Fiction Reviews: Week of 5/14/2007
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 5/14/2007
Under Enemy Colors
S. Thomas Russell. Putnam, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-399-15443-0
Russell's first-rate debut features taut plotting, liberal action and an attractively modest hero: Royal Navy Lt. Charles Hayden. In 1793, Britain is at war with revolutionary France, and Hayden, the son of an English father and a French mother, feels “torn in half.” Denied a promotion, he reluctantly accepts appointment as first lieutenant to the frigate Themis: the commander, Capt. Josiah Hart, has powerful connections in the Admiralty, but is widely disparaged among the fleet as a tyrannical coward. Hayden is dismayed to find the ship in “a state of dreadful disarray,” the crew on the verge of mutiny and Hart hostile to Hayden's remedial efforts. With the French in sight, tensions aboard come to a boil. Russell writes knowledgeably about late–18th-century naval warfare and lyrically about the sea. In Hayden, he has created a complex, sympathetic hero. (Sept.)
MercyLara Santoro. Other Press, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-59051-271-5
Anna, the Italian-born, Nairobi-based war correspondent and narrator of veteran journalist Santoro's affecting debut novel, is fast succumbing to “the pain and riot” of “burned, bloodied Africa.” Excessively drinking, keeping two lovers—one, a fellow journalist; the other, the owner of a coffee plantation—and delaying assignments while pleading with her editor for a bureau transfer, she seems hell-bent on self-annihilation when Mercy, a local “giantess miraculously squeezed into a pink halter-top and fake patent-leather pants,” persuades Anna to give her a job as house girl. Mercy becomes indispensable to Anna, pushing her to give up alcohol and meet her deadlines and introducing Anna to Father Anselmo, an Italian priest who lives in and administers to the AIDS-wracked slum of Korogocho. But it is only after Anna learns that Mercy has AIDS that the full measure of the women's connection to and effect upon each other comes full circle. Santoro, who has covered the African AIDS epidemic, evokes the continent's everyday horrors and uncommon moments of grace in decidedly unsentimental prose, and her depiction of international journalists' lifestyles is similarly powerful. Though the subtleties that make the first half of the book sublime become heavy-handed later on, the characters and their complicated relationships remain stirring until the end. (Sept.)
The Family DiamondEdward Schwarzschild. Algonquin, $12.95 paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-56512-410-3
The mostly middle class, Jewish Philadelphians of Schwarzschild's adept story collection (following the debut novel Responsible Men) lead clannish, semimarginalized existences. The young boy of “No Rest for the Middleman” finds himself, on the holiest day of the Jewish year, a pawn in a questionable deal between his father and two shady businessmen. In “Reunion,” the pregnant Kim exhausts her brother, sister-in-law and dying mother with her irresponsible search for perfect love. The longest and most dramatically satisfying story in the collection, “What to Expect,” tells of early widower Claude, who must let go of his adult son, Larry, as the latter marries and expects a child of his own. Several other stories feature Charlie and Milly Diamond, an elderly married couple facing the indignities of old age together. All the stories are told in a naturalistic style, except for the last, “Irreversible,” in which Charlie and Milly regain their youth to the puzzlement of the other residents at the Spring Garden Retirement Community. The bonds of love are alternately tenuous and tensile in Schwarzschild's acutely observed and quietly affecting stories. (Sept.)
The Rules of GentilityJanet Mullany. Avon A, $13.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-122983-1
The saga of an Austen-era bachelorette puts the lie to Regency delicacy in this fun romantic spoof by Mullany (Dedication). Miss Philomena Wellesley-Clegg distracts herself from her dwindling list of suitors (those still in the running include a wimpy poet and a dandy with a wandering eye) by shopping for bonnets and gossiping with her married best friend. But when her path crosses with Inigo Linsley, her best friend's rascally brother-in-law, “Philly” warms to him, even if his kisses make her “feel very peculiar indeed.” When Inigo proposes a sham engagement to ward off her doofy suitors, she agrees—but only until the end of the social season. In turn, Inigo trusts Philly with the secret of his out-of-wedlock son and the friendship of his former lover, an actress. But some ungentlemanly conduct in a carriage sends Philly on the hunt for a more proper man. Mullany's saucy narrator and bubbly tone won't convert many classic Regency fans, but the combination should entice romance readers who'd otherwise sidestep the flurry of petticoats. (Sept.)
Consumption Kevin Patterson. Doubleday/Talese, $25 (384p) ISBN 978-0-385-52074-4
In this powerful first novel, a beautiful Inuit woman spends her teen years in the 1960s in a Montreal TB sanitarium, learning French and mathematics from nuns. Upon returning to her Hudson Bay hamlet to live in a government-made dwelling, Victoria feels like a stranger “living in a kind of internal exile” and shudders at the taste of “half-rotted walrus meat.” After getting pregnant by a Kablunauk (Inuktitut for white person), she marries him. Husband Robertson's ambition rankles the community to begin with, and when he accepts work from a South African mining company that wants to dig for diamonds in the frozen tundra, things come to a boiling point. Keith Balthazar, a doctor who comes to the community from New York, tends to Victoria's children in illness and gets unexpectedly entwined in the family's life. In language that is always sharp and sometimes mesmerizing, Patterson, author of a story collection and the memoir The Water in Between, seamlessly works murder, sex and intrigue into the mix and offers a terrific cast that makes arctic life, and the ties of kin, palpable. He delivers a searingly visceral message about love, loss and dislocation. (Aug.)
The Scandal of the SeasonSophie Gee. Scribner, $25 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4165-4056-4
Hunchbacked satirist poet Alexander Pope finds inspiration in the foibles of 18th-century London's young, rich and arrogant in Gee's shrewd debut, an erudite period piece filled with outrageous flirtation, social maneuvering and contests of wit. The low-born Pope is permitted entry to London's upper echelons after some of his poems gain a gilded readership, and his literary ambitions and adventures in the city with childhood friends Martha and Teresa Blount are offset by the passionate but clandestine romance between the beautiful Arabella Fermor (who happens to be related to the Blounts), and the haughty Lord Petre, whose involvement in a plot to assassinate the queen lands him in a tight spot. The stories intersect when Pope immortalizes the lovers' high-class intrigue in a scalding poem. The novel is sprinkled with literary cameos and jokes English lit majors will appreciate, while crackling verbal one-upmanship and crude double entendres should keep the hoi polloi turning pages. The main disappointment is that Pope's much talked about poems never appear in full. But that's a small blemish, and Gee's take on the Paris Hilton–like figures who pranced through London 300 years ago manages to be simultaneously tabloid bawdy and academy proper. (Aug.)
