Nora Roberts. Jove, $7.99 (352p) ISBN 0-515-14165-8
Romance institution Roberts dives into her first paranormal series with the first book in the Circle Trilogy. In 12th-century Ireland, sorcerer Hoyt Mac Cionaoith does battle with a centuries-old vampire named Lilith, who has turned Hoyt's twin brother, Cian, into a fellow bloodsucker. Unable to defeat her, Hoyt is visited by the goddess of battle, Morrigan, who charges him with the task of leading a battle, "the greatest ever waged," against Lilith and her demons. Hoyt must gather five others to fight alongside him: "the witch, the warrior, the scholar, the one of many forms, and the one you've lost." He travels in time to present-day New York, where he encounters his vampire brother, Cian, and Glenna, a beautiful red-haired witch. Two more warriors, Moira and Larkin, join them back in the Mac Cionaoith ancestral home. Romance ignites between Hoyt and Glenna as enemies emerge from the shadows, and the "circle of six" prepare for the big showdown with Lilith. This well-plotted, finely detailed paranormal adventure is driven by richly developed characters, making it a cut above others in this subgenre, and among Roberts's best. (Sept.)
To DistractionStephanie Laurens. Avon, $7.99 (496p) ISBN 0-06-083910-4
Yet another brave member of the Bastion Club—a small band of wealthy, eligible gentlemen sworn to protect each other from the "marauding mamas" of London society—falls for an unconventional woman in the winning fifth novel of Laurens's Regency series. A former spy for the Crown, Jocelyn Deverell, Viscount Paignton, is in need of an heir, and for that he will need a wife. His aunt has just the match in Phoebe Malleson, her spirited, ruby-haired goddaughter. Unfortunately, Phoebe has no desire to marry, no matter how much Deverell might tempt her, having learned long ago to distrust men. Besides, Phoebe is busy with a secret crusade to rescue abused servants from wealthy households, a campaign she knows no man from the ton would support. Undaunted, Deverell undertakes his most delicate mission yet, beginning a slow seduction that he hopes will win Phoebe's trust and, ultimately, her heart. When young female servants begin disappearing—apparently kidnapped—Phoebe finds herself caught in a deadly standoff with powerful criminals and must turn to Deverell. Though characters and language may ring familiar, Laurens introduces an enticing villain who promises to return, bringing the series some needed fresh air. Aptly titled, Laurens's latest generates enough heat to make you forget about sticky summertime weather. (Sept.)
CrookedBrian M. Wiprud. Dell, $6.99 (320p) ISBN 0-440-24312-2
Wiprud's latest caperchronicles a gaggle of wacky characters in pursuit of a stolen painting in Manhattan, centering on shady man-about-town Nicholas Palihnic, brother of the taxidermist hero of Wiprud's previous mysteries, Pipsqueak and Stuffed. Hired by an insurance company to hunt down Trampoline Nude, 1972, Nicholas scurries through the city, bumping into a string of increasingly wild friends and foes, including a mysterious Chinese man in a porkpie hat; a tough-talking art dealer named Beatrice Belarus; and Nicholas's old friend Nicasia Grieg, grieving over her lover, Barney, a thief she believes was eaten by crocodiles in Costa Rica (but who is actually alive and well in Hoboken). Wiprud's engaging, hard-boiled style draws readers into both the art world and the underworld of New York, and his colorful cast keeps things moving with wit to spare—especially the plucky lead. Some pieces of this tale hang loose—most notably Barney's odd relationship with a childhood mentor—but the journey is a thrilling one, with an ending even the most astute readers won't see coming. (Aug.)
Just for KicksSusan Andersen. Mira, $7.99 (384p) ISBN 0-7783-2315-3
The good old "opposites attracts" gambit is the basis for this winning round of Vegas romance, the follow-up to Andersen's bestseller Skintight. Carly Jacobsen is a Vegas showgirl who loves three things—her friends, her dogs and her single life. Security guard Wolfgang Jones, who works at the casino where she dances, is a man with a serious plan: a top-notch security job, a wife and a cookie-cutter home. Living in neighboring condos, the only thing the two have in common is a shared wall and a profound dislike of one another. He thinks she's irresponsible and immature, she thinks he's judgmental and a jerk. When you deal in the red-hot chemistry between them, however, the odds change significantly. Deft characters, smart dialogue, laugh-out loud moments and sizzling sexual tension (you might want to read Chapter 15 twice) make this hard to put down. The only questionable bet is Carly's mystery suitor, a twist that does nothing for the story. Lovers of romance, passion and laughs should go all in for this one. (Aug.)
