Fiction Reviews: Week of 1/14/2008

Erdrich's 13th novel, a multigenerational tour de force of sin, redemption, murder and vengeance, finds its roots in the 1911 slaughter of a farming family near Pluto, N.Dak. The family's infant daughter is spared, and a posse forms, incorrectly blames three Indians and lynches them. One, Mooshum Milk, miraculously survives. Over the next century, descendants of both the hanged men and the lynch mob develop relationships that become deeply entangled, and their disparate stories are held together via principal narrator Evelina, Mooshum Milk's granddaughter, who comes of age on an Indian reservation near Pluto in the 1960s and '70s and forms two fateful adolescent crushes: one on bad-boy schoolmate Corwin Peace and one on a nun. Though Evelina doesn't know it, both are descendants of lynch mob members. The plot splinters as Evelina enrolls in college and finds work at a mental asylum; Corwin spirals into a life of crime; and a long-lost violin (its backstory is another beautiful piece of the mosaic) takes on massive significance. Erdrich plays individual narratives off one another, dropping apparently insignificant clues that build to head-slapping revelations as fates intertwine and the person responsible for the 1911 killing is identified. (May)

Newbie marketing intern Ciara Griffin lands a job at WMMP, a station threatened with being sold to Skyware, a giant communications conglomerate, unless ad revenue picks up. A former con artist with a canny way with people, Ciara soon learns that the DJs are undead and specialists in the musical eras in which they were turned into vampires. One of them, Shane McAllister (turned in 1995), is really hot and dangerously tempting. In order to attract more listeners, Ciara promotes a new marketing strategy and the Sherwood, Md., station becomes 94.3 WVMP, the “Lifeblood of Rock and Roll,” exploiting the fang factor (which no listener takes seriously) for profit. It works, until an ancient vampire cult wants to pull the plug. Also playing in is “The Control,” an equally ancient paramilitary group created to protect good vampires and kill bad ones. Smith-Ready's musical references are spot on, as is her take on corporate radio's creeping airwave hegemony. Add in the irrepressible Ciara, who grew up in a family of grifters, and the results rock. (May)

Star-crossed lovers have a tough time of it in Siplin's wooden third novel. When rough-hewn smalltown Pennsylvania contractor Caleb Atwood sees an African-American woman who appears to have been beaten, he buys her some medical supplies and drops her off at a local inn. She returns the favor when she comes across him in a bar parking lot, his nose bloodied. As it turns out, she's a Harley-riding paparazzi named Jimi on her way to New York from L.A. (her injuries are the result of a run-in with a motorcycle thief), and Caleb's bloody nose leads to a love affair, much to the dismay of a few of Caleb's friends. As Caleb and Jimi's relationship becomes serious, Caleb's brother, freshly released from jail, turns up in town and brings plenty of trouble with him. Unfortunately, the characters are deeply stereotypical, and the plot twists are predictable and contrived. (May)

This remarkable debut saga of intrigue and akido flashes back to a darkly opulent WWII-era Malaya. Phillip Hutton, 72, lives in serene Penang comfort, occasionally training students as an akido master “teacher of teachers.” A visit from Michiko Murakami sends him spiraling back into his past, where he grows up the alienated half-British, half-Chinese son of a wealthy Penang trader in the years before WWII. When Hutton's father and three siblings leave him to run the family company one summer, he befriends a mysterious Japanese neighbor named Mr. Endo. Japan is on the opposing side of the coming war, but Endo paradoxically opts to train Hutton in the ways of aikido, in what both men come to see as the fulfillment of a prophecy that has haunted them for several lifetimes. When the Japanese army invades Malaya, chaos reigns, and Phillip makes a secret, very profitable deal. He cannot, however, offset the costs of his friendship with Endo. Eng's characters are as deep and troubled as the time in which the story takes place, and he draws on a rich palette to create a sprawling portrait of a lesser explored corner of the war. Hutton's first-person narration is measured, believable and enthralling. (May)

A carefully honed, sharply intelligent new collection of four stories shows Ozick (The Heir to the Glimmering World) at the height of her stylistic powers. The title story, by far the strongest tale, follows the female secretaries of Henry James and Joseph Conrad, both of whom take dictation from the two egoist titans. When the authors meet in London, their two amanuenses collude to make their own mark on their masters' work; in so doing, they exalt, with an undeniably sexual glee, that they will thus attain immortality. “Actors” looks on wryly as TV character actor Matt Sorley, né Mose Sadacca and nearing 60, reluctantly takes a role that will either cap his career or defeat him. “At Fumicaro” follows an American Catholic literary critic in Mussolini's Italy as he falls head over heels in love with a pregnant 16-year-old peasant girl: “She was more hospitable to God than anyone who hoped to find God in books.” The exuberant “What Happened to the Baby?” follows a young college student and her eccentric Esperanto-spouting uncle to his mid-20th-century meetings of the League for a Unified Humanity. Ozick's stories ingeniously put scholarship in the service of human flowerings. (Apr.)

Debut novelist Walker presents a tedious chronicle of heroine Samai Collins's postdivorce escapades with sex and drugs. After splitting up with her husband, Samai is lonely and misses sex. In this vulnerable state, she is taken in by a golden-tongued ne'er-do-well named Zane, who leads her down a primrose path to perdition. The character development is thin, and some scenes important to the plot seem totally implausible, such as when Samai is fired on trumped-up charges and given no opportunity to defend herself. The sex scenes, while passionate, are clunky and risibly trite: “his tongue touched my 'jewel,' which sent a hot electrical jolt to my brain.” The novel does dabble in deeper themes that may resonate with spiritual seekers: Samai is restless and wrestles with her identity as an individual after her divorce. Her struggles to do what she thinks she should do, rather than what she wants to do, are moving. But while Samai's tortured relationship with the church constitutes a major theme of the novel, what's at stake in her spiritual peregrinations is never made clear. Readers who make it to the end will find an inspiring conclusion that seems to come out of nowhere. Fans of African-American Christian fiction will fare better elsewhere. (Apr.)

