Fiction Reviews: Week of 8/27/2007

Smooth flashbacks carry this inventive romp through a 19th-century New England scandal, which opens at the deathbed of Henry Ward Beecher, “the most brilliant preacher in America,” in March of 1887. Around him are his many siblings, notably his famous sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The deathwatch mirrors the moment when, 15 years earlier and further on in the book, the clan assembles to discuss a front-page story in Victoria Woodhull's newspaper that, in veiled language, accuses Henry of having an affair with parishioner Elizabeth Tilton, in which the two conduct “orgies” in front of her children. The result is (among other things) a punishing church committee hearing. Three years later, Henry's former protégé and parishioner, Theodore Tilton, files suit against Henry, charging alienation of affections. O'Brien (coauthor of I Know Just What You Mean) takes the reader into the courtroom, a scene of such twists, betrayals and revelations that it will entertain even those who know how it ended—a tricky business since even Elizabeth, who has confessed, denied and confessed, wonders, “Which of my stories was true?” That the question remains just makes the telling juicier, and O'Brien delivers just enough history to make a reader feel virtuous while savoring the gossip. (Jan.)

A wide-ranging portrait of an almost mythically depraved Las Vegas, this sweeping debut takes in everything from the bland misery of suburban Nevada to the exploitative Vegas sex industry. At the nexus of this Dickensian universe is Newell Ewing, a hyperactive 12-year-old boy with a comic-book obsession. One Saturday night, Newell disappears after going out with his socially awkward, considerably older friend. Orbiting around that central mystery are a web of sufferers: Newell's distraught parents, clinging onto a fraught but tender marriage; a growth-stunted comic book illustrator; a stripper who sacrifices bodily integrity for success; and a gang of street kids. Into their varying Vegas tableaux, Bock stuffs an overwhelming amount of evocative detail and brutally revealing dialogue (sometimes in the form of online chats). The story occasionally gets lost in amateur skin flicks, unmentionable body alterations and tattoos, and the greasy cruelty of adolescents, all of which are given unflinching and often deft closeups. The bleak, orgiastic final sequence, drawing together the disparate plot threads, feels contrived, but Bock's Vegas has hope, compassion and humor, and his set pieces are sharp and accomplished. (Jan.)

In Burnside's first novel since his acclaimed memoir A Lie About My Father, random acts of cruelty unearth a town's dark secrets. In the charged, superstitious Scottish village of Coldhaven, it's a year after 32-year-old Moira Birnie has killed herself and her two sons—but spared her 14-year-old daughter, Hazel. Like many in town, photographer's son Michael Gardiner, who narrates, has heard the story: a heavily drinking Moira thought her abusive husband was the devil when she drugged her sons and set her car on fire. The deaths remind Michael of his youthful, class-crossed affair with Moira, as well as his encounters with her bullying brother, Malcolm. With his own marriage crumbling and his sanity in doubt, Michael obsesses about Hazel, who he thinks may be his daughter, and the confrontation that ensues between the two changes them both. The plot doesn't hold together, but Burnside creates an intense, Stephen King–like atmosphere around Michael's observations and memories, and the complex cast's secrets and grudges. (Jan.)

British blogger Phillips's delightful debut finds the Greek gods and goddesses living in a tumbledown house in modern-day London and facing a very serious problem: their powers are waning, and immortality does not seem guaranteed. In between looking for work and keeping house, the ancient family is still up to its oldest pursuit: crossing and double-crossing each other. Apollo, who has been cosmically bored for centuries, has been appearing as a television psychic in a bid for stardom. His aunt Aphrodite, a phone-sex worker, sabotages him by having her son Eros shoot him with an arrow of love, making him fall for a very ordinary mortal—a cleaning woman named Alice, who happens to be in love with Neil, another nice, retiring mortal. When Artemis—the goddess of the moon, chastity and the hunt, who has been working as a dog walker—hires Alice to tidy up, the household is set to combust, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Fanciful, humorous and charming, this satire is as sweet as nectar. (Dec.)

The modern-day paladins of the Camel Club are back in their third exciting adventure (after 2006's The Collectors). Justice-seekers Milton, Caleb, Reuben and honorary member Alex Ford, a Secret Service agent, are led by feisty Oliver Stone, aka former CIA assassin John Carr. Their associate, Annabelle Conroy, is a slick con artist on the run after stealing $40 million from lunatic casino owner Jerry Bagger, who killed her mother. Oliver's CIA past distracts him from Annabelle's cause: his old unit, Triple 6, was responsible for the death of Raymond Solomon, branded a traitor during the Cold War, and now Solomon's son, DHS security expert Harry Finn, is picking off Triple 6 members. Oliver could be next if Carter Gray, his former boss, reveals that John Carr isn't really dead. Gripping, chilling and full of surprises, Baldacci's latest reveals the anarchy that lurks under the slick facade of corrupted governments. (Nov.)

Leaving courtroom thrills behind, Patterson crafts an absorbing and suspenseful account of a dirty run for the Republican presidential nomination. Sen. Corey Grace, a Republican from Ohio, became a public hero during the Gulf War after surviving the crash of his jet and enduring months of captivity and torture. Thirteen years later, he's 43 and one of a national magazine's 50 “sexiest men alive.” Corey has a real shot at winning his party's nomination—if, as his advisers constantly remind him, he can just rein in his impulsiveness, his party-line crossing votes and his habit of telling the truth. When Corey falls for sexy African-American actress Lexie Hart, who comes to Washington to lobby for stem cell research, Corey's advisers wring their hands. But they soon have more pressing matters to deal with: among the other candidates in the Republican field are evangelist Rev. Bob Christy and Sen. Rob Marotta of Pennsylvania—a man under the de facto control of Machiavellian campaign director Magnus Price, “The Darth Vader of American politics.” The perfidy and mendacity that follow mesmerize as much as they ring true. (Oct.)

