Fiction Reviews: Week of 1/29/2007
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 1/29/2007
The Pesthouse
Jim Crace. Doubleday/Talese, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-385-52075-1
In this postapocalyptic picaresque from Whitbread-winner Crace (for Quarantine), America has regressed to medieval conditions. After a forgotten eco-reaction in the distant past, the U.S. government, economy and society have collapsed. The illiterate inhabitants ride horses, fight with bows and swords and scratch a meager living from farming and fishing. But with crop yields and fish runs mysteriously dwindling, most are trekking to the Atlantic coast to take ships to the promised land of Europe, gawking along the way at the ruins of freeways and machinery yards, which seem the wasteful excesses of giants. Heading east, naïve farm boy Franklin teams up with Margaret, a recovering victim of the mysterious "flux" whose shaven head (mark of the unclean) causes passersby to shun her. Their love blossoms amid misadventures in an anarchic landscape: Franklin is abducted by slave-traders; Margaret falls in with a religious sect that bans metal and deplores manual labor, symbolically repudiating America's traditional cult of progress, technology and industriousness (masculinity takes some hits, too). Crace's ninth novel leaves the U.S. impoverished, backward, fearful and abandoned by history. Less crushing than Cormac McCarthy's The Road and less over-the-top than Matthew Sharpe's Jamestown (to name two recent postapocalyptos), Crace's fable is an engrossing, if not completely convincing, outline of the shape of things to come. (May)
BankDavid Bledin. Little, Brown/Back Bay, $13.99 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-316-01673-5
Bledin's debut, a survey of rookie investment bankers struggling to survive the Street, is a sometimes successful menagerie of toady, loathsome bosses, wry observations from the Starbucks queue and sophomoric pranks. Narrator Mumbles and his friends—Clyde (who "just doesn't give a damn"), Postal Boy (whose twitching eye and high-strung disposition has everyone "convinced he's going to lose it one day") and the Defeated One (who endures the 100-hour workweeks to support his girlfriend and his coke habit)—endeavor to master the art of the spreadsheet and maintain their ever-diminishing relationship with the outside world while keeping their shirts starched, their bloodstream caffeinated and their imaginations greased with fantasies of flight or revenge. A veteran of the finance sector, Bledin knows his turf, and though he brings little new to the office lit picnic, his tale of cubicle rancor and awkward romances is well-paced, humorous and endearing. (May 1)
The Book of Air and Shadows Michael Gruber. Morrow, $24.95 (464p) ISBN 978-0-06-087446-9
In this ingenious literary thriller from Gruber (The Witch's Boy), the lives of two men are changed forever by William Shakespeare and the letters of Richard Bracegirdle, a 16th-century English spy and soldier. Jake Mishkin, a Manhattan intellectual property attorney and a bit of a rake, goes on the run from Russian gangsters. Albert Crosetti, an aspiring filmmaker working for an antiquarian bookstore, finds that life is more exciting than movies—perhaps too exciting. Together, Mishkin and Crosetti travel to England in search of a previously unknown Shakespeare manuscript mentioned by Bracegirdle. Though the pace sometimes slows to allow Mishkin, Crosetti and Bracegirdle to divulge interesting aspects of their personal lives, these digressions only make the story more engaging. The suspense created around the double-crosses and triple-crosses works because of the close connection readers forge with Crosetti in particular. The mysterious murder of a Shakespearean scholar, shootouts in the streets of Queens and an unlikely romance all combine to make for a gripping, satisfying read. (Apr.)
The River KnowsAmanda Quick. Putnam, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-399-15417-1
The suspense begins with the first sentence of this romantic mystery from the pseudonymous Quick (Jayne Ann Krentz uses this pseudonym for her Victorian novels). Gossip spreads fast about the liaison between "unimportant, unfashionable, excessively dull" Louisa Bryce and wealthy, handsome Anthony Stalbridge. In reality, their first kiss was a spur-of-the-moment coverup when the two are caught snooping around Elwin Hastings's mansion. Louisa, an undercover reporter for the sensational newspaper, Flying Intelligencer, is investigating Hastings's crooked financial dealings, while Anthony seeks the truth about his fiancée, one of three society women who supposedly committed suicide a year ago. Under the guise of their romance, Louisa and Anthony expose Hastings's many criminal schemes. Their relationship isn't all business, however, and Louisa's profession isn't her only secret. Quick's tightly woven tale allows little room for extraneous subplots—every cracked safe and mysterious prostitute plays an important role. Light humor and playful love scenes temper the more gruesome moments for an alluring combination of foggy nights and steamy afternoons. (Apr.)
The Camel BookmobileMasha Hamilton. HarperCollins, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-117348-6
Hamilton's captivating third novel (after 2004's The Distance Between Us) follows Fiona Sweeney, a 36-year-old librarian, from New York to Garissa, Kenya, on her sincere but naïve quest to make a difference in the world. Fi enlists to run the titular mobile library overseen by Mr. Abasi, and in her travels through the bush, the small village of Mididima becomes her favorite stop. There, Matani, the village teacher; Kanika, an independent, vivacious young woman; and Kanika's grandmother Neema are the most avid proponents of the library and the knowledge it brings to the community. Not everyone shares such esteem for the project, however. Taban, known as Scar Boy; Jwahir, Matani's wife; and most of the town elders think these books threaten the tradition and security of Mididima. When two books go missing, tensions arise between those who welcome all that the books represent and those who prefer the time-honored oral traditions of the tribe. Kanika, Taban and Matani become more vibrant than Fi, who never outgrows the cookie-cutter mold of a woman needing excitement and fulfillment, but Hamilton weaves memorable characters and elemental emotions in artful prose with the lofty theme of Western-imposed "education" versus a village's perceived perils of exposure to the developed world. (Apr.)
Zig ZagJosé Carlos Somoza, trans. from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. Rayo, $24.95 (512p) ISBN 978-0-06-119371-2
Somoza (The Art of Murder) combines elements of SF, horror and suspense in an ingenious novel with an original intellectual premise that delivers a megaton of action and adventure. In 2015, Madrid physics teacher Elisa Robledo receives a phone call that plunges her back 10 years to a time when she worked with famous Spanish physicist David Blanes. Blanes theorizes that by using quantum physics and string theory he can build a machine that will enable researchers to see the past. Elisa joins Blanes and a small team of scientists on New Nelson, a mysterious island where they realize all of Blanes's theories. After intriguing glimpses of dinosaurs and Jerusalem during Jesus' lifetime, the project begins to go seriously awry. People die, the lab explodes and in the end everyone is taken away and ordered never to speak to each other again. Then things get really bad. While not quite up to Michael Crichton standard, this page-turner is sure to please thrillers fans. (Apr.)
