Fiction Reviews: Week of 12/3/2007

This debut page-turner from Australian Morton recounts the crumbling of a prominent British family as seen through the eyes of one of its servants. At 14, Grace Reeves leaves home to work for her mother's former employers at Riverton House. She is the same age as Hannah, the headstrong middle child who visits her uncle, Lord Ashbury, at Riverton House with her siblings Emmeline and David. Fascinated, Grace observes their comings and goings and, as an invisible maid, is privy to the secrets she will spend “a lifetime pretending to forget.” But when a filmmaker working on a movie about the family contacts a 98-year-old Grace to fact-check particulars, the memories come swirling back. The plot largely revolves around sisters Hannah and Emmeline, who were present when a family friend, the young poet R.S. Hunter, allegedly committed suicide at Riverton. Grace hints throughout the narrative that no one knows the real story, and as she chronicles Hannah's schemes to have her own life and the curdling of younger Emmeline's jealousy, the truth about the poet's death is revealed. Morton triumphs with a riveting plot, a touching but tense love story and a haunting ending. (Apr.)

Though she's methodically navigated 36 years by making lists and plans, D.C. resident Prudence Whistler's carefully constructed life is about to get shaken up. She's let go from the nonprofit job that never did much to fulfill her in the first place. Then Rudy—who she's finally decided will suffice as “The One”—condescendingly dumps her. But before she has too much time to stew, her loved ones rally 'round: catty, coupled college friends; her younger sister, Patsy, the unmarried mother of a two-year-old; and John Owen, the in-divorce-proceedings diner owner Pru first encounters while schlepping Rudy's television out to the curb. This crew's the catalyst for a series of adventures and lifestyle shakeups that has retail-addict Pru wondering whether her love for fashion could deliver more than the latest Marc Jacobs dress. And then there's the ongoing coffee klatch at John's diner that inspires the big question: is Pru in the market for “getting-each-other-through-a-bad-time-love” with John, or is it time to stick her neck out for “real-love love”? Readers may find Pru's early bad luck streak contrived, but as her lovable friends and neighbors spring into action, the well-written story rounds out and rolls toward a satisfying finish. (Apr.)

In n+1 founding editor Gessen's first novel, three college graduates grapple with 20th-century history at the dawn of the 21st century while trying—with little success—to forge literary careers and satisfying relationships. Mark is working on his doctoral dissertation on Roman Sidorovich, “the funny Menshevik,” but after the failure of his marriage, he's distracted by online dating and Internet porn. Sam tries to write the Great Zionist Novel, but his visits to Israel and the occupied territories are mostly to escape a one-sided romance back in Cambridge. And Keith is a liberal writer who has a difficult time separating the personal from the political. Less a novel than a series of loosely connected vignettes, the humor supposedly derives from the arch disconnect between the great historic events these three characters contemplate and the petty failures of their literary and romantic strivings. But it is difficult to differentiate—and thus to care about—the three developmentally arrested protagonists who, very late in the novel, take baby steps toward manhood. There's plenty of irony on tap and more than a few cutting lines, but the callow cast and listless narrative limit the book's potential. (Apr.)

Wolff's first story collection, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (1981), was a major salvo in the short story renaissance that included Raymond Carver. The 10 spare, elegant new stories here, collected with 21 stories from Wolff's three previous collections, are as good as anything Wolff has done. In most, there is a moment of realization, less a startling epiphany than a distant, gradual ache of understanding, that changes how the character looks at the world. The retired, 41-year-old female Marine of “A Mature Student,” compares her female professor's experiences in Communist-era Prague and her own son's service in Iraq. “Deep Kiss” movingly chronicles the fractious results when a teenaged boy, infatuated with a promiscuous classmate, neglects to bond with his dying father. A hilarious description of a brash, ignorant thug in “Her Dog” shows Wolff's gift for demotic speech. In an author's note, Wolff says that since he has never considered any of his stories “sacred texts,” he has edited some “clumsy or superfluous” passages in earlier works. In all the stories, Wolff expertly uses irony and empathy to explore facets of contemporary life. (Mar.)

The small dramas of teenage love get caught in the crosswinds of a war in this sequel to the 2001 bestseller Jim the Boy. It's late summer 1941, and Jim Glass, now a high school senior, has an earnest, unshakable passion for classmate Chrissie Steppe. But as straightforward as his feelings are, the circumstances of his nascent romance are complex: Chrissie's family is indebted to their landlord, whose sailor son Bucky claimed Chrissie as his girl before shipping out to serve on the USS California at Pearl Harbor. Throughout Jim's fraught final year at school, he relies on the advice of his uncles, but after Pearl Harbor is bombed, they can't protect him from the war's toll. Questions of patriotism, sexuality and poverty weave their way into a narrative that's deceptive in its simplicity: the growing pains that Jim and his friends experience pack a startling emotional punch. (Mar.)

Edgy and erotic, Grant's second novel (after The Passion of Alice) runs a complex story of urban racial conflict through a YA-feeling filter. The year is 1974, and 16-year-old Ann Ahern has a crush on her French teacher, the Senegalese Mademoiselle Eugenie. It is not the gender of her crush that troubles Ann—she has long known she likes girls—but rather the color of Mademoiselle's skin. The backdrop of Ann's adolescence is the desegregation of south Boston public schools, and the sight of black faces in her school fills her with equal parts resentment and lust; her response to this confusion takes the form of a light pyromania, and as racial strife worsens, it is clear that Ann has wandered into a conflict between the Black Panthers and several racist groups. When a gang of white kids torch Mademoiselle Eugenie's car, Ann embarks on an adventure that awakens her conscience and sexual identity. Grant is most successful in depicting Ann's internal coming-of-age, but the world outside Ann's head is frequently elusive, and her final acting out may crush any sympathy readers feel toward her. (Mar.)

