Fiction Reviews: Week of 12/4/2006
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 12/4/2006
Somalia-born Farah's ninth novel (after Links, first in a trilogy of which this is the second book) tells the spellbinding story of Cambara, a Somalian émigré to Canada. Cambara is mourning her only son's drowning death—in the Toronto pool of her abusive lawyer husband's mistress. In the aftermath, Cambara resolves to leave her husband, journey to Somalia and wrest control of her parents' property from warlord squatters. Her journey is mesmerizing. Cambara's first stop in Mogadiscio (aka Mogadishu, where the novel opens) is the filthy home of her foul-smelling cousin Zaak, a narcotic-chewing churl to whom she was briefly married. Zaak brings her up-to-date on the devastation to Somali society wrought by civil war and warlord rule: murderous AK-47–wielding youths; collapsed, empty theaters whose props have been burned for firewood (Cambara has worked as an actress and a makeup artist); constant mortal danger, despair and boredom. Cambara soon decamps for the relative luxury of an upscale hotel managed by Kiin, an unflappable woman who links Cambara to the Woman for Peace network, an organization of strong-willed activists that facilitates her daring production of a "play for peace." Kiin's web of connections also includes battle-hardened bodyguard Dajaal, who mobilizes others to drive the warlord's troops out of Cambara's family residence, which she then reoccupies to rehearse her play. Farah's depiction of the riotous urban madness that is Mogadiscio, where youth militias roam the ravaged streets of a once-cosmopolitan city, is both relentless and remorseful. But there is hope, too, in how Farah writes about the everyday heroics of people attempting to lead normal lives in the midst of savagely abnormal times. Farah describes these events in a lilting, poetic prose that is hypnotic in its ability to trace both the contradictions and hesitations of his protagonist and the complexities of Somali life. Despite its heavy subject, joy suffuses the novel. There have been Nobel rumblings about Farah for some time: certainly his ability to create a heroine whose power and depth of personality almost overwhelms the book written to contain her recalls the Australian laureate Patrick White. Few readers who let Cambara into their lives will easily forget her. (Feb.) The bold latest from by the ever-inventive Drabble (The Red Queen, etc.) tells the tale of two aging academics—Ailsa Kelman, flamboyant feminist activist and TV talking head, and marine biologist Humphrey Clark—who are traveling separately to the North Sea coastal town of Ornemouth: she's presenting a book award that he, unknowingly, will receive. The two met at Ornemouth as children one summer toward the end of WWII; they lost track of one another and haven't seen each other since their brief, disastrous marriage in 1960s London. A cocky narrator reveals the charged memories, of childhood and beyond, that the trip triggers for both—and occasionally breaks free to fill in narrative gaps and pose destiny-altering scenarios. Neither is content: Humphrey is lonely and dissatisfied by his scholarship's mere competence; Ailsa, twice divorced, is uncertain if she's a success or a caricature of success (her cervix has been on TV). Secondaries include red-headed local boy Sandy Clegg, and Ailsa's rich, unscrupulous brother Tommy, in thick with the royals. Nothing as simple as a love story, this prismatic novel shines as a faceted portrait of England's changing mores, as an ode on childhood's joys and injustices, and a primer for marine biology, complete with hermaphrodite crayfish and fossils of sea lilies. Seductive as the tides, it pulls the reader in. (May) This sprawling novel was unfinished when Mississippi writer Brown (Dirty Work, etc.) died at 53 in 2004. (It remains so, according to a note from editor Shannon Ravenel, who includes Brown's own notes for how the novel would end.) Cortez Sharp, a widower in his later years, decides to build a catfish pond on his Mississippi acreage, mostly because the pond will serve (he imagines drily and obliquely) to bring others around and assuage his dark loneliness. Nearby live young Jimmy and his ne'er-do-well father ("Jimmy's daddy"). There's also Lucinda, who is Cortez's daughter and the mother of Albert, a young man with Tourette's syndrome who speaks in rhyming obscenities. Lucinda pops tranquilizers and has a talent for getting into odd squabbles (over the quality of pigs' feet in a supermarket, for one). Elsewhere, Cleve, an African-American ex-con, kills a soldier who is the object of his daughter's affections and hides the body in the woods. Despite the cuts that Ravenel says were made (marked in the text with ellipses), there's a lot of superfluously detailed family history, interior monologue and Dixie atmospherics. Would-be boffo sequences (Cortez driving a tractor into the pond; Jimmy becoming inconsolable when his father sells his beloved Go Kart), are not sharp enough to carry one through. (May) Sportswriter, screenwriter and author Deford (Alex: The Life of a Child; Everybody's All-American) scores another hit with this novel of athletes behaving badly. After a career spent knocking around in the minor leagues as a player and manager, Howie Traveler has finally made it to the majors as manager of the Cleveland Indians. The team, however, is struggling, and Howie's job is in jeopardy when the team's star player, Jay Alcazar, is accused of rape. Though Howie's playing career stalled out in Triple A, his big league management career depends on how well he can handle Alcazar, heralded as "the best player in the game." Alcazar insists he's innocent—perhaps even believes it—but Howie suspects otherwise, having witnessed a troubling scene involving accused and accuser the night of the alleged rape. Now, Howie has to choose between his conscience and his dream job. The resolution won't please everyone, but Deford tackles timely and provocative issues without flinching. (May) K'wan's latest (after Eve) is a meandering trip across Harlem with plenty of pit stops for vice and violence. Yoshi is a stripper who prostitutes herself for extra cash; Rhonda is a promiscuous and abusive mother of three; Reese is a scabrous, demanding kept woman; and Billy is an attractive, sporty woman with a healthy distrust of the men who live in their Harlem 'hood. All of the women get sucked into drama involving neighborhood rappers, drug dealings, abortion, fistfights, catfights, shootings, rape, AIDS or good, old-fashioned drunkenness. There's a bevy of minor characters, each involved in intersecting subplots, though these don't so much coalesce as run their course. The most interesting story involves Paul, a man who's trying to go straight and become an artist, and who's also dating a respectable lawyer named Marlene, but things are destined to end badly. None of the characters rises above stereotype and the plotting is mechanical, but the big draw here is the electric prose, which is imbued with profane, comic lyricism. (May) Slouka's urgent second novel (following God's Fool) comes in three parts. The first relates the nameless narrator's growing up in postwar New York and Pennsylvania as the child of college journalism instructor Antonín and Ivana Sedlák, Czech émigrés whose marriage is slowly disintegrating. The reason, of which the young narrator is aware from an early age, is that Ivana loves another man, killed in Czechoslovakia during WWII. The despondent Ivana watches soap operas and chain-smokes until, at age 64 in 1984, she walks in front of the Allentown bus. The slimmer middle section chronicles the narrator quitting his job two years later, moving to Prague and poking into his parents' wartime past