Fiction Reviews: Week of 2/4/2008

This wildly entertaining first novel from Scottish playwright Hannan takes place in the down and dirty Wild West and features one of the most bombastic, fantastic heroines in recent memory. Nineteen-year-old Dol McQueen is an intelligent, strong-willed hooker with a weakness for liquid opium, or “missy.” “Sometimes when I'm gonged,” says Dol, “I have an immense feeling inside me that I can govern Chaos.” And chaos is just what she gets when a crate of choice opium lands under her bed, stashed there by a grisly pimp called Pontius who warns her to keep quiet. Dol carries on with her business and gets increasingly attached to that fortune beneath her bed. The real pandemonium is unleashed when a spooky, brutal gang enlisted by the rightful owners of the opium arrives in town bringing mayhem. Dol—along with her mother, Pontius and the opium—flees into the desert, the escape slowed by lack of water, mule-pinching Indians and Dol's withdrawal from her missy, an experience that leaves her clearheaded but vulnerable to the truth about what she has become. Hannan nails the setting, crafts a sizzling plot and, with Dol, gives readers a lovable, larger-than-life star. (June)

Stanisic's debut novel is the moving story of a young Bosnian refugee named Aleksandar Krsmanovic. Aleksandar is the apple of his family's eye, but his sheltered childhood ends when ethnic wars brewing in the surrounding republics make their way to his hometown in the spring of 1992. As Serbian troops storm the village, Aleksandar's family hides, but nowhere is safe. The violence forces the family to Germany, where they struggle to adjust to their new lives as refugees. In the depths of their despair, Aleksandar's grandmother makes him promise to “remember when everything was all right and the time when nothing's all right.” Aleksandar keeps his word, and the memories pour out of him like a river. The author organizes Aleksandar's recollections as a stream of consciousness, operating on no distinct linear time line and often stopping one story and starting another in the same breath. It is difficult to keep up with this frantic pace, but it pays to be patient because a remarkable life's journey unfolds. (June)

These 31 “stories” from poet Ruefle (Indeed I Was Pleased with the World) are more like brief squibs, close observations and meditations. “Snow,” for example, expresses the wondrous and sexual sense of benediction the narrator feels when it snows. “The Diary” appears as a girl's autobiographical reflection on growing up on her father's troubled “diary farm.” A cardinal “looking like Santa Claus” seems to mimic the behavior of humans in “My Search Among the Birds.” The pieces' brevity and whimsy sometimes veer into single sentiment gags, as when detailing (in “A Certain Swirl”) a sentence's sense of abandonment in being left on the blackboard after the class's departure. This collection showcases Ruefle's considerable lyrical powers and memorable flights of fancy. (June)

Canadian Galloway (Ascension) delivers a tense and haunting novel following four people trying to survive war-torn Sarajevo. After a mortar attack kills 22 people waiting in line to buy bread, an unnamed cellist vows to play at the point of impact for 22 days. Meanwhile, Arrow, a young woman sniper, picks off soldiers; Kenan makes a dangerous trek to get water for his family; and Dragan, who sent his wife and son out of the city at the start of the war, works at a bakery and trades bread in exchange for shelter. Arrow's assigned to protect the cellist, but when she's eventually ordered to commit a different kind of killing, she must decide who she is and why she kills. Dragan believes he can protect himself through isolation, but that changes when he runs into a friend of his wife's attempting to cross a street targeted by snipers. Kenan is repeatedly challenged by his fear and a cantankerous neighbor. All the while, the cellist continues to play. With wonderfully drawn characters and a stripped-down narrative, Galloway brings to life a distant conflict. (May)

Set on the outskirts of Ipoh in Malaysia, Samarasan's impressive debut chronicles another bad year in the Big House on Kingfisher Lane. With the death of Paati, the grandmother, and the disgraceful departure of Chellam, the family's servant girl, the wealthy Rajasekharan family is in shambles. Skillfully jumping from one consciousness to another, Samarasan moves back in time to reveal the secrets that have led to the family's unraveling. Father Raju's dreams have been stifled by his unrealized political ambitions, and his home life is no consolation. Vasanthi, his wife, bristles at reminders of her lower-class roots and wouldn't mind seeing Uma, their oldest daughter, “destroyed by an endless string of disappointments.” Uma all but disconnects herself from the family in anticipation of escaping to Columbia University, and her six-year-old sister, Aasha, whose desire to recapture Uma's love is a primary focus of the book, must settle for interactions with a ghost only she can see. There's little familial tenderness, and the few instances of compassion displayed (by Raju's visiting brother) are mistaken as perverse. Though the narrative is occasionally unwieldy or claustrophobic, the language bursts with energy, and Samarasan has a sure hand juggling so many distinct characters. (May)

In his 12th novel, Bohjalian (The Double Bind) paints the brutal landscape of Nazi Germany as German refugees struggle westward ahead of the advancing Russian army. Inspired by the unpublished diary of a Prussian woman who fled west in 1945, the novel exhumes the ruin of spirit, flesh and faith that accompanied thousands of such desperate journeys. Prussian aristocrat Rolf Emmerich and his two elder sons are sent into battle, while his wife flees with their other children and a Scottish POW who has been working on their estate. Before long, they meet up with Uri Singer, a Jewish escapee from an Auschwitz-bound train, who becomes the group's protector. In a parallel story line, hundreds of Jewish women shuffle west on a gruesome death march from a concentration camp. Bohjalian presents the difficulties confronting both sets of travelers with carefully researched detail and an unflinching eye, but he blinks when creating the Emmerichs, painting them as untainted by either their privileged status, their indoctrination by the Nazi Party or their adoration of Hitler. Although most of the characters lack complexity, Bohjalian's well-chosen descriptions capture the anguish of a tragic era and the dehumanizing desolation wrought by war. (May)

