Fiction Reviews: Week of 5/28/2007

Ambitious, erudite and well-sourced, Leavitt’s 12th work of fiction centers on the relationship between mathematicians G.H. Hardy (1877–1947) and Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920). In January of 1913, Cambridge-based Hardy receives a nine-page letter filled with prime number theorems from S. Ramanujan, a young accounts clerk in Madras. Intrigued, Hardy consults his colleague and collaborator, J.E. Littlewood; the two soon decide Ramanujan is a mathematical genius and that he should emigrate to Cambridge to work with them. Hardy recruits the young, eager don, Eric Neville, and his wife, Alice, to travel to India and expedite Ramanujan’s arrival; Alice’s changing affections, WWI and Ramanujan’s enigmatic ailments add obstacles. Meanwhile, Hardy, a reclusive scholar and closeted homosexual, narrates a second story line cast as a series of 1936 Harvard lectures, some of them imagined. Ramanujan comes to renown as the “the Hindu calculator”; discussions of mathematics and bits of Cambridge’s often risqué academic culture (including D.H. Lawrence’s 1915 visit) add authenticity. Hardy is hardly likable, however, and Leavitt (While England Sleeps, etc.) packs too much into the epic-length proceedings, at the expense of pace. (Sept.)

The prolific and bestselling Wood (The Blessing Stone) explores life in the pre-Columbian Americas in this evocative historical romance. Hoshi’tiwa, a beautiful and gifted young Aztec potter of rain jars, is violently uprooted from her village by the dominant Toltec tribe and taken to Center Place, a distant trade and administrative hub suffering through a severe drought. Charged with making a jar that will bring rain to the Toltecs, Hoshi’tiwa captivates her captors: even Lord Jakál, the Toltec leader, finds himself drawn to her. Others feel threatened and plot to eliminate her: Lady White Orchid, a wealthy and influential aristocrat, hopes to marry Jakál herself. Xikli, captain of the elite Jaguar military unit, hopes to use the drought to stage a coup. As Hoshi’tiwa struggles with conflicted feelings for Jakál, she undertakes an arduous journey of discovery. Wood spins a passionate, well-crafted tale of forbidden love that evokes a time and place that exist as much in myth as fact. (Sept.)

In these two novellas, Cheuse (The Grandmothers’ Club; Lost and Old Rivers; etc.) dissects the aftermath of two very different deaths: one, of an American businessman traveling in Russia; the other, a mother, jazz pianist and drug addict. In the first novella, “The Fires,” a museum worker named Gina learns that her husband, Paul, died in a car accident while en route to Uzbekistan. Gina travels to Russia to ensure her husband gets cremated, per his wishes, and the foreign, surreal and familiar collide when Gina takes Paul’s body to a Hindu ceremony to be cremated. “The Exorcism” applies much more overt dark humor to similar feelings in a substantially different character. An unnamed baby boomer discusses his sadness following the sudden death of his first wife, renowned jazz pianist Billie Benjamin, who fatally overdosed on heroin. Billie’s death hits her daughter, Ceely, hard (she lashes out postcremation by torching a piano at her college), and the narrator’s fond recollections of courting Billie are not received warmly by his new wife. Misery is in greater supply than comfort throughout, and Cheuse approaches his subjects from interesting angles, making these novellas of grief strangely compelling. (Sept.)

U.K.-based Lewycka, a Booker and Orange Prize nominee for 2005’s A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, follows up with a Chaucer-inspired tale of migrant workers trapped at global capital’s thuggish bottom. After being “helped” into England by men like Vulk, an armed, lecherous creep of indeterminate former east bloc origins, a disparate group of strawberry pickers begins a pilgrimage-like search for labor across the countryside after their philandering boss is run over and crippled by his wife. Among them are two Ukrainians: Irina, a naïve teenager from Kiev, and Andriy, a former coal miner. After a brief stop in Canterbury, the workers—from Malawi, China, Malaysia and elsewhere—arrive in Dover with their loyal dog. There, they unexpectedly meet shady “recruitment consultant” Vitaly, who promises jobs in “the dynamic resurgence of the poultry industry.” The plot moves slowly, and things get worse for the group. Lewycka doesn’t have a perfect command of all the cultures she aims to represent, making some of her satires broad and unfunny. There are, however, captivating scenes (some not for the squeamish), and many of the characters are complex and multifaceted, Irina and Andriy in particular. As a send up of capitalism’s grip on the global everyman, Lewycka’s ensemble novel complements Gary Shteyngart’s Absurdistan. (Aug.)

In Michaels’s fable-like latest, wicked South Carolina heiress Sarabess Windsor must face the fallout of a decision she made 30 years ago: when her beloved daughter was diagnosed with a potentially fatal illness, doting Sarabess hatched a plan to bear another child solely as a source of bone marrow for little Emily. Donor daughter Trinity, unaware of her parentage, spent her childhood in closely monitored foster care, but forced, like the other children in town, to fawn endlessly over Emily, whose life is extended 13 years by her sister’s cells. When Trinity runs away at 15, Sarabess makes sure no one tries to find her, but hapless father Harold, on his deathbed, sets up a trust for Trinity to claim on her 30th birthday. Several months before that day, Sarabess begins to try to finagle the funds for her own use. While Sarabess is without any redeeming qualities, her Trinity is anything but. Readers will root for the plucky heroine and her childhood friend Jake (a lawyer, natch). The finale’s shocking revelations are just that, as Michaels, who was written more than 80 novels, somehow does it again. (Aug.)

