Fiction Reviews: Week of 4/23/2007

An absorbing, resonant domestic drama, McFarland's latest follows the dysfunctional Owen family's reunion in Point Clear, Ala., 10 months after the death of the family's alcoholic patriarch, Roy. Of the three adult children, Ellen, a published poet, is separated from her husband for the summer and caring for their young son, Willie. With her high-strung, opinionated brother, Morris, and Richard, Morris's partner of 14 years, Ellen and Willie travel to the family's Point Clear estate, where the youngest, Bonnie, has been living since abandoning a floundering Manhattan theatrical career to care for ailing Roy. The occasion is Bonnie's quickie marriage to a young, dashing evangelical preacher named Pastor Vandorpe, who credits himself with having "saved" Bonnie. Bonnie is pregnant and, she tells an incredulous Ellen, happy. The addition of Pastor's pious parents powers a destructive tension, with everyone locking horns over homosexuality, gay marriage, religion and property ownership. A strained family dinner denouement ignites a clash pitting Ellen and Morris against an ex-gay minister invited to "save" Morris. Can a crisis of faith be far behind? Though McFarland (Prince Edward, etc.) imparts a religious message that feels heavy-handed in spots, his ability to tap the hearts and minds of his carefully considered characters adds up to an evocative novel. (Aug.)

Bialosky falters in her maudlin second novel (after House Under Snow). An academic conference in Paris provides literature professor and New Yorker Eleanor Cahn the opportunity to escape from her humdrum husband and to stir up some long dormant passions. Along the way, the men of her past flood her memory: William Woods, Eleanor's confused and abused teenage boyfriend; Adam Weiss, a womanizing, married painter Eleanor posed for; and Stephen Mason, a childhood friend with whom she never quite connected. After the conference and back in New York, Eleanor agonizes over the life choices she's made and tries to find some balance between her longings and her responsibilities to her husband and children. Stephen re-enters her life, and the two conduct a tedious (and surprisingly nonphysical) affair. Through journal excerpts, e-mails and pictures, Bialosky tells a muddled tale burdened with hollow caricatures and overwrought dialogue. While Bialosky can produce intriguing turns of phrase (she has also published two poetry collections and is an editor at Norton), the novel remains largely unsatisfying. (Aug.)

The acclaimed author of Peel My Love Like an Onion tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross to the U.S. for work. Fifty-something Regina, a poorly paid aide in a public school on the U.S. side, is raising Gabo, the son of her brother, Rafa. Seven years have passed since Gabo's mother, Ximena, was murdered by "coyotes," or paid traffickers, during a crossing, her body mutilated for salable organs. As the novel opens, Rafa, who has continued to travel back and forth for work, is due to arrive, but vanishes. With Miguel Betancourt, a divorced teacher at Regina's school in his mid-30s, Regina tries to confront the coyotes who were supposed to cross Rafa. In alternating first-person chapters, Castillo writes convincingly in the voices of the canny, struggling Regina, who remains a virgin after a being widowed in an unconsummated marriage; the desirous Miguel; the passionately religious Gabo; and El Abuelo Milton, Miguel's elderly grandfather. All are sucked into a vortex of horror as the search for Rafa consumes them. Castillo takes readers forcefully into the lives of the neglected and abused, but missing is a full emotional connection to the protagonists, who remain strangely absent even as their fates are sealed. (Aug.)

First published in 1921, this witty, pleasantly rarefied miscellany from Winnie-the-Pooh creator Milne features his contributions to the British magazine Punch, where he was assistant editor, in the years before and after WWI. In disarming short pieces grouped around various themes, the deft Milne gently-very gently-skewers the peccadilloes of his generation and its classes, such as Simon Simpson, the "litterateur of some eminence but little circulation," who invites all his friends to join him on a lazy holiday on the French Riviera ("Oranges and Lemons"). In the section "Men of Letters," Milne has great fun caricaturing the self-serious pomposity of fellow writers and poets, and even offers a sampling of the tedious fare presented at Lady Poldoodle's Poetry At-Homes. Some of the pieces in the "War-Time" section chronicle the humble predicament of the French infantryman: managing an intractable horse or finding comfort in a toy dog. A set of "Home Notes" concerns the narrator's dear thoughts on married life with the sensible but rather fluttery Celia; one piece finds the couple instigating a mystifying dinner party game of Proverbs. Milne's quotidian observations remain quite moving in their wry simplicities, which are not simple at all. (July)

Like Bridget Jones before her, Lucy Sweeney, the heroine of this pastel-jacketed bonbon of a debut, is an endearing everywoman prone to disaster. But unlike her chick lit predecessor, Lucy is a married, stay-at-home mom who gave up an impressive career as a television news producer to care for her three sons in tony northwest London. Lucy exists in a constant state of chaos (she has lost 11 credit cards in the past year; she has seven different kinds of credit card debt; and her habit of wearing pajamas to drop off her children at school has hardly gone unnoticed). But, when a flirtation with "Sexy Domesticated Dad" (a fellow classroom parent) threatens to develop into something more, so too does Lucy's growing sense that "somewhere in the domestic maelstrom I have lost myself." Whether she will find herself again-and, in time-is the question at the center of this crackling-with-wit debut. Although the plot careens toward an over-the-top, too-neat ending, London Times columnist Neill's delight in and empathy for her characters, her respect for the demands of domestic life and her tender evocations of motherhood more than compensate. (July)

