Fiction Reviews: Week of 7/23/2007

Ha Jin, who emigrated from China in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square, had only been writing in English for 12 years when he won the National Book Award for Waiting in 1999. His latest novel sheds light on an émigré writer’s woodshedding period. It follows the fortunes of Nan Wu, who drops out of a U.S. grad school after the repression of the democracy movement in China, hoping to find his voice as a poet while supporting his wife, Pingping, and son, Taotao. After several years of spartan living, Nan and Pingping save enough to buy a Chinese restaurant in suburban Atlanta, setting up double tensions: between Nan’s literary hopes and his career, and between Nan and Pingping, who, at the novel’s opening, are staying together for the sake of their young boy. While Pingping grows more independent, Nan—amid the dulling minutiae of running a restaurant and worries about mortgage payments, insurance and schooling—slowly snuffs the torch he carries for his first love. That Nan at one point reads Dr. Zhivago isn’t coincidental: while Ha Jin’s novel lacks Zhivago’s epic grandeur, his biggest feat may be making the reader wonder whether the trivialities of American life are not, in some ways, as strange and barbaric as the upheavals of revolution. (Nov.)

In life, at least before the espionage charges, it was Mata Hari’s body that made her mesmerizing; in this alluring novel, it is her hypnotic voice. As softly poetic as it is insistent, it entices the reader from the first lines to give Mata Hari what she always craved: not the secrets that are the currency of a spy, but the rapt attention that is oxygen to a performer. Shifting time and perspective, the tale moves among Mata Hari’s early childhood in the late 19th-century Netherlands, her years in Java as a caring young mother married to a brutal military man, her glamorous but desperate career as a famed dancer and courtesan and her bleak existence in a Paris prison after her arrest as a spy for Germany during WWI. Murphy (Here They Come) sticks with the true ending to her subject’s story, which was death by firing squad, and what makes the novel an unlikely achievement is how Murphy nurtures, before the shots are fired, a potent skepticism about the guilt of a woman whose name even today is synonymous with treachery. In its subdued way, this novel is an eloquent cri de coeur and a belated witness for the defense. (Nov.)

Set on the last day of business of a Connecticut Red Lobster, this touching novel by the author of Snow Angels and A Prayer for the Dying tells the story of Manny DeLeon, a conscientious, committed restaurant manager any national chain would want to keep. Instead, corporate has notified Manny that his—and Manny does think of the restaurant as his—New Britain, Conn., location is not meeting expectations and will close December 20. On top of that, he’ll be assigned to a nearby Olive Garden and downgraded to assistant manager. It’s a loss he tries to rationalize much as he does the loss of Jacquie, a waitress and the former not-so-secret lover he suspects means more to him than his girlfriend Deena, who is pregnant with his child. On this last night, Manny is committed to a dream of perfection, but no one and nothing seems to share his vision: a blizzard batters the area, customers are sparse, employees don’t show up and Manny has a tough time finding a Christmas gift for Deena. Lunch gives way to dinner with hardly anyone stopping to eat, but Manny refuses to close early or give up hope. Small but not slight, the novel is a concise, poignant portrait of a man on the verge of losing himself. (Nov.)

Spurred on by the sight of a toy he never received as a child, a restless, aging Eureka, Kans., insurance executive relives his youth with disastrous (and hilarious) results in the 17th novel by Lehrer, prolific writer and PBS NewsHour anchor. Otis Halstead, 59, married father of one, is in the clutches of a midlife crisis spending spree; he dismisses his nagging wife’s pleas that he see a therapist and continues buying items he’s always dreamed of owning: a miniature fire truck (now a collector’s item that goes for $12,000), a BB gun, a football helmet and an antique red Cushman motor scooter. The suicide of disillusioned co-worker Pete Wetmore (who left behind a telling note) provides the impetus for Otis to mount the scooter and leave town. But a steady string of bad luck finds a hospitalized Otis back in Eureka faking a coma to buy time for some heavy, overdue retrospection and one final decision. Calamity gives way to poignancy in this consistently fun story buoyed by an endearing protagonist readers will cheer for. (Oct.)

A woman copes with tragedy and the banalities of New York life in Listfield’s deeply personal sixth novel. Based on the real-life disappearance of Listfield’s husband, the novel revolves around Sarah Larkin, an art lover who actually enjoys her job as an editor at a glossy women’s mag. Her alcoholic sculptor husband, Todd, though, is less than happy, and flees the disintegrating marriage, ostensibly to visit an old school friend in Florida. Sarah and their six-year-old daughter, Eliza, await his return, but a phone call from a Florida policeman signals trouble: Todd has been staying with a woman and has been reported as missing. Sarah’s life then spreads out into several directions. Most immediate is the investigation into Todd’s disappearance (suicide is one theory), with a skeptical cop, a kindly private eye and Todd’s ex as its cross-purposed cast. Sarah also navigates infighting among the ambitious and sometimes reptilian magazine staff (who mostly feel like something out of a less ambitious novel) and meets a caring and handsome new love interest. Not all of these subplots work well together, but the through line—Sarah’s and Eliza’s attempt to find their new normal—does more than its share to carry the book. (Oct.)

In this stunning tale, Shalev masterfully interweaves two remarkable personal stories. Yair Mendelsohn, a middle-aged Israeli tour guide favored with bird watchers, learns that one of his new American clients fought in the Palmach, a clandestine military force in Israel’s 1948 war of independence. The American recounts a day when a homing pigeon handler, nicknamed “the Baby” for his childlike features, was killed in that war and, in his final moments, sent off one last pigeon. Yair is familiar with the American’s story and listens with wistfulness. As Yair slowly tells of his present and his past, Shalev patiently builds tension around the Baby’s final dispatch, giving vivid detail on homing pigeons and conveying the unique relationship between the birds and their keepers—which echoes the touching care with which the Baby and his true love, “the Girl,” treat one another. The dark, stocky Yair, whose marriage is threatened by his burgeoning relationship with childhood friend Tirzah, makes a sympathetic protagonist. This gem of a story about the power of love, which won Israel’s Brenner Prize, brims with luminous originality. (Oct.)