Ithaca, Georgia’s Eadie Boone, the soon-to-be-former Nita Broadwell and Lavonne Zibolsky—the Kudzu Debutantes of Holton’s 2006 debut—are back to turn the tables on a scheming society matron in Holton’s second peachy-fine farce. Nita’s ex-mother-in-law, Virginia Broadwell, is a “dominatrix dressed in Anne Taylor” who wants revenge for Nita’s divorcing her son, Charles, and, she thinks, destroying the family law firm. (That divorce was fallout from bad boy behavior at the firm, which also ended Lavonne’s marriage and disrupted Eadie’s in the first Kudzu Debs adventure.) At 65, Virginia marries wealthy redneck Bob Redmon in order to stay afloat, but she’s bent on bankrupting Nita, who is set to marry hot carpenter Jimmy Lee Motes, and—knowing the couple can’t afford a court battle—to then gain custody of her granddaughter, Whitney. Lavonne’s work-aholic single life (happily disrupted by romance) and Eadie’s up and down marriage to lawyer-turned-novelist Trevor are nicely detailed. Holton shines in this farce, proving once again a Kudzu Deb is antisociety, game for most anything and as indestructible as the eponymous vine. (Aug.)

The bustling Edinburgh International Festival—an actual annual cultural event in Scotland featuring a plethora of the arts—serves as the dynamic backdrop for this nicely handled ensemble novel from Pilcher (A Risk Worth Taking). The first 100 pages introduce a multitude of lead characters, including renowned violinist Angelique Pascal, smalltown comedienne Rene Brownlow, supposedly reformed criminal Thomas Keene, retired cinematographer Leonard Hartson and others. Each has something another needs — a paying job to offer, a room to let, a shoulder to cry on. As their lives begin to intersect over the course of the three-week festival, betrayal, new love, car chases and attempts at artistic glory ensue. Some of the dialogue can be a challenge (“So ye thocht ye could hide awa’ frae us, did ye?”), but Pilcher keeps the stage full of light and color. (Aug.)

Unlikely sweethearts enliven this thin post–Civil War romance from Amos (A Long Walk Home). In 1868 Bekah Benson travels from England to Londonderry, N.H., to find the other half of a mysterious medallion she’s had for years. The medallion belonged to her missionary parents, and Bekah believes it holds the secret to the location of a treasure. In a wild coincidence, Bekah happens across the missing half of her medallion, but it’s hanging around the neck of Zachariah Thompson, a cardsharp who moments before they first meet was sentenced to death for killing a man. (Zachariah claims he is innocent.) Zachariah agrees to give her his half of the medallion if she’ll break him out of jail. With a little help from a sticky-fingered street urchin, Bekah springs Zachariah from the hoosegow. An amorous adventure ensues. Though the romance is as sweet as corn syrup, the matchup of Bekah, a naïve single woman, with a convicted murderer strains credibility. Though light on period details, it’s a serviceable romance. (Aug.)

British journalist Low’s debut novel is a rousing, sprawling saga of Viking warriors and the quest for hidden treasure. The adventure begins in A.D. 965, when 15-year-old Orm Ruriksson—aka Orm the Bear Slayer—joins the Oathsworn, a band of raiders that includes his father, Rurik, and is led by the ruthless Einar the Black. After hearing a tale about “a mountain of silver” that once belonged to Attila the Hun, the band sets out to find it, accompanied by a madwoman who claims to know the treasure’s location. The daunting journey becomes more treacherous as competitors also race for the prize. Bluetooth, the King of the Danes and the Norwegians, covets the treasure for himself, and an unscrupulous Catholic monk joins the chase, not for the silver but for the “Spear of Destiny”—the spear that pierced Christ’s side on the cross and was later forged into Attila’s sword. Low mixes history, archeology, mythology and nonstop, often-sanguinary action into a fast-moving adventure tale. (Aug.)

True love never dies—but it may need the helping hand of the Virgin Mary and the luck o’ the Irish to survive in Rice’s latest, effectively a sequel to last year’s Sandcastles. Sister Bernadette Ignatius (the former Bernie Sullivan), Mother Superior at the coastal Connecticut Star of the Sea Academy, travels to Dublin with Tom Kelly, the academy’s ombudsman, seeking James, the son they gave up over 20 years ago. In a parallel narrative set up in a prologue, young James and Kathleen, raised together as orphans, are devastated when they are forced to separate when Kathleen is 13. While Bernie and Tom look for James (now calling himself Seamus), James searches for Kathleen, who pines for him in a Newport, R.I., mansion, where she is a cook and maid for an atrocious, wealthy family. Rice juices up the predictable plot line with miraculous visions, ghosts, convenient encounters and melodramatic twists of fate—yet the effects are still lukewarm, though there’s guilt, redemption and three-hankie moments aplenty for those who stick it out to the end. (July)

Edgar-winner Perry (Pursuit) delivers another intelligent, literate thriller. Jack Till, a retired LAPD detective turned PI, has settled into a somewhat monastic existence, at the center of which is his 21-year-old daughter, Holly, who has Down syndrome. Six years earlier, Till helped restaurateur Wendy Harper escape from would-be assailants. Showing her the techniques the police use to track down fugitives, Till taught the woman to assume a new identity and begin a new life. When Harper disappeared, many assumed she was murdered. Now, years later, someone is trying to frame Eric Fuller, Harper’s business partner and sometime boyfriend, for her murder. The only way for Till to prove Fuller’s innocence is to produce Harper in the flesh, but first he has to find her and persuade her to come back while evading assassins Paul and Sylvie Turner, who have been hired to kill Harper when she resurfaces. As always, Perry excels at the procedural details, keeps up the pace throughout and will have readers guessing until the end. Author tour. (July)