Set in 17th-century China, See's fifth novel is a coming-of-age story, a ghost story, a family saga and a work of musical and social history. As Peony, the 15-year-old daughter of the wealthy Chen family, approaches an arranged marriage, she commits an unthinkable breach of etiquette when she accidentally comes upon a man who has entered the family garden. Unusually for a girl of her time, Peony has been educated and revels in studying The Peony Pavilion, a real opera published in 1598, as the repercussions of the meeting unfold. The novel's plot mirrors that of the opera, and eternal themes abound: an intelligent girl chafing against the restrictions of expected behavior; fiction's educative powers; the rocky path of love between lovers and in families. It figures into the plot that generations of young Chinese women, known as the lovesick maidens, became obsessed with The Peony Pavilion, and, in a Werther-like passion, many starved themselves to death. See (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, etc.) offers meticulous depiction of women's roles in Qing and Ming dynasty China (including horrifying foot-binding scenes) and vivid descriptions of daily Qing life, festivals and rituals. Peony's vibrant voice, perfectly pitched between the novel's historical and passionate depths, carries her story beautifully-in life and afterlife. (July)

Harsh realism mixes with poetic despair as the characters in Addonizio's second novel try to climb out of the hells of their own making. Rita Louise Jackson is homeless at 24, trying to get off heroin and find her husband, Jimmy D'Angelo, who left her after a fight. Rita wanders through contemporary San Francisco, sometimes drunk, sometimes strung out, turning tricks or panhandling when she needs money, all the while haunted by memories of her murdered mother and of her time with Jimmy. As she contemplates ways to turn her life around, an unwelcome opportunity arises when she sees a body being taken out of a seedy hotel. The murderer spots her and promises to come after her. The ensuing fear brings private investigator Gary Shepard into her life. Jimmy, meanwhile, is finding something like success as a waiter at a swanky restaurant. Even during the harshest times, the beauty of Addonizio's language binds the reader to a story that unfolds in the shadows of Denis Johnson's and Charles Bukowski's works. Addonizio (Little Beauties, and several poetry volumes, including What Is This Thing Called Love) might not bring much new to the hobo/vagabond-lit. bonfire, but her characters' desperate lives are rendered with striking delicacy. (July)

Korean novelist Kim's tantalizing 1996 debut novel concerns a calculating, urbane young man who makes a business of helping his clients commit suicide. The narrator's favorite painting, Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat, encapsulates his outlook-to be "detached and cold," an approach reflected in his account of a recent client who was romantically involved with two brothers (called C and K). The woman, Se-yeon, is a young, spacey, lollipop-sucking drifter who first hangs out with K before bedding C. Cab-driver K and video artist C become obsessed with Se-Yeon, who looks (to them) like Gustave Klimt's Judith. Judith, as they subsequently refer to her, later wanders off into a snowstorm, never to be seen by the brothers again. However, in this eerie, elliptical narrative, Judith reappears as the narrator's client. Moreover, Judith morphs into other objects of desire, such as a woman from Hong Kong the narrator meets in Vienna and an elusive performance artist named Mimi whom C films. Kim's work is a self-conscious literary exploration of truth, death, desire and identity, and though it traffics in racy themes, it never devolves into base voyeurism. (July)

Quick wit, clever banter and engaging characters grace the fiction debut of Rajah (How to Spot a Bastard by His Star Sign). Sydney Welles, who covers for her alcoholic boss at an L.A. ad agency, gets dumped by her actor boyfriend for someone bustier and blonder, and buries herself in work. That entails landing the big new account to improve the Catholic church's image while trying not to get too distracted by sexy priest Father Bernadi. Friend Anna is determined to hook Sydney up; Sydney's bickering correspondence with columnist Charles Turner escalates; and, as she works the Catholic church campaign, Sydney e-mails God. There's a predictable twist and some padding, but there are charm and cleverness to spare, particularly in Sydney's funny and moving ideas for promoting the church. (July)

Wounding with words is the talent of this lopsided novel's heroine, so skilled at repelling her friends that she nicknames herself the Alienator. Unfortunately, the Alienator's powers work just as well on readers, who are likely to find her such unpleasant company that they won't stick around for the book's more satisfying second half. At 26, Lauren Peterson uses a breakup with her fiancé as an excuse for an extended jag of self-pity about her single status, stultifying job and advancing age. She also feels abandoned by her parents, who've retired to Florida, leaving her to fend for herself in Portland, Ore. When Lauren's never-married great aunt dies and wills her a Craftsman house, Laura must figure out how to use it without reprising her aunt's chronically solo existence. While bitter and depressed fictional people are no fun to be around unless their gloom is accompanied by an acid wit, Lauren's is not ("Geez, it seems you're as short on patience as you are on hair," she snipes at her balding older brother). French (Going Coastal) eventually locates the warmth in her heroine and creates an agreeable fantasy about 20-somethings trying to find a meaningful adulthood. (July)

Mostly female loners, outsiders and have-nots populate this marvelous, bleak debut collection. A young woman extracts herself from an overly insistent blind date who violates her privacy in "Big Bear, California," only to find her usual certainty shaken years later by the memory of his grasping, petulant behavior. In "Summer, with Twins," a college-age woman waitressing during the break wavers in declining her greasy boss's indecent proposal, perpetuating a crisis of self-worth that reverberates through her tenuous summer friendships. Among the 13 pieces, surreal vignettes serve as a taut, dramatic counterpart to the more straightforward narratives: "The Wolf at the Door" in particular has a being-chased-in-your-dreams feel of danger and terror, as a woman battles to keep an anthropomorphic wolf from entering her house, until he asks her to open the door and her sister insists that she do so, saying, "it's polite!" Delving into extremes of monotonous oppression, Curtis describes a reality that must be endured: her characters cling fiercely to their rationalizations, but even the more avaricious are sympathetic. (July)

