Fiction Reviews: Week of 4/9/2007

Mizner (Political Animal) goes micro in his second novel, encapsulating sometimes awkwardly the current American political landscape in a dying Ohio steel town's school board election. Hartsburg used to be a bellwether community that voted correctly on every presidential candidate, but a conservative shift shattered the town's decades-long streak of infallibly picking the winner in 1992. Long frustrated with the "thumpers," local newspaper columnist and failed Hollywood screenwriter Wallace Cormier decides he has to do something after his beloved main street cinema is turned into a church. His plan? To run for the school board against Bevy Baer, a churchgoing mother of five who wants to push an agenda of creationism and zero tolerance. Both candidates get help from veteran political consultants, and things get ugly: rumors circulate about Wallace's mother's sexual activity, and a scandalous film surfaces that reveals a lot about Bevy that she's been trying to hide. While Mizner overuses generalizations and stereotypes about liberals and conservatives, the thin secondary characters are countered by an earnest depiction of the candidates' humanity and depth of conviction. The novel ends up being much more sad than funny, more straight that satirical, and it offers an apt examination of divides that aren't as cut and dried as red vs. blue. (Aug.)

Bestselling Mitchard offers the harrowing tale of four women lost at sea and pitted against nature and a cohort of contemporary pirates. Tracy, Holly and Olivia have known each other since high school, when they were glamorous, popular troublemakers. Twenty-five years after graduation, the three women, plus Tracy's 19-year-old daughter, Camille, set out on a "reading, sunning, gossiping" trip aboard a luxe sailboat helmed by a two-man crew. But a storm leaves the women adrift with no sail or engine and their co-captains gone overboard. With limited sailing experience, failing radio equipment and a rapidly diminishing cache of food and water, the women are vulnerable to the worst threats the Caribbean can offer—the elements, sharks and, most troublesome, pirates. This fast-paced novel borrows qualities from several genres—suspense, survival epic, coming-of-age—and mostly succeeds in melding the better aspects of each, though Mitchard has a surer hand in creating women characters than men. Mitchard's fans will appreciate this high-stakes adventure. (Aug.)

An inept African-American illusionist is dogged by the deal he struck with the devil in Wallace's fourth novel, a circus picaresque that barnstorms its way through the 1950s American South. Henry Walker, once the "greatest magician in the world," has been reduced to a minstrel show–like novelty act in a traveling circus. Henry's story, told by a succession of narrators—including members of the circus and a private detective—begins during the Depression, when Henry's family fell on hard times. While down and out, Henry meets and apprentices with the devilish magician Mr. Sebastian. Henry learns the secrets of magic, but his ambition and ability are crimped when his beloved sister, Hannah, disappears. The truths of Henry's and Mr. Sebastian's identities and the fate of Hannah are gradually revealed, and what appears to be a Faustian tale of a pact with the devil turns out to be something more tragic. Wallace (Big Fish; The Watermelon King) skillfully unravels the tale, and though the conclusion is both startling and inevitable, and Henry is as beguiling and enigmatic a character as Wallace has created, the milieu of carnies, hucksters, tricksters and wanderers isn't as sharp as it could be. (July)

This imaginative near-future, genre-bending debut novel borrows its premise from the iconic work of a less modern Mary—Mary Shelley. After discovering she's infertile, 28-year-old biogenetics researcher Lucy Morrigan concocts in her secret basement laboratory a fetal cocktail using her grandmother's DNA (from a blood-spotted apron found in the attic). Within three months, Lucy's dangerously huge with the clone of grandmother Mary, and her boss and friend, Megan (who is not an ob-gyn but was once married to one) performs a C-section. They place the clone in a mechanical womb in Lucy's basement, and in six months, an indignant 22-year-old version of Lucy's grandmother emerges. Mary's last memories are of 1929, but she adjusts to modern life quickly. She's bright, vivacious and flirtatious, and is portrayed with significantly more empathy and detail than any of the other characters. Despite an obvious and mutual attraction to Lucy's boyfriend, Mary asks Lucy to clone her husband, Teddy. But Mary isn't the only one looking for Lucy's help—a deranged preacher threatens to expose her unless she clones Jesus. DeAngelis combines a neogothic exploration of a moral-ethical morass with a quirky clone love story; the result is sometimes unwieldy but frequently titillating. (July)

This dreamy and thoughtful third novel from Hadley (Everything Will Be Alright and Accidents in the Home) chronicles the slow-burning midlife crisis of Kate Flynn. A cigarette-smoking, high-heel–wearing Russian lit. prof, Kate has given up frittering among the London intelligentsia to move back to Wales and care for her aging mother, Billie. Against the backdrop of wintry Cardiff, Kate contends with her rekindled desire for David Roberts, now a married public health doctor. She simultaneously attempts to ward off the infatuated advances of David's teenage son, Jamie. As all concerned cavort provokingly, Hadley sympathizes with her quirky, stubborn characters and impulsive protagonist without excusing them, and the simmering love triangle between David, his son and Kate keeps the placid storytelling from falling into a meditative lull. (July)

The fates of three families converge in a contrived manner in the gentrified Upper West Side Manhattan neighborhood encountered in Mendelson's previous novel, Morningside Heights. Charles and Anne Braithwaite are dream parents, but their eldest daughter, Jane, an accomplished senior at a private school, is miserable and acts out by choosing inappropriate boyfriends. Gabriela Leon, the Dominican woman who cleans the Braithwaites' apartment, falls ill and gets evicted from the apartment she shares with her high school senior nephew Andrés. Gabriela and Andrés move into the Braithwaites' spare room—supposedly on a temporary basis—and the love that blossoms between Jane and Andrés has a predictable outcome that's burdened when Andrés and Gabriela's boyfriend, Juan, are arrested on drug charges. (Juan was trying to scrape together the funds to secure Gabriela an apartment.) The third thread is mild-mannered Dr. Michael Garrard, whose marriage is being destroyed by an inability to have children. His passion is wrapped up in the Ecumenical Council of Religious Charities, always on the lookout for worthy causes—such as Andrés's case. The novel's anti–Rockefeller drug law agenda clouds the narrative, particularly in the novel's second half, when Mendelson's stage managing overshadows the lively characters she's created. (July)