A brutal view of India's class struggles is cunningly presented in Adiga's debut about a racist, homicidal chauffer. Balram Halwai is from the “Darkness,” born where India's downtrodden and unlucky are destined to rot. Balram manages to escape his village and move to Delhi after being hired as a driver for a rich landlord. Telling his story in retrospect, the novel is a piecemeal correspondence from Balram to the premier of China, who is expected to visit India and whom Balram believes could learn a lesson or two about India's entrepreneurial underbelly. Adiga's existential and crude prose animates the battle between India's wealthy and poor as Balram suffers degrading treatment at the hands of his employers (or, more appropriately, masters). His personal fortunes and luck improve dramatically after he kills his boss and decamps for Bangalore. Balram is a clever and resourceful narrator with a witty and sarcastic edge that endears him to readers, even as he rails about corruption, allows himself to be defiled by his bosses, spews coarse invective and eventually profits from moral ambiguity and outright criminality. It's the perfect antidote to lyrical India. (Apr.)

Hollywood comes to Baltimore in bestseller Lippman's assured 10th PI Tess Monaghan caper (after 2006's No Good Deeds). When Tess literally stumbles onto the set of Mann of Steel, a big-budget TV miniseries shooting in her neighborhood, she finds herself hired as a bodyguard for Selene Waites, the show's 20-year-old hard-partying star. Flip Tumulty—the show's writer and son of a Baltimore-born Hollywood mogul—tells Tess the set has been plagued by vandalism and he fears for Selene's safety. Tess soon uncovers unsettling photos of Selene and learns they were taken by Wilbur Grace, a stalker who later hanged himself. When one of the crew members is murdered, Tess suspects someone may be trying to shut down more than the TV production. While the excitement level may not match that of other recent entries in the series, fans will appreciate the author's usual authentic local color and intricate plotting. 15-city author tour. (Mar.)

Brockmeier follows up the acclaimed The Brief History of the Dead with a collection of 13 stories possessing the enchantment of his two children's books, but with adult twists. In the title story, Olivia lives in a “little red cottage” on an unnamed island and sells maps, umbrellas and candies to the tourists. She also sells prophylactics and believes that, in a glorious moment, she was abducted and examined by an alien “Entity” who came from the seventh layer of the universe. In a more O. Henryesque story, “The Lives of the Philosophers,” Jacob, a philosophy grad student, is trying to understand why certain great philosophers ceased to do philosophy. He finds the answer when his girlfriend, Audrey, becomes pregnant with a child he doesn't want. In “The Air Is Full of Little Spots,” the narrator, a presumably Afghan tribal woman, writes of her tribe's belief that “we see the world only from the back,” but at moments, by the grace of God, “the world turns its face to us.” While many characters reach such moments of clarity, the stories often falter when they do. At their best, though, the tales show Brockmeier's mastery of the tricky intersection between fantasy and realism. (Mar.)

Bestseller Archer (Kane and Abel) pays homage to Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo in this delicious updating of the adventure classic. Four upper-crust friends from Cambridge University known as the Musketeers conspire to frame Danny Cartwright, an illiterate London East Ender, for the murder of Danny's oldest friend and brother-in-law to be, Bernie Wilson. The outcome of the intriguing trial, which pits a relatively novice defense lawyer against a skilled prosecutor, is a 22-year sentence for Danny. In maximum-security Belmarsh prison, Danny is lucky enough to share a cell with Sir Nicholas Moncrieff, the book's Abbé Faria figure, who teaches him to read and write. In a trick familiar to those who know their Dumas, Danny escapes by impersonating Moncrieff and hatches an intricate scheme to punish the Musketeers and clear his name. While Archer doesn't explore the cost to Danny's soul his revenge exacts, the author's firsthand knowledge of prison life and legal maneuvers helps make this a thoroughly enjoyable entertainment. 250,000-copy printing; author tour. (Mar.)

Confrontational and uncompromising Patti Black, Chicago's most decorated cop, gets caught in a web of murder and betrayal in Newton's searing debut. When several unrelated cases threaten to reveal her horrific childhood as an abused runaway and teenage rape victim, Patti defies everybody to find Roland Ganz, her bête noir, who she suspects is behind the crimes; she must also locate the son she put up for adoption whom she thinks Roland is seeking. Accompanied by her sometime friend and rugby teammate, newspaper reporter Tracy Moens, she frantically follows a trail from Chicago to nearby Calumet City, the Arizona desert and back. The surprise ending includes a search on a houseboat moored on Lake Michigan during a tornado as well as a shootout in the depths of a disintegrating slum building. Newton, who based his heroine's character on a real Chicago police officer, creates a netherworld full of violent and duplicitous people. Pacing is all but absent amid the unrelenting action of the repetitive narrative. (Mar.)

In the two years that have passed since the action in Lutz's hit debut, The Spellman Files (2007), zany Isabel Spellman, who works for the family PI firm in San Francisco, has become “a somewhat responsible member of society.” Unfortunately, she's also become obsessed with “Subject” (aka John Brown), a next-door neighbor who she's convinced has an evil secret she must expose, even if it means losing her PI license. Adding further hilarity is “The Stone and Spellman Show,” transcripts of recordings revealing 15-year-old sister Rae's fascination with her middle-aged “best friend,” stoic SFPD inspector Henry Stone, who endures Rae's adoration with liberal doses of Doctor Who watching. Henry's link to the Spellman family's fortunes suggests he might be a good candidate for Isabel's “Ex-boyfriend #11” when Subject fails to make the grade. Fans of The Spellman Files will laugh just as loudly at the comic antics chronicled in this sparkling sequel. (Mar.)