The latest offering from Banks (The Wasp Factory) gives a scion’s-eye view of an eccentric, splintering Scottish business family. Having secured immense wealth via the Empire! board game (invented by a relative in 1880) and its various offshoots, the Wopuld family must now decide whether to sell the company: the American Spraint Corporation wants Empire! as a jewel in its crown. As the family gathers to celebrate matriarch Grandma Win’s 80th birthday and have a board meeting, Win dispatches grandson Fielding to find his cousin Alban, who has fled the family to become a forester, in order to solidify her vision of the family legacy. Banks flashes back through Alban’s painful memories of his mother (who committed suicide) and his cousin Sophie (whom he loved) as he heads home. The book contains a plethora of family secrets, none of which fully drive the plot, but the gothic setting, big passions and light humor suffice. Bank’s 23rd book isn’t his best, but it carries one all the way up its craggy steeps. (Oct.)

The author of Einstein’s Daughter and Violette’s Embrace, Zackheim delivers the epic life of a woman whose art and survival become ever more tightly bound with passing years. With her firebrand parents dead at the close of WWI, Sophie Marks lives out a protracted childhood aesthetics lesson in the pre-WWII English Midlands with her painter grandfather Eli and poet grandmother Claire. At the Slade School of Art in London, Sophie falls for French student Rene; she returns home pregnant and abandoned. Hitler’s bombings bring terror and hardship, and a direct hit upon the family’s cottage leaves Sophie bereft. Afterward, in a convalescent sanitarium, Sophie’s romance with the shell-shocked and disfigured Maj. Hugh Roderick ends in tragedy, but not before the two exchange portraits. Sophie again returns to her barren homestead and undertakes a very complex form of mourning in her grandmother’s garden. Over the 200-plus pages of Sophie’s next 55 years, Zackheim introduces the novel’s major theme of art as a series of interments and disinterments, new ground being broken as old ground is plundered. Her postwar heroine displays ample pluck and depth of feeling in the face of trauma. (Oct.)

Clayton’s new stories, gathered here with the stories from earlier collections Bodies of the Rich and Radiance, show a steady, assured hand, delivering an exceptional and gratifying body of work. “Cambridge Is Sinking!” typifies his early writing, where young, menschy hippies reluctantly let go of their politics and community in the face of day-to-day struggles, ruminating on jobs, graduate degrees and rich uncles as they try to find direction. As Clayton’s early characters turn away from their idealism, his later ones turn toward a larger search for meaning and often toward the divine. (In his author’s preface, Clayton writes “I hope for Jewish and non-Jewish readers; but I speak as a Jew.”) In “History Lessons” Daniel Rose takes his young son to the neighborhood where he grew up, uncovering a considerable sense of loss (endemic to Clayton’s stories) and a great divide between the father and son. Failed marriages, bitter children and terminal patients mark many of the tales: in “The Contract,” Max pores through holy books while his wife, Natalie, succumbs to cancer; the family finds comfort in the prayers’ familiarity, but their meanings remain obscure. Clayton repeatedly explores a limited set of situations and emotions, but he is a master of his material. (Sept.)

This splendid novel by Booker Prize–winner Smith (for Last Orders) has its roots in the 1960s sexual awakening and takes place over the course of a sleepless night in June 1995. Paula Campbell Hook lies awake beside her sleeping husband, Mike, and worries about the shocking revelation that she and Mike will make to their 16-year-old twins tomorrow. Paula recalls her meeting with Mike at university in 1966, when sex was free and easy (“a glut of it”), the immediate consummation of their sexual passion, their marriage and successful careers, and the birth of the twins after almost a decade together. Mainly, Swift explores the ways in which secrets are created to ensure happiness, and the potential for emotional damage when the truth is revealed. Swift has channeled the tenderness in Paula’s voice with uncanny exactitude, granting her a mother’s sentimental observations about pregnancy and raising children. He drops a few clever red herrings, so the narrative retains the vibrato of suspense until the secret is revealed. But the novel’s remaining pages, which convey the exaggerated “doomsday” fears of middle-of-the night wakefulness, seem padded. In essence, this moving exploration of marriage and parenthood is a ringing affirmation of modern life. (Sept.)

In Mankell’s engaging but overly polemical stand-alone crime novel, Louise Cantor, an archeologist working in Greece, returns home to Sweden to discover her grown son, Henrik, lying dead in his own bed. Cantor, who refuses to accept the police theory that Henrik killed himself, launches her own investigation. (The book’s title refers to one of the mysteries surrounding the JFK assassination, which had become a bizarre metaphor for the secretive Henrik.) In her quest for answers, Cantor journeys to Australia in search of her estranged husband; to Barcelona, where Henrik had an apartment and a surprisingly large bank account; and to Maputo, Mozambique, where she learns of the devastation wrought by poverty, AIDS and greed. Mankell, author of the wonderful Kurt Wallender series (Faceless Killers, etc.), is a deft and imaginative plotter and an insightful observer of the human condition, but here his righteous anger over the AIDS crisis in Africa and the exploitative role of the pharmaceutical industry overshadows the mystery solving. (Sept.)

At the start of Martin’s compelling postapocalyptic novel, which reads like The Road as told by the crusty old woman from Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Mary and her husband, John, perch precariously in a tree while a huge, corpse-eating pig waits below. Flashback a few decades: Mary and John are starving in suburban Maryland outside Washington, D.C., after a disaster known as “the calamity” destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure. The top .1% of America’s richest citizens have bought up all the commodities and withdrawn to enclaves guarded by hired thugs. After a man known as Tazza emerges as a strong local leader, John declares him king. Martin (The Crying Heart Tattoo) charts Tazza’s self-sustaining kingdom from its early bucolic beginnings to its final bloody battles against rapacious Canadians hired by a resurgent American government bent on subduing this upstart leader. Filled with action, romance and terrific characters, this intelligent cautionary tale deserves a wide readership. (Sept.)

In Lindsay’s third novel to feature endearing Miami cop and serial killer Dexter Morgan (after 2005’s Darkly Devoted Dexter), the Dark Passenger, the voice inside Dexter’s head that from time to time drives him to the “Theme Park of the Unthinkable,” inexplicably disappears while Morgan is investigating a gruesome double murder on the University of Miami campus. The crime scene, at which two co-eds were ritualistically burned and beheaded, gives even the human vivisection–loving vigilante the creeps. As the burned and beheaded body count continues to mount, Morgan realizes that the force behind the killings is something even more evil than his Dark Passenger. Though the macabre wit that powered the first two installments of this delightfully dark series (also a hit on TV’s Showtime) is still evident, this third entry takes a decidedly deep introspective turn as Dexter is forced to contemplate not only life without his enigmatic companion but also who—or what—he truly is. (Sept.)