This California noir, Thomas's first novel, fails to deliver on its promising opening. When smalltime crook Robert Rivers and his partner, Switch, rob the Cow Town, a restaurant owned by Orange County entrepreneur Lewis McFadden, they discover more than a lot of cash in the safe. A photograph of a naked Vietnamese girl who looks like an underage teenager suggests McFadden is into the flesh trade. While Switch is out of town, Rivers and his biker friend Reggie England break into McFadden's house, where they find the Vietnamese girl, Song, tied to a bed. After they bring Song back to Switch's place, England rapes her while Rivers is gone. Soon afterward, Rivers has sex with Song, who's actually 19, that might or might not be consensual. These scenes not only undermine sympathy for Rivers, they also conflict with the subtlety of earlier chapters. From then on—through Song's recapture by McFadden, a sex slave auction and an unconvincing final chapter involving the revelations of Rivers's landlady—overblown sex and violence hijack the plot. 5-city author tour. (Mar.)

Two travelers from different corners of the world discover that they have more in common than meets the eye in Samartin's smart second novel (after Broken Paradise). Shunned by her small Mexican village for a birthmark (it covers her back and legs) considered to be the work of the devil, Jamilet Juárez sneaks across the border to live with her aunt in Los Angeles, where she plans on saving up enough money to pay for the birthmark's removal. Once in L.A., Jamilet scores illegal papers and takes a job in a mental hospital supervising the cunning and cantankerous Señor Peregrino, who, in short order, snatches Jamilet's forged papers and ransoms them. The price: she has to listen to his stories. As the old man reminisces about his adventurous pilgrimage to the landmark Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Jamilet tries to forge a life independent of the mark that once defined her. Samartin is at her best when it comes to matters of the heart, portraying the anguish of lost love and the thrill of a young woman's first crush with the same dexterity. A few story elements are left dangling, and the ending is abrupt for such an ambitiously assembled tale, but Samartin's rich storytelling overpowers the faults. (Mar.)

In Blew's commendable fiction debut, Corey Henry is fired from her Montana middle school teaching job after striking a taunting student, 13-year-old Ariel Doggett. Heading into her 60s with diminished hopes, Corey faces further trials when her 80-year-old father, a decorated WWII vet and former rodeo star named Loren, commits suicide. Then Ariel's opportunistic father, Hailey Doggett, sues Corey for assaulting his daughter and turns out to be a lot more than merely greedy. Corey's lifelong passion to paint helps keep her grounded during the strife. When the tables turn on the Doggetts, Corey has a further role to play in their lives. Corey's imagined arguments with her late curmudgeonly dad, who has his disenchanted say on the condition of present-day Montana, slow things down, but Blew's distinctive narrative voice and knack for description keep the story on track. (Mar.)

The fourth installment in Moyer's marvelous Lucy Hatch series (after Heartbreak Town) is as refreshing as an icy cold Coke on a hot afternoon in northeast Texas. The fortunes of cowgirl Lucy Hatch have been up and down since her husband, singer/songwriter Ash Farrell, lost his recording contract and hightailed it home to Mooney, Tex. (pop. 990), to reunite with Lucy and son Jude. Not that Lucy doesn't appreciate his renewed commitment (and his handyman abilities), but she knows he has plenty of problems, and his creative block isn't helping things, nor is the fact that Lucy's job at a flower shop is in peril. Also complicating matters is the whirlwind arrival of Lucy's pregnant stepdaughter, Denny Culpepper, a rising country star who caught her husband cheating on her. Lucy and Denny realize their lives are falling apart, and pulling together means accepting change and, sometimes, making hard decisions. Austinite Moyer captures smalltown Texas life with a sure touch, offering insights about how families survive. (Feb.)

Jesse Stone trades quips with his deputies, Suitcase Simpson and Molly Crane; struggles with his relationship with his ex-wife, Jenn; and grapples with a criminal's return in bestseller Parker's sizzling seventh novel to feature the Paradise, Mass., police chief (after 2007's High Profile). Ex-con Wilson “Crow” Cromartie, who claims to be Apache and who eluded the police after a shootout 10 years earlier in Trouble in Paradise (1998), wants Stone not to interfere in his search for someone in Massachusetts. A Florida mob bigwig, Louis Francisco, has hired Crow to kill his ex-wife and kidnap his 14-year-old daughter, Amber, but Crow has a policy of not harming women. In the end, Stone does more than leave Crow alone; he decides to make sure Amber, who's involved with a Latino gang, gets a chance, however slim, to overcome the odds stacked against her. Stone and Crow make an appealing odd couple as they first warily size each other up then become grudging allies in the pursuit of justice. (Feb.)

