Fiction Reviews: Week of 12/24/2007

In the Aeneid, the only notable lines Virgil devotes to Aeneas’ second wife, Lavinia, concern an omen: the day before Aeneus lands in Latinum, Lavinia’s hair is veiled by a ghost fire, presaging war. Le Guin’s masterful novel gives a voice to Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus and Queen Amata, who rule Latinum in the era before the founding of Rome. Amata lost her sons to a childhood sickness and has since become slightly mad. She is fixated on marrying Lavinia to Amata’s nephew, Turnus, the king of neighboring Rutuli. It’s a good match, and Turnus is handsome, but Lavinia is reluctant. Following the words of an oracle, King Latinus announces that Lavinia will marry Aeneas, a newly landed stranger from Troy; the news provokes Amata, the farmers of Latinum, and Turnus, who starts a civil war. Le Guin is famous for creating alternative worlds (as in Left Hand of Darkness), and she approaches Lavinia’s world, from which Western civilization took its course, as unique and strange as any fantasy. It’s a novel that deserves to be ranked with Robert Graves’s I, Claudius. (Apr.)

Screenwriter and writing instructor Mernit gives a slight twist in this middling debut to the standard romantic farce. Jordan’s wife has left him, but the screenwriter and screenwriting instructor isn’t worried—he has a plan to get her back. If he plays on her jealousy, she’ll be forced to return. He can’t bring himself to have an affair with a real woman, so he makes one up, modeling his fictitious girlfriend after Naomi, one of his former students. Of course, not too long after his ruse begins, Naomi shows up—but Jordan is the only person who can see or hear her. As imaginary Naomi cryptically prods Jordan to find his true path, he becomes entangled in his deceptions, especially when both his estranged wife and the real Naomi arrive in L.A. Half an analysis of the clichés of the romantic comedy genre and half a thinly veiled criticism of Hollywood, the novel keeps readers at a distance, indulging in long sidetracks about screenwriting and romantic comedies in general. In the end, Mernit is more interested in subverting genre tropes than in creating a fully realized novel. (Apr.)

Beloved YA author Block, creator of Weetzie Bat and other indelible characters, returns to her familiar Venice, Calif., setting for this set of four adult short stories and title novella. They follow a depressed Katrina, five years single and entering mid-life after a history of bad relationships convinced no man will love her. Katrina owns a preschool, Neverland, and her fondness for kids extends to the five-year-old twins of her best friend, charismatic, sexy cancer survivor Grace. Another charismatic, sexy friend, yoga instructor Kali, gives Katrina moral support and radiates feminist Goddess light on her, to little avail. Into their lives comes Jasper, a charming, mercurial New Age dance teacher whom Katrina meets at a pagan dance (held to change the bad vibrations left behind by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami). The two get together and hit a lot of clothing-optional events, where Jasper, who suffers from sexual dysfunction due to a hex put on him by a previous girlfriend, has a seriously wandering eye. As Grace’s cancer returns and Jasper’s misogyny surfaces, Katrina finds her hard-won semiequilibrium slipping. Block’s faux naïve narrative style sounds less sure-handed in an adult context, as Block’s characters’ affectations and day-to-day routines are, to put it mildly, otherworldly. But she’s sharp on the nitty-gritty of female friendships and male perfidy. (Apr.)

The full-length debut by the granddaughter of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal centers on a dreamy, romantic English woman who hasn’t quite escaped the thrall of her fabulous mother, Marina. When Kitty, now married, pregnant, and living cozily in New York City with her financier husband, receives the call that her mother has been hospitalized after a breakdown, Kitty flashes back to her magical youth, revolving around her Swedish grandparents’ Never-Neverland of a country home, Hay House, shared by her mother and aunts. When Marina’s guru insists Marina move to New York City to pursue her painting, Kitty eventually joins her on Park Avenue, and her mixed-up adolescence begins. Wearing her mother’s clothes, flirting with her handsome boyfriends and swept into parties where her mother chops the cocaine, Kitty comes through a number of charming yet troubling moments, as well as foreshadowings of Marina’s future breakdown. There’s plenty of texture to Kitty’s remembrances, but the result reads more like a fictional memoir than fully plotted novel. (Apr.)

Sager blends a magnified slice of urban subculture in late 1980s-early ’90s Washington, D.C., with a subplot about powerful mystical artifacts. Washington Herald reporter, reluctant new father, “urban pioneer” and druggie Jonathan Seede is working on a book that subverts the Just Say No movement. Things hit a snag when his main source, the Pope of Pot, a “do-gooder” dealer who only sells primo pot, gets framed by dirty cops for dealing coke. One of the pope’s possessions—a crystal skull rumored to have magical powers—ends up in the hands of a runaway who finds shelter in Seede’s house. Other characters, like pimp Jamal Alfred and Salem, one of Jamal’s girls with a shady past, contribute to the sleazy milieu and provide entrée to the wealthy Bert Metcalfe, who has designs on the crystal skull. Though the supernatural elements are unfortunately muted, Sager studs his dark D.C. tale with sharp observations and an addictive neo-noir sensibility. (Apr.)

In her latest novel, Wolitzer (The Wife; etc.) takes a close look at the “opt out” generation: her cast of primary characters have all abandoned promising careers (in art, law and academia) in favor of full-time motherhood. When their children were babies, that decision was defensible to themselves and others; 10 years on, all of these women, whose interconnected stories merge during their regular breakfasts at a Manhattan restaurant, harbor hidden doubts. Do their mundane daily routines and ever-more tenuous connections to increasingly independent children compensate for all that lost promise? Wolitzer centers her narrative on comparisons between her smart but bored modern-day New York and suburban mommies and the women of the generation preceding them, who fought for women’s liberation and equality. Contemporary chapters, most of which focus on a single character in this small circle of friends, alternate with vignettes from earlier eras, placing her characters’ crises in the context of the women, famous and anonymous, who came before. Wolitzer’s novel offers a hopeful, if not exactly optimistic, vision of women’s (and men’s) capacity for reinvention and the discovery of new purpose. (Mar.)