The Wilde WomenPaula Wall. Atria, $24 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7434-9621-6
Wall's second novel (after The Rock Orchard) follows two beautiful, smart, sexually provocative, self-assured sisters whose dalliances captivate their small Southern hometown. Five Points, Tenn., has been brought low by the depression, but the residents retain their interest in the Wilde sisters' feud, which began when Pearl caught her younger sister Kat inappropriately entertaining Bourne Cavanagh, Pearl's fiancé and the heir to a whiskey distillery empire. Pearl disappears and travels the world, sending Kat a tersely worded postcard every month. Sassy and brash Kat stays behind and toys with the town's menfolk, including Mason Hughes, whose wealthy family owns the shirt factory where Kat works. Pearl sashays home after a few years and opens a high-class bordello that caters to the rich and powerful, while Kat continues to entice and evade Mason. Vignettes about secondary characters bog down the momentum, and while some are whimsically entertaining, they are more distracting than narrative-enriching. Fans of Southern women's fiction will forgive the meandering plot and be drawn in by the author's wit. (Apr.)
When the Grey Beetles Took Over BaghdadMona Yahia. Braziller, $22.50 (368p) ISBN 978-0-8076-1582-9
Born in Baghdad in 1954 and a refugee to Israel with her family in 1970, Yahia makes her impressive debut with this sharp recollection of the virulently anti-Semitic Iraq of the l960s through the eyes of a teenaged Jewish girl. Thirteen-year-old Lina identifies herself as Iraqi first, albeit a member of a minority, and is more curious than fearful about the word "persecution," often whispered in the Jewish community in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War. The definitions she learns won't be subtle: her older brother, Shaul, will be imprisoned for drawing a Star of David on a chalkboard; her father will lose his accounting job; and her swimming teacher and a schoolmate will be tortured and publicly executed on trumped-up charges by the new Baath regime. The only hope of evading the security police, who often drive gray Volkswagen Beetles, is to make the dangerous flight through Iran. As Lina's family gradually plans their escape, she experiences the whims and pangs of growing up, a first love, sibling rivalry. The novel's beginning feels choppy as the narrative jumps from scene to scene of Lina's early childhood, but the vividly realized detours enrich the reader's understanding of Lina's suffering at her country's betrayal. (Apr.)
The Speed of LightJavier Cercas, trans. from the Spanish by Anne McLean. Bloomsbury, $13.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-59691-214-4
An unnamed narrator's life comes full circle as he confronts buried secrets and tragedy in this powerful novel by Spanish author Cercas (Soldiers of Salamis). The unnamed narrator, a young writer whose hustle to survive in Barcelona doesn't leave him time to write, takes a scholarship as an assistant Spanish professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana, in the late 1980s. Once there he makes an unlikely friend in office mate Rodney Falk, a Vietnam vet who everyone else in the department thinks is insane. After Rodney disappears during winter break, the narrator visits Rodney's father, who fills him in on Rodney's troubled past. Back in Spain a year later, the narrator becomes a successful novelist, but remains haunted by Rodney (and his skeletons) which the narrator wants to write into a novel. From the electric passages chronicling the narrator's descent into writerly paralysis to his discovery of Rodney's miserable end and then his own creative resurrection, Cercas writes with verve and brings the novel to a close in a mad sardonic swoop. Cercas has delivered a wry and touching examination of the ruinous effects of war and fame. (Apr.)
Bluebird, or the Invention of HappinessSheila Kohler. Other Press, $24.95 (444p) ISBN 978-1-59051-262-3
The life of Lucy Dillon, an aristocrat in Marie Antoinette's court, is the subject of the seventh novel and flawed first foray into historical realism for South African author Kohler (Crossways). Through her resilience and resourcefulness, Lucy (based on the real-life Henriette Lucy Dillon) saves her husband, Frédéric Séraphin, and their children from the Terror during the French Revolution. The book opens in 1794 with Lucy and her family fleeing France, then flashes back episodically to her role as apprentice lady-in-waiting at court and her severe childhood despite her aristocratic privilege. The contradictions in her upbringing, the novel suggests, may have helped Lucy to become the resourceful person who could lead her family to the U.S. and establish a dairy farm in upstate New York, where her friendliness and butter become renowned. But two years later, once the Terror ends, Frédéric insists they return to France, though her time in America remains the moment when she lived out "the illusion... of being Queen of my own destiny." Kohler's writing is often deft, but the immense amount of historical material checks the narrative momentum. The novel succeeds better in conveying the particulars of Lucy's life, especially her adaptation to the rigors of American country life. (Apr. 24)
A Model SummerPaulina Porizkova. Hyperion, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4013-0326-6
Set in 1980, this smooth, predictable first novel by model, actress and children's book author Porizkova tells the story of Jirina, who arrives in Paris a beautiful 15-year-old aspiring model. A Swede of Czech background, Jirina escapes teasing classmates when she's discovered and shipped off to a well-known modeling agency. Leaving behind divorced, unsympathetic parents and a beloved little sister, Jirina moves into the apartment of agency head Jean-Claude; his depressed ex-model wife, Marina; their neglected baby daughter; and another Swedish teen model. As household tensions rise, Jirina strikes out on her own, befriending the famous model Evalinda (also from Sweden), a gay makeup artist and a rich, cultured man who worships her—all while nursing a crush on a dashing Australian photographer. Jirina slowly gains confidence; meanwhile, those around her abuse drugs, have abortions, attempt suicide, get gay-bashed and die tragically. Jirina loses her virginity, finds disappointment in love and learns to use sex to forward her career. Her drive is palpable and her voice believable, but Jirina isn't much fun (others, bien sûr, are downright mean), and you can see the plot points coming from way down the runway. Too many loose ends make for an unsatisfying finale. (Apr.)
Because a Fire Was in My HeadLynn Stegner. Univ. of Nebraska, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8032-1139-1
Stegner (Undertow; Fata Morgana) follows the tragic arc of Kate Riley, whose lifetime of self-destructive behavior takes her from rural Canada to a seaside cottage in northern California with plenty of gloomy pit stops along the way. Born in 1931 in Netherfield, Saskatchewan, Kate is her daddy's little girl, but he dies of cancer when she is 10. Before she turns 18, Kate flees her egotistical mother and the cruel prairie life for Vancouver, where she gets pregnant, gives up her baby girl for adoption and attempts suicide. She marries the older, affluent hotel owner Gregor Vancleve and has a son with him, but when Gregor's "vigor" fades, Kate has quickie affairs until Gregor divorces her. Similar behavioral patterns haunt Kate's subsequent moves to Seattle, San Francisco and Monterey. Alluring and gorgeous, Kate manipulates and seduces to get by and manically obsesses over her health and weight. Kate's downward spiral is undoubtedly grim, but Stegner punctuates it with muted hints of redemption; the result is uncommonly satisfying. (Apr.)