In the simple and captivating latest from Pay It Forward author Hyde, a chance encounter proves life-changing for two lonely New York City subway riders. Four months shy of 18, Sebastian Mundt has been held a virtual prisoner by his father since his mother died: his father home-schools him and doesn't let him have outside relationships. One night, with his father heavily sedated by his sleeping pill, Sebastian sneaks out to ride the subway and locks eyes with Maria Arquette, a young mother who is caught in an abusive marriage. The two share an instant connection and take to meeting on the subway almost nightly and tentatively planning a future in the California desert town that Sebastian remembers from childhood, where thousands of windmills stretch out across the horizon. Hyde gracefully alternates between Sebastian's and Maria's perspectives with gentle nods to this New York love story's precursors (Maria obsessively watches West Side Story). It is their voices—at once utterly credible and heartbreakingly naïve—that make the book, and while this is being billed as an adult novel, its closest stylistic relative is S.E. Hinton's YA classic The Outsiders. (Mar.)

When Kamryn “Ryn” Matika gets a call from college friend Adele “Del” Brannon, she reluctantly heads to the hospital where Adele is dying of cancer. The two had been odd couple friends (working-class Ryn is black, posh Adele is white) while attending Leeds University, but their friendship did not survive Del's admission of an affair with Ryn's fiancé Nate Turner, which also ended Ryn's relationship with Nate. The affair did result, however, in the now-five-year-old Tegan, and Del has called Ryn to ask her to adopt the adorable girl. Ryn agrees, but must face down Del's stepmother, Muriel, to do it. She finds surprising help from new boss Luke Wiseman, who, after meeting her unceremoniously, loves Tegan (and eventually Ryn, too), but the return of Nate, who doesn't know Tegan is his daughter, promises to reopen old wounds. Koomson's U.S. debut is a three-hankie delight. (Mar.)

Sheriff David Peck, a former Baltimore homicide detective, faces the biggest challenge of his career when a devastating ice storm paralyzes Dunston Falls, Maine, in Lamanda's suspenseful debut. Peck's efforts to help the isolated town's citizens survive with limited power and supplies get derailed with the discovery of the body of 47-year-old Doris White, who's been stabbed and strangled in her mobile home. Blinding headaches accompanied by haunting images of a fatal fire hamper Peck as he investigates the crime, which proves to be the first in a series of murders. While a closing kicker sheds an unexpected light on the killings, the author's skill at creating tension in his claustrophobic setting suggests the story would have satisfied without this final twist. Echoes of M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island add to the menacing mood. (Mar.)

Rice's fourth thriller (after 2005's Light Before Day) clumsily mixes the plight of gays in the military with an unlikely murder investigation. John Houck, a former marine sergeant, returns to the States from Iraq, determined to make amends with his commanding officer, Capt. Mike Bowers, who was gravely injured due to John's negligence. But when he tracks Mike down at home in Owensville, Calif., John discovers Mike gruesomely murdered in his bed. John, who had no idea Mike was gay, reluctantly joins forces with Alex Martin, Mike's live-in boyfriend, to bring the killer to justice. After John and Alex learn that local law enforcement played a role in Mike's death, they must go on the run to save their own lives. A subplot involving John's brother's suicide distracts in a subpar effort that lacks the complexity of Rice's earlier novels. 10-city author tour. (Mar.)

Screenwriter Levien's debut crackles with raw intensity as it hurtles from a placid Indianapolis suburb to a dingy Mexican outpost. Paul and Carol Gabriel are devastated when their 12-year-old son, Jamie, disappears on his paper delivery route one morning. Fourteen months later and with the police no closer to finding Jamie, they hire PI Frank Behr, an imposing ex-cop with a checkered past. Behr soon discovers that Jamie's disappearance was no random grab but part of a larger operation run by Riggi, a real estate tycoon who deals in everything from drugs to stolen children. Reluctantly allowing Paul to accompany him, Behr tracks Riggi's men to Mexico, where he and Paul discover the true extent of Riggi's depravity as they race against the clock to find Jamie. Levien expertly weaves a subplot involving the tragic death of Behr's own young son into the complex kidnapping story, and the moments shared between the two grieving fathers are heartbreaking. Fans of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch will be particularly delighted. (Mar.)

This defiantly nonlinear fictionalization of the life of poet Robert Frost (1874–1963) alternates between Frost's late-life visit to Communist Russia, where he met with Khrushchev, and dozens of vignettes and scenes from the rest of his long life, as well as his work's posthumous reception. Hall (I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company) takes readers from Frost's troubled childhood in San Francisco to his creative flowering in Great Britain at the onset of WWI, to the fraught relationship between Frost-as-widower and his married secretary. The narrative returns again and again to the cold winters in New England farm country that permeated his poetry and his 20s and 30s, but the book's real weight comes from the tragedy of Frost's children's deaths: four of six preceded their father. The deep sorrow and disappointment embedded in Frost's story come through particularly in the included fragments of verse. None of what's here enlarges on the extraordinary amount of biographical material on Frost, but Hall gets deep into Frost's head, an approach that brings a startling immediacy to a complex figure many know only as the author of classics like “The Road Not Taken.” (Mar.)

Penned by twins who've paid their dues in the restaurant biz, this whip-smart debut chronicles a brief slice of the life of Erin Edwards, a marketing manager who loses her job and cashes in family favors to snag a wait-staff position at Roulette, a top-flight New York City restaurant. Erin, devoid of waitressing experience, has a disastrous first day and comes under the scrutiny of Steve, the restaurant's grouchy owner, and chef Carl, who's as charming as he is terrifying. Luckily for Erin, seasoned waiter Cato Poole offers to mentor her. With Cato's help and friendship, Erin learns the ropes. Though Steve and Carl make it clear that they've got their eye on her, Erin manages to canoodle with a co-worker and a powerful television producer customer. This page-turner reads like recent restaurant-linked memoirs, with accounts of unrealistic expectations, slippery tactics, critic- and rival-driven anxieties and general kitchen mayhem. Chick lit standards like gossipy scenes with the best friend are mercifully short, and though the novel ends on a cheesy note, the rest of the ride is tons of fun, especially for those who've done time in the service industry. (Mar.)