Divorce is the elephant in the room for Singer's second novel, following Horseplay. When social worker turned horse trainer Cornelia "Neelie" Sterling finds out her vet husband, Matt, is cheating on her, she throws him out, but can't bear to make it legal. Even after major alarm bells (Matt's partner's pregnancy, Matt's zeroing of the marital joint account), the hearing-impaired Neelie finds "I had not only been deaf, I had also been blind." Faced with losing her house and barn, Neelie jumps aboard Matt's mission to Zimbabwe to rescue two wounded elephants, thinking the transatlantic journey will convince him to recommit to the marriage. There, she finds behemoths in need of care—and the philanthropist who's funding the trip. The secondaries lack texture, but Neelie's misguided struggle rings true. (July)

Abu-Jaber, who dealt with Arab-American themes in her earlier novels, Crescent and Arabian Jazz, shows her versatility in this gripping contemporary thriller. A spike in the number of local SIDS deaths piques the interest of Lena Dawson, a fingerprint specialist at a Syracuse, N.Y., forensics lab. Is it a statistical fluke or is there a killer at work? Determined to account for the dead infants, Lena joins the investigation, which stirs tantalizing memories from her dimly recollected early childhood. Despite her fragile mental state, Lena proves capable of surprising resolve. Her relationship with her protective ex-husband, her budding romance with a detective and her quest for her own lost past add psychological depth. Abu-Jaber's lovely nuanced prose conveys the chill of an upstate New York winter as well as it does Lena's drab existence before she was drawn into the mystery of the crib deaths. This enthralling puzzle will appeal to both crime fans and readers of literary fiction. 9-city author tour. (June)

Bestseller Kava takes a break from her Maggie O'Dell FBI profiler series (A Necessary Evil, etc.) with a fine topical thriller involving terrorism, government coverups and toxic waste. Sabrina Galloway, a young Chicago professor, becomes a hands-on scientist in Florida with EcoEnergy, a company that specializes in TCP—a process that converts refuse and other waste material into oil. EcoEnergy's CEO is angling for a $140 million military government contract, but after Sabrina's boss mysteriously disappears and Sabrina discovers a reactor processing something it shouldn't, her life becomes as endangered as Florida's waterways. She hits the road in a '47 Studebaker with Miss Sadie, a gutsy 81-year-old African-American neighbor, to find help, while Middle Eastern terrorists plot a nasty surprise for an upcoming energy summit. Engaging supporting characters include Leon, a funky hit man losing his touch but not his heart, and covert operative Natalie Richards, "a black Emma Peel." Kava lightens the seriousness with some deft touches of humor. Genre fans weary of serial-killer fare will find this a refreshing read. (June)

At the start of Parker's engaging sixth Sunny Randall novel (after Blue Screen), the cop-turned-PI helps her father track down a Boston serial killer whose depredations begin again after a 20-year hiatus. The "spare change" killer executes victims with a single shot to the head, leaving three coins near the body. Sunny's dad, Phil, headed the old task force formed to catch the killer, who wrote Phil taunting letters as the killings piled up. A new killing and a fresh letter to Phil have him and Sunny serving as consultant and assistant respectively to a new task force. Gutsy Sunny takes the lead in identifying the most likely suspect, and then in playing him dangerously to get hard evidence. Parker's signature bantering byplay and some borrowings of characters from other series (notably Susan Silverman from the Spenser novels) will delight fans. The outcome is never in doubt, but Parker hits most of the right notes, and there's still ingenuity to his cat-and-mouse. (June)

Vaite's delightful third novel (after Breadfruit and Frangipani) once again heralds the foibles of Materena Tehana and her ever-present, ever-squabbling family, but this time, Materena's husband, Pito, gets a big share of the spotlight. Pito still finds himself the object of his in-laws' ire, and Materena's call-in radio show seems to have the ear of every woman in Tahiti. After an intense evening on the airwaves discussing the phenomenon of Tahitians not knowing their French soldier fathers, Materena tells Pito that she wants to finally go about locating her own unknown French dad, but Pito's drunken response leads to a communication breakdown that leaves Materena determined to punish Pito, and Pito contemplating an affair. The rift is healed when they learn they're grandparents, and Pito, after years of ducking in and out of his kids' lives, finds that he has the right touch with baby Tiare. Materena, meanwhile, isn't having much luck locating her father, but a little late help from Pito goes a long way toward securing a rosy denouement. Fans of the earlier Materena novels will find Vaite hasn't lost her storytelling touch. (June)

Loss and redemption take center stage in story writer Allison's beautifully written debut novel. When five-year-old Holly's mother dies suddenly in the summer of 1976, Holly's father, Wylie, leaves her in the care of her grandfather, Cal, and disappears. Holly's coming-of-age on her grandfather's South Carolina dairy farm is a turbulent one, producing a volatile woman with drinking and gambling problems. She does manage, however, to land a good husband in Cal's contractor, Lyle, and the two have a daughter. Meanwhile, Wylie drinks himself close to death and works odd jobs, while Cal endures the deaths of his wife and daughter with stoic dignity. But an Alzheimer's diagnosis proves too much to bear, leaving Cal to put his affairs in order before making an early, quiet exit. It's more than 15 years later before Holly and Wylie reunite, providing the deeply felt emotional core of this earnest novel. Characters' tension-fraught relationships are well played, and Allison is adept at navigating a labyrinthine web of psychological underpinnings. Though the structure has its stymied moments (chapters are chronologically jumbled and are told in various voices, narrative styles and tenses), the nonlinear narrative gives Allison a trove of angles, and he nails all of them. (June)