Nappi (Echoes from the Infantry) has produced a knowledgeable yet unsentimental book starring an autistic teenager with a fearsome fastball. Milwaukee Brewer's manager Arthur Murphy recruits 17-year-old farm boy Mickey Tussler as a pitcher for his team. And though Mickey's slowness enrages his impossibly cruel father (who abuses his wife and derides Mickey as a “retard”), the boy's dad is happy to collect his son's pro baseball salary. In short order, Mickey achieves local stardom despite his mental disability and his teammates' clubhouse pranks. Lefty Rogers, the Brewers' southpaw ace, resents Mickey's triumphs on the mound and plots to sabotage his rival's budding career. At the same time, Murphy romances Mickey's much-abused mother and leads his resurging team in a hot pennant race. The writing is clear and direct, and there's no confusing who's a good guy and who's a bad guy. The baseball elements really sing; baseball fans will find much to appreciate, while the sports treatment of triumphing over adversity adds crossover appeal to the YA market. (May)

Three British mothers decide that it's time their 34-year-old sons start to act like mature grownups. And if their sons aren't going to get with the program on their own, it's high time for a little maternal nudging. Each son has problems: Daniel has just been through a bad breakup and can think of few things worse than his mother, Gillian, nagging him about his bachelor state; Paul, Helen's son, who reminds her of her first husband, has never come out to her even though she knows he's gay; Carol's son, Matt, seems stuck in a life as shallow and glossy as Balls!—the magazine he works for. The result is an excellent comic novel that interweaves the romance, humor and pathos of three complicated families. Though it at first appears to be a simple roast of overly interfering mothers, the novel reveals itself to be a story of every mother's desire to receive in return some small measure of the love they have given. (Apr.)

The trick to reading Don Lee's wonderfully silly second novel (after Country of Origin and a story collection, Yellow) is to take nothing seriously, even when you should. The book concerns the eccentric sculptor-turned-brussels sprout farmer, Lyndon Song, and his estranged brother, Woody, an uptight Hollywood producer. Lyndon's refusal to sell his farmland to a golf course developer results in an unwelcome visit from his brother, who has been secretly hired by the developer. The author has corralled an array of misfits and minor characters—Lyndon's friend Juju, a philosophizing surfer with a prosthetic limb, and Yi Ling Ling, a has-been kung fu film star—to season the backdrop of the brothers' misadventures and muster up some drama and didactic spiritualism. The novel's best sections are lighthearted in their delivery, but hint at deeper substance and self-reflection. At times the author starts pulling too adamantly at readers' heartstrings, but before long he's back to slathering on the sarcasm. This novel thrives on unlikely unions, unseemly humor and happy endings while maintaining a constant examination of family and identity, in keeping with the themes of the author's previous book. (Apr.)

Long-festering secrets erupt with devastating consequences to Connecticut's moneyed Carteret clan in Lewis's second novel (after Speak Softly, She Can Hear), a literate page-turner. When 24-year-old Pony, the family's daredevil golden girl, drowns while skinny-dipping at their Vermont lake house, her death leaves her year-old son, Andrew, an orphan—as well as a hornet's nest of troubling questions. Why had Pony begged big brother William to meet her in Vermont that day? Did someone else show up after they quarreled and William stormed off? Who is Andrew's father? And was Pony's death really an accident? Widowed patriarch Jasper Carteret III and bossy eldest daughter Tinker seem less interested in answers than damage control. But William, heartsick at whatever role his departure might have played in the tragedy, starts digging. Before long, some of his startling discoveries challenge his core beliefs about the people he thought he knew well. Lewis skillfully lures the reader through her narrative maze with plenty of plot twists—most of them credible until an over-the-top climax—without compromising a masterful portrait of a quirky New England family in crisis. (Apr.)

After five novels about conflict in ancient times (Gates of War, etc.), Pressfield effortlessly gives fresh life to wartime romance and the rigors of combat in a superior WWII thriller. Framed as the memoir of a British officer, the book is based on an actual British plot to assassinate the “Desert Fox,” German field marshal Erwin Rommel, during late 1942 and early 1943 in North Africa. The author painstakingly sets the stage for later fireworks by charting the prewar career of R. Lawrence “Chap” Chapman, especially his relationship with the brilliant but doomed Zachary Stein, Chap's tutor and mentor at Oxford. Chap also falls in love with sexy Rose McCall, whose brains and brass later get her posted to naval intelligence in Egypt. As a young lieutenant, Chap joins the team assembled to go after Rommel. Pressfield expertly juxtaposes the personal with the historical, with authentic battle descriptions. Crisp writing carries readers through success, failure and a final face-to-face encounter with Rommel that's no less exciting for knowing the outcome. (Apr.)

Noble (The Reading Group) hits her stride in her tearjerker fourth novel. Before Barbara Forbes, a mother of four, succumbs to terminal cancer, she leaves words of wisdom for her four daughters in the form of letters to each of them. In the year following Barbara's death, her daughters draw strength from her words and from each other as they move forward with their lives. Lisa, the eldest, is advised to “let someone look after [her]” for a change. Jennifer, “fragile and hard to reach,” struggles with an unraveling marriage. Free-spirited Amanda is thrown for a loop by a family secret, and teenaged Hannah, experiencing her first taste of rebellion, is reminded that she still has a lot of growing up to do. Though Barbara's life-is-short aphorisms are nothing new, her sharp wit and distinctive voice is a nice complement to the four nuanced stories of coping with death. (Apr.)

Tension between the Union and the Confederacy lives on in this fast-paced stand-alone thriller from Logan (Homefront). When Minnesotan Paul Edin is killed during a re-enactment of the battle of Kirby Creek near Corinth, Miss., local law enforcement quickly declares his death a tragic accident. But when Paul's widow, Jenny, learns that the bullet may have been meant for deputy Kenny Beeman, she's determined to uncover the truth. Reconnecting with John Rane—her ex-lover and the biological father of the child she raised with Paul—Jenny persuades John to go to Corinth and investigate. A photographer and former cop known for taking risks, John joins forces with Kenny in Mississippi and attempts to unravel a complex web of family feuds. John soon realizes that the upcoming re-enactment of the battle of Shiloh could end up as bloody as the original. Despite a few plot holes, Logan skillfully immerses the reader in the traditions and eccentricities of the men who meticulously recreate every aspect of the Civil War. (Apr.)