The author of more than 60 books, bestseller Miller pounds out another frontier romance loaded with hot lead, steamy sex and surprising plot twists. Rowdy Rhodes is the handsome hunk newly arrived in Stone Creek, Arizona Territory, in 1905. He's living under an assumed name and trying to change his criminal ways, but his plans to go straight go awry when he meets pretty Lark Morgan, a sophisticated local schoolteacher who is secretly on the run from a rich, abusive husband back in Denver. As they flirt, spar and try to keep their own secrets, felonious family members and other more lethal pursuers threaten them both. When Rowdy is tasked with catching the gang of train-robbing outlaws led by his own father, he is in a real dilemma. Between trysts with Lark under the horse blankets and aided by an unlikely tip, Rowdy saves the day after a terrific shootout. He can't, however, save Lark, whose salvation comes in an unexpected and satisfying plot twist. After the last owlhoot hits the dust and the smoke and secrets are cleared up, this zippy horse opera comes to a predictable and comforting ending. (July)

Billed as inspirational women's fiction, the first offering in Avon's inspirational line is pure, chaste romantic diversion. Alexandra "Alex" Butler was jilted years ago when her hunky husband, Josh Turner, left soon after their marriage to become a rock star. When Josh returns to Piper Cove on the Atlantic Ocean as best man in Alex's sister's wedding, the professional decorator and divorcée finds to her dismay that her passion for him still simmers under her businesslike exterior. Alex's three "bosom buddies" provide interest throughout, especially the mechanically minded Ellen Brittingham, one of the most promising characters in the novel. A few unfortunate sentences are over the top, even for this genre: "She was as indelibly etched under his skin as his tattoos" and "the sight of Alex... was enough to send the wooden totem pole at the Ocean City inlet jumping in the water before it self-ignited." Some plot elements are insensitive enough as to be unbelievable, such as Alex's father giving away Alex's beloved first home to her sister as a wedding gift, and then asking Alex to decorate it. But Windsor, an RWA Beacon Award-winning author and Christy Award finalist, is a competent writer, and the Piper Cove Chronicles should hold their own in inspirational romance. (July)

The North River is what real New Yorkers call the Hudson. Two blocks from its shore, Dr. James Finbar Delaney lives on Horatio Street in Greenwich Village. He is a GP, servicing the indigent poor. A wounded veteran of World War I, he is despondent that his wife, Molly, has deserted him and that his only child, Grace, has left her son, two-year-old Carlito, in his care. In the dead of winter in the Depression year of 1934, Dr. Delaney knows "the cause of death was always life." Delaney is numb from the war and the abandonment of his family. When he saves the life of gangster friend Eddie Corso, Italian hood Frankie Botts is not happy. Delaney can feel the threat to him and his grandson in his bones. To further complicate matters, the FBI shows up looking for Grace. If there's any consolation for Delaney in the chaos that has become his life, it's Carlito and Rose, his Sicilian illegal alien housekeeper, who has become little Carlito's surrogate mother-and Delaney's lover. Soon the North River comes to symbolize Delaney's tormented life, as enemies and loved ones float in it, and Grace, on a liner, returns to New York to further complicate Delaney's new, delicate household. Hamill (Forever; A Drinking Life) has crafted a beautiful novel, rich in New York City detail and ambience, that showcases the power of human goodness and how love, in its many forms, can prevail in an unfair world. 5-city author tour. (June)

In this page-turning novel, Alice Kessler, the married mother of two sons, is living on the fictional Grays Island, in the Pacific Northwest, when her eight-year-old son is run over while riding his bike. Alice is convinced the driver, Owen White, was drunk-though her husband, Randy, is not. Neither is the court system. So, on the day Alice loses her wrongful death lawsuit, she runs Owen down in the courthouse parking lot, crippling but not killing him. Alice serves nine years and returns to the island near-broke and hoping to reunite with her surviving son, Jeremy, now 16. (Her husband, Randy, has divorced her.) At the same time, Colin McGinty, an ex-Manhattan prosecutor, has returned to his dead artist grandfather's island house after losing his wife in 9/11. Alice and Colin's fates become bound with a little help from Colin's inherited border collie and, more concretely, a portrait of Alice's grandmother. Cutting between WWII-era depictions of the lives of Colin's and Alice's grandparents and the melodramatic present (including Alice's son being accused of rape and Owen White's machinations as island mayor), haute-romance veteran Goudge (Immediate Family; Wish Come True; etc.) unspools a predictable yet satisfying tale of survival and redemption. (June)