At the start of the engrossing second entry in bestseller Twelve Hawks’s Fourth Realm trilogy (after The Traveler), the Brethren continue to control civilization through a computerized information system, the Vast Machine, and a host of offshoot surveillance technologies. Opposed to the Brethren are the Travelers, an ancient clan with the mystical ability to slip in and out of several dimensions. The Travelers are guarded by Harlequins, a warrior caste with sharp swords and ferociously lethal skills. In the Cain and Abel story at the book’s heart, the quest of two Travelers, brothers Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, to find their legendary father has split them irrevocably: Gabriel fights for the forces of good, Michael has turned to the dark side. A love story featuring Gabriel’s beautiful, deadly but conflicted Harlequin bodyguard, Maya, adds human interest to an often superhuman tale, and Gabriel’s out-of-body journey to a horrifyingly fascinating parallel world adds a particularly compelling component to a saga that’s part A Wrinkle in Time, part The Matrix and part Kurosawa epic. Given the complicated plot and complex setting, readers are advised to read The Traveler first. (July)

Set in a brutal and breathtaking feudal Japan, this lyrical and moving prequel to Hearn’s Tales of the Otori and also the fifth and final entry in this epic chronicle of ruthless warlords and ill-fated love (after 2006’s The Harsh Cry of the Heron), focuses on the early life of Otori Shigeru, the young heir to the Otori clan. Raised in a strictly hierarchical society that reveres loyalty and honor, the adolescent Shigeru witnesses firsthand how treachery and duplicity play an integral role in the deaths of thousands of Otori warriors, the bloody annihilation of his family and, inevitably, his complete and utter degradation. As a dispossessed heir, Shigeru finds strength and retributive inspiration in the teachings of his former mentor, warrior-monk Matsuda Shingen, and in his illicit relationship with the resourceful Lady Maruyama, whose life has also been devastated by the Tohan. Equal parts historical fiction, high fantasy and revelatory Taoist fable, the now complete Tales of the Otori is a saga to be treasured. (July)

This remarkable first novel by British script editor Page elevates a tragic family history to the level of myth. In “the dying months of the Second World War,” Goose, a strange, isolated woman who reads omens in the clouds and lives alone in a cottage on the salt marshes of Norfolk, England, finds a German soldier partially buried in the marsh mud. She takes him in, he gets her pregnant and then he flees (on a makeshift boat featuring a quilt for a sail) while she’s in labor. Daughter Lil, who grows up wild and strange, becomes the love interest of two brothers (named Shrimp and Kipper) and leaves the marshes in shame at age 16. The story is told through the eyes of Pip, Lil’s son, whose inability (or unwillingness) to speak draws Lil and husband George back to the marshes and to Goose. The unforgiving landscape becomes one of the book’s main characters; it’s a ruthless, powerful force that claims Pip’s family members one at a time. But it is Pip’s infatuation with Elsie, an odd girl a few years his senior, that will have the direst consequences of all. Page has reinvented the fairy tale with this disturbing and magical saga. (July)

Fun, intricately plotted and with lots of derring-do, Carroll’s latest should be popular with fans of historical romance. With a temper to match her fiery hair, Catriona O’Hanlon leaves her liege, Ariane, the Lady of the Fair Isle, to locate a sorceress’s daughter and bring her to the Faire Isle, where she can be protected from the Dark Queen and the coven of the Silver Rose. The girl’s father, Martin Le Loup, is living incognito with his daughter in London as dapper Englishman Martin Wolfe. Martin’s an agent for Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster and is conflicted about his job to ferret out Catholic threats to her majesty. As Cat and Martin spar with and fall for one another, danger lurks in the forms of the coven and the Medici. Carroll strikes a balance between froth and craftsmanship. (July)

Displaying an enviable gift for pacing and action, Battles’s debut novel is a page-turner that may remind some readers of the cult TV spy series Alias. Ex-cop Jonathan Quinn now works for a shadowy U.S. intelligence agency known merely as the Office, erasing all traces of violence and mayhem when an operation goes south. During an apparently routine assignment to look into a fatal fire that claimed the life of Robert Taggart, a viral biologist, in his Colorado home, Quinn finds evidence that Taggart was murdered, and that discovery is followed by an attempt on Quinn’s own life. While Quinn survives, he learns that the Office’s top operatives have been killed in near-simultaneous attacks. Quinn, who makes a compelling protagonist, heads to Europe to track down the mastermind behind the scheme. Admirers of quality espionage fiction can look forward to a new series worth following. (July)

Iraqi-Scot novelist Khedairi (A Sky So Close) tells the story of Dalal, a young girl growing up in a crowded Baghdad apartment complex during the sanctions imposed on Iraq following the Gulf War. The deck is certainly stacked against Dalal: orphaned as a baby, she is raised by her self-absorbed maternal aunt and an uncle, and lives under a cloud of collective political anxiety. Dalal herself, as she reaches her 20s, has a facial paralysis, works several jobs by necessity and attends classes. A cast of kooky neighbors helps her find her way, but while her environment seems safe, it may harbor a menace—a Baath government informant. Time is nebulous in the book, with Dalal floating back and fourth between childhood and adolescence in a way that is by turns gorgeously dreamy and jarring. As the title suggests, Dalal, who narrates, is largely absent from the larger forces at work, and while her observations are sometimes poignant, she rarely takes action or even makes a decision, simply allowing things to happen to her. But Khedairi does paint a lucid and insightful picture of Iraq in the late 1990s. (July)