At the start of Anderson's offbeat thriller, Jeremiah Rosemont, a disgraced art historian who's been backpacking through Central America, accepts an airline ticket to Rome from a man he's never seen before. Later, Rosemont walks through the back door of a Roman hotel and finds himself in a street filled with strange festival-goers and men and women from his own past. Meanwhile in Minnesota, two deadly killers, one of whom was born in the 14th century, pursue a Dumpster diver and tarot reader called Boy King. The plot revolves around an ancient tarot deck, the origins of which, if authenticated by Jeremiah, will change the nature of the arcane “science” of divination. Anderson (The Patron Saint of Plagues) doesn't make it easy on the reader, preferring to reveal his swirling, complex story bit by enigmatic bit. Those willing to surrender themselves to this talented author's compelling vision will find a fevered dream universe where understanding in the normal sense is probably not possible, nor even necessary. (Apr.)

In Kalla's meticulously detailed and carefully plotted new thriller, Dr. Claude Fontaine engineers a method to tap a huge, mysterious pool of fresh water two miles under the Antarctic ice without fear of contamination from our 21st-century toxins. His goal is to bottle this purest of waters and sell it for astronomical sums to health-seeking rich people everywhere. Meanwhile, infectious disease specialist Dr. Noah Haldane, hero of Kalla's Pandemic, along with his crusty, wisecracking Scottish sidekick, Duncan McLeod, travels to France to investigate seven cows that have tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalitis (aka mad cow disease). Several humans, the apparent victims of infected beef, have died horrible deaths. By the time the link between the Antarctic lake water and the mad cows becomes clear, many readers will find the journey too long and that in the end they don't really care that disaster has been narrowly averted and all those rich people have been saved. (Apr.)

Told from two perspectives that are at once nearly polar and intimately linked, this astounding debut captures an air of the fantastical while presenting one family's heartfelt battle with Alzheimer's. Seth Waller is a 15-year-old Austin, Tex., science nerd determined to discover the reason behind his mother's recent mental breakdown. Abel Haggard, living on his family farm just past the Dallas suburbs, is an aging recluse roiled by memories of his one true love: Mae, his brother Paul's wife. The two had a torrid affair while Paul served in Korea, forcing Mae to conceal the paternity of her baby when she became pregnant. Both Seth and Abel speak of a fantasy land named Isidora, which exists outside of our physical world, but which becomes a common thread in piecing this delicately woven story together. Each character is a product of a different time and place, but as Seth delves deeper into his scientific investigation and Abel's troubled life is further revealed, the two stories meet in an emotional and memorable climax. Block displays an innate gift for developing believable characters each with his own distinct voice. The result is a story that's compulsive and transporting. (Apr.)

In this debut from Canadian Milner, a nostalgia as “rich and sweet as... freshly churned butter” belies the lingering bitterness of family tragedy. Natalie Ward is a thrice-married writer forced by the imminent death of her mother to return to the town she left in shame at the age of 16. She recounts her golden childhood growing up on a busy farm “carved out of a narrow mountain valley deep in the Cascade Mountains.” But when a handsome Vietnam War resister named River Jordon ambles up the family's dirt road in 1966 and offers his services as a farm hand, this innocent simplicity begins to curdle. The Ward family quickly falls in love with River, each finding some essential need filled by his gentle personality, but these bonds drag the family deep into tragedy. The frequent evocation of long-past shocking events is used to drive this story, but when those events are finally revealed they seem slightly artificial, and the author relies on clichéd notions of “the healing balm of letting go” to imply that in the end, though “life is messy... it all comes out in the wash.” Despite these oversimplifications, this novel's solidly crafted settings and characters, blended with optimism, make it a charming if sometimes over-sugary read. (Apr.)

International bestseller Navarro (The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud) wades back into the religious artifact suspense pond, but this time she's pretty much dead in the water with too many unpleasant characters, repetitive exposition, a plodding plot and flat unimaginative prose (perhaps the fault of the translator?). In Iraq, shortly before the current war, Iraqi archeologist Clara Tannenberg announces an incredible find: two cuneiform clay tablets that refer to another set of tablets that record the biblical patriarch Abraham's story of the creation of the earth. The twist is that this clay bible with Abraham's narrative was written a thousand years before the papyrus version we know today. This discovery, one character asserts, will “change history, with repercussions in religion and even politics.” How this will happen and what the repercussions will be are never really explained, as a group of off-the-shelf evil Nazis vie with Clara's thuggish grandfather and a few other interested parties to find, seize, steal or sell the clay tablets. (Apr.)

Two worlds wrapped tight in gloomy gothic trappings vie for dominance in this engrossing, elaborately staged exploration of consciousness from O'Connell (The Skin Palace). Sweeney, an Ohio pharmacist, brings his comatose son, Danny, to the Peck Clinic, “a sandstone monster on fifty acres of private land near Quinsigamond's western border.” Danny is all Sweeney lives for; he even studies the comic book Limbo, featuring a troupe of circus freaks led by the visionary Chick the chicken boy, for what his son may have imagined when his brain functioned normally. Like Stephen King in Richard Bachman mode, O'Connell digs for darkness as Chick and his companions, who inhabit the fantasy realm of Gehenna, encounter Dr. Lazarus Cole, “The Resurrectionist” (stoned to death only to walk again) and dread the inevitable showdown with their nemesis, “the mad doctor called Fliess,” in his “enormous laboratory castle, the Black Iron Clinic.” Meanwhile, in the real world, cultists kidnap Sweeney in hopes of using fluid from Danny's brain to transport them all to Gehenna. This strange brew is sure to enhance O'Connell's growing cult status. (Apr.)

In this debut novel, librarian Herendeen creates a quirky and comic Regency romance in which Phyllida Lewis, a young, beautiful and feisty writer, agrees to a marriage of convenience with Andrew Carrington, the gay heir to an earldom. Although Phyllida is attracted to her good-looking husband, she recognizes that Andrew prefers the company of his friends in the Brotherhood of Philander, an elite “gentleman's” club. What Phyllida hadn't counted on, however, was the physical connection between the two despite his averred status, and the concomitant difficulties that arise when a man is clueless in the ways of wooing and pleasing a woman. Phyllida expresses her newfound carnal knowledge in her role as a budding writer of “inferior romance” and finds she must learn the ways of London society while being the object of relentless observation and gossip. Much time is devoted to Andrew and his exploits with other men as well as to Phyllida's love-hate relationship with Andrew and his way of life. But when Phyllida breaches Andrew's trust, the delightful characters in Phyllida's new world must play a part in reconciling the pair. Herendeen's book brings a breath of fresh air and creativity to the romance genre and with her humor and ability to entertain, she is sure to woo fans. (Apr.)