Stone's adrenaline-packed debut is not for the faint of heart. Max Mingus, an ex-Miami cop and PI, wants to get his life back on track after a seven-year stint in Attica for the execution of three child molesters. Grudgingly agreeing to investigate the disappearance of Charlie Carver, the three-year-old son of a wealthy white Haitian family, Max finds himself thrown headfirst into the violent, corrupt world of Haiti in the mid-1990s. Max's search leads him from the sprawling Carver compound to Cité Soleil, the country's most notorious slum, pitting him against powerful drug baron Vincent Paul and the bloody legacy of the Carvers' rise to power. Stone veers too often into the explicitly graphic, with numerous extended torture scenes, but readers accustomed to the grittiest of pulp fiction won't be deterred. Stone, the son of British historian Norman Stone and a Haitian mother, vividly depicts a country and a man in turmoil. Despite an overabundance of plot elements, this thriller introduces a fresh voice that fans of hardboiled fiction won't want to miss. (June)

Fans of intelligent contemporary whodunits who enjoyed Scott Turow's debut, Presumed Innocent, will find welcome echoes of that modern classic in the fourth novel from Canadian author Kalla (Rage Therapy), who's also an ER physician. When drug addict Emily Kenmore is found with her neck slashed in her Seattle condo, Ben Dafoe, a doctor at a local hospital who's worked as a police consultant, chooses not to tell the cops that he was once secretly engaged to Emily or that he had threatened the unidentified dead man found with her for supplying her habit. The discovery of Dafoe's rare blood type at the scene of the double homicide prompts him to flee to Canada, in search of his twin brother, Aaron, a chronic drug user who shares the same blood type. Dafoe had believed Aaron had been dead for two years, but now suspects he's still alive. The twists are well done, and Kalla has a gift rare in the thriller field for creating sympathetic characters. (June)

Kavenna's grinding first novel arrives a year after her well-reviewed nonfiction debut, The Ice Museum. In the wake of her mother's death, 30-something Rosa Lane walks out of her job as a London critic. When her relationship of 10 years ends (her boyfriend gets engaged to a mutual friend), Rosa's nascent nervous breakdown hits full force. She cuts her life down to the size of a duffle bag, couch-surfs into ever-deeper personal and financial lows and can't bring herself to respond to work inquiries or to ask her father for a loan. Kavenna's all-too-faithful rendering of the fight to stay sane ends as Rosa rouses her strength to confront her ex- before his wedding, and then to board a train to Paris, where she seems likely as not to hit bottom in a city full of strangers. Kavenna is incisive and funny enough to make Rosa convincingly crazy, but Rosa's repetitive, nonresolving woes give the novel an unpleasant quality, something like Leaving Las Vegas meets Groundhog Day. (June)

Bestseller McCrumb (St. Dale; Ghost Riders) returns to the world of NASCAR in this middling tale of modern celebrity. Badger Jenkins, a shy, good old boy from Marengo, Ga., whose days of racing stardom have come and gone, is recruited by a syndicate of women investors to drive their new car. The car's primary sponsor is Vagenya (sounds like Virginia), a Viagra-like product for women, and the team will field an all-female crew. Besides the inscrutable but lovable Badger, there's Grace Tuggle, the gruff crew chief; Melodie Albigre, Jenkins's predatory agent; and Melanie Sark, a duplicitous publicist who's secretly planning to write an exposé of NASCAR. Add the competing agendas to an inexperienced pit crew, and Team Vagenya seems to be headed for a pileup long before it gets to victory lane. NASCAR fans will enjoy the time spent at the track, but the pedestrian plotting and unsurprising outcome hinder the novel like sugar in a gas tank. (June)

Dé's sari-ripper stars fictional Bollywood sensation Aasha Rani, a former poor Madras girl who survived years of abuse, abandonment and the underage porno filmi industry. Her relationship with a married superstar, the anything-but-heroic Akshay Arora, sends Aasha running off to New Zealand, where she marries someone else, returns to India, endures more heartache, jets to London-and finally comes to understand her issues and face her destiny. The Bollywood detail is reminiscent of Jackie Collins's best Hollywood fiction (Dé has been called India's Jackie Collins), but this steamy saga also includes a bright bindi flash of spirituality that is uniquely Dé. (June)

In Bernice McFadden's third novel as Holliday (Groove; Fever), four New Yorkers let great sex cloud their better judgment. After her six-year-old daughter unintentionally humiliates her, waitress Geneva will go to any lengths to shed some of her 230 pounds, with disastrous results personally and professionally (although her boy toy, Deeka, thinks that more is more). Serious Crystal is the six-figure director of a nonprofit, but what she really wants is a man of her own: her sometime lover, Neville, supports himself in Antigua as a gigolo. Clotheshorse Chevanese ("Chevy") is trying to stay one step ahead of her many creditors while getting down with a just-sprung ex-con; Noah is dealing with his lover's demands for a child: "What are we supposed to do-trade in our two-seater Mercedes for a minivan?" All get it on repeatedly in a shifting first person, to the point where it can be tough to tell who's in action at any given time. There are colorful secondaries (including Chevy's crossing-dressing boss), but none of the leads comes into focus as all head for various happily ever afters. While it's tough to suspend disbelief for the duration, steamy scenes and snappy dialogue nevertheless make for a quick and stimulating read. (June)

After eight Britt Montero novels and two Cold Case Squad novels, Edgar-finalist Buchanan (Miami, It's Murder) brings Britt and the Cold Case Squad together in this first-rate mystery-thriller. When Miami police discover the remains of Spencer York, a kidnapper who worked for divorced fathers, members of the Cold Case Squad question veteran Miami News crime reporter Britt Montero, the last person to see him alive. Britt, who's mourning the death of her fiancé, finds a disposable camera in the ocean with pictures of a honeymooning couple lost at sea. The groom in the photo, Marsh Holt, later turns up alive, but his bride had drowned. Britt's no-holds-barred investigative journalism leads her to an amazing discovery-Marsh has a habit of marrying women who meet their demise while honeymooning. Through an intricate web of twists and turns, Britt discovers that Marsh plans to marry once again. While the resolution of York's murder comes as a real surprise, it's Britt's riveting quest for Marsh that provides the roller-coaster thrills. (June)