A promising though ultimately overwrought portrayal of the small rebellions and crises of disillusionment that constitute a young narrator’s coming-of-age unfolds against an ominous backdrop of war in Jones’s latest. When the conflict between the natives and the invading “redskin” soldiers erupts on an unnamed tropical island in the early 1990s, 13-year-old Matilda Laimo and her mother, Dolores, are unified with the rest of their village in their efforts for survival. Amid the chaos, Mr. Watts, the only white local (he is married to a native), offers to fill in as the children’s schoolteacher and teaches from Dickens’s Great Expectations. The precocious Matilda, who forms a strong attachment to the novel’s hero, Pip, uses the teachings as escapism, which rankles Dolores, who considers her daughter’s fixation blasphemous. With a mixture of thrill and unease, Matilda discovers independent thought, and Jones captures the intricate, emotionally loaded evolution of the mother-daughter relationship. Jones (The Book of Fame; Biografi) presents a carefully laid groundwork in the tense interactions between Matilda, Dolores and Mr. Watts, but the extreme violence toward the end of the novel doesn’t quite work. Jones’s prose is faultless, however, and the story is innovative enough to overcome the misplayed tragedy. (July)

U.K. author Potter makes her U.S. debut with Emily Albright, 29, a New York bookstore manager, who half-seriously blames Jane Austen’s Fitzwilliam Darcy for her abysmal dating life: Darcy sets the bar too high. As Christmas approaches, Emily, to avoid a holiday with co-worker Stella, signs up for a tour of Darcy territory, lighting out, amusingly, with a gaggle of gray-haired Darcy maniacs. As the tour group weaves in and out of Darcy locales, Emily butts heads with Spike Hargreaves, a handsome young journalist interviewing the group. Soon, the jet-lagged, drink-laden Emily finds herself—presto!—time traveling and meeting Mr. Darcy himself, complete with frock coat. As her acquaintance with Darcy deepens, Emily, to her great surprise, finds herself thinking about Spike. Despite the plot’s predictability, Potter’s chick lit take on Darcy has a refreshing not-trying-to-equal-the-master feel. (July)

The frigid isolation of European immigrants living on the 19th-century Canadian frontier is the setting for British author Penney’s haunting debut. Seventeen-year-old Francis Ross disappears the same day his mother discovers the scalped body of his friend, fur trader Laurent Jammet, in a neighboring cabin. The murder brings newcomers to the small settlement, from inexperienced Hudson Bay Company representative Donald Moody to elderly eccentric Thomas Sturrock, who arrives searching for a mysterious archeological fragment once in Jammet’s possession. Other than Francis, no real suspects emerge until half-Indian trapper William Parker is caught searching the dead man’s house. Parker escapes and joins with Francis’s mother to track Francis north, a journey that produces a deep if unlikely bond between them. Only when the pair reaches a distant Scandinavian settlement do both characters and reader begin to understand Francis, who arrived there days before them. Penney’s absorbing, quietly convincing narrative illuminates the characters, each a kind of outcast, through whose complex viewpoints this dense, many-layered story is told. (July)

Brutal torture and equally brutal empathy define this excellent, if sometimes familiar, thriller from Hallinan (The Bone Polisher). Poke Rafferty, a travel writer turned detective, intends to settle down in Bangkok with his ex-prostitute girlfriend, Rose, and a young urchin, Miaow, when Miaow brings her troubled friend Superman into the household. While dealing with this intrusion, Rafferty takes on dual sleuthing assignments to help pay for adopting Miaow. The first case involves finding Australian Claus Ulrich, a hardcore bondage aficionado. When Rafferty meets the powerful and rich Madame Wing while investigating Ulrich’s disappearance, she offers him $30,000 to find an envelope and the Cambodian man who took it. The only catch? If Rafferty opens the envelope, he’ll learn information about Madame Wing that will force her to kill him. Rafferty stumbles through the clues like the foreigner he is, always on the outside looking in. Despite an overly leisurely ending, the rich depictions of Bangkok’s seedy side recall John Burdett’s visceral mysteries. (July)

Adair delivers a steamy fusion of romance and heart-stopping suspense with this second T-FLAC (Terrorist Force Logistic Assault Command) thriller (after 2005’s Hot Ice). Max Aries prides himself on being a womanizer, but his earlier brief, tantalizing affair with talented art restorer Emily Greene has unforeseen repercussions when she contacts him about his father’s apparent suicide in Florence, Italy. Daniel Aries, Emily’s mentor in art restoration, had been hired to copy masterpieces for a reclusive Denver philanthropist with Emily’s aid. When Max slips into Emily’s Florence apartment, he finds her battling an intruder who leaves behind a suspicious vial. The resulting investigation by T-FLAC, a privately funded group, grows to include Daniel’s death and a host of subsequent murders and explosions. As Max, Emily and the T-FLAC crew tangle with the evildoers, Max and Emily’s torrid romance almost, but not quite, upstages counterterrorist schemes to save a masterpiece beloved by art lovers and religious pilgrims alike. (July)

The exploitation of Guyana’s wry peasantry centers Guyana-born, Louisville-based Carew’s lushly descriptive collection. “Chantal” proves a cautionary story of how far a husband can push his wife—and vice versa—before triggering a violent backlash. Two of the tales involve the passage to manhood of young Belfon, whose hard-luck mother gives him away in “The Visit” when she gets pregnant by a man other than Belfon’s father. Brought up by his wealthy godfather, Atlassa, Belfon is the first student from his village of Biaro to win a place at the university, and in “The Initiation of Belfon,” he heads to Trinidad by boat. He stops at the home of an old family friend and sensuous preacher-woman, Couvade, who teaches him more about the world than his godfather could. The last three stories pursue a West Indian man in exile, Cesar, who emigrated to Britain during WWII and remains in London as part of a “colonial old-timer” community, suffering enduring discrimination and eager to return home. In these 10 sharply observed tales, Carew makes a Guyanese sensibility—its wanderings home and away—palpable. (July)

De Rosnay’s U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay’s 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia’s conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah’s trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down. (July)