Oyeyemi (Icarus Girl) returns to the realms of myth and magic in her second novel, the rewarding and challenging narrative of Maja, a 24-year-old black Cuban woman whose family fled Castro's revolution for London when she was seven. Maja has recently moved in with her boyfriend, Aaron, and discovers she is pregnant with the child she's wanted since she was five years old. And though adjusted to life in London, she begins to wonder about the country her family left behind. Coloring her search for a sense of belonging are the gods and goddesses of Santeria, a fusion of Catholicism and West African Yoruba beliefs. Flashbacks flesh out Maja's relationships with her Santeria-practicing Mami, her professor Papi (who is not a Santeria practitioner) and her bully-bait younger brother, Tomás. Maja's gay best friend, Amy Eleni, provides Maja with sharp insight that helps her come into her own. Interwoven is the story of Aya, a goddess of Santeria who lives in the "somewherehouse," which has one door that opens onto Lagos and one onto London. Though the prose can tend toward the imprecise ("she felt a pull and a fuzzy, bite-sized happiness"), the novel's lyrical and stylistic experimentation speaks to Oyeyemi's depth of talent. (June)

Returning from Your Big Break and The Next Big Thing, Edwards tracks Chicago-based image consultant Kylie Chase. Having been an overweight outcast in high school, Kylie works to save others from her younger self's fate: she talks one client out of wearing a Star Wars costume on a first date and keeps another from starring in a porno. But Kylie's deep dark secret is that she still imagines herself as a high school pudgette, and when hunky journalist Ty Benedict is assigned to cover her career, Kylie has to face the real person behind the carefully constructed image. Lame affirmations ("You are exactly who you think you are") and corny one-liners are less than cool, but Edwards makes Kylie's voice immediate and winning as she puts her through her success-doubt-success paces. (June)

In German author Schlink's meandering second crime novel available in English to feature aging PI Gerhard Self (after Self's Punishment), a man named Salger hires Self to locate his missing daughter, Leonore. With little help from the father, Self tracks the missing girl to an insane asylum outside Heidelberg, where he's informed by a doctor that Leo has recently died there in an accident. Self quickly learns, among other details, that the death report is untrue, Leo's father is not really her father and that the case is connected to a top-secret government investigation. Self can be completely off the wall one minute—he lies outrageously to anyone who might have information and breaks-and-enters without compunction—and the next he's as comfortable as an old shoe, having a glass of Riesling and hanging out with his cat, Turbo. The eccentric detective is the big draw, with the less than action-packed investigation coming in a distant second. (June)

In Rodi's tepid latest, Jack Ackerly, 53, has made a pile in public relations and earned himself a comfortable place among Chicago's gay A-crowd, but the recent decamping of his boyfriend, Wicker Park art dealer Harold "Harry" McGann, has left him aware of a hole in his life. At the other end of the social sphere, 26-year-old space cadet Corey Szaslow lives on the kindness of friends, getting by—just barely—on his looks. A crystal meth habit he's lately kicked has cost him most of his friends, and he's now wondering what it would be like to get a job, maybe some health insurance. They meet cute (Jack hits Corey's bicycle with his Porsche), the two quickly engage in an unholy plot to switch bodies via New Age witch Francesca LaBrash: Corey will be middle-aged and liver-spotted with a 36-inch waist and an uninspiring hard-on, but he'll be rich. Jack will be young once more and able to enjoy the promiscuous sex he denied himself while climbing the ladder of Mammon. Queer pulp favorite Rodi (Fag Hag, etc.) makes a rare misstep; Victorian satirist F. Anstey, who originated the body-switching genre with Vice Versa: A Lesson to Fathers in 1882, has a lot to answer for. (June)

Blackwell's debut collection vividly draws on the Southern storytelling tradition in its 12 gentle but unsentimental stories. In "My First Wedding," an unnamed narrator remembers her first peek at the rituals of Southern bridehood when her cousin Augusta married a Yankee. "Heartbeatland" is Anne Tyler territory: Anne and David, transplants to North Carolina who call themselves "the Schoolmaster" and "Princess Annabel," develop sarcastic nicknames for their neighbors, but when David dies, Anne finds herself simultaneously relying on and distrusting the "neigh-boors." Blackwell illustrates her stories with sharp and sometimes unsettling word snapshots: a past-its-prime piñata disgorges "misshapen" candy "mottled with mold"; a miserably pregnant woman plods "around the garden, holding her enormous stomach, her legs like an elephant's." Even "Pepper Hunt," a disturbing five-page story about a divorced man and his daughter meeting in a luncheonette, is a pinpoint novella with fully drawn characters. If Blackwell has one unifying theme, it's how ritual both distances people and enables them to live together. This shrewd collection should appeal to fans of contemporary Southern short story masters like Tim Gautreaux and John Biguenet. (June)

Award-winning Norwegian novelist Petterson renders the meditations of Trond Sander, a man nearing 70, dwelling in self-imposed exile at the eastern edge of Norway in a primitive cabin. Trond's peaceful existence is interrupted by a meeting with his only neighbor, who seems familiar. The meeting pries loose a memory from a summer day in 1948 when Trond's friend Jon suggests they go out and steal horses. That distant summer is transformative for Trond as he reflects on the fragility of life while discovering secrets about his father's wartime activities. The past also looms in the present: Trond realizes that his neighbor, Lars, is Jon's younger brother, who "pulls aside the fifty years with a lightness that seems almost indecent." Trond becomes immersed in his memory, recalling that summer that shaped the course of his life while, in the present, Trond and Lars prepare for the winter, allowing Petterson to dabble in parallels both bold and subtle. Petterson coaxes out of Trond's reticent, deliberate narration a story as vast as the Norwegian tundra. (June)