In this wrenching what-if exercise, Irish author Park (Oranges from Spain) invents a fictional truth and reconciliation commission (modeled on South Africa’s real one) that aims to heal Northern Ireland’s troubled past. Three men, all called to testify, have held close the truth about 15-year-old Catholic lad Connor Walshe’s disappearance in 1990, after he was found to be a hapless informer against the IRA. Fifteen years later, former IRA leader Francis Gilroy is now the minister of children and culture; former Royal Ulster Constabulary officer James Fenton, who recruited Connor, is a restlessly retired “inconvenient legacy of the past”; and Michael Madden, then an 18-year-old IRA runner, has been brought back from America to recount his role in Connor’s fate. Overseeing the hearings is Henry Stanfield, burdened by the unleashed emotions and uncomfortably estranged from his pregnant daughter, who is a friend of Connor’s sister. Park’s soulful story about buried secrets, tangled lies and manipulated memories may be a little abstract for readers who didn’t follow the Troubles, but this powerful fiction both humanizes and universalizes the civil war that gripped Ireland for so long. (Mar.)

The author of Jane Eyre plays sleuth in this enchanting historical from Rowland, acclaimed for her mystery series set in 17th-century Japan (The Snow Empress, etc.). After the instant success of Jane Eyre and the lesser success of her two sisters’ novels, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, Charlotte Brontë receives a letter from her publisher, George Smith, accusing her of breach of contract: Smith believes the same author penned all three novels, as they each appeared under a pseudonym with the surname Bell. On the train from Haworth to London to meet Smith, Charlotte and sister Anne encounter Isabel White, a mysterious girl who, once in London, is murdered. Charlotte becomes ensnared in a case involving a revenge plot orchestrated by an arch villain shaded with old school orientalism. Brontë fans will delight in Rowland’s portrait of Charlotte, who closely parallels Jane both in personality and station. The men playing opposite Charlotte often echo the character of Edward Rochester, lending an enticing will-they, won’t-they tension to the proceedings. (Mar.)

Rebeck has won an Edgar and a Peabody for her TV work and numerous awards for her plays. Her hilarious first novel begins when the New Yorker profiles the three beautiful granddaughters and grandson of a famed late literary critic, Leo Heller. As a perennially aspiring model, Daria, 18, is ecstatic. Her younger sister, Polly, 17, is thrilled, too, but 14-year-old Amelia could care less. Philip, 15, who is the smartest of the group, is the first of the four to assume the first-person narrative; he’s wary of all the attention, but the siblings’ former beauty queen mom can’t wait to take advantage of the publicity and push her daughters into show biz, even if it means sacrificing their schooling. Rebeck shines when Amelia gets cast in a ridiculous off-Broadway play: her insider’s look at the theater world is spot on and uproarious, particularly her contrast of poor starving actors with rich starving models and of theater types with Hollywood types. The siblings’ voices are not consistently strong, and an over-the-top revenge plot drains some power from the plot, but the crackling satire and scene-stealing secondaries carry the book. (Mar.)

An ensemble of New Yorkers swim the choppy waters of romance, circa autumn 2001, in the first novel from memoirist Abbott (The Bookmaker’s Daughter). Having lost his job at an investment firm before September 11, Mark Adler siphons off the pressure through an affair with Sophie, his daughter’s 25-year-old nursery school teacher. Mark’s older parallel is Sam Mendel, a retired publisher with a sexless marriage and a lavish estate in the country. Sam is resigned to his existence until he meets Mark’s mother-in-law, Antonia, and discovers a wholly unexpected erotic reincarnation. The limit to each affair is a devotion—Mark to his daughter, Sam to his estate—but even these are imperiled by 9/11. A deeply melancholic Mark exploits his location that morning (he was praying at Trinity Church before a job interview at the South Tower) to disappear and Sam puts his marriage and estate at risk by shacking up with Antonia downtown. Abbott pursues these and other plots—a lesbian commitment ceremony, a gay dancer’s fight with cancer—through third-person perspectives that tie up the interconnections in surprisingly effective strokes. Abbott weaves a delicate tapestry of love and apocalypse. (Mar.)

A sprawling debut with an alternately absurdist and sardonic tone, Maazel’s debut follows the tribulations of Lucy, a young drug addict who works at a New York City kosher chicken plant. Lucy’s father was a Centers for Disease Control bigwig who’s recently committed suicide, presumably due to fallout from his perceived role in an outbreak of plague that is spreading across America. Her mother, Isifrid, is a crack-addled gazillionaire, while grandmother Agneth talks incessantly of reincarnation, and younger half-sister Hannah harbors a huge obsession with disease. As the novel opens, Lucy sets off with her alcoholic, over-50 co-worker, Stanley, to attend the wedding of her best friend, Kam—who is marrying Eric, whom Lucy met first and fell in love with. After some hijinks, Lucy heads to a rehab facility in Texas. Over the course of Lucy’s wild road trip, Maazel, daughter of conductor Loren, delivers some electric writing: the novel is brimming with wit, ideas and delightfully screwball humor. But the whimsy undermines the story, especially on the abundant substance abuse material. The novel’s earnest, surprising conclusion feels out of sync with the zingy, existential banter of its core. (Mar.)

This fun debut novel by story writer Stoner chronicles the tribulations of a family caught in a war between good and evil in Franklin Notch, N.H. For Moffat family matriarch and long-ago nun Donica Lenore—known to all as “Sister” —the devil is always near, but that hasn’t stopped her family from enjoying earthly pleasures. Her husband, Wes, is the host of a regional television show and is “notorious for inventing bad history” about the town. Daughter Veronica is a nurse with a weakness for Xanax, son Reggie is squatting in Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World, and the oldest son, narrator Daniel “Boone” Moffatt, is a smalltown police chief famous for capturing the serial killer “Holy Hell.” But now, several weeks before Sister and Wes’s 50th wedding anniversary, one of Wes’s tall tales has snowballed into a land dispute involving an imaginary Native American tribe; the devil is poised to wreak havoc on the family; and each of the Moffat children unwittingly find themselves discovering the missing element of their spirituality. Stoner’s storytelling has a lot of Wes Anderson elements and should find a readership among those into the folksy, absurd and poignant. (Mar.)