Philadelphia attorney Mary DiNunzio, last seen in Killer Smile (2004), agrees to help her high school nemesis, Trish Gambone, at the start of this less than convincing thriller from bestseller Scottoline. Trish, whom Mary used to regard as “the quintessential Mean Girl,” has turned in desperation to the lawyer, “the all-around Most Likely to Achieve Sainthood” at St. Maria Goretti High School, because she wants to escape from her abusive, and possibly Mafia-connected boyfriend, Bobby Mancuso. Trish rejects Mary's practical suggestions for dealing with Bobby, but once Trish disappears, Mary finds herself under pressure from other high school classmates as well as people from her old neighborhood who blame her for not doing enough. Mary unwisely hides a connection with Bobby from the Feds, who then shut her out of the search for Trish when they learn of it. Scottoline fans will cheer Mary as she stumbles toward the solution, but others may have trouble suspending disbelief. (Feb.)

Dorsey's 10th novel to feature Serge A. Storms and Coleman (after 2007's Hurricane Punch) offers sex, violence, more violence and Three Stooges–like action. After meeting up with Rachael, a stripper and drug addict, Serge and Coleman, bored and broke, take a Florida road trip. Meanwhile, several other characters, destined to converge, start their own treks: killer Tex McGraw, sprung from prison with revenge on his mind; empty-nesters Jim and Martha Davenport, seeking a little excitement; the “G-Unit,” a group of investing grannies who like to cruise; three American drug dealers and three Mexican drug dealers, with a new smuggling operation; and two Davis Islands residents, one a famous ex-football player. Recurring fave Johnny Vegas pops up, too, along with several government agencies. While Dorsey's brand of comedy isn't for the faint of heart, this fast-moving, raucous tale delivers its usual punch while gleefully skewering everyone and everything along the way. (Feb.)

Set in 1990, Mina's superb third thriller to feature Paddy Meehan (after 2006's Edgar-finalist The Dead Hour) finds the Glaswegian journalist embroiled in the most politically charged and personal story of her career. When the corpse of Meehan's ex-lover, journalist Terry Hewitt, turns up in the countryside near Port Glasgow, everything points to an IRA execution. After Meehan discovers that Terry willed her his notes and a house in the country, she decides to investigate his murder. Distracted by the imminent parole of Callum Ogilvy—the young cousin of her ex-fiancé convicted for his role in a child's murder in Field of Blood (2005)—Meehan soon realizes that everyone from the Scottish police to the IRA is intent on keeping the motive for Terry's death a secret. When Terry's colleague is killed and her own young son is threatened, Meehan knows she must uncover the men responsible before she becomes their next victim. This gripping read, with its intricate plotting and realistic regional dialogue, will leave even the most astute reader guessing until the end. (Feb.)

Andrews (Savannah Breeze; Hissy Fit) delivers a trademark romance set in her native Deep South. Gina Foxton is a 30-year-old chef with a health-conscious approach to classic Southern fare whose public access cooking show gets canceled when the show's big sponsor pulls out after finding the show's producer (and Gina's boyfriend) in bed with his wife. So news that the Cooking Channel is looking to add a new show is a welcome development. The producers are also interested in another local cooking show called Vittles, hosted by “Kill It and Grill It” Tate Moody. The competition between Gina and Tate ramps up when the network decides to turn their competition into a reality show. The close quarters and competition create the right atmosphere for the two chefs to fall in love, though things never get too racy. Andrews takes a long time to get the romance off the ground, but when it starts moving, it moves fast. Andrews's readership will eat this one up. (Feb.)

Hacker (Morpheus; The Lifeguard) entwines the lives of three unusual households in post-9/11 suburban London. Isabelle and Jakob are 30-something German newlyweds who move to Britain after Jakob takes the job of a colleague killed on 9/11. Jakob is an attorney and Isabelle is an artist and wanderer, and their relationship, built hastily in the aftermath of 9/11 (Jakob was at the Trade Center on September 10 for business, and he met Isabelle the next day back in Germany; his colleague stayed behind in New York), has trouble reaching equilibrium. Next door lives Sara, a young girl with developmental problems who is abused by her parents and finds comfort in her cat, Polly. Meanwhile, Jim, a gruff drug dealer squatting in a house down the block, has taken a fancy to Isabelle, who reminds him of his missing girlfriend. Hacker plumbs the dark psyches of her characters—their capacities for violence, their desires and uncertainties and their guilt and shame—as Sara's home life worsens, eventually involving the neighbors. Hacker's prose, aided by Atkins's pristine translation, soars, particularly in her treatment of city and bourgeois life, and though her characters sometimes act inexplicably, she admirably explores modern urban life from the unsettled haves to the desperate have-nots. (Feb.)

Cyber geek meets seductive spy girl in this feverish Silicon Valley thriller from Swift (Triangle). Half-French, half-Algerian Ani Sharif, whose parents were murdered by extremists 10 years earlier when she was at a private girls' school in Algiers, has joined the United States Security Agency. On her first undercover assignment, Ani must uncover who's selling Defense Department cyber secrets to foreign governments. The prime suspect is Richard “Baby Rex” Rexford of Rexford.com, where Ani lands a programming job by playing the part of an opportunistic cyber pirate. Her mission is to hack into Richard's home laptop and locate incriminating evidence. What she doesn't bargain for is falling in love with this possible traitor. Swift delivers a fast-paced romantic romp as the spy games escalate into erotic games, testing Ani's faith in her ability to separate business from pleasure. Swift's brisk narrative offers an unusual blend of romantic suspense and cyber crime. (Feb.)