Known for her popular Calder saga set in Montana (Calder Storm, etc.), Dailey turns her attention to the Ten Bar Ranch, near Glory, Wyo. (pop. 51), run by a young, laid-back widower, Luke McCallister. Still grieving over losing his family four years earlier, Luke, who swigs whiskey to dull the pain, isn’t particularly rattled when a skeleton turns up on his property. He is surprised, however, by his attraction to redheaded Angie Sommers, an Iowa school teacher who comes to Glory after being notified that the remains appear to be of Henry James Wilson, her long missing grandfather. Henry James’s grandfather was Ike Wilson, a train robber executed on the gallows: the skeleton’s presence on Luke’s land suggests that Ike’s missing treasure may be there, too. Saddlebags Smith, a local gold-hunting eccentric, warns the two that “lookin’ for that gold will make you crazy,” while Luke’s ranch hands and another townie complicate matters. Veteran tale-spinner Dailey depicts ranching life with a sure-handed, affectionate humor. (July)

Clayton (The Man I Never Wanted to Be) adroitly combines thriller elements with one man’s particular, but resonant, Jewish legacy. Michael Kuperman’s innovative company, Fusion, is on the cusp of a hoped-for merger when he’s informed of something rotten with Chemicorp, a major factor in the deal: the company is making legal-to-produce chemicals specifically for clients with nefarious purposes, and the bad guys will do anything to protect their secrets. The actions of Michael’s maternal grandfather, Jacob Goldstein, guide Michael in thinking about what to do next: before Michael was born, Goldstein saved multiple families from a vicious pogrom in Russia, at great risk to himself. As Michael weighs the risks to his family and debates whether to turn a blind eye, Clayton brings Michael’s family’s Holocaust history, the historical struggles of the Jews and the recent genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia into the mix. His morality tale effectively explores the courage, costs and rewards involved in putting others first. (July)

As in her popular Duchess, about Sarah Churchill, Scott captures in her latest historical romance the brilliance and hard beauty of Barbara Palmer (Lady Castlemaine), the Merry Monarch’s most famous and enduring mistress. A young but far from innocent Barbara marries rich but proper Roger Palmer, whose Royalist politics set them on the path that will make her a famous courtesan and favorite of King Charles II. Lusty, bawdy and cunning, she’s a fine match for the king, whose reign is portrayed as fraught with great expectations that go largely unfulfilled. Both Charles and his court are pleasingly debauched, and Charles, though well-intentioned, proves himself to be “a very poor king as kings went.” Charles’s court is frequently depicted in this genre, but Scott finds a careful balance in Barbara, not salvaging her as a sinner, but giving her something of a heart under all that reputation. (July)

In her rollicking 13th Stephanie Plum adventure (after Twelve Sharp), bestseller Evanovich is in top, quirky form. Plucky, bumbling New Jersey bounty hunter Plum is reunited with her two-timing lawyer ex-husband, Dickie Orr, while doing a favor for the mysterious, sexy Ranger. But when Dickie disappears from his house leaving behind only bloodstains and bullet holes, Plum becomes the prime suspect in his alleged murder. Determined to clear her name, Plum and her on-again off-again Trenton cop boyfriend, the irresistible Joe Morelli, uncover Dickie’s ties to a shady group of men involved in everything from money laundering to drug running. And when Dickie’s jilted business partners decide Stephanie holds the key to the $40 million they believe Dickie stole from them, she’s in for a wild ride. With the author’s usual cast of eccentric side characters—everything from a taxidermist with a penchant for bombs to a grave-robbing tax man—Evanovich proves once again that Stephanie Plum and her entourage are here to stay. (June)

In retired trial lawyer Phelan’s lively fourth Pinnacle Peak mystery, attorney Hannah Dain, barely recovered from the adventures of 2006’s Spurred Ambition, takes on a case that leads her into abandoned mines and deep waters in the Arizona desert. While helping her older sister and fellow attorney, Shelby, gather evidence for a uranium pollution lawsuit brought by the local Indian tribe, Hannah rescues a woman whose car plunges into a lake. Following up on the woman leads to other questions, and a twist of circumstance finds Hannah appointed lead prosecutor for the case. Meanwhile, she’s having second thoughts about her ex-boyfriend, Cooper Smith, and her fondness for her recently discovered young half-sister, Anuya, further jeopardizes her shaky relationship with Shelby. Vivid descriptions of the desert provide a dramatic backdrop to the increasingly dangerous investigation as Hannah inches closer to the truth. Phelan has created a swiftly moving tale of corporate corruption and tangled, touching family relationships. (Sept.)

In veteran Anchorage journalist Doogan’s uneven second Nik Kane mystery (after 2006’s Lost Angel), a wealthy widow hires Kane, a disgraced former Anchorage cop turned PI, to help defend a promising Native Alaskan state legislator, Matthew Hope, against the charge of murdering an aide to conservative senator O.B. Potter. The first half of the book reads like a traditional detective novel, with a tough, troubled protagonist, mysterious client, unjustly accused suspect and reluctant informants, including Kane’s estranged son, Dylan. Kane even acquires a sarcastic sidekick, Tlingit cab driver “Cocoa” Paul. The story eventually falls apart as Kane, working by instinct, suffers threats and beatings en route to an unsatisfying conclusion. Though most books set in Alaska take place in the glorious and forbidding wilderness, almost all the action is in the state capital, Juneau, a city that seems carved out of ice and rocks. Unfortunately, strong writing and evocative descriptions can’t save a predictable plot and a hodgepodge of stock characters. (Aug.)