Sebold's disappointing second novel (after much-lauded The Lovely Bones) opens with the narrator's statement that she has killed her mother. Helen Knightly, herself the mother of two daughters and an art class model old enough to be the mother of the students who sketch her nude figure, is the dutiful but resentful caretaker for her senile 88-year-old mother, Clair. One day, traumatized by the stink of Clair's voided bowels and determined to bathe her, Helen succumbs to “a life-long dream” and smothers Clair, who had sucked “the life out of [Helen] day by day, year by year.” After dragging Clair's corpse into the cellar and phoning her ex-husband to confess her crime, Helen has sex with her best friend's 30-year-old “blond-god doofus” son. Jumping between past and present, Sebold reveals the family's fractured past (insane, agoraphobic mother; tormented father, dead by suicide) and creates a portrait of Clair that resembles Sebold's own mother as portrayed in her memoir, Lucky. While Helen has clearly suffered at her mother's hands, the matricide is woefully contrived, and Helen's handling of the body and her subsequent actions seem almost slapstick. Sebold can write, that's clear, but her sophomore effort is not in line with her talent. (Oct.)

King admits in his introduction that he prefers “all-out emotionally assaultive” stories to those that might appeal to his “critical nose.” Yet King's selections are right at home among those of recent BASS editors Lorrie Moore, Michael Chabon and Walter Mosley: John Barth's darkly comic take on aging and mortality; a child's unforgiving view of her alcoholic parent from T.C. Boyle; an exploration of the grief of a crystal meth addict by William Gay (a writer King notes is a relatively obscure “American talent”); Lauren Groff's piece about a polio survivor learning to swim during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic (based loosely on real-life Olympian Ethelda Bleibtrey); Roy Kesey's imagining of an airport terminal as microcosm of global politics; and Karen Russell's halfway house for the human children of werewolves (“their condition skips a generation”). Stories drawing on horror and on Maine add a personal King touch to this year's cull of 20, taken from among the 4,000 that series editor Pitlor read last year in periodicals. The book reflects the variety of substance and style and the consistent quality that readers have come to expect from the series, now in its 30th year. (Oct.)

In this tedious parody of the life of Apple founder Steve Jobs, the pseudonymous Fake Steve Jobs (identified in the New York Times this month as Forbes senior editor Daniel Lyons) offers a gleeful sendup of the real Steve Jobs set amid the recent stock options backdating scandal. Throughout, the fake Steve pontificates on everything from his superior management skills (“only promote stupid people”) to his role in the development of the iPhone (it involves a lot of “non-thinking meditation”), and is portrayed as a cold, callow narcissist. Blissfully unaware of the legal firestorm raging around him, a “mathlexic” Fake Steve goes about his daily business, balancing meditation with the firing of employees while the Apple board of directors scrambles to avoid prison time and find a scapegoat. As the fictitious Apple corporation implodes, Fake Steve must decide whether to jump ship or stand by the company. Tech industry watchers who know (or know of) the players will get a kick out of seeing them skewered, but readers who aren't already tuned in to the Silicon Valley technocracy may not quite get it. Fake Steve doesn't really evolve as a character, but as a grotesque caricature, he's fun to watch. (Oct.)

Nonagenarian Kaufman—twice nominated for screenwriting Oscars in the 1950s and a cocreator of Mr. Magoo—makes his fiction debut with this irresistible comic novel, a bawdy, original coming-of-age tale. Kaufman brings bright, resourceful Judd Breslau to vivid life, giving him a striving nature that always leads to trouble. After dropping out of Yale at 14, Judd moves into the crumbling mansion of nut-job Egyptologist Phillips Chatterton, where he joins a phalanx of oddball thinkers working on a quixotic project to redesign human society. A fringe benefit is Chatterton's daughter, Valerie, over whom Judd goes ga-ga. Both Judd and Valerie end up in New York, where Judd interviews with a shady corporation seeking a revolting economic opportunity in war-torn Iraq. So it's off to the hilariously backwards Coproliabad, where Judd runs afoul of the new sheikh, who wants Valerie for his queen. In fact, Judd, awaiting execution, narrates the whole book from a fetid jail cell. Kaufman's screwball sensibility, relish for language, gleeful vulgarism and deep sympathy for his characters make this novel an unprecedented joyride. Whether it's due to his being alive for 90 years or not, Kaufman's book is shot through with worldly wit and a keen sense of the humor in human foibles. (Oct.)

The prologue to this robust, complex family drama—first published in the U.K. in 1996 by the bestselling author of Sheer Abandon—finds wealthy, charismatic entrepreneur Isambard Channing forced to ask his much younger third wife, Francesca, to say he wasn't in London “that day.” If she won't, it's likely that Bard will be ruined and imprisoned. The story then jumps backwards to 1982, when Francesca, at 21, writes to magnate Isambard after he appears on TV. After a five-year extended courtship, she becomes his third wife. The marriage is soon tested by Bard's rages, his vindictive adult son, his reticence on business matters and the couple's sick infant daughter. At page 385, the book arrives at the prologue scene: Bard's business practices catch up with him, putting him, for the first time, in Francesca's power—and deliciously so. Fans of Sheer Abandon, prepared to read at Vincenzi's demanding scale, will find all of her plotting and characterization skills serving a familiar but very satisfying story. (Oct.)

Orphaned at 15 and raised by her Uncle Phillip, the adult Megan Blair is an Atlanta pediatrician who hears terrified voices. Revelation comes when childhood friend Neal Grady, who is now a shadowy government agent, arrives to apprise Megan of her psychic powers. And to warn her: Molino—the relentless villain who killed Megan's mother, believing her touch killed his son—is targeting Megan next. Molino thinks Megan was born to an ancient Sephardic family of psychics, and plans to force her to reveal the location of the Ledger, a book that contains the family's secrets and finances. He then plans to kill her, if Megan, Neal and Neal's sidekick, Jed Hartley, don't find him first. Johansen increases the tension by alternating point of view, but two-dimensional characters, repetitious explanations and stilted dialogue make staying tuned difficult. (Oct.)

A bestseller overseas, Sussman's follow-up to The Lost Army of the Cambyses opens at Jerusalem's Holy Temple in the year 70, jumps to doomed WWII German prison camp inmates dragging a Nazi-purloined holy relic down an abandoned coal shaft and then fast-forwards to present-day Egypt. There, Det. Insp. Yusef Ezz el-Din Khalifa of the Luxor police investigates the murder of an old man whose body has been found at an archeological site in the Valley of the Kings. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Palestinian journalist Layla al-Madani and Israeli police detective Arieh Ben-Roi have their own sad histories and complicated lives to deal with. Eventually, Sussman twines all the threads into one, and the three principals are hard on the trail of the mysterious artifact hidden by the prisoners. There are familiar Da Vinci Code elements, but Sussman, an archeologist, puts in plenty of satisfying twists and turns, and grounds the story in the violence and intrigue of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Oct.)