Bodman, a former Reagan deputy press secretary and NSC senior director, makes little use of her inside knowledge of Washington, D.C., in her second near-future political thriller to feature computer whiz Cameron “Cammy” Talbot. Scant months after Talbot managed to avert a war between India and Pakistan by deploying a technology she invented in Checkmate (2007), the White House taps her to develop an antimissile device to restore public confidence in plane travel after a series of midair explosions aboard commercial aircraft. Meanwhile, the attractive scientist's former lover, Lt. Col. Hunt Daniels, and the widowed vice president, Jayson Keller, are both pursuing Talbot. The book's romantic scenes bring the action to a screeching halt. The forces behind the air disasters make several amateurish attempts on Cammy's life, but she predictably survives to save the day. Romantic suspense readers will be more rewarded than Tom Clancy fans. (Feb.)

A conniving character given to getting into steamy situations on the daytime soap All My Children, the fictional Kendall Hart is here given a novelist's voice, and the ghostwriter (or writers) who produced this sticky tie-in get it right. The novel's conceit is that the book is Kendall Hart's roman à clef, written to set All My Children's town of Pine Valley on its ear. Kendall Hart's stand-in for this fiction (i.e., the fictional author Kendall's fictional avatar in the novel) is a sweet yet assertive young woman, Avery Wilkins, who runs her own New York–based cosmetics company, Flair, and is launching a new perfume—Charm!—that she hopes will put her on the map. When Avery first founded the company with financial backer Finn Adams, a softhearted smart man she later fell in love with, she never thought that he would die and leave his share of the company to his Paris Hilton–type daughter, Parker. Parker's drug and alcohol binging at late-night glitterati parties endanger the reputation of Flair and its new perfume, and a mysterious phone call to Avery from a manipulative woman claiming to be Avery's mother (a nod to Susan Lucci's character, Erica Kane) throws everything into a heady cloud of smoke. Romance aficionados will find Avery's two love affairs (with a dashing newsmagazine producer and a quick-witted yet sensitive billionaire, natch) intoxicating, but the denouement lacks punch—perhaps because soaps never have to come up with an ending. (Feb.)

In Nash's winning debut, a long illness and mastectomy have put April Newton's life on hold for five years, and have made her and husband Rick practically strangers in and out of bed. As they prepare to move into the Redondo Beach, Calif., house Rick designed for them while she was still in treatment—with their teenage daughter, Jackie, in the throes of her first love—April's eye strays to a classic nearby beach bungalow being offered in a contest by an eccentric widow, who asks: “What would you give—besides money—to live here?” Under the guise of a shelter-magazine assignment, April tours the house of a sort that has all but disappeared, and meets its owner, who, for reasons of her own, promises to let it go below market to the most deserving applicant by Christmas. For April, it might be the perfect place to furnish a new life, one that might not have room for her distant husband and daughter. This grown-up fable replaces the erotics of sex with the erotics of floor plans, but April's midlife crisis and difficult adjustments ring true, as do the plot's surprising turns. (Feb.)

At the start of Chupack's swashbuckling debut, Long John Silver, yes, that Long John Silver, faces hanging back in England after a life of piracy on the seven seas. But before he swings, the aging, fever-ridden pirate is determined to tell his fabulous story, so settle back, me hearties, it's one hell of a tale. Silver has a dual motive: not only does he wish to torment his captor, who has taken him prisoner aboard his own ship, but he also hopes to secure his release by promising to reveal the whereabouts of his fabled treasure. Some of the old Treasure Island gang—Ben Gunn, Pew, Jim Hawkins—return, but this is no retelling of the original. Chupack is particularly good at pirate dialogue (Silver says of the killing of his mate, Smollet: “he made an excellent corpse on account that you puddened him to the plansheers, so when the wind blowed aft to lee, he bade a farewell to the world”). Murder, a map, ciphers and codes, and even a bit of romance figure in Silver's riveting narrative as well. (Feb.)

In Llywelyn's fifth and final installment in the Irish Century series, she offers a fastidious take on “The Troubles,” weaving facts and historical figures with the fictitious lives of a former IRA soldier, his American-born wife and his resolute republican mother. Photojournalist Barry Halloran, formerly an IRA “Volunteer,” races from the aftermath of Bloody Sunday to Dublin, where he seeks the guidance of his training officer, Seamus McCoy. Concerned that the sickly Seamus wants to return to active service, Barry spontaneously proposes to his mercurial lover, Barbara, in order to detain Seamus as his best man for his wedding. After the wedding, Barbara turns into something of a shrew and Barry's career begins to take off—providing a convenient device to document the escalating conflict. Not even Seamus's imprisonment or the crippling of Barry's mother by a car bomb deters him from faithfully capturing “The Troubles” on film. Though Llywelyn is meticulous in cataloguing the wartime atrocities committed by both sides, the narrative lacks a driving force and loses steam in covering the myriad skirmishes and failed peace talks. Readers familiar with the previous volumes will enjoy this the most; the uninitiated may have trouble. (Feb.)