The Unnatural History of Cypress ParishElise Blackwell. Unbridled, $23.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-932961-31-7
On the eve of Hurricane Katrina, the now elderly narrator, Louis Proby, remembers the great floods of his small Louisiana town in 1927, recounting an intimate, resonant history of the era of Huey Long and Marcus Garvey. Louis, 17, is the son of Cypress Parish's superintendent, William Proby, who ascended the local logging ranks and regularly has to compromise himself in deals with the hardscrabble laborers and casinos in order to keep order in the town, as Louis painfully witnesses. Louis is a dutiful son, smitten with a pretty girl from a French family, Nanette Lançon, and intent on becoming a doctor, as per his father's plans. Offered the job of driving lumber company official Charles Segrist to and from New Orleans, Louis is granted entrée into the grand seedy clubs of the Crescent City and learns a little not just about prostitutes, alcohol and back deals with Isleños bootleggers Olivier Menard and Orlando Funes, but also of plans to blow up a Cypress Parish levee and thus flood the area in order to save New Orleans. Blackwell (Hunger) elegantly chronicles Louis's conflict between protecting his first love and his obligations to his father, though Louis finds he betrays both. (Apr.)
The English HorsesWilliam A. Luckey. Five Star, $25.95 (233p) ISBN 978-1-59414-509-4
Luckey's 12th western is a lively horse opera set in 1889 New Mexico. Wealthy Englishman Gordon Meiklejon buys the giant L Slash ranch and proceeds to enclose it in barbed wire. His pasture-deprived neighbors are more than just unhappy; his biggest problems, however, are cattle rustler and horse thief Jack Holden (an outlaw and despoiler of young women) and mustanger Burn English. But Jack never steals too much at one time, and Burn figures wild horses are his property if he can break them, no matter whose land they are on. As Meiklejon adjusts to the West's harsh ways, he realizes he must accept some compromise with these men. Romance, however, interferes: his housekeeper, Katherine Donald, is a pretty spinster courted by Jack, Burn and a cowboy with a hidden past. Also figuring in are a Mexican outlaw, an old-timer who knew Burn as a boy, a reprobate father, a doomed young boy with a big mouth, a love-struck teenage girl, a lightning strike and a curious killing. Add in loads of horse sense, and the result, until the abrupt ending, is a bronc-busting oater with colorful characters, vivid scenery and snappy dialogue. (Apr.)
Saints Orson Scott Card. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $35 (712p) ISBN 978-1-59606-086-9
First published in 1984 and marketed as a romance under the title A Woman of Destiny, Card's magnum opus deserves a wider readership than it has hitherto enjoyed. Best known for his fantasy fiction (Ender's Game, etc.), Card does an excellent job of depicting the Dickensian horrors of England undergoing industrialization in the early 19th century as well as the early trials of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints as experienced by his heroine, Dinah Kirkham. After converting to the new "Mormon" faith, Dinah emigrates from Britain to America, where she becomes one of the plural wives of the church's founder and prophet, Joseph Smith. The controversial Smith comes across as convincingly human as do the rest of Card's not always admirable characters. Not just for the LDS faithful (the author is himself a Mormon), this ambitious novel will appeal to anyone interested in a sensitive examination of the roots of religious feeling. (Mar.)
At Some Disputed BarricadeAnne Perry. Ballantine, $21.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-345-45658-8
Fans of the first three books in this WWI series from Perry, best known for her Victorian police procedurals, will eagerly pick up this fourth volume to learn more of the ongoing saga of the three Reavley siblings: Joseph, a chaplain working with soldiers on the front line in France; Matthew, a British intelligence officer; and Judith, an ambulance driver. (Newcomers may struggle to understand the backstory.) Matthew continues his search for the traitorous mastermind—the "Peacemaker"—plotting to align Britain with Germany to end the war, while Joseph is working on a smaller mystery: was British officer Howard Northrop killed by one of his own men? Exposition slows down the pace in places, but the author vividly captures the unspeakable horrors of the Great War. Readers won't have long to wait for the fifth and final entry in the series, We Shall Not Sleep (Reviews, Feb. 5). (Mar.)
The Blackest Bird: A Novel of Murder in Nineteenth-Century New YorkJoel Rose. Norton, $24.95 (464p) ISBN 978-0-393-06231-1
Rose (New York Sawed in Half) takes on one of the most celebrated unsolved murders in New York City history—the 1841 killing of Mary Rogers—in this historical whodunit, but doesn't make the most of its potential. Rogers, an attractive young woman, achieved local notoriety as a sales clerk at a Manhattan tobacco shop whose clientele included such notable authors as James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. After the discovery of the victim's mutilated body, Jacob Hays, the city's high constable, who makes a somewhat plodding and colorless detective, quickly narrows his scrutiny to Poe, whose second Dupin story was based on the case. While the author provides a convincing portrait of the New York literary world of the day, crime fans may be disappointed that the mystery's solution comes out of left field with no evidence to support it. This novel should get a lift from Daniel Stashower's recent factual study of the Rogers murder, The Beautiful Cigar Girl. (Mar.)
Sayonara BarSusan Barker. St. Martin's Griffin, $13.95 paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-312-36210-2
British author Barker's piquant debut chronicles the life of Mary, a young Englishwoman working as a hostess at the Sayonara Bar in Osaka, Japan. Though not a prostitute, Mary is paid an hourly wage to flirt and converse with the bar's customers, primarily middle-aged Japanese businessmen. Her colleagues include Katya, a Ukrainian hostess, and Watanabe, the Sayonara's cook, who keeps a watchful eye over Mary and believes that he's an "intermediary between the third and fourth dimension." Barker precisely draws her characters, emphasizing their innermost thoughts and desires. Mr. Sato, a widower, has vivid dreams about his deceased wife even as he's attracted to Mariko, a bar hostess who claims to be conversing with his ghostly wife. As the tension builds among the characters, Yuji, Mary's boyfriend, is caught stealing from his boss. An enigmatic yet riveting climax brings this highly unusual view of Japanese society to a fitting close. (Mar.)
Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show Richard Wiley. Univ. of Texas, $24 (272p) ISBN 978-0-292-71470-0
In 1854, when the U.S. Navy's Commodore Perry sailed into Edo (now Tokyo) with the grand goal of opening Japan to trade, he brought major change and minor entertainment—a black-face minstrel show that amazed and perplexed its audience. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Wiley, shifting perspectives with deft ease, follows two fictional white minstrels, Ace Bledsoe and Ned Clark, as they confront Japanese society, while he subversively engages the reader in a deeply allegorical reading of cultural exchange. Ace and Ned come under the wing of interpreter Manjiro Okubo, whose powerful family is locked in an old clan rivalry. The rivals' plot to kidnap musicians sets off a train of events romantic and tragic, with touches of Keystone Kops: with tantalizing authorial discretion, lovers enjoy one another, villains flash lethal swords, beauty balances bawdy, and rivalries and enmities explode. (Readers need not have read Wiley's PEN/Faulkner Award–winning Soldiers in Hiding, for which this novel is a way-back prequel.) This absorbing and immensely pleasurable book achieves momentum through Wiley's fluid style, the lightness with which he bears his learning, and the vitality and wit with which he brings a vanished world to life. (Mar.)