Master thief Parker wraps up some unfinished business in this entertaining if relatively lackluster entry in this long-running crime series from the pseudonymous Stark (aka MWA Grand Master Donald Westlake). Lots went wrong after Parker and two partners robbed an armored car in rural Massachusetts of $2.2 million in 2004's Nobody Runs Forever. The money was “poisoned” (i.e., marked); one of his partners was captured before killing a marshal and escaping; and bounty-hunter Sandra Loscalzo wants to cut herself in on the take. The pragmatic, quick-thinking Parker must find a way to retrieve the stashed haul he and his confederates left in Massachusetts without getting caught by the law or nibbled to death by other crooks. Stark handles the criminal aspects of his tale with his usual panache, but some fans will find Parker's trademark sharp edge less in evidence this outing. (Apr.)

At the start of this quietly funny, slightly mysterious novel of discovering one's roots from bestseller Fowler (The Jane Austen Book Club), 29-year-old Rima Lanisell visits her estranged godmother, Addison Early, in Addison's house by the sea, Wit's End, in storied Santa Cruz, Calif. Addison, the wildly successful but cautiously private author of the Maxwell Lane mysteries, was once the girlfriend of Rima's recently deceased father, Bim, for whom a character in the series is named. For each novel, Addison first constructs a dollhouse diorama that depicts what will be the principal murder scene, but her upcoming novel and its dollhouse are uncharacteristically delayed. By weeding through decades-old correspondence with eccentric fans and the contemporary channels of online forums, Rima slowly discovers the truth behind Addison's novels and that Rima herself is a topic of interest among Maxwell Lane devotees. As Fowler analyzes our modern-day relationship to novels and writers' relationship to their readers, the line between fiction and reality blurs—real people become characters in another's blog as fictional characters become real to the fans that fetishize them. Author tour. (Apr.)

Historian and journalist dos Santos tries his hand at fiction in this ambitious but disappointing tale of mistaken identity. Hired by a foundation to prepare a historical study of the discovery of Brazil, historian Martinho Toscano gets sidetracked by a “five-hundred-year-old conspiracy” regarding Christopher Columbus's identity. When Toscano drops dead, the foundation recruits historian Thomas Noronha, a history professor and cryptologist, to recover Toscano's work (it's written in code). Noronha, who needs cash to pay for his daughter's heart operation, reluctantly accepts the offer of $5,000 a week and a $500,000 bonus. Relying on his code-breaking skills and brushing aside pesky complications—an unlikely affair with a beautiful young Swedish exchange student, his crumbling marriage and his daughter's deteriorating health—Noronha retraces Toscano's footsteps from Rio de Janeiro to Jerusalem to Lisbon in search of the real Columbus. Unfortunately, the narrative rests uneasily on a series of extended tutorials, and the characters are bloodless. The slow unraveling of a conspiracy, while interesting, isn't enough to sustain a narrative lacking action and suspense. (Apr.)

Yellen's first novel is a valiant attempt to capture, in plainly realistic prose, the complex inner workings of a generic American bar over the course of a single evening. Having moved five times for six different jobs, JJ once again finds herself in a new gig as a waitress at the Almost Home bar in Denver. Her first night happens to be Super Bowl Sunday, with the hometown Denver Broncos playing. While trying to learn the ropes (and messing up plenty of orders), JJ also has to master the bar's web of employee relationships: Colleen, the widow of a bar regular, has nowhere to leave her 14-year-old daughter, Lily, who often ends up at the bar with her; Denny is dealing with a breakup and the possibility of another relationship with Lena, also a waitress at the Almost Home; Keith awaits the end of the night, when he plans to run away with the bartender, Marna. The other cast of bar regulars wait out the game crowd and stay long into the night, engaged in a plot as intricate as a Greek tragedy. The result is a novel that feels like a one-act play, stuffed with subtexts and begging for actors to bring the sometimes stale dynamics to life. (Apr.)

Brian McLaren started a genre of fiction in which a disenchanted evangelical meets a wizened ethnic teacher of a new sort of Christianity, prompting a second conversion to a faith that is more world savvy, compassionate and appealing. In Choung's version, a college student in Seattle named Caleb struggles to share the gospel (and a bit more) with his friend Anna. While the narrative runs the risk of falling into stereotype (and often does resort to evangelical catchphrases), Choung manages to make readers care about his characters' religious and romantic fates. Its best moments are Caleb's wrestling with the relationship between his Korean ethnic identity and his faith. Choung concludes the book in his own voice, with a diagram designed to help an individual share the gospel with another on the surface of a napkin. While the faith presented is indeed more passionate about the environment and “social justice” than many evangelicals are wont to be, the goal of a more effective one-on-one evangelism is hardly revolutionary. The book will appeal to readers of McLaren and others for whom “vampire Christianity,” a phrase Choung's real-life mentor Dallas Willard uses to describe a faith reduced to a bit of blood shed on one's behalf, has become untenable. (Apr.)

British author Callison (Redcap) continues the bizarre adventures of Capt. Edward Trapp, the seaman who sees the chaos of WWII as an opportunity for his own commercial gain. Supposedly narrated by crewmember Naval Liaison Officer Miller, the novel's uneven lurching matches the journey of Trapp's derelict ship, the Charon II. From Callison's highly idiosyncratic style (filled with countless asides, aborted words and mind-numbing nautical details) a story eventually emerges, concerning the bombings of other ships in Trapp's convoy and dysfunctional interactions among Trapp and his crew. Late into the novel Trapp's plan becomes clear: he had only joined the British convoy in order to protect his ship as he pursued his real goal—reaching a remote spot near the Arctic Circle where a ship filled with gold has allegedly been trapped in ice. Visions of the gold fill Trapp's greedy soul. Given the farcical nature of the story, the ending is hardly a surprise, but most readers won't persevere that far. This novel is neither military history nor a thriller, nor even good fantasy, but more an exercise in bizarre style couched in feeble and inappropriate attempts at humor. (Apr.)