In this engrossing novel with weddings as the centerpiece, Hart (Adelaide Piper; Grace at Low Tide) explores the relationships between women, daughters and husbands. Four high school girls bond in the small low-country town of Jasper, S.C. Now middle-aged members of All Saints Episcopal Church, they happily plan weddings for their loved ones that bring about unanticipated turns of events. It's a bumpy road: still grieving the loss of her true love, Elizabeth “Sis” Mims relies on her “happy pills” and contemplates dating the minister. Ray Montgomery's daughter wants to marry a preacher's son in a tacky contemporary strip mall church that offends Ray's desire to be exquisitely correct. Hilda Prescott mourns her divorce, and “Kitty B.” Blalock wrestles with her husband's lingering maladies. Sis muses, “Well, that's the way it is with weddings and life in general... one near disaster after another and a whole lot of what some call ignorant bliss.” Occasionally Hart overdescribes, and there are faint echoes of Steel Magnolias and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood throughout, but Hart's writing is lovely, her characters endearing, and humor leavens the darker moments. Midlife women will find plenty to relate to, and the wedding plot line is an invitation to myriad details on food, decorations and points of Southern etiquette. (Feb.)

Cameron, the author of more than 25 books and probably best-known for The Artist's Way, brings her fans a twist on a stereotypical romance that strikes a chord with those willing to immerse themselves in a world of ghosts. Anna Chester is a New York transplant from the Midwest trying to overcome loneliness and support herself by substitute teaching while pursuing a sideline career as a medium. When Edward Appleton, a talented pianist who is practicing for a competition, moves in downstairs, Anna is frustrated that the piano music interrupts her communication with the other world. Her anger is amplified even more by frequent visits from the ghost of Mozart, who adores Edward's playing and encourages Anna to pursue a romantic relationship with the musician. The romance blossoms in fits and starts, and Anna is reluctant to tell Edward about her speaking-with-the-dead abilities out of fear he will no longer want a relationship. While this delightful novel has a heavy supernatural presence, it's also about loneliness and fear, two things that many readers will understand—even if they don't believe in ghosts. (Feb.)

In the tepid, back-to-the-future romance debut from DuVall, Penny Barton is a railroad heiress slumming as a marketing director for HyperTrans, an Ohio company working in high-speed rail. During an outdoor promotional photo shoot set to look like 1855, her antique steam train passes through a tunnel, and Penny suddenly meets a man she thinks is an actor in 19th-century garb. He is Fletcher Dawe, a Coshocton, Ohio, dry goods merchant who has invested in the nascent railroad—of 1855. He and Penny are smitten, but when they later try to find each other and can't, things get complicated, kind of. As the setting shifts to 1855, DuVall's tale becomes rich with historical color, detailing the bitter business rivalries between canal boats and railroads. Penny gets a very close look at how her family's fortune was won and may have something to offer to save Fletcher's investment. The suspense, however, is lukewarm, and the romance is anemic. The conclusion is a surprise, but cannot carry the weight of this average yarn. (Feb.)

A clutch of elderly travelers spend a round-the-world cruise kibbitzing, flirting and coping with death in Gardner's good-intentioned if messy latest. Irascible Izzy Yandell, a retired developer, decides to blow much of his remaining cash on the Oceana Sun, beginning by paying the ship staff to arrange a dinner group with the best potential for intellectual discourse. Dining with Izzy is CEO Burt with his impending kickback scandal; his wife, Ellen, who's smitten with the ship's pianist (he is hiding his own dark past); Gene, nearly 80 and pursuing a romance with meager results; and Hector Rose, a literature professor living out a Lolita fantasy. And then there's Tessie, whose response to a terminal cancer diagnosis is to board the Oceana Sun for a “voyage to oblivion.” Izzy begins to develop feelings for Tessie, and it's their problematic but touching romance that tries to carry the book. But Gardner has a weakness for overinflating dialogue scenes, tossing in lame joke on top of lame joke on top of wandering aside as the cast endlessly chats and debates. What's amazing is that, even after all the unnecessary baggage (and there's a lot of it), the reader still cares what happens to the characters. (Feb.)

A s Mick Jagger sang in the 1970 song“Sway,” “It's just that demon life has got me in its sway.” In Lazar's second novel, he uses a number of real “demon lives” from the '60s—the Stones and their entourage; Kenneth Anger, the filmmaker who shot Scorpio Rising; and Bobby Beausoleil, a musician and Manson family associate—to channel the era's dread and exhilaration. Lazar shows the decade's descent as the culture of youth (represented most clearly by the Rolling Stones as icons of swinging London) responds to assassinations, the war in Vietnam, the repression in Czechoslovakia and the shedding of naïveté about drugs. Lazar sketches out his narrative through discrete episodes: Bobby's first criminal job with Manson; Anger's filming of Scorpio Rising; the breakup of Anita Pallenberg and Brian Jones; and a series of Anger's failed film projects. Anger serves as the narrative's lynchpin, and Lazar could have easily cast him as a tawdry caricature, but to his credit, Lazar understands that, in the '60s, the marginal was central, and he brilliantly highlights the fragility of an era when “everyone under thirty has decided that they're an exception—a musician, a runaway, an artist, a star.” (Jan.)

Written in the mid-1950s, this torturous tale from Cuban-born, septuagenarian novelist Tejera shows a lesser known side of the Spanish Civil War through a young girl's eyes. Living with her extended family in the town of La Laguna on the Canary Islands, the young narrator, Nena, watches in terror as her papa, a Republican named Santiago, is carted away at gunpoint by the Franco Nationalists, or “arribistas.” After weeks of hardship and searching through courthouses for Santiago's whereabouts, a trial is organized by Grandpa and Alido, a lawyer friend of the family; the father is produced and tried for the trumped-up charges of attacking the bishop's residence and seminary. The war is ever present, like the frightening ravine on the outskirts used by the firing squad, and Nena's dismay at the dreary transformation of her village can only be mitigated by her father's return. Grief ages Tejera's brave heroine, as she recognizes she will never be a little girl again. (Jan.)