Set a few years in the future, Jackson's fiction debut zeroes in on a small Montana town squeezed by economic strife and sharply curtailed civil liberties. Ben Trinity, a former English professor, hitchhikes into the hamlet of Redemption hoping to start fresh. A prime suspect in a major terrorist act, Trinity was jailed and tortured by the Homeland Security agency but never tried, and is now part of a government test program involving the release and surveillance of terrorist suspects (there are many such suspects). His presence in this small town where residents have little tolerance for anything straying from the straight and narrow, causes almost instant chaos when his cover is blown. In the aftermath, Trinity must decide whether to continue to take orders from the government, or rouse himself and try to clear his name. The futuristic mood (serious fuel shortages, microchip implantations) is uneven, but Jackson does a fine job with the alarmism and base behavior of mob mentality, and Trinity's ups and downs come through convincingly. (Oct.)

A chance tea shop meeting between an elderly pensioner and a beautiful young mother blossoms into friendship in this treat from British novelist Willett (Echoes of the Dance), first published 10 years ago in the U.K. It's 1988 in Bristol, England, and Nell Woodward, with young son Jack in boarding school, is uneasily married to John, a former navy officer who is trying to remake himself as a realtor. Meanwhile, Henry Morley is converting the stables of his estate, Nethercombe Court, into the Courtyard, a housing development. Henry's wedding preparations are underway as the book opens, and soon after, his discontented younger bride, Gillian, has problems adjusting to country life. At the same time, Nell's friendship with Gussie Merton, an elderly second cousin of Henry's, brings them both to Nethercombe. As relationships unravel, crises rise and fall, and tragedy strikes. Willett creates a compact multirelationship saga with a nice edge, sharpened by Willett's keen depiction of Nell and John's marriage in particular. (Oct.)

A British biographer of Anne Frank (Rose of the Earth), Lee opens her fiction debut with an enormous 1920 London funeral procession for the remains of an unknown soldier. The narrative then jumps back a few months as Alex Dyer, a journalist in his early 30s, tells his story to an albino grave digger in devastated post-WWI Ypres, Belgium. At the outbreak of war in 1914, British correspondent Alex ships off to France. Ted Eden, Alex's boyhood friend and now an army officer, writes to Alex that he's married Clare, a young British nurse, after a whirlwind courtship. Upon their introduction, Alex instantly falls in love with the ethereal but troubled Clare. As the two come together, the horrors of war, including the inhumane gas attacks and brutal frontal assaults told in stark detail, rumble in the background. By turns passionate and intricate, Harper's first historical novel exhibits top-notch writing and a trio of solid characters. (Oct.)

Titled after the Charles Kingsley fairy tale, this dizzying novel opens on epileptic, prematurely retired Tam Marr-Burgess, who is “pushing 46,” and whose attempt to collude with her landlady in a minor fraud goes very bad. The result is an immediate, spectacular eviction. As Tam lights out from the Chicago suburbs, Mazza (How to Leave a Country) sets up several parallel narratives, each of which has echoes of the other: Tam is headed for the family enclave in Maine, where she had her first seizure when swimming at school, was either saved (the official story) or sabotaged (Tam's version) by her elder brother, Gary, and never swam again. On arriving, she rescues an infant from a Laundromat toilet, and then hides the baby and its petulant teen mother at the family lighthouse. She also joins her amateur genealogist sister, Martha, in digging up information on three mysterious figures: a baby saved from the waves by Tam's lighthouse-keeper ancestors, a relative named Mary Catherine, and a local ghost—all of whom may have things to tell them about their own lives. As multiple pasts spin out, Gary comes unglued and tries to make his problems Tam's, much as he did during her eventful college years. There are wry pleasures to be had in Tam's life and adventures, but Mazza puts too many oars in the surf and never gets them all in synch. (Oct.)

A hard-living Appalachian family weathers a contemporary coal boom in the debut from West Virginia native Pancake. Soon after their first meeting in the 1980s, college freshman Lace See and 15-year-old local boy James Makepeace Turrell (“Jimmy Make”) conceive their first child. Nearly 20 years later, Lace is uneasily settled as a mother to Jimmy's four children as a flurry of strip mining and clear cutting make the mountains she has known since childhood unrecognizable. One summer right after a strip-mining induced flood, things come to a head. Lace's environmental activism ramps up; daughter Bant, working at a local motel, discovers her allegiance to the mountains and her sexuality; each of Lace and Jimmy's three sons (Corey, Jimmy and Dane) is touched in turn by the collapsing economy and environment. Lush descriptions of the landscape are matched with a hurtling stream-of-consciousness narration to great effect: one doubts neither the characters' voices nor their places in a very complex poverty. (Oct.)

British writer Gowers follows her nonfiction work on Victorian criminals, The Swamp of Death, with a fictive weeklong journey inside the head of Ramble, a London woman quietly going crazy. Handicapped, partially deaf Ramble provides first-person narration that careens from her thoughts on photocopying pound notes to her grandmother's childhood to 1840s Stamp Office clerks with barely a breath. When husband Con calls her an “autistic vampire” and takes off with the petty criminal living downstairs, Ramble comes unglued, and the narrative goes along with her: “Remedial wise, give HER! The short shrift treatment NOW! And in a few days hence you will be beholding to no one: a law unto yourself. Oh yes!” While several quirky characters — particularly Stella, Ramble's dementia-suffering grandmother, and Johnson Pike, her childhood friend—are well imagined, Ramble's voice isn't enough to hold the book together as she flies apart. (Oct.)