In his promising debut, trial lawyer Campbell delivers an intriguing, if often overly technical, story of long-buried family secrets and the blurred line between lies and the truth. In 1973, Doug McKenzie, a new associate at a prestigious Phoenix firm, is thrilled to work with famed trial lawyer Daniel Morgan. When the son of a wealthy rancher is shot dead in his home, Morgan and McKenzie are hired by the victim’s father, Ferris Eddington, to defend his daughter-in-law, the beautiful Rita Eddington. McKenzie has known the Eddingtons since childhood and can’t believe Rita killed her husband. But when the only other suspect is Rita’s mentally disturbed 12-year-old daughter, Miranda, McKenzie knows it will be the trial of his life. While Campbell certainly knows the ins and outs of the legal system, the plot meanders in the middle, becoming too bogged down with procedural particulars to sustain the reader’s interest. Despite an outcome that’s not as surprising as it should be, legal suspense fans will be well rewarded. Author tour. (Sept.)

At the start of Rucka’s electrifying sixth thriller featuring bodyguard Atticus Kodiak (after 2001’s Critical Space), Atticus is ready to settle down after years of chasing the deadly female assassin known as Drama and finally breaking her away from “The Ten”—a group of cold-blooded killers operating around the globe. But when he and Drama, now known as Alena, are ambushed and left for dead, Atticus knows his troubles are far from over. Suddenly, the two find themselves the target of a massive manhunt after being mistakenly identified as Ten members. From a tiny village on the Black Sea to the inner sanctum of the Pentagon, Atticus and Alena race to clear their names and punish those responsible for the shocking death of a close friend. Rucka expertly blends intense shoot-’em-up scenes with biting political commentary as Atticus and Alena uncover just how high the conspiracy reaches within the U.S. government. Kodiak fans who’ve waited a long time for this installment will find it exceeds all expectations. (Sept.)

Packer follows her well-received first novel, The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, with a richly nuanced meditation on the place of friendship in women’s lives. Liz and Sarabeth’s childhood friendship deepened following Sarabeth’s mother’s suicide when the girls were 16; now the two women are in their 40s and living in the Bay Area. Responsible mother-of-two Liz has come to see eccentric, bohemian Sarabeth, with her tendency to enter into inappropriate relationships with men, as more like another child than as a sister or mutually supportive friend. When Liz’s teenage daughter, Lauren, perpetuates a crisis, Liz doubts her parenting abilities; Sarabeth is plunged into uncomfortable memories; and the hidden fragilities of what seemed a steadfast relationship come to the fore. Packer adroitly navigates Lauren’s teen despair, Sarabeth’s lonely longings and Liz’s feelings of guilt and inadequacy. Although Liz’s husband, Brody, and other men in the book are less than compelling, Packer gets deep into the perspectives of Liz, Sarabeth and Lauren, and follows out their conflicts with an unsentimental sympathy. (Sept.)

A fictionalized retelling of the tragic post-WWII love affair between Italian writer Cesare Pavese and American noir starlet Constance Dowling, McPhee’s latest excels in noirish atmosphere. In March 1948, poet and translator Dante Omerto Sabato, nearly 40, is saved from jumping off a Rome bridge by a patrolling American sergeant. In the months that follow, he meets a pair of fading U.S. actresses, Gladys and Prudence Godfrey, who have fled Hollywood to try their luck in Rome’s thriving movie industry. Younger Gladys is a sexy little tart, but it is Prudence, the older, a cold dish “incapable of loving a man,” who recognizes Dante as “Italy’s most famous living poet.” As relationships progress among the three, episodes from Dante’s past hurtle through his mind, including a previous youthful love triangle and Dante’s interrogations of Fascist prisoners late in the war. All three of McPhee’s main characters seem intentionally unlikable, and the sex writing in particular designed to make Dante appear absurd: “She came many times, and then, with the skill of the adept, let me reach my apex while inside one of her infertile orifices.” McPhee draws entertainingly on the pulp of the period and has the postwar dynamic of occupier and occupied down. (Sept.)

In the taut latest from Enright (What Are You Like?), middle-aged Veronica Hegarty, the middle child in an Irish-Catholic family of nine, traces the aftermath of a tragedy that has claimed the life of rebellious elder brother Liam. As Veronica travels to London to bring Liam’s body back to Dublin, her deep-seated resentment toward her overly passive mother and her dissatisfaction with her husband and children come to the fore. Tempers flare as the family assembles for Liam’s wake, and a secret Veronica has concealed since childhood comes to light. Enright skillfully avoids sentimentality as she explores Veronica’s past and her complicated relationship with Liam. She also bracingly imagines the life of Veronica’s strong-willed grandmother, Ada. A melancholic love and rage bubbles just beneath the surface of this Dublin clan, and Enright explores it unflinchingly. (Sept.)

A specialized, sensual history centers this novel from French historian Audeguy, winner of the Académie Française’s Prix Maurice Genevoix. Virginie, an aimless young librarian, is hired by Hiroshima survivor and Paris couturier Akira Kumo, who seems much younger than he is, to categorize his obsessive library of cloud and meteorological-related material. While Virginie works, Kumo tells stories of other cloud gazers in history, including the fictional John Constable–like painter Carmichael, who spent a year painting clouds, to the consternation of his father, and the photographer Abercrombie, who left behind the much speculated upon cloud book that bears his name. As Kumo’s past begins to come into focus, Virginie is drawn into his life. Audeguy’s prose, lyrical in translation, mostly manages to contain sudden shifts of time and explorations of cloud lore. Beautifully written and imaginatively structured, Audeguy’s book is as diaphanous as its subject. (Sept.)