Stock characters undermine an intriguing plot in Hunt's flat fifth novel, which features St. Louis police detective George Hastings, introduced in 2007's The Betrayers. When two men shoot a young lawyer, Tom Myers, and abduct Myers's fiancée soon after the couple left a Christmas party in a posh suburb, the authorities have few leads into the murder and kidnapping. The appealing Hastings, a dedicated cop and divorced father with custody of his stepdaughter, must dig deep into the relationships of the victims to unearth clues that might lead him to the perpetrators. While the plot moves at a good clip and Hunt manages some effective scenes, including a brilliant ransom drop, most of the supporting characters—the charismatic con man, the manipulative trophy wife, the rich and oblivious nerd—come off as one-dimensional. Hopefully, Hunt will return to form in his next book. (Mar.)

In this thrilling collection of two novellas, Akunin (The Winter Queen) pits Erast Fandorin, his brilliant Russian detective who serves as the deputy for special assignments to the governor-general of czarist Moscow, against two different but equally deadly foes. In the comical “The Jack of Spades,” Fandorin finds a Watsonian sidekick in Anisii Tulipov, a luckless and overeducated errand boy whose life changes when Fandorin takes him under his wing. The pair must face a cunning con man and thief, reminiscent of the great French antihero, Arsène Lupin. Things take a darker turn in “The Decorator,” when Fandorin fears that Jack the Ripper is continuing his slaughter of prostitutes, this time in 1889 Russia. Clever writing and tight plotting, coupled with a willingness to shock readers by sacrificing significant characters, continue to cement Akunin's reputation as one of the finest contemporary authors of classic crime fiction. (Feb.)

Scouting locations with her film director boyfriend on a sparkling mountain morning, Arizona cop-turned-PI Lena Jones stumbles across a nightmare: the freshly dumped corpse of a little girl. Instantly it's personal, for, as fans of Webb's previous four Jones mysteries know, her feisty sleuth suffered a horrific childhood in foster care. Not getting involved simply isn't an option for Lena, especially once she learns that the dead girl suffered gruesome sexual mutilation—and that another child of around the same age, seven, has already gone missing from the small town of Los Perdidos. Then two more girls vanish. As in Webb's earlier adventures—particularly Desert Wives (2003), with its critically praised exposé of contemporary polygamy—the longtime journalist manages to fuel her plot from the starkest of news stories without compromising the fast-paced action. Though some may want to skim the more graphic passages, the intrepid will be rewarded with a propulsive, thought-provoking read. (Feb.)

Nelson's bland debut fails to capture the feel of its Big Easy setting (pre-Katrina, apparently), and its two story lines are loosely intertwined at best. New Orleans detective Jack Brenner learns that death row inmate Emmett Graves has information on the murder of Brenner's cousin, David, and another young civil rights worker more than 30 years earlier in Bon Terre, La. Graves hints that Avery Hammond, a prominent businessman, may be involved, but Brenner discovers that Hammond has a tight grip on the town and no one wants to talk. Trying to solve not only his cousin's murder but also the recent death of a promising high school athlete, Brenner finds himself mired in a conspiracy reaching deeper than he ever imagined. With the help of his new partner, Keisha Lundy, and Willow Ashe, a determined TV reporter and Brenner's first love, he must stay one step ahead of men who will stop at nothing to see that their secrets stay buried. Since Nelson fails to generate suspense for either murder investigation, the reader quickly loses interest. (Feb.)

Jordan's second Polly Pepper mystery (after 2007's Remains to Be Scene) delivers a fun romp through the underworld of regional theater. Polly, a Hollywood actress of a “certain age,” is cast as the lead in a revival of the musical comedy Mame, newly set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Polly admires Karen Richards, the play's young, talented director, and Sharon Fletcher, one of her co-stars—so Polly is understandably distressed when Karen gets killed and Sharon is fingered for the crime. Along with her devoted son and her maid, Polly sets out to find who really brought down the curtain on Karen. Even among a cast of such well-developed, eccentric characters, Polly steals the show, drinking champagne constantly and even naming her mansion's staircase the Scarlett O'Hara Memorial Staircase. Jordan's entertaining plot moves briskly and its plucky heroine is sure to charm old fans and win new ones. (Feb.)

Crider's winning 15th Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery (after 2007's Murder Among the OWLS) pits the wry Texan against a local drug ring. Skeptical when Clearview, Tex., newcomer C.P. Benton complains that his neighbors, the Crawford brothers, are cooking meth, Rhodes finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation when the Crawford trailer explodes, leaving one of the brothers dead. But instead of finding evidence of meth, Rhodes stumbles on a still with a fresh batch of old-fashioned hooch. The remaining Crawford brother plays dumb, blaming his sibling for the illegal operation, but Rhodes doesn't buy the act. The discovery of a second still complicates matters, and Rhodes must ignore his bickering deputies and a whiny county commissioner to get to the bottom of Clearview's crime wave. Crider expertly evokes this small Texas town and its eccentric cast of characters, and his dry humor will satisfy longtime fans of this popular series. (Feb.)