The sharpest stories from Coleman, a 2001 National Book Award finalist in poetry for Mercurochrome, provide unsettlingly familiar portraits of lonely people attempting to negotiate difficult, mostly urban lives. Her characters torment each other, yield to socioeconomic pressures, talk wildly at times and never quite fit in. In “My Son, My Son,” a cab driver picks up a woman on her way to meet her son at the airport, and the only certainties that can be gleaned from what she says and does are her wealth and her derangement. In “Purgatory,” a woman puts herself in prison for reasons that remain ambiguous; the solitude offers her “time to do some deep exploration.” Stylized phrasing threatens to carry off stories like “Jazz at Twelve,” about a jazz musician who never gets proper recognition, or “Hibernation,” a portrayal of a young woman ready for love but unable to find the right partner. “Backcity Transit by Day” is among the more abstractly painterly pieces, until its gruesome end. Coleman offers a set of searching, reflective voices moving from mellifluous to dramatically blunt. (0ct.)

In Harp's debut, Will Parker, a smalltown Georgia lawyer and Desert Storm Marine vet, is recruited for a dangerous mission: to identify and photograph a former classmate who has been aiding North Korea's quest for missiles of mass destruction while North Korea protects him with three look-alikes, and also has an assassin out to kill other scientists so that North Korea can corner the market. As the paths of Parker, his quarry and the assassin unfold, it's easy to lose patience with the convoluted plot. And the characters aren't nearly as convincing as his descriptions of satellite technology, submersible suits and the like. But Parker has resilience, foresight and fortitude to spare, and North Korea's repressive regime and rugged terrain make for deadly opponents. (Oct.)

Monig's latest feverish Fae dispatch (after Darkfever) finds that in Dublin “the walls are coming down between Man and Faery.” That means that the Buffy-like services of MacKayla Lane—the 22-year-old Georgia-born sidhe-seer (or one who can see the Fae) and slayer—are required. Mac is determined to kick the nasties back to faeryland and to avenge her sister Alina's murder by the Fae's dark Lord Master. She's also seeking the sinister Sinsar Dubh, a book of black magic. Jericho Barrons, Mac's enigmatic protector, is a purveyor of books and antiquities (and of course, is a major hunk). As Mac takes direction from Jericho, she must resist the sexy dangers of V'lane, a death-by-sex Fae, and learn about her true family of Irish sidhe-seers. Moning's delectable Mac is breathlessly appealing, and the wild perils she must endure are peppered with endless conundrums. The results are addictively dark, erotic and even shocking. (Oct.)

In this solid sequel to Sisterwife, Roberts brings back Kelsey Waite, a single Mormon mom, and her daughter, Tia, who are happily living as a family with the Santa Barbara PD's Quinn Anderson. Soon, however, Alisha Telford, with whom Kelsey has founded the support group Women Against Violence, is questioned about the murder of someone who molested Alisha when she was a teen. Joe, Alisha's boyfriend and Quinn's partner, dies suddenly of a heart attack, and Alisha disappears soon after. The murders of people linked to Alisha pile up, and Kelsey is drawn into the killer's web. With new partner Rita Jaramillo and FBI Agent Lexi Richards, Quinn rushes to solve a sordid mystery where twists on gender are part of the murderer's M.O. Although some turns are predictable, Roberts pulls off a thought-provoking puzzler. (Oct.)

This impressive Novello Literary Award–winning debut skillfully combines a contemporary courtroom thriller with a subtle look back at the competing passions and pressures of the Vietnam War era. Maggie Delaney's world has been shattered by her husband Richard's murder after he intervened to protect a drugstore clerk from a gunman, teenage Vietnamese immigrant Anh Dung Nguyen. The local DA is convinced that his case against Nguyen is a “slam dunk,” but that assessment proves off-base when Everett Quincy, a high-profile attorney from New York, takes the case. Quincy suggests that Delaney's death is connected with his experiences in Vietnam, which may have led him to undue violence against Nguyen. This twist reawakens Maggie's antiwar past, as well as her long-ago personal relationship with Quincy. The flashbacks to the war are convincing, and despite some awkward plot elements, Herin delves deep into questions of guilt and forgiveness while demonstrating a gift for the nuances of personal interactions. (Oct.)

Set in London in 1825, this labored riff on Mary Shelley's horror masterpiece shows the potential pitfalls authors face when writing sequels that take liberties with the plots of literary classics. Jonathan Goodall, a wealthy young Englishman, meets Dr. Victor Frankenstein but knows nothing of the man's infamous past. Then Victor begins to take a passionate interest in Maria Clementi, a music hall singer strangely incapable of speech outside of her stage performances. As Victor labors obsessively to cure Maria's muteness, an unknown assailant launches attacks on him and his family. By keeping the revelations about Victor's experiments in reanimating the dead concealed until the end, Bailey (Cassandra) prolongs the tale's mystery, but at the cost of diminishing the story of the doctor's scientific transgression and its consequences. The full text of Frankenstein, reprinted after Bailey's novel, serves only to show the unique brilliance of Shelley's fantastic novel. (Oct.)

Blue-eyed blonde naïf Hannah Roberts can't believe her luck when she wins a Hawaiian wedding trip. She also can't believe it when Earl, her fiancé of five years, abandons her on the journey from Kansas to Maui. Things look up when she meets kindhearted astronomer Jeremy Gordon, but will he follow the comet he's just discovered or the stars in Hannah's eyes? What happens next isn't hard to predict, and when Earl makes his obligatory late, brief return, he's so dopey it's hard to imagine why Hannah was heartbroken about losing him in the first place. Eschewing any displays of affection beyond hand-holding and mild smooching, Marks (Geek to Chic) offers a wholesome, slim sophomore effort that readers of chaste romances will relish. (Oct.)

Carter (Behind Those Eyes) explores the life of Islam, a tortured American artist who leaves his adopted London for hometown New York City to jump-start his artistic career. In New York he re-establishes a relationship with his brother Micah, who he became separated from after their mother's death. Before Islam leaves London, however, he falls for the mysterious Adrianne, and their destinies, Islam soon learns, are intertwined: she is married to the billionaire who owns the Manhattan gallery where Islam will be working, and his new job will put the lovers in frequent close contact. Erotic interludes abound as Adrianne and Islam each seek to fill the emptiness in each other and avoid detection by Adrianne's husband. Loving descriptions of artists from Kandinsky to Klimt pepper the text and help provide a firm grounding for the characters. However, the novel ends on a very off note that damages any emotional investment the reader has made. Excepting the last few pages, this is a solid effort. (Oct.)

