Fiction Reviews: Week of 3/5/2007

First-time novelist Center nails ornery and opinionated Texas women in this uneven tale of survival of the hardly fit. "It's not how you wanted it, but it's how it is," jilted and pregnant Jenny Harris is advised by her long-divorced mom. "Much of mothering is that way." Jenny's rock and roll wannabe fiancé Dean Murphy ditches her for a woman who died before he had the chance to sleep with her. ("I don't feel the same about you anymore. It's not my fault," he writes in his I'm-outta-here note.) Jenny has little time to nurse the heartbreak; baby Maxie is born the next day, and all Jenny's plans implode. What pulls Jenny through new mom hell is a network of bright, fearless women who thrive despite the bumbling men around them: Jenny's feisty mom with the "big Texas personality," blunt best friend Meredith and single-mom Claudia prove single women needn't be lonely, pathetic or poor. Yet this gaggle of sharp and funny supergals mostly falls apart when it comes to men. There's a rogue's gallery of thinly drawn louts, and from the rabble rises Jenny's dreamboat neighbor John Gardner, a pediatric nephrologist on sabbatical. Dean, of course, reappears, presenting Jenny with a not-difficult dilemma. Center's debut is fast-moving and pleasantly diverting, thanks to sharp dialogue and a narrative that's heavier on the sass than the diaper rash. (July)

Political radicalism, boarding school cruelty and the specter of a showdown with a nuclear North Korea fuel Antrim's debut novel with mostly winning results. Fleeing job and girlfriend disasters, Dyer Martin takes a job as a history teacher at the tony Britton School, an Andover-like boarding school run by Headmaster Wolfe, a 1960s radical-turned- preppy-fundraiser whose paranoia is displayed early and often. Wolfe's son, James, meanwhile, has been quietly attending Britton, but after his father forces him to move into the student dorm for his senior year, his fellow students haze the brainy and socially awkward young man. While James negotiates the stormy waters of adolescence (the centerpiece is his crush on a girl who may be romantically involved with a bully), an increasingly erratic Wolfe orders Dyer to take a team of students to the Model U.N. conference as representatives of North Korea. Dyer, however, is suspicious of Wolfe's motives, especially after he sees Wolfe covertly meet in the middle of the night with a mysterious Asian man. All is revealed at the conference, though the climax is marred by a chain of events that defies reason. Well-drawn characters and tight dialogue add appeal to Antrim's keenly observed satire. (July)

Baker's first novel is a long and uneven multigeneration family saga set in small town Wisconsin. In 1896, Wilma comes to the rough backwoods town of Pine Rapids as the alarmed new bride of a lumber baron's first son, John Mickelson. Wilma is already regretting her jump from college to matrimony when she gets off the train and promptly falls in love: first with her brother-in-law, Gust, and then with the beautiful home on a hill that is now hers. Counterpointing Wilma's unhappy trial by marriage and motherhood is a complementary story set in 1950, when another new bride comes to Pine Bluff. Unlike Wilma, Dolly Magnuson married the man she wanted desperately. Unable to conceive, she is determined to be the perfect housewife, a plan that morphs into an obsession with the old Mickelson house, now unlived in and uncared for. The novel expands to encompass the stories of the grown Mickelson children: as Dolly begins taking care of the house, and the Mickelsons begin entering and exiting it by way of a window. Stuffed to bursting with stories of love, loss, revenge, obsession, emotional and physical violence, and general familial mayhem, Baker's book makes readers work to sort out the fates of the most engaging characters. (July)

Not quite novel or novella, McEwan's masterful 13th work of fiction most resembles a five-part classical drama rendered in prose. It opens on the anxious Dorset Coast wedding suite dinner of Edward Mayhew and the former Florence Ponting, married in the summer of 1963 at 23 and 22 respectively; the looming dramatic crisis is the marriage's impending consummation, or lack of it. Edward is a rough-hewn but sweet student of history, son of an Oxfordshire primary school headmaster and a mother who was brain damaged in an accident when Edward was five. Florence, daughter of a businessman and (a rarity then) a female Oxford philosophy professor, is intense but warm and has founded a string quartet. Their fears about sex and their inability to discuss them form the story's center. At the book's midpoint, McEwan (Atonement, etc.) goes into forensic detail about their naïve and disastrous efforts on the marriage bed, and the final chapter presents the couple's explosive postcoital confrontation on Chesil Beach. Staying very close to this marital trauma and the circumstances surrounding it (particularly class), McEwan's flawless omniscient narration has a curious (and not unpleasantly condescending) fable-like quality, as if an older self were simultaneously disavowing and affirming a younger. The story itself isn't arresting, but the narrator's journey through it is. (June)

Katherine Taylor's debut features a narrator named Katherine Taylor, whose rebellious mother sends her from Fresno to Manhattan's fictional Claver prep at age 13. The madcap, fast-forward shenanigans that follow read like Auntie Mame à la A.M. Homes. Rich Claver friend Page gets pregnant and develops a coke habit. Katherine gets a Columbia M.F.A. but lacks drive, tending bar at an exclusive hotspot while trying not to deal with her abrasive mom. Katherine's brother, Ethan, a gay actor, rooms with her in her cheap uptown digs until he becomes "the face of Diet Coke." There's ambivalent romance that involves a move to London. Claver friend Clarissa gets cancer as she turns 30. When a nutty neighbor threatens to kill Katherine, police advise vacating, but "giving up a rent-controlled apartment to save your life is as ridiculous as living in Queens." While a lot of what Katherine does is familiar, Taylor is a superb satirist, eviscerating everyone in her Katherine's path. In the middle of the novel she drops a list of "rules for saying goodbye"; it's extraneous, even precious, and it's the best thing in the book: e.g., "Once you are gone, be gone for good." Taylor manages to make worn New York yarns feel fresh again. (June)

An acclaimed comic novelist in his native Jamaica, Winkler (The Lunatic) makes a long overdue American debut with this laugh riot. His heroine is Precious Higginson, a Christian Jamaican woman of 47 whose conventional worldview and proud, pious manner make her unintentionally funny. After her husband dies unexpectedly, Precious moves in with her son and his wife, but pudding-loving Precious and her health-nut daughter-in-law quickly turn the house into a war zone. It's off to America then to stay with her daughter, a Miami police officer, and her hairdressing husband, Henry, an emasculated "too-too" man who irritates her. After Henry makes a pass, Precious takes a job as live-in housekeeper at a Fort Lauderdale mansion. There, she cares for a spoiled dog, Riccardo; argues with Riccardo's animal rights zealot owner, Mistress Lucy, who declares Precious "speciest" for failing to appreciate it when Riccardo pees on her new shoes; and, after "brief Christian resistance," allows Mannish, Mistress Lucy's much peed-upon Indian chauffeur, into her bed. Precious learns much about the limits of piety as the indignities mount and her beliefs are challenged in increasingly outrageous ways. Winkler's wit, his ear for dialect and the sublime creation that is Precious add up to one howlingly funny book. (June)

