Fiction Reviews: Week of 2/5/2007

Lou Bigelow meets her husband-to-be, Toby Maytree, when Toby returns to Provincetown following WWII. In the house Lou inherits from her mother, they read, cook soup, play games with friends, vote and raise a child. Toby writes poetry and does odd jobs; Lou paints. Their unaffected bohemianism fits right in with the Provincetown landscape, which Dillard, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, describes with an offhand but deep historical sense. Years into the marriage, Toby suddenly decamps to Maine with another local woman, Deary Hightoe; flash forward six years to Lou reading Toby's semimonthly letters (and Deary's marginal notes) "with affectionate interest." Dillard, stripping the story to bare facts-plus-backdrop, is after something beyond character and beyond love, though she evokes Lou and Toby's beautifully. Thus, when Deary's heart falters 20 years later and Toby brings her home to Lou for hospice care, Lou puts up water for tea and gets going. She feels too much, not too little, for mere drama, although people who don't know her misread her. In short, simple sentences, Dillard calls on her erudition as a naturalist and her grace as poet to create an enthralling story of marriage—particular and universal, larky and monumental. (June)

A recently widowed American food writer finds solace and love—and the most inspiring food she's ever encountered—during a visit to China in Mones's sumptuous latest. Still reeling from husband Matt's accidental death a year ago, food writer Maggie McElroy is flummoxed when a paternity claim is filed against Matt's estate from Beijing, where he sometimes traveled for business. Before Maggie embarks on the obligatory trip to investigate, her editor assigns her a profile on Sam Liang, a half-Chinese American chef living in Beijing who is about to enter a prestigious cooking competition. Sam's old-school recipes and history lessons of high Chinese cuisine kick-start Maggie's dulled passion for food and help her let go of her grief, even as she learns of Matt's Beijing bed hopping. Though the narrative can get bogged down in the minutiae of Chinese culinary history (filtered through the experiences of Sam's family), Mones's descriptions of fine cuisine are tantalizing, and her protagonist's quest is bracing and unburdened by melodrama. Early in her visit, Maggie scoffs at the idea that "food can heal the human heart." Mones smartly proves her wrong. (May)

Answer the quiz show's final question correctly, and you win $100 million; get it wrong, and you're executed on live television. The premise is as potentially gruesome and gripping as it is simple, but former Gong Show host and self-proclaimed informant Barris (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) is more interested in the multiple sad-sack characters who provide myriad digressions than in plot. In 2011, a self-described octogenarian "cripple"—he's never named, but "the movie of the cripple's book, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, tanked"—is broke in New York, despite a TV heyday that included creating The Dating Game. He hopes to make a comeback by peddling his concept for "The Death Game" to a successful producer. As that plot unfolds, Barris introduces a welter of characters who are more like caricatures, among them widow Vera Bundle of Steubenville, Ohio, 77 and mourning her husband 50 years after his death; prostitute Retta Mae Wagons, the 170 IQ teenage daughter of a junkie; and Billy Constable, 19, late of Bowling Green, Ky., who has come to New York to seek his fortune. These three appear in the deadly broadcast that ends the book, but that's less the point than tuning in to the world according to Barris. (May)

Markovits's latest (after 2005's Fathers and Daughters) is a masterful chronicle of a doomed 19th-century romance that begins in deception and ends in tragedy. Bookish Eliza Esmond, having forever lived in the shadow of her prettier sister, has a chance encounter with famed writer and legendary lover Lord Byron outside a London bookstore and is thrilled when their brief conversation turns, over time, into his pursuit of her. Unfortunately for Eliza, her Byron isn't the real Byron; he's John "Polly" Polidori, a bumbling doctor with literary aspirations who had worked as Lord Byron's personal physician. Even after Byron severed their relationship, Polly remained obsessed with the poet and went to absurd lengths—offering up his sister, for one—to keep Byron in his life. Polly maintains the charade, and his anonymously published and wildly popular story is believed by everyone—including Eliza—to be Byron's work. Markovitz is a remarkably economic writer who neatly conveys his characters' inner whirlwinds: "It was, for Polidori, a little like discovering, after an orphaned childhood, that your father had been a king, that you were a king, now, too." A powerful climax underscores the misery and longing at the core of this impressive novel. (May)

Munoz delivers another book of short stories colored by the heat of California's Central Valley and shot through with despair and a hint of magic. Following his debut, Zigzagger, these 10 interconnected tales are filled with characters living lives of isolation, alienated both from one another and the mainstream culture. Much of what happens is waiting and watching: a young gay man envies the glamorous life of his neighbor in "The Comeuppance of Lupe Rivera"; a young woman waits for her runaway cousin at a bus station in "The Heart Finds Its Own Conclusion"; and a mother waits for her only son's death after a motorcycle crash in "Lindo y Querido." The title story sees a young man robbed of his strength and promise when an industrial accident leaves him in the care of his overburdened father, whose hope lies in the promise of a faith healer. Munoz writes with restraint and without pretension, giving fearless voice to personal tragedies. (May)

Chaos and fate are hopelessly intertwined in this exuberant second novel from Lemus (Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties). Frank Cruz—born as a girl named Francisca, but living and identifying as a man—is a loner from Southern California. His father, diagnosed with terminal cancer, offers Frank tragic stories of the Cruz family, a key to a safe deposit box and an arresting 1924 photograph of a beautiful woman named Nahui Olin, a bohemian Mexican artist/poet from an aristocratic background. Frank (who narrates) learns that Nahui had many lovers, lived transgressively and was endlessly wooed. When his father dies, Frank sets off for New York and lands in the East Village, where he meets and falls in love with Nathalie; she eerily reminds him of Nahui, whose face and history have now obsessed him. Their relationship is solid until the horror of September 11 throws them into chaos and sadness that tests their relationship, and Frank's self-image. With her blunt prose, Lemus doesn't waste a word in this smart, never sentimental identity novel. (May)