there. The final, longest section crackles with the novel's main tale. Having pieced together enough of his parents' history, the narrator "imagines" the rest. Crucially, it involves the actual assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's ruthless local military governor, on May 27, 1942. As part of a daring plan, Czech patriot assassins are parachuted in by the RAF; the injured Heydrich later dies of blood poisoning. The Nazi bloodbath that follows includes the infamous liquidation of the village of Lidice. The suspense is well paced, and the action scenes are vividly recounted. Slouka's novel has a poignant verve. (Apr.) In telling the story of New England ninth grader Ted LeClare, LaMarche takes Mitch Albom–like sincerity, holds it arm's length from George Saunders–like deadpan satire, and transports the lot to a gun-crazy America that he refuses to judge. The results make his characters unwittingly sophisticated vessels for the hopes and fears of the post-post-Columbine exurbs. The plot is simple: while showing off his .22, Ted loads the gun; while Ted's back is turned, his schoolmate Kevin Dennison accidentally kills Kevin's younger brother, Bobby. The aftermath includes Ted's being taken up by a group of boys calling themselves the American Youth, teens who spout a debased, quasireligious, gun rights, antidevelopment, NIMBY-like parody of conservative talk show rhetoric. Ted also, at his mother's direction (his father is absent), lies about having loaded the gun. As Ted (referred to as "the boy" most of the time) comes around to telling the truth about what happened, there are detours into bad behavior with the Youth. In vivid set pieces, aimless teens take vigilante action against creeping cookie-cutter housing and enforce a bizarre set of double-standards. Drugs, alcohol and sex fascinate and repel the Youth in equal measure. LaMarche deftly allows his debut to be at once a parable and a dead-on rendering of its time and place. (Apr.) Aguilar, a former literature professor who now "delivers dog food in order to survive" returns from a trip to find his beloved wife, Agustina, has "transformed into someone terrified and terrifying"; his subsequent investigation into what happened forms the plot of this complex and captivating novel, Restrepo's sixth novel to be translated into English (after Isle of Passion). In reconstructing Agustina's privileged but troubled past, the novel intertwines several narratives, including the braggadocio of Agustina's former lover—and Pablo Escobar money launderer—Midas McAlister; the tragic tale of her German grandfather, Nicholas Portulinus; and Agustina's own pained reminiscences of a childhood centered around an aloof and domineering father whose affection she tried to win and from whose abuse she tried to protect her younger brother. It seems that Agustina's madness sprouts from a denial of violence and obvious truths—a denial that is shown here to similarly corrupt Colombian society. It has all the tension of a great detective story, and Wimmer's translation captures every tormented bit of Aguilar's desperation. (Mar.) It's easy to understand why the prolific Auchincloss (East Side Story) has been hailed as a "Living Landmark," writing as he does about a mannered New York of bygone days. His latest book, a collection of six stories, doesn't stray from this familiar, still fertile ground, with mixed results. The title story's narrator, a retired English teacher from a tony Manhattan school for "young ladies," recalls his three favorite pupils (class of 1937); in detailing his involvement in their lives as they grow into adulthood, marriage and motherhood, he reveals just how far he will go to remain a confidant and friend. A New England prep school provides the setting for a contest of wills between a young priest and a tyrannical headmaster in "The Devil and Rufus Lockwood," and a different clash of personalities is on display in "The Country Cousin," a light, predictable drawing room comedy of manners fashioned as a one-act play. Class conflicts, anti-Semitism and McCarthyism needle the WASPy characters, and personal transformations take place against the changing meanings of marriage and shifting social mores. Though there are few surprises and the waters aren't deep, Auchincloss turns over his own turf with consistent charm. (Mar.) Edge's second historical (after The Company) takes as its subject the French artist Théodore Géricault and the genesis of one of his best-known paintings, The Raft of the Medusa. It is 1818, and Géricault is trying to extract himself from an affair with Alexandrine, six years his senior but much younger than her husband, who happens to be Géricault's uncle and benefactor. Géricault is also at a crossroads in his career: six years after winning the gold medal at the Paris Salon for his painting Charging Chasseur, Géricault is in desperate need of a subject for a new painting that will get him back into the Salon. At this point Géricault becomes obsessed with the shipwreck of the Medusa, a frigate that went aground off the coast of Cape Blanco. He interviews survivors and becomes increasingly obsessed with every vivid and unsettling detail of the shipwreck. As Géricault begins to paint his vision of the aftermath of the catastrophe, his own life disintegrates: Alexandrine becomes pregnant and their affair is discovered, with disastrous consequences. This is a thoughtful and richly imagined story about the darker aspects of the artistic process and the costs of obsession. (Mar.) Holeman (The Linnet Bird) explores the fate of a willful Muslim girl in this exotic and expansive coming-of-age historical romance. Growing up in 19th-century Afghanistan where women are expected to be obedient and subservient, young Daryâ dreams of adventure and freedom. "I could not be obedient," she laments and is consequently cursed by her father's second wife and sold to an abusive nomad. Fearing for her life, she runs away and is rescued by David Ingram, an enigmatic Englishman. He's the first man to show Daryâ kindness, and during a long, perilous journey to Bombay, she falls in love with him. Suppressing his own feelings, David arranges to leave Daryâ behind in India while he returns to England. Desperate to rejoin David, Daryâ agrees to travel to London as the companion of the shady Osric Bull, though he has sinister plans for her. The narrative falters when the setting shifts to London, but fans of the genre will appreciate the vivid rendering of tribal life and the sobering look at what it means to live where it's believed "[m]en are created to enjoy; women to give enjoyment to them." (Mar.) The young people of Coshlawn Crann in rural Ireland simply aren't marrying and properly propagating in the hardscrabble postwar 1946. It's all about the economy, and Father Donovan isn't above using the power of his collar to lean on two locals who can get something done: rich skinflint farmer Tom McDermott and publican Austin Glynn (some of whose wealth comes from bank robberies long ago in the Bronx). Tom's older son, Martin, the town Lothario, soon finds himself engaged to Austin's daughter, Aideen, a good-hearted girl with a face "like the back of a bus." Biking home from popping the question, Martin runs into Barney Murphy's donkey on the bridge, tumbles into the river and is believed drowned. He quickly decides to stay dead and slips off to London—where he soon wearies of actually having to work and starts dreaming about Aideen's dowry. Ex-priest Keady (The Altruist) writes with authority about matters of the church. He's also a sharp plotter, and his characters shine: from Brideen Conway, the comely schoolteacher Father Donovan loves a little too much, to strap-happy schoolmaster Alphonsus Finnerty, who secretly writes romances as "Laura Devon." The multiple happy endings may be inevitable, but they're earned. (Mar.) Set primarily in Boston and its suburbs, Reddi's debut focuses on individuals and families struggling to reconcile their Indian diaspora backgrounds with American life, while attempting to preserve their small, at times contentious ethnic communities. Often generational differences are the root of conflict—in "Bangles," a successful American doctor tries to fulfill his duty by bringing his newly widowed mother from Hyderabad to his upscale suburban home, but fails to make space in his young family's life for her religious and cultural needs. In "The Validity of Love," a rebellious but fragile young woman must examine the extent to which she's internalized traditional ideas of Indian marriage when her best friend willingly enters into an arranged engagement. In other cases, the conflict is an economic one: in the title story, unemployed Shankar Balareddy, frustrated and angered by his younger brother's callous success, searches for redemption from a youthful misdeed. While her themes are familiar, Reddi deftly employs images to crystallize them: a set of red glass bracelets smashed with a rock, a wounded bird confused by Boston's skyscrapers, even a bean-and-cheese burrito, all call to mind the isolation and occasional bewilderment shared by her sympathetic characters. (Mar.) Maddeningly clichéd, yet as entertaining as daytime talk show brawls, Smith's second novel treads on the same turf as her street lit debut, Rolexxx Club: the hip-hop gutter. When Bobbi Hayes, a sexual conquistador and "one of the hottest DJs in Miami," crosses paths with Mikhail Petrov, a shady club owner of the Russian underworld persuasion, she falls easily under the sway of the immensely and illicitly rich Mikhail and accepts a DJ job on his yacht cruise to Greece. He eventually gives her the run of Babylon, the Hope diamond of the Miami club scene. Money can't buy love, but it certainly numbs the senses of the supposedly streetwise Bobbi, who is used by Mikhail as a front for devious activity that all but the dead, blind or totally naïve could see. As the relationship between Bobbi and Mikhail hits the skids and bodies start dropping, Bobbi turns to hunky club security chief Q in one last effort to find someone to trust. But is it too late? The cornucopia of sex, name dropping and hip-hop melodrama is bound to be gobbled up by fans of the genre. (Mar.) Smiley (A Thousand Acres) goes Hollywood in this scintillating tale of an extended Decameron-esque L.A. house party. Gathering at the home of washed-up director Max the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards are his Iraq-obsessed girlfriend, Elena; his movie-diva ex-wife Zoe and her yoga instructor–cum–therapist–cum– boyfriend Paul; Max's insufferably PC daughter, Isabel, and his feckless agent, Stoney, who are conducting a secret affair; Zoe's oracular mother, Delphine; and Max's boyhood friend and token Republican irritant Charlie. They watch movies, negotiate their clashing diets and health regimens, indulge in a roundelay of lasciviously detailed sexual encounters and, most of all, talk—holding absurd, meandering, beguiling conversation about movies, Hollywood, relationships, the war and the state of the world. Through it all, they compulsively reimagine daily life as art: Max dreams of making My Lovemaking with Elena, an all-nude, sexually explicit indie talk-fest inspired by My Dinner with Andre, but Stoney wants him to remake the Cossack epic Taras Bulba. Smiley delivers a delightful, subtly observant sendup of Tinseltown folly, yet she treats her characters, their concern with compelling surfaces and their perpetual quest to capture reality through artifice, with warmth and seriousness. In their shallowness, she finds a kind of profundity. (Feb.) The murder of Walton Weeks, a Rush Limbaugh–like political commentator in sleepy Paradise, Mass., drives the action of bestseller Parker's competent whodunit, a sequel of sorts to Blue Screen (2006), which first paired two of the authors' non-Parker series characters—Jess Stone, an ex-LAPD detective trying to resurrect his career as Paradise's police chief, and PI Sunny Randall—with predictable romantic results. After a stalker sexually assaults Stone's ex-wife, Jenn, Stone asks Randall to serve as Jenn's bodyguard. Stone finds himself under atypical media and political scrutiny, especially after Weeks's pregnant mistress is also found dead in Paradise. Both Stone and Randall are still weighed down with significant emotional baggage from their exes, and it's Parker's exploration of their ambivalent relationship that is this book's strength. The plot, however, is much less developed than Jane Haddam's Hardscrabble Road (2006), which likewise featured the murder of a right-wing radio commentator. (Feb.) At the start of Dietrich's superb historical thriller, his swashbuckling hero, American Ethan Gage, who's living in Paris during the waning days of the French Revolution and was once apprenticed to Benjamin Franklin, wins a curious Egyptian medallion in a card game. Soon after, he's set upon by thieves, chased by the police, attacked by bandits, befriended by Gypsies, saved by a British spy and then packed off to join Napoleon's army as it embarks on its ill-fated Egyptian campaign. There the story really heats up. Once in Egypt, Gage finds himself beset by evildoers bent on stealing the mysterious medallion. As in previous novels like Hadrian's Wall and Scourge of God, Dietrich combines a likable hero surrounded by a cast of fascinating historical characters. Riveting battle scenes, scantily clad women, mathematical puzzles, mysteries of the pharaohs, reckless heroism, hairsbreadth escapes and undaunted courage add up to unbeatable adventure rivaling the exploits of George Macdonald Fraser's Harry Flashman. Readers will cheer as the indomitable Gage floats off in a runaway hot-air balloon, hard on the trail of his next exotic undertaking. Author tour. (Feb.) Had Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael been born a few decades later, he might have found a worthy associate and friend in Dr. Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar of Salerno, a short and short-tempered medieval coroner hired in secret by King Henry II to find out who's behind the horrific murders of Christian children in Cambridge, England. Prominent local Jews stand accused; Henry wants them freed, mostly for the sake of their tax revenue. As Adelia examines the children's bodies and gets to know the people of Cambridge, she has no trouble assembling a long list of suspects, but she encounters considerable difficulty trying to narrow it down, a struggle in which the reader gladly joins her. Not all of the plot twists are surprising and the romantic subplot is an unnecessary afterthought, but Franklin (City of Shadows) has developed a skillful blend of historical fact and gruesome fiction that's more than sufficient to keep readers interested and entertained. (Feb.) Somebody is killing the former CIA agents who took part in a brilliant but highly illegal top secret operation known as Echelon. A couple of ghosts may also be involved, real or imagined, but they don't interfere with the credibility or the sustained excitement of the pseudonymous Stone's debut thriller. His hero, Micah Dalton, is a "cleaner"—a special operative sent in under cover to make sure no agency dirt gets into the public air. When his friend and colleague, Porter Naumann, is found savagely slaughtered in a Tuscany hotel, Micah tries to find out what happened. Cool and endlessly resourceful, the likable Micah does whatever it takes to clean up the mess. Also memorable are a shrewd Italian policeman, who can tell when something isn't kosher, and Micah's immediate boss, Jack Stallworth, "a short, sharp, bullet-headed hard-nosed razorback hog with all the languid charm of a quick knee to the jaw." The author, who has served in the military and been an intelligence officer, clearly knows his way around the higher levels of official treachery. 