BlamelessThom Lemmons. WaterBrook, $12.99 paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-4000-7174-6
Lemmons's latest intermingles a contemporary tale about injustice with references to Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and writing, and sprinkles the story with symbolic references to Job. Dr. Alexis Hartnett is a tough, divorced college dean who becomes enamored of the cynical, divorced professor Joe Barnes. Joe has a mysterious past, evinced by a 12-year gap in his teaching experience, and Hartnett's assistant Lucille "Lucy" Conn, who dislikes Joe, is on the warpath to discover his secrets. Snippets from Joe's manuscript on Hawthorne that speak to his tenuous situation at the school are woven throughout, and predictable pearls of wisdom are offered from Alexis's minister's sermons Lemmons (Jabez; Daughters of Faith series) never builds a convincing case for why Lucy is so determined to investigate Joe's past, which should be a pivotal plot element. The author's descriptions can become awkward; loneliness "plumed out of his pores like cheap perfume," and windshield wipers screech across the icy windshield "like twin metronomes from hell." However, Lemmons does well painting the camaraderie between academics, and depicting their trials and tribulations. Some faith fiction readers will appreciate his look at God and the problem of unjust suffering. (Mar.)
Teach the Free Man: StoriesPeter Nathaniel Malae. Ohio Univ./ Swallow, $28.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8040-1098-6; $16.95 paper ISBN 978-0-8040-1099-3
The consequences of crime and violence govern Malae's debut collection, in which conflicts frequently come to brutal resolutions. The characters, whose lives revolve around California prisons, primarily focus on survival. Yet, as the narrator of "The Story" realizes while he watches his son go through the system, "survival always has a price, even if you can't see it." "Reliable Vet Dad, Reliable Con Son" recounts how a prisoner channels his father's Vietnam experience to help him hack San Quentin. In "Turning Point" an ex-con learns that life outside prison can be just as dangerous as life inside. At his best, Malae incorporates colloquial language into gripping, tension-filled episodes to reveal the inner workings of a complicated social structure: In "Before High Desert," a young criminal named Ya Ya struggles to fit into the prison hierarchy, while in "Tags," a Samoan inmate is willing to sell out his Samoan friend to maintain the order of his gang. At times Malae's plots are short on clarity and suffer from repetition, while judgments about his characters lack subtlety. Still, in his vivid depictions of incarcerated life and his development of believable voices, Malae shows promise. (Mar.)
Anxious Pleasures: A Novel After KafkaLance Olsen. Shoemaker & Hoard, $15 paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-59376-135-6
Following Nietzsche's Kisses (2006), Olsen treats another great modernist to postmodernist investigation, this time retelling Kafka's The Metamorphosis from the supporting cast's points-of-view. Olsen hews closely to the original, and his additions, excursions and elaborations are simultaneously stimulating and entertaining: intermittent sections relate the contemporary story of Margaret, an insecure young woman whose grandparents have gone missing and who is reading Kafka's masterpiece for the first time, and that of the Samsas' downstairs neighbor, a writer who is inspired by the strange noises upstairs to write a novella-length allegory in which "a man will awake with meat cleavers for hands. The moral will be that the meaning of life is that it stops." Characters who appear only briefly in Kafka's work here provide texture and a broader canvas, but the Samsa family, though given magnificent voices, aren't particularly developed. Intricately woven and richly imagined, Olsen's novel is a cerebral treat unto itself and a fine companion to Kafka's original. (Mar.)
Lazy EyeDonna Daley-Clarke. MacAdam/ Cage, $23 (270p) ISBN 978-1-59692-208-2; $13 paper ISBN 978-1-59692-231-0
Curling backward and forward in time, Daley-Clarke's debut is less a beginning-to-end novel than an incisive set of related character studies that fugue around a tragedy. The novel's decisive moment takes place during the miserable London summer of 1976, when temperatures reach record highs, and the family of 10-year-old Geoffhurst Johnson splits apart in sudden, tragic fashion. Geoffhurst's father, a West Indian-born soccer player named Sonny, commits an out-of-character crime, leaving Geoffhurst and his sister, Susie, in the care of their aunt Harriet: Geoffhurst and Harriet narrate, with Sonny's letters from prison filling out his perspective. As the book opens, Sonny is about to be released from prison, and a college-age Geoffhurst must push past a tabloid journalist, who offers him five figures for his story, to get into his apartment. He then proceeds to tell the story in his own elliptical way. Geoffhurst charms even when he is behaving boorishly, but even though a lot of what he remembers and talks about is quite vivid, he himself remains frustratingly opaque. Harriet, more reserved, is even less accessible. Extended digressions (British minor-league soccer, voodoo, teenage gangs) are nicely done. The whole doesn't equal the sum of its parts, but British Daley-Clarke shows a great deal of promise. (Mar.)
The Wayward MuseElizabeth Hickey. Atria, $24 (272p) ISBN 978-0-7432-7314-5
Plain Jane Burden never expected to be an artist's model, much less the standard of pre-Raphaelite beauty, but in Hickey's second historical novel (after The Painted Kiss), Jane's looks catapult her from the Oxford slums to the drawing rooms of London. After Jane is discovered by painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, her domineering mother allows her to sit for a mural of Guinevere because of the much-needed income it brings the family. Jane relishes the few hours each week she's allowed to sit and eavesdrop on Rossetti and his clique of artists and writers, inspiring verses in their poetry and a declaration of love. But after Rossetti leaves her for his sickly fiancée, Lizzie, Jane agrees to marry his rich friend William Morris so she can stay close to him. Jane bears two children and becomes an uneasy confidante to Lizzie, but Rossetti's feelings for Jane resurface after Lizzie dies, and William can't help noticing. Hickey handles her characters with a light touch and steers them clear of brooding cliché territory. Marvelous period detail adds appeal to an alluring story. (Mar.)
We'll Never TellKayla Perrin. St. Martin's Griffin, $13.95 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-312-34016-2
Feelings of jealousy and hate among the sorority set propel this racy suspense novel from Essence bestseller Perrin (The Delta Sisters). Phoebe Matthews, director of the pledge process at Alpha Sigma Pi at the University of Buffalo, enlists the aid of two of her sorority sisters, Camille and Miranda, in a plot to take Shandra James, the Zeta house sweetheart, down a notch after Shandra crawls all over Phoebe's fiancé at a dance. But what starts out as a harmless prank turns deadly after Shandra goes missing and her body turns up several days later. As the prime suspect, Phoebe must race against the clock to find the murderer before her friends break down and tell all. The recent attacks on co-eds already rocking the UB campus complicate Phoebe's task. Characters that pop off the page and a solid, well-paced plot will gratify Perrin's many fans. (Mar.)