Full of retro-fab fun, this smokin’ first in a new series from Copp (The Actor’s Guide to Greed) introduces the L.A. Dolls, three gutsy (and still very hot) retired female PIs. For seven years in the ’80s, the Dolls made Charlie’s Angels look like mere pussycats. Their lives have taken divergent paths since: tough Dani Mendez is now San Francisco’s assistant chief of police; sweet Claire Walker-Corley is a happy suburban wife and mom; and glamorous Tess Monahan-Cardoza is a wealthy widow. Then drug kingpin Benito Coronel is released from prison; Claire’s son, Zak, is attacked after a bachelor party; Dani’s PI son, Bowie, barely escapes a bullet during a routine investigation; and Tess’s stepdaughter, Bianca, is almost kidnapped. The L.A. Dolls must set aside their differences and reunite to protect their kids and put Coronel back behind bars. Copp’s thrill-a-minute pacing, vibrant style and likable characters make an unbeatable team. (July)

Set in 1905, Martin’s second Jim Stringer mystery (after 2004’s The Necropolis Railway) starts slowly but builds a head of steam like the monster locomotive Jim stokes for “Lanky,” the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. A passenger dies when a huge grindstone on the tracks derails a train carrying the owner of Hind’s Mill on an excursion to seaside Blackpool. Jim begins to suspect class warfare when a young socialist distributes tracts in Jim’s hometown of Halifax, urging workers to shun holidays organized by mill owners. A fallen tree on another rail line further suggests conspiracy, as does the disappearance of smartly dressed Clive, the engine driver on Jim’s next run. Lanky management’s paltry £5 reward hardly seems likely to garner much information, so newlywed Jim turns to comely Lydia, a mill clerk he simply calls “the wife,” for much needed help. Getting used to Jim’s chatty Cockney narration takes time, but as the suspense rises, readers will be captivated. (July)

Stoker-winner Thomas (Stained) delivers an intermittently eloquent supernatural tale reminiscent of Peter Straub’s Ghost Story. Kenneth Nicholson returns to New Orleans when a late-night call from his ex-wife breaks the tragic news that their son, Bobby, is in a coma, after being bludgeoned by an unknown assailant. As he waits for encouraging medical news, Nicholson gets visions that suggest the possible return of an old evil that was responsible for several gory deaths at a gay lounge popularly referred to as Wonderland. The operator of that club, Nicholson’s lover Travis Brugier, was believed dead, but Nicholson begins to wonder if his spirit has resurfaced, possibly in the form of Bobby’s attractive girlfriend, Vicki Bach. Thomas’s writing is somewhat erratic but often quite good, offering further promise that Thomas could emerge as a leading voice of modern horror. (Aug.)

World Fantasy–finalist Bull (War for the Oaks) takes huge chances and achieves something distinctively wonderful with this subtle reworking of a western legend. The taming of Tombstone, Ariz., by Wyatt Earp, his brothers and their pal Doc Holliday is a cherished American myth of stoic heroism. Bull approaches the story from a different angle, considering matters that may or may not have escaped Wyatt’s chilly attention. When tough-minded widow Mildred Benjamin and drifter Jesse Fox realize that dark magic is manipulating people for a sorcerer’s selfish ends, they must decide what they can and should do about it, in the process discovering who they truly are. Mixing fantasy with Old West lore is risky, but Bull takes time to make the place and the people real before undeniably supernatural forces appear. The magic is less flashy than in many fantasy novels, but it’s vivid and deeply felt. Readers will think about the story long after it ends, savoring the writing and imagining what the characters might do next. (July)

Sophia Rousseau, a lamia (or snake-woman) who feeds on the creative energies of brilliant artists, plays the formidable femme fatale in this tepid revamp of Monteleone’s 1986 horror novel, Lyrica. When workmen in Sicily accidentally release her from beneath the altar stone that’s imprisoned her for centuries, Sophia trades her snake skin for alluring human form and works her way to America, where she takes the modeling and theater worlds by storm and prepares an assault on Hollywood. Sophia’s supernatural seductions intertwine with accounts of her historical conquests (including Mozart, van Gogh, Keats and other doomed artists) and the research of Matthew Cavendish, a paranormal investigator who’s caught her scent and is determined to end her unholy life. Though Monteleone gives some depth to Sophia, virtually all of the book’s other characters are two-dimensional lamia fodder, especially Cavendish, who seems to exist largely to dispense information about Sophia’s nature and vulnerabilities. A jury-rigged finale and anticlimactic epilogue end the novel without really concluding it. (July)

Bilsborough aims high but falls short in his debut, set in the world of Lindormyn. Drauglir, the canonical down-but-not-out Dark Lord, and his mob of unhygienic evil creatures are making a comeback 500 years after noble warriors known as the Peladanes defeated them. While the forces of evil have regrouped, the Peladanes’ descendants have gone soft. When warriors Nibulus and Finwald attempt to raise an army after Appa, a cleric, has a vision of Drauglir’s return, soldiers and friends alike laugh them off. Only Nibulus’s old companion Methuselech and a mysterious hooded mercenary are willing to join them as they follow Appa and Bolldhe, the oddly ordinary destined slayer of Drauglir, into the dangerous northern land of Vaagenfjord Maw. Unpronounceable names and sesquipedalian prose abound. Hopefully, the promised sequel will venture into less predictable epic fantasy territory. (July)

In her newest Dirk & Steele novel, Liu introduces fiddle player Kitala Bell, cursed with the ability to foresee people’s deaths, and merman M’Cal, slave to a soul-stealing witch. When M’Cal’s cruel master orders M’Cal to steal Kitala’s soul, he’s loathe to carry through with it but can’t stop himself—or the witch. Unsuspecting Kit, meanwhile, has gotten herself in dutch with some local criminals while trying to help a girl she’s sure will be murdered. By the time M’Cal catches up with Kit, he’s forced into the role of rescuer—and, before long, red-hot lover. Though it starts slow—as clueless Kit must become acquainted with the author’s paranormal underworld—Liu’s latest is a clever, finely constructed take on the “Little Mermaid” story and delivers great paranormal suspense. Though the love story lacks complexity, and the Dirk & Steele detectives play only a peripheral part, all the other elements Liu fans expect—a strong heroine, a damaged hero, sharp dialogue and funny, fanciful details—are well-represented, making this a satisfying return to her universe. (July)