Following his Arthur Ellis Award– winning debut, Dark Places, Evans forays into corporate malfeasance versus organized protest, but disappoints. A former Infosys project manager living in Bangalore, India, Danielle Leaf agrees to deliver a package for Keiran Kell, a London-based hacker. En route, Danielle is seized by thugs apparently in the employ of Kishkinda, a megacorporation that has been blamed by activists for industrial pollution that has plagued the Bangalore area. While held captive, Danielle meets an attractive activist, also captive, Frenchman Laurent. As the two conspire to escape, Laurent tells Danielle that the package's intended recipient, Jaylitha, who had been doing research to build a case against Kishkinda, has been gruesomely murdered. After Laurent's martial arts skills free them, the pair undertake a series of dangerous escapades, with Danielle suspecting her ally may not be fully trustworthy. Danielle is less than plausible as an action hero, and Evans's take on globalization and its discontents is less than convincing. (June)

At the start of Burdett's superb third mystery-thriller to feature Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep (after Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo), Jitpleecheep shows old friend Kimberley Jones, an American FBI agent, a vicious snuff film he's received depicting the murder of an ex-lover of his named Damrong. Jitpleecheep and Jones maintain their complex platonic relationship as, helped by Jitpleecheep's assistant Lek, they pursue Damrong's killers. The trail leads them to an important banker, an American teacher, a Buddhist and an exclusive men's club called the Parthenon. Jitpleecheep, who now lives with Chanya, a former prostitute pregnant with his child, is visited in an erotic way by Damrong's ghost, while his corrupt superior, police colonel Vikorn, orders Jitpleecheep to help start a porn film business. Expertly juggling elements that in lesser hands would become confused or hackneyed, Burdett has created a haunting, powerful story that transcends genre. 75,000 first printing; 6-city author tour. (June)

Dietz weaves a colorful debut set in Victorian London when psychology was considered experimental, spiritualism was a hobby of the gentle class and neither field was understood or accepted. Budding psychoanalyst Dr. Ambrose Gennett becomes obsessed with beautiful spiritualist Lily Embly when she flees from their chance encounter at a train station. After locating Lily, who is trying to pay down her debt to nefarious lenders with meager earnings from her tarot reading business and by helping her mother perform séances, Gennett learns of her profession and becomes bent on saving her. Lily, meanwhile, is convinced Gennett was sent to help her out of her financial jam and invites his sister and aunt to participate in a séance. Outraged that Lily has co-opted his family, Gennett turns vengeful, and his professional life suffers as his quest to out her as a fraud heats up, and Lily teams up with the scheming Monsieur St. Aubin, who provides Lily with access to a very moneyed crowd. The confrontation erupts at a grand séance and has drastic repercussions neither Lily nor Gennett expect. Dietz handles her characters and plot with a precision uncommon to debut novelists. (June)

At the start of the sharply plotted third thriller from Australian author Robotham (after Suspect and Lost), London police detective Alisha Barba, a Sikh woman who's recovering from a back injury incurred in the line of duty in Lost ("After six operations and nine months of physiotherapy I am fit again, with more steel in my spine than England's back four"), receives a brief note from a school friend, Cate, whom she hasn't heard from in eight years: "I'm in trouble. I must see you. Please come to the reunion." At the school reunion, the pregnant Cate tells Ali that someone is after her baby. As Cate and her husband, Felix, are leaving the event, a car strikes them both, killing Felix instantly and fatally injuring Cate. Insp. Det. Vincent Ruiz, Ali's crotchety colleague, accompanies her to Amsterdam in search of answers that involve drugs and frozen human embryos. In keeping with the opening sentence's invocation of Graham Greene, the author's terse, resonant prose hides more than it reveals. Readers will hope Robotham has many more books of this caliber in him. (June)

In Umrigar's tender fourth novel, Tehmina "Tammy" Sethna is torn between two cultures that couldn't be more different: Bombay and Cleveland. The former is her homeland, but after her husband's recent death, she's been staying with her son and his family in America. Tehmina loves being near grandson Cookie, but she often feels like an intruder in her American daughter-in-law's home, and she's disconcerted by the changes in her son, Sorab, who is stressed from the corporate rat race. Though Tehmina's loneliness floods her with memories of her husband, the Parsi community back in India and her traditional ways, she finds no small amount of purpose (and celebrity) in Cleveland after suspecting her neighbor of child abuse and intervening on the children's behalf. Immigration laws, meanwhile, force her to decide whether she'll remain in Cleveland or return to Bombay. Umrigar (The Space Between Us) shows the unseemly side of American excess and prejudice while gently reminding readers of opportunities sometimes taken for granted. (June)

The latest installment of this chick lit with a drawl series from Moyer finds Lucy Hatch, the sassy East Texan, back home in Mooney after fleeing Nashville and her country crooner hubby, Ash Farrell. But just when Lucy's settling into her old job at the flower shop and new life as a single mom, Ash roars into town in a rainstorm, on the run from rehab with a wounded heart, shattered dreams and a trashy trailer that he parks in Lucy's yard. Oddball characters in the extended Hatch clan keep this sweet soaper bubbling along, and a subplot featuring Ash's grown daughter, Denny, an aspiring country singer and stupid-in-love newlywed, hints of sequels to come. Moyer makes Lucy's coming-of-middle-age love story unabashedly raw and messily real. (June)

Screenwriter Flacco nicely evokes the aftermath of San Francisco's 1906 earthquake in his fiction debut, a novel of suspense. On the eve of the disaster, Sgt. Randall Blackburn, perhaps the one honest cop on the San Francisco force, patrols the grim Barbary Coast neighborhood, which has been plagued by a serial killer, whom the press has dubbed "the Surgeon," who castrates his victims. After the quake, Blackburn joins the frantic rescue efforts, in the course of which he meets 12-year-old Shane Nightingale, whose adoptive mother has been murdered by the Surgeon. In the rubble, Shane and Blackburn pursue the Surgeon, whose identity becomes known early on. Through the fiend's demented perspective we learn of a plague he plans to loose on the devastated city, but this plot line gets lost in the shuffle. The action devolves into a routine cat-and-mouse chase, building to an ending some readers will find maudlin. (June)