This jaunty but topical coming-of-middle-age story from Cleage (Baby Brother’s Blues) opens with an indignant argument about American culpability in the Iraq war, as African-American actress Josephine Evans—a self-proclaimed “Las Vegas of grandmothers” living and working in Amsterdam—has just been fired from a theater production, ostensibly for being too American. She returns to Atlanta to spend time with her granddaughter Zora, recently undone by her peripheral role in a splashy murder case, and to check on her family house. Josephine is hoping to keep Zora’s trust while steering her away from Zora’s father’s tragic bout with alcohol. After seeing the cracked-out wreckage of her stretch of Atlanta’s West End, Josephine also embarks on a plan with four other women to fix up her vandalized manse, a plan that includes the squatter she discovers there, Victor Causey. The plot is predictable but satisfying, and Josephine’s voice comes through movingly throughout. (Mar.)

A tight-knit miner’s family struggles against poverty and racism in Phillips’s evocative first novel, set in Depression-era Alabama. Throughout, she moves skillfully between the points of view of miner father Albert, hard-working mother Leta, young daughter Tess and teenage daughter Virgie, and small son Jack. They see men who are frequently incapacitated or killed by accidents in the local mines; neighbors live off what they can grow on their patch of land; and blacks like Albert’s fellow miner and friend Jonah are segregated in another part of Carbon Hill—and often hauled off to jail arbitrarily. When Tess witnesses a woman throwing a baby into their well, no one believes her until the dead child is found, and few are shocked. Tess, hounded by nightmares, and Virgie, on the cusp of womanhood and resistant to the thought of an early marriage to the local boys who court her, begin making inquiries of their own, visiting wives who’ve recently had babies and learning way more than they imagined. With a wisp of suspense, Phillips fully enters the lives of her honorable characters and brings them vibrantly to the page. (Mar.)

Supreme spinner of romantic yarns, Steel (Amazing Grace, etc.), in her lamentable latest fable of female courage, fortune, fame and fashion, features Oscar-winning actress Carole Barber, who, at age 50 and trying to write a novel, travels to Paris, scene of a tragic love affair 15 years before. On her first night in the City of Light, she’s badly injured during a terrorist attack, after which she is left with no memory and no choice but to rebuild her life with a new perspective on her career, family and personal relationships. Steel flirts with themes of motherhood, second chances and writing, never settling on any one for long as Carole discovers the importance of pursuing her own desires while being generous to others and of keeping the men she wants in her life close but not too close. The best part is Carole’s rehabilitation; as she reacquaints herself with family and friends, Carole the patient shows the patience author Steel lacks to probe beneath the surface. Though the message is murky at best, Steel delivers a sympathetic heroine and a scene or two that makes the heartstrings quiver. (Feb.)

A sequel to book designer Kidd’s first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, this beautifully composed paean to pre-computer graphic design pitches recent graduate Happy (his nickname), now 21, into the mercantile halls of down-at-the-heels New Haven ad agency Spears, Rakoff and Ware. Kidd paints the agency with all the customary conventions of a mid-century office culture farce: lacquered secretaries, lunchtime scotches and broken-down businessmen. Happy wiles away his time in blissful drudgery until he fields a call for designing a tiny ad for a seemingly innocuous psychological study. The study is being run by (real-life psychologist) Stanley Milgram, and Happy is unable to resist volunteering; little surprise for readers that Happy finds himself a participant in Milgram’s notorious Obedience to Authority experiment, playing the role of “The Teacher” who is ordered to shock “The Learner” with near-lethal doses of electricity. Though character development is less the point than jokes about behaviorism and old school office culture’s last gasps, the experiment teaches Happy more than he ever hoped to know. The jokes are sometimes dippy, and some of the typographical pyrotechnics are on the twee side. But Kidd’s ebullience and generosity in unpacking the art and practice of graphic design carry the novel. (Feb.)

At the start of the gripping seventh Women’s Murder Club thriller from bestseller Patterson and Paetro (after 2007’s The 6th Target), San Francisco is still haunted by the disappearance of Michael Campion, the much-adored teenage son of a former California governor, three months earlier. Following up on a tip that Michael was last seen entering a prostitute’s house, homicide inspector Lindsay Boxer and her new partner, Rich Conklin, are shocked when the hooker immediately confesses that Michael, who had a heart defect, died during sex and she disposed of his body. Lindsay’s ADA pal, Yuki Castellano, is sure she has a slam-dunk case, but the trial soon takes a bizarre turn. Lindsay and Rich also scramble to track down a serial arsonist responsible for murdering a string of wealthy couples. Lindsay races to put the pieces together before the fires hit too close to home. In true Patterson style, the reader is privy to Lindsay’s thoughts as well as the killers’, ratcheting up the suspense an extra notch. Fans won’t be disappointed with the twist at the end that not even Lindsay sees coming. (Feb.)

A complex conspiracy involving the writing of a book drives Lavender’s compelling debut, a thriller that will strike some as a mix of John Fowles’s The Magus and Stephen King’s The Shining. At Indiana’s Winchester University, three students—Brian House, Dennis Flaherty and Mary Butler—are taking Logic and Reasoning 204, taught by enigmatic Professor Williams. They quickly learn this is a course like no other. Their single assignment is to find a missing 18-year-old girl, Polly, in six weeks time—or else, Williams asserts, she will be murdered. Is this merely an academic exercise? As Williams produces clues, including photographs of Polly and her associates, the students begin to wonder where homework ends and actual homicide begins. Together with Brian and Dennis, Mary ventures off campus in search of Polly into a world of crumbling towns, decrepit trailers and hints at crimes old and new. A rapid-fire plot offsets thin characterization, though the conspiracy becomes so all-encompassing, so elaborate, that readers may feel a bit like Mary when baffled by her quest: “This is what she felt like: led, played, not in control of anything she did.” (Feb.)

What mother wouldn’t sacrifice herself for her child? In Simmons’s electrifying debut, the answer is delivered through the harrowing ordeal of a mother held for ransom by an anonymous kidnapper. A former globetrotting journalist now working for a Midwest TV station, Claire has a comfortable life with her husband, Sam, a successful co-owner of a PR/marketing firm, and their three young daughters, but she’s unhappy with Sam and struggles with a secret past. On one of the frequent nights Sam isn’t home, an intruder crashes through the skylight of the couple’s newly renovated house. The man planned to kidnap their oldest girl, but Claire persuades him to take her instead. An intense bond develops between Claire and her abductor, a widower mourning the loss of his wife, during the eerie seven-day odyssey that follows. As Claire waits for the ransom to be paid, she faces some hard truths about the choices everyone makes that sometimes require lies to endure. The perfect read for a stormy night, Simmons’s suspenseful tale contains nary a wasted word. (Feb.)