In the wake of his bestselling Christmas Jars comes a sweetly crafted story from Wright, a Virginia businessman. Jack and Laurel Cooper are two hardworking, loving Christian pillars of the community who die in each other's arms one night in the bed-and-breakfast that they own and operate. The event calls their three grown children home for the funeral, including their youngest son, a fugitive from the law who must face an outstanding warrant for his arrest and confront his one true love, now engaged to another man. As events unfold around the funeral, the three children discover a treasure trove of family history in the form of “Wednesday letters”—notes that Jack wrote to his wife every single week of their married lives. As they read, the children brush across the fabric of a devoted marriage that survived a devastating event kept secret all these years. It's a lovely story: heartening, wholesome, humorous, suspenseful and redemptive. It resonates with the true meaning of family and the life-healing power of forgiveness all wrapped up in a satisfying ending. (Oct.)

In her promising debut novel, Baart writes compellingly about a young girl's struggle with loss, love, identity and faith. Julia Bakker knows what loss is. Her mother abandoned her, her beloved father died, and her childhood love has gone to college and found another. As a teen, she lives with her saintly grandmother, who urges her to go to church camp, but Julia finds only “quick answers and thrilling conversions” there. Disillusioned, Julia decides it is up to her, not anyone else—“even some impossible, far-flung God”—to reinvent herself. “The truth was, I didn't know who I was, and I was afraid of being defined by who I wasn't. By what I didn't have.... By remembering with predictable, cyclic accuracy all I had lost.” After chronicling her early years, the story follows Julia as she enrolls in college to study engineering and become someone who is “too smart to attach, too independent to want to, and so secure as to be untouchable.” Soon, Julia is repeating her mother's mistakes. The love of her rock-solid Christian grandmother and a newfound (and not completely well-explained) reliance on God help fortify her for the difficult path ahead. Sparkling prose makes this new novel a welcome addition to inspirational fiction. (Oct.)

Jones's intense third Zoe Hayes mystery (after 2006's The River Killings) finds Zoe, a therapist and pregnant single mom, visiting her girlhood home in the Philadelphia suburbs after receiving an alarming phone call from her estranged father's nosy neighbor. She finds her father, Walter, stabbing a woman in the throat. Zoe wrestles the knife away and calls 911. Nick Stiles, her fiancé and a homicide cop, soon determines that the woman was killed when someone stuffed betting slips down her throat, explaining Walter's confused claims that she was choking and he was trying to help her. No charges are filed, and Zoe and Nick move Walter into assisted living. When Zoe returns to her father's home to clean out the clutter, she learns about another recent murder. Meanwhile, Zoe's hypnotherapist refuses to disclose the content of the supposedly stress-reducing sessions that leave her drained and tearful, and Nick is furious at Zoe for hiding her father's existence and endangering their unborn child. Jones neatly ties the various threads together in a riveting, explosive conclusion. (Nov.)

In this entertaining sixth Maggie Kelly mystery (after 2006's High Heels and Holidays), the scatterbrained mystery novelist faces a more dysfunctional family Christmas than usual. Just before leaving New York, Maggie breaks her foot, and then hobbles home to suburban New Jersey only to see her father arrested for murder. Local lothario Walter Bodkin has been found dead, and the weapon of choice was a bowling ball engraved with Maggie's father's initials. Maggie is sure that her father is innocent, but to get to the bottom of this murder, she'll have to learn more than she wants to know about her mother and sister's extracurricular activities, which definitely go beyond bowling. Her siblings aren't giving her much assistance, but droll, charming Alex, the hero of Maggie's books come magically to life, is there to keep her anxieties in check. Fans of romantic cozies will find this light read a welcome escape from their own holiday stress. (Nov.)

Early 19th-century Istanbul's teeming mix of nationalities, religions and cultures comes alive in this vibrant sequel to the Edgar-winning The Janissary Tree (2006). When French archeologist Maximilien Lefèvre begins asking very pointed, well-informed questions about long-lost Greek artifacts and then is found dead outside the French embassy, series hero Yashim, a Turkish eunuch, finds himself suspected of the murder. His efforts to clear his name take him from markets and wharves to palaces and underground tunnels as he uncovers a secret society, unearths sacred relics and hunts the murderer. Goodwin's secondary characters, particularly Yashim's close friend Stanislaw Palewski, the world-weary Polish ambassador, are distinct and memorable, and the mystery presents an entertaining challenge to the reader as well as to charming, determined Yashim. With his second effort as intricate and delightful as the first, Goodwin takes his rightful place among such distinguished British historical mystery writers as Lindsay Davis and the late Edith Pargeter. (Oct.)

The pallid fourth Sister Agatha mystery from the Thurlo husband-and-wife team (after 2006's Prey for a Miracle) piles on New Mexico smalltown color, but lacks a challenging puzzle. Agatha is an extern—authorized to interact with the outside world—for Our Lady of Hope Monastery, a small community on the cusp of financial ruin. When a drunk driver crashes his SUV into its security gate, the nuns must scramble to find the funds for repairs. Meanwhile, a hacker is disrupting the computer work the community relies upon for much of its income, and the adjacent vineyard may be sold to a developer. Salvation seems at hand when dying millionaire John Guttierez, aware of Agatha's reputation as an amateur investigator, offers her a lucrative payday if she succeeds in tracing his estranged niece. The descriptions of monastic life are compelling, but too-pat miracles and too-simple mysteries will disappoint all but the most devoted series fans. (Oct.)

Three big-name cozy writers contribute candy cane–themed novellas to this entertaining yuletide anthology. Levine's series heroine Jaine Austen (Death by Pantyhose, etc.) spots a wealthy suburbanite's killer in the unfortunately skimpy “The Danger of Candy Canes,” where the subplot about a troubled teen is more compelling than the actual mystery. Hannah Swensen (Key Lime Pie Murder, etc.) experiments with new Christmas cookies (recipes included, of course) and gets to the bottom of a Santa slaying in Fluke's complex “Candy Cane Murder,” which includes several plausible suspects and a surprising twist—an impressive feat in just 150 pages. Meier's powerful “Candy Canes of Christmas Past” takes heroine Lucy Stone (Bake Sale Murder, etc.) back to December 1983, when, newly arrived in Tinker's Cove, Maine, she found herself investigating the circumstances of a decades-old local death and struggling with her own financial and domestic difficulties. Fluke and Meier ably make up for Levine's shortcomings to create a sweet holiday treat for mystery lovers. (Oct.)