Dobbs (Never Surrender) extends his historical fiction series starring Winston Churchill with this title focusing on the Yalta Conference. As WWII winds down, Churchill, Joseph Stalin and FDR meet in Yalta to sort out postwar Europe. All in less than vigorous health (FDR is at death's door), the big three hammer out differences in their competing agendas, a process Dobbs fills with rich historical detail and dramatic flair as “Uncle Joe” Stalin extracts large concessions, particularly land reparations—such as in Russian-occupied Poland—from a deferential FDR and a scrappy Churchill. Meanwhile, Roosevelt lobbies for the formation of the United Nations and simultaneously keeps secret the atomic bomb. Minor characters, notably a Polish plumber trying to flee Yalta, point to the brutality behind what Churchill later dubbed the “Iron Curtain.” Perhaps the weakest negotiator of the trio, Churchill nevertheless maintains, with able assists from Dobbs, his famous eloquence, humor and shrewdness. History buffs and readers with at least a casual interest in Churchill will get the most out of this. (Mar.)

The exciting fourth legal thriller from former federal prosecutor Martinez to feature Melanie Vargas (after 2007's Cover-up) starts with a bang: a car bomb detonated by a cellphone explodes outside the Manhattan federal courthouse and kills Lester Poe, a distinguished defense attorney who was opposing Melanie in her murder prosecution of rap legend Atari Briggs. Melanie, a workaholic single mom who was attracted to Poe, witnesses the horrific crime, which occurs moments after the defense attorney advised her that Briggs was willing to give the feds the goods on wanted terrorist Gamal Abdullah. This Pelican Brief–like opening, alas, isn't matched by the rest of the book, which takes a predictable course involving a transparently evil attorney who succeeds Poe in representing Briggs and a young female attorney with self-esteem issues who's tempted to compromise the Briggs prosecution. Martinez may yet hit the top rank of suspense novelists if she melds her engaging series sleuth with more sophisticated plot lines. (Mar.)

Despite the intriguing premise of exploring a serial killer through the eyes of his wife, Floyd's debut falls short of its potential. Six years after Nina Mosley discovered evidence linking her husband, Randy, to a string of murders across the country, she's finally settling into a new life with their seven-year-old son, Hayden, in Cary, N.C. Now calling herself Leigh Wren, Nina hopes that she's heard the last of her ex-husband, who's on death row in California. But when the father of one of Randy's victims tracks her down and exposes her identity, Nina knows her troubles are far from over. As friends shun her, Nina struggles to come to terms with her past. When Hayden's life is suddenly put in jeopardy, Nina must revisit Randy's crimes and uncover who's continuing his killing spree before it's too late. Floyd shifts awkwardly between Nina's past life with Randy and her new life as Leigh, while his textbook portrayal of a serial killer offers nothing new for veteran thriller fans. (Mar.)

Logsdon writes about contemporary farming issues with quaint elegance, good humor and rich detail in this novel set in the rustic village of Gowler, Ohio. Ben Bump grows up poor and of immigrant parents, while his boyhood friend Emmett Gowler is from the village founder's affluent family. Logsdon explores different agricultural methods and philosophies that highlight the benefits of Ben's frugal organic approach over Emmett's greedy agribusiness. A few lively subplots—Ben's sister's sparring with Emmett, the defrocking of the local KKK—offset the preachy overtones and the welter of arguments advocating the family farm. Full-bodied characters and the fecund Midwest setting also help to propel Logsdon's narrative about a disappearing way of life. (Mar.)

Barnaby Skye returns for his 16th stirring western (after The Canyon of Bones) set primarily in pre–Civil War southern Utah. Skye, exiled from England, views himself as an outcast, “an empty-purse man of the wilderness,” who makes his living “guiding Yanks in their endless westering.” He has two Native American wives, Mary, a Shoshone, and Victoria, an Absaroka Crow. Mary's recently given birth to his son Dirk (whose Indian name is North Star) and Skye's hungry for a job to support them. He agrees to guide Hiram Peacock's New Bedford Infirmary Company wagon train—which includes 10 young seriously ill consumptives in hope of a cure—to a desert place. With wives and son in tow, Skye guides Peacock's charges, overcoming obstacles from other immigrant trains who fear the “plague party” as they follow the California Trail and pass through unknown territory. Unfortunately, they must deal with Paiute Indians and militias drawn from angry Mormon settlements in conflict with the government over polygamy. Wheeler's lucid prose and excellent eye for detail make history come alive once again. (Mar.)

This sophisticated damsel-in-distress tale from Harleman (Thoreau's Laundry) stars sexy 60-year-old widow Nan Mulholland, who pops nitroglycerin and estrogen, and whose life suddenly lurches forward in 1998 when her only child makes a desperate request. Nan's daughter Alex believes that her powerful husband has been sexually abusing their four-year-old daughter, Jane; she begs Nan to take Jane out of Seattle and into hiding until Alex can gain temporary custody. Nan and Jane flee to Providence, where Nan's closest friend has recently moved, but they arrive to find the friend has died days before. That leaves Nan in an unfamiliar city with a faked identity, limited cash and responsibility for a preschooler, but Nan was married to a Foreign Service man and she's tenacious. She's also a perceptive, witty and self-involved protagonist, but she's repeatedly rescued by strangers which makes the plot hard to swallow. And while Harleman's wry humor and vivid descriptions are in play throughout, significant questions remain unanswered by the end of the novel's bumpy ride. (Mar.)