Dizzy CityNicholas Griffin. Steerforth, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-58642-132-8
Griffin (The House of Sight and Shadow) hits his stride in his fourth novel, a stylish and ambitious story of cons conning cons. Griffin begins in the WWI trenches in France, where Londoner Ben Cramb, in his early 20s and handsome, fights the Huns alongside his friends until an explosion wounds Ben and kills his three pals. After a stint in a British hospital, Ben flees to New York City, where he dreads being discovered as a deserter. Soon, he falls in league with Julius McAteer, a crafty Irish conman who involves Ben in his scheme to rip off Henry Jergens, a Kansas City businessman. But Henry is running his own con on Julius as payback for robbing Henry's mentor 18 years earlier. As the cat-and-mouse game heats up and Ben sets his sights on Henry's beautiful actress wife, the U.S. inches ever closer to involvement overseas. An antiwar theme arises from beneath the ruses, and the swift plotting is marred only by the proliferation of characters' aliases, which become difficult to keep track of. Griffin's in fine form, and the novel's historical detail and multifaceted plot should keep readers riveted. (Aug.)
Red Rover Deirdre McNamer. Viking, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-670-06350-5
McNamer (My Russian; One Sweet Quarrel) returns with a haunting novel of love, friendship and faith set in a world where none of those values triumphs. Brothers Neil and Aidan Tierney grow up on the prairies of pre–WWII Montana, and after Pearl Harbor Neil becomes a B-29 pilot in the Pacific, and Aidan joins the FBI and is assigned to covert duty in Argentina. Upon their return in 1946, Neil establishes a life, but Aiden is dying of a mysterious disease and embittered by what he saw and did during the war. His threats to go public with bureau business call back to his life Roland Taliaferro, also an FBI agent, whose alcoholism has put his career on the rocks. In short order, Aiden is found dead, an apparent suicide by shotgun. Neil suspects a coverup, but he has no way of disproving the official report. McNamer gradually reveals the truth of the matter, drawing in characters whose connections initially appear ancillary. McNamer's insight into her damaged cast generates a deep emotional response that builds toward a reunion and revelation that bring satisfaction, if not peace. (Aug.)
Dead Boys: StoriesRichard Lange. Little, Brown, $21.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-316-01736-7
Set in a Southern California of smoky skies and Neil Young tunes, Lange's fine debut collection takes the so-called normal guy—husband, father, working stiff—and throws a heap of trouble at him. “Bank of America” is the completely believable tale of a regular “John Q,” a house painter who also happens to rob banks with a small-time team of hustlers while still being a good father and husband to his unsuspecting family. “Long Lost” follows a tentative young husband and reluctant proofreader as he copes with the sudden appearance of a boisterous, angry, ex-con half-brother, courtesy of his neglectful father's second wife. In “Culver City,” named after a southeast neighborhood of L.A. where “we're all between jobs or between marriages, between runs of good luck,” the narrator's desperately unhappy waitress girlfriend Shelly hopes the compromising pictures of a famous actor that she steals at a party can fetch a price to change her luck and solidify their relationship. A considered, colloquial understatement marks nearly all of the first-person protagonists over the course of these 12 stories, in a manner that's marvelously effective. Lange's characters are well-intentioned screwups, deeply flawed and utterly convincing. (Aug.)
The Landlord's Black-Eyed DaughterMary Ellen Dennis. Five Star, $26.95 (419p) ISBN 978-1-59414-575-9
This imaginative but bumpy historical romance debut, set in Georgian England, features highwayman Rand and authoress Elizabeth, who are struck by déjà vu from the moment they meet in London. Although Rand cannot offer Elizabeth a safe or easy life, he senses their destinies are entwined and that their connection goes back to a 13th-century past life. Free-thinking spinster Elizabeth, meanwhile, is haunted by the hero of her latest novel, a combination of Rand and a historical knight killed in a bloody battle five hundred years earlier. As Rand goes about the bandit business, Elizabeth tries to write and wards off the advances of Lord Walter Stafford. But when Rand and Elizabeth finally get together, a humiliated Stafford makes it his mission to hunt down Rand and see him hanged. The couple lands in Newgate prison, where it takes all their wits to avoid the hangman's noose. Historical romance purists may have a hard time swallowing Elizabeth's character (she refers to her “career” and “writer's block”), and the bumper crop of action scenes begin to feel like filler. The past-lives angle is interesting, but it may not be enough to hold readers' attention over 400 pages. (Aug.)
Summers at Blue LakeJill Althouse-Wood. Algonquin, $23.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-56512-496-7
Barbara Jean Ellington, “BJ,” is at a crossroads. Recently separated from her cheating husband, Bryce, BJ and five-year-old son Sam depart Michigan for her late grandmother Nonna's home in Pennsylvania. While sorting out her life, BJ comes across Nonna's private notebooks, and she uncovers family secrets—including how Nonna and her lesbian partner, Grandma Lena, came to spend their lives together. As BJ learns more about her family history, she is haunted by memories of her childhood and her first true love (and Lena's nephew), Travis. Things begin to look up when he appears one day, recently divorced, on her lawn, but a late reappearance by Bryce could muck things up. This is Althouse-Wood's first novel, and though she begins with an interesting premise, the novel falls victim to prose leaden with preciousness (“I spoke the name, Sam, holding the m in my mouth like the taste of a Life Saver I was trying to commit to memory”) and banal plotting. (Aug.)