Murray's latest, following the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning The Caprices (2002) and A Carnivore's Inquiry (2005), opens in the summer of 1963, as art and antiquities dealer Rupert Brigg travels to Athens to scout out ancient artifacts on behalf of his millionaire uncle, William. Rupert, who narrates icily in sharp contrast to his garrulous personality, connects with Steve Kelly, a canny journalist with deep contacts. The scene shifts to the island of Aspros, where Rupert encounters a coterie of expatriates that includes the sculptor Jack Weldon, who, despite art world recognition, spends most of his time faking up Achilles and Diomedes, and Rupert's romantic interest, the withering, erratic Olivia. Just as Rupert is deciding whether or not he has come up with the archeological find of the century-a spurious second century A.D. torso dredged up in a zucchini field-the offstage murder of a prominent character is phoned in by Steve Kelly. One by one, Rupert's own secrets (a stifled childhood, a spectacularly failed marriage) are slowly revealed, showcasing Murray's narrative cunning, and setting the narrative's pulse racing. Rupert's true identity is the book's parallel mystery, and Murray has one believing that discretion may be the soul of fraudulence until the ambiguous dénouement, which leaves readers to re-evaluate the pieces of plot for authenticity. (June)

Buster Casey, destined to live fast, die young and murder as many people as he can, is the rotten seed at the core of Palahniuk's comically nasty eighth novel (after Haunted; Lullaby; Diary; etc.). Set in a future where urbanites are segregated by strict curfews into Daytimers and Nighttimers, the narrative unfolds as an oral history comprising contradictory accounts from people who knew Buster. These include childhood friends horrified by the boy's macabre behavior (getting snakes, scorpions and spiders to bite him and induce instant erections; repeatedly infecting himself with rabies), policemen and doctors who had dealings with the rabies "superspreader"; and Party Crashers, thrill-seeking Nighttimers who turn city streets into demolition derby arenas. After liberally infecting his hometown peers with rabies, Buster hits the big city and takes up with the Party Crashers. A series of deaths lead to a police investigation of Buster (long-since known as "Rant"-the sound children make while vomiting) that peaks just as Buster apparently commits suicide in a blaze of car-crash glory. This dark religious parable (there's even a resurrection) from the master of grotesque excess may not attract new readers, but it will delight old ones. (May)

McCarthy-era Washington, D.C., is as twisted and morally compromised as a noir Los Angeles in Mallon's latest, a wide-ranging examination of betrayal and clashing ideologies. The young ladies in the secretary pool are agog over dapper bureaucrat Hawkins Fuller, though his attentions covertly focus on newly minted Fordham graduate and good Catholic Tim Laughlin. Hawkins helps Tim land a job and, after feeling out the impressionable young man, makes a place in his bed for him. Mary Johnson, a friend to both closeted men, watches with rising alarm as Tim and Hawkins carry on their affair and Washington seethes in paranoia over Communists and "sexual deviation." Mary, meanwhile, succumbs to her own lustful yearnings and has an affair with a married businessman, leading to a predictable, though deftly played, quandary. The District's social milieu is solidly realized, with such period icons as Mary McGrory and Drew Pearson in evidence alongside political heavyweights-McCarthy, Kennedy, Nixon and the like. Less convincing, however, is the on-again-off-again and largely one-sided relationship between Washington greenhorn Tim and cold, calculating careerist Hawkins. Mallon (Bandbox; Dewey Defeats Truman) offers an intricate, fluent and divergent perspective on a D.C. rife with backstabbing and power grabbing. (May)

Two stoics and a teenage misanthrope are brought together in Idaho's Rocky Mountains to build a ramp to nowhere in Carlson's first novel in 25 years, a tour de force of grief, atonement and the cost of loyalty. Darwin Gallegos, spiritually bereft after the sudden death of his wife, is hired for one last job at Rio Difficulto, the sprawling ranch where he had lived and worked for years. The job: construct a motorcycle ramp that will launch a daredevil across a gorge (the event is to be taped and bring in a pile of money). Darwin hires for the job drifters Arthur Key, a large and quiet man hiding from his recent past, and Ronnie Panelli, a wiry teenager on the lam from minor criminal mischief. As the men work from late spring through summer, their wounds come slowly to light: the seething fury that took root in Darwin after his wife died; Arthur's career as the go-to Hollywood stunt engineer that he abandoned after betraying his guileless brother; and Ronnie's short lifetime of failure, atoned for as he learns the carpentry trade. Carlson writes with uncommon precision, and this return to long-form fiction after four well-received story collections is stunning. (May)

The famously insatiable lover is brought brilliantly to life in this lively, suspenseful debut novel by Abrams (coauthor of The Multi-Orgasmic Couple; The Multi-Orgasmic Man). Framed as Don Juan's long-guarded diary, the narrative picks up at a gallop and never relents, tracing Don Juan's orphaned upbringing at a convent and torturous monastery before he escapes and joins a band of thieves. He is soon introduced to the Marquis, who trains the then amateur Lothario to become equally adept at swordsmanship and seducing women. (Abrams's background in Taoist sexuality is evident in the latter's scenes.) Don Juan develops a reputation as "some kind of demon," but the Marquis, who is close to the king, protects Don Juan from the inquisitor general's plans to punish him. Nevertheless, Don Juan resists the Marquis's plea that he marry to save himself, claiming he has no interest in love-until he meets pistol-packing firebrand Doña Ana. Abrams renders his hero with sympathetic understanding, and his erotic exploits-though heavy on plumage ("I sipped the moist nectar of her mouth as she opened her petals to me")-round out Don Juan instead of providing one-handed reading material. The story unspools with the invigorating trajectory of a thriller and the emotional draw of historical romance. (May)

Having coauthored five bestsellers with James Patterson (Lifeguard, etc.), Gross makes a solo debut superior to his collaborative efforts, if short of the first thriller rank. His engaging heroine, Kate Raab, a medical researcher in the Bronx, is shocked when the Feds arrest her beloved gold trader father, Benjamin, and charge him with laundering money for a Colombian drug cartel. A hit team's attempt to kill the entire Raab family prompts all of them, except Kate, to start their lives anew in the witness protection program. Kate's choice, predictably, places her in continuing danger, even as she begins to suspect that her father's involvement with the narco traffickers was more deliberate and extensive than he's willing to admit. The secret revelations at the heart of the plot may strike some as a little far-fetched, and the details about the witness protection program fail to convince, but Gross shows sufficient talent for readers to want to see more from his pen alone. (May)

