Fiction Reviews: Week of 2/18/2008

A literary thriller with commercial legs, this stunning debut is bound to be a bestseller. In the backwoods of Wisconsin, the Sawtelle family—Gar, Trudy and their young son, Edgar—carry on the family business of breeding and training dogs. Edgar, born mute, has developed a special relationship and a unique means of communicating with Almondine, one of the Sawtelle dogs, a fictional breed distinguished by personality, temperament and the dogs' ability to intuit commands and to make decisions. Raising them is an arduous life, but a satisfying one for the family until Gar's brother, Claude, a mystifying mixture of charm and menace, arrives. When Gar unexpectedly dies, mute Edgar cannot summon help via the telephone. His guilt and grief give way to the realization that his father was murdered; here, the resemblance to Hamlet resonates. After another gut-wrenching tragedy, Edgar goes on the run, accompanied by three loyal dogs. His quest for safety and succor provides a classic coming-of-age story with an ironic twist. Sustained by a momentum that has the crushing inevitability of fate, the propulsive narrative will have readers sucked in all the way through the breathtaking final scenes. (June)

A dysfunctional New England family struggles toward normalcy in this poignant novel from PEN/Hemingway-winner Haigh, who follows the children of resentful, controlling, Paulette and distracted, needy Frank. Even during a childhood in idyllic Cape Cod, there are hints of a rocky future. When that future arrives, Billy, the most successful of the children, keeps a secret about his sophisticated New York life from almost everyone. Scott, formerly the uncontrollable brat of the bunch, sees himself in his own troubled son. Meanwhile, Gwen suffers from a genetic condition that prevents her from developing into womanhood. The story starts slowly, and while the setup feels familiar (a fractured New England family), the children take unexpected turns that shake up the narrative, leading to the most surprising twist of all: despite the sobering events chronicled, there's a strong nod to the healing power of love. Haigh allows the reader to sympathize with each of the family members, and, in turn, to see their flaws and better understand them. (June)

Sixteenth-century sexual politics inside the Ottoman sultan's harem come to life as Hickman (Courtesans) takes her fascination with fallen women into the fictional realm with this historical novel featuring exotic locales and erotic situations. Linking past and present heroines, the story follows Oxford researcher Elizabeth Staveley as she uncovers the 400-year-old story of Celia Lamprey, a sea captain's daughter engaged to merchant-turned-diplomat Paul Pindar when she's lost in a shipwreck. Celia doesn't drown, of course. She becomes a concubine-in-training in Constantinople, where Paul serves as secretary to the British Embassy. When the embassy sends a gift to the sultan (a ship made of spun sugar), Paul finds out that Celia is alive and well. Meanwhile, the sultan's chief black eunuch has been poisoned and as his favorite concubine battles for supremacy with his mother, both women draw Celia into their intrigues. Despite all this, the book never transforms into a literary tour-de-force (like A.S. Byatt's Possession), partly because the author is trying to balance too many story lines. Hickman creates richly described imaginative moments, but like Celia's early encounters with the sultan, the excitement is never consummated. (June)

Glorious faith and uncertainty—“the spice of life”—are on the agenda in Shaffner's (One Part Angel) latest high-spirited, if unsettling, morality tale. The citizens of Ebb, Neb., are all aflutter about the reappearance of Vernon L. Moore, a mysterious traveling salesman reportedly imbued with mystical powers. The town has been struck by a major drought and the quirky cast of local characters hopes that Vernon will break it. Wilma L. Porter, of the Come Again Bed & Breakfast also wants him to heal Clement Tucker, her cancer-stricken “Fiancé in Perpetuity” and “the richest man between Omaha and Oklahoma,” but Vernon says he can't pray for both Clem's life and rain. As Clem and Vernon engage in protracted negotiations, Clem's three friends, the Widows of Eden, arrive at the B & B to help out. They call themselves Lohengrin's Children (after a mythical Wagnerian knight) and have two goals: “to see the world and to help those in need.” The book's bittersweet resolution raises more questions than it answers, and Shaffner keeps the definition of who (or what) Vernon and the Widows are purposefully vague, which some readers may find enticing and others merely frustrating. (June)