The Maias Eça de Quierós, trans. from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. New Directions, $17.95 paper (640p) ISBN 978-0-8112-1649-4
A veteran translator of Saramago and Pessoa, Jull Costa delivers Quierós's 1888 masterpiece in a beautiful English version that will become the standard. Rich scion Carlos de Maia—like his best friend, writer João da Ega—is an incorrigible dabbler caught in the enervated Lisbon of the 1870s. His parentage is checkered: Carlos's mother runs off with an Italian, taking his sister, Maria, but leaving Carlos with his father, Pedro, who soon shoots himself. Raised by Pedro's father, Afonso, the adult Carlos returns with a medical degree to live with Afonso in the family's cursed Lisbon compound. His very romantic, very doomed affair with Madame Maria Eduarda Gomes sets in motion a train of coincidences, deftly prefigured, that resonantly entwines Carlos's fate with that of his father and spreads all of Portuguese society before the reader. Quierós has a magisterial sense of social stratification, family and the way eros can make an opera of private life. The novel crystallizes the larger unreality of an incestuous society, one that drifts, even the elite heatedly acknowledge, into decline. The neglect of the big Iberian 19th-century novelists—Galdós, Clarín and Quierós—remains a puzzle. This novel stands with the great achievements of fiction. (July)
High NoonNora Roberts. Putnam, $26.95 (480p) ISBN 978-0-399-15434-8
At the start of this scintillating slice of romantic suspense from prolific bestseller Roberts (Sweet Revenge), Lt. Phoebe MacNamara, the chief hostage negotiator for the Savannah, Ga., PD, meets Duncan Swift, a sports bar owner, as they both try to prevent a suicidal bartender Duncan fired from jumping off a roof on St. Patrick's Day. In the aftermath, a romance develops between Phoebe and Duncan, though in typical Roberts style the enigmatic Phoebe's devotion to career and family, who include a young daughter and an agoraphobic mother, creates tension in their relationship. After Phoebe survives a vicious attack within her own precinct house by an unknown assailant, it becomes clear that someone is intent on harming Phoebe and those close to her. A courageous protagonist, deft plotting and the sultry Savannah backdrop all add up to another winner for consummate storyteller Roberts. (July)
InnocenceDavid Hosp. Warner, $24.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-446-58014-4
In Hosp's strong third novel (after 2006's disappointing The Betrayed), Boston lawyer Scott Finn, the hero of Hosp's debut, Dark Harbor (2005), has resigned from his white-shoe law firm and gone into practice for himself, along with cop-turned-PI Tom Kozlowski and legal intern Lissa Krantz. Finn gets roped into the case of Vincente Salazar, an illegal El Salvador immigrant with gang ties who was convicted of shooting a policewoman. Salazar has spent 15 years in prison, but new DNA evidence might exonerate him. Finn bitches and moans about pro bono cases, but readers know that underneath his cynical shell lies an honest straight shooter who loves the law and will go to his grave defending it—which he nearly does as a host of bad guys set out to convince Finn it's unhealthy to reopen the Salazar case. Clever banter, interesting legalities and compelling characters put Hosp, an attorney who has worked on New England's Innocence Project, back in the running for a top spot in the Boston legal thriller stakes. (July)
White Flag DownJoel N. Ross. Doubleday, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-385-51389-0
Switzerland during WWII proves an unexpectedly rich setting in Ross's suspenseful second thriller (after 2005's Double Cross Blind). In September 1942, a U.S. Army Air Force pilot, Lieutenant Grant, crash-lands his photo reconnaissance plane in Swiss territory after catching a glimpse of a previously unknown Nazi secret weapon, a jet aircraft. The Swiss authorities imprison Grant, along with his navigator. Grant escapes and is soon enmeshed in a complicated plot that centers on Swiss collaboration, a Russian commander fresh from the Battle of Stalingrad, the Russian's ex-wife and secret negotiations that may result in a truce between Germany and Russia—thus freeing Hitler's forces from fighting the war on two fronts. Much time and energy is spent on the search for an obscure economic document, but there's plenty of action as Grant rips through one seemingly impossible mission after another. Thriller readers who enjoy looking at WWII from a fresh perspective will be particularly rewarded. (July)
On Kingdom MountainHoward Frank Mosher. Houghton Mifflin, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-0-618-19723-1
Mosher's 11th book is the first-rate, offbeat chronicle of Miss Jane Hubbell Kinneson's eventful 50th year in 1930. Ex-teacher, woodcarver, librarian, basketball coach and current self-appointed steward of the wild and pristine town of Kingdom Mountain, Vt., Miss Jane (“The Duchess”) is entrenched in a battle against her cousin Eben and the town elders who want to build a highway and ski resort on her beloved mountain. Jane, as endearing as she is odd and independent-minded, looks to be in over her head until stunt pilot Henry Satterfield crashes his biplane near her home. Theatrical, dashing Henry recovers at Jane's place, and a romance blossoms. Henry also brings with him an old family riddle from Texas that he believes, if solved, will lead him and Jane to a lost Confederate treasure rumored to be hidden on the mountain. But all manner of heartbreak looms. Mosher (Waiting for Teddy Williams; The True Account; etc.) weaves homespun humor, a provincial New England setting and eccentric characters to create a satisfying, unique novel. (July)
A Spy by Nature Charles Cumming. St. Martin's, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-312-36635-3
Loosely based on the author's real-life experience of having been recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in 1995, Cumming's supremely intelligent and utterly readable debut will delight fans of such British masters of spy fiction as John le Carré, Robert Ludlum and Len Deighton. Alec Milius, a 24-year-old marketing consultant for a tiny London company that solicits business people in central and eastern Europe to advertise in a dubious publication called Central European Business Review, welcomes the chance to join the SIS, which after an exhausting selection process places him as a support agent with a British oil company. Alec initially thrives in his new job, but as he becomes increasingly entangled in his mission, he begins to face unexpected dangers as well as the loss of his identity. Smartly paced and intricately plotted, Cumming's decidedly unglamorous look at industrial espionage provides plenty of elaborate deceits, double crosses and other trappings of a first-class spy thriller. (July)
First Among SequelsJasper Fforde. Viking,$24.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-670-03871-8
Full of bizarre subplots, many of which don't go anywhere, bestseller Fforde's fifth novel to feature intrepid literary detective Thursday Next (after 2004's Something Rotten) blends elements of mystery, campy science fiction and screwball fantasy à la Terry Pratchett's Discworld. With the Stupidity Surplus reaching dangerously high levels all over England, Acme Carpets employee and undercover SpecOps investigator Next has her hands full trying to persuade her 16-year-old slacker son, Friday, to join the ChronoGuard, which deals with temporal stability; if Friday continues to sleep away his future, the end is near—for everyone. To complicate matters, a malicious apprentice begins making classic works of literature into reality book shows (Pride and Prejudice becomes The Bennets), a ruthless corporation tries to turn the Bookworld into a tourist trap, and the Cheese Enforcement Agency tries to bust Next for smuggling killer curd. The fate of the world may lie in a Longfellow poem. Fans of satiric literary humor are in for a treat. (July)