Comics
Zombie Powder, Vol. 1Tite Kubo. Viz, $7.99 paper (188p) ISBN 1-42150-152-X
Gamma Akutabi is a master criminal ("class S-zero") with a chainsaw sword and a metal arm that allows him to catch bullets. He's also a Powder Hunter, which means he's chasing after the Rings of the Dead. If he finds 12 of them, he can make zombie powder, which resurrects the dead and grants the living immortality. He's joined in his quest by his partner, gun-toting, suit-wearing CT Smith, and John Elwood Shepherd, a young knife-thrower turned pickpocket who wants to resurrect his dead sister. The series originally appeared in the Japanese magazine Shonen Jump, but was canceled before it could be completed. If these first chapters are any indication, it's not hard to figure out why. Written and drawn by Kubo (Bleach!), the promising setup is little more than an excuse for a series of mindless action scenes. Kube's art begins by doing some intriguing things with grayscale and shading, but quickly devolves into generic action sequences that sacrifice clear storytelling for dramatic, anatomically impossible poses. Combined with the already chaotic plot, the overall effect is like reading a hyperactive cartoonist's book after his Ritalin has run out. (Sept.)
Abandon the Old in Tokyo Yoshihiro Tatsumi, edited by Adrian Tomine. Drawn and Quarterly, $19.95 (200p) ISBN 1-894937-87-2
The second volume of Drawn and Quarterly's ambitious reprinting of selected works by manga master Tatsumi picks up where the first left off. This outing once again showcases Tatsumi's pitch-perfect psychodramas, but this time with stories that are a bit more ambitious and sure-footed. Tatsumi more or less invented his own genre, making compelling manga out of everyday moments that otherwise pass unnoticed. His characters are anonymous faces we pass on the street, and he gives them an unsuspected inner life. In the opening story an artist for children's stories discovers a new, sinister vocation until he's found out. In another story a man is held captive by a woman who blames all men for her own psychological (and physical) scars. And in still another, an old man, once a proud business owner, returns to his derelict office day after day, despite the end of his company. Tatsumi lends all of these characters sympathetic voices through his minimal dialogue and deft line work. No one captures urban Japan quite like Tatsumi—even the streets feel nuanced. This collection of seminal work by a comics master is essential reading for anyone interested in the artistic development of the medium. (Aug.)
Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online CartoonistsEdited byTed Rall. NBM (www.nbmpublishing.com), $13.95 paper (128p) ISBN 1-56163-465-4
Rall's third effort in the Attitude series turns its focus to online cartooning, a somewhat nebulous field that Rall has only middling success corralling into a book. There is a basic contradiction involved with publishing Web material in print: if the medium is viable, why does the work need a book? But that speculative question aside, this is a decent massing of some young cartoonists who practice the gag-a-day format in cyberspace. Most are no different from what one might see in a local alternative weekly, with unremarkable but competent drawings, generic gags and so on. But there are a couple of standouts: Nicholas Gurewitch's funny, surreal comics come from a personal, highly idiosyncratic place, as do Ryan North's, who has taken a clip art approach to gags. It's still unclear how these comics benefit from being online, as they don't use any of the features the Web offers (besides nearly free space), nor is it clear if the Web breeds a new kind of cartoon sensibility. Attitude 3 is an entertaining but random assortment of artists who happen to publish on the Web. (July)
ShatterPeter Gillis and Mike Saenz. AIT/Planet Lar (www.ait-planetlar.com), $14.95 paper (156p) ISBN 1-932051-44-9
The story content of this reprint from the mid-1980s is still interesting, but the art looks stiff and awkward. However, the art is what makes it really worth reprinting: Shatter was the first comic to be drawn on a computer, a Macintosh that could produce art at 72 dots per inch vs. today's typical 1,300 per inch. Pioneering artist Saenz was learning how to control this new tool and simultaneously demonstrating that a computer could be a valid creative platform. Appropriately, Gillis's script echoed Blade Runner by following an alienated detective's investigation of the scary but intriguing possibilities of new technology. The eponymous hero is a freelance cop for hire who tries to maintain his own integrity while solving RNA thefts that threaten to compromise individual identity. The art sometimes reinforces the story's mood by its dazzling complexity, sometimes distracts by its low-resolution gawkiness. At their best, though, the episodes in this collection do communicate the excitement of discovering new possibilities. Each page seems to be saying, "Maybe this experiment doesn't work, so we'll just try something else—and we can do it better next time!" In fact, the current crop of comics artists has learned to do it better. But Shatter did it first. (July)