This crisp yowl of a first novel from Miles, who covers books for Men's Journal and cocktails for the New York Times, finds despairing yet effusive litterateur Benjamin Ford midair in midlife crisis. Bennie is en route from New York, where he shares a cramped apartment with his stroke-disabled mother and her caretaker, to L.A., where he will attend his daughter Stella's wedding. He gets stranded at O'Hare when his connecting flight—along with all others—is unaccountably canceled. In the long, empty hours amid a marooned crowd, Bennie's demand for a refund quickly becomes a scathing yet oddly joyful reflection on his difficult life, and on the Polish novel he is translating. Bennie writes lightly of his “dark years” of drinking, of his failed marriages, about his mother's descent into suicidal madness and about her marriage to Bennie's father, a survivor of a Nazi labor camp. Bennie's father recited Polish poetry for solace during Bennie's childhood, inadvertently setting Bennie's life course; Bennie's command of language as he describes his fellow strandees and his riotous embrace of his own feelings will have readers rooting for him. By the time flights resume, Miles has masterfully taken Bennie from grim resignation to the dazzling exhilaration of the possible. (June)

The author of The People's Act of Love returns with the midlife deconstruction of a reluctant war correspondent working in post-9/11 Afghanistan. What Scots journalist Adam Kellas truly wants is to be a bestselling novelist, but he watches aghast on 9/11 as the planned climax of his latest thriller-in-the-works becomes reality in lower Manhattan. Disappointed, he puts down his manuscript, takes an assignment in Afghanistan covering the subsequent war and falls for an American journalist, Astrid, who leads him into a dangerous blurring of the lines between observer and participant. On his return to the U.K., these conflicts boil over when Kellas attends a dinner party with his poet school chum Patrick M'Gurgan. The fallout—combined with a large advance offered on his next thriller (an imagined war between America and Europe)—leads Kellas on a wild journey to see Astrid, who's living near Chesapeake Bay. Meek's novel exhibits some irritating tendencies—a muddled narrative line, a romance with a few cloying moments and overindulgent digressions into philosophy—but Kellas's unraveling is deliciously enjoyable, and Meek's crafting of character and setting is often masterful. The result is a book that demands much patience from the reader, but delivers rewards in return. (May)

When a British retiree invites two young single mothers from the neighborhood to her flat, a Friday night tradition begins. As their klatch widens, Trollope's memorable characters do more than just represent varying female predicaments: they develop as rich individuals who come to triumph over their pasts. Paula has a wary relationship with the married man who fathered their son, Toby: she must move on, yet stay in touch for Toby's sake. Struggling Lindsay was widowed before she gave birth, while her sister, Jules, is a careless aspiring nightclub DJ with a wild streak. Independent, put-together Blaise contrasts starkly with her often bedraggled business partner, Karen, who barely manages her role as mother and breadwinner. And then there is Eleanor, the catalyst for the gatherings, a no-nonsense older woman who, though full of wisdom and spunk, keeps her thoughts to herself unless asked. When a new man enters Paula's life, Trollope (Second Honeymoon) masterfully shows how work and romance can tip the scales in female friendships. The result is a careful and compelling examination of one man's insidious effect on a group of female friends, as memorable as it is readable. (May)

Pakistan's ongoing political turmoil adds a piquant edge to this fact-based farce spun from the mysterious 1988 plane crash that killed General Zia, the dictator who toppled Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, father of recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto. Two parallel assassination plots converge in Hanif's darkly comic debut: Air Force Junior Under Officer Ali Shigri, sure that his renowned military father's alleged suicide was actually a murder, hopes to kill Zia, who he holds responsible. Meanwhile, disgruntled Zia underlings scheme to release poison gas into the ventilation system of the general's plane. Supporting characters include Bannon, a hash-smoking CIA officer posing as an American drill instructor; Obaid, Shigri's Rilke-reading, perfume-wearing barracks pal, whose friendship sometimes segues into sex; and, in a foreboding cameo, a “lanky man with a flowing beard,” identified as OBL, who is among the guests at a Felliniesque party at the American ambassador's residence. The Pakistan-born author served in his nation's air force for several years, which adds daffy verisimilitude to his depiction of military foibles that recalls the satirical wallop of Catch 22, as well as some heft to the sagely absurd depiction of his homeland's history of political conspiracies and corruption. (May)