German author Schatzing, best-known for his environmental SF thriller The Swarm (2006), uses the death of real-life architect Gerhard Morart, the designer of the cathedral of Cologne, as his starting point for this compelling historical suspense novel. Work on what would become the most famous church in Germany has been underway for a dozen years in 1260 when Morart falls from the unfinished building’s roof—murdered, in the author’s fictional scenario, as the result of a shadowy conspiracy. Unfortunately for the plotters, Jacob the Fox, a thief known for his fiery red hair, witnesses the act and actually hears the victim’s dying words, leading the murderers to target Jacob and anyone he might have spoken to. The main mystery revolves around the motives of the plotters, whose identities aren’t kept secret. Strong action sequences and a dramatic look at a time and place unfamiliar to most readers should help solidify Schatzing’s reputation as a versatile storyteller. (Sept.)

Jay Hauser, the Dartmouth freshman narrator of film director/writer Williams’s uneven debut, has a mean streak, a salesman’s heart and a case full of knives to hawk to his family and friends. As summer break approaches, Jay is offered a spot on the varsity football team and tapped for the most exclusive fraternity on campus, but he can’t get his mind off of his crush, Isabelle, and her accusation that he is not charming enough to be her boyfriend. (Never mind that Isabelle is less hot than hometown girlfriend Brooke, a silicone-breasted baby-talker.) Isabelle’s insult gets under Jay’s skin, and to prove his charisma he takes a summer job selling expensive sets of Bladeworks knives. Jay develops a selling formula and becomes the top seller in the country. Setting his sights on becoming the best salesman internationally, a hard-drinking Jay, blessed with a natural talent for sales and bereft of ethical sense, gets sucked into a vortex of pride and rage against his parents, friends and customers. Though somewhat enriched by its exploration of knife selling—a peculiarly popular occupation among college students—the novel leans heavily on casual cruelty and facile frat-boy antics. The story moves briskly, though not much happens below the surface. (Sept.)

Virgil Flowers, introduced in bestseller Sandford’s Prey series (Invisible Prey, etc.), gets a chance to shine in his own vehicle and does so brightly. The thrice-divorced, affable member of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), who reports to Prey series hero Lucas Davenport, operates pretty much on his own as he tackles a murder wave that hits the little town of Bluestem. At the center of the story is old Bill Judd, hated by many who blame him for the Jerusalem artichoke scheme that made him rich and others poor. Other motives abound as do suspects—including a religious/survivalist cult headed by a felon or some of the many who participated in the long ago orgies Judd orchestrated. Flowers likes to stir things up and see what happens, and plenty does as the killings continue. Sandford keeps the reader guessing and the pages turning while Flowers displays the kind of cool and folksy charm that might force Davenport to share the spotlight more often. 500,000 first printing. (Sept.)

Bob Lee Swagger, retired marine master sniper and hero of bestseller Hunter’s 1993 thriller, Point of Impact (forthcoming as the film Shooter), returns in this riveting homage to the myth of the samurai. Philip Yano, the son of the Japanese officer who commanded the bunker on Iwo Jima where Swagger’s marine father won the Medal of Honor in 1945, approaches Swagger about a missing sword wielded by his father, Hideki, during the battle for the island. The sword turns out to be not just a family heirloom but a national treasure that evokes echoes from the most sacrosanct corners of Japanese history. Yano’s search reveals there are those who will gladly kill for the honor it bestows upon the possessor. Plunged into a Japan where honor and loyalty outweigh even one’s own life, Swagger finds that an old warrior like himself still has much to understand. While the action builds to the inevitable climax, the joy of the journey will keep readers turning the pages. (Sept.)

In Hagberg’s solid 10th thriller to feature ex-CIA director Kirk McGarvey (after Allah’s Scorpion), McGarvey leaves retirement to look into the shooting death of a CIA operative in Chihuahua, Mexico. At the center of the mystery is Chinese superagent Gen. Liu Hung, who from his embassy compound in Mexico City throws lavish parties replete with underage whores for Mexican and U.S. officials. This is an espionage tale of deep intrigue, puzzles wrapped in enigmas, triple crosses and brutal murders perpetrated by ruthless killers—and those are just the CIA guys. At times, the action slows while traditional tradecraft is meticulously described and various characters sit around tables trying to figure out what’s really going on. Hagberg is known for being prescient about terrorist events, and the finale sets up the terrifying challenge McGarvey will face in the next installment. One can only hope America’s real-life enemies haven’t thought to study this series. (Sept.)

In this page-turner reminiscent of The Devil Wears Prada, Bunn alternates between the story of Brent Stark, an Oscar-winning actor and recovering addict who has converted to Christianity in prison, and Shari Khan, a Hollywood underling looking for her big break. When a Nashville-based businessman decides to start a film company, he asks Brent to direct the first movie—a Daniel Boone biopic that eschews “political correctness” and returns Boone to “the pedestal.” Conversely, Shari uses knowledge of this independent venture to catapult herself to the upper echelons of the major studio where she is a lowly personal assistant. Soon enough, she is spearheading efforts to get the studio’s own Boone biopic, one that vilifies Boone and sympathizes with Native Americans, released first. Bunn’s treatment of the ensuing David and Goliath drama is well-paced and entertaining. This novel, like the Christian film at its center, provides an alternative for conservative Christian audiences looking for entertainment that reaffirms both their political and theological values. The Hollywood insiders here are self-serving criminals who cynically promote liberal values in their films, while the Christian filmmakers are stratospherically successful, wealthy, and the beneficiaries of many miracles, all of which affirm that God is in their corner. While not to all tastes, this novel is sure to please fans and increase Bunn’s readership. (Sept.)

Two mysteries obsess Gerard Chauvin, protagonist of this overwrought novel. The first is the mystery of his six-year-old son Harry’s tragic death. The second, onto which he deflects his grief, is the obscure question of why the alphabet came to be ordered in its familiar sequence of letters. A series of unsettling coincidences leads him to Syrian ruins and to other lost souls—a Chinese woman whose daughter overdosed on heroin, a Greek Jew whose wife was murdered by terrorists—seeking enlightenment in the alphabet. Assisted by a dotty Cambridge scholar, they plunge into the ancient arcana of writing, as if in the origins of letters they could find both a way to communicate their sorrow and a hidden meaning behind the seemingly arbitrary happenstances of life and death. Plante (The Family) imparts an eeriness to his prose—Gerard feels the shades of the dead crowding about him—but often lapses into inchoate mysticism: “we can only have an impression of everything all together and can never understand everything all together, because everything all together, everything in the world all together, is an impossibility.” From the abstruse intellectual quest his characters embark upon, the reader doesn’t get a firm sense of the emotional burden they are carrying. (Aug.)