This intelligent crime novel, the fourth in Magson's series to feature Riley Gavin and Frank Palmer (after No Sleep for the Dead), should garner the British author a larger following in the U.S. The mismatched pair—Gavin is a freelance London reporter, while Palmer is a shadowy PI with contacts on both sides of the law—join forces to identify the person or persons terrorizing Sir Kenneth Myburghe, a former British diplomat. Myburghe, who's received a variety of threats culminating in a grisly package that may contain the severed finger of his son, has enlisted Palmer to help protect him. Gavin, who's received some e-mails alleging that Myburghe has some dirty laundry connected with his tour of duty in Colombia, manages to tag along with Palmer. Their search for the truth leads the pair into conflict with Scotland Yard and the DEA. The crisp writing and fresh characters make this stand out from the mystery genre pack. (Feb.)

This promising first of a new series from Gunn (McCafferty's Nine and eight other Jake Hines police procedurals) introduces Sarah Burke, a newly minted Tucson, Ariz., homicide detective. When a jogger discovers a stabbing victim, Sarah's investigative team works diligently to uncover the man's identity. Meanwhile, Sarah, who's still recovering from a painful divorce, tries to cope with her sister's reckless behavior, which results in the kidnapping of her sister's young daughter, Denny. Gunn cleverly connects Denny's abduction to the stabbing and other mysterious murders, ratcheting up the suspense as sinister characters close in on Sarah's loved ones. Just when the outcome of the novel appears predictable, Gunn puts an inventive spin on the murders that leads to a surprising conclusion. Though descriptions of the Tucson area may be too detailed for some, the novel's fast pace and smooth plotting more than compensate. (Feb.)

Red-headed witch Rachel Morgan has a demon after her, but that's just one of her many troubles in this action-packed sixth installment of Harrison's Hollows series (after 2007's For a Few Demons More). A nice guy might be moving into Rachel's town and life, but she's still getting over her last boyfriend, whose murder she has yet to solve. Elf politician Trent Kalamack wants her to go to the ever-after on a dangerous mission. Rynn Cormel, Cincinnati's new master vampire and ex-leader of the free world, is interfering in her life. Her friend, former demon familiar Ceri, is unexpectedly pregnant, by an unexpected partner. On top of all this, Rachel worries she may have had a too close encounter with a vampire and soon becomes concerned about her own abilities with demon magic. With the help of her feisty mother, Alice, and her pixy partner, Jenks, Rachel boldly tackles every challenge amid a cascade of plot twists that will delight Harrison's fans. 9-city author tour. (Mar.)

Farmer appends his own name at last to his stories written under pen names borrowed from other authors' characters, most famously Venus on the Half-Shell, a novel allegedly by Kurt Vonnegut's fictional science fiction writer, Kilgore Trout. As Harry Manders, created by E.W. Horning, Farmer pens the suspenseful “The Problem of the Sore Bridge—Among Others.” As Rex Stout's psychologically and physically maimed Paul Chapin, he offers the violent “The Volcano.” A story by Harlan Ellison's Cordwainer Bird, “The Last Rise of Nick Adams,” discloses that Bird was related to Farmerian heroes the Shadow and the Spider. Finally, after demonstrating how Tarzan might have sounded had he been written by William S. rather than Edgar Rice, Farmer dons the mantle of Conan Doyle's Dr. Watson and introduces Tarzan to Holmes in “The Adventure of the Peerless Peer.” Only a writer as mature as Farmer could have pulled this stunt off so successfully. (Feb.)

Cullen's freshman effort, the first in a fantasy trilogy loosely based on the ancient Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, fails to do justice to its inspiration. When Bricriu Poisontongue is tricked into falling into a dung heap, he retaliates by stealing the Chalice of the Just. This opens the Great Rift, setting evil free from the Otherworld. Handsome Cumac, son of the mortal hero Cucullen and the love goddess Fand, is sent to Earth to regain the chalice. Cumac searches for Bricriu, gaining renown and a band of Otherworldly heroes along the way. Bricriu must content himself with the company of a hag who, bemoaning her lost beauty, sings: “But now, my bony arms/ Are not worthy of my charms/ And I do not any longer seek/ Youths to favor with my charms.” Though former literature professor Cullen has an obvious understanding and love of myth and legend, his characters feel flat, their motivations petty and their adventures repetitive and predictable. (Feb.)

Despite a rocky start, Ash's new series, set in the world of her Tears of Artamon trilogy (Lord of Snow and Shadows, etc.), promises to grow into a compelling saga. When Alois Visant, Francia's head Inquisitor, accuses the entire College of Thaumaturgy of practicing magic, only two survive the purge: Linnaius, King Gobain's trusted “alchymist,” and his apprentice, Rieuk Mordiern. Rieuk joins a secret band of mages, only to find their leader, Arkhan, intends to turn him into a weapon to drive the Francians out of neighboring Ondhessar by stealing or discharging the four superpowerful aethyr crystals known as the Angelstones. Meanwhile, Linnaius takes the Vox Aethyria, a radiolike invention that uses magical crystals to transmit voices, to rival nation Tielen. With the multitude of characters now in place, Ash may be able to pull things together for the next installment, but the complex plot and political setting will leave some readers struggling. (Feb.)