Rosen, a deacon in the Episcopal church and a hospital chaplain, delivers an auspicious debut set during the Civil War. Serena Hallam, the beautiful daughter of a prominent Charleston family, is married to handsome Hugh Hallam, a Virginia native, West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran. The happy couple lives with their three children and a dozen slaves at Palmyra Farm in Tennessee. A progressive who is concerned for the welfare of his slaves, Hallam laments the growing sectional acrimony and insists that rational heads will prevail in the end. Regardless, when the war begins, Hallam puts aside “his conflicted loyalties” and joins the Confederate army. Appointed commander of the 8th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, he is wounded and taken prisoner at Shiloh. In his absence, Serena struggles against long odds to run Palmyra Farm and hold the family together. Rosen paints a balanced picture of antebellum life and writes convincingly about the horrors of combat. (Her description of field hospitals is especially chilling.) Civil War buffs in particular will welcome this thoughtful historical novel. (May)

From humble beginnings in colonial New Hampshire through to the courts of imperial Europe, Delbanco (Spring and Fall) imaginatively maps the deeds, misdeeds and accomplishments of the real-life polymath Benjamin Thompson (1753–1814), an American contemporary of Franklin and Jefferson, and their equal in scientific inquiry and sociological (if not philosophical) thought. Thompson has been neglected by American history because he was a Tory—i.e., he sided with the British during the Revolution—who was eventually made a count of the Holy Roman Empire under Francis II. Delbanco covers that material nicely, but is equally interested in Thompson's cunning study of household thermodynamics and horticulture, and his invention of such appliances as roasters and coffee pots. Along the way, Delbanco celebrates Thompson's social reforms and innovation (Thompson patented none of his gadgets, believing that they should belong to the poor) and his military genius, while casually detailing the married Thompson's libertine lifestyle and varied sexual peccadilloes. Unfortunately, the story is told from the point of view of Sally Ormsby Thompson Robinson, Thompson's fictional present-day descendant: her rat-a-tat voice is often intrusive, and the whole ends up more a collection of variously colorful set pieces than a character-driven novel. (May)

The nine gorgeously crafted stories of the fourth collection from Engberg (Sarah's Laughter) go behind closed doors to find everyday desperation. The title story tracks, in the second person, Sophie, the 59-year-old wife and mother of two grown sons who is settling into a new university town, having dutifully, but not willingly, relocated for her husband's new job. The unbearably poignant “Time's Body” opens on an aged husband's witnessing his wife's funeral: his numb detachment, surrounded by friends and family, takes exact measure of his grief. The young woman of “River Hills” must fend off the importunate solicitude of her older brother in order to fulfill her own aspirations, while the new bride in “Moon” teeters between devotion to and estrangement from her new husband, an overworked surgeon in training, and the hapless new husband of “Fortune” chafes in trying to keep up with his exacting new wife and twins. Engberg's quiet denouements feel wholly integral to these tales of quiet desperation. (May)

In this sad tale from Haitian novelist Trouillot (Street of Lost Footsteps), siblings Colin and Mariéla, slum children of Port-au-Prince, live in fear of their violent father, Corazón—until the day they beat him to death to protect their mother, Josephine. In short chapters, each one long paragraph in length, Trouillot channels the desperate and sometimes disconnected, floating feelings of young, needy Colin as he and Mariéla, the elder at 16, flee the scene of the crime. Much of the dread of the novel is in watching Josephine, in the flashbacks Colin describes, descend into a human punching bag, and in hearing some of Corazón's backstory: his failed boxing sojourn in the Dominican Republic; his doleful return to Port-au-Prince to work as a mechanic. Humiliation at the garage leads to further terror at home, the one place in the benighted slum where Corazón can feel like a man—a fact the two children dimly perceive. Trouillot writes with his heart on his sleeve (“we're all barely alive,” Colin exclaims), and his unabashed empathy for plucky Colin and brave, sexy Mariéla recalls elements of Dickens. (May)

