Fiction Reviews: Week of 10/29/2007

Set in post WWII suburban London, this superb debut novel charts the downward spiral and tortured redemption of a young man shattered by loss. The war is over, and Lewis Aldridge is getting used to having his father, Gilbert, back in the house. Things hum along splendidly until Lewis’s mother drowns, casting the 10-year-old into deep isolation. Lewis is ignored by grief-stricken Gilbert, who remarries a year after the death, and Lewis’s sadness festers during his adolescence until he boils over and torches a church. After serving two years in prison, Lewis returns home seeking redemption and forgiveness, only to find himself ostracized. The town’s most prominent family, the Carmichaels, poses particular danger: terrifying, abusive patriarch Dicky (who is also Gilbert’s boss) wants to humiliate him; beautiful 21-year-old Tamsin possesses an insidious coquettishness; and patient, innocent Kit—not quite 16 years old—confounds him with her youthful affection. Mutual distrust between Lewis and the locals grows, but Kit may be able to save Lewis. Jones’s prose is fluid, and Lewis’s suffering comes across as achingly real. (Mar.)

Jackson matches effortless Southern storytelling with a keen eye for character and heart-stopping circumstances. Laurel, a high-end quilt maker, sees the ghost of a little girl in her bedroom one night. When it leads her to the backyard and a dead girl in the swimming pool, the life Laurel had hoped to build in her gated Florida neighborhood with her video-game designer husband, David, and their tween daughter, Shelby, starts to fall apart. Though the police clear the drowning as accidental, it soon appears that Shelby and her friend Bet may have been involved. Bet, who lives in DeLop, Laurel’s impoverished hometown, was staying over the night of the drowning and plays an increasingly important role as the truth behind the drowning comes to light. Meanwhile, Laurel’s sister, Thalia, whose unconventional ways are anathema to Laurel’s staid existence, comes to stay with the family and helps sort things out. Subplots abound: Laurel thinks David is having an affair, and Thalia reveals some ugly family secrets involving the death of their uncle. What makes this novel shine are its revelations about the dark side of Southern society and Thalia and Laurel’s finely honed relationship, which shows just how much thicker blood is than water. (Mar.)

With a wry touch, Arnoldi draws a mocking portrait of a powerful Southern California family that, while not the worst family on record, is remarkably warped by wealth and power. The Wentworths’ individual faults play off the milieu of familial grotesques: mother Judith’s a dieting narcissist who abuses the servants, while patriarch Gus’s compulsive philandering has been inherited and surpassed by his sexually deviant son Conrad, defense lawyer to the scummy stars. Conrad’s sister, Becky, is the only offspring with a family of her own, and their problems (kleptomaniac son, depressed teenage daughter) hover closer to the edge of normalcy. The final family member, gay Norman, lives in a fantasy world in the pool house and offers analyses of his kin’s foibles. The Wentworths’ fortress of supposed superiority is threatened by two women: Angela, a conniving ex of Conrad’s, and Honey, Gus’s naïve paramour. As the family closes ranks, comedy and tragedy ensue. A page-turner both for its well-paced intrigue and for its witty, sordid description of just how awful these people can get, the book’s coup isn’t the skewering Arnoldi (Chemical Pink) gives her overprivileged clan; it’s the redemption they find after they’re served twisted justice. (Mar.)

British Columbian Schroeder takes the reader on an epic journey from contemporary back to WWII Singapore in his debut novel. After Harry Winslow’s dying wife reveals that Michel Ney, a war buddy who Harry thought was dead, is in fact alive, Harry begins a quest that will take him to remote Thailand. Spliced in with the contemporary plot is Harry’s wild past: as a young marine in Singapore, Harry meets Lily, marries and loses her in a 24-hour period during the Japanese invasion. Harry is captured and sent to a Japanese prison camp, where he meets resourceful Frenchman Michel. The two are split up, and Harry later hears that Michel died while trying to escape from another camp. Harry and Lily reunite after the Japanese surrender (she’d been held in a women’s camp), though Harry doesn’t know about the painful secret Lily now bears. Chunks are told in an annoying second person, and the lengthy descriptions of flora and fauna suggests an author too eager to show his research, but the narrator’s wry sense of humor and a plot loaded with jailbreaks, desperate sea crossings and daring rescues do much to mitigate. Schroeder’s first effort is a well-wrought tribute to lives torn apart by war. (Mar.)

Smith’s plodding second historical novel (after A Rose for the Crown) opens in 1461 with 15-year-old Margaret of York mourning the deaths of her father, Richard, duke of York, and brother Edmund, recently slain in battle against the Lancastrians. Eldest brother Edward raises an army of his own, routs King Henry and Queen Margaret and marches into London, where he’s crowned king. The novel’s heroine falls in love with the married Sir Anthony Woodville, and their romance evolves slowly and passionately, though she is later married off to Charles, duke of Burgundy. Margaret’s new husband takes no pains to please her in bed or out of it, and she never bears any children. She keeps busy with court intrigue, though, as it falls to her to maintain the alliance between her husband and brother Edward. Smith’s sincere attempt to breathe life into two-dimensional historical personages is bogged down by superfluous detail and stilted dialogue. (Feb.)