Seitz (The Spirit of Sweetgrass) manages to keep her second faith fiction novel fairly light even though it covers depression, suicide, child abuse, domestic abuse and death. Honor, in her mid-40s, escapes to St. Anne's Isle off the South Carolina coast with her life in tatters. She's unemployed and broke, and feels unworthy of love after a divorce and a failed relationship. Her attempted suicide is thwarted by a group of Gullah nannies who rescue her and love her back to health, introducing her to Duchess, a quirky woman with a penchant for nudity. Honor lives with Duchess for a while as they help each other heal, and eventually Honor reclaims her love for life and painting, and reconnects with her sister Alice. The narration switches regularly among the three women (Honor, Duchess and Alice) and the story jumps back and forth over an eight-year span, which makes the first half of the book intricate to follow. The novel is uneven: none of the serious topics is mined in depth and the writing is simple, but the plot, once understood, is compelling. Fans of inspirational fiction may feel challenged by some of the edgier content, but the story does include a near-death bedside conversion. (Mar.)

Recently returned to 1829 London after years spent abroad with their ambassador father, the two Alton sisters are preparing for their “Season”—at least beautiful demure Evangeline is. Too tall, too outspoken and too intelligent Gail, however, views the prospect with horror. Escaping the household turbulence for a peaceful early morning ride in the park, Gail finds herself knocked into a lake when an overbearing, well-dressed gentleman, Maximillian, Viscount Fontaine, can't control his horse. Gail's temper flares when he blames her for the accident. She's justly upset, then, when he's seen kissing Evangeline in the family's moonlit conservatory during her debut ball. Since Max's father has ordered Max to find a wife in three months or be disinherited, the beautiful Evangeline suits as well as any woman, but—surprise—Max soon finds himself obsessed with witty Gail. All's well that ends well, but numerous overwritten passages and an incongruous subplot compromise the story's good humor. (Mar.)

Playwright Peterson (Behold the Lamb of God) spins a whimsical fantasy novel that will appeal to both adult and YA readers. When the three Igiby siblings find a mysterious map, they embark on an adventure to discover family secrets about the father they never knew and a hidden treasure that many have long desired to find. Leeli, the youngest, can sing with a beauty that captivates dragons; Tink, the middle sibling, has the makings of a king; and Janner, the eldest, possesses a bravery that will protect them all. But the children's curiosity get the entire Igiby family into trouble with the Fangs of Dang—frightening, scaly-skinned, lizard creatures that drip venom—who have ruled the land of Scree since the Great War. Soon, the Igibys are scrambling for their lives. Peterson's style is lighthearted and funny, but following the Igibys' story requires patience and attention to detail and character so as not to get lost. The sheer amount of names, places, creatures and history Peterson invents will frustrate some readers—it is so complicated that he inserts explanatory “historical” footnotes throughout (though many are amusing). (Mar.)

The enduring ties between two estranged sisters drive the darkly engaging latest from White (Learning to Breathe). Marnie Maitland, an Arizona school teacher, returns to her South Carolina Lowcountry hometown after a 10-year absence at the request of Quinn, the ex-husband of Marnie's sister, Diana. Quinn believes Marnie can help Gil, the nine-year-old nephew she's never met, who has refused to speak since a sailing accident almost claimed Gil and Diana's lives. As Marnie begins to bond with Gil (and with Quinn), she instinctively senses that Diana's simmering anger toward her is tied to the childhood sailing accident that killed their mother but spared the two girls. Marnie remembers little of the accident, which is cloaked in mystery, as is Diana's obsession with “the Maitland curse” (related to a murky blasphemy from previous generations) and the mental illness that runs in the family. As Marnie tries to get at the truth, the first-person narrative is tersely handed among the four leads. Careful plotting, richly flawed characters and a surprising conclusion mark this absorbing melodrama. (Mar.)

Set in Maine in 1888, Emerson's fourth and final mystery in her Diana Spaulding series (Deadlier Than the Pen, etc.) offers plenty of intrigue, eccentric characters and well-researched history. Diana's fiancé, Dr. Ben Northcote, has crossed Penobscot Bay to Keep Island, home of wealthy boyhood pal Graham Somener, to care for three men assisting on an archeological dig who've been poisoned. When Diana fails to hear from Ben, she becomes alarmed and follows him to the island, which she's warned is “a dangerous place.” There, while observing an excavation headed by archeologist Serena Dunbar, Diana and Ben witness a suspicious accidental death. Graham and Serena, in apparent romantic cahoots, want to hush it up to avoid publicity, and the sheriff is happy to comply. Suspecting fraud, murder and old-fashioned gold-digging, Diana and Ben investigate leads that unveil professional jealousy, revenge and more murder. Newcomers will find this period cozy works just as well as a stand-alone. (Apr.)

At the start of Haddam's stellar 22nd Gregor Demarkian whodunit (after 2007's Glass Houses), Demarkian is finally about to marry his longtime significant other, Bennis Hannaford. When the extensive wedding preparations take their toll, the detective welcomes the chance to leave his native Philadelphia and investigate a high-profile crime on the Martha's Vineyard–like island of Margaret's Harbor, where Arrow Normand, a Britney Spears–like pop icon, and her current boyfriend, Mark Anderman, had been filming a movie. During a raging nor'easter, Anderman was shot to death and Normand later arrested as the prime suspect. Plunged into the world of superficial celebrities, the traditional Demarkian struggles to identify the motive behind the murder as well as solve the bizarre mutilation of a local photojournalist and yet another killing. Haddam provides a completely fair and logical solution, even if it's not her twistiest, and to her credit, she examines the shallow lives of Normand and her crowd with some sympathy. (Mar.)