A breadth of experience and setting distinguishes this somber first collection of 18 very short stories by New York-based Van Booy. "Little Birds" is narrated by a teenage boy of uncertain parentage who sketches his life with his devoted foster father, Michel, in working-class Paris: "It is the afternoon of my birthday, but still the morning of my life. I am walking on the Pont des Arts." In "Some Bloom in Darkness," an aging railroad station clerk's witness of a violent scene between a man and woman translates in his mind into an infatuation with a store mannequin. Other tales are set in Rome ("I live in Rome where people sit by fountains and kiss"), small villages in Cornwall or Wales, and in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Van Booy's characters are shipwrecked by fate and memory but tarry on, like the narrator of "Distant Ships," a lifelong Royal Mail loader who stopped speaking after the death of his son 20 years earlier, or the homeless man chased by ghosts in "The Shepherd on the Rock," who aims to "live out the last of my life" at John F. Kennedy International Airport. These tales have at once the solemnity of myth and the offhandedness of happenstance. (May)

McMahon (Revolution No. 9 and three other thrillers starring Dr. Carroll Monks) delivers his finest achievement to date with this beautifully written stand-alone set in contemporary Montana. Hugh Davoren, a former journalist and ex-boxer now doing construction near where he grew up outside Helena, is working on the building of a massive residence on the old Pettyjohn homestead, recently purchased by an East Coast businessman, Wesley Balcomb. Davoren keeps his head low and does his job, until he comes across two thoroughbred horses unceremoniously shotgunned and buried in the site trash dump. Next thing he knows, Davoren's thrown in jail overnight on a trumped-up charge. What kind of shady operation is Balcomb running, and why is he suddenly so determined to ruin Davoren's life? Aided by his co-worker and friend, "Madbird," a hardcase Blackfoot Indian and Vietnam vet, Davoren grapples with a host of antagonists, including Kirk Pettyjohn, old man Pettyjohn's crack-addict son, and an assassin known as John Doe. A natural storyteller, McMahon is sure to appeal to fans of James Crumley and Jim Harrison. (Apr.)

Bestseller Green (Kingdom Come) introduces a tough, appealing hero in his action-packed 12th thriller. Jake Carlson, a correspondent for the tabloid TV news show American Outrage, based in New York City, has softened his hard line a bit after his wife's recent death, but is still capable of going for the jugular when necessary for a hot story. On the home front, to help his preteen adopted son, Sam, get over his grief, Jake agrees to try and track down Sam's biological mother. This simple request goes from bad to worse once pseudo-celebrity Jake starts asking questions about the boy's supposed Albanian roots. After Jake is drugged and shot at, his personal life becomes tabloid fodder as his own colleagues ruthlessly chase down the story. When Sam disappears, Jake gets serious and sets out to do whatever it takes to bring his son back, regardless of who pays the price. Green's tale is ripe with irony and full of barbs. (Apr.)

Part mystery-thriller and part ghost story, McMahon's well-paced debut alternates smoothly between past and present. In the fall of 2002, 41-year-old Kate Cypher, a divorced Seattle school nurse, returns to New Hope, the decaying Vermont hippie commune where she grew up, to visit her elderly mother, Jean, who's suffering from Alzheimer's. Kate has avoided New Hope since the grizzly, unsolved murder of her fifth-grade friend, Del Griswold, 31 years earlier. Kate fears she betrayed Del, a free-spirited farm girl. Did her betrayal cause Del's death? Who killed Del? Another local girl is murdered in a similar manner at the time of Kate's return. Could the killer be loose again? Meanwhile, Jean appears to be possessed with Del's spirit and may have the answers to these questions. As Kate investigates, she learns stunning truths about many events and people from her youth. McMahon does a particularly good job of portraying the cruelty of school children. (Apr.)

After a brutal hit in Tampa on high-profile rapper Big Bad Wolf, contract killer Gideon, the star of this fast-paced thriller from bestseller Dickey, jets to London for his next assignment. On the plane, paranoia brewing just beneath his poker face keeps him wary of two mysterious passengers who could be either harmless squares or hired guns out to avenge Big Bad Wolf's murder. This constant uncertainty over who's in the game and who isn't keeps Gideon—and readers—on edge as Gideon navigates London's underworld and pursues a personal vendetta. Dickey occasionally shifts away from Gideon's point of view to that of another hit man who has just received his next contract: Gideon. The plot is taut, fast and bold—total blockbuster entertainment, replete with an abundance of sex, violence and James Bond touches. A tense cliffhanger caps a wild ride. The next installment is due in August, which for many readers won't be soon enough. (Apr.)

Angels, imaginary friends, near-saints, shades and über-ogres fall to Earth among ordinary Russians and routinely succeed in whetting the imagination in this sparkling collection from Tolstoy's great-grandniece, a longtime New Yorker fiction contributor. It includes her two previous story collections, On the Golden Porch and Sleepwalker in a Fog, along with more recent work. The opening story, "Loves Me, Loves Me Not," presents the classic hateful nanny/spoiled kids dyad, setting it in a Leningrad full of wonders: some menacing, others joyous. In "Okkerivil River," the hapless Simeonov sets off to rescue (or so he imagines) chanteuse Vera Vasilevna, who has serenaded him from his Victrola for half a lifetime. When he does find her, she turns out to be exactly like the title river: vivid, repugnant and polluted beyond human redress. In "The Circle," Vassily Mikailovich (Tolstaya wryly leaves him without a surname) turns 60 and finds little behind or ahead of him, despite meeting the ghost of former lover Isolde. In "Yorick," a baleen whale, provider of bone for button-making and enabler of childhood fantasies, is elegized as Hamlet's nursemaid and human cairn to the narrator. Beautiful, imaginative and disconcerting, Tolstaya's Russia is a labyrinth of treasures and horrors. (Apr.)

At the start of this chilling paranormal thriller from bestseller Graham (Kiss of Darkness), anthropologist Leslie MacIntyre eagerly accepts an invitation to work on an archeological dig near New York City's Hastings House, a historic building that survived the explosion which a year earlier seriously injured her and killed her fiancé, Matt Connolly. As a temporary resident of Hastings House, Leslie, who has developed the ability to communicate with ghosts, sees Matt in her dreams, complete with convincing erotic love scenes. A secondary plot adds to the intrigue as Matt's cousin, PI Joe Connolly, searches for a missing social worker, whose disappearance may be linked to that of local prostitutes. Leslie's paranormal powers lead her to not only important archeological discoveries but also grave personal danger. The intense, unexpected conclusion will leave readers well satisfied. (Apr.)