Handsome, charismatic 1992 Democratic presidential candidate Ruben Castle is a former antiwar protester who now tacks to the center and is adept at taking both sides of an issue. He’s also an inveterate womanizer with a scandal in his closet: a secret marriage to college sweetheart Henrietta, which he didn’t bother terminating before wedding boozy ex-Miss America Priscilla, and which produced a son who now returns to haunt him. This story has the makings of an Arkansas trailer-trash saga, but conservative Buckley—über-pundit, Blackford Oakes yarner and social comentator (God and Man at Yale)—doesn’t do tawdry. Characters are tepid rather than lurid, and the sex scenes convey the pertinent information (“he didn’t know then that his ejaculate had burrowed down into her ovum”) without unnecessary sleaze. An inner wonk reigns, whether Buckley is describing office politics at a student newspaper, punning about the Wilmot Proviso or ruminating on “whether Congress can retroactively usurp the President’s authority in foreign affairs by denying him authority to conclude arrangements that he had made without any challenge to their constitutionality.” Buckley’s waspish wit sometimes scores—Ruben’s handlers’ intricate calculation of which commencement-address invitations to accept is hilarious—and like-minded readers will chortle over his satire of boomer politicians’ mores. (Aug.)

This gripping and complex ninth installment of Maitland’s Brock and Kolla series (after 2006’s No Trace) ties past and present in London’s West Indian community. After the bodies of two young girls are found in South London, both shot through the head, media attention precipitates a Scotland Yard investigation. A schoolboy exploring a deserted Brixton rail yard uncovers three unidentified bodies shot with the same gun some 24 years before, at a time of civil unrest and riots. Det. Sgt. Kathy Kolla investigates the girls’ murders, while DCI David Brock feels compelled to follow the slim leads to the past as the investigation widens to include an agent from Special Branch and aging ex-con “Spider” Roach. Some of Spider’s family and associates have risen to wealth and prominence, and Brock’s queries run up against a suspicious number of walls. Though character development is somewhat lacking, the intricate plot, spot-on dialogue and vivid descriptions will keep readers turning the pages. (Oct.)

Rowe’s engaging ninth Roman Britain whodunit finds mosaic-maker and occasional detective Longinius Flavius Libertus in the midst of turbulent times. Libertus seizes an opportunity to free his slaves Junio and Cilla and adopt Junio as his son and heir. Meanwhile, his patron and protector, Marcus Septimus, plans a journey to the court of the increasingly insane Emperor Commodus, who has just renamed the ancient city of Rome after himself. The discovery of a hideously beaten corpse whose features have been rendered unrecognizable forces Libertus back into the role of sleuth, as Marcus’s travels, an approaching holiday and Junio and Cilla’s upcoming wedding impose a difficult deadline. While the villain’s identity is fairly obvious to the reader (though convincingly hidden from Libertus), Rowe’s skillful recreation of the places, customs and laws of second-century Britain as well as eloquent descriptions of her hero and his compatriots place this among the best in the series. (Sept.)

In Benn’s high-spirited second WWII mystery (after 2006’s Billy Boyle), tough, earthy Boston cop turned army lieutenant Boyle hunkers down in a landing craft during the gripping first-wave attack to liberate Algeria in 1942. Once ashore, Boyle sets out on an intelligence mission to sort out the power struggle among Vichy French traitors, free French forces and German occupiers. Boyle is soon taken into custody and catches a glimpse of his ex-girlfriend Diana, a British spy on a similar mission. He returns to friendly territory in time to find that a sergeant’s throat has been cut and vital morphine and penicillin supplies stolen. The enormous multinational cast makes it hard to determine a likely suspect, especially once Boyle uncovers a drug-smuggling network, American officers running poker parties and further murders of enlisted men, all somehow tied to a secret coded notebook. Historical figures like Adm. Jean Darlan give this lively story a bit of period flair. (Sept.)

Hard-boiled, fast-talking Quinn, a Seattle cop turned PI, faces new challenges in her edgy second outing (after Argula’s Edgar-nominated 2006 debut, Homicide My Own). Quinn has scored a job with Vincent Ainge, a mitigation investigator who helps keep convicted serial killers off death row. She’s also taken on her first case as a PI: finding Eileen Jones, a popular, attractive 18-year-old who vanished from her job in Vincent’s office building. Vincent’s attraction to Abby Jones, Eileen’s mother, interferes more than it helps with Quinn’s investigation, but his connections become invaluable when Eileen’s body is found, and Roger Merck, a disturbed man with a record of sexual assault, is charged with the murder and due to be executed if convicted. Quinn, suspicious of Merck’s sudden confession, digs deeper and learns the shocking, brutally poignant truth. Quinn sometimes comes off too tough and cynical, but Argula takes care to show her emotional side as well, creating an impressively well-rounded and modern heroine. (Sept.)

In Bannister’s emotionally weighty seventh Brodie Farrell mystery (after 2006’s Requiem for a Dealer), Farrell panics when her unexpected pregnancy threatens the continued success of her business—Looking for Something?—an eclectic problem-solving agency in Dimmock, England. One of her paramours, mathematics teacher Daniel Hood, delays his return to the classroom to serve as her assistant and eventual caretaker of the company. When a former student happens by, Hood soon determines that the boy is being beaten at home and quickly identifies his father, affluent and powerful attorney Adam Selkirk, as the guilty party. The bulk of the plot centers on Hood’s amateurish efforts to intervene in the dysfunctional Selkirk family and Farrell’s conflicted attitude toward the men in her life. Readers will be most satisfied if they approach this as a novel that happens to involve a criminal investigation, an impression enhanced by Bannister’s quiet prose style and emphasis on relationships. (Sept.)