The Journals of Sarab AffanJabra Ibrahim Jabra, trans. from Arabic by Ghassan Nasr. Syracuse Univ., $22.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8156-0883-7
Set during the first intifada, this sophisticated, graceful love story—the final work of Palestinian author and literary critic Jabra (1920–1994)—is a hallmark of contemporary Arabic literature. Sarab (Arabic for "illusion"), an impetuous young woman, stalks Nael, a famous author (and widower) whose works she has cherished since youth. After a charged elevator ride together, the two meet discreetly (at first) in a favorite cafe. Jabra presents their story as two interwoven first-person accounts and plays with remarkable subtlety on the gap between projections and the real. Sarab creates a fictional alter ego, Randa, with whom she taunts Nael. He, part of a circle of intellectuals, talks through the major political issues facing the Arab world; Sarab, entering this discussion as a political naïf, ends up a revolutionary. Jabra is after something subtle—the power of fiction in creating human emotions: in his world, love is imagined, and the written word is necessary for salvation. (Mar.)
Black IceLinda Hall. WaterBrook, $12.99 paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-57856-955-7
When a young girl is found dead, frozen in the backyard of local busybody Lenore Featherjohn's B&B, many presume her an angel because her body looked to be "praying." This tragedy throws the mostly Christian town of Fog Point into shock, fear and endless gossip about who might have committed the terrible murder. Longtime novelist Hall (Dark Water) offers readers an intense mystery against the wintry backdrop of a town cloaked in ice and snow, among Fog Pointers who have long-buried secrets of their own. Unfortunately, she leaves readers not only with the task of figuring out a murder, but also keeping track of what seems an endless cast of characters—business partners Jake and May of the Purple Church; the local minister Ben and his unhappy wife, Amy; Lenore Featherstone and her deadbeat sons, Earl and Carl, to name just a few. Each ultra-short chapter switches point of view and even abruptly jumps to the first person, present tense occasionally. But if audiences can weather the task of flipping back and forth to remember who's who, they will be rewarded with an engaging mystery set in a town experiencing a crisis of faith in more ways than one. (Mar.)
Wreckers' KeyChristine Kling. Ballantine, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-345-47905-1
At the start of Kling's salty if at times meandering fourth Florida suspense thriller (after Bitter End), tugboat captain Seychelle Sullivan, who inherited her dad's business three years earlier, is still resisting advanced GPS technology. Her more successful competitors, like upstart Neville Pinder, have no compunction about using it, while such unsavory developments as an increase in insurance fraud (an unhappy client is suing her) have her questioning her future. When her friend Nestor Frias runs a millionaire's yacht aground in Key West, Nestor insists the GPS navigation system was somehow compromised. While Seychelle is towing the yacht to Fort Lauderdale, Nestor's killed in a windsurfing accident that his pregnant widow insists was murder. An unexpected reunion with an old childhood friend, Ben Baker, once a nerd, now a hottie, provides some romantic tension. A shocking resolution to this solid tale of nautical adventure will catch most readers by surprise. (Mar.)
A... My Name's AmeliaJoanne Sundell. Five Star, $26.95 (297p) ISBN 978-1-59414-565-0
Love blooms in late 19th-century Colorado between an illiterate rancher and a deaf-mute illustrator in Sundell's simplistic sophomore romance. After ruggedly handsome rancher Aaron Zachary places a mail-order bride ad in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Amelia, an artist working at the paper, becomes smitten with Aaron and marries him, but it isn't until they're on the way to his ranch that he discovers she and, after some maneuvering, the epileptic orphan she brought with her are both deaf. Aaron, meanwhile, has his own secret: he can't read or write. It puts a damper on communication around the ranch. Domestic struggles ensue. There is little here to recommend: the prose is uninspired, the characters act as if on stage and the plot limps along. (Mar.)
The Liar's DiaryPatry Francis. Dutton, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-525-94990-9
A case study in the explosive effects of extreme denial, Francis's debut relies completely on its very unreliable narrator, with mixed results. When local violinist and composer Ali Mather, a very sexy 46, comes to teach music at the Bridgeway high school where narrator Jeanne Cross, a very plain 37, is the secretary, teachers and students alike are abuzz. Ali is separated from her mild husband George, and is soon sleeping with the 31-year-old shop teacher, Brian Shagaury (and also with car dealer Jack Butterfield). Jeanne is married to a buff orthopedic surgeon, Gavin, with whom she has an overweight, dyslexic 16-year-old son, Jamie, who attends the school. An unlikely friendship develops between the seemingly steady Jeanne and acting-out Ali, and Jeanne's purposefully flat narration is effective in doling out disorienting incongruities (as in the offhanded way Jeanne develops a serious pill habit). Ali's provocative lifestyle eventually intersects directly with Jeanne's home life. When tragedy strikes, Jeanne's Stepford routine holds for a while, then becomes a giveaway. (Feb.)
Mystery
SovereignC.J. Sansom. Viking, $25.95 (592p) ISBN 978-0-670-03831-2
Sansom's engrossing third historical featuring Matthew Shardlake (after 2005's Dark Fire) finds the hunchbacked barrister at the vortex of strife-torn Tudor England in the rainy autumn of 1541. Northern Britain anxiously awaits the arrival of the Great Progress taking Henry VIII and an entourage of thousands toward York to quell a fresh rebellion. Recently appointed a legal counsel for the Progress, Shardlake has a secret mission from Archbishop Cranmer to guarantee the safe return to London of imprisoned conspirator Sir Edward Broderick. With his trusted assistant, Jack Barak, Shardlake also investigates the death of master glazier Peter Oldroyd, a suspected papist, who fell from his ladder and was impaled on glass shards. Their search of Oldroyd's house reveals intriguing documents that question the royal line of succession and even impugn Henry. Despite complex court politics and several attempts on his life, Shardlake stalwartly maintains his integrity while searching for truth amid the "vipers' nest" of Henry's court. (Apr.)
Poison Pen Sheila Lowe. Capital Crime (www.capitalcrimepress.com), $14.95 paper (286p) ISBN 978-0-9776276-0-8
Suicide or murder? Only the graphologist knows for sure in this dynamite debut, the first in a new series, from forensic handwriting expert Lowe (Handwriting of the Famous and Infamous). When celebrity publicist Lindsey Alexander drowns in her hot tub at her L.A. penthouse apartment, Lindsey's business manager, Ivan Novak, hires handwriting analyst Claudia Rose to look into the authenticity of the block-printed note left at the scene. Ivan believes it was penned by a murderer, not a suicide victim. Claudia, who was once Lindsey's friend before being alienated by her pathologically malicious behavior, isn't surprised to learn that Lindsey liked to blackmail her famous clients by threatening to tarnish rather than shine their images. When hunky LAPD detective Joel Jovanic enters the investigation, the "grapho lady" and the cop make a hot team, in and out of the sheets. The author's large nonfiction fan base augurs well for the series. Author tour. (Mar.)