Crowley's eloquent and captivating conclusion to his Ægypt tetralogy finds scholar Pierce Moffet still searching for the mythical Ægypt, an alternate reality of magic and marvels that have been encoded in our own world's myths, legends and superstitions. Pierce first intuited the realm's existence from the work of cult novelist Fellowes Kraft. Using Kraft's unfinished final novel as his Baedeker, Pierce travels to Europe, where he spies tantalizing traces of Ægypt's mysteries in the Gnostic teachings of the Rosicrucians, the mysticism of John Dee, the progressive thoughts of heretical priest Giordano Bruno and the "chemical wedding" of two 17th-century monarchs in Prague. Like Pierce's travels, the final destination for this modern fantasy epic is almost incidental to its telling. With astonishing dexterity, Crowley (Lord Byron's Novel) parallels multiple story lines spread across centuries and unobtrusively deploys recurring symbols and motifs to convey a sense of organic wholeness. Even as Pierce's quest ends on a fulfilling personal note, this marvelous tale comes full circle to reinforce its timeless themes of transformation, re-creation and immortality. (May)

Two murders committed 400 years apart form the core of British author Mills's outstanding second novel (after Amagansett, which won a CWA Dagger Award). In 1958, Cambridge undergraduate Adam Strickland, who's studying a curious Tuscan Renaissance garden for his art history thesis, is equally intrigued by both the garden of the Villa Docci estate and its elderly owner, Signora Francesca Docci. Built by the villa's first owner, Federico Docci, in 1577, the garden was intended as a memorial to his wife, Flora, who died when she was only 25. In the course of his research, Adam begins to sense that events, both past and present, are not as clear-cut as they appear. In particular, he discovers that there are several versions of the death of Signora Docci's oldest son, Emilio, who was shot by the villa's German occupiers at the end of WWII. Adam is hailed by all when he comes up with a novel theory explaining Flora's death in 1548, but when he begins to speculate on Emilio's demise, he finds himself in serious danger. This engrossing literary novel, like Amagansett, deserves to be a bestseller. (May)

Hemmings's bittersweet debut novel, an expansion of her first published short story ("The Minor Wars," from House of Thieves and originally published in StoryQuarterly), stars besieged and wryly introspective attorney Matt King, the land-rich descendant of Hawaiian royalty and American missionaries and entrepreneurs. He wrestles with the decision of whether to keep his swath of valuable inherited land or sell it to a real estate developer. But even more critical, Matt also has to decide whether to pull the plug on his wife, Joanie, who has been in an irreversible coma for 23 days following a boat-racing accident. Then Matt finds out that Joanie was having an affair with real estate broker Brian Speer, impelling him to travel with his two daughters-precocious 10-year-old Scottie and fresh from rehab 17-year-old Alex-from Oahu to Kauai to confront Brian. Matt finds out the truth about Joanie and Brian, which influences his decision about what to do with his family's on-the-block land and complicates his plans for Joanie. Matt's journey with his girls forms the emotional core of this sharply observed, frequently hilarious and intermittently heartbreaking look at a well-meaning but confused father trying to hold together his unconventional family. (May)

In this gripping, obsessively readable legal thriller, Singer proves himself to be the Christian John Grisham. At the outset of the tale, bounty hunter Clarke Shealy gets an ominous phone call-a Chinese mafioso has taken Shealy's wife hostage, and if Shealy wants to see her again, he must track down a missing Chinese mathematician, who has discovered an extremely valuable algorithm that could change Internet technology forever. The first half of the novel follows Shealy as he tries to rescue his wife. Then Singer takes readers to a prestigious law school in the Southeast, where three top-notch students work at a legal aid clinic. Supervised by a professor who may not be what he seems, the students find themselves involved with a couple in the witness protection program. The two halves of the novel tie together seamlessly, and Singer introduces Christian faith with a very light touch. The three students-an African-American ex-jock who aims to be the next Johnnie Cochran, a feisty woman who wants to be a prosecutor so she can avenge her mother's brutal death, and a nerdy but endearing math whiz who wants to practice patent law-are especially well-developed. Indeed, readers may want to meet them again in a sequel. (May)

Annie Colville sees dead people, and in British television and scriptwriter Slavin's debut, the dead wear chocolate brown while inhabiting the "Waiting Room of Heaven World," which overlaps with the everyday "Living Room World" that the rest of us see. The ghosts reach out to Annie to enlist her in tidying up unfinished-and mundane as often as unconventional-business: which niece should get the Wedgwood teapot, which romantic path a lesbian daughter should follow. Annie also has problems of her own: her husband, Evan Bees, disappeared seven years ago, and though he's assumed dead, Annie hasn't seen him among the cocoa-clad (the countdown to when Annie can have him declared legally dead provides the book's time line); her quest to discover which of her mother's many lovers is her father is leaden with disappointment; and some ghosts prove to be more haunting than others. Annie endears herself to the reader, in part because her gift exhausts her more than it elevates her, and also because she embodies a genuine purity of heart that, in lesser hands, would be cloying. (May)

British author Clark's second novel, a moving historical set in early 18th-century London, surpasses her acclaimed debut, The Great Stink (2005). When teenager Eliza Tally gets pregnant, her mother sells her into servitude to an apothecary, Grayson Black. Eliza struggles to survive in a bizarre household, unaware that her new master is interested in the effects of various emotions on her unborn child. Isolated save for a kindly, slow-witted fellow servant, Mary, Eliza develops an unlikely relationship with a French bookseller, Mr. Honfleur, who supplies Black with the scientific treatises he uses to inform his sadistic researches. Eliza hopes Honfleur will provide her with the means for escape. Unlike The Great Stink, this suspenseful tale contains no whodunit element, but as in her previous book, Clark's empathetic portrait of the powerless and the victimized will remind many readers of Dickens. Author tour. (May)

The animal residents of the Central Park Children's Zoo are not the only creatures gently scrutinized in Dolnick's charming debut, a light bildungsroman about shoveling goat poop and growing up. Henry Elinsky, helplessly ordinary, has flunked out after his first semester of college and is living at home in Chevy Chase, Md. Besieged by his father's unrelenting optimism, his mother's unhappiness and his uncle's hypersensitivity, Henry joins his older brother in New York City and takes a job as a keeper at the Children's Zoo. Henry's time in the city is a whirlwind of self-discovery: he cleans animal pens, receives the testy treatment from his brother's rich, bitchy girlfriend and realizes his would-be career as a saxophonist isn't all that promising. Henry also revels in his unrequited passion for young aspiring writer Margaret, even though he knows he and Margaret cannot be together. It takes a family crisis and a monumental error of judgment at the zoo to nudge Henry onward. Dolnick can capture in one surprisingly lucid phrase the essence of a situation, though his narrator's benign travails may not resonate with readers not of the 18-25 demographic. This is very much a young man's book; it will be interesting to see what Dolnick does next. (May)