Dunlap's latest (after Emilie's Voice) is an uneven but spirited mystery-cum-romance set in 1830s Paris. After cholera claims her mother, the Countess Anne de Barbier-Chouant's cartoonishly cold father, the marquis, locks up her beloved piano and announces that he wants her to wed distant cousin Armand. Anne finds this idea unappealing, but uses Armand as an excuse to secretly visit her mother's friend, patron of the arts Marie d'Agoult. Anne becomes infatuated with the pianist Franz Liszt; at the same time, medical student Pierre Talon falls for her. Liszt, enamored of Marie, offers his services as tutor to Anne, whom he intends to use as cover for his flirtation, but Anne misunderstands and thinks that Liszt is in love with her. Convinced that Liszt is trying to seduce Anne, Marie, whose feelings for Liszt are late-blooming, tries to pair off Anne with Pierre. Dunlap manages to hold her narrative's momentum halfway through the novel, but a slew of too-convenient coincidences and contrived plot twists eventually overwhelm the narrative. The story picks up again when Dunlap focuses on the marquis's secret past. Ultimately, things are unconvincingly explained away. Dunlap's novel is a near-miss. (Apr.)

Weaving together a variety of subtly interrelated narratives, British author Hill (Air and Angels) embeds a thoughtful reflection on alternative medicine into a taut and suspenseful mystery, the first of a new crime series featuring Chief Insp. Simon Serrailler. Having transferred to the small cathedral town of Lafferton from London's "Met," police detective Freya Graffham explores her new community and becomes fascinated by Serrailler, her enigmatic superior. Though she fits well within the local police force, she finds herself unable to let go what seems like a routine missing persons report on a middle-aged spinster. When yet more townspeople turn up missing, her hunch is verified and a serious police search begins, bringing her into closer proximity with Serrailler at the same time it exposes her to danger. A dark but entirely convincing ending may startle some readers, but Hill's fine writing and nuanced insight into human nature should appeal to fans of such masters of the psychological thriller as P.D. James, Elizabeth George and Ruth Rendell, who provides a blurb. (Apr.)

The depth and passion of Perry's fifth and final volume in her acclaimed WWI series won't disappoint readers who have followed this engrossing and moving tale from its inception with No Graves as Yet. In the last days of the war, the Reavley family—Joseph, an army chaplain; his brother, Matthew, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service; and their sister, Judith, an ambulance driver—find themselves together in the mud, blood and trenches of Flanders. Throughout the series, the three have been locked in a deadly struggle with someone they call the Peacemaker, who they believe is a high government official who had their parents murdered in his quest to involve England in an odious peace effort with Germany. A breakthrough arrives with a German officer who's willing to go to England and reveal to the authorities the identity and mission of the Peacemaker, though the family must first solve the mystery of a murdered nurse before unmasking the Peacemaker. At the finish, Perry neatly and satisfactorily ties up all the loose ends from the preceding novels. (Apr.)

De Hériz's debut is a humid family drama. Isabel Garcia Luna, a world-traveling anthropologist specializing in "rituals of grief," and a mother of three, discovers that she is mistakenly believed to have drowned in a Guatemala motorboat mishap and her grown children have positively identified her remains back home in Barcelona. (The remains were actually those of an unlucky tourist.) Isabel, unfazed, hides out at a remote inn, hesitant to return to her placid life and a failing marriage. Meanwhile, ever-inquisitive daughter Serena, 38, restless and despondent at the loss of her mother and at her father's ever-declining health, takes it upon herself to chronicle the "archeology" of her heritage. Fueled by guilt and remorse, Isabel returns. The narrative volleys between first-person accounts: Isabel's fascinating work history with tribal burial customs mixed in with her reluctant voyage home, and Serena's ponderings of her secret family history. The eventual confrontation, exacerbated by wine, opens a Pandora's box of long-simmering family grudges, though Serena surmises that she and her mother have discovered "the medicinal value of the truth." The dense narrative becomes melodramatic in spots, but Isabel and Serena are engaging, and their various desperate measures are motivated and palpable. (Apr.)

A routine plot doesn't do justice to the intriguing premise of this debut thriller, a bestseller in Spain, about a serial killer stalking the cardinals poised to vote on Pope John Paul II's successor. Young, attractive Paola Dicanti, an inspector in an Italian violent crime unit and an FBI-trained profiler, is summoned to a church in Vatican City where a cardinal's mutilated corpse has been discovered. To her outrage, Dicanti learns that the victim is the second in a series, and that the identity of the killer—a pedophilic priest with a history of violence, Victor Karosky—is known to a new and mysterious ally, Anthony Fowler, a former priest and American intelligence operative. The cat-and-mouse game between the police and Karosky is nothing new, while Gómez-Jurado's use of the sex scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic church is sensational rather than sensitive. American readers may be amused that Bush administration figure John Negroponte plays the part of shadowy backstage conspirator. (Apr.)

A creepy, obsessive protagonist darkens Whittier's latest, an uneven and unconvincing romance. James Taylor, an arrogant, well-off CEO of a consumer electronics company, believes he can have everything he wants, including his ex-girlfriend Sam. A year after she left him (she caught him smooching another woman), James's mother insists on hiring her as a live-in nurse to help her through her cancer treatment. Though Sam tries to keep her distance, James relentlessly and jealously pursues her, demanding she take him back and threatening to beat up the men he sees her with. Even though James's possessiveness is believable, Whittier (The Truth About Being a Bass Fisherman's Wife; Fatal Embrace) fails to make a convincing case for Sam's lingering interest in her reckless and frightening ex-boyfriend. The ending is dreamy, but unearned. (Apr.)

Chris Minnaar is a South African novelist who recounts his many loves in this long, melancholy second-person confession to his dead friend and would-be lover, Rachel. Born to privilege in a wealthy Afrikaner family, Chris is seduced when he is eight by an older cousin, beginning the string of encounters—about 20—that stretch over 70 years and make up the bulk of the book. Chris begins his adult life as a lawyer, but abandons that career when his first novel becomes a sensation. His recounted amorous adventures are interrupted by family scenes (overbearing father dies early; mother eventually suffers from dementia) and by the good times he has with Rachel (whom he loves but doesn't bed) and her photojournalist husband, George. The trio discuss opera, fine wines, art, literature, gourmet cooking and very little politics, the one topic that hangs over the novel like an invisible cloud. Although South African novelist Brink (A Dry White Season) is a master stylist, Chris's encounters—they meet, they bed, they part—become tedious. The sex scenes are more clinical than erotic, and after a while one senses the strain of coming up with a new attribute to distinguish each successive lover from the rest. (Apr.)