At the start of this taut psychological thriller from Trinchieri (The Trouble with a Bad Fit and other mysteries under the names Camilla T. Crespi and Trella Crespi), Emma Perotti, an ESL teacher in Manhattan, enfolds one of her students, An-ling Huang, into her family, despite her husband Tom's distrust of the young Chinese woman. Emma is driven in part by the guilt she feels for the infant daughter she accidentally ran over and killed years before-a secret unknown to Tom, the child's father, and Emma's teenage son, Josh. As the bond between the women grows, Emma's marriage stalls. She moves into a loft with An-ling, but the arrangement sours as Emma prepares to return home and An-ling seduces Josh. When An-ling is found dead, Emma is charged with her murder. Though Emma's sudden obsession with An-ling and the family's final redemption both feel slightly forced, the novel is a gripping, intelligent read. Particularly compelling are its subtle insights into the nature of family, foreignness and the lies we tell ourselves and others even when our intentions are good. (June)

Deep within the Rose and Grave Secret Society at Eli University, the secrets even members aren't privy to make Peterfreund's second novel impossible to put down. Picking up where last year's Secret Society Girl left off, the novel follows the misadventures of Amy Haskel, who, having endured the initiation only to unravel a misogynistic plot set on destroying the first class of "Diggers" to include women, is looking forward to putting her troubles behind her. But things begin to sour when all the "Diggirls" receive a mysterious letter warning them of the society's impending implosion. To make matters worse, Amy's ex-boyfriend has a hot new girlfriend; her roommate starts dating a society member with commitment problems; another society member is dying to get under Amy's ceremonial robe; and Amy's senior thesis looms. When the Diggers realize they have a mole, Amy is intent on finding the culprit. Peterfreund offers an intimate view of the modus operandi of a college society, and even when the story's revelations feel anticlimactic, readers will be absorbed by the juicy romance plots. (June)

Canadian novelist Poulin's edgy allegory finds Teddy Bear, a translator of newspaper comic strips, living in happy isolation on a remote island, with his cat, his reference books, internal dialogues with a possibly imaginary brother and the Prince, a robotic tennis opponent. When "the boss" who commissions Teddy's work decides the cat must be lonely, the boss flies in on his helicopter a "lady cat" and black-eyed Marie. Felines and humans pair off, but their idyll is interrupted by the arrival of an eclectic parade of new residents introduced by the boss to make Teddy happy: the boss's free-spirit wife, Featherhead; a French comic book scholar; a muttering Author; a practical Ordinary Man; and an Organizer who is sent to "sensitize the population." As Teddy learns the true fate of his painstakingly wrought weekly translations and winter approaches, the earnest silliness turns dark. It's as funny and fresh now as when it was first published (in French) in 1978. (June)

Revenge, murder and identity feature big in this 11th novel by the author of The Girlfriends Club. Two bombshells fall on Vanessa, Ellie and Georgiana the night of their mother's 60th birthday: widowed mom Penelope is moving to France with a man they've never met, and they learn their paternal grandmother did not die in childbirth as they'd been told all their lives. Vanessa, unhappy with her marriage and career, takes the news about their mother with the most difficulty, and the ensuing rift between siblings prompts Penelope to finance an early summer getaway for the three. Ellie and Georgiana persuade Vanessa to take a trip to Montana, where they might learn more about Hattie, the woman who gave up their father shortly after his birth. It turns out Hattie is alive and kicking, and with good reason to keep her history secret. The story takes a dangerous turn when Hattie-now the wealthy mother of a gubernatorial candidate-learns about the sisters' quest to find her. The transition from family saga to women-in-jeopardy thriller happens quickly and convincingly, but builds to an unsatisfying resolution. The sisterly bond of Vanessa, Ellie and Georgiana is sweet, but Hattie's sensational tale steals the show. (June)

Following a car crash, Nathan Nelson, 17, is recovering from a two-week-long coma in July 1987. His father, Samuel, a physics professor at a Wisconsin college, wanted a genius for a son. Nathan, who narrates, has always been uninspired at best, but finds that the accident has left him with heightened senses, and a prodigious memory. Cerebral Samuel, whom Nathan can't help revering, rejoices. Even when sent to a school for the gifted, however, Nathan mostly watches TV and smokes cigarettes with girlfriend Teresa, whose talent is a kind of X-ray vision. Teresa soon uses this talent to spot a tragedy looming in Nathan's immediate future, and his life afterward, for the reader, is all frustrating anticlimax. As the years pass, Nathan works at a dead-end library job, stalks townspeople and parties with former schoolmates. This narrative's strengths are its abundant humor, occasional lyrical patches and portrayal of the quirky but reliable Whit Shupak, a retired astronaut and family friend. But Smith (The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre) never allows the immature, lackadaisical Nathan to really develop or emerge from his father's shadow. (June)