Angel is a 15-year-old growing up in Brooklyn with a mother who's hooked on heroin, while Marvin, Mom's boyfriend, supplies the dope and sexually abuses Angel. After Angel's brother Curtis is killed in a drive-by, Angel gets a job at a strip club in order to feed her sister and baby brother and keep the family afloat. When the strip club is raided, Angel must decide whether to prostitute herself to make ends meet. Miasha keeps things moving at a fast clip, but the basic empathy and understanding that pervade are the story's real appeal. Miasha (Secret Society; Diary of a Mistress) never loses sight of the basic humanity of all the lost souls that surround Angel. (June)

This stunning debut from Boice opens with Gilbert, a pro basketball star, raping and murdering a young woman in a Las Vegas resort. Boice then circles back to an account of Gilbert's warped life, largely spent beneath the demanding thumb of Gilbert's washed-up ballplayer father, Mervin, who sees in Gilbert a chance to capture the greatness that eluded him. Thus, Gilbert endures a regimen of awful health food (Mervin: "Death begins in the colon!") and endless drills (running alongside his father's car in the dark while Mervin throws coins at his head). Gilbert jumps straight from high school to the pros, where he racks up championships and MVP awards and secures global superstardom while still just an insecure (yet grossly narcissistic) man-child who is both seduced and tormented by the sex- and celebrity-obsessed culture he sits atop. Changing fortune brings a tanking team, a nationally televised humiliation, and money and marital problems, and the cracks in Gilbert's psyche begin to spread ominously. When Boice revisits that night in the Vegas hotel room, Gilbert's path from a lonely, sensitive boy to the monster choking an unnamed girl is clear, convincing and shocking. With its bristling intelligence and crystalline prose, this provocative novel secures Boice's status as a player to watch. (May)

This pulse-pounding military thriller from bestseller Coyle (They Are Soldiers) depicts the U.S.'s current war against terrorism from the rare perspective of a small unit battling an elusive enemy. Army Ranger Capt. Nathan Dixon and his men are chomping at the bit to be dispatched to the Philippines to track down Hamdani Summirat, a charismatic Indonesian soldier and strategic mastermind turned jihadist behind a plot to found a pan-Islamic republic in Southeast Asia. But what happens when the biggest adversary is your own battalion commander? Egomaniacal Lt. Col. Robert Delmont sees the looming crisis as the ultimate springboard for his career and, regardless of the mounting body count, he's hell-bent on being perceived as the heroic leader, even if his inept tactics are putting his charges in mortal danger. Forced to take matters into his own hands, Dixon improvises with action-packed results. While the characterization isn't exactly deep, Coyle's masterfully labyrinthine plot lines, pedal-to-the-metal pacing and brutally realistic portrayal of army life make this another winner. (May)

Australian Disher's fine fourth novel to feature Insp. Hal Challis, head of Peninsula East's Crime Investigation Unit in Waterloo, Queensland (after 2005's Snapshot), opens with the kidnapping of 10-year-old Katie Blasko. In Challis's absence, Sgt. Ellen Destry leads the investigation while her boss visits his dying father in the South Australia sheep-farming village he came from (and does some unofficial sleuthing on the mysterious disappearance of his brother-in-law five years earlier). When the girl is discovered, viciously abused, Destry's supervisors are a bit too eager to close the case as the inquiry widens into something much larger. Disher deftly weaves in layers of complexity, particularly the resentful antagonism that separates Waterloo's lower-middle-class families from the town's power structure. A compelling mix of procedural detail and action round out a fully credible plot and characters. Though some of the multitudinous subplots dilute the novel's overall impact, it's nonetheless a deeply satisfying read. (July)

Edgar-finalist Koryta stakes a claim as one of today's pre-eminent crafters of contemporary hard-boiled mysteries with his third Lincoln Perry whodunit (after 2006's Sorrow's Anthem), which finds the cops trying to pin murder charges on the Cleveland PI. Formerly a detective with the Cleveland PD, Perry was forced out of the department when he assaulted a rich lawyer, Alex Jefferson, who had married Perry's still beloved ex, Karen. When Jefferson's brutalized corpse is discovered in a field, suspicion soon focuses on Perry, and the gumshoe only makes more trouble for himself by accepting Karen's commission to find the dead man's estranged son, Matt, who has inherited millions from his father. But no sooner does Perry locate Matt in Indiana than the unwitting heir commits suicide in Perry's presence, another death the authorities find suspicious. Despite Koryta's youth (his 2004 debut, Tonight I Said Goodbye was published when he was 21), his haunting writing and logical, sophisticated plotting rival that of established stalwarts like Loren Estleman. (June)

In this refreshingly original detective story from debut German author Swann, a flock of sheep investigates the murder of their beloved shepherd, George Glenn. Leading the effort is Miss Maple, considered the cleverest sheep in the Irish seaside village of Glennkill. She slyly "pretends" to graze while eavesdropping on suspects who come to search George's caravan for something he may have died for. When a long-lost ram recounts an incident that occurred upon his departure years earlier, Miss Maple uncovers the catalyst for George's death. The wooly troupe reveals the crime's solution in a near-Shakespearean mime at the annual "Smartest Sheep in Glennkill" contest. The author's sheep's-eye view and the animals' literal translation of the strange words and deeds of the human species not only create laugh-out-loud humor but also allow the animals occasional flashes of accidental brilliance. (June)