75,000 printing. (Feb.) Bestseller Pike's gripping thriller pays homage to Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter novels, particularly in the character of FBI agent Kelly Feinman, who fills the Clarice Starling role. An unlikely law-enforcement agent, Kelly was an academic drafted by the bureau as a consultant based on her graduate thesis on mythology. Kelly puts her expertise to use on a particularly savage case, that of a man dubbed "the Acid Killer," who has sent the Feds DVDs of his sadistic murders of women he believes have been unfaithful. Her research leads her to a promising suspect, but her desire to solve the case on her own places her life in jeopardy. Pike (The Cold One) deftly interweaves this plot with the elaborate, Edmund Dantes–like revenge scheme of Matt Connor, a California man who was himself betrayed by the woman he loved. While some of the action sequences involving Kelly strain credibility, the intricate, thoughtful plot offers enough fresh variations on the serial-killer theme to keep readers turning the pages. (Feb.) In this superior East Texas crime thriller from Stoker-winner Lansdale (Sunset and Sawdust), Harry Wilkes discovers after a severe childhood ear infection that he has a peculiar "hindsight." Harry can not only see dead people but see and hear violent events as they occurred in the recent or distant past. "It's like I hear and see ghosts in sounds," he tells his father. By the time he's a college student, Harry's psychic abilities have driven him to booze. After meeting alcoholic Tad Peters, a retired martial arts expert, Harry becomes Tad's surrogate son and student. The two forge a pact to sober up together. Their resolve is tested when Harry agrees to help Kayla Jones, an old childhood crush now a cop, solve her father's murder, which her boss, the local police chief, has dismissed as a suicide. Lansdale's down-home prose erupts with explosive twists and razor sharp insights into how "echoes from the original sounds" can never be silenced until action is taken to defeat the fear that created them. (Feb.) In Jacob's smart seventh Kali O'Brien legal thriller (after Intent to Harm), the San Francisco DA faces two horrifying possibilities: Did her brother, John, kill himself in remorse over murdering ex-girlfriend Sloane Winslow and her young housekeeper, Olivia Perez, or was John murdered by their real killer? After receiving the shocking call about her brother's "accident," grieving Kali heads for Tucson, Ariz., to meet with her sister, Sabrina, to settle John's estate under a cloud of confusion about a brother she rarely communicated with. After the sisters discover their brother was the prime suspect in the double homicide and his estate the subject of a wrongful death civil suit, Kali is shocked to find John might also be connected to a young stripper's murder and the disappearance of a 16-year-old runaway. Jacobs deftly juggles a large cast and a multilayered plot while compassionately depicting Kali's struggle with family issues. (Feb.) A straitlaced novice doctor gets initiated into the unorthodox world of a crafty rural sawbones in Taylor's American debut. Barry Laverty is fresh out of school and uncertain about what type of medicine he should practice when he answers an ad for a physician's assistant in Ballybucklebo, a small Northern Ireland town populated, it seems, entirely by eccentrics. Laverty is initially taken aback by his new boss, Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly, whom he meets as O'Reilly is literally throwing a patient out of his office. Laverty spends most of the novel swaying between understanding O'Reilly's methods and second-guessing the boxer turned doctor who dishes out plenty of placebos and isn't above telling a white lie or a crude joke to worried patients. Though Laverty often comes across as painfully uptight, he also has an endearing-for-its-awkwardness streak that only surfaces around Patricia Spence, though she'd rather focus on her civil engineering studies than make time for a boyfriend. Serving as a foil to all the innocent fun is the lecherous, greedy Councillor Bishop, who, thanks to a scheming O'Reilly and a reluctant Laverty, gets his comeuppance. Despite the occasional whimsy overload, Taylor's novel makes for escapist, delightful fun. (Feb.) Icelandic émigré novelist Olafsson (Absolution) offers a grim look at chilled middle-aged marriage in 12 stories titled after the months of the year. Olafsson delivers the basic facts of a situation or marriage in a monotonous, uninflected prose that is, in its portentous flatness, utterly compelling. His characters, most hailing from Icelandic stock and thoroughly assimilated into American life, suffer from severely impacted emotion that threatens, when gently triggered, to spew volcanically. Tomas, the bland, typically diffident protagonist of "January," contacts his former live-in girlfriend after 10 years during an overnight flight delay in New York, finding to his shock and dismay that Maureen is sick and probably dying. While he might make amends for his previous emotional cowardice, his instinct is to flee. In "June," a controlling father's disappointment at his daughter's marriage to a gutless American doctor (rather than a firm, outdoorsy Icelander) leads to a weirdly Freudian set of maneuverings by both father and son-in-law. And in several pieces, an old, undisclosed affair resurfaces after decades to haunt a marriage, leading one wife ("August") to mutter upon her husband's revelations of early unfaithfulness: "It was all built on sand." Olafsson's Nordic realism à la Bergman holds a ghastly fascination. (Feb.) A passel of largely young West Coast women writers offer queer coming-out and coming-on stories in this bright, muscular collection put together by the SF-based Tea (Rose of No Man's Land). The anguish and confusion of first love marks "Ryan: An Excerpt" by Amanda Davidson, where young narrator "A" scribbles a feverish note to her friend Ryan, a kindred spirit and not-yet-lover: "A pony bucks around within my loins." In her "Coming Out versus Sex versus Making Love," Meliza Bañales reveals a version of "The Rules" in which oral sex pushes love-making into just having sex. Rhiannon Argo's narrator in "Boots for Tula," can't quite decide whether the erratic bisexual lover of the title is her girlfriend or not. Coming out is as political as it is sexual in Mecca Jamilah Sullivan's "Snow Fight," set in a tough, multilingual Harlem public school. Similarly, Dexter Flowers's "Titties at Stake," takes her rebellious vegan narrator through breast-awareness activism in topless marches and demonstrations. Several other pieces, such as Claudia Rodriguez's "Juan the Brave," express the pain of being male in a female body. Two of the selections are comic strips, by Katie Fricas and Nicole Georges respectively, that reflect modern-girl domestic conflicts. Tea has orchestrated 22 fresh, energetic voices. (Feb.) When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, New Yorker Emily Rhode ditches her too-perfect boyfriend and far from perfect legal career to become her mother's primary caregiver. At the same time, she reconciles with her estranged father, who left when she was five. When he offers her a job as a receptionist at his law firm, complete with Friday martini lunch dates and father-daughter cab rides to work, Emily agrees, and jokey family bonding follows as mom skates through treatment and dad proves to be more of a teddy bear