The Clan of the NakagamisHomerun Ken. Digital (www.dmpbooks.com), $12.95 paper (144p) ISBN 1-56970-896-7
Tokio Nakagami is 25, but has the body and face of a 14-year-old boy despite being a math teacher. Haruku Iijima, Tokio's secret boyfriend, has the body of a tall, dashing young man though he's only a high school student. The potential creepiness of this teacher-student relationship is mitigated somewhat by the fact that it's the math teacher who acts and looks like a kid, and the mature-looking student who's always trying to cop a feel, but the fetishization of the cute and starry-eyed is on full display in artist Ken's clean-lined drawings of young men in love. Each episode of Clan of the Nakagamis revolves around the frustrated couple's attempts for closeness of a more physical kind. Running interference is Tokio's mysteriously overprotective family, the titular Nakagami clan, which includes a mother who looks like a Japanese doll, a voluptuous hottie who turns out to be Tokio's brother and a hard-drinking grandfather who emerges from his coffin looking like a waifish Little Lord Fauntleroy. The episodes rarely go beyond easy gags, but Ken has a talent for depicting the kind of doe-eyed beauty that's perfect for boy's love (yaoi) manga, managing to keep the characters attractive and sympathetic, even as silliness prevails. (July)
MemorialBruce Wagner. Simon & Schuster, $25 (432p) ISBN 0-7432-7235-8
[Signature]
Reviewed by Kurt Andersen
Like Wagner's previous books, Memorial is set in a Los Angeles descended from Nathaniel West's and Joan Didion's but played for laughs as well as existential dread. It's an L.A. novel the way Short Cuts and Crash are L.A. movies: a set of loosely connected stories rather than a tight single narrative. Like Wagner's other books, too, it refers frequently—compulsively, even—to celebrities and includes passages of breathtaking viciousness about some of them.
But because the heroine (and authorial stand-in), Joan Herlihy, is a high-end architect angling for a commission to design a billionaire's memorial to two American victims of the 2004 tsunami, the insidery trash talk is mainly about the stars of architecture and art. Richard Meier resembles "a well-heeled dentist, the type with something questionable on his hard drive," Daniel Libeskind is "a relentless pussywhipped kike in python boots and a Yohji trench," and Zaha Hadid has an "unkempt Fat Actress kohl-smeared gypsy-soprano" look that works for her.
Despite the customary Wagnerian savagery and ultra-knowingness, however, Memorial is also earnest and even life-affirming, more like I'll Let You Go (2002) than his purely comic novels. The main characters are the members of an ordinary middle-class family—Joan, her feckless older brother, their sweet mother and sweet runaway father.
Three of the four are spectacularly victimized, but every one is also the recipient of a financial windfall, and achieves redemption—which amounts either to slightly overdetermined coincidence, or karma. India is a major leitmotif in Memorial, and although Wagner satirizes InStyle Buddhism (like he did in 2003's Still Holding), he seems also to be taking Eastern religion seriously, as if to say: modern life is grotesque and funny as ever, but tenderness, honor and glimmers of wisdom are possible as well.
Wagner is a very good writer, and Memorial is filled with beautifully observed turns of phrase ("a big-voltage desexed smile like a nun gone to rut"). His deconstruction of newscasters' special disingenuousness is virtuosic: "Wolf Blitzer talking about a plane that just went down... all necro'd out, breathy and methy and cockstiff for Death, a husky-voiced fratboy Peeper...." But the stylistic fanciness can also mask imprecision (an architectural design "grafting failed skinsketch onto gauzy somnambulist constructions"), and sometimes simply goes over the top—such as a 238-word-long sentence ("ambient absence, sounds and swellings, screams and shadows") about sex. His weakness for puns ("natal attractions," "Restoril in peace," "Hello, Dalai!") is... a weakness.
But this is an ambitious, engaging, satisfying book. While his fans will find all the demonic intelligence and fun they expect, Memorial might also attract a new cohort of readers who want more than all-dark-comedy-all-the-time. (Sept.)
Kurt Andersen's new novel, Heyday, will be published by Random House in March.