British author Granger's picturesque but disappointing Victorian historical alternates point-of-view between independent-minded Elizabeth Martin and young Scotland Yard inspector Benjamin Ross, long-separated childhood friends whose paths coincidentally cross at a murder case. Lizzie, the impoverished daughter of a doctor, finds herself without resources after her father's death in 1864, and moves to London to serve as companion for the wealthy Mrs. Parry. Ross is investigating the brutal murder of a young woman, who turns out to have been Lizzie's employer's previous companion. Outraged that Mrs. Parry and her cronies blame the victim for her fate, Martin does some amateur sleuthing on her own, but the resolution turns on her endangerment—not her powers of deduction. Granger, the author of the long-running Fran Vardy cozy series and the Mitchell and Markby series, delivers persuasive period detail but commonplace plot and characters. (June)

A coffin in the parlor of Indigo Island's Pinkney Plantation is the set piece for the locals—including three cousins, Lindsey Fox, Margaret Ann ("Mam") Matthew and Bonnie Lynn Tyler—to pay their respects to the deceased eccentric Miss Eliza Comfort Bailey at the start of the pseudonymous Cousins's atmospheric third cozy set on the South Carolina coast (after 2005's Marsh Madness). Dripping with sweat in the early July sun, the cousins later discover more than weeds in the overrun graveyard when they clean up the cemetery in advance of Miss Eliza's burial. Lindsey literally trips over the skeleton of Miss Eliza's granddaughter Becky Bailey (identified by her high school ring), who supposedly drowned in Hurricane Camille more than 30 years earlier. Add the discovery of Becky's diary and a missing heirloom diamond to the mix, and the plot heats up like the Low Country summer. Fans will appreciate the camaraderie among the three cousins in this breezy beach read. (June)

Set in England in 1865, Finch's impressive debut introduces an appealing gentleman sleuth, Charles Lenox. When Lady Jane Grey's former servant, Prue Smith, dies in an apparent suicide-by-poisoning, Lady Jane asks Lenox, her closest friend, to investigate. The attractive young maid had been working in the London house of George Barnard, the current director of the Royal Mint. Lenox quickly determines that Smith's death was a homicide, but both Barnard and Scotland Yard resist that conclusion, forcing him to work discreetly. Aided by his Bunter-like butler and friend, Graham, the detective soon identifies a main suspect, only to have that theory shattered by that man's murder. Finch laces his writing with some Wodehousian touches and devises a solution intricate enough to fool most readers. Lovers of quality historical whodunits will hope this is the first in a series. (June)

At the outset of Levine's fun sixth Jaine Austen cozy (after 2006's The PMS Murder), the L.A. freelance writer takes a low-paying gig writing jokes for Dorcas MacKenzie, a standup comic who uses pantyhose in her act. When Dorcas's comic archrival Vic is found dead—strangled by, you guessed it, a pair of control-top hose—Jaine determines to clear her new client's name. Vic was a sleazeball survived by plenty of enemies–cum–likely suspects, including his jilted girlfriend, Allison; the waitress he was bonking on the side; his writer, Hank; and his discarded agent, Manny. Parental e-mails, tangles with a potential beau and cuddling with her cat, Prozac, distract Jaine from the mystery, but the digressions also humanize the protagonist. Jaine's dogged sleuthing and screwball antics will entertain fans of this fizzy series. (June)

One doesn't read a new Inspector Alvarez mystery so much as savor it. Much of the pleasure is in the ritual, which rarely varies: a crime is committed; Alvarez is summoned by Salas, his eternally irritating superior; then Alvarez goes about his business in his low-key style and somehow manages to uncover the truth, despite being browbeaten by his wife at home. This time the Majorcan policeman investigates what appears to be a routine case, the death of Englishman Jasper Vickers, who presumably died in a drunken fall from his balustrade. Yet Vickers has strips of missing hair on his wrists and two horizontal cuts on his neck. When Alvarez dares to suggest the possibility of foul play, he runs up against not only the infernal Salas but Inspector Pocavi, a policeman with a gift of invective to match Salas's own. Eschewing slam-bang action, Jeffries (Murder Delayed) offers solid craftsmanship and an eye to the details of everyday life so many other crime writers miss. A new Alvarez novel is always cause for celebration. (May)

Working fluently from an incomplete draft and outline by the late van Vogt, Anderson picks up where the classic pulp predecessor, Slan (1940), left off, with the true mutant (or slan) Jommy Cross trying to head off the impending invasion of Earth by the Mars-based group of slan without tendrils. Opposing him again are John Petty, head of the secret police and chief slan hunter, and Jem Lorry, traitorous presidential adviser and leader of the invasion. Seeking his dead father's hidden retreat, Jommy hopes to uncover the origins of both the true and the tendrilless slan, to stop their internecine war and to relieve human fears of being replaced by artificially created supermen. Van Vogt and Anderson (Of Fire and Night) produce a convincingly styled book that could have been published in the 1940s. Though Anderson can't plug all the holes in Grand Master van Vogt's logic, the fast pacing, melodramatic situations and snappy (if dated) dialogue all match the original seamlessly. (July)

This beautiful, melancholy novella from Silvis (Doubly Dead) unfolds as a timeless Central American seaside fable from the shifting memories of an old man with only a 15-year-old boy as his tireless audience. The man, called Grandfather Alberto, recalls his passion for Lucia Luna, who once (when she was 17 and he was two years younger) thrilled the village men with her melodious voice and seductive beauty. Now a mad vieja (old woman), Lucia had fended off male attention until a visiting stranger named Arcadio Martín seduced her at a dance and vanished after impregnating her. The fishing villagers blame Lucia when their luck takes an extraordinary downturn, believing Arcadio to be a "dolphin-man" or shape-shifting "angel of the sea," and his tryst with Lucia to be the source of the town's misfortune. After the mysterious death of a jealous widow who tagged Lucia a bruja (witch), Alberto remains her only defender. His subsequent journey leads to a heartbreaking revelation. A masterful storyteller, Silvis doesn't waste a word in this tale about "the tart nectar of memory's flower." (June)