In Myers's agreeable fourth mystery to feature 18th-century Venetian castrato Tito Amato (after 2006's Cruel Music), Tito has barely settled in at a country villa, where he's participating in a private performance commissioned by a wealthy opera lover, when a stranger is found murdered in the villa's hallway. To his further astonishment, one of the singers gathered there, under a false identity, is his sister, Grisella, who left the family years before and for whom his brother, Alessandro, is just then searching in Constantinople. Tito attempts to solve the murder and uncover his sister's real story amid musical rehearsals, regular epistles from Alessandro and more deaths. The book's diction and attitudes have a contemporary rather than a historical ring, and Alessandro's unrealistically prompt and well-dramatized letters are an obvious fictional contrivance. Still, Tito proves himself a lively narrator, and fans of cozier period puzzles and Italian opera will enjoy his company as well as the book's appealingly bucolic, autumnal setting. (Mar.)

Little is as it seems in Norwegian author Dahl's U.S. debut, which features a tangled web of art theft, blackmail, torrid sex and double crosses. After femme fatale Elisabeth Faremo seduces Det. Insp. Frank Frølich of the Oslo police, Frank learns Elisabeth has a brother, the thug Jonny Faremo, and Elisabeth has used Frank as part of an alibi to help Jonny beat a murder rap. Later, Frank discovers that Elisabeth's female university mentor, Reidun Vestli, is also her lover. Reidun eventually turns up dead, as do Elisabeth and Jonny. Frank becomes a suspect in Jonny's death even as he begins to understand how an old robbery is connected to the murders. The entertaining if overstuffed plot is undermined at times by Frank's strange lack of reaction to Elisabeth's death and an unprofessional approach to forensic evidence relevant to the twist ending. Still, scenes like the one in which Frank finds himself locked in a sauna, doomed to become wrinkled to death, combined with the clinical style, make for an exciting read. (Mar.)

Feisty widow Ellie Quicke has a lot to worry about in the delightful ninth entry in Heley's contemporary cozy series set in a nameless town outside London (Murder of Identity, etc.). A vicious dog fatally mauls a woman in the local park; Ellie's “dreadful daughter,” Diana, is conniving to inherit the fortune of Ellie's dying aunt, Drusilla; and Thomas, her dear friend and rector, announces he's leaving the parish. As her life falls apart, Ellie tries to focus on the search for the dog's owner, who incites the animal to further attacks. While the reader learns the culprit's identity early on, the author's loving depiction of life in a small English town, with its inhabitants both virtuous and villainous, will please Anglophiles. Longtime fans will cheer the heartwarming conclusion. (Mar.)

In British author Silverwood's engaging ninth whodunit to feature Det. Insp. Michael Angel (after The Umbrella Man), Angel must track down the murderer of Joshua Gumme, a Yorkshire businessman known as “The Man Who Couldn't Lose” for having won more than 200 straight games of pontoon, a card game with a large element of chance, over a 10-year period. The suspects range from Gumme's son, who was left a pittance out of an estate worth millions, to a heroin dealer, but the universe of those who wished the ethically challenged Gumme dead is large enough to keep Angel and his team busy. As usual, Angel must battle his own superior, Superintendent Harker, to run the case his own way. In a nice touch, Angel's wife helps him figure out how Gumme cheated, but it's the policeman's down-to-earth common sense and doggedness that lead him to a satisfying solution of the crime. Once again Silverwood combines a classic mystery plot with well-developed characters. (Mar.)

Nasir (Tower of Dreams) combines lucid dreaming, unconscious desires and the search for God in this lugubrious exploration of different layers of reality. Aging, skirt-chasing lawyer David Grant studies lucid dreaming with Dr. Thotmoses at the Trans-Humanist Institute, hoping to dream up “the most perfect woman possible” and incidentally discover the underlying truth of life. When Grant falls in love with Thotmoses's daughter, Kat, he chases her through multiple dream worlds until he learns to control his dreams and propel himself into other realities. Soon he learns that Kat's family wants to use his abilities to plead on their behalf before God. As multiple realities flood his life, Grant believes himself insane and must choose whether to accept the godlike gifts he has been offered or live as a crazy person in a damaged body. Though Grant trudges toward enlightenment, his misogynistic attitudes and lengthy disbelief in his talents soon make for tedious reading. (Apr.)

Each story in this “definitive” third edition of Kiernan's loosely linked collection stands alone as a visceral slice of life. While “Anamorphosis” and “To This Water” rely on the overdone menaces of pedophilia and rape, “Bela's Plot” (a four-time IHG award winner) establishes a delicate balance between the romance of decay and deliberately undercutting characters' gothic pretensions. “Glass Coffin,” “Salammbô,” “Salmagundi,” “...Between the Gargoyle Trees” and the previously unpublished “Salammbô Redux” relate the history of sisters Salmagundi and Salammbô Desvernine and their disturbed and disturbing extended family. “Paedomorphosis” and “Rats Live on No Evil Star” approach closest to classic horror, driven by revulsion and fear of the alien, while in “Estate,” a human terrorizes a supernatural creature, and “San Andreas” relies on pure human nature for its shuddery effect. Together, the impact of these stories is stunning: glancing collisions between psychics, runaways, junkies, artists and whores (who, as in Kiernan's Silk, function as a loose alternative to a family) add up to a portrait of something broken and beautiful. (Mar.)

Childhood friends Wolf (creator of Roger Rabbit) and Myers (Roman Catholic archbishop of Newark, N.J.) combine forces to resurrect 1950s pulp action adventures in this hollow space western. Silver–space-suited galactic marshal Capt. Victor Corsaire is distracted from arresting smalltime crook Gil Terry when infamous (and impeccably dressed) criminal mastermind Space Vulture raids the planet Verlinap. Capturing Corsaire and a “feisty” planetary administrator, Cali Russell, Space Vulture triggers a battle of wits as he seeks to auction the lawman off to 12 of the galaxy's most wanted criminals. Meanwhile, back on Verlinap, Gil helps Cali's sons, boy genius Eliot and innocent waif Regin, fix rockets and pick pockets as they race to a final confrontation. Gimmicks like midair fistfights off the side of 600-foot cliffs trigger readers' nostalgia at the expense of bolstering the threadbare plot or defining the characters, who change moods and personalities at whim. (Mar.)