than an iceman. Davis, author of Girls' Poker Night and a former writer for The Late Show with David Letterman, loads the narrative with one-liner asides and funny riffs (there's a particularly good bit about espresso machines), though she's less adept at sizing up Emily's inner turmoil, notably her fear of committing to smart, patient and loving boyfriend Sam. Though soft-focused (taking care of cancer-stricken mom mostly consists of watching TV and playing board games), Davis's book leavens regret and tragedy with a light-handed wit. (Feb.) In her follow-up to How to Sleep with a Movie Star, Harmel, a chick lit reviewer for morning television show The Daily Buzz, nails the formula: girl can't get guy, girl employs zany tactics, girl gets string of lame guys, girl learns about herself. Harper Roberts is a brilliant 35-year-old New York patent attorney who hasn't had a satisfying relationship in three years. So when her girlfriends dare her to test the "Blonde Theory" as fodder for a magazine article, Harper takes the bait and agrees to spend two weeks as not just a blonde (which she is), but as a ditsy blonde, complete with skimpy clothes and a stunted vocabulary. She quickly rounds up dates with men who think she is either a cheerleader or a bartender, and she also connects with Matt, a dreamy soap opera actor who knows the real Harper. Assuming he is as superficial as the men ditsy Harper is dating, smart Harper doesn't believe his attentions are genuine. In the meantime, she receives sage advice from her (cute) plumber. This book isn't a life-changer, but it is a nice time killer. (Feb.) Set in England in 1362, Riley's charming conclusion to her trilogy that began with A Vision of Light finds Margaret of Ashbury still having amusing conversations with God ("As Supreme Judge of All Things, I assure you that you are one of the half-dozen most talkative of My creations"). Margaret's scrofulous and quarrelsome father-in-law plans to use her marriageable and well-dowered daughter, Cecily, as a bargaining chip in a squabble about riparian rights and borders. But the creature who dwells in the spring in question, the eponymous Water Devil, has other plans. Fortunately, Margaret has a lovely collection of con artists and mountebanks to help her save the incorrigible Cecily from being wed to an aged lecher. But who will save her son from the Water Devil? This is a sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, but always compassionate love story with a perfect ending. (Feb.) Brianna Stone has an idyllic life. She lives in a comfortable beach home in Ventura, Calif., with her handsome, loving husband, Douglas, and improbably mature 13-year-old son, Nathan. She loves her part-time job leading coastal bus tours and has a lifelong best friend with whom she can talk about everything while eating brownies on the beach. Unfortunately, first-time author Carobini never quite manages to give Brianna any real problems, and, as such, this novel's plot is wispy. Perplexingly, despite her happiness and groundedness, Brianna decides one day, based purely on the comments of an unpleasant acquaintance, that her life might need a makeover. She fears, for reasons that never actually compel the reader, that her husband is bored and wants a more stylish home and wife. While Carobini's descriptions of events and characters are often witty and engaging, the series of misunderstandings that she substitutes for actual problems give the novel a contrived feel. Interestingly, Brianna does have some underlying issues, including a difficult childhood and infertility, but these go largely unexplored. Brianna and most of the people in her life are Christians, and at the end, Brianna realizes many of her problems stem from having neglected God. While this superficiality may disappoint some readers, those looking for a light, occasionally witty beach read may find that it hits the spot. (Feb.) Hildreth, author of the popular Savannah series (Savannah from Savannah, etc.), sets her disappointing new stand-alone in a car. When Washington, D.C., lobbyist Rose Fletcher is called home to South Carolina, she takes the long drive as an opportunity to reflect on the mess she's made of her life: she's estranged from her mother; she has deceived her husband, using birth control while pretending to try to get pregnant; and she's been having an affair. Will the trip home give her a new perspective? But of course. The book is organized in flashbacks, each inspired by someone Rose meets during her daylong drive home. This structure is irksome and distracting (as is the question of why a high-powered professional who's attached at the hip to her BlackBerry didn't fly in the first place). Character development is weak, too: Rose's contradictions (a children's rights lobbyist who is too wrapped up in her own career to have kids) can be heavy-handed, and the Southern eccentrics she meets on the way home, such as the wise and fulfilled working-class mom, are caricatures. The happy ending is also predictable. Still, as with many of WestBow's other offerings, this novel is edgier than much Christian fiction, with its frank discussion of adultery and its somewhat subtle, though nonetheless central, treatment of faith. (Feb.) Mystery Shaber's brisk fifth Simon Shaw cozy (after 2004's The Bug Funeral) obliges the Raleigh, N.C., history professor to apply his forensic skills to the murder of a close friend and colleague. David Morgan, a highly regarded archeologist, is found bludgeoned to death, his notes and collection of ancient Native American artifacts missing. Morgan had sat on a committee formed to decide the fate of a 14,000-year-old Paleo-Indian skeleton: should the remains be preserved in a museum for all to study or reverently interred in Indian burial grounds? The controversy may have provided a motive for the murder. Suspects include Morgan's sister, his gorgeous assistant and various colleagues, none with alibis. Simon proves his resourcefulness after a plane crash strands him in the wilderness of North Carolina's Nantahala National Forrest. Amorous interludes lend some spice. (Mar.) This impressive debut from a criminal justice professor and former lawman exudes verisimilitude from start to finish. When Levi Vogue, chairman of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, is gunned down execution-style in his Salt Lake City driveway, Sam Kincaid, chief of the Special Investigations Branch of the Utah Department of Corrections, investigates, along with homicide detective Lt. Kate McConnell. An amateurish ransacking of Vogue's house indicates premeditated murder rather than a real burglary, and Kincaid suspects Charles "Slick" Watts, a violent ex-con with a personal grudge against Vogue. But before Watts can be arrested, his body turns up, an apparent suicide. The case gets complicated when the medical examiner finds that Watts was murdered, and Kincaid and McConnell are compelled to look elsewhere—namely to a group of corrupt state prison employees known as "the Commission." Norman is off to a fine start with this alternately gripping and repellent crime novel. (Feb.) Haines acknowledges her debt to James Lee Burke in this atmospheric historical (after 2005's Penumbra), set in New Iberia Parish, La., at the close of WWII. Deputy Raymond Thibodeaux (sounds like Robicheaux) battles his own wartime demons as he tries to find the person responsible for the gruesome killing of wealthy landowner Henri Bastion. Fragile Adele Hebert confesses to the crime, but because she believes herself possessed, Thibodeaux assumes she's not the culprit. Superstitions lie as thick and menacing as the morning fog over the bayou, and word quickly spreads that a werewolf has overtaken Adele's body. Haines's greatest strength is her powerful sense