At the start of Scott's diverting debut, a zany tale of a slippery future shaped by bogus reality and prefab memories, Jonny X67, an architect who designs custom-made dreams for paying clients, returns home from work one day to find that his house has been stolen. Shortly thereafter, he's chased by a motorcycle gang planning to assassinate God; imprisoned by his society's comically Orwellian security network; and rescued by a guardian angel encyclopedia salesman. After several long and discursive screwball scrapes, which always seem to bring him back to the same point of desperate obliviousness, Jonny senses that his tribulations may be a consequence of his work on the Dream Virus Project, an experiment to craft dreams that target a victim's DNA. Given the extent of Jonny's outrageous experiences, the novel ends a little too abruptly. Readers may forgive Scott, however, if only for his delightfully droll sense of humor, which keeps his story going longer than would seem possible. (June)

The illuminating second volume of collected short stories by one of the field's masters makes time travel easy for SF readers. In the late '50s, as genre markets dried up, Silverberg nearly abandoned SF until he won the support of legendary writer/editor Frederick Pohl of Galaxy magazine. The stories written for Pohl mark Silverberg's journeyman years, when his vision stretched to match his growing skills as a writer. Pieces including "To See the Invisible Man," "The Pain Peddlers," "The Sixth Palace," "Flies" and the title story raise knife-edged questions about human kindness and human cruelty. "Ishmael in Love," "Passengers" and "Bride 91" are preoccupied with interspecies sex (to the old-fashioned Pohl's consternation). "Hawksbill Station," "A Happy Day in 2381" and "Sundance" explore extreme settings and points of view. Older SF readers will relish these 21 stories, Silverberg's first notable work, while younger readers may finally learn what all the completely justifiable fuss was about. (June)

Veteran fantasists weave a variety of imaginative spells in this fine anthology of 18 original wizardry-themed tales. Neil Gaiman's charming opener, "The Witch's Headstone," introduces a boy raised by the dead and offers a sneak peek at a novel-in-progress. An Icelandic bride in modern Maine makes magic in Elizabeth Hand's outstanding "Winter's Wife." Mary Rosenblum, Patricia A. McKillip, Nancy Kress, Terry Dowling and Gene Wolfe notably conjure up diverse and indelible, coming-of-age stories featuring contemporary teens discovering their true natures. Garth Nix successfully mixes English legends in "Holly and Iron." The prophet Elijah appears as the "wizard" of Jane Yolen's "Slipping Sideways Through Eternity." What goes around comes around, even for wizards and monsters in Jeffrey Ford's "The Manticore Spell." Tad Williams, Peter S. Beagle and Orson Scott Card contribute indifferent stories, but overall this magical brew will enchant young adult readers and their elders as well. (May)

Fans of Lupoff's Lovecraft's Book (1985) will welcome what amounts to the original, uncut version of that novel. This alternative history focuses on the busy year 1927 in the life of Rhode Island horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. As in Lovecraft's Book, G.S. Viereck, who represents a consortium of right-wing extremists, commissions Lovecraft to write a book outlining their projected New World Order. Lovecraft initially attacks the project with gusto, but is disillusioned as he learns of his employers' low morals and motives. His estranged wife, Sonia, and friend Theo Weiss, both Jews, further make him re-examine his own bigotry. The author has done some impressive research, with a keen eye for the detail of New York City and New England of the period. Some readers, though, may wish he had dispensed with the many digressions and a murder subplot that sidetrack the main action. Still, Lupoff succeeds in making Lovecraft a fully human figure, as shown especially in touching scenes between him and Sonia. (May)

In Gleason's latest, she returns to the budding career of Venator Victoria Gardella, a Buffyesque vampire hunter living in an Austen-style Regency world. Having spent the last year mourning the death of her husband, slain at the hands of the vampire queen, Lilith, Victoria is desperate for revenge. Before long, she stumbles on a vampiric plot to seize Akvan's Obelisk, a powerful artifact that will grant its controller the power to command legions of the dead. In order to foil the plan, Victoria crisscrosses Europe, teaming up with a handsome stranger along the way. A fast-paced carnival ride of a book, the sophomore series entry (after The Rest Falls Away) hits the ground running without any introduction to Gleason's world; for those new to the series, this volume will probably prove confusing. Those who've read the first title, however, won't be disappointed: Victoria is a more determined, fleshed-out character, having grown wiser, sadder and more ambiguous about the morality of her mission. Her world, too, expands significantly in this adventure. A tense plot line and refreshingly diverse supporting characters complete the package, giving series fans plenty to sink their teeth into—and plenty more to look forward to. (June)

The fourth Solomon vs. Lord novel finds the two romantically entwined attorneys-at-law unwittingly taking opposing sides of an ecoterrorism case. After heroically thwarting the theft of two prized dolphins from a wildlife park, Steve Solomon finds himself representing the very environmentalist radical he helped apprehend, a clueless idealist who, due to a legal technicality, is likely to be convicted of murder. Meanwhile, Steve's long-term girlfriend, Victoria Lord, has been tapped by the state's attorney to spearhead the prosecution. While the two lovers exchange characteristically incisive banter over their case and their relationship, Solomon's autistic adopted son, Bobby, provides insight that may crack the case wide open—only to reveal a seriously dangerous conspiracy. The book shines throughout the legal melodrama, treating over-the-top courtroom antics with enough legalese to keep the proceedings from tipping into suspense-killing absurdity. There are some rough patches—Bobby's thoughts on his struggling social life are distracting (and unnaturally wholesome), and the closing chapters discard witty courthouse repartee for contrived B-movie action fare—but no more than series fans have come to expect. This quick and tightly crafted caper has enough cheeseball humor, endearing wit and memorable characters to make it a fine rainy-day read. (June)