This satisfying series kickoff finds Ann Smith, an inexperienced, plain-Jane office assistant, dropping off some paperwork at the home of her handsome, successful boss, Jasha Wilder—and hoping to use the opportunity to confess her mad crush on him—when she catches him transforming from wolf to man. It’s just the beginning for the dumbstruck secretary, whose discovery draws her into Jasha’s cursed world—his family’s ancient pact with the devil, the search for their clan relics, a gang of boisterous, unpredictable relatives who share his shape-shifting ability—and onward to her extraordinary destiny. Dodd’s latest is a fast-paced, well-written paranormal, with a full, engaging mythology and a handful of memorable characters. In Ann, she creates the quintessential all-American girl, counterpointing nicely the rich tapestry of Jasha’s family history; the mix shows great promise for future volumes. (July)

An engaging story line buoys Shaw’s latest, a contemporary romance centering on two Orlando, Fla., professionals: beautiful artist Cadence Carter and successful builder Adam Jackson. Cadence, whose mom and sister have always catered to demanding, unappreciative men, has decided that the only way she’ll find happiness is through fierce independence. Adam, meanwhile, is single for the first time in over a decade and not anxious to get back into the dating scene. So when Adam offers to help Cadence finish renovating her new house, they’re both surprised to find unabashed, uncontrollable passion igniting between them. Steamy love scenes keep the pages hot, and a second-act discovery keeps the lovebirds on their toes—and edging toward danger. Despite choppy writing and detail overkill, Shaw invests her plot with enough twists and tumbles to keep readers hooked. (July)

Graham’s latest is an entertaining vampire yarn set in post-Katrina New Orleans, where three women—Lauren, Heidi and Deanna—have turned up for a carefree bachelorette weekend. Once there a fortune teller shows Lauren a crystal ball image of a man calling her by name and promising “a world of blood and death and darkness.” The vision, unseen by her friends, puts Lauren on her guard, convinced that someone is following her. She’s doubly right: an evil vampire named Stephen is on her trail, having seen in Lauren the visage of his lost love, while a vampire hunter named Mark Davidson is on Stephen’s. Soon, Lauren falls in with Mark, counting on him to protect her from the single-minded bloodsucker; as she learns more about the vampire underworld, however, she finds things aren’t all they seem. This quick, dirty read makes great use of its New Orleans backdrop and its allusive story line—patched together skillfully from pieces of Bram Stoker’s original and its consequent reinterpretations—though fans already steeped in vamp lit may find its charms don’t outweigh its predictability. (July)

One of the strangest cartoonists of American comics’ Golden Age, Hanks had a short career—the 15 stories collected here were all published between 1939 and 1941—but the deranged, nightmarish vigor of his work has made it something of a cult item. Hanks created pulpy characters like Stardust the Super Wizard, “the scientific marvel whose vast knowledge of all planets has made him the most remarkable person ever known,” and the jungle heroine Fantomah, whose face becomes a snarling skull when she uses her magic powers. The artist’s manic obsessions turn up again and again: global-scale atrocities, miraculous rays and, most of all, poetically apt punishments. In a typical story, “Master-Mind” De Structo tries to suffocate America’s heads of state with an oxygen-destroying ray, so Stardust turns him into a giant head, then hurls him into a “space pocket of living death” occupied by a “headless headhunter.” Hanks’s artwork is crude and technically limited (each of his characters has exactly one, wildly caricatured, facial expression), but nearly every page has some image that sings out with deep, primal power. In an afterword, editor Paul Karasik explains how he tracked down Hanks’s son and learned a bit more about the artist’s sad life and death. (July)

Is it any surprise that a young, male comic artist has envisioned a world in which comic artists are the nation’s biggest celebrities and all of Hollywood revolves around who’s starring in the latest superhero epic? Perhaps not, but McShane brings a freshness to this adolescent fantasy with his lovable loser of a hero, Toupydoops. Toupy, bright blue and antennaed but otherwise humanish, has moved to the City of Angels with his much studlier, markedly ursine pal, Teetereater, and their taciturn, cigar-smoking pet monkey. (The nonsensical, strangely irritating names remain a weakness.) The two rent a flea-bag apartment—complete with six-foot cockroach—and go about trying to break into show business. After royally screwing up one too many auditions, Toupy has to get a job as a kindergarten teacher to pay the rent. Of course, the big lug actually likes it. Meanwhile, Teeter charms the ladies and gets into fistfights that he invariably wins. McShane’s ear for young bachelor banter and convincing rendition of the soulless business of entertainment combined with his painless drawing style, make for a mildly diverting, if not groundbreaking, comedy. (June)

This “boy’s love” book doesn’t feature the usual willowy “why do they look so much like girls?” figures for the readers’ enjoyment. The Italian origins mean the men are stacked. It’s an interesting take for anyone familiar with the excesses of the American superhero comics, which are often criticized for their sexualization of all the female forms; this book treats its men in an equally outrageous fashion, all shiny pecs and bulging thigh muscles. It’s a “what if” role reversal, visually. Meanwhile, the female crush object is reminiscent of a drag queen. Davide isn’t getting anywhere with her, so Valerio, campus stud to both men and women, offers to help with a makeover. Davide grudgingly agrees, only to find himself enjoying the process and thinking more about Valerio than the girl he supposedly likes. Carboni can’t seem to decide between styles, switching from manga influence to beefcake pinup, cartoony exaggeration to almost realistic figure studies, sometimes on the same page. The panels explicitly focusing on the male form are over-rendered, as though she didn’t know when to stop fiddling. The story setup is abbreviated, the build nicely done, but the ending badly rushed. (June)