Critically acclaimed in Australia, Kennedy made her first stateside splash last year in the New Yorker and now follows that up with this revelatory collection. Set mostly in unnamed Australian locales, the stories are particularly concerned with the plight of women in social arenas where they’re expected to be less than stellar, often for the sake of male egos. “Seizure” chronicles a woman realizing her live-in boyfriend’s emotional selfishness after she witnesses a kind stranger aid an epileptic man. “Wheelbarrow Thief” focuses on a beautiful, intelligent publicist who is reduced to a dinner party accessory by her professor boyfriend. And “The Testosterone Club” is a delicious revenge fantasy spearheaded by a wife who has had enough of her husband choosing his buddies over her. Other highlights include “Angel,” in which a Vietnamese refugee dissects alienation in Australia while striving to take care of a child. The title story is a vivid dissection of the inner turmoil of a 39-year-old woman dating a 26-year-old-man. And the pièce de résistance? That would be “Soundtrack,” an inspired, sublime take on family. Kennedy’s prose walks the line between sparse and lush, and she trusts that her readers welcome well-articulated ideas balanced with reassuring doses of mystery. (Feb.)

In this first book-length translation into English, Japanese author Ogawa’s three polished tales demonstrate her knack for a crafty, suspenseful hook. Each is narrated in the listless, emotionally remote voice of a young woman, such as the high schooler of the title story whose infatuation with her foster brother, Jun, prompts her to obsessively observe his diving practice. As the daughter of religious parents who run an orphanage, Aya feels alienated from the workings of the so-called Light House and finds an outlet for her frustration in romantic fantasy about Jun as well as in tormenting—shockingly—an orphan baby. The underhandedly creepy “Dormitory” is narrated by a Tokyo wife who begins nursing the ailing, armless one-legged manager at her old college dormitory. The manager’s increasingly alarming tale of love for one of the renters, now vanished, enthralls the wife. “Pregnancy Diary” offers a bit of levity, narrated by a young unmarried woman whose rage toward her pregnant sister take the form of cooking her grapefruit jam prepared from fruit treated with a chromosome-altering chemical. Ogawa’s tales possess a gnawing, erotic edge. (Feb.)

Chocolate is the glue that holds together a disparate group of London ladies in British writer Matthews’s frothy latest. When “secretary-aspiring-to-be-an-executive” Lucy Lombard discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her, she convenes an emergency meeting of the Chocolate Lovers’ Club at upscale chocolatier Chocolate Heaven. But Lucy isn’t the only one with a problem: Nadia, a stay-at-home Indo-Brit mom, has a husband with a gambling problem; Chantal, an American transplant journalist, has married into money and a loveless marriage; and old-money do-gooder Autumn’s shifty brother moves in with her, causing plenty of disruption to Autumn’s tranquil abode. As the dramas play out, Chantal gets the worst of it: her extramarital lover makes off with some of her expensive jewelry. Other romances alternately fizzle and sizzle as the chocoholics chow down on their confections and concoct a plot to get back Chantal’s jewelry. Though the narrative’s chocolate crutch can get tedious (sometimes very), the Brit humor and unexpected subplots are rewarding. (Feb.)

In this sweet contemporary romance, Meissner (A Window to the World) explores one woman’s response to rejection and hurt. When a man she’d trusted jilts Daisy Murien almost at the altar, bitterness colors every aspect of her world. Admirably, she parlays her betrayal into opening a secondhand bridal gown store, Something Blue, where each gown has a story and a tiny blue heart is sewn into the seams and blessed by Daisy’s friend and mentor, the elderly Father Laurent. When the kindly priest is felled by a heart attack, a new romantic interest (predictably) enters Daisy’s life. Lurking on the sidelines is a high school friend who may have feelings for Daisy, and a wealthy single Christian man who can’t seem to make the sparks fly. Meissner tells her story well, and her Christian themes are interwoven throughout with a deft touch. Readers will appreciate some fresh elements: an Ecuadorian couple that cooks for the apartment dwellers every Sunday, and the one gown in Daisy’s inventory she does not want to sell. The ending is well told if conventional, with all the loose ends neatly tied up, which should please fans of “happily ever after” romance novels. (Feb.)

At the start of the adrenaline-infused 10th thriller to feature DA Dismas Hardy (Dead Irish, etc.) from bestseller Lescroart, Hardy agrees to wrap up some of the caseload of a Bay Area lawyer who has mysteriously disappeared. After discovering that the lawyer was set to appeal an apparently straightforward murder case, Hardy realizes that the crime had its origins in Iraq, where the alleged killer and his victim first met. With the help of his old friend, Det. Abe Glitsky, Hardy learns that the victim, ex-navy SEAL Ron Nolan, was sleeping with the girlfriend of National Guard Reservist Evan Scholler, who was later convicted of killing Nolan. As Hardy and Glitsky dig deeper, they discover that Nolan had committed several murders himself, and it’s up to Dismas and Hardy to unravel the conspiracy that may have roots in the U.S. government. Lescroart weaves his trademark complicated yet fast-moving tale, full of believable characters and crisp dialogue. A first-rate addition to the author’s ongoing series, this should please both longtime readers and new fans. (Feb.)