Konrath's fourth drink-inspired mystery to feature Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels (after 2006's Rusty Nail) is a particularly potent mix of equal parts mirth and mayhem with a dash of sex and a twist (or two) of plot. When an extortionist prefaces his demands for a payoff from the city of Chicago by spreading enough botulism toxin to cause more than 30 deaths, Jack's previous successes and her resultant celebrity are enough to put her in charge of the case. The poisoner has more tricks up his sleeve and unleashes an almost unimaginable arsenal of toxins. Despite a horrific death count, Konrath infuses plenty of humor. Best of all, he gives the reader ample opportunities to stay abreast of or even ahead of his sleuth, but it will take a clever reader to unravel the subtle clues embedded in the story. Konrath's latest should be taken straight, no chaser needed. (July)

Blending humor and brilliant detection, Fowler's excellent fifth novel to feature the engaging if bizarre exploits of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit (after 2006's Ten Second Staircase) offers two challenging mysteries for his pair of eccentric sleuths, Arthur Bryant and John May. While driving to an international spiritualists' convention, Bryant and May find themselves trapped on the road near Dartmoor in a blizzard. Lurking among the stalled vehicles is a man who may be a multiple murderer. At the same time, the two try to help via cellphone their colleagues back in London, who must solve the locked-room murder of a PCU member, retiring pathologist Oswald Finch, before the unit is finally shut down for good. The fair-play solution will particularly satisfy lovers of golden age mysteries. Once again, Fowler shows himself to be a master of the "impossible crime" tale. (June)

Set in New York City, Haines's assured debut brings the WWII era to vivid life, from a topical jump-rope song ("Whistle while you work. Hitler is a jerk...") to Automats and jive joints. On New Year's Eve 1942, actress Rosie Winter, whose day job is with a Manhattan detective agency, finds the body of her boss, Sam McCain, hanging in his office closet, his hands and neck tied with phone cord. The investigating cop calls Sam's death a well-deserved suicide, but there's a missing play that a reclusive playwright and a rich widow want found. Rosie, a fast-thinking Hepburn type, takes on the case, aided by her best pal, Jayne ("a petite blonde with... the voice of a two-year-old" dubbed "America's squeakheart"). This is a fun romp, though the author, herself a playwright and actor, provides some dark commentary on avant-garde theater and war as well as an unexpected and wicked twist in the novel's final act. (June)

While Australian Greenwood's historical series starring iconoclastic feminist sleuth Phryne Fisher (Cocaine Blues, etc.) has spawned a devoted following for its blend of detection and Wodehousian humor, her contemporary series, which makes its U.S. debut with this book, is unlikely to have the same impact. Corinna Chapman, a former accountant who operates a Melbourne bakery, cuts an even unlikelier figure than Phryne Fisher, as Greenwood's new heroine finds herself involved in probing a series of deaths of junkies. The broadly drawn supporting characters, including a stereotypical handsome stranger with whom Chapman is smitten, are beyond eccentric. Fisher fans shouldn't set their expectations too high. (June)

Atiara-stealing dog and a long line of cursed Miss Blossom beauty queens enliven Wright's whimsical third whodunit to feature Whiskey Mattimoe, realtor and sometime sleuth (after 2006's Whiskey Straight Up). Whiskey, a 34-year-old widow, is still adjusting to life in Magnet Springs, Mich., where her greatest challenge after selling houses is controlling her beloved late husband's pet afghan hound, Abra, who has a "penchant for stealing purses and other forbidden treats." When Abra absconds with the Miss Blossom tiara (not once, but twice!) after a well-liked intern from Whiskey's real estate firm wins the title, things really get crazy. It's a risky prize that has often brought death for past winners, including the previous year's queen. Wright's playful narrative touch and snapshot of smalltown life lightens the "curse" theme in this fizzy cozy, but the mischievous Abra really steals the show. (June)

In Izzo's taut concluding volume to his memorable Marseilles trilogy (after 2006's Chourmo), former cop Fabio Montale is still struggling to find a purpose in the wake of his leaving the police force. Despite his pessimism, Montale allows himself to hope again after he falls hard for a woman named Sonia he meets in a bar; noir fans will be less than surprised that the flicker of romantic promise is quickly extinguished-in this case by a Mafia hit man targeting Montale and people he cares for to get him to divulge the location of his journalist friend, Babette, who's written an exposé detailing mob links with politicians and the police. Babette's sophisticated analysis of organized crime's effect on the working classes, plus Izzo's unsparing treatment of his cynical hero, elevate this far above most Mafia-themed fiction. (June)

Near the start of this diverting romantic fantasy set in 1753, the third Guardians novel from bestseller Putney (after 2005's Stolen Magic), Nikolai Gregorio, a handsome pirate captain operating in the Mediterranean, kidnaps pretty red-haired Jean Macrae, a member of the Scottish branch of the Guardians (humans with magical powers derived from nature), in revenge for a wrong he thinks her father did him 20 years earlier. A decent sort who possesses limited magical powers, Nikolai is dedicated to fighting the evil of slavery by freeing galley slaves. He even sets up an island refuge for them. After Adia Adams, a freed slave, travels back in time from 1787 London, the pirate and the fiery Scotswoman find themselves on a dangerous magical mission to strengthen the fledgling abolitionist movement. The mix of magic, time travel, history, adventure, romance and social consciousness will delight series fans, but may strike some readers as an incongruous blend. (July)