In his lyrical if somewhat scattered debut, Carrella paints a vivid picture of a family struggling to survive and retain their faith in Depression-era Tennessee. Though his wife, Rebecca, is days away from giving birth, Pentecostal preacher Charles Flint feels the call of God and embarks for Slaughter Mountain, the site of a legendary Pentecostal church. Charles is gone when Rebecca, caught in the woods during a thunderstorm, gives birth to Jacob inside an ancient tree. Born deformed, Jacob is a quiet, pensive child, but as he grows up, Charles becomes convinced that Jacob is imbued with the Holy Spirit. When Jacob turns 10 and survives a bite from one of the snakes Charles uses when preaching, Charles decides to return to Slaughter Mountain, where Jacob can help spread the word. But when the Flints’ faith is shaken by a tragedy, Jacob must decide how to both carry on his father’s dream and protect his family. Despite an abundance of gorgeously rendered scenes, the narrative begins to lose steam midway through the book. With an atmosphere richer than its heroes, this first effort intrigues but does not wholly satisfy. (Feb.)

Set in 1936, this well-plotted thriller from Irish author Boyne (Crippen) links the fates of two flawed young Englishmen with that of their king—who’s soon to give up the throne for love—in a cat’s cradle of theft, blackmail and murder. Hedonistic Gareth Bentley stubbornly refuses to pursue a respectable career, to his lawyer father’s dismay, while the embittered Owen Montignac, who’s been cut out of his late uncle’s will, must come up with £50,000 by year’s end to pay off a gambling debt—or pay the consequences. When Gareth winds up framed for murder, Gareth’s parents, the book’s most sympathetic characters, wrestle with their consciences, fearful that the other may learn just how far he or she would compromise his or her principles to save their son. The occasional anachronism jars (“plastic chairs” in a prison visitors area), but fans of JacquelineWinspear and David Roberts will be well rewarded. (Feb.)

Orphaned Bhopal slum resident Animal, who “used to be human” before an industrial chemical accident left his bones “twisted like a hairpin,” narrates in a rich argot this tense and absorbing Brit import, shortlisted for the Booker in 2007. Animal, who walks on all fours, focuses on the events surrounding the impending trial of the “Kampani” responsible for the accident. He falls in with a group led by famous musician Somraj; Somraj’s daughter, Nisha; and Nisha’s boyfriend, “Saint Zafar,” who devotes his life to fighting the Kampani and caring for the poor. Tensions mount as suspicious “Amrikan” doctor Elli Barber opens a clinic in the slums, lawyers from the Kampani arrive in Khaufpur to negotiate a settlement, and Animal, desperately in love with Nisha, copes with his desires and frustrations. While some of the supporting characters remain one-dimensional, Animal’s voice—a mélange of grit, pointed social criticism, profanity and lust—brings to life what could have become a tendentious parable, and his struggles personalize the novel’s grand themes of secrecy, betrayal and unexpected acts of love and kindness. Sinha balances big issues with an intimate depiction of life at its bleakest. (Feb.)

At the start of Barrett’s very funny second novel (after 2007’s The Men’s Guide to the Women’s Bathroom), Madeline Piatro, a powerhouse marketing whiz, vows to kill her ex-fiancé, Carlton Connors, the sexy but selfish son of an equally self-absorbed millionaire. Soon after meeting as students in the University of Texas (Austin) M.B.A. program, Maddy and Carlton move in together. She falls for his sappy “I intend to marry you” proposal, helps him graduate and creates Organics 4 Kids, a lunch program for parents on the go that his father bankrolls. Four years later, the unfaithful and deceitful Carlton dumps and fires Maddy after the company built on her program takes off. Maddy recognizes her part in the debacle, but Carlton is such a jerk, readers can’t resist cheering her on as she experiments with poisoned brownies and retribution spells. Help comes from an unlikely source, a memorable hit man who provides a juicy cherry on the top of a creamy, dreamy revenge treat. (Feb.)

Chick lit meets Raymond Chandler in this slick debut about a Gotham gossip girl’s rise, fall and resurrection in New York circa 1999. Sassy, brassy journo Valerie Vane—née Sunburst Rhapsody Miller, born to a pair of hippies—wants to be famous and does so the old-fashioned way: by tossing gossip bricks. She’s quickly scooped up by the style section of the Paper (a thinly veiled New York Times), but becomes undone by cocaine nights and her social-climbing no-good boyfriend. After a drug-fueled rage that gets her mug on all the trashy tabs, Val is relegated to the obits desk. There, the disgraced writer learns to be a real reporter, investigating the mysterious death of revered graffiti artist Malcolm Wallace. In the hunt for his killer, aided by her dark and handsome source, Cabeza, Val uncovers corruption that will put her name back on page one—and her life in danger. Siegal, a former journalist, blends glamour and gutter into a delicious cocktail, equal parts behind-the-scenes dish and crime novel. With a tantalizing if undeveloped side plot involving Val’s long-lost relatives, a sequel would be both logical—and welcome. (Feb.)

The lack of a strong central plot undercuts the third forensic thriller by bestseller Bass, the team of Dr. Bill Bass, founder of Tennessee’s world-renowned Body Farm, and journalist Jon Jefferson (after 2007’s Flesh and Bone). Two cases occupy Dr. Bass’s fictional alter ego, Dr. Bill Brockton—the death of Mary Latham, a 47-year-old Knoxville native, whose charred remains were found in a burned-out car, and a disreputable Georgia crematorium that simply dumped bodies on its grounds. These probes soon take a backseat to a cat-and-mouse game with the doctor’s arch nemesis, Garland Hamilton, who tried to frame him for murder in Flesh and Bone. When Hamilton escapes from incarceration before going to trial, Brockton must keep looking over his shoulder. While a smattering of Bass’s trademark authentic forensic detail lifts this main narrative thread, a more focused look at a single case might have made the novel a better read. (Feb.)