Avalanche: A Sheriff Bo Tully MysteryPatrick F. McManus. Simon & Schuster, $24 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4165-3265-1
An engaging romp that recalls the best work of Bill DeAndrea, the second Bo Tully whodunit (after 2006's The Blight Way) from humor columnist McManus sends the Blight County, Idaho, sheriff into the mountains after local woman Blanche Wilson reports her husband, Mike, missing from the upscale wilderness lodge the couple run. Tully heads into the field to investigate with his father (and predecessor as local lawman), a trip almost cut fatally short by an avalanche. Suspicious of the timing of that apparently natural event, Tully soon finds the corpse of Mike Wilson's business partner and a whopping motive for Blanche to have done away with them both: a multimillion-dollar insurance policy. Crime solving takes a back seat to the banter between Tully and his father ("Pap"), as well as the numerous attractive women they encounter along the way, but the solution is a logical if unsurprising one. (Mar.)
The Accidental Florist: A Jane Jeffry MysteryJill Churchill. Morrow, $29.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-06-052845-4
At the start of Agatha-winner Churchill's middling 16th cozy to feature Chicago-area amateur sleuth Jane Jeffry (after 2004's A Midsummer Night's Scream), Jane and her best friend, Shelley, decide to take a class on women's safety at the urging of Jane's long-time beau, Mel. Before the course is concluded, their teacher, Miss Welbourne, is murdered by a blow to the head. Jane's personal life overshadows the search for the killer: she and Mel decide to get married, so there's a wedding to plan, a house addition to design and an annoying almost-mother-in-law to handle. The domestic escapades make for enjoyable reading, and the safety tips Jane and Shelley learn are also helpful to the reader. But the plot is a little thin and much of the dialogue rings a false note. The book's most literary aspect is the wordplay of the title. (Mar.)
The Water ThiefBen Pastor. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-312-35390-2
In A.D. 304, the historian Aelius Spartianus steps into a conspiracy spanning centuries in Pastor's satisfyingly convoluted historical, which ranges from Egypt to the villas and back alleys of imperial Rome. Researching a biography of the deified Hadrian, Aelius is curious about the drowning death of Antinous, the emperor's favored male consort. The historian learns of a letter from Hadrian, which hints at a plot against the empire, that may be interred with the youth in an unknown grave. A source soon suffers Antinous's watery fate in the Nile, and attempts on Aelius's life quicken. Pastor (Liar Moon) bases her characters, even Aelius, on historical personages and weaves strong threads of contemporary gay culture, Christian suppression and the Jewish revolt into an elaborately detailed canvas. As the search for Antinous's grave narrows, red herrings abound. The shadowy conspiracy against Rome ought to resonate powerfully with readers today. (Mar.)
The Vampire of Venice BeachJennifer Colt. Broadway, $11.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-7679-2013-1
Harley-riding, red-headed identical twins Terry and Kerry McAffee make their way down the Pacific Coast Highway to Venice Beach in this zany third installment (after 2006's The Mangler of Malibu Canyon) to Colt's paranormal series, as they track the killer of their friend Darby Applewhite. Posing as Ephemera, Queen of the Undead, for the Coming Out of the Coffin parade, Darby was to make a grand entrance, but her bloodless, lifeless body tumbles from the coffin instead, and later disappears from the morgue. Darby hired the twins for crowd control, and now Darby's parents press Terry and Kerry for help, drawing them deep into an unholy coverup. Colt enlivens the mystery with snarky social commentary on a subplot involving the twins' rich great-aunt Reba and her Venice Beach charity work. The far-out plot features entertaining characters like a really gross vamp named Shatán, but the standouts are the wisecracking sisters on their shocking pink motorcycle. (Mar.)
The EngagementGeorges Simenon, trans. from the French by Anna Moschovakis. New York Review Books, $12.95 paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-59017-228-5
First published in 1933, this new English translation of a short, bleak psychological drama from Simenon (1903–1989), creator of Inspector Maigret (Lock 14, etc.), dispassionately describes the fate of the odd Mr. Hire, a reclusive middle-aged man whose life of dull routine begins an inevitable slide into disaster when a prostitute is brutally murdered near his apartment in a Paris suburb. Guilty only of a slightly disreputable occupation, a voyeuristic fascination and an unusual physical appearance, Hire inadvertently seals his fate with mundane, unremarkable observations and suggestions. His concierge brings him to the attention of the police. Though Hire is aware of the net being spread for him and tries to escape it, eventually, like a swimmer struggling against an undertow, he's gradually exhausted and sucked further away from the safety of the shore. This is a quietly compelling story with no hero, no villain and no justice—just the inevitability of fate. (Mar.)
Key Lime Pie Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with RecipesJoanne Fluke. Kensington, $22 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7582-1018-0
The yummy eighth smalltown cozy from Fluke (after 2006's Cherry Cheesecake Murder) finds sometime sleuth Hannah Swensen, owner of the Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, Minn., judging the baking contest at the Tri-County Fair. When one of her fellow judges, home economics teacher Willa Sunquist, is murdered, Hannah determines to sniff out the killer. Was it a man from Willa's mysterious past? Or a student she flunked? Fluke has developed a charming supporting cast—Hannah's besotted (and slightly spineless) two suitors, her overbearing but likable mother, her endearing sisters and her levelheaded business partner all feel like friends by the time the murder is solved. The dozens of tempting recipes Fluke includes are an added treat. (Mar.)
SF/Fantasy/Horror
The Name of the Wind: Book One Patrick Rothfuss. DAW, $24.95 (904p) ISBN 978-0-7564-0407-9
The originality of Rothfuss's outstanding debut fantasy, the first of a trilogy, lies less in its unnamed imaginary world than in its precise execution. Kvothe ("pronounced nearly the same as 'Quothe' "), the hero and villain of a thousand tales who's presumed dead, lives as the simple proprietor of the Waystone Inn under an assumed name. Prompted by a biographer called Chronicler who realizes his true identity, Kvothe starts to tell his life story. From his upbringing as an actor in his family's traveling troupe of magicians, jugglers and jesters, the Edema Ruh, to feral child on the streets of the vast port city of Tarbean, then his education at "the University," Kvothe is driven by twin imperatives—his desire to learn the higher magic of naming and his need to discover as much as possible about the Chandrian, the demons of legend who murdered his family. As absorbing on a second reading as it is on the first, this is the type of assured, rich first novel most writers can only dream of producing. The fantasy world has a new star. (Apr.)
The Quest for the Trilogy: A Rover Novel of Three AdventuresMel Odom. Tor, $25.95 (464p) ISBN 978-0-765-31517-5
Last seen in Odom's Lord of the Libraries, the hobbitlike Grandmagister Edgewick "Wick" Lamplighter (aka "The Rover") and his protégé, Juhg, hunt for rare books for their library, unearth enchanted armament and barely survive their respective brushes with the evil Goblinkin in their rousing fourth outing. Grandmagister Juhg (promoted after Wick went walkabout at the end of the previous book) goes in search of three encrypted journals that belonged to Wick as well as treasure Wick describes in these journals. In a tricky literary maneuver, Juhg reads through the journals that depict Wick's quest to find all three of the magical weapons lost after the battle of Fell's Keep as if he himself were Wick. Filled with talking beasts, including a cat and a donkey, and quests that have a thousand years of history, this latest addition to this popular series is sure to tickle the fancy of high fantasy fans. (Mar.)