With this nightmarish series of vignettes, the Tems take the reader on a jolting, surreal journey through partially autobiographical episodes of their family life. This narrative is a complete reworking of their novella (winner of the 2000 World Fantasy, Bram Stoker and IHG awards) of the same name, expanding on the themes of family, loss and dreadful imagination. How does the tragic death of a child affect the entire family and even the house they live in? Why do they wrestle so with the demons of imagination and guilt? The authors addresss these questions in a stylized, stream-of-consciousness give and take, painting heartrending pictures of day-to-day life as parents, children and lovers. This visceral, psychological view of the horrors that occur in an average person's life will draw in readers with delicate, exquisitely detailed and almost hypnotic language. (Mar.)

This rollicking debut combines swashbuckling sea adventure, fantasy and romance with great success. Kestrel was born a Promise, a child with magical talents, and as such sought by the Danisoban mages who control all use of magic. After the Danisoban Brethren kill her parents, Kestrel survives as a street urchin and tavern maid before running away to sea. The sea cancels Danisoban magic, but Kestrel soon learns she retains her untrained ability to command the weather. She signs on with Capt. Artemus Binns, only to see him arrested for piracy and hauled away. Kestrel promptly sets sail in pursuit and finds herself in the middle of a civil war between the Ageless King of the Danisobans and his treacherous and ambitious son, Prince Jeremie. Massey's world building can be a little sparse, but there's enough spirit of adventure to carry Kestrel (and the reader) past the occasional plot hole, with plenty left over for sequels. (Mar.)

Fans of high-spirited adventure, intrigue and romance will celebrate the third book (after 2007's Magic Study) in the saga of reluctant mage and diplomat Yelena Zaltana. The news that Yelena is a Soulfinder, able to manipulate the spirits of the dead and the living, hasn't made her popular with the inhabitants of Sitia's Magician's Keep, since the last Soulfinder turned people into mindless slaves. First Magician Roze Featherstone's hostility toward Yelena increases until the Sitian Council decides to send Yelena north as diplomatic liaison to the rival nation of Ixia. When Roze takes over the council, imprisoning her rivals and driving the nation to the brink of war with Ixia, Yelena is caught between her duties as liaison, her love for Ixian intelligence officer Valek and her fear of her own power, which she must embrace fully to defeat Roze and restore the council. Snyder delivers another excellent adventure, deftly balancing international and local hostilities against Yelena's personal struggles. (Mar.)

The British may not have invented the modern horror story, as the editors of this all-original anthology claim, but the 21 stories they've selected prove that contemporary U.K. writers are infiltrating American publishing markets with some of the most provocative horror fiction written today. Refreshingly devoid of genre clichés, these subtle tales offer ambiguously supernatural horrors from the dramas and traumas of everyday life. Nicholas Royle, in “The Goldfinch,” gives chronic illness an unsettling spin by objectifying a man's cancer as a relentless shadowy stalker. Mark Morris's “Puppies for Sale” presents a nuclear family's gradual implosion as a consequence of a malignant supernatural influence that may be a complete figment of the distraught father's mind. In Conrad Williams's “Slitten Gorge,” the disconnect between the unpolluted natural world and the protagonist's industrially despoiled environment achieves an aura of otherworldly horror. The book's title notwithstanding, there's nothing peculiarly British about these stories, but their authors are exceptionally articulate in the universal language of horror. (Mar.)

When a powerful twister hits the little town of Cherrystone, Wash., former Seattle homicide detective Emily Kenyon checks in on the Martins: she finds their home demolished by the storm, and three of the four family members murdered by a demented killer. Suspiciously missing from the carnage is older son Nick, but is he a witness or the murderer? And Emily soon finds that her teenage daughter, Jenna, has run off with Nick in order to help him clear his name. What Emily doesn't know is that the Martin family deaths are connected to a series of murders going back two decades, and are linked to a case from her own past whose tragic outcome ultimately drove her out of the Seattle police force. Olsen does a nice job balancing past and present plots and subplots in this intricately layered story, keeping the tension taut and pages turning. (Apr.)

When she isn't getting into trouble with her oddball companions—a vicious pair of bunny slippers and a frustrated ghost who haunts her sports car—hot-tempered witch Jazz Tremaine earns money lifting hexes and driving limos for Southern California's All Creatures Limo Service. When the vampire cop she's loved and hated for centuries, Nikolai Gregorivich, seeks her help in catching a serial vampire slayer, Jazz fends him off to focus on her own problems (the sleazeball limo service owner; a client who generates supernaturally disgusting odors). She can't resist her sexy vamp lover for long, though, especially as clues in the killings point to an evil figure from her past. With clever writing, a high sensuality factor and an unfettered imagination, Wisdom makes a sparkling entry into lite urban paranormals. (Mar.)

New York PR exec Hannah Mathews is in remission from the same disease that claimed her mother's life months before: breast cancer. She heads south in an attempt to persuade her 85-year-old grandma, Jenny, to sell the Seaview Inn, the Florida Keys resort owned by her family for decades, and move into a retirement home. Spry and headstrong, Grandma Jenny isn't ready to be put out to pasture, intending to spruce up the inn and reopen for business. Hannah's daughter, Kelsey, turns up pregnant; she plans to drop out of college, live at Seaview and put her baby up for adoption. Surgeon Luke Stevens, Hannah's high school crush, shows up shortly thereafter, fresh from a stint in war-torn Iraq and carrying his own set of emotional baggage. A seasoned romance novelist of more than 100 titles, Woods is a master heartstring puller, and her endearingly flawed characters deal with their plethora of problems in a predictable but satisfying manner. (Mar.)