This light Spanish Civil War story follows the romantic and military misadventures of a perennially put-upon muleteer stuck fighting for a cause he doesn’t believe in. Juan Castro Pérez stumbles on a stray mule (he names her Valentina) and smuggles her into his army regiment; his plan is to bring her to his family once the war is over. Though Castro sympathizes with the nationalist forces, his region is solidly Communist and he’s forced to enlist on that side, where he, like many of his comrades, does his utmost to avoid combat and get back home; one of his more engaging exploits involves wooing a pensioner’s daughter. He eventually defects to the nationalists, and when Castro and Valentina inadvertently cross paths with a group of Communist soldiers, an unarmed Castro thinks he’s doomed until the soldiers order him at gunpoint to take them prisoner so they can survive the war. A journalist catches wind of the incident and twists the story into a morale-boosting puff piece that turns Castro into a poster boy for Franco’s cause. Castro’s dedication to Valentina provides the heartfelt through line to this winsome war story and adds a dose of heartbreak at the novel’s close. (Feb.)

The unnamed hero of this epic historical adventure, an itinerant musician from Britain, joins the Fourth Crusade in Venice where his fate becomes inextricably linked with those of Gregor of Mainz, a steadfast German knight; Gregor’s father-in-law, marquis Boniface of Montferrat, leader of the Crusade; and Jamila of Alexandria, an Arab princess the musician rescues, unaware that she is really a “Jewess” who is trained in the healing arts. Unable to finance the massive undertaking, the Crusaders are continually diverted from their goal—the liberation of Jerusalem. As mercenaries, they first sack the Christian city of Zara and lay siege to Constantinople. The musician, Jamila and the increasingly disillusioned Gregor try to do good, but find themselves thwarted by the villainous Boniface and the tragic inevitability of 13th-century realpolitik. Despite characters that fail to engage fully and dialogue that fails to sell the period, the novel still succeeds in being a true guilty pleasure, a rousing shout-out to those past masters of bestselling historical fiction, Frank Yerby, Samuel Shellabarger and Lawrence Schoonover. (Feb.)

Six contemporary British women are linked through husbands, friends, lovers and children in this big-on-heart debut. Sarah finds herself contemplating an affair with her husband’s best friend, Harry. Harry’s wife, Kate, meanwhile, senses that her husband has lost interest in her and cautiously seeks guidance from her widowed mother, Isobel, who reveals that the marriage Kate witnessed growing up had its problems, including an affair Isobel’s husband, Robert, had. Kate’s situation stirs Isobel, who visits Martha, Robert’s mistress, now living in a nursing home. Martha reflects on the four years she spent with Robert as the happiest days of her life, and her newfound energy and excitement do not go unnoticed by her night nurse, Shelia, who, married 40 years and still a virgin, channeled her desire to be wanted and needed into her adopted child. The final story introduces Judith, a happily married woman who suffers from migraines and bouts of sadness rooted in her decision years ago to give up her son for adoption. The characters are all brought together in the epilogue, though the ending isn’t as tidy as you might think. (Feb.)

Adoption insights get benched in favor of sports slapstick in Carroll’s mother-daughter farce. Forty-year-old former burlesque queen Olivia deMarley is engaged to a Colorado sports equipment magnate, but she’s never shaken her disappointment over her estrangement from her wealthy disapproving father, Augie. When Livy returns to Manhattan for Augie’s funeral, she receives two surprises: first is the reappearance of Sophie, the daughter Livy gave up for adoption 20 years ago. Secondly, Augie’s will leaves Livy the controlling interest in the Bronx Cheers, a cellar-dwelling minor league baseball team, provided she can “close the circle.” Left to ponder her father’s cryptic words, Livy is given a chance to develop a relationship with tough-minded softball star Sophie, even if it means distancing herself from the man she loves. Although Carroll includes plenty of birth mother–daughter–adoptive parent tension, most of the revelations feel superficial, as the plots hinges primarily on light comedy, whether it be in the courtroom, in ridiculous family shenanigans or on the baseball diamond. Readers who like their humor broad and their sports fiction tinted pink will revel in Carroll’s mother-daughter dynamos. (Feb.)

In her third installment of the Dylan Foster series, Wells crafts a dark Christian supernatural thriller with lighter romance notes. Southern Methodist University psychology professor Dylan Foster fears that Peter Terry, the demon who stalks her, is on the move again. Nicholas, her friend Maria Chavez’s five-year-old son (conceived after Maria was brutally raped in an earlier book), is snatched at a birthday party in a park near Dallas. Five-year-old birthday girl Christine Zocci, who witnesses the abduction and is hyperattuned to the supernatural, ends up in the emergency room after she mysteriously goes into cardiac arrest. Her clues about Nicholas’s kidnapper may enable Dylan to find him—unless time runs out. Wells does a fine job developing Dylan’s character, but is less successful showing the terror of the kidnapping and Maria’s response, which seems far too calm. The suspense builds nicely, however, and the demon’s use of a rattlesnake (real or unreal? Dylan isn’t sure) will give ophiophobic readers appropriate chills. When the Day of Evil Comes and The Soul Hunter should be read first to follow the plot line; as a stand-alone this may be confusing. Christian readers who like their suspense with a heavy dollop of the supernatural should find this series to their taste. (Feb.)

In bestseller Evanovich’s breezy third holiday novella (after Plum Lovin’), Stephanie Plum’s kooky Grandma Mazur finds a duffle full of money on the street and hightails it to Atlantic City. When Stephanie learns that the money was stolen from Delvina, a notorious Trenton mobster, she and her friend Lula head off in pursuit. In Atlantic City, the Jersey bounty hunter discovers she’s not the only one after Grandma after meeting Snuggy, an ex-jockey who originally stole the money and is convinced he’s a leprechaun. With her on-again off-again boyfriend Morelli tied up with a murder case and the sexy Ranger otherwise occupied, Stephanie turns to the mysterious Diesel for help. As she tries to keep Grandma safe and fend off the advances of Diesel amid the slot machines and craps tables, Stephanie realizes she may be in over her head. With her trademark wit, cast of eccentric side characters and hilariously absurd plot twists, Evanovich treats her fans to a delightful miniadventure sure to whet their appetites for the next full-length Plum escapade. (Jan.)

At the start of the impressive eighth entry in Edwards’s Harry Devlin series (All the Lonely People, etc.), the Liverpool attorney receives a fake newspaper notice announcing his death on Midsummer’s Eve. Subsequent threatening messages lead him to take the less-than-a-week deadline seriously. Given Devlin’s penchant for sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, many people bear him murderous grudges. Devlin focuses on two suspects—Tom Gunter, a violent thug and a former client, and Aled Borth, a loner angered that the lawyer’s best efforts didn’t result in a charge of murder being brought against the nursing home where Borth’s mother died. The addition of a serial killer who severs his victim’s tongues might have proven too much for the plot to bear in a lesser writer’s hands, but Edwards skillfully weaves the strands together. While some readers will guess the truth before Devlin does, all will enjoy this twisty whodunit. (Apr.)