Miyabe (All She Was Worth), Japan's bestselling mystery author, should garner new fans in the U.S. with this eerie tale that recalls some classic Japanese horror films. Mamoru Kusaka, a sensitive and intelligent teen, is troubled by the loss of his parents. Twelve years after his father disappeared following a municipal financial scandal, his mother has died of a stroke. As Mamoru tries to start a new life with relatives in Tokyo, his uncle, taxi driver Taizo Asano, is arrested after running over a young woman. While working to exonerate Taizo, Mamoru stumbles upon evidence that the victim may have been fleeing the person responsible for two other recent strange deaths that were officially classed as suicides. Miyabe excels at creating a supernatural feeling in a prosaic urban setting, and Mamoru is an engaging and original amateur sleuth. Both horror fans and mystery fans will savor this spooky mystery and want to seek out Miyabe's other work. (Oct.)

A stolen memory card leads Edinburgh's Det. Insp. Honey Laird out of maternity leave and into a murder investigation in this undistinguished mystery from prolific Scottish author Hammond (Waking Partners). The card contains sexually explicit photos of Honey's friend Kate and her lover. In hunting it down, Honey finds a dead hoodlum and, in a clever twist, a new photo on the memory card showing a murdered woman, Cheryl Abernethy. Honey soon discovers a manuscript in which Abernethy describes (in rather excessive detail) her life and eventual discovery that her boss, an MP, is embezzling from his company. As Honey homes in on Cheryl's killer and the crimes surrounding her death, mobsters threaten her family. Unfortunately, it's hard to sympathize with well-off Honey and her cute, spoiled life. Cheryl and her unlikely romance are more captivating, and the book would benefit from more of its heart-pounding action sequences. Readers who prioritize local color over a twisty plot will be most satisfied. (Oct.)

Black tar heroin and murder infuse this quirky, highly literary novel, as smalltime San Francisco guitarist Curly Watkins finds himself dragged into some shady repo business. Hundreds of dollars for a quick job is too much to pass up, even though the offer comes via junkie Ivy Pruitt and his ex-girlfriend and heroin connection, Lavinia Hahn. Curly, his shaved head brightly tattooed with an octopus, keeps them company as they wander around the Bay Area looking for new thrills. The plot kicks up several surprising notches when the doped-up heroes find a corpse loaded with cash in a warehouse and encounter the serial killer who put him there. Poet and novelist Nisbet (Dark Companion) offers perfect descriptions of the addict's world, but the endless dialogue among the startlingly well-educated characters drifts toward the precious (“ 'After you starve to death,' she cooed, 'can I have your library?' ”). The gist is Jack Kerouac writing Hannibal Lecter: not completely successful, but entertaining in its kooky way. (Oct.)

Card returns to his Hugo and Nebula award–winning Enderverse saga (after 2005's Shadow of the Giant) with a heartwarming novella for the holidays. When Zeck Morgan, the young son of a puritanical minister, qualifies for admission into the International Fleet's Battle School, he is brought to the school against his will. Citing his pacifist religious beliefs, Zeck refuses to participate in any simulated war games, but when he sees a Dutch student give a friend a small present in celebration of Sinterklaas Day, he reports the violation of the school's rules against open religious observation and sparks an uproar over religious freedom and the significance of cultural traditions. Meanwhile, Zeck becomes a pariah until series hero Ender Wiggin finds a way to show him the real meaning of the holidays. Exploring themes of tolerance and compassion, this story about stuffing stockings is, fittingly, a perfect stocking stuffer for science fiction fans of all ages. (Nov.)

In this dense quasi-noir tale set in the universe of Light (2004), Harrison introduces Vic Serotonin, a ne'er-do-well who makes his living running illegal tours of the Saudade event site, where hallucinatory and impossible experiences are the norm. When rich tourist Elizabeth Kielar hires him as a guide and then disappears in the area around the site, things get even stranger than usual. Police detective Lens Aschemann, who usually turns a blind eye to the tourism business, threatens dire consequences for Vic's sideline of event site artifact smuggling, while shady club owner Paulie DeRaad buys an artifact that begins to change him in bizarre ways. Harrison privileges atmosphere over plot, using grotesquely beautiful narration and elliptical dialogue to convey the beautifully delineated angst of Saudade's extraordinary inhabitants. Although not for everyone, Harrison's trippy style will appeal to sophisticated readers who treasure the work of China Miéville and Jeff VanderMeer. (Oct.)

This thought-provoking sequel to 2004's The Runes of Earth opens with a bang. Watching from the battlements of Revelstone, a keep besieged by the power-hungry Demondim, battle-weary healer Linden Avery can see both Thomas Covenant and her son, Jeremiah, riding ahead of a wave of pursuers—even though Covenant, her former lover, is dead and mind-damaged Jeremiah has been captured by Lord Foul the Despiser. Odder still, both men treat her almost disparagingly when they reach the keep, forbidding her to touch them and showing no signs of affection. Soon it becomes clear that nothing is what it seems. Avery's fight to save the Land from Lord Foul will take her to the Land's past through the worst kind of betrayal and across its length, but the worst enemy she faces is her self-doubt. Difficult but worthwhile, this complicated and emotional continuation of the Thomas Covenant saga is exactly what Donaldson's fans have been hoping for. (Oct.)

Readers unfamiliar with Stross's Clan Corporate (2006) and its predecessors should hunt them down before diving into this breakneck fourth Merchant Princes episode. The clan, a Machiavellian trading dynasty whose members can cross among parallel universes, are losing control of their own affairs, embroiled in a shooting war with local royalty on the Gruinmarkt world and racing modern American black-ops agencies to unravel the secrets behind their world-walking ability. The latter subplot adds science-fictional flavor to a series already rich with economic and political themes and dense action scenes. The cost comes in characterization: familiar figures appear only briefly, and new players acquire little depth. Miriam Beckstein, journalist turned mercantile heiress, is still the nominal protagonist, but she spends most of this episode stuck one universe sideways from the main action. For sheer inventiveness and energy, this cliffhanger-riddled serial remains difficult to top. (Oct.)