Ahern tells the fantastical story of Sandy Shortt, a smalltown Irish girl who, at 10 years old, becomes obsessed with finding lost things after a neighborhood girl disappears. Sandy’s parents fret for years about her fixation, eventually finding her help in the form of hunky high school psychologist Gregory Burton. He’s not much older than Sandy, and soon enough they’re both smitten, though neither moves to pursue a romantic relationship until later, after Sandy graduates and moves to Dublin, where she tracks missing persons for a living. Gregory follows and they start and stall through an awkward courtship that’s cut short when Sandy, while on a jog, gets lost and winds up in a strange parallel universe, home to the people and things that have gone missing from the regular world. What happens to Sandy there, and to those she left behind, will determine not only her future but Gregory’s as well. Ahern jumps around in time and space, which adds as much confusion as suspense, but the underlying message about cherishing what you have comes through loudly by the end. That a film adaptation of Ahern’s P.S., I Love You is scheduled for release in late December can’t hurt sales potential. (Jan.)

The summer of 1973 in Moline, Ill., is enlivened and permanently marked for 15-year-old Jamie by the arrival of her charismatic, seen-it-all cousin, Fawn Delacorte, in McLain’s sure-handed if familiar debut novel (after the memoir Like Family). Abandoned by her parents as a baby, Jamie is a lonely, naïve teenager from Bakersfield, Calif., sent to live with her uncle Raymond after her grandmother falls sick. She falls under Dawn’s spell and embraces the dissolute life of layabout teenagers, brushing ever closer to the inevitable tragedy to come. McLain alternates her vivid first-person account of Jamie’s initially glorious summer with Raymond’s recollections of his fraught relationship with Suzette, his younger sister and Jamie’s mother. The echoes between past and present, Jamie and Suzette, and between Suzette and Fawn ring ever louder as the novel progresses, and protectors clash with those they vainly try to protect. McLain has a good ear for the dialogue of hormonally crazed, unpredictable teenagers. But 1970s childhoods are well-trod literary territory, and it feels as if this tale has already been told. (Jan.)

Downs’s third thriller to feature forensic entomologist Nick “Bug Man” Polchak (after 2004’s Chop Shop) stands out from the pack of CSI-inspired mysteries with its quirky hero and creative handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Polchak—an expert in using bugs to deduce the time and circumstances of death—is a member of DMORT, the disaster mortuary operational response team, used by FEMA to assist with mass casualties. As the deadly hurricane nears New Orleans, DMORT is called to the area, and Polchak soon finds himself locking horns with his superiors, who demand DMORT members make search and rescue their priority. After discovering several floating corpses with injuries pointing to deaths prior to Katrina, Polchak suspects that someone is using the disaster to conceal murder. He’s aided by J.T. Walker, a young man searching for his father amid the chaos, who manages to get through the emotional barriers Polchak has erected against the outside world. Downs’s sensitive evocation of the tragedy, combined with taut writing and well-developed characters, should gain him a wider audience and reward longtime Bug Man fans. (Jan.)

Emley’s compelling follow-up to 2006’s The First Cut finds homicide detective Nan Vining faced with a grisly double homicide in a Pasadena mansion. Physically but not psychologically healed from the vicious knife attack in The First Cut, Vining questions Mark Scoville, the homeowner’s business partner, who’s cooperative at first. But when he suddenly clams up and asks for a lawyer, Vining’s suspicions deepen. Discovering recent calls between Scoville and ex-con Jack Jenkins, Vining wonders if Jenkins misinterpreted Scoville’s sour comments about his partner as an invitation to a classic criss-cross murder scheme. Complicating matters, a mute vagrant is arrested carrying disturbing drawings hinting at Vining’s previous attack, as well as pointing to other victims. As she struggles to piece together the Scoville case, Vining also steps up her obsessive, private search for her assailant, whom she now fears is a serial killer. The tease of this ongoing subplot is underdeveloped, though Emley skillfully juggles several other plot lines. Readers will look forward to seeing more of this edgy, unpredictable heroine. (Jan.)

Steeped in the muggy summers and rich culture of Calabria, Abate’s American debut is the intoxicating story of a man’s lifelong obsession to raise from long-abandoned ruins a legendary family inn once visited by Alexandre Dumas. Giorgio Bellusci, born in 1927, is by middle age a relatively prosperous butcher and landowner who answer the demands of local gangsters for protection money with an outburst of murderous violence that sends him to prison. But his dream doesn’t die, and he begins work on the inn after being released. The gangsters, meanwhile, want their revenge and blow up the almost reconstructed Fondaco del Fico. With some creative fund-raising and the assistance of Florian, the novel’s narrator, the now elderly Giorgio succeeds in finishing his life’s work. Abate populates this magical novel with a cast of captivating, emotionally complex characters drawn from multiple generations and from across time, and recreates the rhythms of life in a small village with poetic affection. (Jan.)

Unbelievable characters and implausible situations undermine Vincent’s second novel, set seven years after the events in his debut, Mafia Summer (2005). Lt. Vinny Vesta—Hell’s Kitchen gang leader turned maverick fighter pilot—is enjoying the summer of 1957 stationed at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station pursuing the three Fs: fun, flying and fornication. But his hedonistic existence is temporarily sidetracked when a fellow aviator is killed while practicing formation aerobatics over the Atlantic. Ordered to shepherd the remains to the deceased pilot’s wife in California, Vesta is shocked when he encounters a redheaded femme fatale, Caitlin Pennington, who, instead of expressing grief for her recently deceased husband, invites Vesta into her bed. After a torrid affair, Vesta begins to feel the wrath of Pennington’s overly protective father—the powerful lawyer for a Los Angeles mob boss—who will do anything to keep his daughter’s budding Hollywood career on track. Featuring such real-life mob figures as Vito Genovese and Frank Costello in peripheral roles, Vincent’s newest isn’t so much a down-and-dirty gangland thriller as it is an unlikely love story with crime-fiction underpinnings. (Jan.)