In Bruns’s mildly diverting fourth mystery to feature rock journalist Mick Sever (after 2006’s South Beach Shakedown), Sever flies to a Caribbean island known as a haven for the rich and famous to interview Danny Murtz, a highly successful rock music producer who in his day turned out hit singles employing a unique orchestral sound. (Murtz will remind many of the real-life Phil Spector.) Murtz’s lawyer and all-around fixer insists Murtz proceed with the interview while the lawyer tries to cover up the most recent death of a young woman with whom the producer was involved. Murtz, whose always erratic behavior has become dangerously more so, decides he can take care of his own problems, including a nosy journalist. Full of one-dimensional characters and implausible situations, this slight novel offers no insight into the world of rock from either the point-of-view of a journalist or a producer. (Mar.)

Set in the repressive Indonesia of the early 1980s, Waltner-Toews’s compelling debut introduces an unlikely detective, Canadian veterinarian Abner Dueck. Dueck’s investigation of the suspicious contents of a dead cow’s stomach appears to result in the deaths of two friends and puts the vet in the uncomfortable position of trying to find out who killed them in a country where asking questions can lead to a quick burial. The list of possible suspects is endless, from whoever is poisoning cattle with strychnine to Dueck’s own colleagues, skillfully characterized during a tour de force of a party scene. Constrained by threats to his life, Dueck never gets easy answers as he becomes enmeshed in a complex web of alliances and murder theories provided by people with their own interests at heart. Readers will be surprised to find descriptions of animal autopsies as intriguing as political schemes in this powerful and highly original portrait of a particular time and place. (Feb.)

Ford, the author of the Frank Corso mysteries (Fury, etc.) and the Leo Waterman PI series (Cast in Stone, etc.), stumbles in his first stand-alone. Paul Hardy, who was found near death in a railroad car seven years earlier, has spent the time since in a home for the disabled in Washington State. During that time he has not spoken or responded to anything or anyone. Then one day, he rushes into the street to save a female patient in an out-of-control wheelchair. Run over by a car, he later awakens in the hospital with a new face. But the change is not merely cosmetic: he’s someone entirely other, and he’s sure his name is not Paul Hardy. Clinging to a barely remembered phrase, he sets out on a cross-country hunt to discover his real identity. Alas, after this promising setup, the novel sputters out in conventional—and predictable—melodrama, as Hardy finds himself at the center of a vast conspiracy hatched by people in high places who apparently want him dead. Ford fans will hope for a return to form with his next book. (Feb.)

Hammesfahr’s darkly depressing yet engrossing crime novel, a bestseller in Germany, examines the price of survival for two young girls growing up in a small German community. Police commissioner Rudolf Grovian is assigned the case of Cora Bender, a young woman who murders an apparent stranger in a crowded park. The local constabulary deems it an open and shut case, but Grovian, intrigued by Cora’s strange behavior, pursues his own investigation. Cora reveals the bizarre circumstances of her claustrophobic family life, from her mother’s relentless blaming of Cora for stealing her life to Cora’s own complicated relationship with her disabled younger sister. The mixture of both first- and third-person perspectives and the explicit discussions of religious and sexual obsessions set this work apart from standard psychological fare. Dubbed Germany’s answer to Patricia Highsmith, Hammesfahr should win new American fans with this English translation. (Feb.)

In MacPherson’s tepid 11th Torie O’Shea mystery (after 2007’s Died in the Wool), the New Kassell, Mo., genealogist learns that her fiddler grandfather, John Robert Keith, was possibly related to the Morgan Family Players, a Depression-era country band famous in five states. Glen Morgan, the grandson of musician Scott Morgan, phones Torie to say he has a tape suggesting Torie’s grandfather wrote some songs Scott Morgan took credit for. Meanwhile, during a birding expedition, Torie witnesses the dumping of a corpse, who turns out to be another Morgan grandson, Clifton Weaver. Soon after, Torie receives an eerie CD, evidently mailed by Weaver before his death. On the CD is a “blood ballad,” in effect the murder confession of Belle Morgan, a member of the clan who disappeared years earlier, sung by an unidentified female. When the song leads to the discovery of Belle’s long-lost body, Torie gets on the case. Her slogging through genealogical clues doesn’t have a lot of drama, but her warm spirit is sure to appeal to cozy fans. (Feb.)

In Kuhlken’s engaging fifth novel featuring the eccentric Hickey family (after 2006’s The Do-Re-Mi), San Diego PI Alvaro Hickey investigates potential corruption in the 1979 Mexican election. On the eve of the election, Hickey is contacted by the young and beautiful Lourdes Shuler, who hopes Hickey can locate her missing twin sister, Lupe. Hickey learns that Lupe is believed by the poor throughout Baja California to be the Holy Virgin come to earth to cause uproar before the elections. Lourdes also tells Hickey that she believes that Lupe killed their father, a right-wing German émigré with powerful connections to the Mexican government. Soon it becomes a race against time as Hickey and Lourdes head to Mexico to find Lupe before the federales can. Kuhlken easily blends adventure with a classic PI staple: the appearance of an alluring woman, full of secrets. Fans of the Hickey clan will undoubtedly enjoy this south-of-the-border installment. (Feb.)

British author Grange (Darcy’s Diary) takes a break from her Jane Austen re-imaginings with this spirited novel in the Brontë mold set in 1819. When Helena Carlisle crosses the moors on her way to visit her housekeeper aunt, Hester, at Stormcrow Castle, the master of the castle, Lord Torkrow, picks Helena up in his coach and mistakes her for her aunt’s replacement. From Torkrow Helena learns Hester left her post some time earlier to go nurse her sister, a sister Helena knows doesn’t exist. Pretending to be the replacement, Helena enters the gloomy, foreboding castle and vows to uncover what happened to her aunt. Grange peppers her story with rich atmospheric details, from a masked ball to a cast of colorful locals. Fans of romantic suspense will enjoy this tale of intrigue and deception on the barren moors. (Feb.)