Killer WeekendRidley Pearson. Putnam, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-399-15407-2
Bestseller Pearson's workmanlike thriller, the first in a new series, has all the right ingredients: a down-to-earth hero, sheriff Walt Fleming; a neatly focused venue in the form of a weekend business conference at an Idaho resort; and a sense of impending danger in the form of a threat on the life of Elizabeth Shaler, the New York State attorney general, who's about to announce her candidacy for U.S. president. Shaler knows what it's like to be a victim. Eight years before the “killer weekend” of the title, she was attacked in her Sun Valley, Idaho, vacation home and saved by Fleming, then a patrolman. Fleming takes the present threat very seriously, but Shaler's handlers and the event's organizer, billionaire Patrick Cutter, won't cancel her speech. Fleming doggedly struggles to identify the assassin, who cleverly (if incredibly) overcomes massive security to infiltrate the event, but the motive for the threat is never satisfactorily explained. Pearson (Parallel Lies) tries hard to give his characters depth using an inventive array of backstories, but only the capable Fleming really comes across. 10-city author tour. (July)
The Pinball Theory of ApocalypseJonathan Selwood. Harper Perennial, $13.95 paper (256p) ISBN
Selwood's debut opens in Los Angeles, in the middle of Isabelle Raven's “meteoric rise to fame,” as her obnoxious art dealer, Juan Dahlman, orchestrates her transformation from “unknown hack into... 'It Girl' artist.” Juan's efforts include circulating on the Internet nude photos of Isabelle and her participation in an ad campaign for vaginal rejuvenation surgery, as well as pimping her out to a dot-com magnate who purchases her work. Isabelle mopes and halfheartedly battles her “abject artistic prostitution” as she dodges earthquake-related damage to her apartment building and wonders whether her chef-to-the-stars boyfriend is cheating on her with “a sixteen-year-old wannabe Aguilera.” The novel is packed with pop culture caricatures (notably in Isabelle's paintings, which are re-creations of masterpieces updated with pop icons; The Death of Marat, for instance, features “a turbaned and bloody Kurt Cobain”) and amusing bit players, but the cultural artifacts don't build to a larger statement; they simply pile on. Selwood is a talented writer and his novel is frequently funny, though readers may wish for more substance. (July)
Girls of RiyadhRajaa Alsanea, trans. from the Arabic by Rajaa Alsanea and Marilyn Booth. Penguin Press, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-59420-121-9
Four upper-class Saudi Arabian women negotiate the clash between tradition and the encroaching West in this debut novel by 25-year-old Saudi Alsanea. Though timid by American chick lit standards, it was banned in Saudi Arabia for its scandalous portrayal of secular life. Framed as a series of e-mails sent to the e-subscribers of an Internet group, the story follows an unnamed narrator who recounts the misadventures of her best friends, Gamrah, Lamees, Michelle and Sadeem—all fashionable, educated, wealthy 20-somethings looking for true love. Their world is dominated by prayer, family loyalty and physical modesty, but the voracious consumption of luxury goods (designer name dropping is muted but present) and yearnings for female empowerment are also part of the package. Lines like “the talk was as soft as the granules in my daily facial soap” or “Sadeem was feeling so sad that her chest was constricted in sorrow” appear with woeful frequency, and the details about the roles of technology, beauty and Western pop culture in the lives of contemporary Saudi women aren't revelatory. Readers looking for quality Arabic fiction have much better options. (July)
The Crime WriterGregg Hurwitz. Viking, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-670-06321-5
Hurwitz's L.A. thriller has noir pulp chutzpah in spades, even if it does start out with a bang and end up shooting blanks. When Andrew “Drew” Danner, a crime novelist, is tried for the murder of his ex-fiancée, Genevieve Bertrand, beside whose body he was found holding a bloody knife, he pleads not guilty. He has no memory of how he got to the crime scene because of a breakdown caused by a recently removed brain tumor. Once he's found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, Danner sets out to find the real killer—or discover some very nasty things about himself. Someone's also trying to frame him for a second murder that appears to be similar to that of Bertrand. Luckily, Danner gets help from old friend Chic, an ex-professional baseball player, and Lloyd Wagoner, a troubled police criminalist. A tense, page-turning first act leads to disappointing explanations involving the police and a misinterpreted phone message. Still, the fast pace and ingenious setup provide considerable tension. Hurwitz (Last Shot) may not have written a California classic, but it's a worthy effort. 5-city author tour. (July)
Fields of AsphodelTito Perdue. Overlook, $24 (256p) ISBN 978-1-58567-871-6
This highly stylized take on the afterlife is the latest installment in Perdue's chronicle of Leland “Lee” Pefley, the cantankerous Alabaman (following The Sweet-Scented Manuscript). This time out, Lee wakes up from his death in an unpredictable landscape that bears a faint resemblance to his native Alabama, except the sun seems paperlike, seasons don't work the way they should, and it's very cold. Though he's dead, Lee is still 73, still afflicted by hemorrhoids and still a pedant and a misanthrope. Lee has landed with a band of egotists, so they don't like him much either. He longs for and goes in search of his wife, Judy, who predeceased him and who, in Lee's untrustworthy eyes, is a paragon of femininity: modest, supportive, aware of her place. Lee is something like an erudite version of Beckett's Watt or Malone, but lacks the post-WWII context and the lyricism that gives those characters their historical dimension. Perdue has more in common with the poet Ed Dorn, who went after America using some of its highest and lowest forms (booksellers, the rich and “male feminists” come in for razzing), but while there are some very funny scenes and arresting lines, the book comes across more like Stanley Elkin's jokey The Living End than its great modernist predecessors. (July)
Black Skyy: The Lady in Black Series: Book OneJanet Stevens Cook. Atria/Strebor,$13 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-59309-113-2
Cook's debut, a series launch, stars a dynamic African-American crime fighter and vigilante, Sandora “Sandy” Knight. While gorgeous Sandy may not have super powers, she's a martial arts whiz as well as a businesswoman on track to become the first black female Fortune 500 CEO. After the murder of her heroin-addicted mother in New York City in 1977, Sandy supports her younger brother by prostitution until Master Kwan, a neighbor and martial arts expert, intervenes. Vowing vengeance for her mom, Sandy graduates from Howard University, works as a spy and concocts her secret “Skyy” identity, amazing New York with her daring exploits—all while working for a womanizing monster with a criminal past that she's determined to unmask. Skyy/Sandy's upfront, sometimes raw narration pulls no punches, giving this vibrant thriller a comic book ambience that's very pop, bang, wow. (July)
The Song Before It Is SungJustin Cartwright. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-59691-268-7