Using WWII's Battle of the Bulge as background, Frost (The List of Seven) spins real-life and fictional characters into thriller gold. Hitler assigns his most feared commando, Lt. Col. Otto Skorzeny, to lead a 2,000-man brigade disguised as American troops in Operation Autumn Mist, a last-ditch effort to defeat the western Allies in late 1944 by breaking through the lightly defended Belgium-Luxembourg region. Within this German unit is a special group of 20 commandos who will face almost certain death trying to achieve a secret "second objective." Opposing this force is a U.S. army made up of tired veterans, green troops and one tough MP with the criminal investigation division, Earl Grannit, a New York cop in civilian life. Leading the special contingent of Nazis commandos is SS lieutenant Erich Von Leinsdorf, a supremely intelligent and contemptuously cruel Nazi who will stop at nothing to achieve his objective. Comparisons with Day of the Jackal are inevitable and not amiss. $250,000 marketing; author tour. (May)

An agoraphobe fights to save his house, his son and his sanity in Cohen's comic, big screen-ready debut. Jack Madigan has sequestered himself for most of his adult life in a decaying Boston townhouse along with his so-uncool-he's-cool son, Harlan; a one-eyed, one-eared cat; and, until she left, his wife Penelope. Jack is content to pursue his raison d'être of creating the perfect shade of white interior paint, but the outside world comes crashing in: Jack's income-royalties from dead rock star dad Baz (think: Ozzy Osbourne cut down in his prime by a snapping turtle)-dries up; Penelope wants Harlan to move to L.A. and live with her; the plucky, precocious, ankle-biting (really) girl next door keeps showing up in Jack's house; and Dorrie, a lovable dingbat realtor, swoops in to sell the townhouse (valued at $4.5 mil). Love blossoms, neuroses are zapped and an 11th-hour discovery saves the day. If it sounds formulaic, it is, but it's also terrifically written; Cohen's affinity for her nut-job characters is infectious and will keep readers involved as the plot reaches its peachy end. (May)

This wistful, episodic second novel by Swann (Serious Girls) is made up of vignettes about four sibling "flower children" whose parents are Pennsylvania farm country back-to-the-land hippies. Swann portrays the free-floating '70s coming-of-age of these four siblings-Lu, Maeve (who narrates much of the novel), Tuck and Clyde-who delight in running freely in the countryside, but grow embarrassed by the unconventional practices of their politically active, casual-dressing parents. Their parents, Sam, a Harvard graduate, and Dee, a gardener and artist, built their own house, and though they aim to raise their children in an ideal world "in which nothing is lied about, whispered about, and nothing is ever concealed," the parents separate, and subsequent storylike chapters delineate their children's sometimes rocky confrontation with the world of TVs, junk food and schoolyard cliques. The parents' transient love interests make impressions on the children: Dee's live-in boyfriend, Bobby, avenges the shooting of the children's dogs by local hunters; later, the children set out to rid themselves of Sam's latest squeeze, a glamorous but dim-witted psychologist. Swann wisely forgoes childlike stream-of-consciousness narration in favor of lean, direct storytelling, a choice that makes this more substantial and rewarding than the vast majority of coming-of-age novels. (May)

Bestseller Sandford opts for a contemplative procedural rather than a high-octane nail-biter for his 17th novel to feature Minneapolis detective Lucas Davenport (after 2005's Broken Prey). The brave and intelligent Davenport, one of contemporary crime fiction's more congenial sleuths, is working a politically sensitive case-state senator Burt Kline is on the edge of being arrested for having sex with a minor-when he's called in to investigate the beating death of wealthy widow Constance Bucher and her maid. Bucher lived in a mansion stuffed with antiques, though it's unclear if robbery was the motive for the murders. Several run-of-the-mill suspects are dealt with before the reader learns the identity of the two killers, who continue to murder a string of folks all variously connected to the Bucher slaying. Eventually, the Bucher and Kline cases come together in an unexpected way. Interesting and unusual supporting characters, good and bad guys alike, enhance an intriguing puzzle. (May)

Author of the bestselling Emperor series on the life of Julius Caesar, Iggulden turns to another of history's great conquerors, Genghis Khan, for a new series of brilliantly imagined and addictive historical fiction. Future conqueror Temujin-"a man of iron"-is born to the khan (ruler) of a fierce Mongol tribe that roams central Asia's steppes in the 12th century. When his father is killed by Tartar raiders before Temujin reaches manhood, a rival claims the tribe and banishes Temujin's family. Left behind without resources when the tribe migrates, the family struggles to survive the harsh environment, and Temujin dreams of gathering similar outcasts-wanderers and herdsmen-into a new tribe. After assembling a core of these "men scorned by all the others," Temujin begins raiding Tartar camps. As his fame spreads, Temujin launches an ambitious campaign to unite the Mongol tribes "after a thousand years of warfare" into a single people, defeat the Tartars and invade China. Building on the fragments of Genghis's life, Iggulden weaves a spellbinding story of an exotic and "unforgiving land" and the enigmatic young man-charismatic, a brilliant tactician and capable "of utter ruthlessness"-who sets out to tame it. This is historical fiction of the first order. (May)

Women who share a love of knitting support each other through the vicissitudes of life in Macomber's unsurprising third novel set on Seattle's fictional Blossom Street. Lydia Goetz, the proprietor of the knitting store (and series anchor) A Good Yarn, has begun teaching a new knitting class on prayer shawls. Fellow knitters include Colette Blake, a 31-year-old widow who rents the apartment above the shop and whose grief over her dead husband is being supplemented by confusion about her relationship with former boss and possible criminal Christian Dempsey. Also casting on is Alix Townsend, the daughter of a family of miscreants and now engaged to the Rev. Jordan Turner and so stressed over wedding planning that she wonders if she's pastor's wife material. Closer to home, Lydia's niece Julia is the victim of a carjacking and an ineffectual justice system, and Lydia is feeling bereft because, thanks to her history of cancer, she may never give birth to her own child. Readers will get exactly what they expect: a litany of feel-good, unassailable instances of the benefits of friendship, tolerance and knitting; happy endings for all; and simple if saccharine prose. Readers who already cherish life à la Blossom Street will welcome this slight variation on the theme. (May)

Great title and rich Mediterranean backdrop aside, this collection of linked stories doesn't quite fulfill the promise of its deft architecture and impressive range. A reader can't help wishing that more of the characters in these stories had the appeal of the Bruiser, an introspective Scottish strong-arm hired to find an AWOL debtor and a kidnapped boy while on vacation in Italy. Or the title characters in the García Márquez-esque "The Three Widows of Signor Alberto Moretti," whose daily hen parties in front of the Hotel Rapallo in Rapallo, Italy, reveal a shared disdain and love for one another that's so convoluted even the three widows can't sort it out. Other stories resonate, especially "The Ferry Driver of Portofino," in which an ex-con adopts an abused young boy, and "Homecoming," which sees the widow of a man killed early in the collection traveling to France aboard the same train her husband rode on the day he died: the 5:45. At times, Holthe's eagerness to link her stories leaves some encounters feeling forced. Though this collection doesn't eclipse Holthe's debut, When the Elephants Dance (2002), it provides a trove of pleasures and will have fans looking forward to the next. (May)