Keeping It Real: Quantum Gravity: Book OneJustina Robson. Pyr, $15 paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-59102-539-9
Life is anything but real in this entertaining fusion of SF and fantasy spiced with sex, rockin' elves and drunk faeries, the first of a new series, from British author Robson (Mappa Mundi). In 2015, the quantum bomb at Texas's superconducting supercollider blew a hole in spacetime's fabric, revealing "a total of five other realities" unknown to the human inhabitants of Otopia (formerly Earth). One of these is Alfheim, a home to elves. By 2021, Alfheim extremists, who despise Otopian technologies (and Otopians), have targeted Zal, a rebel rocker elf and his band, the No Shows, for thriving in a human realm. Death threats prompt the Otopian security agency to assign Lila Black, a nuclear-powered cyborg still adapting to her AI abilities, to Zal as his undercover guard. After Zal is kidnapped, Black travels to Alfheim, where she meets an old foe and tangles with a wicked necromancer. Deft prose helps the reader accept what in lesser hands would be merely absurd. (Mar.)
Hart & Boot & Other StoriesTim Pratt. Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $14.95 paper (209p) ISBN 978-1-59780-053-2
A simple theme unites the 13 stories in this solid collection from Pratt (The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl): extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people. In the title story, a western, Pearl meets—or perhaps creates from nothing—a man she names John Boot, who proves to be her salvation. In "Impossible Dreams," a videophile repeatedly returns to a mysteriously appearing video store from an alternate reality. In "Bottom Feeding," Graydon, mourning the death of his brother, conquers a giant catfish that has magical properties. Elements from Greek myth play important roles in such tales as "Terrible Ones," in which an actress finds herself followed by a Chorus and sought out by the Furies, and "Living with the Harpy," about a woman who gives up her harpy roommate for love. Pratt's straightforward style, ordinary Joe protagonists and often hackneyed plots render his bizarre landscapes all the more plausible and the emotional connections all the more wrenching. (Mar.)
Text:UR: The New Book of MasksEdited by Forrest Aguirre. Raw Dog Screaming (www.rawdogscreaming.com), $15.95 paper (228p) ISBN 978-1-933293-39-4
Fantasy fans looking for familiar themes and names among the 20 stories in Aguirre's boldly original anthology will be disappointed. Those who like experimental fiction that's not always readily accessible will be richly rewarded. Highlights include Nadia Gregor's enigmatic "Faure, Envenomed, Dictates," Eric Schaller's hilarious "Monkey Shines," Catherine Kasper's gently satiric "The Theater Spectacular," and Joshua Cohen's breathless, fabulous split-sentence split-thought confession, "Last Transmission or Man with a Robotic Ermine." Aguirre, who won a World Fantasy Award for Leviathan 3 (edited with Jeff VanderMeer), demonstrates once again why he's one of today's more innovative genre editors. (Mar.)
Shadowplay: Book II of ShadowmarchTad Williams. DAW, $26.95 (672p) ISBN 978-0-7564-0358-4
While juggling a complex epic fantasy plot may be child's play for veteran word-wizard Williams (Otherland), the bewildered star players of the fine second volume in his Shadowmarch trilogy must deal with a very adult world being transformed by war, magic, secrets and a weird, powerful scrying-mirror. Back in Southmarch, Hendon Tolly has usurped the throne, while King Olin's held in captivity in Hierosol. Olin's young twins, Princess Briony and Prince Barrick Eddon, struggle to survive in exile on separate but equally perilous paths. Barrick's trapped behind the Shadowline with Capt. Ferras Vansen; Gyir the Storm Lantern, a formidable, faceless fairy; and Skurn, a quirky talking raven. Briony's helped by a forest demigoddess and winds up with a band of endangered traveling thespians. Though the pace lags at times, bestseller Williams once again delivers a sweeping spellbinder full of mystical wonder. Author tour. (Mar.)
Mass Market
Some Like It BrazenDeborah Raleigh. Zebra, $6.50 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8217-7857-9
When Lady Bianca Carstone's father forbids her to marry notorious rake Lord Aldron, the petulant maiden hatches a rebellious plot, setting off this entertaining and passionate Regency romance. Fearless, impulsive and used to getting what she wants, Bianca infuriates her father by striking up a disingenuous courtship with London's newest and most disrespected member of the ton, Edward Sinclair, earl of Harrington. Patronizingly referred to as the Peasant Earl for his humble upbringing as a gentleman farmer, Edward is attracted to Bianca the moment he sets his eyes on her, and soon recognizes her as a far deeper and more responsible woman than others would think. Despite Bianca's selfish intentions, the charade swiftly escalates into a meaningful, intense relationship, fueling spiteful gossip. Their trust in one another is further put to the test when a former beau tries to push his way back into Bianca's life, forcing Bianca and Edward to question the strength of their love and the lengths they'd go to salvage it. While the abrupt ending leaves too many unanswered questions, this engrossing tale will keep readers amused. (Mar.)
The Scent of Shadows: The First Sign of the ZodiacVicki Pettersson. Avon, $6.99 (528p) ISBN 978-0-06-089891-5
Despite its romance pedigree (Kim Harrison and Charlaine Harris contribute advance praise), this moody, fast-paced debut falls into the growing "dark fantasy" category, which blends fantasy, comic book superheroism and paranormal romance, but holds no promise of a happily-ever-after. The book's heroine, Joanna Archer, has spent the years following a brutal attack learning martial arts and trolling Sin City, Nev., for trouble. On the eve of her 25th birthday, she finds it in the form of a peculiar date who looks like a gaunt banker one moment and like hell spawn the next. Joanna fights her way out of his grasp, but her close encounter is only the beginning. Before long, she finds herself caught up in a world where a superhuman few—the Light—fight evil from the Shadow realm, a world in which she's recognized as the "Kairos," a prophesied warrior made up of both Shadow and Light who's destined to help Light prevail. Pettersson centers her story around the signs of the Zodiac, putting an imaginative spin on a familiar setup. Though graphic scenes (in which tongues are severed, heads ripped off, etc.) will repel some readers, others will embrace Pettersson's enduring, tough-as-nails heroine and anticipate gleefully the next volume, due in April. (Mar.)