Based on the lives of Adam von Trott and Isaiah Berlin, Cartwright's unsttling 12th novel follows Axel von Gottberg, a German, and his friend Elya Mendel, a British Jew, both Rhodes scholars at idyllic 1930s Oxford. Gottberg returns to Germany in 1934, ostensibly to rally opposition to Hitler, but Mendel publicly denounces him as a Nazi. Sixty years after Gottberg was executed for his role in the failed German coup of 1944, a dying Mendel entrusts his papers to a former student, Conrad Senior, and bids him to discover whether he had unjustly condemned his late friend. Senior, an insouciant writer whose life is a shambles, is transfixed by Gottberg, a “man of courage and action,” a womanizer with an “operatic” flair and a love for Hegel. Cartwright's treatment of the unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life in 1944 is gripping. Conrad fails to see what an ambiguous figure Gottberg was—diffident about the fate of the Jews and finally concerned less about his country than his own achievements. The prose can be surprisingly hackneyed, while the characters rarely rise above caricature. It is difficult to discern whether the novel's sophistry, soap opera dialogue and lionizing of the ineffective German resistance are ironic. (July)
The Last Street NovelOmar Tyree. Simon & Schuster, $24 (416p) ISBN 978-1-4165-4184-4
Beloved bestselling African-American romance author Tyree delivers the gritty story of a beloved African-American romance author who strays from his comfort zone in order to write a gritty street novel. Author and playboy Shareef Crawford returns to Harlem for a book signing to promote his latest romance and is seduced by quick-witted Cynthia Washington. As Shareef soon finds out, Cynthia is tight with Michael Springfield, a legendary drug dealer serving life without parole. He's ready to tell his life story, and he wants Shareef to write it. The proposition is infectious: Shareef quickly falls back in love with the hustle of Harlem, and he agrees to take on the writing project to tell the true story of the streets. But it's not long before word gets around that Springfield is about to open his mouth, and old school gangsters with an interest in keeping the past quiet set out to keep that story from being told. The pacing is fast and the dialogue snappy, but the street lit staples of violence, betrayal and sex are doled out in smaller doses than readers might expect. Regardless, Tyree's latest should fare well and add to his substantial readership. (July)
Never EnoughAngela Winters. Dafina, $14 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-7582-1261-0
In Winters's entertaining latest View Park novel, the Chase family plunges to new lows of deviousness. Patriarch Steven Chase, CEO of an ever-expanding upscale beauty chain, wishes to keep his grown sons on a tight leash and within the family company. However, Kimberly, wife of eldest son Michael, is intent on bringing down her mother-in-law, and younger son Carter goes to dangerous lengths to hide a dark secret from his fiancée. Add to the mix Steven's two grown daughters: Leigh, a do-gooder doctor whose idealism frustrates her mother, and Haley, a spoiled club kid who gets involved with a dangerous club owner, and trouble is never far away. As the plots converge, Steven stands to lose his mini-empire and family. Though the characters function as embodiments of their faults, the pacing is fast and the drama unrelenting. (July)
Drop Dead BeautifulJackie Collins. St. Martin's, $24.95 (512p) ISBN 978-0-312-34179-4
It's not easy being rich, gorgeous, successful and a happily married mom, but Mafia princess turned Hollywood producer and real estate mogul Lucky Santangelo, last seen in 1999's Dangerous Kiss, again proves up to the challenge. In Collins's latest vendetta romance, Lucky plans her father Gino's 95th birthday bash while building a Las Vegas megaresort, unaware that family foe Anthony Bonar (né Bonnatti) is plotting revenge. In turn, Anthony is unaware of wife Irma's sexual awakening in the arms of their Mexican gardener, who in turn is unaware of Irma's affair with a federal drug enforcement agent. Meanwhile Lucky's 16-year-old daughter, Max, tells her parents she's with friends when she's really headed to a rendezvous with a man she meets on the Internet. That date provides the novel's fast-paced action, while Irma provides the novel's best sex and violence. Less gripping subplots include the on-again off-again relationship between Lucky's business partner, Alex, and his jealous girlfriend, as well as the off-again on-again romance between Lucky's best friend, the diva Venus, and her star-stud boyfriend, Billy. Collins delivers Lucky's usual mix of celebrity fantasy and godfather justice while Max promises to grow up in future sequels as troublesome and triumphant as her glitzy mom. (June)
Circumference of DarknessJack Henderson. Bantam,$23 (528p)ISBN 978-0-553-80515-4
Henderson's uneven debut marks another addition to the growing list of post-9/11 thrillers in which home-grown radical elements within the United States, not Islamic fundamentalists, pose a terrorist threat. Jeannie Reese, a 22-year-old Department of Defense computer genius, has developed a powerful surveillance technology she hopes can thwart an impending attack. The terrorists, led by racist Edward Latrell, who ran for president in 1976, are holed up in a compound in Colorado, though their tentacles of sympathizers stretch all around the country. They plan to hit the U.S. all at once through a highly developed plan of coordinated attacks coast to coast. Reese, however, has assembled a crack team of techies intent on saving the nation and restoring order. Though well researched, Henderson's plot eventually crumbles into confusion and overly technical detail. Along the way, too many silly asides—including the notoriously chaste Reese's fumbling romance and eventual drunken sex with a navy lieutenant—tend to break the otherwise admirable tension. (June 26)
Mystery
Buffalo MountainFrederick Ramsay. Poisoned Pen,$24.95 (266p) ISBN 978-1-59058-369-2
In this subpar third outing for Picketsville, Va., sheriff Ike Schwartz (after 2006's Secrets), deputy Whaite Billingsley finds a corpse bearing the ID of Randall Harris, a member of “one of the meanest families” in the backwoods locale of Buffalo Mountain. But Schwartz, a former CIA agent, immediately recognizes the body as that of ex-KGB spy Alexei Kamarov, and the mystery deepens when he contacts Charlie Garland, an ultrasecretive government figure, for help. Despite outwardly approaching the case as a routine and decidedly local homicide, Schwartz is too willing to tell his staff and friends about what is supposedly a top-secret “black program” operation. The layers of intrigue and duplicity are both difficult to follow and impossible to believe. Ramsay exerts considerable energy juggling his convoluted plot with a large number of marginally colorful ancillary characters, all while trying to convey a sense of place. But he has too many balls in the air, and the result is a rarely convincing or credible mystery. (Aug.)
The Water's Lovely Ruth Rendell. Crown, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-307-38136-1
Three-time Edgar Award–winner Rendell (13 Steps Down) often creates fragile characters, trembling on the edge of losing a lover, child, job, solvency or sanity. Slashing through their world is a “wild card,” an obsessive or a sociopath too focused on personal gain to be concerned with damage to others. The vulnerable people at the heart of this taut and enticing stand-alone are the Sealand family, particularly Heather, who's assumed to have drowned her unsavory stepfather, Guy, in the bath while he was weak with illness. A veritable pack of wild cards—including Marion Melville, who cozies up to the lonely and aged in hopes of inheriting their estates after she's poisoned them, and Marion's Dumpster-diving brother, Fowler—keeps everyone off guard. Rendell enlivens the tale with subplots involving various romances—ardent and desperate—and a killer who lurks in London's parks, as well as with pithy comments about class, technology, generational conflict, food and aesthetics. The plot twists in this electrifying read reach all the way to the last page. (July)