of place: here the miasmic swamp is as alive and as threatening as any villain. Despite a predictably happy ending and an irritating tendency to repetition, Haines has created an engaging, memorable story. (Feb.) Dickinson's solid sixth Lord Francis Powerscourt turn-of-the-20th-century mystery doesn't quite rise to the level of some of the better earlier entries in the series. In the wake of the upper-class investigator's brush with death in Death Called to the Bar (2006), his wife, Lucy, has prevailed on him to seek less dangerous pursuits—like researching cathedrals—rather than "detections, investigations, murders, mysteries." Predictably, Powerscourt emerges from his short-lived retirement after members of the political elite exhort Lucy to release him from his vow so he can travel to Russia, where a British diplomat who met secretly with the czar has been reported murdered. Powerscourt's probe, coming during growing Russian unrest that presages the revolution to come, brings him into conflict both with his own foreign ministry and the sinister Russian secret police, the Okhrana. Relying more on action than on deduction, the plot also suffers from the diminished role of Lucy, who's usually more involved as a sleuthing partner. (Feb.) Van Patten, a host of TV's World Poker Tour, has teamed with veteran mystery writer Randisi to create what may be the first novel billed as a "Texas Hold'em Mystery" with so-so results. The action takes place during a major poker tournament at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and Jimmy Spain—recently released from prison—is there both to play and to coach 22-year-old Kat Landrigan, the talented daughter of a man Spain did time with (part of a pointlessly complex backstory). But the tournament is interrupted by two murders, and, for reasons that strain credulity, Spain is asked to look into the matter. The title refers to the three playing cards discovered with each body: a jack, a queen and a king, which, when dealt together, are sometimes described as a "Picasso flop" in hold'em. Spain is an engaging, likable character, and some of the poker scenes are done with flair and knowledge, but the loose plot doesn't do justice to the fine concept. (Feb.) Warren Ritter, ex-'60s radical and sidewalk tarot-card reader in Berkeley, Calif., works to clear his daughter's name in Skibbins's inconsistent if entertaining third mystery (after 2006's High Priestess). Believed killed in an explosion in 1970, Ritter has only recently resurfaced from a life on the run and learned of the existence of his daughter, Fran Wilkins. Now, Fran turns to her long-lost dad for help when her abusive husband, Orrin, a Santa Cruz policeman, declares her unfit because she suffers from bipolar disorder, and moves out with their five-month-old son. Fran steals her baby back from her husband's strict fundamentalist parents, but then lands in the hospital under police guard—rescued from attempted suicide and suspected of murdering her husband. In a dramatic conclusion, Ritter orchestrates a violent confrontation that reveals the true killer, but some details strain credulity and readers hoping for more tarot tips might be disappointed. (Feb.) The 1996 winner of Japan's Naoki Prize, Nonami's engaging, complex police procedural, her first English-language publication, introduces Tokyo detective Takako Otomichi, who, having weathered a difficult divorce, must contend with her culture's disapproval of female police officers. Otomichi faces her greatest professional challenge when she teams with veteran Sgt. Tamotsu Takizawa to solve the murder of Takuma Sugawara, a businessman who bursts into flames at a popular family restaurant. Forensics soon demystify the sudden conflagration when traces of a chemical detonator are found in the victim's belt, but the inquiry takes a whole new tack when bite marks on Sugawara are linked to a series of fatal attacks by a wolflike predator. While some readers may find the whodunit aspect a bit routine, all will hope to see more of the prolific Nonami's work made available in the U.S. (Feb.) SF/Fantasy/Horror Zettel's satisfying conclusion to her Isavalta series (after 2004's The Firebird's Vengeance) illuminates the inner workings of the royal court of the Hastinapura Empire through the eyes of 19-year-old Princess Natharie of Sindhu, taken there as tribute from her father, King Kiet of the neighboring realm of Sindhu. Though women in Hastinapura are sequestered, they plot and peddle influence as deftly as the politicians, generals and priests who clamor for Emperor Chandra's attention. Chandra's honorable brother, Prince Samudra, does his best to influence his stern brother, but a year away carrying out diplomatic duties has weakened his own alliances at court. As Isavalta's nations chafe under Hastinapura's rule, Samudra and Natharie are caught up in a web of intrigue that could enmesh the land in all-out war. The fast-paced, complex story works well as a stand-alone and is sure to appeal to fans of both epic fantasy and romance. (Mar.) Beginning with Robert Silverberg's poignant "Sailing to Byzantium," this outstanding follow-up to Dozois's Best of the Best Volume 1 (2005) pays homage to the science fiction novellas of the past two decades and by extension to the entire genre in all its varied glory. Michael Swanwick's "Griffin's Egg" holds down the hard SF end, while Joe Haldeman's "The Hemingway Hoax" is more of a fantastical mystery. Nancy Kress's "Beggars in Spain" and Ian McDonald's heartwrenching "Tendeléo's Story" describe two very different near futures where gifted minorities battle societal envy and fear. Far future ruminations on age and death include James Patrick Kelly's demented "Mr. Boy," Frederik Pohl's somber "Outnumbering the Dead" and Ian R. MacLeod's tender "New Light on the Drake Equation." Otherworldly culture clash appears in Ursula K. Le Guin's "Forgiveness Day" as well as the bittersweet trio of Alastair Reynolds's "Turquoise Days," Maureen F. McHugh's "The Cost to Be Wise" and Walter Jon Williams's "Surfacing." (Feb.) In this promising first of a new saga, alternate-history maven Turtledove (Ruled Britannia) depicts a Bronze Age society in transition. A growing gap in the glacier that has formed the Raumsdalian Empire's northern border for millennia allows Count Hamnet Thyssen and Trasamund the jarl, of the nomadic Northern Bizogot, to become the empire's Lewis and Clark. They and their entourage, which inconveniently includes Hamnet's unfaithful ex-wife, Gudrid, depart the empire's capital city, Nidaris, to explore what lies beyond the glacier and search for the fabled Golden Shrine. On the way, a formidable and attractive (if unbathed) Bizogot shaman, Liv, joins the expedition—and Hamnet under the animal hides. If the Raumsdalians and Bizogots don't always get along, their culture clash is nothing compared to the threat they face on the other side of the glacier: the Rulers, a tribe of imperious, mammoth-riding warriors. A vivid setting and strong characterization bode well for future installments. (Feb.) Fourth in Moon's Vatta's War space-going family and military saga (after 2006's Engaging the Enemy), this jaunty far-future romp follows the scions of two powerful but threatened families: woman space warrior Kylara Vatta and undercover operator Rafe Dunbarger. While Ky, who earlier saw much of her family murdered, builds an antipirate fleet from former privateers, Rafe works to preserve his family's giant interstellar communications corporation after a hostile takeover. Aunt Grace Lane Vatta sheds her dotty old woman cover to direct security on Slotter's Key, the Vatta home base, and Cousin Stella settles in as Vatta's CEO, assisted by young Toby, a precocious techie. Though lacking the breathless hyperdrive of