Robert Ludlum meets William Gibson in this dystopian spy thriller, the sequel to 2006's Echelon. Five years after taking down the corrupt, world-controlling cabal known as Echelon, former intelligence agent Ryan Laing is faced with an even bigger task: stopping Alfred Krueger, a vengeance-obsessed bioterrorist who has turned Laing's ex-girlfriend, Sarah Peters, into an asymptomatic carrier of a deadly retrovirus that has killed thousands of innocents. Laing, a bioengineered marvel augmented with several eye-popping nanotech enhancements, is reluctantly drawn back into the clandestine world of operatives and assassins as he tracks down Krueger and tries to figure out whether Peters is a victim or a co-conspirator. Even worse, he finally has to confront the wreckage of his personal life. While the cyberpunk elements are somewhat formulaic and certain high-tech components a little far-fetched (antiproton guns, etc.), the Orwellian atmosphere, intricate plot lines and breakneck pacing make this cyberpunk/espionage hybrid a highly entertaining read. (Oct.)

In this meandering 31st Xanth novel, Hugo, son of the Gorgon and Good Magician Humfrey, vanishes from his cellar, where the body of a murdered man just as suddenly appears. What's worse, Humfrey's book of answers has been scrambled, and blind Wira, Hugo's wife, has no idea how to solve a mystery. Her prayers are answered by 13-year-old Debra, visiting from Mundania in hopes of lifting the curse that makes her name sound like “De-bra” to any man she meets. Without the book, the curse cannot be cured, so the Gorgon temporarily turns her into a naturally bra-less flying centaur in exchange for her help. As they hunt down Hugo and the killer, Debra and Wira encounter the usual crop of terrible puns and characters both new and familiar. Acknowledging that reader loyalty keeps this venerable series going, Anthony includes an extensive afterword, providing credits for 140-odd (in some cases, very odd) suggestions and updating fans on everything from the state of his health to the length of his hair. (Oct.)

How far would a person go to protect a loved one? That question is at the heart of many of the 17 stories in McAllister's career-spanning collection. The Vietnam-era novelette “Dream Baby” (later expanded into a novel) is a powerful story of a combat nurse suffering from prophetic dreams. In “The Faces Outside” and the title story, young women offer their bodies to save endangered species. “The Ark” and “Kin” find people desperate to save their family members, while “Assassin” and “Moving On” explore the limits of family ties, and “Angels” portrays an elderly woman's effort to create a perfect son, no matter the cost. “The Boy in Zaquitos” pits a near-future “Typhoid Mary” analogue against his creators. Twilight Zone–style twists drive “Southpaw,” an alternate history story about star baseball player Fidel Castro; “World of the Wars,” the story of a Mars colony gone wrong; and “Benji's Pencil,” about a man awakened from cryosleep who finds the future isn't what he expected. McAllister's haunting work will enthrall any reader who appreciates thoughtful, evocative science fiction. (Oct.)

Celebrating his 20th year as one of Salvatore's most popular Forgotten Realms characters, dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden whirls into action in this first installment of a new trilogy. As the Year of Wild Magic arrives in the Silver Marches, bloody conflicts rage between Mithral Hall dwarves, Kingdom of Many Arrows orcs, Moonwood elves and Silverymoon wizards. Recently widowed barbarian Wulfgar must wade through the political morass to undertake a life-changing journey, aided by Drizzt's brave wife, Catti-brie. Meanwhile, archeologists are unearthing an ancient city where orcs and dwarves once lived side by side in peace. Drizzt and dwarven king Bruenor Battlehammer wonder if such peace can be achieved again, but half-orc/half-ogre Grguch, King Obould VI of the orcs and angry dark elf Tos'un Armgo won't go down without a fight. Salvatore mixes neatly choreographed battles with philosophical musings from self-styled “renegade soul” Drizzt, lending a little depth to an otherwise straightforward hack-and-slash adventure. Author tour. (Oct.)

Bruen and Starr follow up last year's Bust with another dark, twisted, no-holds-barred tale that hits all the noir buttons and then some. Since he was betrayed by his mistress/former assistant, Angela Petrakos, who left him with nothing to his name but a bad case of herpes, New York businessman Max Fisher has been on a drunken downward spiral. When Max, waking up in Alabama, meets bumpkin Kyle Jordan, a hotel clerk and local crack cocaine dealer, he sees his chance to get back on top. Using Kyle's Colombian suppliers, Max begins selling crack to his old business associates. Soon, this Scarface wannabe has a luxurious Manhattan penthouse and is calling himself “The M.A.X.” Meanwhile, Angela's got a new boyfriend, an Irish psychopath named Slide (life's ambition: to become history's greatest serial killer), and she isn't done with Max. As this warped cast of characters cross and recross paths, events violent, bloody, crude and hilarious unfold at a rapid, almost stream-of-consciousness pace. Though this pitch-black comedy isn't for everyone, those with a taste for it will have as much fun reading this novel as the authors obviously had writing it. (Oct.)

Lady Cordelia Bannister, Lord Marsham's youngest daughter, is a self-assured Victorian woman who writes articles about her extensive travels for ladies' magazines. Still single at 25, even Cordelia admits that too much independence isn't a good thing, but when her father engages Cordelia to a wealthy American, Daniel Sinclair, a man she's never met, Cordelia is furious. Determined to do what is best for her family, Cordelia sets out with her cousin to learn more about Daniel. When she comes upon a man in the park claiming to be Daniel's secretary, she assumes a false name to gather information, not realizing he's actually Daniel. Cordelia quickly finds herself falling for the handsome American, and he with her. Mistaken identities securely in place, Alexander has a fine time orchestrating the sparkling battle of wits between them. The leads make a superb match, bringing to mind classic sparring partners like Katharina and Petruchio or Bogie and Bacall; readers will be too amused by them to care that the supporting characters are a bit stunted. While there is no serious tension, Alexander knows what her romance readers want—charming characters, sharp banter, missed connections and a happy ending—and delivers with gusto. (Oct.)