In this complex, multilayered book, Page (Accidental Happiness) revisits familiar themes in the story of one family coming to terms with loss and past events. On the morning of the space shuttle Columbia disaster, Holli Templeton is sick with worry, as NASA milestones have proven to be “harbingers of raw, personal events.” Her mother was killed in a car accident on the night of the moon landing, and she suffered a miscarriage the same day the Challenger exploded. Sure enough, as soon as the wreckage of Columbia clears, Holli finds out that her grandmother, Raine, seems to be losing her grip on reality. Meanwhile Holli's 20-year-old son, Conner, is nursing his chronically ill girlfriend and pondering his future. Complex interactions between Holli, Raine and Holli's difficult stepmother, Georgia, further complicate the situation, and in order to care for her aging grandmother and overwhelmed son, Holli must let go of her long-held resentments and see her family in a new light. Although Page's penchant for flowery description can be distracting, she seamlessly navigates the book's intertwining narratives and presents believable characters, at once imperfect and utterly sympathetic. Both the story's emotional pull and intricate plot twists are sure to seduce new readers. (May)

Set in New York City, this edgy thriller from Harrison (The Havana Room) showcases his extraordinary storytelling ability. Jin Li has been running a scam on Tom Reilly and his company, Good Pharma, by stealing information under the cover of a paper-shredding operation. She then passes it on to her brother, Chen, who uses it to make stock trades. Under pressure from a ruthless billionaire investor who stands to lose his fortune if Good Pharma fails, Reilly asks a shady underling to deal with the leak, resulting in the horrible murder of two of Li's Mexican employees. Li escapes and goes on the run. Li's former boyfriend, Ray Grant, is caught in the middle, hounded by Chen and the minions of Good Pharma, both of whom believe he knows Li's whereabouts. With the help of his dying father, a former cop, Grant must find Li or face the consequences. The action builds to a deeply satisfying conclusion involving a sadistic kidnapper and a stock market power play across two continents. (Apr.)

McGrath (Port Mungo) manipulates reader expectations expertly in this sharp-edged psychological study of a man deluded by his personal demons. Charlie Weir, a Manhattan psychiatrist, applies the life skills the members of his badly dysfunctional family have helped him hone to counseling patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. While everyone else he knows appears in danger of spinning out of orbit, Charlie exudes the calmness and confidence of a man in control of his circumstances. But he's unable to connect emotionally with the women in his life, and he repeatedly revisits his memory of the suicide of his ex-wife's brother, who was also one of his patients. With painstaking precision, McGrath drives this story to a climactic, if hastily resolved, moment of self-revelation in which Charlie uncovers a forgotten personal trauma that has perverted his perceptions and made him the most unreliable of narrators. Notwithstanding these efforts to give Charlie's tale the jolt of a psychological thriller, this is a haunting story of a man in the grip of a painful and beautifully articulated spiritual malaise. (Apr.)

Mistaken identity and a decades-old coverup collide in this underwhelming Southern thriller from Abrahams (Nerve Damage) set in the wake of a Katrina-like hurricane. Nell Jarreau's eyewitness testimony sent Alvin “Pirate” DuPree to prison for the murder of her then-boyfriend, Johnny Blanton. Twenty years later, Nell is shocked when a mysterious tape surfaces that exonerates DuPree. Warned by her husband, Clay—the lead detective on Johnny's case and now the chief of police of Belle Ville, a New Orleans–like city—to leave the case alone, Nell is haunted by her role in imprisoning an innocent man. When an old reporter friend resurfaces to research the DuPree story, and Nell's daughter, Norah, who is Johnny's biological child, starts behaving oddly, Nell realizes she must uncover Johnny's true killer before her life spins out of control. Guilt or innocence aside, DuPree is a highly unlikable and inarticulate character, while Nell herself is too one-dimensional to carry the dramatic weight of the story. Fans of Abrahams's complex earlier novels will hope for a return to form next time. (Apr.)