In Bernhardt’s improbable 16th political thriller to feature Ben Kincaid (after 2007’s Capitol Threat), President Franklin Blake survives an audacious terrorist attack at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City, but the first lady does not. Kincaid, the junior Democratic senator from Oklahoma, finds himself backing a proposed constitutional amendment that would place vast emergency powers in the hands of a few men and allow for the suspension of most civil liberties. Kincaid’s new wife and chief of staff, Christina, works to identify those behind the new Oklahoma City outrage, a group that may include that genre staple, the corrupt insider. Besides getting details wrong (the Department of Homeland Security is led by a secretary, not a director), the author fails to give the Kincaids worthy adversaries (two Secret Service agents posing as lobbyists try to intimidate Christina with compromising photos of her husband, but one of them forgets to remove his Secret Service lapel pin). Some readers may regard this effort as an unhappy melding of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and the Patriot Act. (Jan.)

Sportswriter Falla knows a lot about hockey, and this novel is a hilarious look at how players, coaches and owners get through a grueling season in their quest for the trophy. Boston Bruins goaltender Jean Pierre Savard has no illusions about the hockey profession, and at age 31, Savard knows this year may be his best (and last) chance to win the Stanley Cup. He must deal with age, injuries and the grief of losing his young wife to cancer as he and best friend/teammate Cam Carter swagger across locker rooms and rink ice, avoiding hip checks and rocket slap shots. Savard and Carter have been tight for years and always thought they would win the Stanley Cup together, but when Savard is unexpectedly traded to the Montreal Canadiens, the two friends must play against each other in a rivalry neither likes. Savard’s life gets more complicated when he suffers two concussions, his hated and estranged father reappears and his girlfriend cross-checks their romance with an unexpected career move. Falla’s graphic portrayal of a violent sport (and its colorful players) and his insider’s view of how hockey is played, coached and officiated is exciting, surefire entertainment. (Jan.)

In the plodding first of a new psychic crime fighter trilogy from bestseller Hooper (Sleeping with Fear), Noah Bishop of the FBI’s Special Crimes Unit is now supervising an all-female team of civilian contractors known as Haven. Together, they track a serial killer who has moved his maniacal atrocities from Boston to a small town outside Atlanta, where he continues to kidnap, torture and kill women. Psychic Dani Justice, who can often predict the future through her dreams, becomes obsessed with the case. The investigation of the crimes gets lost amid lots of psychic babble by members of Haven, hand-wringing by the local police, and frequent snapshots of the killer with his victims. An abrupt ending doesn’t deliver on any of the trauma and drama that Justice’s dreams have predicted, though presumably readers will get satisfaction on that score in the next entry in the series. (Jan.)

Just in time for the Super Bowl is this debut suspense novel from a 14-year NFL place kicker and his Colorado pastor. The result yields some nice moments paired with problematic writing and improbable plot twists. Air Force 2d Lt. Riley Covington is given grace to play NFL football instead of serving out his military time, but he opts to return to active duty after a horrific stadium bombing. Hakeem Qasim is an Iraqi groomed for terrorism by tragic events in his childhood. The lives of both the squeaky-clean Christian Riley and the radical Muslim Hakeem intersect in a way that readers will see coming early in the novel. Rich details about life as an NFL player invigorate the story; the details become problematic when the story gets wordy (as in one long and unnecessary chapter toward the end of the book). Although the final safety deposit box plot twist is too easy, unexpected humor helps leaven the serious themes, and the sparks of romance that fly between Riley and an American Muslim woman will pique readers’ interest. (Jan.)

Martin’s brisk, enjoyable follow-up to Body Count finds FBI profiler Sophie Anderson facing the most disturbing case of her career. Sophie’s unique ability to visualize murder scenes at the moment of the crime still haunts her, as she finds herself unable to block heinous images of murders being committed. Her colleague, Det. Darren Carter of Tucson (Ariz.) Homicide, is the only person who knows about Sophie’s gift and how she uses it in her work. During their initial investigation of a recent homicide, Sophie and Darren realize that they are dealing with the rare phenomenon of a female serial killer. But as new murders occur, Sophie slowly figures out that she and Darren are faced with multiple serial killers working in unison, and she realizes that they must move fast to prevent the next murder. Martin provides solid entertainment as she takes a high-concept premise and runs with it. The narrative is fast-moving, the protagonists likable, the police detail and dialogue believable and the serial killers just as evil as they need to be. (Dec.)