Thriller readers who prefer a heavy dose of romance will most appreciate this contemporary whodunit from bestseller Kane (Run for Your Life). Morgan Winter, after the trauma of discovering her parents' corpses as a child, has rebuilt her life and established a high-class matchmaking service in Manhattan. Winter's world is rocked when the man who confessed to the murders is exonerated, and the inquiry is reopened. Fortunately, Pete Montgomery, who was the lead NYPD detective on the case and is now a PI, accepts the assignment of solving the decades-old crimes. Lending assistance is Montgomery's photojournalist son, Lane, whose contacts in the intelligence community prove useful. Predictably, the emotionally fragile Winter falls for the hunky photographer, and the two begin a torrid romance. The identity of the figure behind the murders will surprise few. Those looking for the sort of insider details about law-enforcement that mark the work of a Linda Fairstein will be disappointed. (Apr.)

McKinney's mediocre sequel to All That Drama (2004) checks in on wily Sammie Davis and introduces her friend Leah Simmons just as their lives get problematic. Facing the foreclosure of her home and an adulterous husband who abandons her, Leah is forced to go back to work after an extended absence raising three children, one of whom is autistic. There for her is her friend Sammie, the protagonist of McKinney's first novel who, as before, has a knack for catching the wrong men (married, abusive). Sammie's embroiled in her own drama: as she suffers through another abusive relationship and grieves for her deceased friend, Marie, she learns she has a half-sister. Despite the histrionics-implied title, the story and writing are weak and the characters' plights halfheartedly constructed. A few creative sex scenes add some sizzle to a story that's mostly fizzle. (Apr.)

British writer James assays the impact of the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic on a disparate lot of Londoners in her ambitious debut novel. Told through the overlapping perspectives of an omniscient narrator and the protagonist, a London undertaker, the novel probes the street-level, personal toll of a contagion responsible for perhaps 100 million deaths worldwide. In October 1918, as WWI ebbs, Dr. Thomas Wey falls dead in a London street while trying to post a letter to local health officials warning of the coming epidemic. The attending undertaker, Henry Speake, discovers the letter, reads it and decides to keep it instead of posting it—an impulsive decision that roils him as the epidemic unfolds. As Henry weighs his culpability, his profession puts him at the center of the epidemic. Besides Henry, the characters—from the agoraphobic Lily Bird, who retreats to her bed to avoid germs, to the cynical and melancholy local physician, Dr. Lionel Tite—are eccentric, but not especially memorable. The novel's abrupt conclusion can be seen as either a flaw or a powerful reminder that death is ever untimely. (Apr.)

British journalist Bennett (Crying Wolf: The Return of War to Chechnya) makes her fiction debut with a sweeping reinterpretation of Sir Thomas More's family as it coped with the vicissitudes of Henry VIII's reign. Narrated by More's brilliant foster daughter, Meg Giggs, the narrative is framed by two paintings crafted five years apart by husky, ebullient German artist Hans Holbein; commissioned by the family, each was completed at radically different periods in the More clan's turbulent history. As the book opens, family tutor John Clement stimulates both Meg's apothecary interest and engages her in a love affair; she eventually marries him and bears him a son, though aware that Holbein also has romantic potential. As John, whose origins are shrouded in mystery, grows distant, Holbein returns to London to paint the More family again. Meanwhile, the Reformation bleeds across Europe, inciting religious upheaval, and Meg's staunch Catholic father continues to violently defend his faith against Protestant heretics. Duplicity involving Meg's flirtatious sister, Elizabeth, provides the novel's rousing climax. The vernacular doesn't quite hold, and the religious-political speechifying can be heavy-handed. But Bennett constructs lush backdrops and costumes, and has impeccable historical sense. She luminously shades in an ambiguous period with lavish strokes of humanity, unbridled passion and mystery. (Apr.)

Newington fires off short, scattershot chapters to tell a sincere coming-of-age story in this debut "autobiographical" novel. In mid-'60s Lagos, during the lead-up to Nigeria's Biafran War, young narrator Anna lives predominantly in an imaginary world where she and her friend, Dave (a girl whose real name is Helen), are sailors and spies. Anna's mother and father, respectively a sexually abusive drunk and rarely present British diplomat, provide little in the way of parenting, leaving Anna to find her own role models (such as Christine, the family's servant, or Aunt Elsie, her grandmother's "bloody queer" friend). Sheltered for the most part from the war, Anna and Dave together try to make sense of their rarified world. Readers willing to forgive the preciousness (Anna is, after all, a child) will find some beautiful passages tucked away in the meandering narrative. (Apr.)

Medical research subjects get the shaft before striking back in Skloot's latest, an amusing and absorbing novel that pits a motley crew of Davids against a callous corporate Goliath. Sam Kiehl, a 42-year-old Vietnam vet and political analyst, signs up for a double-blind placebo-controlled study at an esteemed research center in Oregon after being diagnosed with herpes. The curiously named pharmaceutical company, Physicians for Ethical Research (PER), is optimistic over its promising drug, Zomalovir. Sam soon strikes up a romance with his massage therapist, Jessica Foster, but after PER goes bankrupt and cancels the Zomalovir study, the distraught subjects (including Sam) resort to desperate measures to continue receiving treatment. Skloot, the author of three novels, three memoirs and five volumes of poetry, treats the complicated and often absurd protocols of drug studies with an authoritative, compassionate touch. The balance of humor, romance and cold observation makes for a commendable yarn. (Apr.)