The VanderMeers (Best American Fantasy) ably demonstrate the sheer breadth of the “New Weird” fantasy subgenre in this powerful anthology of short fiction and critical essays. Highlights include strong fiction by authors such as M. John Harrison, Clive Barker, Kathe Koja and Michael Moorcock whose work pointed the way to such definitive New Weird tales as Jeffrey Ford’s “At Reparata” and K.J. Bishop’s “The Art of Dying.” Lingering somewhere between dark fantasy and supernatural horror, New Weird authors often seek to create unease rather than full-fledged terror. The subgenre’s roots in the British New Wave of the 1960s and the Victorian Decadents can lend a self-consciously literary and experimental aura, as illustrated by the “laboratory,” where more mainstream fantasy and horror authors, including Sarah Monette and Conrad Williams, try their hands at creating New Weird stories. This extremely ambitious anthology will define the New Weird much as Bruce Sterling’s landmark Mirrorshades anthology defined cyberpunk. (Mar.)

A promising murder puzzle in a moderately intriguing utopian milieu is overwhelmed by encyclopedic world building in this second novel and first SF yarn from Scottish journalist Henderson (Waterfall Glen). From the first sentence (“Most citizens take time travel for granted”), Henderson raises and then dashes expectations; the 22nd-century “timesphere” technology described by LogiPol cop Ben Travis is merely a holographic simulator, and the complex relationship between Ben, a naturally born Name, and his partner, Paula, a lab-grown Number, is drowned out by long-winded descriptions of global environmental disaster and subsequent social and technological developments. Though Ben and Paula’s primary goal is to investigate the apparent suicide of plant dealer Douglas MacDougall, the mystery is rapidly overwhelmed by side trips into history, and too little space remains for Henderson to fully explore the social dynamics between Names and Numbers. Henderson provides smooth prose and mostly amiable characters, but his dry editorializing is no substitute for genuine narrative tension. (Mar.)

Farrell (the Cloudmages trilogy) entices fantasy readers into the lush—and dangerous—land of Nessantico, where aging ruler Marguerite ca’Ludovici prepares to celebrate her Jubilee. Marguerite’s son, Justi, schemes to take her place, while Jan ca’Vörl, a powerful noble at the edge of the empire, plots armed rebellion. Archigos Dhosti ca’Millac, leader of the Concénzia Faith and Marguerite’s staunch ally, struggles to control fundamentalists like Orlandi ca’Cellibrecca as they clamor for action against the Numetodo heretics, who claim the magic talent called Cenzi’s Gift has nothing to do with religious faith. Trapped in the middle of all this is young priestess Ana cu’Seranta, whose impressive magical ability has made her a pawn in the multilayered power struggle. Farrell easily wields an immense cast of characters, many of whom take narrative turns. Readers who appreciate intricate world building, intrigue and action will immerse themselves effortlessly in this rich and complex story. (Feb.)

This mélange of mystery, dark fantasy and over-the-top gothic horror marks a dramatic departure from Meaney’s existential SF epic, the Nulapeiron Sequence. In Tristopolis, where corpses are incinerated by the thousands to produce the “necroflux” that sustains the city and its undead inhabitants, police lieutenant Donal Riordan learns that a disturbingly well-organized cult is killing the world’s most talented artists. Tasked with keeping a visiting opera diva safe, the intrepid cop soon finds himself caught up in a sweeping necromantic conspiracy that could involve the very highest ranks of government. Meaney makes extensive use of dark colors and gothic imagery (“a golden clock, formed of interlocking metal bones”; “the bat-winged ambulance”), and Tristopolis is at times more fascinating than its inhabitants or the relatively conventional hard-boiled story line. With many plot threads left untied or simply ignored, readers will have to wait until future installments to pass judgment on this ambitious saga. (Feb.)

Although the American fondness for British humor is well-documented, this demented musical conspiracy thriller from U.K. comic fantasist Rankin (The Toyminator) doesn’t quite make the leap. Jonny Hooker, a 27-year-old musician tormented by hallucinations, wins a competition and is told to collect his prize at “da-da-de-da-da.” Now he must solve the Da-da-de-da-da Code, helped only by his imaginary friend, Mr. Giggles the Monkey Boy. Jonny soon winds up in a mental hospital, but that doesn’t stop him from pursuing the puzzle. En route he encounters the secret cabal that rules the world and learns why all the best rock musicians die at age 27. Despite some truly inspired bits scattered throughout, Rankin comes across as more condescending than ironic and more disorganized than surrealist. (Feb.)

Stuntwoman Dawn Madison continues her search for her father and her battle against the vampires infesting Hollywood in this uninspired sequel to 2007’s Night Rising. Dawn is still dealing with the painful legacy of her beautiful movie star mother, Eva Claremont, and her fear that both her parents have lost their lives to L.A.’s undead underground. Now, hoping that the mysterious Jonah will lead her to the underground and her father, Dawn has to track down a killer who, like everyone else in L.A., wants to be famous. Along the way she’ll have to decide whether she can trust her monster-hunting comrades, pill-popping psychic Kiko Daniels and chemistry wizard Breisi Montoya, or her friend Jacqueline, who bears an eerie resemblance to Eva. A preponderance of dangling plot points and red herrings may leave readers, like the heroine, on uncertain footing with no clear way to turn. (Feb.)

Still relatively fresh out of J-school but already a hot scribe at the New York Gazette, Henry Parker (from Pinter’s The Mark) files another hair-raising story in the Big Bad Apple. This time the juicy journo’s on the trail of the Boy, a sharpshooting serial killer who kills his prey using an antique Winchester 1873, “the gun that won the West.” The first victim is celebrity diva Athena Paradis, and the killer leaves a note quoting a piece of Henry’s. Henry’s research reveals a bizarre connection between Henry and a long-dead outlaw of the American West, and, as victims pile up, Henry wonders if the Boy is out for vengeance. The intrepid journalist must think fast on his feet to stop him, even if it means asking for help from a rival Dispatch journalist, the lovely Paulina Cole. Tension mounts, bullets fly and Pinter’s cool fusion of a new outlaw with blood ties to an old one hits the mark. The resolution is a ripsnorter, leaving thrill fans ready for the next Henry Parker newsflash. (Mar.)