Bestseller David sets this clever, fast-paced fantasy on the Damned World (formerly Earth), home to a handful of enslaved humans, a greatly feared Overseer and the exiled inhabitants of the Twelve Races. Having nearly destroyed humanity, a variety of strange creatures now battle each other. Jepp, a freed human slave, joins a mixed-race band of scavengers. The king of the Cyclops orders Jepp's group to steal the Orb of Light from the trolls, believing its magic will destroy the bloodsucking vampires who have stolen his niece. Meanwhile, the Overseer investigates why hotstars, the energy source for most of the tech on the Damned World, are fading out. As Jepp discovers her own hidden powers, the Overseer realizes that the Twelve Races must understand humanity's place in their universe or risk annihilation. David (Knight Life) is a master at juggling multiple characters and plot lines-and, in what one hopes is the first in a new series, breathes new life into some well-worn mythic tropes. (June)

Military SF fans will welcome Van Name's solid debut, the first in a projected series, though they should be prepared for a layer of irony rare in this popular subgenre: the introspective hero's most complex relationship is with his artificially intelligent tank, Lobo. Jon Moore, a soul-weary soldier with a nanotech secret, becomes involved against his wishes with an effort to rescue a kidnapped innocent. As usual in a corporate-dominated multiple-worlds setting, double- and triple-crosses complicate what should be a simple task. Old vet buddies get involved, and space jet-setting corporate elites receive righteous (and occasionally misdirected) vengeance. Jon finds time to appreciate the mysteries of the universe and muse on the hollowness of his mercenary lifestyle. An attention to the details of future military tech and service, along with several scenes of them in action, will reward those expecting the more standard military SF for which Baen is known. (June)

Set in a future world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, Turtledove's absorbing fourth Crosstime Traffic novel (after 2005's In High Places) is the best yet in this SF series with substantial YA crossover. The two main characters are particularly well drawn: 17-year-old Annarita Crosetti and 16-year-old Gianfranco Mazzilli, students at Enver Hoxha Polytechnic in a Milan that's part of the quasi-Stalinist Italian People's Republic. Gianfranco is a fairly hopeless student, until he discovers a new game shop called the Gladiator, where he's delighted to play a game, Rails Across Europe, that improves his algebra scores. When the security police close down the shop for teaching capitalism, the head clerk, who's a friend of Gianfranco's and a marooned outtimer, goes on the lam. Fans of Turtledove's unambiguously adult alternative history (Days of Infamy, etc.) will find this effort up to his usual high standard. (June)

Admirers of atmospheric, subtle horror will relish Haldeman's intelligent and chilling debut, which succeeds in evoking the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft without resorting to cheap imitation. California architect Mark Sayres, worried about the mental state of his wife, Maggie, who has been working on an archeological dig on a Washington State island, offers to serve as navigator on a small ship in exchange for transport to the dig. A powerful storm wrecks the ship just off the island, leaving Sayres the sole survivor. As he begins to recover from his ordeal, he's shocked to learn that Maggie has disappeared and that she's only the latest island resident to do so. Despite his rationalist bent, the architect is forced to consider the existence of the supernatural after he has visions of one of his lost shipmates, whose apparent resurrection may be tied to a primitive superstition centering on an evil sea deity. The author's vivid evocation of the bleakness and isolation of the remote Pacific Northwest will remind some of Algernon Blackwood's classic tale "The Wendigo." (June)

Finn displays promise and personality to spare in her debut novel, an Arabian Nights spin on contemporary comic romance. When unemployed attorney and single mom Ravina Patten uncorks a bottle she finds in her baby's Diaper Genie, it releases a real genie-more specifically, a hunky Australian WWII fighter pilot who's been bottled up for the past 60 years after a run-in with a cuckolded Bedouin-who must grant her three wishes in order to gain his freedom. Ravina finds life with the genie a dream: he's got the house cleaned, the meals prepared, the baby fed and Ravina's libido satisfied. Unfortunately, she's not so satisfied with the results of her first two wishes, and of course faces an ethical quandary over her last wish-will she use it to lift the genie's curse, allowing him to return to the life he left 60 years ago? Fans of high concept, multilayered fantasy-romance populated with quirky, comical characters will find this novel a charmer and Finn an author worth watching. (June)

Morgan's newest (after Unspoken Fear) focuses on the small town of Stephen Kill, Del., where Det. Delilah Swift is juggling the latest developments in her busy life: new responsibilities as a detective, a secret affair with her police chief and the troublesome niece she's been stuck with for the summer. And then a serial killer strikes, kidnapping residents of the sleepy town, letting them die of dehydration and dumping them by a pond. As more victims turn up, Swift scrambles to find the killer-who also has an eye on her. Swift is a charming protagonist-strong, smart and honorable-and the populace of Stephen Kill is delightfully varied; Morgan excels at capturing the faces of smalltown life and skillfully weaves domestic concerns (teen pregnancy, etc.) among the taut threads of her murder mystery. Though a "dark secret" plot device feels familiar, a barrel of red herrings will keep readers guessing throughout, and the surprising conclusion won't disappoint. (June)

In Wiprud's latest humdinger, über-savvy professional taxidermist Garth Carson returns (after 2005's Stuffed), having traded his skinning knife and freeze-dryer for a calculator and briefcase. With help from his brother, Nicholas, Carson's scored a job as an insurance appraiser-of taxidermy collections, natch. He spends his days traveling the country while his New York shop, Carson's Critters, rests in the hands of his capable-if-maladroit sidekick, Otto. Of course, white collar professional bliss doesn't last long: when a running back for the Chicago Bears gets murdered, Carson becomes one of the FBI's "persons of interest." Evidently, the footballer-an avid big game hunter-was done in by the claws of one of his own taxidermy bears. Before you can say "stuffed and mounted," three more murders turn up with the same MO, and Carson becomes the trophy in a madcap cross-country chase involving the FBI, the U.S. Air Force, a fraternal group called the Mystical Order of the Tupelca and the real mystery killer. Classic Wiprud, this story has no shortage of wacky characters and even wackier situations, but enough heart to make it all work. (June)