Set in pre-WWII Berlin, Downing's fine new thriller introduces a clever and honorable hero, British journalist John Russell, who has spent 15 years working in Germany. Despite finding the Nazis despicable and war inevitable, Russell wants to remain in Germany to be near his girlfriend, beautiful actress Effi Koenen, and his son, Paul, from whose mother he's divorced. A mysterious Russian hires Russell to write a series of articles praising Nazi achievements, and though he finds this work odious, he figures out a way to make the job palatable by involving the British consulate and their chief intelligence officer. He's drawn increasingly deeper into the espionage web of not only the Russians and British but also the Germans. How he extricates himself from all three and gets revenge on the Nazis will have readers holding their breath. Fortunately, the satisfying ending suggests Downing (The Moscow Option) will bring Russell back in a sequel. (May)

Pushcart Prize-winner Mindt deftly captures in his debut collection men, and those around them, as they negotiate moral binds rooted in masculinity's unwritten dos and don'ts. A high school chemistry teacher transplanted from Wisconsin to West Texas flunks the star quarterback and incurs the wrath of the townsfolk-and eventually transforms his marriage in the title story. In "Stories of the Hunt," a 12-year-old boy on his first deer-hunting expedition with his father recognizes that his father lied about his experience as a courageous woodsman. The African-American dentist of "An Artist at Work" recognizes too late that his decision to move his family from Boston to a Norman Rockwell suburb has fatally alienated his teenage artist son. Similarly, in "Free Spirits," a grown son has to come to terms with his psychotic hospitalized father, who can be as violent as he is sympathetic. Mindt does not present easy choices for his characters, like the heartbroken elderly Mexican-American father in the beautifully composed opener, "Sabor a Mi": he treks to Taos, N.Mex., on the occasion of his adored daughter's marriage to another woman. Though his characters are distinct, Mindt concentrates less on people than on their conflicts, and the resulting discord is tense and surprising throughout. (May)

Rainy-afternoon readers could do far worse than to curl up with Pierce's treat of a first novel. Pierce, who teaches English at Miami University in Ohio, introduces readers to Olivia, the 16-year-old budding artist who narrates this lush story. Olivia not only takes readers deep into her struggles with anorexia but introduces a rich cast of characters, like her funny, needy little sister, whose birth name is Claire, but who everyone calls Callapher, short for "Calla Flower." With the help of beautiful Mollie, a free-spirited, devout Christian girl who quickly befriends the family, and Margaret, an old, kind, busy-body great-aunt who is always ready with a helping hand, Olivia and Callapher do their best to settle into their new home, nicknamed "The Shoe Box" because of its tiny size. They've just moved to a small town where Mom and Dad try to make a new life after a scandal forces Dad out of his position as pastor of their old church in Ohio. This story is about family, faith, love, starting over and a whole host of life's curve balls, beautifully told by a girl who has endless heart but a tough mountain to climb when it comes to loving herself as is. (May)

First-time novelist Silver spins an unlikely if entertaining tale connecting mysteries concerning the abdication of King Edward VIII, WWII and the death of Princess Diana. Present-day Yale history professor Amy Greenberg journeys to Dublin to pick up the contents of a previously unknown safety deposit box leased by her deceased grandfather-which turns out to be an unpublished, nonfiction manuscript written in 1964 by Ian Fleming of James Bond fame: "You see, I've been sitting on a terrible secret since the war." The Fleming manuscript, alternating chapters with the contemporary story, details how Edward, after abdicating, formed a secret relationship with Adolf Hitler. The modern-day sections of the book consist mostly of Amy and her boyfriend, Scott Brown, fighting off a host of villains who want to steal, for rather obscure reasons, the Fleming material. Silver delights in making the sometimes improbable historical links that form the basis of his plot, and his high spirits are so contagious that readers will happily go along for the ride. (May)

George Wilhelm gets his kicks from sex, bond trading and gambling in this promising debut, which mixes those volatile elements with Tarantino-style violence. In 1993, George, a rookie Wall Street trader, is trying to make his mark in the cutthroat emerging markets funds. If the financial jargon Bernard uses is arcane, the frenetic pace and high-stakes maneuvers still emerge clearly. When paper success (low salary but prospects for high bonuses) goes to George's head, he ups his bets on sporting events to levels that leave him facing financial disaster. Suddenly, he's in over his head with a pair of sadistic debt collectors, who get their best ideas from movies like Reservoir Dogs. George is forced to concoct a scheme that will keep his bosses from learning about his problems and earn enough money to get him out of the jam. Bernard, himself a former bond trader, keeps upping the ante as his hero's choices get more and more desperate. George's transformation from brash risk-taking gambler and lover of the high life to gritty survivor is well done, but the rather saccharine ending isn't terribly convincing. (May)

Gentle humor leavens the weightier themes of trust, religion and second chances in this satisfying sequel to The Monk Downstairs (2002). Tough-as-nails divorcée Rebecca Martin eases into married life with former monk and tenant Mike Christopher while she wonders just what they've gotten themselves into. Her pot-smoking ex-husband is trying to reform and be a responsible father, but his inability to follow through adds extra tension to Rebecca and Mike's newlywed life. Farrington beautifully renders the touching relationships between Mike and his young stepdaughter, Mary Martha, and his mother-in-law, Phoebe, whose mental acuity is steadily declining after a stroke in the previous novel. Mike's struggle to reconcile his contemplative nature with his new responsibilities (and Rebecca's disdain for religion) is engagingly portrayed as escapes to the attic to meditate. When Mary Martha decides she wants to attend mass with Mike, Rebecca's conflicts intensify; "It wasn't that she was opposed to God, per se. She just didn't want His damn church screwing with her daughter's head." Farrington has a knack for unusual descriptions, such as mid-week morning mass, a "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am affair, like framing work in carpentry.... They left the interior decoration and finish work for Sundays." A poignant death scene ensures readers will reach for the Kleenex. Farrington's talent blossoms in this engaging novel. (May)

A recovered school ring leads mismatched policemen John Ceepak, a 36-year-old veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and his rookie partner, Danny Boyle, on a search for a serial killer in Grabenstein's flaccid third mystery set in a New Jersey beach resort called Sea Haven. The previous two books in the series, Tilt-a-Whirl and Mad Mouse, did a good job developing the relationship between the highly trained, honorable ex-marine and his young partner, who joined the cops mostly to impress girls. About all the two had in a common was a love for Bruce Springsteen, but Boyle was a quick study under Ceepak's tutelage. Now, Ceepak literally digs up a cold case on the beach with his metal detector, which finds a ring and then a charm bracelet, trinkets that belonged to women who were beheaded by a preachy killer Ceepak nicknames Ezekiel. Signs indicate the killer may strike again soon, but the limp dialogue dilutes the suspense. Fans of the first two books will likely be disappointed. (June)