Earth of 2080 continues a cold war with the chilling aliens the Psy in Singh’s fourth fierce installment of the Psy-Changeling series (after Caressed by Ice). Half-human, half-leopard changeling Clay Bennett is shocked when lovely Talin McKade, wracked with illness and similarly half-changeling, returns to his life, having disappeared from his childhood 20 years before. Talin works at San Francisco’s Shine Foundation, dedicated to helping gifted but needy children, and a growing number of her missing charges have been turning up sans brains. There’s plenty of purring passion to keeps things hot as the Leopard shape-shifters Clay and Tally fall breathlessly in love, while the Psy continue to use children as guinea pigs for developing a hive mind. While this is paranormal romance at its best, newcomers are advised to check out the earlier adventures first. (Feb.)

In this first in a trilogy Ross is developing on ex–Special Forces men reacclimating to civilian life, ex-SEAL Zach Tremayne returns to his South Carolina small town to try to forget the horrors of the Iraq War. Sabrina Swann has returned to recover from a terrorist attack on the Italian hotel where she was waitressing. As the fragile pair rekindle their attraction from youth, a serial killer stalks the serene community, torturing and murdering women and closing in on Sabrina. While Ross has a good handle on the intricacies of smalltown life, the shared PTSD of her protagonists doesn’t make for the easiest of romances, and Tremayne’s trauma disappears when it is no longer convenient to the story. (Feb.)

In the second Real Murders club novel starring diminutive, busty librarian Aurora “Roe” Teagarden, our heroine is smarting from a breakup and resentful at having to attend her ex’s sudden wedding (along with that of her long-divorced mother) when she learns some astounding news: elderly solitary spinster Jane Engle has left Roe her house in their sleepy Southern town of Lawrenton and a cool $553K. Roe, who hardly knew Jane, though both were members of the amateur sleuthing Real Murders Club, wonders why, until she finds a human skull hidden in her new house’s window seat and a cryptic note declaring: “I didn’t do it.” The eligible Episcopal minister Aubrey Scott comes calling for a date, and neighbors drop in at Roe’s new digs with strange tales of break-ins and diggings in Jane’s backyard. Harris’s latest is chockfull of colorful local names and background chatter, and fans of this intrepid young private eye will be curious to learn how her new independence unfolds. (Feb.)

Takemoto is starting his sophomore year in art school, and he’s finally gotten used to the isolated farmland and the insane amount of work. But as it turns out, his troubles are just beginning, as he meets his fellow students: the mysterious, brilliant Morita Senpai and the diminutive prodigy, Hagumi Hanamoto. Senpai disappears for days at a time only to reappear laden down with unexplained wads of cash. Hagumi is small enough to be mistaken for Koropokkur—a Japanese faerie—and is soon the star of a Web site for Koropokkur fetishists. Takemoto, of course, soon finds himself falling for Hagumi and competing with Senpai for her affections. But this manga, winner of several prestigious awards in Japan, is more shaggy-dog stories of college life than tightly plotted romantic comedy. Like her plotting, Umino’s artwork is slapdash—at its best it nicely captures some of the shambling chaos of college life, but sometimes the chaos is more confusing than kinetic. In particular, her stilted, wide-eyed renderings of Hagumi create a creepy “Valley of the Dolls” effect that makes it difficult to imagine Takemoto falling for her. Still, the characters remain likable, and the story may be just the thing for those who daydream of escaping to dormitory life. (Mar.)

Simmons (Three Days as the Crow Flies), art dealer, poet, painter and denizen of New York’s art world, tells a story of the seductive sex and drugs scene in New York in the capitalistic 1980s. Brooklyn hustler Crow just needs enough money to buy some drugs. So he steals a few paintings from his friend and tries to make a quick sale to tourists in Washington Square Park. Much to his surprise, he is “discovered” by a chic art dealer who wants to sell not just Crow’s paintings but his rough, primitive image. Crow feels a bit of guilt at the ruse, but ignores even that when he meets a luscious art groupie. Over a down-the-rabbit-hole few days, Crow takes full advantage of the name-dropping, posturing, hipster art lovers to get as much sex and drugs as he can before his theft is revealed. The psychedelic drawings lovingly portray New York’s freaky side, showing a variety of characters from a straight drag queen to an eccentrically bohemian patroness. After 60 pages of over-the-top indulgence, this comic stumbles when it tacks on a Frank Capra–style moral epiphany at the end. As a portrait of a hedonistic lifestyle, this comic is a triumph, but as a morality lesson it leaves a lot to be desired. (Feb.)

At first the facts sound like an alternative history concept, but the basics are true: in May 1928, an Italian airship on its way back from exploring the North Pole (where the crew had dropped an Italian flag and a cross blessed by the pope) crashed before lifting off again with part of its crew. The ship disappeared forever, leaving nine crewmen stranded on the ice. Weeks later, after a massive international search followed intently by world newspapers, eight of the men were rescued by a Russian icebreaker. Towle’s cleanly illustrated tale adds impact to these events first by inventing a gin-soaked New York reporter (was there any other kind?) with a need to prove himself and sticking him on the icebreaker heading north. More intriguing, though, is Towle’s imagining of what the airship’s crew goes through on the ice, arguing over whether to search for land (drifting ever further away) or stay still and wait for rescue, though the ice appears to be cracking. Somewhat too brief but vividly imagined, this is high-quality graphic historical fiction, bringing an obscure but colorful page of history to dramatic life. Suitable for young teens. (Dec.)

Eisner Award–winning series The Goon returns in its first full-length trade paperback. Antihero Goon claims to be an enforcer for mob boss Labrazio, while really running the whole operation himself. Intimidating the weak due to his immense stature and ugly mug, he runs the vaguely Depression-era San Francisco–like town where the comic is set. Now he finds that a mysterious figure made entirely of wicker is edging him out, while he’s preoccupied with a trip down memory lane. Through flashbacks we learn more about Goon’s past and the woman he almost went honest for. Though slightly paranormal and definitely pulpy, Goon and the other characters are surprisingly three-dimensional. The art is sepia-toned, giving the book a nostalgic feel. Goon himself is charming and protective of his friends, though Powell never lets him lose the brutality that makes him a believable mob boss. This installment brings romance and heartache as well as action and is sure to be a hit with fans of the series. Mixing the genre expectations of noir with an endearingly amoral lead, The Goon is pure entertainment. (Dec.)