In Frank 's seductively crafted universe (introduced in last year's Jacob: The Nightwalkers), demons aren't the clawed horrors of myth (unless they're possessed by the book's villainous necromancers); they're handsome, proud, sensuous and decidedly ambivalent about the world of mortals. Demons have a thousands-year-old rule forbidding them from coupling with humans, who aren't made to survive sex with the charismatic Nightwalkers; male protagonist Gideon, an ancient healer demon (who, naturally, doesn't look a day over 35), has spent eight years in self-imposed exile after attempting to break that law. Recently returned, guilt-wracked Gideon is finally drawn to the true object of his desire: the even-more-forbidden Magdelegna, young sister of hot-tempered demon king Noah. Though Magdelegna's kin raise hell over the May-December romance (at 250 years old, Magdelegna is barely an adult), the pair's breathtaking sex scenes raise more. Regrettably, the complex characterization that humanizes Frank's paranormal characters (including an urbane vampire, a sensual yet celibate lycanthrope queen and a couple of neo-Druids) doesn't extend to the necromancers, who remain faceless, one-dimensional foes throughout. The plot's central conflict between good and evil is therefore lacking the psychological depth, vivid detail and personal chemistry that make its sensitive, scorching romantic components so compelling. (June)

Four installments into her paranormal mystery series (after The Trouble with Witches), Damsgaard delivers a scattershot whodunit that's more tedious than tricky. When her friend's cousin is charged with murdering a member of a motorcycle gang, librarian and returning heroine Ophelia Jensen reluctantly agrees to use her psychic gifts to help clear the woman. It's no easy case, however: the suspect, Becca, was found in bed with the dead man, her fingerprints all over the knife that killed him. A reading of the runes persuades Ophelia that the answers lie in the victim's past, and soon she's spinning theories and digging into an old crime that may have involved other gang members. At the same time, Ophelia has more personal concerns to deal with, including her foster daughter, budding medium Tink, and her own long-ignored abilities, which she's hoping to hone with the help of her gifted grandmother, Abby. Although the psychic elements are fresh and well handled, the heroine's habit of leaping to erroneous conclusions and brushing off obvious clues may frustrate mystery fans. (June)

Here's a distinct comic book image: mice with capes and swords defending themselves against their predators as if they were the Knights of the Round Table. It's a gimmick, but one that Petersen plays completely straight. His art is a perfect mix of the realistic and the fantastic: the mice and other animals always look realistic no matter how adventurous the situations get, including facing snakes and crabs in the first two chapters. Petersen doesn't let things get overly cute, either. These mice are fierce, dedicated fighters, and the violence their job entails is not forgotten. While the book always looks good, the story is pretty thin. The action is never boring but in the beginning it never moves the plot forward. Soon a plot about a traitor in the guard kicks in, leading to some exciting moments covered too briefly, and the character development is thin as well. Luckily, the art makes up for the storytelling shortcomings—Petersen's character designs are enormously appealing, and the book is hard to put down for that reason. The story is suitable for all ages, and kids in particular should enjoy this adventure. (Apr.)

Morrison's superb Superman stories can be poignant, action-packed or downright silly, often in the same tale. An expedition to the heart of the sun is sabotaged by Lex Luthor, who would stand to profit from a global water shortage. Superman saves the day, but at a steep cost—his encounter with the sun alters him at a cellular level, and it looks like the Man of Steel actually faces death. The big story deals with Luthor's fervent quest to outlive his enemy, even as he himself sits on death row. The episodic tales along the way are the real delight, though: Superman reveals his true identity to Lois, but she doesn't believe him; for her birthday he gives her a potion which makes her a superwoman for 24 hours; Jimmy Olson becomes "eccentric zillionaire daredevil" for a day for a newspaper column; and in the best of the tales, Clark visits Luthor in prison for an exclusive interview, only to have an undesirable effect on a monstrous inmate. Quitely's art is wide-eyed and simple, yet still cosmically epic, drenched in an old-school color palette that makes this a vibrant feast for the eyes. (Apr.)

Private eye Max "Mutt" Mason is enlisted by the sultry Lavinia Tillinghast to locate her errant twin sister, a mystery woman with secrets to spare. He soon finds himself thrust into an unimaginable sequence of events that, if unchecked, will lead to the return of arcane elder gods and the end of the world. Mason's investigation is fraught with chilling family secrets, corpses—both eviscerated and resuscitated— and a full slate of other obscure happenings: kidnappings, giant carnivorous plants, women unwillingly sacrificed to the lusts of extra-dimensional horrors and the resulting half-human offspring of those unions. With its Leviathan-sized tentacled wigglies, diabolic rituals, tough guy fisticuffs, books of forbidden knowledge and even a creepy asylum, this heartfelt geekfest merrily blends the genres of crime noir and H.P. Lovecraftian horror fiction. Marraffino's homage-drenched script shamelessly piles on the clichés and in-jokes (the most groan-inducing of which is a secretary named "Miss Katonic"), while Rausch's jittery artwork achieves the perfect balance between the cartoony and the outright disturbing, resulting in an enjoyable romp. (Apr.)

Enter Korgi Hollow, an utterly charming fantasy world brought to life by former Disney animator Slade in book one of Korgi, an epic tale of the friendship between a young girl named Ivy and her dog, Sprout. Ivy and Sprout journey together through perils untold, facing many different foes along the way including dinosaurs, spiders and even a troll so big that he towers over houses. The friends always find their way through the troubles that ensnare them, never losing faith in each other. Like many other successful graphic novels published by Top Shelf, Korgi is silent, relying on Slade's illustrations to both tell the story of Ivy and Sprout and convey the emotions behind their adventures. Slade's illustrations are so expressive and full of life that the pages radiate the feelings of his characters, and the lack of dialogue is hardly noticed. Korgi is as intricately illustrated, rich and fully imagined as an animated film. The character of Sprout himself is adorable in the extreme. While there is some danger of overcuteness at points, few will mind being drawn into this touching, exciting story suitable for fantasy fans of all ages. (Apr.)