Straight-shooter Rehder sends up players on both sides of the gun control debate in his fifth Blanco County mystery (after 2005's Guilt Trip), a humorous, intelligent take on a serious issue. John Marlin, a sure-footed game warden and Texas peace officer, doesn't believe in blaming guns instead of criminals for crime, but his views on Second Amendment rights are tested by a National Weapons Alliance (NWA) rally, planned for July 4 at the ranch of country and western superstar Mitch Campbell. Addled by 'shrooms, Mitch accidentally kills a Mexican gardener and turns to the smarmy NWA Texas chapter president, Dale Stubbs, for help covering up the crime. Meanwhile, SNATCH (Society of Nonviolent Americans to Control Handguns) plans a protest of the NWA rally. Subplots include NWA applicant Red O'Brien's ill-conceived schemes to sell a ditty to Mitch Campbell and former sitcom star Sabrina Nash's quest to prevent the release of the convict who years earlier shot her young son to death. This satire packs firepower and poignant surprises. (May)

Set on the west coast of Scotland, Murray's promising debut thriller reunites Iain Lewis, a poet turned intermittently employed sitcom writer, with his married ex-girlfriend, Carole, at her mother's funeral. Carole is trapped in an unhappy marriage with Irish mob-connected Duncan Ferguson, who now runs her family's fisheries business. Both her parents died under mysterious circumstances, and her enigmatic brother, Martin, is clearly hiding something. After the wake, Iain returns home to find his house burgled and a briefcase containing a gun, cocaine and cash left behind. Iain doesn't trust the local constable, so he seeks help from a hard-drinking buddy, Glasgow crime reporter Dougie Henderson. Iain later comes upon the body of "harmless alkie" Danny McGovern on a deserted beach, and soon finds himself stalked by two thugs linked to Ferguson. Murray delivers pounding suspense with a violent if not completely surprising conclusion. (May)

In Swedish author Eriksson's fine second ensemble procedural (after 2006's The Princess of Burundi), members of the Uppsala Violent Crime Division try to connect the dots linking the separate murders of two old men and the disappearance of a third. Eriksson eschews crackling dialogue and facile descriptions in favor of longer, slower developing profiles of the principal men and women of the police unit: Ann Lindell, Ola Haver, Sammy Nilsson, Allan Fredricksson and others. Their investigation proceeds in parallel with the story of Laura Hindersten, daughter of the missing man. Eriksson balances these stories nicely as the detectives reach for clues. Lindell, the single mother of a young boy, emerges as the most compelling investigator, but the others are also distinct individuals. The author's squad of detectives displays the kind of interdependency and fractious loyalty that endeared Ed McBain's 87th Precinct squad (Cop Hater, etc.) to fans for so many decades. (May)

In McKevett's 12th enjoyable if not especially suspenseful cozy to feature Savannah Reid (after 2006's Corpse Suzette), the saucy California PI lands a gig as bodyguard to actress Dona Papalardo, who's gained recent notoriety for her dramatic weight loss. When Dona's personal assistant is murdered, Savannah thinks the killer was aiming for Papalardo herself. But after another member of Dona's staff gets killed, Savannah must dig deeper, with some help from San Carmelita police officer Dirk Coulter. It turns out the two dead employees knew each other long before they signed on with Papalardo and shared a sinister past. While the identity of the killer won't surprise most readers, McKevett's critique of the cult of thinness, to which Papalardo succumbed by having a dangerous gastric bypass, lends this light read some heft. (May)

Akashic's city-themed noir series (New Orleans Noir, etc.) finally reaches L.A., a prime locale for this subgenre. Of the 17 contributors, bestseller Michael Connelly is most likely to be familiar to a wide audience. Connelly's "Mulholland Drive," a nice tribute to the classic noir film Double Indemnity, is representative of the quality writing that followers of previous volumes have come to expect. The movie industry, both latter-day and the present, offers a rich background for tight tales of trapped men and women whose passions or desperate circumstances lead them to violent ends, such as the book's stand-out, Janet Fitch's "The Method." Another highpoint is the collection's concluding story, Diana Wagman's "What You See," a depressing but compelling tale of a tragic obsession. (May)

When womanizing Derek Cooper, a Fort Collins, Colo., rancher, is killed by a blow to the head near the start of Sefton's entertaining if flawed fourth knitting mystery (after 2006's A Deadly Yarn), her first in hardcover, for once it looks as if knitter-cum-accountant-cum-sleuth Kelly Flynn, who doesn't know the deceased, won't get involved. But it turns out that one of Kelly's pals is close friends with a prime suspect, Cooper's ex, and Kelly offers her detecting skills in an attempt to track down the real killer. Readers will enjoy visiting with Kelly and her knitting buddies, who, in their carefree way, resemble the cast of Friends. Unfortunately, awkward dialogue, such as a conversation about whether Kelly is comfortable kissing her boyfriend, strikes a false note. Still, knitting devotees will enjoy this crafty cozy. (May)

After clearing Father Brennan Burke of murder charges in 2006's Sign of the Cross, Canadian criminal lawyer Monty Collins helps the priest explore his father's history with the IRA in this fresh second installment of a three-part series. Before Monty, his family and Brennan leave Halifax for New York, where Brennan will officiate at the wedding of his niece, Brennan's brother Patrick sends him a cryptic obituary that appeared in a New York paper. Their father, Declan Burke, who fled Ireland 40 years earlier, understands it as a threat to his life, and sure enough, Declan is shot and wounded at the wedding. While Monty struggles with his own hopes of reconciling with his ex-wife, Brennan and his siblings search for the truth about their father's past and harbor suspicions that could shatter their large, tight-knit family. Emery tops her vivid story of past political intrigue that could destroy the present with a surprising conclusion. (May)

The stately pace and tame revelations of the latest Rona Parish mystery from British veteran Fraser (A Family Concern) make it especially suitable for genteel readers. For a Chiltern Life magazine series on family businesses, Rona interviews various Curzons, manufacturers of porcelain-including managing director Charles and sales and marketing director Finlay-who are quite keyed up about the company's 150th anniversary and the unveiling of a new product line, code named "Project Genesis." Rona's archival investigation unearths a skeleton that may threaten the firm, and then she and Finlay happen upon the fresh corpse of a woman they both know. Those who like their contemporary mysteries in traditional mode will be most satisfied. (May)

Texas noir anyone? In Fate's violent second novel featuring Kristin Van Dijk (after 2006's Baby Shark), the newly licensed PI and her obstreperous partner, Otis Millett, investigate the disappearance of a Texas oil heiress. No sooner do they settle down to business than nasty gangsters get aggressive and the bodies begin piling up with tedious rapidity. Combine countless baddies being blown away, young women beaten up, a routine mystery plot and questionable sociological implications (cops can't be trusted), and the agglutination of seedy detail winds up being depressing rather than unsettling. The carnage may titillate some, but other readers may detect the warmed-over smell of Rambo and The Terminator. (May)