Set mostly in Southern California, this topnotch thriller from bestseller Koontz (The Good Guy) depicts with unabashed emotion and wit the magical powers of golden retrievers—in particular, a female named Nickie, who will stop at nothing to save innocent children and protect their guardians. Amy Redwing, the survivor of a horrifying marriage, establishes Golden Heart to rescue golden retrievers, rehabilitate the abused ones and find “forever homes.” A supernatural chain of events ensues after Amy and her architect boyfriend, Brian McCarthy, rescue Nickie during a violent intervention in a family dispute. Soon the pair are on a mission that leads to a transformative confrontation with a number of ugly characters—Gunther Schloss, a frustrated aspiring novelist turned killer-for-hire; Moonglow, a psychobitch in the Mommie Dearest league; and Moonglow’s lover, Harrow, a self-obsessed sicko. This is the perfect book for thriller addicts who know the darkest hour is just before dawn and for canine lovers who remember “dog” spelled backwards is “god.” (Nov. 27)

Australian Hyland’s rewarding debut opens with half-aboriginal Emily Tempest returning to the Outback “blackfeller” camp of Moonlight Downs after years of traveling around the world. Just as Emily is settling in, her dear friend Lincoln Flinders, a highly respected community leader, is found strangled and missing a kidney. The mutilation points to the local sorcerer, Blakie Japanangka. Emily, with the help of police sergeant Tom McGillivray, tries to track down Blakie, who has escaped into the hills. When doubts about Blakie’s guilt arise, suspicion falls on several people connected to land ownership disputes, leading to a series of rather unbelievable action scenes. The true strength of this beautifully written novel lies in Emily’s ambivalent feelings about her culture and her complex interactions with Hazel Flinders, the murdered man’s daughter and Emily’s former best friend. Their relationship, and the way Emily moves between aboriginal and white society, provide the tension lacking in the mystery half of the plot. (Feb.)

Having already won an Edgar for his Inspector Shan series (The Skull Mantra, etc.), Pattison makes a strong bid for another with this outstanding mystery set in colonial America. Scottish prisoner Duncan McCallum, indentured to the Ramsey Company, is troubled by a series of mysterious deaths on the ship carrying him to the New World. When McCallum’s close friend Adam Munroe and a professor who was to work as a tutor are added to the list of the dead, McCallum, who has extensive medical training, is enlisted by the captain to investigate. The shipboard mysteries remain unresolved when they arrive in New York, and McCallum’s quest for the truth leads him to perilous encounters on both sides of the French and Indian War. Pattison’s moving characters, intricate plot and masterful evocation of the time, including sensitive depictions of the effects of the European war on Native Americans, set this leagues beyond most historicals and augur well for future entries in this series. (Jan.)

At the start of Meier’s charming 14th Lucy Stone mystery (after 2006’s Bake Sale Murder), the Pennysaver reporter is on her way to interview the new harbormaster of Tinker’s Cove, Maine, and relishing the unusually warm January day when she stumbles on a beheaded body at the end of the pier. The victim turns out to be Dan Malone, owner of the local dive bar. Lucy finds herself not only breaking the story but breaking the news to Dan’s brother, Dylan, a famous Irish actor in town to direct a play for the church’s centennial St. Patrick’s Day celebration. As Dylan’s daughter encourages Lucy’s little girl to believe in fairies and goblins, Lucy hunts for a very real killer. Warm and homespun characters, plenty of seaside ambience and a fast-moving plot make this a perfect winter cozy. (Jan.)

Set in 1920, Arruda’s captivating third Jade del Cameron mystery (after 2006’s Stalking Ivory) takes the feisty photojournalist and explorer to Morocco. Jade and her exceedingly proper mother, Inez, have agreed to meet in Tangier to try to mend their contentious relationship. When Inez is kidnapped, Jade’s desperate search leads her first to Marrakech and then to a Berber village high in the Atlas Mountains, dodging drug smugglers, slave traders and Jade’s old nemesis, Lilith Worthy. Arruda laces her story (sometimes a bit awkwardly) with the myths, history, customs and crafts of the people who live in Morocco and the Maghreb (“the land of the western sun”), particularly the little-known Berbers. Jade’s escapades should appeal to fans of Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody series or the Indiana Jones movies. (Jan.)

This well-paced thriller, the fourth installment of Carter’s gritty procedural series featuring London Det. Sgt. Bev Morriss, neatly blends two compelling plot lines. Schoolboy Daniel Page has been abducted, apparently by someone he knows who also managed to successfully pass for his mother, Jenny. Morriss struggles with post-traumatic stress and panic attacks as the hunt for the child becomes more frantic. Meanwhile, her fellow detectives are investigating the seemingly accidental deaths of retired police officers who shared a past with Morriss’s crusty boss, Superintendent Byford. After an autopsy reveals that one of the retirees had been poisoned with insulin before his fatal plunge, suspicions focus on a major gangster whose son was killed during a police chase. Morriss is the only really developed character, complex enough to make up for everyone else’s relative simplicity. Carter deliberately gives away one criminal’s motives, but leaves plenty of surprises for the reader to enjoy. (Jan.)

In Stanley’s delicious third supper club mystery to feature the “Flab Five” (after 2007’s Fit to Die), lovable librarian James, newly svelte deputy-in-training Lucy, trivia maven Bennett, spaced-out herbalist Gillian and self-effacing high school teacher Lindy sign up for a Mexican/Spanish-themed Fix ’n’ Freeze cooking class in Quincy Gap, Va. Their classmates include Shenandoah Star-Ledger editor Murphy Alistair and her old college friends, drop-dead gorgeous twins Parker and Kinsley Willis. When Parker is murdered during a school field trip to Luray Caverns, the amateur sleuths vow to catch the killer. Spicing the proceedings are James’s struggles to lower his salt intake, recover from his stormy breakup with Lucy and figure out what to do with a winning lottery ticket found in the library book drop. Heavy on fun, light on gore, this savory mystery comes complete with yummy recipes. (Jan.)