Dog show enthusiast Melanie Travis, starring in her perky 14th whodunit (after 2006’s Chow Down), puts her four-months-pregnant self into the back of a minivan and heads off to a canine judging symposium in the Poconos with her sister-in-law, Bertie, a professional dog handler, and Aunt Peg, a respected judge of poodles. The three expect a relaxing vacation, but a few hours after keynote speaker Charles Evans shocks his audience by announcing that dog shows are unethical, Melanie and Co. discover Evans dead in the hotel hot tub. Was he offed by an angry judge, or did his wife finally decide that his countless affairs were intolerable? Sleuthing isn’t the only thing occupying Melanie—she’s also busy looking out for her 60-something aunt, who’s pursuing romance with a younger man she met over the Internet. Berenson refrains from overloading the mystery with too many dog details, and though a few character development devices never get off the ground, this canine cozy is still absorbing enough to delight even cat lovers. (Sept.)

Ocean (Sweet Home Carolina) reinforces her reputation for creating strong Southern heroines with this sexy, fast-paced adventure, the first in a new series to feature Jersey Barnes, a marine MP turned South Carolina private security investigator. Tough, witty Jersey has decided to retire and maybe even settle down with her boyfriend, Bill, when he asks her to help his old friend Lolly, a gorgeous blonde who wants to find out if her wealthy new husband is cheating on her. Grudgingly taking on one last case, Jersey finds not philandering but a kidnapping, plans to unleash a computer virus and a coverup that could ruin one of America’s largest banks. The supporting cast includes Ox, her high school best friend and unofficial spiritual adviser; Soup, an ex-Fed computer geek and gourmand; Trish, an expert at surveillance; and Spud, Jersey’s wacky, elderly dad, who drags his geriatric poker buddies along for the ride. Ocean’s tightly woven, fast-moving plot keeps readers entertained right up to the explosive ending. (Sept.)

The Minnesota Crime Wave’s entertaining second volume of short stories from Minnesota writers (after 2005’s The Silence of the Loons) introduces some promising talent to a wider audience. Taking a somewhat darker tack than the previous anthology, many of the 13 stories center on actual or suspected infidelity or some other betrayal, concluding with satisfying but somewhat anticipated twists. No stories stand out as either duds or stunners, though Pat Dennis’s “Mother’s Day,” about a neglected son’s homicidal plans for the holiday, and David Housewright’s “Miss Behavin’,” which follows a philandering physician down a spiral of bad luck and poor choices, are particularly taut and suspenseful. Several authors include notes of local color, giving a nice sense of continuity from one piece to the next and appealing to Minnesotans and visitors alike. (Sept.)

Journey to the center of the Universe, a luxury hotel to end all luxury hotels, in this sparkling debut from Opus Hotel general manager Craig. New York’s Universe Hotel attracts celebrities, social climbers, tourists and controversy, and provides the ambitious Trevor Lambert, director of rooms, a reason to exist. Lambert’s dedication to hotel owner Willard Godfrey and his “Universal Promise: to provide an escape from the outside world” leaves him devastated when he discovers Godfrey’s body in the hotel garage the morning after the staff holiday party, apparently the victim of an inebriated hit-and-run driver. Making things astronomically worse, radical antibooze crusader Brenda Rathberger is at the hotel for a Victims of Impaired Drivers conference, and sleazy TV journalist Honica Winters of Borderline News airs a critical segment about Godfrey’s suspicious death. Lambert’s wry turn as an accidental house detective puts Craig’s erudite whodunit solidly on the map. (Sept.)

Hugo-winner Moorcock falls short in his attempt to modernize “penny dreadful” detective hero Sexton Blake, a character few present-day readers are likely to remember or recognize. Blake, now called Sir Seaton Begg, and his Watsonian sidekick, Dr. Taffy Sinclair, take on a wide variety of murder cases and other unsolved mysteries around the world, all seeming to lead back to the albino villain, Monsieur Zenith, whose original incarnation was one of the inspirations for Moorcock’s dimension-crossing antihero Elric of Melniboné. Begg’s adventures soon take him into other eras and alternate universes, where he encounters such exaggerated figures as former British government official “Mad Maggie” Ratchet and two Texas politicians and energy moguls named Dick Shiner and George Putz. The violence, perilous traps and clichés are not intended to be taken seriously, but these parodies may be too broad for even die-hard Elric fans. (Oct.)

Scottish author Ruckley’s outstanding fantasy debut, the first installment of the Godless World trilogy, introduces a sprawling realm abandoned by the gods after two races united to destroy a third. The peoples left behind struggle with centuries-old prejudices and unresolved conflicts that threaten to destroy them all. The start of winter is traditionally a time of celebration, but when the elflike Kyrinin and religious fanatics called Inkallim interrupt the festivities at Castle Kolglas with a masterfully planned attack, the bloodshed is just the first move in an apocalyptic war that won’t end “until the world itself is unmade.” As Ruckley chronicles the plight of numerous characters through an increasingly chaotic landscape, he develops unsubtle allegories to recent world history and some of humankind’s more obvious shortcomings like bigotry, greed and apathy. The author’s unapologetically stark yet darkly poetic narrative displays a refreshing lack of stereotypical genre conventions, ensuring a fervent audience of epic fantasy fans looking for something innovative in a genre that can be anything but. (Sept.)

Frost’s lively sequel to Hounding the Moon (2006) finds Tess Noncoiré, fantasy writer and Warrior of the Celestial Blade, literally haunted by the ghost of her dead husband, Dill, and on the run from the vengeful widow of a Windago demon. Tess doesn’t need more trouble, but she gets it anyway when WindScribe, a member of her aunt MoonFeather’s coven, reappears—unaged, naked and hounded by “garden gnomes with teeth”—after vanishing 28 years before. The gnomes, actually demonic Orculli trolls, are guards bent on returning WindScribe to a pandimensional prison for unspecified crimes. Meanwhile, Tess’s mom has fallen in love with Darren Estevez, Damiri demon and stepfather of Tess’s mysterious love interest, Donovan. Frost juggles several plot lines and occasionally drops a few, but the ever-changing mix of mundane and supernatural elements keeps the story interesting. Fans of Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley are most likely to enjoy this slightly screwball fantasy adventure leavened with touches of soap opera. (Sept.)