A middle-aged woman's self-discovery is predictable but not pedestrian in Frank's (Full of Grace; Pawleys Island) latest. A divorce has stalled Miriam Swanson's life: her snooty Hermès-swathed Manhattan friends abandoned her after her ex-husband "ran off with his whore"; one of her grown sons keeps her at arm's length, while her other son, a "nice nerd," stays beneath the family radar for months at a time; and the major drawback to her job at a museum is her boss—icy former friend Agnes Willis. In a twist that stretches disbelief, Miriam catches Agnes's husband, Truman, having a noisy rendezvous with Liz, the cute new tenant in Miriam's townhouse. After a brief interlude that sends Miriam to a South Carolina barrier island to visit her former cotillion queen mother—and meet the dreamy local Harrison Ford ("Not that wimpy actor")—Miriam reveals Truman's affair, with consequences that fuel the remainder of the book. Frank's narrative is heavy on healing—physically, mentally—and the importance of family, and though her sometimes delightfully nasty heroine is sympathetic, supporting cast members have one note apiece. This isn't Frank's finest, but it'll sate her fans. (Apr.)

Yarni Taylor, a successful lawyer who has dedicated herself to helping "minority men caught up in the wrath," fights to keep her hustler husband out of prison in this anemic tale of treachery and dedication among the rich and ghetto-fabulous. After spending 10 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, Des Taylor is pardoned, released and makes Yarni a wife and a mother. Des also returns to a life of hustling, and after two years of freedom is framed for another murder. Yarni swears to exonerate the man to whom she has devoted her life. As the couple work to keep Des free, they also contend with a myriad of minidramas—an attempted rape, a kidnapping and the murder of a loved one. Turner (A Hustler's Wife) spares no cliché in this thin story (the bling quotient is staggering), and readers may feel frustrated at the author's constant and simplistic explication of her characters' thoughts and actions. Fans of Turner's earlier works may find something to appreciate, but the uninitiated will have serious trouble. (Apr.)

Hardcore history buffs will appreciate the fly-on-the-turret view of the dramas besieging the British royal court in 1642, when, though the country is rocked by a civil war, there is still time for illicit romance. Sawyer (The Code of Love; The Chase) imagines the private moments of historical figures, focusing on 20-year-old beauty Mary Villiers, the adoptive daughter of King Charles I, and Prince Rupert, the king's beloved and loyal warrior nephew. Though married to James Stuart, duke of Richmond, Mary cannot resist the charms of Rupert le diable once the charismatic, swashbuckling playboy sets his sights on her. Their romance, however, couldn't come at a worse time: the king is intent on shaking up Parliament, and the outcome could be dire for Rupert and Mary. Fans of the stolen-glance-and-lingering-touch variety of romance will savor the slow-cooking affair, though it frequently takes a backseat to passages more fit for a history text than a romance. (Apr.)

Thien's debut novel draws its meager impetus from the tale of Matthew and Ani, two 10-year-olds in the village of Sandakan in Japanese-occupied Borneo during WWII, whose lyrical idylls buffer them from the horrors of war. Romance blossoms when they reunite eight years later, in 1953, but their past—Matthew's dead father collaborated with the Japanese—splits them up, sending the secretly pregnant Ani off to Jakarta and Matthew to Vancouver and a marriage (to Clara). Matthew and Ani's saga intertwines with the latter-day story of Matthew and Clara's daughter, Gail, a radio documentary maker, whose cozy but bland relationship is buffeted by an affair and who decides to find out about her father's mysterious past with Ani. Thien (Simple Recipes) uses this narrative as a peg for much elegiac meditation interspersed with muzzy reflections on fractals, code breaking and snowflake formation—her metaphor for the minute contingencies that shape human motivation. Her prose is poised but wan, and the patchwork story, despite jolts of tragic history, doesn't elicit much interest in her characters or their roads not taken. (Mar.)

A therapist specializing in helping people get sorted out postdivorce has her own problems of the heart in King's latest (after The Same Sweet Girls). Since the death of her husband, "divorce coach" Clare has thrown herself into her work. And now that she has a booming practice on Alabama's gulf coast, her after-hours is packed with even more drama: her best friend Dory's marriage is forever on the rocks; her daughter Haley's husband abandons the family; Maine transplant and marina owner Lex is newly divorced, available and interested; and Zoe, Clare's dead husband's mother, is helping Clare accomplish her dream of creating a retreat center. With more than a little help from her friends—old and new—Clare lets go of her grief and gives love another shot. Though it exhibits that unmistakable Southern charm, King's writing also frustrates: backstories are hinted at but left murky, while nagging questions hang around for hundreds of pages (the circumstances surrounding Clare's husband's death, for instance) and overshadow Clare's present-day narrative. Storytelling kinks aside, King delivers what her fans want—strong bonds, strong women characters and triumph over tragedy. (Mar.)

Deputy sheriff David Mapstone's background as a history professor serves him well when he stumbles—quite literally—onto a very cold case in Talton's engaging fifth mystery (after 2006's Arizona Dreams), a prequel set in 1999. One night, after leaving a pro hockey game in Phoenix, Mapstone; his girlfriend, Lindsey Adams; and his boss, Mike Peralta, interrupt a carjacking. They pursue the perp into an abandoned warehouse, where Mapstone falls down an elevator shaft. At the bottom are the bodies of two small children, who turn out to be the Yarnell twins, kidnapped in the 1930s from the most powerful man in the region, cattle baron Hayden Yarnell. Talton does his usual competent job of depicting the history of Phoenix and the American West, in particular the greed that has driven the city's growth and the desert's demise. Mapstone is the kind of modern hero many readers dream of: intellectual but physical, tough but sensitive. (May)

Rai Rehotap, the complex sleuth of this excellent mystery debut from British poet and playwright Drake (The Man in the White Suit), is very much a creature of his time—ancient Egypt—but is possessed of investigative instincts that will be familiar to readers of classic whodunits. The author artfully places his plot during a time of great significance to ancient Egyptian society—the reign of King Akhenaten, whose reforms included an effort to do away with the established religious order, and who consequently evoked the wrath of powerful figures vested in the status quo. The king summons Rehotap to track down the ruler's powerful and charismatic partner, Queen Nefertiti, whose disappearance weeks before a great festival threatens the stability of the new regime. Drake displays great mastery of period detail, and if some readers are able to anticipate the identity of the person behind the novel's chaos, they'll still find themselves swept away to a far-off time with contemporary echoes. (Apr.)