British author Norman makes up for a pedestrian start with a mind-blowing ending in this sequel to 1999’s Mind Games that brings back Sam Becket, an African-American homicide detective; Becket’s wife, child psychologist Grace Lucca; and their adopted daughter, Cathy. After someone viciously bludgeons janitor Rudolph Muller to death on a Miami beach, a crime accompanied by some bestial howls of rage that sounded less than human, Becket takes on the case. Soon other victims surface, both in and out of Becket’s jurisdiction, but the main suspect proves to be disturbingly close to home: ambitious rookie cop Teresa Suarez, the attractive but obsessed girlfriend of Becket’s younger brother, Saul. Despite merely adequate prose, Norman pulls off the rare feat of unveiling the killer mid-book, maintaining tension and suspense by revealing an unexpected but logical plot twist. Her fearless willingness to kill off sympathetic characters and explore the dark side of the human psyche should earn her some new fans. (Jan.)

At the start of Mortimer’s winning new novella to feature Horace Rumpole (after 2006’s Rumpole and the Reign of Terror), the quirky English barrister agrees to defend 12-year-old Peter Timson, who’s been served with an “Anti-social Behaviour Order” (ASBO) for playing soccer in the streets of a posh London neighborhood. Later, Rumpole takes on a more serious case: a shy civil servant, Graham Wetherby, stands accused of murdering a prostitute, an illegal Russian immigrant. Since Wetherby prefers to be represented by a “QC” or Queens Counsel, Rumpole schemes to become a QC in an amusing subplot. Rumpole fans will cheer the barrister’s vigorous defense of his clients as well as his cutting comments on the nanny state that gives rise to laws like ASBOs. As always, the character of Rumpole overshadows the mystery solving: his hedonistic pleasure in food and drink, his acerbic, manipulative wit and his love for the legal underdog. Wife Hilda—“She Who Must Be Obeyed”—narrates the occasional chapter to great comic effect. (Dec.)

The solid third Throne of Amenkor novel (after 2006’s The Cracked Throne) delivers plenty of action and intrigue. Varis, the ruling Mistress of Amenkor, struggles to rebuild Amenkor’s defenses and economy after a devastating attack by the seafaring Chorl. Varis was only able to save Amenkor by destroying the Skewed Throne, Amenkor’s ancient seat of protective power, and now must rely on her own inner resources. Meanwhile, her mentor, Erick, tortured by the Chorl, lies near death. The arrival of a ship from the southern port city of Venitte brings the hope of alliance, especially if Varis can locate the Stone Throne, built to protect Venitte, but mysteriously lost centuries earlier. The hope that a lord in Venitte may be able to heal Erick pushes Varis to travel there, even as Chorl forces are on the move at sea and on land. Palmatier’s intriguing characters and complex setting continue to entertain in this deservedly successful fantasy series. (Jan.)

Huston’s third Joe Pitt vampire novel (after Already Dead and No Dominion) takes his Manhattan-based hard-boiled hero on a dangerous trip into the undead communities across the bridge in Brooklyn. The various vampire clans in New York are on the brink of conflict. Leadership has fallen apart, and to make things worse, a “Van Helsing” is running amok and has recently murdered a longtime supplier of contraband blood. Worst of all, Pitt’s AIDS-stricken girlfriend, Evie, is in the hospital failing fast. Once again, he’s faced with an almost classical dilemma: infecting her with the vampire virus will destroy the illness that’s killing her, but she’ll be a vampire. Sent to Brooklyn to meet with a rogue clan of carnival freak vampires, Pitt ends up battling a group of radical Jewish bloodsuckers called the lost tribe of Gibeah. As always, Huston’s formidable writing chops are on full display: his action scenes are unparalleled in crime fiction and his dialogue is so hip and dead-on that Elmore Leonard should be getting nervous. (Dec.)

Scattershot plotting and puzzling theology notwithstanding, there’s much to like in Gilman’s first novel, fantasy set in the ever-shifting city of Ararat. Once a gifted composer in the distant city of Gad, Arjun has come to Ararat seeking the intangible Voice. Instead, he finds a city filled with other gods, streets that resist being mapped and citizens touched in varying ways by the passing of the mysterious Bird. Gilman’s literary antecedents are intriguingly diverse. Ararat itself fuses elements of Renaissance Venice and Victor Hugo’s Paris. Arjun’s search leads at times into gaslight-era SF à la Jules Verne, at others into distinctly Poe-like horror, while a secondary plot transforms street youth Jack into a hybrid of Peter Pan and Dickens’s Artful Dodger. Impressively, the whole remains essentially coherent, though just how and why Ararat’s gods behave as they do is unclear, and parts of the convoluted climax rely too heavily on underexplained aspects of the city’s nature. Nonetheless, strongly conveyed atmosphere and intriguing characters make this a distinctive debut. (Dec.)

Though supposedly the last volume of Clarke and Baxter’s Time Odyssey series (after 2005’s Sunstorm), this intriguing and frustrating installment of the high-octane space opera ends with an astounding cliffhanger just as humans have begun to confront the ancient and super-powerful Firstborn, who attack any species that might become a rival. Having barely survived a Firstborn-created solar flare, Earth now must cope with a meteor bomb approaching from deep space. Tensions rise between secretive, paranoid forces on Earth and equally suspicious groups among the Spacers, whose identification with humanity’s home is waning. Meanwhile, in a pocket universe created by the Firstborn for some inscrutable purpose, slices from different Terran eons nervously adjust to each other. The narrative leaps about too much to develop characters, but Clarke has never been as interested in individuals as in humanity’s ability to accept change as a species. It’s too early to tell whether that theme will be enough to carry the story to a coherent conclusion. (Dec.)