Equal parts historical fiction and epic medieval fantasy, the second volume of Keck's trilogy (after 2006's In the Eye of Heaven) finds heroic liegeman Durand Col and his liege, Lord Lamoric, invited to the court of King Ragnal to reaffirm their homage oaths along with other noblemen. They get there late, only to find that the paranoid ruler has imprisoned the earlier arrivals and begun a bloody campaign to eradicate traitors. Fleeing, Col finds himself once again battling the opportunistic duke of Yrlac, but the greatest treason of all is perhaps Col's hopeless love for Lamoric's wife. Combining meticulous detail and grand-scale storytelling, Col's mud-covered, flea-ridden adventure succeeds in large part by avoiding the conventions and clichés that doom so many comparable fantasy epics to mediocrity. The less than satisfying ending, however, isn't so much a conclusion as a pause before what should be a momentous third and final novel. (Feb.)

After two miscarriages, writer Adam Senft's marriage is on the rocks, and his only satisfaction comes from his bond with his dog, Big Steve. One day, on a walk through local woods rumored to be haunted, man and dog come across a strange sight: a woman performing fellatio on a statue of a satyr—which comes to life and sees them. Soon, all the women in town begin disappearing, summoned to the woods by the satyr's hypnotic piping. When Adam gathers the menfolk to hunt down the satyr and retrieve the women, what they uncover is an unholy evil bent on protecting itself and spreading its seed. Keene displays a fluid command of mythology and has a vivid take on contemporary magic. The conjuring of a blue-collar rural America, one riven with legends and dark crannies, is also superb. The latest from Keene (Dead Sea) grabs the reader immediately and doesn't let go. (Feb.)

Gleason's latest in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles picks up a year after Rises the Night. Victoria Gardella is mourning her husband, Lord Rockley, and eager to get back to work as a venator. She becomes aware of a plot by the demon Akvan to break through the Door of the Alchemists and steal valuable secrets that will bring him to full power. Complicating matters is the return of venator Maximilian Pesaro, still in thrall to Lilith and determined to break free. Sebastian Vioget, ally of both Victoria and his vampire grandfather Beauregard, has a secret that will change the balance of power. And all three, none of whom trust each other very much, must band together to stop Akvan. The chemistry between Sebastian and Victoria is palpable, and Max is given a level of depth lacking in previous installments. Gleason, who ends the book on a cliffhanger, is really on a roll. (Feb.)

At the opening of Butcher's tense, fast-paced latest, First Light Foundation do-gooder Lana Hancock is still recovering from being kidnapped and tortured 18 months before in Armenia. Covert Delta Force operative Caleb Stone, who allowed her to come to harm instead of blowing his cover, learns that the group that tortured Lana is still active, and comes to alert her and see if she remembers anything. Lana doesn't trust or forgive Stone, and withholds the identity of one of her attackers. As the two grapple with their growing feelings for each other, evildoers bent on killing her to protect their own identities close in. Lana's PTSD and quiet strength are believable and gut-wrenching, while Stone is more of a studly caricature. Their chemistry, however, is excellent, and the other Delta Force men have a nice rapport. On the whole, Butcher (No Regrets) is in control. (Feb.)

Retired from her life as a porn star, Angel Dare now owns Daring Angels, a “high-class adult modeling agency.” Life as a desk jockey is pretty predictable until an underfed foreign girl named Lia shows up asking to contact one of Angel's models. Before Angel can figure out what the girl really wants, Lia makes a hasty exit through the bathroom window. Next thing she knows, Angel herself is locked in the trunk of a battered blue Honda Civic—beaten, raped, shot up and left for dead. Recovering and resolving to exact justice and clear her name of the frame job she's also been left with, Angel turns to the only person who can help, her part-time agency security guy, ex-cop Lalo Malloy. Feisty Angel wises up to the rancid underbelly of the sex trade as she and Malloy take down the hoods one by one. (Feb.)

American Splendor's Pekar has been incredibly prolific in the last few years, and more recently he has taken on nonautobiographical projects to varying degrees of success. This newest effort works on a variety of levels. For one, Pekar is not the sole author. He constructs a narrative of the history of the Students for a Democratic Society, but frequently steps aside to allow actual participants in that history to tell their own stories, using his casual first-person model of storytelling. The narrative moves through the decade of SDS history and then moves into the participant accounts, offering both a macro and a micro vision of the times. The artwork is mostly by frequent Pekar collaborator Gary Dumm, whose crisp, neutral realism may not be thrilling but does move the story along and does a fine job of conveying the various settings. As a whole, the book acts like a sophisticated handbook on an often misunderstood organization. It's good comics and excellent history. (Jan.)

After several delays, the latest installment of Moore's pastiche of public domain literary figures is finally here and it's worth the wait. In 1958, two mysterious figures steal the Black Dossier, a compendium of information and articles relating to the league's most renowned incarnation, the group headed by the intrepid Mina Murray. The theft launches a tense chase as the thieves fight to stay one step ahead of thuggish government agents while reading the contents of the dossier, pieces that shed light on centuries-worth of secret and bizarre intrigues. Moore and O'Neill are in top form, crafting a virtually flawless fusion of prose and visuals that's an overwhelmingly dense and exhaustive nod to pre-existing works in media ranging from literature, legends, television and film, teasing the reader in the know with appearances by Orwellian totalitarianism, Lovecraftian abominations, Jeeves and Wooster, Bulldog Drummond, Ian Fleming's famed “double-o” operative, lusty Fanny Hill and a host of others, capped with a section requiring 3-D glasses (included). Too loaded with content to be fully absorbed in one reading, this is a challenging, adult volume that's a delight for fans of pop culture and lovers of heroic adventure. (Nov.)