The voice of beautiful Zora Nella Hampton Johnson—her name echoing the author of her favorite novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God—will take you up and carry you along until she utters her very last syllable. Anger, laughter and delight come from Zora's sharp, sassy tongue as if she is talking out loud. Burney's gift for voice is not limited to her heroine, though it takes her longer to get the other main character, Nicky Parker, the handsome but poor son of a racist pastor, to shine as distinctly as Zora. At this novel's heart are love and race—what happens when a self-described BAP (black American princess), the daughter of a famous megachurch leader, falls in love with a young white man. Zora and Nicky's dialogue about race is unflinching, with attitude, honesty and occasional humor. Burney pushes her prose to the edge of the edgiest in the “Christian fiction” genre, and then barrels right over. She doesn't sugar-coat, especially when it comes to sex, yet she manages to create a love story that's both erotic and chaste. Faith in Jesus comes to life on the page through Zora and Nicky's intense, if imperfect, soul searching. Though parts are a bit melodramatic, Burney gives readers a page-turner for all audiences, Christian and beyond. (Apr.)

Bestseller Kellerman serves up all the elements his fans have come to love in the 22nd entry in his Alex Delaware series (Obsession, etc.), including an intriguing plot, likable regular characters supported by an interesting secondary cast, diabolical villains, witty dialogue and a sense of humanity and justice. Alex and his LAPD detective partner, Milo Sturgis, are investigating several murders that, at first, appear to have only one thing in common: the perpetrator's use of expensive black automobiles while committing his crimes. Kellerman sticks to his usual modus, the patient and sometimes painfully slow accumulation of detail, as Alex and Milo build their case. A subplot involves a missing child last seen selling magazine subscriptions in a tony neighborhood 16 years earlier. On the domestic front, Alex is again living with his girlfriend, Robin, with whom he has broken up several times over the course of the series. In the end, a nice twist reminds Robin and Alex to be more careful in the future about drawing assumptions in their private life before all the facts have come to light. (Apr.)

Katie Weldon is just finishing her junior year at Bible College. As she juggles finals, maid-of-honor duties at her best friend's wedding, work and an almost-romance with her boss, she finds herself contemplating other big questions, such as whether to take a resident advisor position her senior year, and what to do about her undeclared major. Gunn has been writing about Katie and her friends for years, most notably in the popular Christy Miller series, and this is first in Gunn's Katie Weldon series. f Katie's dilemmas may seem like the stuff of unabashedly light fiction, but they aren't without gravity and intrigue. Gunn is adept at denuding light fiction of its usual tics—mediocre prose, clichéd characters and predictable plots—and imbuing it with the hallmarks of literary fiction. The characters are multidimensional and ring true at nearly every turn. The dialogue that ensues is at once heartbreaking and utterly familiar to anyone who has ever been in Katie's shoes. Moreover, Katie's religious faith never feels sentimentalized or tacked on, but is integrated beautifully into the charming plot. (Apr.)

In the New Testament, the miracle at the wedding at Cana—where Jesus turned water into wine—marks the commencement of his tumultuous three-year ministry. In Rice's beautifully observed novel, a sequel to 2005's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, however, the wedding miracle is in fact the culmination of an intimate family saga of love, sorrow and misunderstanding. As the novel opens, Yeshua (Jesus) struggles with a sense of restlessness of purpose and a deep love for a comely kinswoman. Waves of isolation sweep over him as he comes to understand that serving the Lord's will takes precedence over the desires of his own heart. Whereas the first novel in this series hewed so closely to Scripture and to the author's meticulous research as to be somewhat arid as fiction, this book, imagining the “lost” young adulthood of Jesus, offers wise and haunting speculation where the Bible is silent. And the final chapters, which pick up the story with the New Testament's accounts of Jesus' baptism, temptation and early miracles, manage to be soulfully insightful even while faithfully tracking the Gospels. Rice undertakes a delicate balance: if it is possible to create a character that is simultaneously fully human and fully divine, as ancient Christian creeds assert, then Rice succeeds. (Mar.)

Gallows humor and the grim realities of street police work coexist uneasily in this less than stellar follow-up to Hollywood Station (2006) from MWA Grand Master Wambaugh. Nathan Weiss, known as Hollywood Nate for his acting ambitions, and his friend Bix Ramstead are now assigned to the LAPD's Community Relations Office, which handles quality-of-life issues and whose members are referred to as Crows. Weiss and Ramstead both become ensnared by a stunning femme fatale, Margot Aziz, who's in the middle of a contentious divorce. Aziz is trying to gain the upper hand over her husband, who operates a seedy nightclub but stays on the good side of law enforcement with well-timed donations to police charities. Aziz's scheming follows a fairly predictable path, and there's not much suspense about the outcome. Through the eyes of an eccentric collection of beat cops, Wambaugh gives a compelling picture of what policing is like under the federal monitor appointed to oversee the real LAPD after the Rampart corruption scandal, but characterizations are on the thin side and some readers may find the callous cruelty off-putting. (Mar. 25)

In Norman's solid sequel to his well-received debut, The Commission (2007), cops Sam Kincaid and Kate McConnell try to unsnarl a tangle of crimes in Salt Lake City. First, Kate investigates the brutal murder of one witness to a botched armored car robbery, followed by the disappearance of the other witness. Then Sam, head of “a unit within the Utah Department of Corrections called the Special Investigations Branch,” gets involved because the gang's mastermind is “prophet” Walter Bradshaw, a fanatical Mormon polygamist currently awaiting trial for the armored car holdup. Meanwhile, Sam has to cope with a new, excessively by-the-book boss and a lawsuit from his ex-wife seeking custody of their daughter. As personal and bureaucratic tensions almost sidetrack the investigators, Sam and Kate have to prove how smart and stubborn they are. Norman isn't an especially slick author, but he has a good grasp of police procedure and writes with the same dogged, decent persistence that Sam displays. (May)