In Quick's (Jayne Ann Krentz's pseudonym) mediocre latest installment to the Arcane Society series, Leona Hewitt, a crystal reader, and Thaddeus Ware, a hypnotist, meet trying to steal the same relic—the aurora stone—from a private collection, but a murdered prostitute and a trap protecting the stone initially complicate their success. Thaddeus, hired by the Arcane Society to claim the stone, allows the plot's loudly grinding gears to ally him with Leona. Both Leona and Thaddeus are sensible and pragmatic, qualities that make for efficient sleuths but passionless lovers, and Quick has to try unusually hard to make their romance believable. The story fares better when it focuses on the crystal and its connections to secret societies, to the Midnight Monster (a hackneyed serial killer) and to Leona's personal history. When the plot threads finally pull taut and the villains' motives and schemes are completely (if clumsily) exposed, Leona is endangered in a suspenseful climax. This is unlikely to garner Quick any new fans, or even delight her devotees, but it will tide them over until the next episode. (Apr.)

Parents will find this compulsive page-turner from Edgar-winner Coben (The Woods) particularly unnerving. A sadistic killer is at play in suburban Glen Rock, N.J., outside New York City, but somehow he's less frightening than the more mundane problems that send ordinary lives into chaos. How do you weigh a child's privacy against a parent's right to know? How do you differentiate normal teenage rebelliousness from out-of-control behavior? When and how do you intervene if suicidal signs appear? Other issues include single parenting; career versus family; marital honesty; and how much information you should share with a child at what age. Coben plucks each of these strings like a virtuoso as Mike and Tia Baye try to deal with the increasing withdrawal of their 16-year-old son, Adam, after a friend's suicide. A pair of brutal, seemingly senseless killings, punctuate the unfolding domestic troubles that ratchet up the tension and engulf the Baye family, their friends and neighbors in a web of increasing tragedy. The “this could be me” factor lends poignancy to the thrills and chills. (Apr.)

This chilling first of a new romantic suspense series from bestseller Kane (Dark Room) introduces 30-year-old Sloane Burbank, a former FBI agent trained as a crisis negotiator, now an independent consultant who works with law enforcement and others in need of her expertise. During a trip to Manhattan, Sloane receives a call from the mother of a childhood friend with whom she's lost touch, Penny Truman. When Sloane learns that Penny has been missing for almost a year, she turns for help to her former lover, Derek Parker, who happens to be the FBI agent in charge of Penny's case. Animosity between Derek and Sloane serves to increase the explosive romantic tension between the pair as more women disappear, evidently victims of a serial killer. A wealth of red herring suspects will keep the reader guessing until the conclusion of this no-holds-barred thriller. (Apr.)

Last seen in Dietrich's Napoleon's Pyramids, fleeing the forces of evil in a runaway hot-air balloon over Egypt, Ethan Gage undergoes further life-threatening adventures in this rollicking sequel. Nine months before the balloon incident, Gage arrived in the Holy Land with his benefactor, Napoleon Bonaparte. After various misunderstandings involving the secrets of the Great Pyramid, Bonaparte became his implacable enemy. Now, accused of treason by Napoleon's minions, Pierre Najac and Najac's boss, the French-Italian count and sorcerer Alessandro Silano, Gage flees to Jerusalem, where he searches for his former lover, Astiza, who he fears has fallen into Silano's hands. Gage is also hunting clues that may lead him to the fabled Book of Toth, an ancient tome that promises to reveal the secrets of the universe. Ever the incorrigible gambler and all-around scamp, Gage makes an irresistible antihero. The ending promises more volumes in what one hopes will be a long series. 8-city author tour. (Apr.)