This offbeat and somewhat self-indulgent novella from Disch (The Businessman) seeks to draw some parallels between the current Bush administration and the ancient Greeks (Agamemnon “was the George Bush of 1100 B.C.”), but his political message is lost in a muddled plot. A fictional version of the author travels back in time to the post–Trojan War era and becomes a passenger on the boat Proteus. While cruising the Mediterranean, “Tom” encounters Cassandra, Homer and Socrates and solves a riddle familiar to anyone who knows the Oedipus story. Tom holds forth to Cassandra on the technological marvels of modern life and the crassness of commercialism, but the resulting satire is mild at best. (Dec.)

Introducing this collection of macabre fiction, Gavin (Charnel Wine) writes of his fascination with nightmares that make us feel as though “we are being dreamed.” The dozen stories he has gathered effectively convey that feeling through their disorienting shifts of perspective, outré imagery and twisted internal logic. “In the Shadow of the Nodding God” tells of a working-class drudge who’s horrified to discover that the imaginary world he creates with collages has begun erupting into his everyday reality. “The Pale Lover” describes an esoteric bookstore whose pornographic wares hold the secret of a seductive succubus. “The Bellman’s Way” unfolds as a traditional tale of supernatural menace in which a family newly moved to a rural neighborhood discovers the terrible price of refusing tribute to one of its bogies. Gavin writes in an old-fashioned style that suits the gothic horrors he conjures. Readers of antiquarian ghost tales and classic horror fiction will find this book a fine extension of those traditions. (Dec.)

Reprinted for the first time since its pseudonymous publication nearly 50 years ago, this tour of the 1950s Manhattan underworld begins with Anita, a good college girl with a bright but predictable future, who comes to Greenwich Village to find what else is out there. Block’s New York is a noir wonderland, populated with junkies and beatsters (the dark predecessor to the modern hipster) spouting angular tough-guy dialogue, in which Anita plays curious, confused Alice. Down the rabbit hole, she meets Joe, an aimless loser, and his roommate, Shank, a violent drug dealer whose earnings provide them with a life of leisure. When psychopathic Shank murders a cop, however, they all go on the run toward an uncertain fate. Block effortlessly immerses himself in the mind space of Joe and Shank, reporting their world of drugs, sex and disaffection with a matter-of-factness that hits hard, all the more convincing because Block never makes an overt effort to convince. A potboiler morality play at its finest, the novel doesn’t deliver much action until its last third, but the slow build of the first two will give readers the delicious (and all-too-rare) feeling that anything could happen. (Jan.)

In Martin’s newest, the second in her Heart Trilogy (after Heart of Honor), writer and aristocrat Coralee Whitmore is in mourning for her late sister, Laurel, believed to be a suicide. Brave, impetuous Coralee, however, suspects foul play, and so she starts an investigation of Grayson Forsythe, Earl of Tremaine, the man she suspects was her sister’s lover. Disguised as Forsythe’s impoverished cousin, Coralee gains admittance to his world and discovers that things are not what they seem—especially her own feelings for the roguish earl. A night of passion and a dollop of danger kick the smart, sexy protagonists into high gear, though they play off each other superbly from the start. Martin’s Victorian is blessed with a strong plot and a rich supporting cast of family and friends, making this fun, full romance a surefire crowd pleaser. (Jan.)

After three boys accidentally awaken an ancient evil near their small Maryland town, the tight-knit community finds itself lost to a Stephen King–style plague of madness and destruction for a week every seven years. Twenty-one years later, those three boys, now grown, are hoping to find a way to stop the evil before its third return, which may mean the end of the town; they don’t know much about the “anomalies,” but they do know that “[e]very time it gets stronger.” This time, the town is graced by author Quinn Black, eager to document the paranormal mystery. When two more women arrive—one an associate of Quinn’s, the other led to town by strange visions—the circle of six decide to face the oncoming apocalypse together. Hyperprolific bestseller Roberts frontloads her story with drama and endearing characters (especially in Quinn and bowling alley owner Caleb Hawkins), but an abundance of exposition and domestic concerns (protagonists decorate a house, trade banter and pair off predictably) slow the plot significantly. Though future volumes are sure to pick up, this trilogy kickoff suffers from a dearth of twists and little payoff; fans of the brisk, colorful Roberts style will enjoy the ride, though probably not as much as they’d expect. (Dec.)

Setting aside the centuries of warfare between them, the Demons (paranormal but neither Biblical nor evil) and Lycanthropes are working together to defeat the Necromancers, who threaten both their races. When Demon warrior captain Elijah is nearly killed in an ambush, he is rescued and restored by none other than Siena, the Lycanthrope queen. Before long they discover a powerful attraction, but Siena fears that giving in to love will mean relinquishing her power. After the heavy world-building in Frank’s last two Nightwalker books (Jacob and Gideon), newcomers may struggle to keep straight the various paranormals and their powers; they’ll be more comfortable in the romance department, which proves steamy in the extreme, occasionally bordering on deep purple. Both leads are strong, and Frank grants her hero a refreshing measure of insight into the relationship. What works even better is the camaraderie that develops between the Nightwalker “tribes,” as Frank plunges deeper into her dark world. (Dec.)