Lovesey's second novel starring Chichester CID inspector Henrietta “Hen” Mallin (after 2005's The Circle) provides further proof that the CWA Diamond Dagger winner has no peer in presenting a traditional mystery, with all the clues hiding in plain sight. When a half-naked female body washes up on a beach, Mallin and her team must identify the woman as well as determine whether she met her end through foul play. Before the corpse can be named, Jo Stevens, who found the body tangled in seaweed, comes across another one in remarkably similar circumstances. Fearing that she'll fall under Mallin's intense scrutiny, Stevens fails to report this second death. Between the alternating perspectives of Mallin and Stevens, the suspense builds, enhanced by credible characters and healthy doses of black humor. The police eventually connect the two cases and focus on Stevens's new beau, a laconic ex-con who had a past with both victims, but the solution is, of course, not so straightforward. Inspector Mallin deserves as long a fictional career as Lovesey's other current series sleuth, Peter Diamond. (Apr.)

Shamus-winner Gorman (Fools Rush In) puts his experience as a political speechwriter to good use in this entertaining first of what appears to be a new series. Dev Conrad, a cynical yet idealistic political consultant, signs on for the re-election bid of Sen. Warren Nichols of Illinois after Nichols's longtime consultant and ally, Phil Wylie, leaves in a bitter dispute with the candidate and later commits suicide. Nichols, facing right-wing conservative Jim Lake, finds himself in a tightening race with a major debate looming. The race becomes nasty with dirty tricks, blackmail and even campaign sabotage likely emanating from inside Nichols's staff. While Gorman presents our electoral choices and processes in an often dispiriting and unflattering light, readers will hope his appealing hero will return in future outings beyond the current real-life political campaign season. (Apr.)

In Corwin's charming third Morgue Mama mystery (after 2005's Dig), Maddy Sprowls, an Ohio newspaper librarian in her late 60s, pitches an idea for a human interest story about a quartet of garage sale queens, one of whom claims to be a real royal. Young reporter Gabriella Nash, to whom Maddy plays reluctant mentor, gets the assignment. When Violeta Bell, self-proclaimed Romanian monarch, turns up dead after her 15 minutes of fame in the Hannewa Herald-Union, Maddy turns detective, dragging along Gabriella. Maddy's newly acquired googling skills lead her to Canada to meet another claimant to the Romanian throne, yielding only further conundrums. Meanwhile, Maddy grapples with her still fresh “autumn” love affair with Ike Breeze, her opposite in many ways, as well as a bothersome (to Ike) sleep disorder that may need medical attention. Irascible, fearless and unapologetic, Maddy is a heroine cozy fans will embrace. (Apr.)

At the start of Hathaway's disappointing third mystery to feature Dr. Jo Banks (after 2004's Satan's Pony), Jo is riding her motorcycle to work at Bridgeton Hospital in rural New Jersey when she comes upon a crime scene—an unknown man has been killed execution-style on the side of the road. Rumor has it at the hospital that the victim was a “gangsta” from Philly. Later, not far from the body site, Jo hears the sounds of a printing press coming from a barn, where she finds a man with his hand stuck in an old-fashioned roller press. The man, who identifies himself as Max, forces Jo at gunpoint to release him, then threatens to shoot his Down syndrome daughter, Lolly, if Jo doesn't come back and perform surgery on his injured hand. Intrigued by Lolly, Jo returns and decides to dig into the mystery of Max's determination to hide from the authorities. Jo's early interactions with Max simply don't ring true, and the side story of the gang hit serves no real purpose. (Apr.)

The author of the Ellie Foreman series (A Shot to Die For, etc.) launches the underwhelming first of a new series featuring another Chicago sleuth, former cop-turned-PI Georgia Davis, who shares a past with Foreman. Cam Jordan, a mentally deficient sex offender, stands accused of murdering 17-year-old Sara Long in a forest preserve. Since the victim's friends saw Cam standing over Sara's body clutching a bloody baseball bat, it appears to be an open-and-shut case. Hired by Cam's sister to investigate, Davis learns that Sara may have been in the forest as part of a hazing ritual conducted by a clique of her posh high school classmates, one of whom is an ambitious local prosecutor's daughter. Davis at one point makes the poor choice of pretending to be a social worker from the dead girl's school, an easily exposed lie that sets back her probe. Hellmann also depicts the criminal justice system with less sophistication than readers might expect. The result is a predictable mystery with little suspense. (Apr.)

In Cleland's engaging third Josie Prescott mystery to feature the New Hampshire antiques dealer (after 2007's Deadly Appraisal), Josie is stunned to learn that her fun-loving friend, Rosalie Chaffee, has been found, drowned, on the Rocky Point shore. When it becomes clear Rosalie was a victim of foul play, suspicion falls on Rosalie's boss at Heyer's Modular Furniture, his scheming wife and Rosalie's gorgeous volunteer fireman boyfriend. The warm, endearing Josie decides not only to investigate but also to take care of Rosalie's 12-year-old sister, Paige. Aided by a large support group of well-drawn characters headed by her police chief boyfriend, Josie follows such clues as an old diary, an artist's palette and a misplaced tote bag. Among other antique lore, readers will learn the difference between a highboy and a tallboy in this cleverly crafted cozy. Author tour. (Apr.)

Set in 1870 London, King's lively first in a new series introduces hansom cab driver Ned Parker, who hides out with such colorful cohorts as Smiling Sid, Paddy Reilly and Benny the Brain at Hangman's Corner, a former gallows site in Battersea Park. When one of Ned's fares, a possible suspect in the theft of church valuables, turns up in the Thames dead of stab wounds, Ned agrees to assist Det. Rollo “Jacko” Jackson, much as the cabbie's late father used to aid undercover police investigations. After the arrest of fellow driver Herbert Summers for the murder on dubious evidence, Ned vows “to get every cabby in London to help,” all 6,000 of them. Ned's quest for justice takes him to the British Museum, where he encounters Karl Marx writing his opus; the blood-soaked Smithfield meat market; and eventually a tunnel under the site of a Spanish treasure galleon's sinking centuries earlier. King (The Jewel of the North) ends his busy, at times improbable tale with a stock chase scene across London. (Apr.)