Casanegra: A Tennyson Hardwick StoryBlair Underwood with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes. Atria, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7432-8731-9
Actor Underwood (Sex and the City, etc.) teams up with accomplished authors Due and Barnes to produce a seamlessly entertaining novel. Tennyson Hardwick—semisuccessful actor, ex-gigolo and incipient sleuth—has the mixed fortune to reconnect with rap superstar Afrodite, a former client, for a night of more than just sex. The next day, she's found dead in a plastic bag with a split skull, and he's a suspect. To clear his name, Hardwick draws on all of his considerable assets: good looks and charm, a $2.5 million house inherited from a devoted client, martial arts skills (Barnes's stock in trade) and connections on both sides of the law. The authors have mixed up a cocktail of exotic elements—the sex for pay industry, the grind and glitz of Hollywood and the rap biz, a smart leavening of black film history—and topped it with a double shot of brutal murder. Handsome “Ten” Hardwick has not only a great backstory but a very promising future. 6-city author tour. (July)
Safe and SoundJ.D. Rhoades. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-35489-3
Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Rhoades's solid third mystery to feature rugged bounty hunter Jack Keller (after 2006's Good Day in Hell) wastes no words. Keller loves his work: it keeps him from dwelling on the past. When a young girl goes missing, his suspicion first falls upon the child's father, David Lundgren, a member of Delta Force. Keller wades through military bureaucracy—dealing as best he can with his own ineradicable memories of what he saw during the first Gulf War and the way the army treated him afterward—to learn that Lundgren has also disappeared; Keller quickly begins to suspect that the actual story is more complicated than it first seemed. Soon he's proven horribly right. Crisp dialogue and the author's deft use of local color support a narrative driven as effectively by characters as by events. (July)
And Murder for DessertKathleen Delaney. Poisoned Pen,$24.95 (250p) ISBN 978-1-59058-423-1
Harvest Festival Dinner at the Silver Springs Winery sounds ideal, and it is—until master chef Otto turns up dead before the sumptuous final course in Delaney's auspicious first outing in California wine country. Real estate broker Ellen McKenzie and her fiancé, chief of police Dan Dunham, are soon embroiled in the case. Ellen's niece Sabrina and Sabrina's new husband, Mark Tortelli, were counting on this splashy event to solidify their reputation as new managers of Silver Springs—especially since there's some question as to why they left their last job. The legendarily cantankerous Otto had numerous fans but even more foes, including Mark's father. Feuding shareholders and real estate developers further threaten the winery's tranquility, and Ellen must sift through all the drama to find the killer, while planning her wedding and solving family problems. Delaney's choice of setting, gossipy milieu and colorful (if somewhat predictable) suspects help to keep Ellen scrambling and move the action right along. (July)
The Indian Bride Karin Fossum, trans. from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund. Harcourt, $23 (304p) ISBN 978-0-15-101182-7
Fossum may not be well-known outside a select circle, but that could change with the publication of this outstanding contemporary police procedural, the fourth Inspector Sejer mystery to be translated into English (after 2006's He Who Fears the Wolf). Insp. Konrad Sejer is faced with a baffling crime when the battered body of a woman surfaces in a field outside the town of Elvestad. She's soon identified as Poona Jomann, the new wife of Gunder Jomann, who traveled to India in search of a life partner. Gunder's sister's injury in an auto accident kept him from meeting his bride at the airport, leaving her to travel to their new home alone, a journey that ended in murder. With a skill few can equal, Fossum deftly paints the provincial inhabitants of Elvestad, coupling those poignant word portraits with a whodunit and an insightful but fallible detective. The ending is not one most readers will expect, but it perfectly suits the tale of sad, little lives and the tragic consequences of chance. (July)
Mr. Dixon Disappears: A Mobile Library MysteryIan Sansom. Harper,$12.95 paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-082253-8
In Sansom's wry second mystery to feature Northern Ireland mobile librarian Israel Armstrong (after The Case of the Missing Books), Israel is suspected of robbing and kidnapping a local department store magnate, the titular Mr. Dixon, who dabbled in the magical arts. To clear his name, Israel must penetrate the bizarre world of Ulster magic. Dixon's wife seems curiously unmoved by her husband's absence, but perhaps all the alcohol she swills is masking her true emotions. If this isn't enough to ruin Israel's week, Linda, his boss at the mobile library, learns that Israel's been digging into the petty cash to pay his friend (and love interest), Rosie, to work for a few hours each week. Linda suspends him, and Rosie, who had thought her job was on the up and up, gets steamed about Israel's patronizing deception. Readers will enjoy the snappy dialogue and wacky cast of characters, particularly the lovable and winsome Israel. (July)
The Grandfather Rastin MysteriesLloyd Biggle Jr., edited by Kenneth Biggle and Donna Biggle Emerson. Crippen & Landru (www.crippenlandru.com), $29 (230p) ISBN 978-1-932009-56-6; $19 paper ISBN 978-1-932009-57-4
Crippen and Landru's Lost Classics series continues to live up to its name. This 23rd volume in the series presents 14 endearing tales of smalltown detection from the pen of prolific science fiction author Biggle (1923–2002). As with his better known SF works, Biggle's stories of life in Borgville, a fictional Michigan community, emphasize vibrant characterization and gentle good humor. The title character, an adroit, insightful and irascible old man, delights in contradicting the local sheriff and in solving mysteries, ranging from burglary to murder. These puzzles, with their affectionate and intelligent portrayal of smalltown life, will remind mystery buffs of Ed Hoch's superb Sam Hawthorne impossible crime stories. (July)
SF/Fantasy/Horror
Sky Horizon: Colony High, Book OneDavid Brin. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $35 (120p) ISBN 978-1-59606-109-5
Hugo- and Nebula-winner Brin paves the way for his new YA series Colony High (co-written with Jeff Carlson) with a somewhat clumsy story of teen adventure. Except for the nearby air base and top secret Cirocco Labs, Twenty-Nine Palms High isn't much different from most high schools—until the Math Club geeks make first contact with a stranded alien. Teenage military brat Mark “Bam” Bamford and his friends rescue the E.T., Na-bistaka, from an ugly life as a sideshow and turn it over to Cirocco, but it turns out that Na-bistaka's race, the Garubis, are far from grateful. They repay humanity in a backwards and insulting fashion, leaving the Twenty-Nine Palms students struggling to survive the new dangers that confront them. While it's not much of a stand-alone story, this wispy tale does successfully outline Colony High characters and backstory. Brin completists will be willing to pony up despite the slimness of the volume; others should wait for the first real novel in the series. (Aug.)