Some high school kids would do anything to be an IASA space cadet, but not Theodora Baumgarten in Willis's cheerfully tongue-in-cheek SF novella. "There's no air, you're squashed into a ship the size of a juice can, and it takes years to get anywhere interesting. If you... aren't killed first by a meteor or a solar flare or a systems malfunction." But somehow, without submitting an application, Theodora is accepted to the Academy. Soon, she's green with space sickness aboard the Academy space station (named, appropriately enough, the Robert A. Heinlein), learning the ropes with a class of robust, gung-ho cadets. Getting out will require solving the mystery of how she got into the Academy in the first place, but it might have something to do with the annotation "D.A." in her station records. Willis (Inside Job) turns a cherished SF theme completely inside out. (June)

This engaging alternate-universe tale posits a quintessential enigma of civilization: can technology be prevented from doing as much evil as good? Goonan (Light Music) traces the career of amateur saxophonist Sam Dance, a young soldier who receives plans for a strange electronic device from his physics instructor, Magyar Gypsy Dr. Eliani Hadntz, after she seduces him on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She intends her "time machine"-melding physics and biology-to harness the human mind and rescue Europe from Nazi evil. As Sam experiences successive horrors of WWII, the love of jazz he and his friend Wink share enables them to build increasingly perfected models of Hadntz's device. Sam eventually plants the machines across the globe, hoping the technology will somehow cause various time-shifting realities and save humanity from its herdlike propensity for violence. Paralleling the evolution of modern jazz with the creative ferment of science, Goonan delivers a bravura performance. (May)

Robins's debut fantasy chronicles the fascinating transformation of 15-year-old Miranda from girlish street urchin to an attractive, audacious male courtier on a quest for love and vengeance. When the earl of Last decides he needs an heir, he plucks his bastard son, Janus, from the slums of the city of Murne-much to the dismay of Miranda, Janus's constant companion. Determined to find Janus and kill the earl of Last, she dresses as a boy and finds her way into the household of the dissolute Baron Vornatti, an enemy of Last. Trained in all the skills of a decadent and treacherous court by the lecherous baron and his servant Gilly-and possessed by Black-Winged Ani, a bloodthirsty goddess of love and vengeance-Miranda becomes Maledicte. This complex protagonist becomes both a pawn and a power in a darkly original world of doubted gods and declining civilization. Robins is a fantasist with a future. (May)

British author Lambshead, a research scientist with many technical papers to his credit, takes an imaginative premise for his first novel, a fantasy set mainly in Elizabethan England, but falters in the execution. After court wizard John Dee, with the aid of Lovecraft's Necronomicon, summons a demon thatpossesses Lucy Dennys, "a lady of gentle breeding... fair of face and bonny of character," Dee attempts to kill Lucy with his dagger. Sir Francis Walsingham, Lucy's uncle and the queen's spy chief, intervenes just in time, and the dagger later serves as a talisman for Lucy as she faces assorted challenges, including a plot against the queen's life. Rather than presenting the period from the point-of-view of the people living in it, Lambshead intrudes with anachronistic commentary ("Even a small cut could kill in a world without antibiotics") as well as historical exposition ("Elizabeth was the third great Tudor monarch, after her father Henry VIII and grandfather Henry VII"). Hopefully, any sequel will be less heavy-handed. (May)

Officer Joanne Walker of the Seattle PD, a 26-year-old shaman-in-progress, combats a mysterious sleeping sickness in Murphy's intriguing third romantic fantasy (after 2006's Thunderbird Fall). The "blue flu" has infected most of the Seattle police force, including Jo's boss (and future sweetie?), Capt. Michael Morrison. Jo pops in and out of fantastic flashbacks and lucid dreams as she learns more about her powers and her past with the help of her colorful spirit guide, Coyote, who suddenly goes missing. To vanquish the evil causing the plague, she must deal with troublesome newcomers Barbara and Mark Bragg, part Navajo twins, who've been working on a quantum physics project involving wormholes. Jo resorts to some major Cherokee-Celtic mojo to wake everyone up to the dangers of the Braggs' experiments, which allow dark butterfly demons and a Navajo god to enter present-day Seattle. Jo's romantic issues with Mark and Michael add fuel to the paranormal proceedings. (May)

Military SF fans will welcome Compton's debut, an alternative history in which the Russians still control Alaska. It's 1987, and Capt. Grisha Grigorievich, a former Imperial army officer now in command of a naval vessel in Alaskan waters, is chafing at the social restrictions that his mixed-blood parentage imposes upon him. He also increasingly resents the arbitrary and petty assertion of czarist authority by any two-bit Cossack in this backwater of the Russian empire. When Grisha is unjustly condemned for killing a government spy, he's sent to a labor camp. After he's freed in a raid on the camp by a surprisingly well-organized Native American separatist movement, Grisha seizes the opportunity to get revenge. Compton creates a plausible backstory for his time line (the Communists never took over Russia), which comes out naturally in bits and pieces. His depiction of warfare under extreme arctic conditions is horrifyingly realistic and vivid. (Apr.)

Bestselling author London works a charming Regency twist on the story of Beauty and the Beast in the second installment of her Desperate Debutantes series, following last year's The Hazards of Hunting a Duke. Impoverished socialite Greer Fairchild has set out for her childhood home in Wales to collect a badly needed inheritance, which is thought to be controlled by the glowering Rhodrick Glendower, earl of Radnor. An unctuous fellow traveler named Owen Percy tells horrifying stories of Rhodrick, known locally as the prince of Powys, and when the pair arrive at his gloomy castle, the hulking Rhodrick confirms Percy's most troubling stories. Domineering, vulgar and possibly even murderous, Rhodrick holds Greer captive until she can produce proof of her identity. Eventually, Percy sets off to get help, and Greer reluctantly settles in, waiting for the letter from London that will validate her claims on the inheritance. As Greer and her host overcome their animosity and succumb to rising passion, further complications arise in a mystery from Greer's past. London's love story is tense and tender, held aloft by endearing, dynamic characters. (May)

Rife with political intrigue, this medieval historical romance never lacks for suspense, but overblown language, a too-easy wrapup and excessive melodrama undermine the reader's enjoyment. "I shouldn't... but I shall!" is noblewoman Brianna de Beauchamp's credo, and she applies it often throughout. Should she involve herself in the brewing battle between England's marcher barons and the degenerate King Edward II? And, perhaps more importantly, should she provoke the handsome and dangerous Wolf Mortimer? She shouldn't but she does, making herself an essential channel of communication between the barons and their ally, Queen Isabelle, as well as the object of Wolf's fantasies. Veteran author Henley (Infamous) weaves a colorful tapestry full of notorious real-life noblemen and royals, proving that fact can be more fascinating than fiction. However, Henley would do better to heed the "less is more" doctrine; too often characters restate facts, and Henley compulsively inserts distracting exclamatories for added drama ("I foolishly forgave you once, but never again. I wouldn't lower myself to spit on you!"). Despite its flaws, this dynamic, heavily embellished history lesson manages to do what few can-illuminate and entertain. (May)