The weighty and grim sixth installment of Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen (chronologically following 2006’s House of Chains, with references to 2007 tie-in Midnight Tides) is named for a newly minted company in the Malazan 14th Army, forged in a daring and nearly fatal effort to escape a city destroyed by fire by burrowing through its skeletal underbelly. The Bonehunters’ return from the dead is a theme that appears throughout this volume, as the prophetess Sha’ik dies and is reborn as a plague maiden, warriors recover from hideous wounds, and seer Ganoes Paran strikes a bargain with the dread god Hood that just might end up saving the world. Erikson brings the bulk of his enormous cast together in one volume for the first time, an effort designed to keep fans engaged as myriad plot lines tangle and sprawl over an increasingly bleak and war-ravaged landscape. (Sept.)

Morrigan Christine Parker finds that turning 18 carries a heavy weight when you’re the only daughter of Rhiannon MacCallan, disgraced high priestess to the goddess Epona, in Cast’s down-home follow-up to 2006’s Divine by Choice. After Rhiannon betrayed Epona, the goddess bestowed her favor on Rhiannon’s look-alike, Shannon Parker. Rhiannon promised her allegiance to the evil god Pryderi, but recanted after Morrigan’s birth, giving the child over to Epona’s protection and the care of Shannon’s parents. Now Morrigan comes of age and learns more about her heritage from her adoptive grandparents and the wind-borne whispers of Pryderi and Epona. While visiting the Alabaster Caverns State Park and exploring her power over rocks and crystals, Morrigan is unexpectedly transported to the mystical realm of Partholon, where she must find Shannon and fulfill her destiny. New readers might be turned off by the frequent switcheroos and stilted dialogue, but Cast’s fans will be glad to see all the previous books finally tied together. (Sept.)

German author and cartoonist Moers returns to the mythical lost continent of Zamonia in his uproarious third fantasy adventure to be translated into English (after 2006’s Rumo), a delightfully imaginative mélange of Shel Silverstein zaniness and oddball anthropomorphism à la Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. Optimus Yarnspinner, a young saurian novelist, embarks on a quest to track down the anonymous author of the “most magnificent piece of writing in the whole of Zamonian literature.” Traveling to Bookholm, the legendary City of Dreaming Books, the naïve Yarnspinner falls victim to Pfistomel Smyke, a maggotlike literary scholar who poisons Yarnspinner and abandons him in the treacherous catacombs miles below the city’s surface. Stranded in an underworld steeped in terror-inducing myth and home to more than a few bizarre inhabitants, Yarnspinner undertakes a long and perilous journey back to the world above. Enchanting illustrations by the author compliment a wonderfully whimsical story that will appeal to readers of all ages. (Sept.)

Longtime collaborators Herbert and Anderson set themselves a steep challenge—and, in the end, fail to meet it—in this much anticipated wrapup of the original Dune cycle (after 2006’s Hunters of Dune). A large cast scattered across the cosmos must be brought together so that the final, all-powerful Kwisatz Haderach may be revealed in the ultimate face-off between humankind and the machine empire ruled by the implacable Omnius. Though pacing is brisk and the infrequent action scenes crackle with tension, only two minor characters—gholas, who are young clones with restored memories, of Suk doctor Wellington Yueh and God-Emperor Leto II—acquire real depth. Everyone else is too busy reacting to mostly irrelevant subplots like sabotage aboard the no-ship Ithaca, a plague devastating the planet of Chapterhouse and the genetic engineering of marine-dwelling sandworms. The lengthy climax relies on at least four consecutive deus ex machina bailouts, eventually devolving into sheer fairy tale optimism. Series fans will argue the novel’s merits for years; others will be underwhelmed. (Aug.)

Successfully melding science fiction with romance, this page-turner from Kenin (pseudonym for romance up-and-comer Eve Silver) has a quick pace and a bleak setting that give action and sex scenes a gratifying pop. Living in the grim aftermath of the Second Noble War, which killed off a third of the Earth’s population, attractive but deadly trucker Raina Bowen is determined to bring down powerful businessman and presidential adviser Duncan Bane, who brutalized Raina in her youth. Aided by a handsome but emotionless mercenary known simply as Wizard, Bowen hauls her rig up to the Northern Waste in search of her target; meanwhile, Bane is setting traps and sending agents of his own, imperiling the duo but intensifying their feelings for each other. Though bouts of lovemaking might turn off fans of the Mad Max-ian adventure story and the action might wear down romance devotees, readers with a leg in both camps, or anyone looking for something different, will find Kenin’s steamy, sinewy universe great fun, and further evidence that new Dorchester imprint Shomi is one worth watching. (Sept.)

Fans of quality historical mysteries will be delighted with this debut from Ash, the first in what will hopefully be a long-running series of Templar Knights whodunits. Bascot de Marins has returned to England from the Crusades wounded in body and spirit, but he finds a new mission when he takes leave from the order of Templar Knights to serve the Lady Nicolaa de la Haye, de facto ruler of the town of Lincoln. When four corpses are found in a local alehouse on the eve of a great festival, de Marins turns sleuth to identify the killer. One of the victims is believed to be the illegitimate son of a local nobleman, suggesting that the murderer’s motive may be connected to a large inheritance, which ropes in a number of likely suspects and sets off an absorbing investigation. Though a clichéd denouement is something of a letdown, Ash’s period detail and plotting are first-rate, superior to many other representatives of the rarified subgenre. (Sept.)

Miller, and Hachette’s new mass market imprint Orbit, debuts with a solid epic that posits political intrigue, ethereal prophecies and a rags-to-riches hero against a vivid if familiar fantasy backdrop (sure to provoke déjà vu in fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire). Fisherman’s son Asher seeks his fortune in the capital city of Dorana, home to the royal family and the magic-using race called Doranen. After a chance encounter, Asher begins working in the palace as assistant/apprentice to Crown Prince Gar; meanwhile, an underground sect watches Asher and secretly guides his fate, believing him the key to an ancient, apocalyptic prophecy. The erudite Prince Gar, meanwhile, has concerns of his own: flagging popularity (over his decision to take lowly Asher under his wing) and his combative sister’s inheritance, the weather-controlling magic that keeps their kingdom secure. Though Asher’s cynical salt-of-the-earth act is overused, and characters can be frustratingly pouty, Miller’s prose is earnest and engaging, and his complex story accelerates nicely toward a brutal cliffhanger finale. Hints of an epic confrontation to come will leave readers eager to find out, in forthcoming installments, where Asher’s destiny leads. (Sept.)