Thirteen Richard K. Morgan. Del Rey, $24.95 (560p) ISBN 978-0-345-48525-0
This stellar new stand-alone from Morgan, known for his compelling future noir thrillers (Altered Carbon, etc.), raises tantalizing questions about the nature of humanity. Future governments have used genetic manipulation to create subhumans twisted to fit specialized tasks. Normal people are intrigued as well as repulsed, but they instinctively dread variation thirteen, an aggressive, ruthless throwback to a time before civilization. When a thirteen escapes from exile on Mars and apparently goes on an insane killing spree, Carl Marsalis, a soul-weary freelance thirteen hit man, is hired to help track him down. Morgan goes beyond the SF cliché of the genetically enhanced superman to examine how personality is shaped by nature and experience. Marsalis is more empathetic than the normal people around him, but they can see him only as an untrustworthy killer. At the same time, surveying corrupt, fractured normal society, the novel questions whether the thirteens are just less successful at hiding their motives. Without slowing down the headlong rush of the action, the complex, looping plot suggests that all people may be less—or more—than they seem. (July)
Dragons of the Highlord Skies: The Lost Chronicles, Volume TwoMargaret Weis and
Tracy Hickman. Wizards of the Coast, $25.95 (464p) ISBN 978-0-7869-4333-3
In this enterprising second volume of the Lost Chronicles (after 2006's Dragons of the Dwarven Depths), Emperor Ariakis pressures Dragon Highlord Kitiara uth Matar into a plan to make sure the Solamnic knight Derek Crownguard hears about, then quests after a dragon orb recently discovered by Dragon Highlord Feal-Thas. As Crownguard's will is weaker than the dragon essence inside the orb, he will become enthralled to it and compelled to do the bidding of Ariakis. Loathing the task but having no choice, Kitiara treks to Feal-Thas's Ice Palace in the dangerous land of Icereach. As Crownguard and his companions join up with the group of renegades led by Kitiara's rival, Laurana, Kitiara's path takes an unexpected turn, leading her to Dargaard Keep to face the dread Lord Soth. Weis and Hickman have once again produced an entertaining high fantasy adventure. (July)
9Tail FoxJon Courtenay Grimwood. Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $14.95 paper (259p) ISBN 978-1-59780-078-5
Grimwood, best known for his alternate-history Arabesk trilogy (Effendi, etc.), manages a new wrinkle on a classic noir plot line with this intriguing paranormal mystery. San Francisco police sergeant Bobby Zha refuses to accept the department's conclusion that Natalie Persikov, a young Russian girl who has no familiarity with firearms, managed to kill an intruder, but he himself is gunned down in a sordid back alley before he can prove Persikov's innocence. After experiencing a mystical vision of a nine-tailed white fox, Zha regains consciousness in another man's body, a continent away from everything he knows. Using his new identity, Zha returns home in time to attend his own funeral and investigate his own murder. While the revelation of the killer is less than a surprise, Grimwood does sustain interest with a premise that could have fallen flat in lesser hands. (July)
The Story of Noichi the Blind Edited byAlan Drew and
Chet Williamson. Cemetery Dance (www.cemeterydance.com), $35 (100p) ISBN 978-1-58767-167-8
Williamson (Ash Wednesday) pays homage to Lafcadio Hearn in this well-written pastiche, which includes an introduction about the chance discovery of a lost manuscript and a scholarly afterword discussing the likelihood that Hearn penned the tale. In the province of Harima, Noichi, a humble woodcutter who's developed a mystic rapport with all living things, rescues Noriko, a poor servant girl who has become a fugitive after accidentally slaying a lustful samurai captain. Once Noriko falls ill, what was initially a sweet love story becomes a much more disturbing and powerful narrative, as Noichi's animal friends strive to help their human friend in his travails. Williamson's dark Japanese fairy tale, with its graphic scenes of supernatural horror, makes even the unexpurgated Grimms' stories seem tame. (July)
Match to Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury, edited by Donn Albright. Gauntlet (www.gauntletpress.com), $110 (484p) ISBN 978-1-887368-86-5
Bradbury devotees will welcome this collection of letters, short stories and rough drafts, all of which the great fantasy and SF author now views as antecedents to his classic 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451, about a future where books are systematically destroyed. Since Bradbury admits in the preface that some of the selections are “close to primitive,” readers who enjoyed such landmarks as The Martian Chronicles should be prepared for work that's less than his best. Many of the tales involve book burning, and that shared theme is a little repetitive. The high point for the casual fan is the novella “The Fireman” (1951), which was expanded into Fahrenheit 451. Those who don't want the plots spoiled should read the illuminating scholarly introduction and textual essay after the stories. (July)
Worshipping Small Gods Richard Parks. Prime (www.prime-books.com), $29.95 (252p) ISBN 978-0-8095-5746-2; $14.95 paper ISBN 978-0-8095-5745-5
In his outstanding second short story collection (after 2002's The Ogre's Wife, a World Fantasy Award finalist), Parks blends wry wit and profound insight with myths and folklore from around the globe. Noteworthy selections include the darkly lyrical and melancholic “The Plum Blossom Lantern,” about Michiko the ghost and her nocturnal trysts, and the whimsical title story, which pits an overzealous saint against a laid-back mountain god. The most compelling entry, “Voices in an Empty Room,” features a recurring character in many of Parks's stories: intrepid ghost hunter Eli Mothersbaugh. Ten years after a suicide terrorist killed more than a hundred people at an Independence Day ceremony in Canemill, Miss., Mothersbaugh investigates a haunting. What Mothersbaugh uncovers will change his view of the world forever. Blurring the lines between science fiction, fantasy, horror and spiritual speculation, this compilation of 14 magical and supernatural tales is as entertaining as it is edifying. (June)
Mass Market
Wired Liz Maverick. Dorchester/Shomi, $6.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-505-52724-0
If Maverick's fast-paced, genre-bounding novel is any indication, Dorchester's new imprint, Shomi—which aims to hook a younger generation of readers—should catch an audience quickly. Maverick grabs readers from page one, throwing together romance, science fiction and cyberpunk—a mash-up hinted at in the anime-style packaging— to tell the story of L. Roxanne Zaborovsky, a high-strung freelance computer programmer whose reclusive life gets tossed on its head when two men show up looking for her. Appearing mysteriously one night, the pair immediately set to fighting over Roxanne; before long, she realizes one is an old college acquaintance, Mason Merrick. Taking off with Mason, Roxanne learns that the men are each after a valuable bit of her work—a piece of code she hasn't even written yet. When even stranger things follow—like close friends showing up with entirely different lives—Roxanne discovers that her pursuers are playing with the threads of reality, trying to gain advantage over the other. Maverick's roller-coaster ride doesn't always stay grounded, but it's easy to get drawn into her world of twisting realities and shifting identities, especially with superb heroine Roxanne handling narration. This excellent piece of genre fiction shows much promise for both Maverick and the imprint she spearheads. (July)
The MarkJason Pinter. Mira, $7.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2489-8
Debut novelist Pinter turns in a stellar performance, taking to the suspense-thriller field with great confidence and greater promise. Disappointed to find that his new job with the prestigious New York Gazette is all pap pieces and obits, 24-year-old freshman journalist Henry Parker jumps at the chance to work with the paper's top reporter on a where-are-they-now look at “the scum of New York.” Arriving at the apartment of ex-con Luis Guzman with some follow-up questions, Henry finds a scene right out of Goodfellas: a big guy pistol-whipping a terrified Guzman and his wife. Before Henry knows what's happening, the victims turn the table, the assailant is killed, and Henry is left holding the smoking gun. From there, the cub reporter goes on the run—his only ally an unsuspecting NYU coed—while trying figure out how he became wanted by the NYPD, the FBI and the mob. Though some of his situations can strain credibility, Pinter's a wizard at punching out page-turning action, and the voice of his headstrong protagonist is sure to win readers over; his wild ride should thrill any suspense junky. (July)