Moon's earlier splendid derring-do in Marque and Reprisal, the frequent FTL jumps between Ky's deep-space engagements, Rafe's reluctant boardroom battles, Grace's wily machinations and Stella's expert financial calculations keep the excitement level high. (Feb.) A Romeo-and-Juliet tale of star-crossed lovers and their conflicted families plays out against a futuristic backdrop shaped by outrageous fashion trends in Armstrong's offbeat debut fantasy. Michael Rivers, heir-apparent to a hi-tech security empire, is poised to wed Nora Gonzalez-Matsu, heiress-apparent to a rival firm, when an assassin's failed attempt on his life humiliates the company and scuttles the nuptials. Though the planned union seemed as calculated as the business merger behind it, incurably romantic Michael believes that Nora, whose lifestyle is governed by the same fashion magazine to which he's addicted, is his soul mate. When he repudiates his father's scheme to marry him into another corporate family and attempts a forbidden reunion with Nora, he discovers nasty realities that have made his coddled life possible. This routine romance plot is virtually secondary to the giddy elaboration of a future world so saturated with advertising and fashion imagery that its most public transactions are orchestrated like runway walks. Though the story runs on a little longer than it should, its playful take on fashionistas of the future is diverting. (Feb.) Masquerading as a self-help book for superheroes, this sharp satire of caped crusaders hides a deeper critique of individual treatment versus social injustice. Faust (The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad) provides funny and knowing caricatures of the famous figures of American comic books via an extended therapy session by Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman. Analyzing their various mental hangups, Dr. Brain attempts to help heroes like irascible billionaire crime-fighter Festus Piltdown III ("Flying Squirrel") overcome the rejection of his foster ward, Tran Chi Hanh ("Chip Monk"). But African-American hero Philip Kareem Edgerton ("X-Man") resists, insisting that recent events in "sunny Los Ditkos" are signs of a coup within F*O*O*J ("Fantastic Order of Justice") and not RNPN ("Racialized Narcissistic Projection Neurosis"). Faust's well-aimed jabs spare no super sacred cows nor many pop idols and pychobabbling media stars. Underneath the humor, careful readers will find uncomfortable parallels to real-world urban tragedies in the novel's "July 16 Attacks," where Faust gives a double meaning to the "Crisis of Infinite Dearths." (Jan. 30) Mass Market Rose cranks up the heat in more ways than one for recurring heroine Det. Mia Mitchell, last seen in You Can't Hide, to deliver another winning romantic mystery thriller. When a series of arsons turns out to hide a homicide, Mia teams up with Chicago Fire Department Lt. Reed Solliday to track down the firebug killer. Still reeling from her father's death and her last case, which landed her partner, Abe, in the hospital, Mia's not pleased to be teaming up with someone new—especially with Abe's assailant still on the loose. Reed has his doubts as well, suspecting that Mia isn't ready to be back on assignment. As the investigation proceeds and the two divulge their troubled pasts, they find themselves warming to each other—just in time for Mia to become the next target for the flame-happy madman. Rose's characters aren't exactly fresh—she's the tough-but-vulnerable cop's daughter, he's the gruff-but-lovable heavy—but Rose gives them plenty of room to develop as the tense procedural escalates. Emotional subplots, engaging secondary characters and a string of red herrings will keep readers hooked. (Feb.) In this delightful, witty Regency tale, the follow-up to Alexander's A Little Bit Wicked, fate and a loaded pistol conspire to grant Lady Felicity her shot at escaping spinsterhood. When Felicity Melville first meets notorious rake Nigel Cavendish, they're both in compromising positions: she's despairing over her five unsuccessful seasons looking for love in London, and he's fleeing the wrath of a cuckolded, gun-happy husband. Intrigued by his recklessness, Felicity decides, after watching him disappear into the night, that Nigel will become her husband. What she doesn't know is that Nigel is determined not to marry, having entered into a wager with four other bachelors to see who among them will remain unwed the longest. The banter between the intelligent, brash, levelheaded Felicity and the roguish, oft-confused Nigel is funny, and they're both charming creations who keep the no-frills plot—a cat-and-mouse tour of a season among the ton and the first, rocky stages of marriage—skipping along. A fine cast of supporting characters, including the elderly but mischievous card sharks Lord and Lady Fernwood, keep the laughs up throughout. (Feb.) A creepy, bizarre premise—terrorists want to remove a comrade's head and keep it alive long enough for him to help plan an attack—provides the basis for Wyler's second medical thriller (after Deadly Errors). Neurosurgeon Russell Lawton's research on brain-computer hookups puts him in the sights of a Middle Eastern terrorist cell after the cell's key associate suffers a near-fatal motorcycle wreck just before an intended attack. Faced with his body's rapid deterioration, the terrorists hit on the scheme of removing his head in order to salvage his brain—with the help of a kidnapped Lawton. After Lawton's abduction, he's forced to play along in order to save his daughter's life. The first half of the novel suffers from credibility problems, notably the terrorists' leap to adopt the unlikely plan and the speed with which they assemble the pieces. Also, what might have been a tense subplot involving Lawton's daughter falls flat. Wyler, a brain surgeon himself, keeps things moving despite the missteps; the gritty, graphic details of cutting-edge surgical procedures, capped with an exciting conclusion, should keep fans of the genre riveted. (Feb.) This debut novel features an intriguing setup that, unfortunately, becomes bogged down in a too-busy narrative: American time travelers from the year 2007 find themselves in 1888 London on the trail of a dangerous interloper from their time, just as the escalation of the legendary Jack the Ripper murders has driven the city into a frenzy. Wary that they or their quarry, Jonathan Avery, might change history in a way that would eliminate their own time line, partners-of-convenience Sara Grant and David Elliot simultaneously search for their target while attempting to assist Scotland Yard Insp. Jonas Robb in thwarting the sadistic serial killer—who may be one and the same. What they don't realize is that Avery has taken a much larger role in events, and that it may be too late to salvage their future. A keen sense of history (such as the inclusion of lesser-known Ripper suspects Francis Tumblety and Michael Ostrog) bolsters this fast-paced pale, but Baker piles on bite-sized scenes and jarring shifts among characters to overwhelming, disorienting effect. (Feb.) Comics Robert E. Howard's memorable villain finally gets an origin story of his own in this volume, which collects a four-issue miniseries of the same name. Thoth is a beggar "in the blighted city of Memphia," his morals slowly eroded by an abusive father and harsh life on the streets. When his friend Amon receives an invitation to apprentice in the house of the kindly priest of Ibis, Thoth kills Amon and takes his place in the priest's home. Busiek (Astro City, JLA/Avengers) and the legendary Wein (Swamp Thing) do a fine job telescoping a lifetime's worth of sinister plotting and backstabbing into relatively few pages. Narration is well-executed and evocative ("a new