A cornerstone manga genre since day one, the sports comic has served as a repository for inspirational tales laden with such traditional values as team bonding, striving to win against all odds and sagas of “everyman” heroes meant to inspire Japanese youth, but this series has apparently had enough of such wholesome fare and skewers its ancestors squarely through the athletic supporter. Hana, a figure-challenged and lazy high school girl, finds herself enlisted as the goalie on an all-male field hockey team and becomes embroiled in comedic adventures that involve much travel and practice, but no actual sports matches, and when Hana proves useless on the field she finds herself replaced by a love-struck bear, a crazily surreal visual that has to be seen to be disbelieved. The cast is rounded out with well-drawn and blithely scornful takes on the stock characters of the genre, and for once the army of pretty young males refreshingly serves as poster children for raffish indolence. Morinaga’s fresh and funny tale offers satisfying lunacy. (June)

Chankhamma’s gorgeous manga-inspired art makes this book. She draws moody, evocative landscapes, densely twisting trees, ornate banisters and big-eyed characters all with the same skill and emotive touch. Unfortunately, Said’s story isn’t quite as original. The angsty tale takes place following the suicide of the main character, Clarence, who is searching for a kind of healing in death. An implicit romanticization of death and suicide is drawn out over an episodic narrative that relies much too heavily on atmosphere and offers little substance, as Clarence wanders an afterlife encountering various mysterious beings all on their own quests. While some gloom-loving readers may find comfort in the ruminations on emptiness, the self-conscious stylings are often flat and forced. An introduction by Hayden Scott-Baron does little to enhance understanding of the story. Wisely, however, the book concludes on a high note with a series of sketch studies. It’s a pleasure to look into Chankhamma’s lovely designs of scenes including “the courtyard and the book tree” and the “Death flower shop.” (May)

Like a giant sequoia towering over a copse of maple trees, Hugo-winner Dozois’s annual shelf-bending collection of the year’s best SF continues to overshadow all other anthologies. Highlights include Greg Egan’s “Riding the Crocodile,” about two immortals who yearn to do something “grand and audacious” before they consciously end their lives; Cory Doctorow’s “I, Row-Boat,” which chronicles a theological dispute between an artificially intelligent boat and a sentient coral reef; and Alastair Reynolds’s “Signal to Noise,” an unexpectedly intimate story about a scientist’s attempt to contact his recently deceased wife across quantum realities. This yearly anthology is required reading for every serious SF fan. (July)

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Asimov’s Science Fiction, Williams, editor of Asimov’s and Analog for 25 of those 30 years, has compiled a truly extraordinary sampler of tales, including “Air Raid” (1977) by John Varley (writing as Herb Boehm), an oft-imitated story about time travelers trying to save the human race, and Robert Reed’s “Eight Episodes” (2006), a Hugo-nominated tale of a short-lived TV series that turns out to be a message from an alien race. Every piece in this superlative collection is a nugget of pure science fiction gold. (July)

Returning for his second stint editing Prime’s annual SF compilation, Horton is faced with a daunting task, at which he doesn’t entirely succeed. Out of a dozen stories, the few inspired selections include Robert Reed’s gritty “A Billion Eves,” where exploring an infinite number of parallel universes is a godsend for some polygamous pilgrims but a decidedly dire prospect for others; Carolyn Ives Gilman’s “Okanoggan Falls,” in which a rural Wisconsin hamlet must fend off alien invaders, who have scheduled it for demolition; and Ann Leckie’s “Hesperia and Glory,” a witty homage of sorts to Edgar Rice Burroughs. (July)

Horton fittingly describes “lyricism” as the quality linking his selections for the best fantasy stories of 2006. The morosely poetic “A Fine Magic” by Margo Lanagan pits two attractive sisters against a spurned suitor’s wizardly wrath; Jeffrey Ford’s brilliantly understated “The Night Whiskey” is a dark fantasy gem about a rural village whose residents commune with the dead; M. Rickert’s dreamlike masterwork, “Journey into the Kingdom,” follows a forlorn man who becomes enamored with a mysterious painter and her fantastical history; Benjamin Rosenbaum’s contemplative “A Siege of Cranes,” arguably the anthology’s most poetic and profoundly moving entry, depicts an improbable journey of retribution across a devastated wonderland of magic and myth. (July)

The seventh annual fantasy anthology from the renowned husband and wife editing team of Hartwell and Cramer is arguably the strongest and most thematically diverse. Complementing works from genre luminaries like Michael Moorcock, L.E. Modesitt Jr. and Lucius Shepard are notable selections from newer authors, such as Laird Barron’s powerfully atmospheric “Hallucigenia,” a dark fantasy masterwork that blends Lovecraftian horror with particle physics. This volume is essential reading for any fantasy aficionado. (July)

In a genre where yearly “best of” volumes often repeat one another, the first in Prime’s new annual fantasy anthology series is a breath of eclectic and delightfully innovative fresh air. While the VanderMeers have included such fantasy veterans as Kelly Link and Elizabeth Hand, most of the 29 stories are by nongenre authors as well as gifted newcomers. Among the more memorable tales are Tyler Smith’s “A Troop [sic] of Baboons,” about a troupe of unruly baboon thespians, and Tony D’Souza’s whimsical “The Man Who Married a Tree,” about a man in love with a birch tree. This outstanding entry in the crowded “best of” stakes may not be the most commercially successful fantasy anthology of the year, but genre and mainstream fiction fans alike will be pleasantly surprised by these unconventional short fiction gems. (July)