American readers will not recognize Robinson’s name, but he can best be explained as the British version of American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, a specialist in visualizing absurdly complex combinations of low-tech devices arranged to perform simple tasks. This was also the specialty of cartoonist and illustrator Robinson, who was born a decade earlier, in 1872. It seems that in Britain “a Heath Robertson contraption” means the same thing that a “Rube Goldberg machine” does in the States. Oddly, editor Geoffrey Beare never mentions Goldberg in his introduction; perhaps Goldberg is as unknown in the U.K. as Robinson is here. Beare points to Robinson’s skills as both artist and satirist. Robinson often depicts scenes from a low angle and gives them an epic scale, endowing his nonsensical machines with an ironic grandeur while mocking the indolence of the modern man, who would rather rely on gadgetry than perform a simple task himself. Through his cartoons Robinson conveys his own sheer joy in his amazing visual imagination. These cartoons are not laugh-out-loud funny, but are consistently inventive and amusing. The reader may find himself in the position of the black cat who turns up in numerous Robinson cartoons, quietly observing the follies of humanity, fascinated by them. (Nov.)

Between the opening note of perverse sexuality and the touching tribute to the permanence of true love at the end, murder, time travel and alternate futures fill in the second act of this astonishing graphic novel. Such a tale could only be penned by Jason, the Norwegian cartoonist who mixes outré fantasy with deadpan romanticism. As in all his books, this one is populated exclusively by a cast of lanky anthropomorphic animals. The setting is a world where hit man is just another job; the hero has a dissatisfied girlfriend and a boring job knocking off people who are merely annoying—a too loud neighbor, an overbearing boss. But as usual in Jason’s work, the story soon veers off in an unexpected direction when the protagonist is hired to go back in time to kill Adolf Hitler via a time machine that takes 50 years to fully charge. He only has one chance, but messes up, allowing Hitler to come to the present day. The story—perhaps inspired by the French time travel film La Jetée—takes on even more unusual twists from there, before reaching a surprising and completely satisfying denouement that solves both the hero’s relationship problems and World War II. Jason continues to be one of the best cartoonists working anywhere. (Oct.)

A bored 15-year-old yearns for excitement and gets more than he can handle in this inaugural volume. Kakeru has the house to himself for the summer, but his quiet existence of computer games and porn is interrupted by a spectral girl, who draws him to a house where he meets two young psychics with telekinetic powers. The house is invaded by armed “Farmers”—men tasked with retrieving the psychics and locating their missing leader, Joi. Kakeru may be psychic himself, although he has no idea what his powers are; a series of confrontations with rogue psychics hint that he is either very powerful or very lucky (or perhaps both). Most of the volume is devoted to setting up the story, although there are a few spectacular fight scenes that make ample use of movement and sound. Visually the book is consistent if run-of-the-mill; most manga conventions are present, and the artwork seldom attempts anything out of the ordinary. This is a solid beginning to a story, and if it runs anywhere near as long as Aoki’s previous epic, GetBackers, it will have plenty of time to turn into something engrossing. (Oct.)

Veitch is one of comics’ most deeply cracked satirists, and the concept behind his new series is as bizarre as they come: a forced coupling of romantic soap opera and war-story action, bound together with a heavy dose of tar-black comedy about the corrupting force of globalized American capitalism. It’s set a few years in the future, when America’s war in “Afbaghistan” has gotten a shot in the arm from its “Motivation & Morale” division, which is in charge of making military service irresistibly sexy to thrill-seeking youth. (The Hot Zone Club is for people who’ve had the “ultimate peak experience” of sex under fire.) The central romance plot concerns a sleazy stage magician/soldier named Flabbergast, whose lover chats on a cellphone with her husband during firefights; the story’s overcrowded with dozens of subplots and minor characters, including a secretary of war who collects celebrity hair clippings and a military-robot operator with Down syndrome who’s got a mother so overbearing she intimidates insurgent raiders. Veitch’s lacerating writing riffs on clichés both military and erotic—usually both at once—and his artwork does the same, conflating the glamorous lushness of fashion ads with the scrappy precision of combat journalism and vintage war comics. (Oct.)

It’s one of modern pop culture’s great mysteries: What happened after The Graduate’s Ben and Elaine busted out of Elaine’s church wedding and fled the world of hypocritical convention personified by her mother, Mrs. Robinson? In this sequel to his seminal 1963 novel, Webb’s droll answer is that, 11 years on, they’ve settled down to a quiet suburban life in New York’s Westchester County. Their sole antiestablishment gesture is to home-school their sons, Matt and Jason, using progressive educational nostrums that lead to open-minded debates over Jason’s desire to study the French Revolution by building a backyard guillotine. When a crisis arises that only her legendary wiles can resolve, Mrs. Robinson—now primly called Nan—re-ensconces herself in their lives and guest room. Horrified, Ben and Elaine figure that a dose of the counterculture will expel the dragon lady, so they invite into the house a family of hippie home-schoolers so organic that the mother still breast-feeds her seven-year-old daughter. Armed only with his stammering earnestness, Ben tries to protect his family from an improbable alliance between Nan and the let-it-all-hang-out ’70s. (“That was exactly right, the best possible response,” he reassures Jason after the lad gently declines a swig of breast milk.) Webb crafts both a wicked sendup of the post-Vietnam cultural revolution and an acute satire of the romantic associations surrounding his characters and the generation-defining film, slyly suggesting that Ben and Elaine are the squarest people of all. (Jan.)