World Fantasy Award–winner Powers (Three Days to Never) demonstrates a precise control of complex narratives in this reprint of his rollicking and enchanting 1987 novel. Puppeteer John Chandagnac, bound for Jamaica to recover stolen money from his uncle, becomes Jack Shandy after pirates attack his ship and force him to join their crew. Shandy's struggle to accept his new life grounds the story for readers, even as Blackbeard and vodun magicians whisk everyone away to dreamlike lands where the Fountain of Youth itself awaits. The chaotic sea battles sing, though at times key events happen so quickly that they get lost in the shuffle as Jack tries to comprehend where he's going and what's at stake. This dark fantasy tale will appeal not just to pirate fans but also to anyone who appreciates Powers's talent for blending the most unlikely elements into a brilliantly cohesive whole. (Apr.)

This nuanced mostly reprint collection, the first in a decade from Nebula winner Kessel (Good News from Outer Space), plays on the theme of a hapless, down-on-his-luck man thrown into extraordinary circumstances. “The Juniper Tree,” the Tiptree-winning “Stories for Men,” “Sunlight or Rock” and “Under the Lunchbox Tree,” all tied to Kessel's lunar colony sequence, explore the limits placed on a man's life in a beautiful, woman-dominated city on the barren moon. In “Powerless,” the only story original to the volume, a hapless inventor finally perfects a strange new power generator, destroying his relationships along the way. Paying homage to the classics, “Every Angel Is Terrifying” serves as a sequel to Flannery O'Connor's “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” while in “Pride and Prometheus” Mary Bennet meets Victor Frankenstein. These well-crafted stories, full of elegantly drawn characters, deliver a powerful emotional punch. (Apr.)

In the tradition of grand-scale SF sagas that explore the potential of human evolution, this densely plotted and intensely thought-provoking opener for Hamilton's Void trilogy takes place roughly 1,000 years after the events of 2006's Judas Unchained. Humankind in the 34th century has effectively conquered mortality, but many humans are still searching for existential transcendence, and a growing number believe the answer can be found inside the Void at the galactic center. Once thought to be an enormous black hole, the Void, which supposedly contains an entire micro-universe inside an impenetrable event horizon, slowly devours stars to sustain itself. If left unchecked, it will eventually consume the entire galaxy. When the technologically augmented telepath Inigo begins experiencing revelatory dreams, his shared visions ignite a mass pilgrimage to the Void, which some believe will trigger the apocalypse. Readers can expect big ideas and big story lines as well as big cliffhangers at the novel's conclusion. (Apr.)

Stoker-winner Golden concludes his Veil series (following 2007's The Borderkind) with a battle of mythic proportions between King Hunyadi of Euphrasia and the twisted Atlanteans, who have deliberately destroyed the ancient truce between Euphrasia and Yucatazca. After Oliver Bascombe is tricked into killing the king of Yucatazca with King Hunyadi's sword, he must free himself, his sister, Collette, and his fiancée, Julianna Whitney, from the royal dungeon. Collette and the myth-creature Frost head to Euphrasia, while Oliver and Julianna persuade legendary beings to fight for King Hunyadi. Before the final confrontation, however, Oliver realizes that he must make a daring and dangerous raid on Atlantis itself. The run-of-the-mill epic plot, fueled by Oliver and Collette's seemingly unlimited and mostly unexplained magical powers, leaves little doubt as to the outcome of their undertakings. (Apr.)

In this many-layered second installment in the Crossroads fantasy series (after 2007's Spirit Gate), Marit, an eagle-riding reeve, awakens as a spirit three years after her death and slowly realizes she's become one of the nine Guardians, protectors of justice who wield god-given powers. Soon Marit discovers that some of her fellow Guardians lead forces plaguing the land, while others hide or resist. Meanwhile, among the living, war rewrites the social order, and those of different religions and homelands make common cause. Elliott follows Qin soldier Anji and his troubled, lonely wife, Mai; Marit's former lover, reeve marshal Joss; and Kirya, a tribal warrior who sells herself into slavery to protect her brother. Each must balance cultural imperatives with a broader view of justice, and survival with mercy. The cosmology and politics may confuse newcomers, but the human dilemmas grip the reader right through to the abrupt final cliffhanger. (Apr.)

Feather follows her well-crafted debut (A Wicked Gentleman) with this second installment of her Cavendish Square trilogy. Livia Lacey, the enchanting and witty daughter of a vicar, has been enjoying the 1771 social whirl while living in the London home she inherited from a distant relative, but is surprised when Prince Alex Prokov of Russia ardently pursues her. Feather hints at Alex's steely nature even as she paints him as the consummate gentleman, especially during the sizzling high note of a secluded picnic together, the courtship's sizzling high note. After their marriage, Livia discovers hidden facets of her husband's personality and begins to suspect his motives for their marriage and for his stay in England. Feather slowly reveals Livia to be a most formidable heroine. (Apr.)

Marla Mason, guardian mage of the east coast city of Felport, returns in her second major magical challenge (after Blood Engines): catching a psycho, and psychic, dream “reweaver” before the psycho turns into an endless nightmare. Genevieve Kelley, a former apprentice sorcerer, vanishes from the Blackwing Institute for Criminally Insane Sorcerers after laying catatonic for 15 years, having put herself into a protective deep sleep after being raped. With the ability to “reweave” physical reality, the terrified psychic is trying to escape Reave, king of nightmares, the avatar of her rapist. Marla, drawn in and out of Genevieve's dream reality, hires Ted, a former street bum turned skeptical personal assistant, and Joshua, a delectable “lovetalker,” to help her put a lid on Genevieve as an important sorcerer assembly approaches. A rival sorcerer, Gregor, also seeks to eliminate the marvelous Marla by hiring Zealand, a “slow assassin.” Pratt keeps the action lively in this wonderfully whimsical urban fantasy as the adventure of Genevieve takes some wonderfully imaginative twists and turns. (Apr.)