Macomber’s bestselling multigenerational series returns (following 6 Rainier Drive), interweaving drama and romance from all corners of fictional Cedar Cove, Wash. The focus this go-round is international chess champion Bobby Polgar and his hairdresser wife, Teri. Veiled threats from a Russian opponent have caused Bobby to drop out of tournament play and keep a close watch over Teri, but she’s more concerned about the antics of her predatory sister, Christie, who is growing ever more distant. As in past volumes, a raft of supporting characters’ subplots run parallel to the leads’, among them widowed sheriff Troy Davis, torn between his daughter’s needs and a budding romance; physician’s assistant Linnette McAfee, leaving town and a broken heart behind; and a love triangle involving Teri’s best friend, Rachel. Fans will pick up the threads easily, and newcomers will find most of the relationships self-explanatory (though a chart of characters would prove helpful). As usual, Macomber’s unique mix of naïveté, soap opera plotting and smalltown charm is virtually guaranteed to please. (Sept.)

Complaining that Ryan’s comics are grossly offensive, stupid and juvenile is like complaining that water is wet: that’s the entire point. The raison d’être of Ryan’s work is pushing beyond the limits of tasteless humor into pure gross-out overload; the joke isn’t the punch line itself, but how horrible the punch line is. This collection mostly compiles short stories from his Angry Youth Comics series, featuring recurring characters Boobs Pooter, Blecky Yuckerella, Loady McGee and Sinus O’Gynus, as well as his single-panel gag cartoons. (Sample caption: “Whoa! Check out the size of the tits on that concentration camp!” Actually, most of Ryan’s jokes are unrepeatable in this magazine.) Ryan’s sense of outrageousness is as tediously limited as a sixth-grader’s; his repertoire is almost entirely excretory and/or sexual, with the odd decapitation or racist gag thrown in for variety. Occasionally, there’s a flash of actual wittiness, like his brief, scatological “condensations” of Charles Burns’s Black Hole and Craig Thompson’s Blankets. Mostly, though, it’s poop jokes, drawn in a flat bigfoot style that recalls old Playboy cartoonists without their élan or whimsy. A page or two of Ryan, if you’re in exactly the right mood, can be nasty fun. An entire book’s worth is just about unbearable. (Sept.)

This fantasy manga presents the right mix of familiar tropes along with new ideas that should capture the imaginations of more than a few readers. Pascoe’s story stars young Sama, a boy whose father is in the hospital following a heart attack. Sama wants to mend his father’s health, but feels powerless in the face of the situation. A strange old man tells him of Undertown, a magical place that holds, among other things, the Sugar Stone, a magical object that could help Sama’s father. After transporting to Undertown, Sama is thrown right into the middle of a land at war. Insects and “Furmen,” such as the anthropomorphic rabbit and hedgehog Sama befriends, vie for control of the Sugar Stone. Undertown’s real strength lies in how all these concepts are introduced with a breakneck pace and with grand strokes. Myler’s art makes sure that this is a book with plenty of action and characters in dramatic poses. The situations sometimes overwhelm the art but most of the time all the figures and their adventures are rendered in a very readable style. (July)

Award-winning Italian graphic novelist Gipi (Garage Band, The Innocents) returns with this bleak tale of three young drifters making their way across the war-torn landscape of an unnamed Balkan country. Told from the point of view of protagonist Giuliano, the narrative traces his path as he is forced to go through the peripheral results of war as a deadening day-to-day struggle to find food and shelter while avoiding the occasional stray bullet. Falling in with Felix, a sleazy criminal kingpin, Giuliano and his companions soon serve as executors for Felix’s extortion racket and later move up the underworld food chain into endeavors in a city removed from the hardships of the war, petty thuggery slowly escalating to murder. Gipi keeps the war itself off screen, instead allowing the conflict’s effects upon the young men to play out in numb, soulless detail, a storytelling device that affords the tale a stark and depressing realism further driven home by the “cartoony” illustrations. While not easy reading, the affecting story is made even more powerful by the understated execution. Winner of the Best Book prize at the Angoulême Comics Festival in 2005. (Aug.)

This tie-in to the horror film series created by Wes Craven serves its genre well—the book will appall tasteful readers while delighting its bloodthirsty core audience by delivering all the expected gore and formulaic horror tropes. An origin story, the book explains the murderous proclivities of the Sawney Bean clan, deformed freaks who live in the desert of the American West, luring unsuspecting travelers into their cannibalistic trap. Using the faintest dash of social-political commentary—arrogant government jackboots and atomic testing are the source of the clan’s sorry state—the story incorporates the movie plots into a larger tale about the group’s attempt to avenge its abuse at the hands of the U.S. military. Written more with professional skill than originality, Palmiotti and Gray deliver the hallmarks of conventional horror—extreme brutality and numbing violence delivered with a minimum of wit or characterization. These efforts are ably assisted by explicitly detailed, albeit rushed-looking art that manages to capture all the gruesome splatter. Higgins even manages a vivid injury-to-eyeball homage to the infamous 1947 Jack Cole image in True Crime Comics #2. While fans of the genre will likely flock to the book, more casual readers should beware. (This volume was edited by PW contributing editor Heidi MacDonald.) (July)

Xeric Grant–winner Haven Britt offers a dark, unrelenting story of petty drug dealers, spoiled rich kids and a tormented woman on the edge of oblivion in a truly unsettling one-sitting read. Boom has had it with her job—specifically the boss who steals the glory for her work—so she enlists the help of sometimes friend David, a drug dealer whose ambition far surpasses his intelligence, to score her a gun. They intersect paths with Lilly, one of the book’s few sympathetic characters, and in a haze of alcohol and a swirl of dark imagery, race toward the events of a night that can only end in tears. There are drug deals in dorm rooms; quiet asides about the torment of being a creative person; and a clipped style of dialogue that suggests Tarantino without the sense of humor. The ending feels inevitable, but does nothing to detract from the tangible sense of menace—chiefly thanks to the scenes involving Boom staged on stunning backgrounds of abstract imagery and inky fury. Typeset lettering and jagged, angular, almost angry thought balloons contribute to the book’s singular tone and style. The title belies that the story is told in stunning black-and-white—this story could be told no other way. (July)