Bestseller Neggers fails to deliver the goods in her latest romantic suspense, producing a story seriously lacking in either chills or sparks. When rookie Dep. U.S. Marshal Mackenzie Stewart is caught off guard by an attacker with a penchant for knives, she's afraid that the real target is her lifelong friend, federal judge Bernadette Peacham. The effort to protect Bernadette and hunt down the violent man with the "pale eyes" teams Mackenzie with an old flame, FBI Agent Andrew Rook, who dumped her after a three-week affair. Neggers doesn't get to the crux of the story until about midway through, and the "pale eyes" attacker fails to make a lasting impression. The result is a long slog that leads nowhere in particular, and once Neggers gets to the cliffhanger, there's nothing much to hang on to: the mystery is solved too easily and too soon, and the affair between Mac and Rook feels forced. With this lackluster title, Neggers's fans may feel that they're the ones who have been abandoned. (June)

The gut-punch title sets the reader up for violent fantasy adventure, and the book lives up to the promise in a very entertaining way. Starting right out with outrageous-looking characters acting belligerently, the title princess leads bounty hunters who resemble a skeleton child and Hellboy. It all begins when a mad scientist and his twin robot girls kill the king in an attempt to take over the kingdom. During the princess's escape, she knocks heads with a female bounty hunter, which somehow causes them to swap spirits into each other's bodies. Most readers will know whether they're interested from the premise. If it sounds like a great excuse for action comedy, it is. Full pages keep events moving at a good clip as the two girls figure out their situation, fight giant monsters and the killer twins, and struggle to keep the kingdom together. There's a fun "Buffy the Vampire Slayer in frilly dress" feel, especially during the well-staged splash pages (and if you're willing to overlook the occasional panty shot). Fight scenes are dynamic, and there's humor in the conflict between the princess's looks and her rough-and-tumble behavior. (May)

Talbot's freewheeling, metafictional magnum opus is a map of the curious and delightful territory of its cartoonist's mind, starring himself in multiple roles. The starting point is the history of his hometown, the northeast English city of Sunderland, along with his lifelong fascination with the myths and realities behind Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland-potentially dry material, but Talbot pulls out all the stops to keep it entertaining. He veers off on one fascinating tangent after another. The book encompasses dead-on parodies of EC horror comics, British boys' comics and Hergé's Tintin, walk-ons by local heroes like Sidney James, extensive analysis of a couple of William Hogarth prints, a cameo appearance by "the Venerable Scott McComics-Expert" and even a song-and-dance number, drawing a three-dimensional web of coincidences and connections between all. It's also a showcase for the explosive verve of Talbot's protean illustrative style, with digital collages of multiple media on almost every page: pen-and-ink drawings in a striking variety of styles, photographs, painting, computer modeling, and all manner of "found" images. The book's only real weakness is its scattered focus, but Talbot is a remarkable raconteur, even if what he's presenting is more a variety show than a story. (Apr.)

Gruesome rules in this horror collection. Despite the title, the four stories actually are set before or at the same time as the action of the 2002 film about the horrifying consequences of a manmade virus that infects humans with mindless rage, turning them into carnivorous brutes who infect others by spewing virus-laden blood. Niles's scripts (one of which is included as a bonus text feature) show the creation of the virus by ethically challenged researchers, describe its uncontrollable spread as zomboid mobs wipe out most of humanity, and question whether the survivors deserve to survive. Like the movie, the stories also juxtapose the rationalizations that we use to justify violence-idealism, pride, revenge, love, etc.-with the behavior of the infected monsters. The characters aren't especially interesting beyond that: some infected zomboids totter around, puking blood and exclaiming "Ghaaaagh!" while others dither and wait for death. Of the multiple artists at work, Calero's two stories, "Stage 1: Development" and "Stage 4: Quarantine," effectively combine glimpses of light with masses of darkness, and Nat Jones ("Stage 3: Decimation") mixes scratchy agitated line work with a muted wash, especially in a two-page spread of a ruined Piccadilly Circus. Mainly, however, the art is just graphic enough to satisfy readers' cravings for literal blood and guts. (Apr.)

Underground comics favorite Pekar returns with another collection of autobiographical reflections. His narratives are subdued and unconventional, with the rhythm of ordinary life. In this collection he captures something every reader can relate to, whether it's worrying over his runaway cat or levelheadedly dealing with a plumbing disaster (leading him to the exclamation, "Today I am a man!"). It is the very lack of a point to these narratives that makes them work. The flaw of the stories in this collection is that they are of his current life-that is, the life of a freelance comic book writer. Many of the rambling thoughts reflect so closely on the act of creating what readers are holding in their hands that it's like looking at the infinite reflections in a pair of parallel mirrors. In one story, Pekar goes through all his thoughts when deciding whether he should search for more work or just take a nap; in another he details the hassles of getting paid for his latest comic. A number of talented artists illustrate this collection, giving spice and variety to the relentlessly average life of Pekar. (Apr.)