Antiques dealer Josie Prescott thought she left trouble behind in New York City, where she weathered a price-fixing scandal in 2006's Consigned to Death, but her efforts to start afresh in New Hampshire stall when she gets mixed up in murder in Cleland's adept second cozy. After the Portsmouth Women's Guild representative, Maisy Gaylor, drops dead from potassium cyanide poisoning at a benefit gala that Josie has sponsored, Detective Rowcliff insinuates that Josie might have been the possible target. Cleland keeps the reader guessing about the true target of the poison and the possible suspects. Did Britt Epps, the chairman of the fete, have it in for Maisy, or does the theft of a $20,000 Chinese porcelain tureen mean Josie should still be worried about her nemesis from her former New York auction house? With the help of her lawyer and the intermittent cooperation of a nosy reporter, Josie finds some surprising answers. (Apr.)

In this colorful, engrossing fourth adventure for funeral home owner and former cop Barry Clayton (after 2006's Foolish Undertaking), an ordinary afternoon in Gainesboro, N.C., is interrupted when an elderly man visiting from Florida opens fire on Main Street. The shooter, Mitch Kowalski, hits a handful of people, including sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins, who, from his hospital bed, asks Clayton to take over the investigation. Clayton suspects the recent death of Kowalski's octogenarian wife had something to do with his inexplicable shooting spree. When Clayton heads to the Sunshine State to dig a little deeper into Kowalski's past, he learns that Kowalski's late wife had been taking medicine that hadn't been prescribed to her. More people will die before Clayton gets to the bottom of a nefarious medical scam. De Castrique has married the complexity and fast pace of a police procedural with the folksy setting and lovable characters of a cozy. (Apr.)

Near the start of Cannell's witty 13th Ellie Haskell mystery (after 2002's The Importance of Being Ernestine), Ellie's precocious 13-year-old niece, Ariel Hopkins, shows up at the Haskells' house, Merlin Court, one stormy night. Ariel, who's read too many gothic novels, has made her way from far-away Yorkshire, where her father, Tom, and stepmother, Betty, after winning the lottery, bought an Elizabethan mansion dubbed by Ariel "Withering Heights." Ariel claims that her wicked stepmom is obsessed with finding the body of Nigel Gallagher, the mansion's previous owner, whom Betty believes was murdered by his wife, Lady Fiona. Meanwhile, Ellie's oddball housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy, has wanted to mend fences with her estranged sister, Melody Tabby, who happens to live in the same town as the Hopkinses. So Ellie, husband Ben and Mrs. Malloy set off for Yorkshire to return Ariel to her parents and do a bit of investigating. The result is a funny, entertaining puzzler. (Apr.)

In Cannon's suspenseful second Roxanne Prescott mystery (after 2001's Guns and Roses), the down-to-earth detective and her colleagues at the San Diego Sheriff's Department search for clues to the murder of adoption agency CEO Sam Brennan, found in his home bludgeoned to death with a statuette of Michael Jackson. The host of suspects includes Brennan's two ex-wives and a spurned lover. The complex web of mystery intensifies when Prescott unearths information about the extent of Brennan's wealth, his eclectic collections, tell-all book deal and his agency's niche business of reuniting adopted children with their birth families. Prescott sets a trap to entice the killer as this expertly paced police procedural advances to a startling conclusion. (Apr.)

In this fresh first of a new series from Seranella, crisis management expert Charlotte Lyon—who channels her obsessive-compulsive disorder into more productive, professional hypervigilance—works to exonerate the owners of the Sunliner Express train that derailed en route to Palm Springs, Calif. A recent widow, Charlotte teams up with sexy, motorcycle-riding investigator Todd Hannigan from the National Transportation Safety Board, and the two suspect possible sabotage. Several witnesses saw a mysterious, helmeted Samaritan pulling survivors to safety before zooming off on his motorcycle. Why didn't he stick around for kudos? While Charlotte finds herself increasingly attracted to Todd, she wonders where he was at the time of the train wreck. To complicate matters, one of the two fatalities was movie-star-turned-philanthropist Rachel Priest, whose spoiled son, Sherwood, shows up and threatens a lawsuit. Then up pops Charlotte's dysfunctional mother, who competes with demands for her attention. Fans of Seranella's Munch Mancini series (An Unacceptable Death, etc.) will find much to like. (Apr.)

Samuel Beckett fans might be briefly diverted by Akashic's first title under its Hotel St. George imprint, a novella consisting largely of dialogue between two detectives named Smith. The contentious pair is assigned to solve the murder of a mathematician whose organs have been removed. Over the course of their laconic conversation, they focus their suspicions on a new, possibly cannibalistic cult. Petrovich's execution doesn't quite match the ambition of his concept, while mainstream mystery readers may not appreciate the emphasis on language rather than action. Original monotypes by Vilem Benes add to the surreal mood. (Apr.)

Heroes and villains charge toward a satisfying climax in the violent, intrigue-filled conclusion to Duncan's two-volume epic fantasy (after 2006's Children of Chaos), set on a dodecahedral world. The four young sibling heirs to the dying Doge of Florengia, who were kidnapped and separated years earlier by the Bloodlord Stralg, have grown to adulthood and finally been reunited by the Liberators, led by brash Marno Cavotti (aka the Mutineer). As they fight their way homeward, Stralg's bloodthirsty, fanatical sister, Saltaja Hragsdor, begins her own march on Florengia, intent on setting her brother's bastard son on the doge's throne. One well-choreographed combat scene follows another. Some playful sibling rivalry provides comic relief. This smartly plotted fantasy should please not only Duncan's many loyal fans but also those who enjoy the work of Terry Goodkind and Jennifer Fallon. (May)

Set in the same universe as Hugo-winner Steele's popular trilogy that began with Coyote (2002), this fascinating supplement concentrates on events that happen offstage after Coyote Rising (2004). When Earth detected a large alien artifact drifting past a distant star, a hastily organized and fractious expedition was sent to investigate. Communication failed just after the Earth crew arrived on the scene and began exploring, so everyone was presumed lost—until decades later, when three survivors and an alien envoy turned up at the end of Coyote Frontier (2005). This latest installment describes what the ill-fated expedition discovers, what goes wrong and how a few people save themselves by recognizing their ignorance and isolation, then resolving to work past those limitations. Though readers of the trilogy already know the basic story—and the novel's opening also gives away most of the outcome—Steele delivers a gripping saga of humanity on the verge of exploring the larger universe. (Apr.)