Safe HarborChristine Feehan. Jove, $7.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-515-14318-8
Feehan kicks off episode five of her popular Drake Sisters series—concerning a septet of paranormally gifted sibs—with everything her fans have come to expect: action, gunplay, danger, bad guys, good guys, gorgeous women and magic. All that's missing are her spicy love scenes; those come later, and their promise is enough to keep pages turning. On top of that promise, however, is the intriguing mystery of the supermodel slasher, who attacks shy-but-smoldering Hannah, one of the sisters, at New York's annual Fashion Week. Hunky Sheriff Jonas Harrington, a longtime family friend, is fresh from a life-threatening encounter with the Russian mob when he witnesses, on live TV, Hannah getting cut down by a madman with a knife. After the sisters rush to her side, saving her with their combined powers, Jonas vows to hunt down the assailant—but his unrequited love for Hannah complicates matters. This winning series entry is sure to please devotees and shouldn't provide much difficulty for curious newbies. (July)
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda CheeverJulia Quinn. Avon, $7.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-123083-7
Quinn's first title since 1999 not to feature the Bridgerton clan (On the Way to the Wedding), this Regency concerns Miranda Cheever, who fell in love with the aristocratic Nigel Bevelstoke, Viscount Turner, when she was 10 and he 19. Now 20, and still in love, Miranda's designs are thwarted by the indiscretions of Nigel's late wife—heartbroken, Nigel isn't willing to risk another shot at love, even if it means hurting his close friend Miranda. Quinn's pitch-perfect humor remains intact, but her latest relies too much on romance conventions, including Miranda's scholarly but benignly neglectful father; an even more overused device involves Turner's hot-and-cold feelings toward Miranda, which reduce the heroine to tears more than once. However, the two make a lovable couple, and Miranda in particular shines, as do Turner's two siblings in strong secondary roles. Though a bit stale, this well-written, often funny and occasionally tender romance has much to enjoy. (July)
Comics
Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of LoveJim Ottaviani and Dylan Meconis. G.T. Labs (www.gt-labs.com), $11.95 paper (88p) ISBN 978-0-9788037-1-1
This nonfiction graphic novel retelling psychologist Harry Harlow's famous experiments is as disturbing as it is excellent. “We'll show you what love looks like—and what it does,” says the young researcher, as he turns to TV to make his case after regular scientists reject his experiments. Harlow showed that rhesus monkeys preferred the soft, cloth stuffed-animal mother over wire surrogates, even when nursed by the wire doll. The famous images of the scary “cloth mother” and the even scarier “wire mother” has great cultural weight, but the real drama of the story Ottaviani tells is the contemporary scientists who won't admit the word “love” into their clinical language. Harlow's journey is tinged with subtle class and immigrant issues—the big-jawed, jowly figures, drawn with meaty shadows, express these divisions wonderfully, and help give Harlow emotional weight as he simultaneously finds success and sinks into alcoholism. The repetition of the term “proximity,” how scientists explained away love, is chilling, and the largely forgotten Skinner boxes and the theories behind them give the work a sense of deep foreboding as a cautionary tale of how behaviorists once tried to declare affection to be scientifically unsound. (July)
Dragon Eye Vol. 1Kairi Fujiyama. Del Rey, $10.95 paper (208p) ISBN 978-0-345-49665-2
Asmall town in feudal Japan is the last chance for human survival in this shonen manga romp. The world has been infected with the “D-Virus,” a disease that turns people into demons upon contact. The “Dracules,” as they are called, have wiped out 67% of the world's population. To fight the Dracules, super-antibody carriers (called “Vius”) have organized to form a resistance. Using a combination of magic and martial arts, the Vius have become an army complete with sophisticated spells, weaponry and irreverent squad captains. The brash Issa Kazuma leads Zero Squad, a ragtag bunch of trainees—some with questionable fighting skills, others with questionable motives. Armed with a large sword and a fistful of fish sausage, Issa takes his team into battle. Fujiyama deftly builds the characters, uncovering their pasts at a pace that complements each fight scene. Despite the impending doom of mankind in this story, Dragon Eye remains relatively lighthearted with a playful narrative, antiauthority captain and enjoyable team dynamic. Dragon Eye has much the same appeal as Naruto, but lacks the televised anime tie-in. (June)
The Other SideJason Aaron and
Cameron Stewart. DC/Vertigo, $12.99 paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-4012-1350-3
Awar comic without heroism, Aaron and Stewart's uneven tale alternates sequences about two teenagers—red-blooded American Bill Everette and patriotic Vietnamese Vo Binh Dai—as they leave their homes and families and move toward the battlefield where each of them hopes to kill the enemy during the Vietnam War. Everette, drafted into a cynical, vulgar-mouthed, vulgar-minded platoon of Marines, desperately wants to survive, while Vo, a Buddhist who's slightly too idealistic to believe, longs to make a meaningful sacrifice for his national cause. The two combatants hallucinate constantly about death and decay; as the conflict enters the evocatively drawn landscape of the siege at Khe Sanh, the tone shifts from lurid grossness to bleak, smothering horror, and its stylized violence is sometimes hard to bear. Both Aaron's script and Stewart's crisp, impressionistic artwork (convincingly evoking the landscapes of the country and jungle, and colored in a palette that's mostly bloody reds and rotting greens) revolve around contrasts and reflections. But the title isn't just a reference to the opposing army: it suggests the way each of its protagonists is transformed, and loses his humanity by the process of being trained to kill. (May)
E'S Volume 2Satol Yuiga. Broccoli (www.broccolibooks.com), $9.99 paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-5974-1120-2
Injured psychic Kai is recovering as this pedestrian manga begins. Various factions are fighting over his homeland of Ashurum, a training ground for those with mental powers. While calling Ashurum home, he's being cared for by those in an opposing faction. The characters and story are all very familiar, as though this work were assembled randomly out of pieces of other manga. It shouldn't surprise anyone that being cared for by nice people makes Kai reconsider their position. The mental abilities allow for scenes of swirly explosions, jagged sound effects and nondescript lines of force when a mercenary shows up to recapture him. Events are extended through pointless dialogue exchanges. Scenes seem to take forever to play out when the reader's already predicted what will happen. Shonen manga addicts may enjoy the typical goings on and lovingly delineated scenes of clichéd destruction. (May)
EternalsNeil Gaiman and
John Romita Jr. Marvel, $29.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7851-2541-9
Jack Kirby's old Eternals series gets a serious dusting-off from Gaiman (Anansi Boys) and artist Romita. The Eternals, a super-race, are now scattered and forgetful of their powers and immortality, living mortal human lives of supreme normalcy (Sersi is a New York party girl, while Makkari believes himself to be Bellevue ER doc Mark Curry). Meanwhile their age-old enemies, the Deviants, stalk the earth with nefarious intentions, and at least one of the super-duper-race Celestials (who created both Deviants and Eternals eons ago) may be returning to Earth. The source of all this forgetfulness and strife appears to be the eternally 11-year-old Sprite, who desires to be allowed to age like an actual human. It is easy to spot Gaiman's touch in this modern-day clash between ancient forces, as he shies away from Kirby's '70s-era, Chariots of God–style alien mythologizing to focus more on the characters' slow coming to grips with the enormity of their identity and the loss of humanity that comes from being an Eternal. Romita's storytelling is strong without coming near Kirby's epochal original. While Gaiman fans will still sign up, it isn't long before the tale gets tangled in the Olympian scope of this often baffling struggle. (May)