Another melodramatic installment of Lee's Office 119 series sees the international police force racing to unravel a conspiracy that could lead to a 21st-century holocaust. After a series of riots in Europe culminate in an attack on the Grande Mosquée de Paris, the new president of the EU shepherds Muslims into "protection zones." As religious factions the Stewards and Saif Al Sharaawi prepare for the coming storm, agents Bächle, Renault and Caine of Office 119 investigate the mysterious assassination of the German chancellor. Elsewhere, priest Steve Lorenzo quests for a device of biblical proportions, which may prove instrumental in the current crisis. At times, Lee manages to whip rich atmosphere from her European backdrop, but her blunted prose rarely cuts through long-winded exposition, and her characters largely adhere to cultural stereotypes. The "elite" agents don't investigate as much as stumble upon ready-made revelations, and the villain is revealed so early that the lengthy investigation feels redundant. Tactical action provides some unexpected thrills toward the climax, but the journey there is a suspense-free slog, broken up by uninspired romance. Series fans will undoubtedly be interested, but new readers will find little to hold their attention. (May)

Other than a secret that takes too long to reveal, this Victorian romance from James (A Perfect Hero) concerning the troubled union of fiery Annabel McBride and tormented Simon Blackwell is just about perfect: rich, meaty, sexy and honest. Upon meeting, the two immediately set to butting heads, but it isn't long before an instant of weakness finds them in a passionate lip lock. Just like that, their fate is sealed: Anne's reputation is compromised and the two are married. Simon, haunted by unmentionable heartbreak, refuses to consummate the marriage, planning to divorce her after a year or so; Anne is horrified at the prospect and determined to make a genuine husband out of him. Simon thwarts her every attempt until his past catches up with him, and she finds the way to bring him back from self-imposed emotional exile. Simon's dark secret, hinted at throughout, may frustrate readers, but it also lends the book an enticing gothic edge. James's writing is assured, her story moves well, and she has a fine pair of leads in Anne and Simon; their hard-won happily ever after will satisfy any historical romance fan. (Apr.)

Pinborough delivers genuine chills in this effective tale of ghostly revenge. Thirty years ago, in the rural town of Watterrow, England, a beautiful, curly-haired 10-year-old named Melanie Parr suffered a fatal accident. Having used her angelic looks to hide a cruel, sociopathic personality, the girl delighted in tormenting her playmates, whose mothers decided to do something about it. Unfortunately for them, that "something" proved deadly. Even more unfortunate, Melanie's come back for revenge, three decades later, thanks to "The Catcher Man," a benign entity that holds children in a state between life and death. Pinborough populates Watterrow with well-defined, sympathetic characters whose reactions, in the face of the unbelievable, ring remarkably true; the struggle of her reluctant heroine, Alex, is thoughtfully balanced between otherworldly horror and the ravages of terminal cancer. Wisely, Pinborough (Breeding Ground) opts to build suspense subtly, rather than bludgeon readers with horrific imagery or buckets of gore, giving this nicely executed, surprisingly moving ghost story an old-fashioned feel in the best possible sense. (Apr.)

Between 1956 and 1965, as Peanuts was becoming an international phenomenon, Schulz also drew a much less famous comic strip. Young Pillars was a biweekly single-panel cartoon for the Church of God's teen magazine Youth, mostly about church-related themes: youth fellowship picnics, Sunday school homework, heavy stacks of Bible commentaries. Several hundred of them are collected here, along with a few other church-connected single-panel cartoons Schulz drew in the '60s and some notes explaining jokes whose sense has been lost to time. With its cast of more-or-less devout teenagers, Young Pillars generally lacks the biting wit and underlying darkness of Peanuts, although Schulz still gets off some zingers. ("Don't bother me," says the strip's most regular character, a gangly fellow who could be a 16-year-old Shermy. "I'm looking for a verse of Scripture to back up one of my preconceived notions!") It's far from Schulz's best work, but it fleshes out the theological concerns that were rarely far from the core of Peanuts. It's also fascinating to see his inimitable wobbly line and deadpan sense of humor in a different context, and his gift for capturing facial expressions with a few lines in drawings of characters older than the wise children that were his specialty. (May)

After a long absence, Matt returns in all his absurdly conflicted, tortured glory. In the tradition of Bukowski and R. Crumb, his tale turns on his disgust with himself and all of humanity, and, like the greats, Matt entertains as he cringes. His paradoxically clean and cheerful art is as likable as his persona is unlikable in this tale of avarice, obsession and masturbation. The episodic story begins in a bookstore, where Matt swoops in on a book he knows his friend, fellow cartoonist Seth, would love; Matt buys the book and then sells it to Seth at an obscene markup. The action moves on to Matt's latest porn purchases, then stops by a coffee shop, where the author chews over his shortcomings with a third member of their cartoonist gang, Chester. Interposed are memories of childhood and scenes from Matt's room in a boarding house, where his laziness and disgust with his fellow humans lead him to urinate in the largest jars he can find in order to avoid using the communal bathroom. The title indicates that Matt's well aware of his entrenched personal issues-but this self-awareness never translates to any kind of epiphany or behavioral change. Those hoping for uplift will go wanting. (May)

Popular writing/illustrating duo Peach-Pit (DearS, Rozen Maiden) begins an inscrutable new series for young girls. Amu Hinamori is a fourth-grader in a new school. She's seen as detached and cool by the rest of the kids, but she just wants to find her place and fit in. One night she wishes she could be somebody else-and when she wakes up finds three eggs in her bed. As the eggs hatch, each one bears a guardian angel for Anu, and each gives her confidence to tackle a new task. The fact that she has three guardian eggs brings Anu to the attention of the school Guardians, a panel of four students that have secret meetings and hold some sort of power over the school. Anu learns from them that most people only have one egg, and in fact there is a prophecy that tells of the coming of one with three eggs. Most of the story is spent setting up the odd cosmology and character roster, with only a few hints at upcoming action (involving an organization called Easter) at the very end. Peach-Pit's visual style is manic, with loads of embellishments and kitsch, but this should have solid appeal for their large fan base. (Mar.)

Sumomo follows her yaoi hit Same Cell Organism with a collection of short pieces that run the gamut of teenaged romance manga from yaoi to yuri, and even includes a piece or two featuring heterosexual teenagers. Panel by panel, Sumomo's art can be compelling. She excels at closeups, drawing expressive faces that make quiet moments between characters especially effective. Unfortunately, her storytelling skills are nowhere near as strong. Characters appear and disappear at whim, and the staging and writing are often awkward. In the title piece, a boy who thinks he may be dying gets involved with a boy who may or may not be able to "hear" when a person will die. The premise is interesting, but gets lost in the "he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not" mooning that follows. Nor is that story helped by the fact that one of the two male protagonists not only looks like a teenaged girl, but dresses like one as well. Sumomo's other stories are equally unsatisfying. While the art is pretty, the confused storytelling means that this collection will likely appeal to yaoi completists but few others. (Mar.)