In Joyce's latest de Warenne Dynasty Victorian romance (following The Perfect Bride), Ariella de Warenne is an extremely well-traveled young gentlewoman with radical thoughts and an independent lifestyle. Viscount Emilian St. Xavier is half-gypsy, and his hatred for the gadjos—non Gypsies—threatens to consume him. When his gypsy family makes camp on the de Warenne estate, Emilian discovers that his mother was killed as a result of bigotry in Scotland and vows revenge against the gadjos. Upon meeting Ariella and discovering her attraction for him, he at first thinks that, like other English gentlewomen, she only wants him for sex. When she asks for his friendship, he decides that she will make the perfect instrument of his rage—despite the honorable Englishman in him. The basic “virginity for revenge” plot is common, and while Ariella is a genuinely radical thinker, Emilian is eye-rollingly over the top— except at the very end, where he seems very much flesh and blood. (Apr.)

Freethy (Taken) hits the ground running as she kicks off another winning romantic suspense series. A nervous Sarah Tucker is speeding north out of Los Angeles in a driving rain, constantly checking her rearview mirror, when she loses control of her car and careens into a ravine. In the hospital next morning, she doesn't remember a thing, not her name or anything about the infant's shoe found in the wrecked car. No purse, ID or clues of any kind show up until an irate man appears and demands Sarah return his daughter, 16-month-old Caitlyn, to him immediately. The seriously p-o'd Jake Sanders identifies Sarah as the child's mother and believes Sarah is faking amnesia in order to keep Caitlyn from him. Needless to say Jake sticks to Sarah like glue as they search for hints to Caitlyn's whereabouts and uncover Sarah's mysterious past. Freethy's at her prime with a superb combo of engaging characters and gripping plot. (Mar.)

Fans of the play will find this an intriguing adaptation. Hinds sets his version in modern dress and dramatically edits the text to the basics while keeping the Shakespearean flavor of the dialogue (increasingly as the book goes on). The coloring in shades of slate blue and pale gray gives it an antique patina that's counterbalanced by the way Hinds leaves construction lines visible. That makes it feel like reading someone's unpolished sketchbook, as though the characters were observed, not created. It's always a benefit to see Shakespeare acted out, to make the universal situations clear to the modern viewer, and that benefit extends to the graphic medium, especially when the characters have a sense of motion, as here. Some aspects of the original are still discomforting; Hinds is faithful to the play in its treatment of the bloodthirsty, money-hungry Shylock, and some readers may be put off by the inclusion of lines such as “you may be pleased to collect whatever usurious interest pleases your Jew heart.” An author's note encourages further research on that matter and clarifies some of Hinds's creative decisions. (May)

This auspicious graphic novel debut by cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki tells the story of “Skim,” aka Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a goth girl in an all-girls school in Toronto, circa the early '90s. Skim is an articulate, angsty teenager, the classic outsider yearning for some form of acceptance. She begins a fanciful romance with her English teacher, Ms. Archer, while nursing her best friend through a period of mourning. The particulars of the story may not be its strong suit, though. It's Jillian's artwork that sets it apart from the coming-of-age pack. Jillian has a swooping, gorgeous pen line—expressive, vibrant and precise all at once. Her renderings of Skim and her friends, Skim alone or just the teenage environment in which the story is steeped are evocative and wondrous. Like Craig Thompson's Blankets, the inky art lifts the story into a more poetic, elegiac realm. It complements Mariko's fine ear for dialogue and the incidentals and events of adolescent life. Skim is an unusually strong graphic novel—rich in visuals and observations, and rewarding of repeated readings. (Feb.)

Shepherd (Man-Man) and Boney (Plug-In Boy) give zombies civil rights in this imaginative but limited graphic novel. Not the average brain-eaters (a phrase used as a slur in the comic), these zombies are still human—alive and conscious, even—except that they're dead. John Requin is an undead psychologist with a private practice who keeps his office one degree above frigid in order to keep his body from decomposing and prevent the stench from driving his clients away. When he's discovered by a renegade group of “Returners” or undead, he discovers that he's not alone and is folded into a larger government operation. Both writer and artist explore sociopolitical and religious issues surrounding members of society who don't die. Unfortunately, the themes of zombie rights and government manipulation come across as heavy-handed and act as an obstacle for character development and story growth. Dead Eyes Open is very plot oriented, starting at point A and never wavering in its course to point B. The pacing and Boney's textured illustration and painterly line are flawlessly matched, but the story is too frenzied. (Feb.)

Quartet is about three girls with magical powers who are in charge of governing and protecting their town, and a human boy. There are adventures and there is action. Unfortunately, both are rather disjointed. Yasuda works hard to introduce the reader to the characters and to give her girls individual narratives that expand upon their characteristics. However, there isn't a clear theme or story line as anchor. Ultimately, it's a somber look at magical girl manga. The happiness and overzealous cuteness typical of this genre is absent. And while the school-girl skirts may fly up from time to time, there are no gratuitous panty-shots (save one at the end), replacing sexy-cute with an elegant, sophisticated sexiness. Yasuda's character designs are the most engaging. Hime, who acts as mayor, keeps a lookout on the town from telephone poles and carries a big lacrosse stick. Kotoha has the power to materialize objects that she imagines and then verbalizes. Ao has cat ears and can read people's minds. It's nothing spectacular or original, but the subtlety with which Yasuda presents them is refreshing. (Feb.)

The second of a four-volume series copublished by NBM and the Louvre invites artists to create a story involving the museum. Mathieu's follows an expert hired to catalogue a vast, half-ruined museum; he encounters inhabitants living in the lower reaches who have no understanding of the location or its contents. A Kafkaesque catalogue of paradoxes ensues: paintings kept in the dark so the light will not damage the colors that no one will ever see; statues restored then broken then defaced to keep their states “authentic”; a frame maker who considers his contribution the true definition of painting. As years go by, the expert becomes old and unkempt as further and further levels of absurdist cataloguing are discovered. Eventually, he discovers the deepest layers and the secret behind the Mona Lisa, even as he passes his journal on to another “expert” for a continuation of these meaningless attempts to quantify art without perceiving its beauty. The story is rendered in grim, gray tones, which make the endless rounds of the museum workers look all the more fruitless. Like the expert, readers will be glad for the rays of real light and art at the end of this dark satire. (Feb.)