A young woman's tussle with a malignant predator from beyond the grave drives this bold new supernatural thriller from bestseller Farris (Phantom Nights). In the early chapters, which crackle with electrifying suspense, Chase Emrick recounts her terrifying childhood abduction by her creepy stepfather, Crow Tillman, who commits suicide and nearly takes her to the afterlife with him. Now a math student at Yale, Chase finds herself constantly fending off attacks from Crow as he distills his evil essence into a variety of menacing forms in order to reclaim her. Realizing her only hope is to beat him on his own turf, Chase debarks for the Netherworld of the dead for a final showdown. Once in the Netherworld, the narrative shifts into film-script form, an audacious but not entirely effective trick, and it nearly dissipates the story's hitherto relentless momentum. To Farris's credit, he redeems the tale with a killer ending that shows why he's still one of the most dependable writers of horror working today. (Apr.)

Political intrigue and revolutionary plots keep the story bubbling in Brenchley's magical sequel to Bridge of Dreams (2006), set in a culture reminiscent of the Arabian Nights. Jendre, the disgraced wife of the recently dead sultan of Maras, overthrown by those who would prefer a more malleable ruler, longs for a quiet retirement with her lover, only to learn she still has some value to those who plot to gain power and influence. Meanwhile, the water mage Issel has led revolutionaries from the land of Sund across the river that links it to rival Maras. A chance meeting points to a way for Jendre and Issel to succeed by working together. Though Brenchley provides minimal backstory for new readers, those with patience will find a lively adventure in which the paths to survival and morality frequently diverge. (Apr.)

Lansdale's restlessness with the conventions of any one genre is proved once again by this marvelously mixed collection whose nine stories provoke responses ranging from cold chills to gut-busting belly laughs. The unsettling title tale puts the reader inside the cobwebbed mind of a mass murderer, who cloaks the truth of the business he's about in eerily self-deceiving metaphors. "White Mule, Spotted Pig," about a redneck's antic efforts to capture and race a legendary wild white mule, reads like a contemporary tall tale out of Mark Twain's Calaveras County. Two period pieces feature Jebidiah Rains, the author's gunslinging preacher from his novel Dead in the West: "Deadman's Road" pits Rains against a nightmarish walking corpse animated by a live hornet's nest in its chest, while "The Gentleman's Hotel" has Rains battling a horror from the prehistoric past that has turned its small corner of the southwest into an arid ghost town. Laconic, ghoulish and often outrageously bawdy, these stories are never less than solid entertainment. (Apr.)

The standup comedy of Fintushel's stage work echoes through his debut novel, a highly original, seriously skewed take on kabbalistic lore, like a shofar on Yom Kippur. Lea Tillim, a 16-year-old runaway, has a psychic "talent" that allows her to kill anyone who gets in her way. She begins to blossom after she rescues Jack "the Yid" Konar, a smalltime drug dealer who also happens to be "the Chosen of the Chosen of the Chosen." The Yid has constructed a mystical spaceship—complete with a Fleshpot and the Holy of Holies—to transport the select few to the true Ish-ra-el. As Lea aids Jack on his quest, she gets stoned, receives epiphanies, is chased by the mob, is befriended by an adorably whiny minyan, helps foil the Evil One and his marquetry ladies and teams with an unlikely multitude from various religious persuasions. Though Lea's voice wanders from infatuated teen to world-weary kvetch, this uneven coming-of-age story is a virtual cornucopia of strange delights. (Mar.)

MacKenzie continues her spicy Naked series (following last year's Naked Marquis) with another ribald Regency, this time centering on a country house party full of the punch-drunk loveless. When voluptuous, overbearing Lady Felicity Brookton wakes Robert Hamilton from a sound sleep, he knows his bachelorhood is in danger. In no time, he's up and out the window—without a stitch of clothes—and ducking into the quarters of Lady Elizabeth Runyon—also, coincidentally enough, entirely in the nude. Robert knows Elizabeth as the little sister of his best friend, and therefore off limits, but he doesn't yet know about Elizabeth's long-simmering infatuation with him. As Robert seeks to avoid temptation, as well as the further advances of Felicity, other romantic entanglements wind through the crowd. Desperate to produce a male heir before her elderly husband dies, the duchess of Hartford seeks the services of handsome young Lord Peter, arousing jealousy in party host Baron Tynweith. Further complications arise when Felicity and one of Elizabeth's rejected suitors join forces; will Robert be able to protect Felicity and redeem himself, despite his guilt, doubt and mortifying erectile dysfunction? Providing plenty of heat and hilarity, MacKenzie has great fun shepherding this boisterous party toward its happy ending; readers will be glad they RSVPed. (Apr.)

Romantic suspense twines neatly with the paranormal—and without a single vamp or were-creature—in Lisle's latest, a chilling haunted house mystery that pits a sensible couple against the supernatural. Following the death of her adoptive father, artist Emma Beck leaves Wisconsin and buys a "falling-down, money-pit, creepy-ass" Civil War-era house in Benina, S.C., the hometown of her deceased biological mother. When Emma meets local handyman Mike Ruhl, the attraction between them is instant and strangely evocative, almost as if they already know each other—intimately. Soon, strange noises, unprovoked feelings of terror, a phantom cat and her own overactive libido have Emma spooked, a feeling that only deepens when she tries looking up two women who knew her mother and finds instead two fresh corpses. Lisle keeps pages turning with steamy sex scenes, disturbing revelations and a good old-fashioned ghost story, all building to a white-knuckle conclusion; it's more than enough to please romantic suspense fans and should make a satisfying treat for anyone burned out on bloodsuckers. (Apr.)