A Slice of HeavenSherryl Woods. Mira, $6.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2415-7
Woods's latest entry in her Sweet Magnolias series (after Stealing Home) is sure to please fans and entice new readers with an affinity for family stories. Dana Sue Sullivan, devastated by husband Ronnie's one-night stand with a local bimbo, made neighborhood history by throwing him out of their Serenity, S.C., home, tossing his belongings onto the front lawn and banning him from all contact with her and their 14-year-old daughter, Annie. Two years later, Dana Sue is a successful restaurateur, having opened high-end eatery Sullivan's, but can't forgive herself after Annie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening anorexia complications. Dana Sue's lifelong best friends, Maddie and Helen, insist that she contact Ronnie, giving her forlorn ex an excuse to re-enter Serenity and, he hopes, a chance to rejoin his family. As everyone faces down their personal demons, Woods buoys the predictable plot with flesh-and-blood characters, terrific dialogue and substantial stakes. (Mar.)
Dead ShotAnnie Solomon. Warner, $6.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-466-61632-4
Solomon hits the ground running with this gripping romantic thriller, pitting an obsessed artist against an even more obsessed fan. Still haunted by the 20-year-old murder of her famous fashion model mother, young photographer Gillian Gray is exhibiting a series of controversial self-portraits that show her posed in various grisly deathscapes. Giving her instant celebrity, the photos have also made her the target of conservative community groups, particularly in her hometown of Nashville. To keep her safe while she's home, Gillian's wealthy family contracts a bodyguard, staid ex-cop Ray Pierce. He realizes he may have his work cut out for him when Gillian kicks off her exhibit by challenging her mother's killer, via a crowd of reporters, to "come and get me." Indeed, it isn't long before someone begins sending out a photographic series of his own, recreating Gillian's images using the genuine article—dead women. Solomon's characters are convincing and compelling, especially Gillian, who makes an engaging heroine: smart, willful and profoundly damaged. Solomon's plot is good, suspenseful fun, but her ending is disappointingly off-target. (Mar.)
Comics
Dragon Drive Vol. 1Ken-ichi Sakura. Viz/Shonen Jump, $7.99 paper (200p) ISBN 978-1-42151187-0
Most of the clichés of the "versus battle" genre are present in the opening volume of Sakura's fast-paced story, but so are some great fight scenes and intriguing technology. Reiji Ozora is a born loser, so his hopes aren't high when his lifelong friend Yukino introduces him to a new virtual reality game called Dragon Drive. Played in an enormous theater-like facility, participants sit in chairs that connect them to the game computer; a giant video wall allows the audience to take in all the action. Each participant controls one or more dragons (à la Pokémon, et al.). For Reiji, the game looks bleak from the start as he is assigned Chibi, a tiny dragon with no discernible battle skills. But Chibi has strength that comes to the surface when cornered—as, it turns out, does Reiji himself. Battle sequences are frenetic and intense; a lot of shouting, lots of concrete destroyed, lots of trash-talking and "super-deformed" emoting. Many more secrets remain, including the purpose of the game and the nature of the people running it behind the scenes; none of those secrets are explored in this first volume, which leans heavily on action. (Apr.)
My Dead GirlfriendEric Wight. Tokyopop, $9.99 paper (192p) ISBN 973-1-59816996-3
As the youngest member in the long and unfortunate Bleak bloodline, Finney has few pressures that weigh more heavily upon him than his impending, and most likely, cataclysmic death. The Bleak family is notorious for its members meeting their demise: Margaret Bleak, a magician's assistant was literally sawed in half, and Archibald Bleak, a zookeeper, was smothered by manure. Downtrodden and consumed by his fear of death, Finney attracts nothing but trouble at his high school and pines for his lost love, Jenny. Finney and Jenny met many months ago at a traveling carnival where they shared time on the Ferris wheel, were bored by a puny roller coaster and fell in love on the Bucket of Blood. How will Finney find his lost love and what will he do when he realizes that, like most of his extended family, Jenny is quite dearly departed? This is the first series created by Wight, who is best known for his work on the television show The O.C. Wight has an uncanny knack for capturing the ferocity of teenage emotions in both ink and words. His artwork is poppy (assuredly the most enjoyable aspect of this book) and the fast-paced story will appeal to teenage readers. (Feb.)
The American WayJohn Ridley and Georges Jeanty. DC/Wildstorm, $19.99 paper (160p) ISBN 973-1-4012-1256-5
The operative question with The American Way is, do we really need another Watchmen? An amalgam of Alan Moore's watershed comic and its numerous imitative series, like The Authority and Marvels, this miniseries is a complicated take on the superhero myth seen through the Cold War politics and civil rights upheavals of the early '60s. The U.S. government has created a team of fake (though some are inexplicably real) heroes who fight fake villains so that the government can appear strong to its Cold War enemies. Protagonist Wesley is a just-fired ad man for cars who is called into service to serve as the propaganda man for the superteam. Needless to say, Wesley's ethics and belief in his country are challenged as he becomes embroiled in the politics and realities of the situation, particularly when an African-American hero joins the team. And even more needless to say, the government's superbeings become unhinged and catastrophe follows. Ridley, whose résumé includes both screenplays and novels, is a competent writer with ambitious ideas, but they often lose focus, especially as the story gets more convoluted, and Jeanty's art is energetic but does little to delineate the many characters. Still, fans of superhero revisionism will find much to chew on. (Feb.)
The World BelowPaul Chadwick. Dark Horse, $12.95 paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-59307-360-2
Chadwick's works, like his well-known Concrete, have always maintained a fiercely individual slant, but this collection of his two miniseries raids the back catalogues of Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Challengers of the Unknown and a plethora of underground exploration yarns. Chadwick sends "the Team of Six" into a hostile subterranean landscape replete with horrific monsters, strange natural phenomena, incredible technologies and lost civilizations with predictable results. The characters are much better written than what's usually seen in team books, with a story often interrupted by some random, oddball threat that is usually solved with a bout of action or a firefight. The action set pieces are quite lively, thanks to the author's no-nonsense artwork. It's clear that Chadwick was trying to develop a piece that would yield narrative rewards if given time to find its audience and thrive. However, the series was ended early, necessitating a rapid conclusion that solves most of the plot threads, resulting in an engagingly illustrated, deeply flawed but interesting curiosity. (Jan.)
Batman: Year 100 Paul Pope. DC, $19.99 paper (232p) ISBN 973-1-4012-1192-5
Many recent comics have tried to make sense of the large political situations of modern life. A character like Batman might seem an unlikely tool to ponder the right to privacy, but in Pope's hands the effect is dazzling. The superhero trope of the secret identity becomes a metaphor for the past life we all want to keep to ourselves. When the Gotham City PD and other forces come gunning for what is under the Dark Knight's cowl, Batman and his cohorts protect it out of a basic sense of justice. As written, the Batman of 2039 is a living legend, seen in flashbacks that correspond with the dates the stories appeared in print. There's a metaphysical quality to the character, as if his very story is what is keeping him alive. Pope's art strikes a balance between traditional superhero comics and cutting-edge illustration. The big dark figure and the high action that follows him everywhere is still present, but played by figures that look like they could be found in an underground manga. It's been 68 years since the character's first appearance, and we still have Batman and Robin setting things right. Who says it will be different when the future comes? (Jan.)