wind did waft through Memphia, thin and dry though it was") and the narrator's identity, revealed at the end, is a nice twist. There is much blood shed in the book, but most of it is implied; only a few scenes contain graphic violence, although virtually every page bears at least one image that is genuinely terrifying or haunting. Liberal use of shadows and wiry outlines in Kelley's solid but moody art give shape to a world where even the agents of light do not seem entirely trustworthy. (Dec.) Akahori's yuri (girl love) story, which has spawned anime series, soundtracks and video games since its initial publication in 2004, uses a far-fetched plot contrivance to set its gender-swapping stage. Hazumu is a sensitive boy who would rather spend his time looking at flowers than running with other boys. His unrequited love for the beautiful girl Yasuna sends him on just such a mountaintop trip one day, but it turns out to be the worst possible day for it—an alien ship lands atop him, and when the remorseful aliens put him back together, they accidentally make Hazumu a girl. From trips to a brassiere store to visiting the girls' locker room for the first time, Hazumu learns about young womanhood quickly, with lots of opportunity for gratuitous cleavage and beauty shots. Of course, now that he is a she, Yasuna finds that she loves Hazumu, which leaves the latter grappling with the fact that although he is now one himself, he still likes girls. Artwork and panel design are traditional and uninspiring. Two unnecessary subplots (an alien who takes up residence in Hazumu's house, and Hazumu's father's determination to take a bath with his new daughter) detract from an otherwise entertaining romance. (Dec.) Helfer and DuBurke tell the story of Malcolm X's short life—his meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the two leaders describing the opposite ideological ends of the fight for civil rights; and his eventual assassination by other members of the Nation of Islam (NOI)—in narration and detailed b&white drawings, sharp as photographs in a newspaper. The portrait is frank and at times unflattering, pointing out the inconsistencies in Malcolm X's own autobiography. From his slow slide into the criminal—moving from hustler to dealer to the head of a ring of thieves for which he was finally sent to prison—to his jailhouse conversion to Islam, Helfer and DuBurke don't shy from any part of their subject's life. Unfortunately, as the story gets into the complicated dynamics within the NOI and Malcolm X's eventual break from the group, the narrative becomes tangled. The same drawings that make Malcolm X's youth so vivid can't portray the political in-fighting with the same clarity, giving instead a glance at the last few years of his life. Nevertheless, Helfer and DuBurke have created an evocative and studied look at not only Malcolm X but the racial conflict that defined and shaped him. (Nov.)
The Sea Lady
Knots
Nuruddin Farah. Riverhead, $25.95 (432p) ISBN 978-1-59448-924-2
Margaret Drabble. Harcourt, $24 (352p) ISBN 978-0-15-101263-3
Larry Brown. Algonquin, $26.95 (464p) ISBN 978-1-56512-536-0
Frank Deford. Sourcebooks, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4022-0896-6
K'Wan. St. Martin's Griffin, $14.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-36008-5
Mark Slouka. Houghton Mifflin, $24 (256p) ISBN 978-0-618-75643-8
American Youth
Phil LaMarche. Random, $21.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6605-6
Laura Restrepo, trans. from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer. Doubleday/Talese, $23.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-385-51990-8
Louis Auchincloss. Houghton Mifflin, $24 (224p) ISBN 978-0-618-71866-5
Arabella Edge. Simon & Schuster, $24 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9484-3
Linda Holeman. Three Rivers, $14.95 paper (496p) ISBN 978-0-307-34649-0
Walter Keady. St. Martin's/Dunne, $23.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-312-36191-4
Rishi Reddi. Ecco, $23.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-06-089878-6
Méta Smith. Warner, $13.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-446-69853-5
Ten Days in the Hills
Jane Smiley. Knopf, $26 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4000-4061-2
Robert B. Parker. Putnam, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-399-15404-1
Napoleon's Pyramids
William Dietrich. HarperCollins, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-084832-3
Ariana Franklin. Putnam, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-399-15414-0
David Stone. Putnam, $25.95 (432p) ISBN 978-0-399-15408-9
Christopher Pike. Forge, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-765-31718-6
Lost Echoes
Joe R. Lansdale. Vintage/Black Lizard, $13.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-307-27544-8
Jonnie Jacobs. Kensington, $19.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7582-0801-9
Patrick Taylor. Forge, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-765-31623-3
Olaf Olafsson. Pantheon, $23 (224p) ISBN 978-0-375-42468-7
Edited by Michelle Tea. Carroll & Graf, $14.95 paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-78671-792-7
Jill A. Davis. Ecco, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-087596-1
Kristin Harmel. Warner/5 Spot, $13.99 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-446-69759-0
Judith Merkle Riley. Three Rivers, $13.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-307-23789-7
Julie Carobini. Baker/Bethany House, $12.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0261-2
Denise Hildreth. WestBow, $14.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-59554-208-3
Sarah R. Shaber. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-312-35602-6
The Commission
Michael Norman. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (246p) ISBN 978-1-59058-358-6
Carolyn Haines. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-35161-8
David Dickinson. Carroll & Graf, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-78671-897-9
Vince Van Patten and Robert J. Randisi. Mysterious, $24.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-89296-070-5
David Skibbins. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-312-36193-8
Asa Nonami, trans. from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter. Kodansha, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-4-7700-3025-2
Sarah Zettel. Tor, $27.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-765-30422-3
Best of the Best Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels
Edited by Gardner Dozois. St. Martin's Griffin, $40 (656p) ISBN 978-0-312-36341-3; $19.95 paper ISBN 978-0-312-36342-0
Harry Turtledove. Tor, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-765-31710-0
Elizabeth Moon. Del Rey, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-345-49159-6
Jon Armstrong. Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $14.95 paper (239p) ISBN 978-1-59780-065-5
From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain
Minister Faust. Del Rey, $13.95 paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-345-46637-2
Karen Rose. Warner, $6.99 (576p) ISBN 978-0-446-61690-4
Victoria Alexander. Avon, $6.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-088263-1
Allen Wyler. Forge, $7.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-765-35596-6
Virginia Baker. Jove, $7.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-515-14252-5
Kurt Busiek, Len Wein and Kelley Jones. Dark Horse, $17.95 paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-59307-648-1
Satoru Akahori and Yukimaru Katsura. Seven Seas Entertainment (www.gomanga.com), $10.99 paper (192p) ISBN 1-933164-34-4
Andrew Helfer and Randy DuBurke. Hill & Wang, $15.95 (116p) ISBN 978-0-8090-9504-9