The last time readers saw full-time vet/part-time sleuth Jessica Popper and her lawyer-to-be boyfriend Nick Burby, she was rejecting his marriage proposal on a Maui beach. Baxter picks up her popular mystery series 18 months later, after the stubborn pair have resettled into comfortable couplehood, but puts them, improbably, on a flight right back to Maui—this time for a veterinarians' conference, 10 days of R&R and, hopefully, a little romance. Their vacation gets sidetracked when the body of young reporter Marnie Burton washes up on the beach, and Jessie—having just met Marnie the day before—decides to take a closer look. As she brings to light the shady dealings of a biotech firm and a plethora of quirky suspects, readers will forgive the unlikely return trip, if only for Baxter's rich sense of setting. Fans might be less forgiving of Baxter's decision to do away with the usual menagerie of critters (with the exception of an orphaned cat), but her shift in focus pays off with a robust cast and a trickier whodunit. (Apr.)

Having established a successful radio show, revealed herself to the nation as a werewolf and testified in Senate hearings on the supernatural, Vaughn's plucky series heroine, Kitty Norville, is ready to lay low in a remote Colorado cabin and work on her memoirs. Her plans get derailed when werewolf hunter Cormac Bennett shows up at Kitty's hideaway with her lawyer, Ben O'Farrell, who has been bitten—and infected—by a werewolf. Soon after Kitty takes them in, hoping to help Ben adjust to his new predicament, she discovers gruesome animal sacrifices at her door. It becomes apparent that a malevolent force is staking out the cabin, targeting one of them, and Cormac's hunt for it takes them all in some unexpected directions. Kitty's matter-of-fact voice continues to mine the horror and romantic material for laughs—especially in her prank calls to a rival DJ—and Vaughn's universe is convincing and imaginative, providing enough series mythology to satisfy without slowing down the narrative. (Apr.)

Two of France's best graphic novel talents, the ever-prolific Sfar and the subtle illustrator Guibert, collaborate. The result is a fun—if slight—effort, as much a love letter to Victorian London as a story unto itself. Very simply, a mummy, somehow alive and walking around London, has a charming romance with a professor's daughter. The logistical complications involved are comically dismissed, and the pair have a grand old time together. That is, until the mummy's father appears to complicate matters. Sfar has written an utterly engaging romp comparable to a fine 1930s romantic comedy. His dialogue is snappy, and he moves from thrills to chills to humor without missing a beat. The whole book is silly, and it seems to know it. But Guibert's work is the real treat. His deft brushwork and spectacular sense of color bring the places and dramas to life. In his hands, otherwise stock characters gain a real presence and liveliness, and he has a filmic sense of drama, describing the characters with detail and wit. A section of Guibert's sketches stashed at the end of the book is extraneous, but otherwise this is an excellent little volume. (May)

Stunning in its ambition, Benjamin's detailed story imagines all of the characters of the various world mythologies living together in one universe—and sending their children to the same high school in Los Angeles. Sullen Grace is the daughter of Tyr, Norse god of war; reckless Griffin, child of Hades and raised by adopted human parents, flirts with suicide and tries to bribe Charon to take him home; Yukio, son of the Japanese goddess of luck, skirts by on his innate good fortune; and Aziza, daughter of Egyptian sun god Ra, can use her body to generate intense heat. When a group of renegade mythological students puts the rest of the student body to sleep so that they can carry out their plan to ascend to godhood alongside their parents, the four fight back together. There are laughs aplenty throughout the school day, and there is something utterly charming about immortal beings talking fluid 21st-century teenspeak. The intricate and detailed artwork includes tons of clever puns and historical references hidden throughout; a much-needed glossary at the end points out the mythical background of many of the sight gags and references. This is truly a one-of-a-kind work that entertains with intelligence and humor. (Feb.)

Suguri is 18 and plenty old enough to be out on her on—or so she thinks. She sets off to Tokyo, the big city, with her mutt, Lupin, to try to find her own way. When Lupin gets amorous with a stranger's purebred at a highway rest stop, Suguri sees it as the perfect opportunity to sweet-talk the dog's owner, Teppei, into letting her work at his pet store, Woofles. Suguri is like the dog whisperer; she shows an uncanny ability to know what each dog needs. She's hapless, disorganized and has no idea how to live on her own, but Teppei puts up with her as long as she uses her skill to take care of the puppies at his store. Sakuragi draws realistic but obscenely cute puppies to tell the stories of Suguri's adventures in the big city, from chasing down a missing Corgi pup to learning to let go when the dogs are sold. Suguri is adorable, Teppei is charmingly put out by his new employee, and Teppei's loafer friend, Kentaro, is around to provide a bit of comic relief. Inubaka is a sweet if scatological story about characters who are all crazy for dogs. (Feb.)

Najika is an aspiring young chef with a flawless sense of taste and a heart of gold. Orphaned at a young age, Najika gravitated toward cooking out of her desire to find her "prince," the mysterious boy who touched her heart and brought light into her life shortly after her parents' death. The only clue to his identity is a silver spoon, which leads Najika to the prestigious Seika Academy, where she faces many challenges on her quest for happiness. Kitchen Princess uses many plot techniques traditionally found in shojo stories. Najika is cast as the lonely heroine, rejected and often humiliated by her peers, while two princes, brothers Sora and Daichi, both dote on her in their own ways. However, where many stories often take a fantastical twist, giving the heroine some kind of magical power that sets her apart, Kitchen Princess continues to develop Najika's cooking abilities, which she uses to reach out to her classmates. This adds a spicy twist to the story, making an old recipe feel fresh and tasty. Ando's art style is romantic and whimsical, making for a delicious start to Najika's story. (Feb.)

The second volume of Rushkoff's cosmic saga continues to give a 21st century, high-tech spin on the Bible. Rushkoff's central conceit is to update biblical stories (Joseph; Adam and Eve; etc.) and enmesh them in the new century, complete with global conspiracies, computer viruses and a liberal dollop of modernized sex and violence to go with the lurid original. This collection begins with an updated Adam and Eve story, with programming language substituting for the apple, and moves onto the Joseph story, this time about a group of underground revolutionaries. The whole affair seems more subversive than it really is. Rushkoff, best known as a media theorist (Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say) is having a great deal of fun tying in universal themes and finding parallels between mythology and science. But the smart ideas sometimes get bogged down by wordy exposition and belabored biblical and literary allusions. Luckily, the artists do a fine job of illustrating the various time periods and locations, giving an earthy spin to a story that stitches together a lot of heady ideas. (Feb.)