Deft plotting and sparkling characters mark this superior debut historical. Camden Saybrook, Lord Tremaine, returns to late 19th-century England to confront his wife, Gigi, about her petition for divorce. Still bitter from Gigi's machinations to snare him as her husband, Camden will grant the divorce under one condition—Gigi must give him an heir within a year. Sparks fly as the two embark on heated attempts to put the bun in the oven, despite Gigi's fear that her next conquest, the insipid Lord Frederick, will discover her duplicitously lusty reunion. A captivating subplot emerges when Gigi's mother, Mrs. Rowland, sets her own plan in motion for Gigi's next nuptials. Thomas propels the plot forward with revealing repartee and gives the leads real nuance. Intelligent and forthright with honorable hidden qualities, Lady Tremaine makes an exceptional heroine, and her deceptions are believably attributed to a desire for self-preservation in a sexist society. The results are steamy and smart. (Mar.)

A comics memoirist in the slightly worn-out quotidian mode pioneered by Harvey Pekar, Brown has already produced a series of books about his relationships with women. This one's a bit more scattered—it's a collection of short pieces about the last two years of Brown's life, including some medical troubles, a camping trip, various interactions with his cat and a lot of not-particularly-momentous conversations with friends. It doesn't quite cohere into a narrative, although the final section, “A Little Piece of Myself,” gives his relationship stories some closure, showing Brown as a new dad meeting his girlfriend's father. Like his earlier autobiographical books, Little Things is drawn in quick pen doodles—Brown's big-headed, stubbly, emotionally fraught self-caricature appears in almost every panel, and he loads his images with evocative physical details. The ultra-casual style occasionally pays off in comedy, as when he captions a scribbled sketch of a driver who hit his friend's car “actual expression may have been smarmier than appears.” But a handful of his anecdotes veer into tedious accounts of his life as a cartoonist, and most of them ramble aimlessly for too long; his ability to minutely recall his experiences of various kinds of day-to-day ennui doesn't make them interesting. (Apr.)

Lively art almost makes up for routine storytelling in this cop-buddy serial by the team known collectively as Naked Ape. Writer Otoo Saki's script isn't inept, but it's extremely predictable. When young, innocent-looking rookie cop Kai Eto shows up for duty at the Greater Kanto Narcotics Control Division, readers aren't surprised to see him teamed up with a jaded officer who can't stand the new kid. It's also no surprise that the little boy Kai good-heartedly befriends turns out to be the son of a drug dealer. And when Kai goes undercover, it's certainly no surprise that the junkie he's watching discovers his identity and pulls a gun on him. That's the trouble: there aren't enough new ideas to make the action fresh. Tonomi Nakamura's art, however, is full of surprises. Her layout combines overlapping panels full of oddly angled closeups and long shots, stressing grotesquely forced perspective. Although readers will occasionally struggle with the storytelling, even pages that don't contribute much to the lumbering plot are interesting to look at. By the time they reach the cliffhanger that ends the book, readers may be convinced that there could be potential here to support some distinctive, quirky story that hasn't emerged yet. (Mar.)

Young Gen Nakaoka has survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and his story picks up as the city tries to reconstruct itself after being destroyed. Gen goes back to school, but he's more interested in rediscovering old friends who went missing soon after the bombing. They deal with the effects of those events by starting a life of crime, one of the few ways to make any money. Gen's mother and older brother deal with food and money shortages elsewhere in the city, as well as the after-effects of radiation. All of this is seen through the innocent eyes of young Gen. He's actually unrelentingly positive for someone who has seen what he's seen. While there's innocence to the book, it is combined with real political sophistication. Gen blames his own country for getting them into WWII and doesn't fall for the patriotism he sees around him. Later, he uncovers misdeeds by the Americans and their research on bodies affected by radiation. Nakazawa was a real-life Hiroshima survivor, and his experiences give this manga classic, originally published in the '70s, a powerful kick, although it reveals its age with Tezuka-inspired designs. (Mar.)

Yura and Makoto are 25-year-old newlyweds and terrified virgins. They're deeply in love (although Aki never bothers to explain how they met or fell in love), and in the first volume of this long-running series, they take a few soap-operatic chapters to get over their nervousness before they plunge into hentai-style sex, drawn with soft-core–cheesecake aplomb. (At crucial moments, Aki resorts to anatomical cross-sections.) But poor Makoto is a premature ejaculator, and they've both got a few things to learn—some of them from his know-it-all older brother and her promiscuous younger sister. Aki draws beautiful women with enormous shojo eyes, usually in states of embarrassment, but it's the book's goofy-looking, sexually inept men who are really the objects of mockery. American readers may be amused by the book's unnerving insights into Japanese sexual culture—Aki's narration declares that “if going to the professionals at the soaplands is like eating out gourmet, then doing it with a significant other is like a warm home-cooked meal!” And after a few hundred pages of thrusts and moans, there's a page that solemnly documents a series of techniques for French kissing. Still, despite the factual nuggets dropped in for what used to be called “redeeming social value,” this volume is much more about titillation than education. (Jan.)

This archival reprint of the Silver Age's superhero stands as a stiff if warmly nostalgic document showcasing the abrupt transition of a cult favorite character from a clear-eyed do-gooder to a powerful yet tormented outcast. The volume collects the last five issues published in the late 1960s, before picking up the story again with five issues in the early 1980s. Our hero, who manipulates atomic energy into a vast array of superpowers, could not be more different from one age to the next. The quaint early stories recount unpretentious, repetitive battles of good against evil, with distinctive retro art by Colón. The later stories showcase a mercurial protagonist whose exploits are overshadowed by the desperate search for a cure to his condition, indicative of America's changing view of nuclear power. Surprisingly the most entertaining episode in the book is an issue of “The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor,” where our hero is little more than a supporting guest star. For those taking a stroll down memory lane or comic buffs dying to see the cultural implications of how characters evolve over time, the collection will be a useful addition. (Jan.)