In Joyce's second Masters of Time novel (after Dark Seduction), New York heiress Allie Monroe hides her secret life as a Healer, sworn to defend the innocent and fight a plague of demons as a member of the shadowy Center for Demonic Activities. When an ageless Highlands warrior, Black Royce, comes from the past to protect her, Allie's world is thrown into turmoil. Despite mutual attraction, overwhelming guilt over his first wife's death has left Black distant and afraid; when they finally do give in to passion, Black is murdered immediately after. Desperate for a way to change things, Allie goes back in time, to the year 1430, to find Royce, win his cold heart and save him from his fate. Though her world of Healers and Masters is rich and the plot well-handled, Joyce relies too often on the time travel mechanism (and its attendant vagaries) to do her heavy lifting. Still, the supporting characters are excellent, the sex scenes are plentiful (though at times illogical), and the plot thick, making this sophomore series entry a fine entertainment, sure to gratify fans of the bestselling kickoff. (Oct.)

Introducing Elliot Freed, rescuer and proprietor of an abandoned New Jersey movie theater, Cohen fires up the gag reel for a new tongue-in-cheek mystery series sure to please fans of his Aaron Tucker mysteries (As Dog Is My Witness). After selling his novel to Hollywood, movie-obsessed Freed sinks the windfall into a beloved single-screen relic. When the lights go up after a showing of Young Frankenstein, it appears customer Vincent Ansella has had his last laugh—what at first looks like a fatal heart attack is soon revealed to be murder-by-popcorn. After the police shut down his theater, Freed decides to help investigate (if only to quicken the reopening), getting some help from his amicable, alimony-paying ex-wife and an alluring police detective. When Freed's projectionist, a young film student, suddenly goes missing, he's billed suspect number one by the police, but Freed has other suspicions. Ruffling feathers and getting violent warnings, Freed solves the mystery and earns his amateur sleuth credentials, promising more comic adventures to come. Cohen develops his lively characters almost as effortlessly as he delivers the jokes—and the occasional guffaw—and manages to sneak in some suspenseful twists besides. (Oct.)

Although touted as a unique Korean manhwa, this book is a lot like standard teen romance–comedy manga. Eun-yo is a pretty, outrageously pampered schoolgirl who's pursued by almost all the boys in her class, but yearns for one of the few who leaves her alone, Chan-Kyung Woo. High school dating is complicated enough, but Eun-yo also attracts the attention of surly teen idol Nan Lee and, thanks to an accidental bit of arson, finds herself at his mercy. Much allegedly-amusing emotional turmoil follows, all of which is reflected in each page of the art. As feelings ricochet from one extreme to the other, a character's appearance changes, too. In one panel, he or she looks like a slim, glamorously self-possessed young adult; in the next, as immature emotion takes over, that image is replaced by a round-headed, childish caricature. The layout, meanwhile, is splintered and the fragments jammed loosely together again. This all makes for an unusually lively reading experience, but it's also hard to follow. Who can tell what's happening to the people when it's so difficult to recognize them from one fractured moment to the next? Some readers may not care. The story's not as original as it looks. (Oct.)

Deploying the smack-'em-in-the-face descriptive style of Will Eisner for a graphic biography may not seem like the best idea. But when it comes to the life of famed anarchist Emma Goldman, Rudahl's punchy, exclamation point–heavy method feels just right to cover the crusader's life. Born in Russia in 1869 at a time when women, particularly Jewish women, were to be downtrodden and not heard, Goldman lost no time upsetting the status quo with her big mouth and restless curiosity. After following her sisters to America, the newly married Goldman was just starting to learn about leftist politics when she became radicalized by the 1886 Haymarket bombing in Chicago, leading to more than a half-century's worth of nearly nonstop protesting, fiery speechmaking and organizing across North America and Europe, and even a few passionate affairs. Rudahl's earnest admiration for Goldman and her refreshingly smart approach to the cause is clear in her excited artwork, all cramped frames and twirly action. The volume is well-suited for libraries because of its knowledgeable but shorthand approach to history, exemplified in a scene where Teddy Roosevelt holds a copy of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and declares, “I don't want fingers in my sausage!!! Hurry up and pass some food and drug laws!” (Sept.)

Aaron's reservation setting, described by a character in the first chapter as a “third world nation in the heart of America,” is perfect for a story of crime and family. Dash Bad Horse has come back to the reservation he ran away from at age 13. Now he enforces the law in a land where many have given up hope. Bad Horse is also an undercover FBI agent, put back in his home so federal authorities can take down crime boss and casino owner Lincoln Red Crow. Aaron masterfully depicts Bad Horse's tortured split psychology. The character is tough as nails and switches quickly between displaying likable and unlikable behavior. The family dynamics, which includes Bad Horse's activist mother and Red Crow's wild daughter, could come off as soap opera, but Aaron knows how to use personal relationships to explain character and setting. The world of the Prairie Rose Reservation is full of life thanks to the art of Guera, somewhat in the vein of Eduardo Risso's on 100 Bullets. His characters contain a certain amount of grace no matter how ugly the situations get. The second story collected in the book is the flashback-heavy “Hoka Hey,” which shows that Aaron has a complex history planned for these characters. (Aug.)

Yukito's father's best friend's son is moving into Yukito's home, and Yukito's afraid his childhood crush on him will return. This hardcore yaoi sets its tone early, when Yukito's complaint about the houseguest is that he'll only be able to masturbate in the bathroom from now on. Yukito behaves like a stereotypical Harlequin heroine, bemoaning how his body betrays him when he really doesn't want to have sex with Hokuto, no, not at all, only it feels so good. The characters, supposed to be high school boys, have the big eyes, young faces and slender bodies of preteens. Every aspect of life in this story is permeated with sex. Yukito visits another classroom and gets hit on by the “lot of gays” in that area (and Yukito is blamed for it, since he's told he's too good-looking to safely enter the class). Yukito's parents spend dinner complimenting the boys' looks. Unsurprisingly, the guest explicitly propositions Yukito his first night there, before proceeding to fondling and flat-out molesting. With this saturated atmosphere (and an accurate explicit content warning promising the reader what they're looking for), the book satisfies the dedicated genre fan by staying focused on its titillating purpose. (Aug.)