Readers hungry for sex, bloody action and flag-waving patriotism will best appreciate this sequel to Stone's debut, The Echelon Vendetta, which likewise starred CIA agent Micah Dalton. The disparate elements of this testosterone-fueled thriller gradually come together, including a stabbing in Venice; the hijacking of a freighter in the South China Sea; a rogue SAS (Special Air Service) agent, Ray Fyke, imprisoned in Singapore's notorious Changi prison; and a Serbian mafia leader with grandiose ambitions. Each piece of the puzzle carries its own carnage and enough international intrigue to effectively make Dalton and his putative allies the only ones who can salvage the situation. Stone handles with aplomb such details as weapons technology, bureaucratic bumbling and ship navigation in treacherous seas, then tests the limits of human endurance with his heroes Dalton and Fyke. Though the plot hangs together well enough, the resolution takes a gigantic suspension of disbelief and leads to a less than satisfying denouement. (Apr.)

Bestseller Gruber (The Book of Air and Shadows) probes the boundaries between sanity and madness in his outstanding sixth novel. Talented Chaz Wilmot, who makes a modest living as a commercial artist in New York City, can't say no when Mark Slade, his former Columbia roommate who now owns a downtown gallery, offers him $150,000 to fix a ruined Tiepolo ceiling in a Venetian palazzo (“the ceiling had essentially collapsed, so it wasn't a restoration job exactly but more like a reproducing job”). Once abroad, Wilmot gets sucked into an increasingly bizarre world where his own identity is confused and the art he produces may be a forgery but is genuinely magnificent. Is Wilmot crazy or is he being manipulated in a grandiose scheme linked to unrecovered art stolen by the Nazis? Gruber writes passionately and knowledgeably about art and its history—and he writes brilliantly about the shadowy lines that blur reality and unreality. Fans of intelligent, literate thrillers will be well rewarded. (Apr.)

An elegantly observed coming-of-age story steeped in poverty and violence, this novel by the author of No Direction Home offers a poignant and often heartbreaking account of Ares Ramirez. The year is 1978, and 12-year-old Ares has outgrown the cramped trailer in the California desert that he shares with his mother, Laurel, and six-year-old brother, Malcolm. Malcolm has profound developmental disabilities, but Laurel, out of a free-spirited and self-righteous view of motherhood, has only recently (and very reluctantly) allowed Malcolm to get treatment. A horrific childhood accident and encroaching adolescence, meanwhile, fill Ares with a potent and inarticulate anger. In the absence of any outlet for his preoccupation with violence, Ares falls into an uneasy friendship with Kevin, the troubled foster child of Malcolm's new speech therapist. Conflict with Laurel, her on-again-off-again boyfriend and a small community that will not accept Malcolm, drive Ares into Kevin's manipulative sway, and Ares will have to choose between protecting his family or embracing the violence building inside him. The characters are painted with compassion and unflinching honesty, and the climax is pithy and consequential. (Apr.)

After being fired from his latest television job, a disgraced Harry Boyd returns to his radio roots in the northern Canadian town of Yellowknife as the manager of a station no one listens to, and finds himself at the center of the station's unlikely social scene. New anchor Dido Paris, both renowned and mocked for her Dutch accent, fled an affair with her husband's father, only to be torn between Harry and another man. Wild child Gwen came to learn radio production, but under Harry's tutelage finds herself the guardian of the late-night shift. And lonely Eleanor wonders if it's time to move south just as she meets an unlikely suitor. While the station members wait for Yellowknife to get its first television station and the crew embarks on a life-changing canoe expedition, the city is divided over a proposal to build a pipeline that would cut across Native lands, bringing modernization and a flood of workers, equipment and money into sacred territory. Hay's crystalline prose, keen details and sharp dialogue sculpt the isolated, hardy residents of Yellowknife, who provide a convincing backdrop as the main cast tromps through the existential woods. (Apr.)

In 1524, David Reubeni—a real-life prince and military envoy of a lost Jewish kingdom—traveled to Venice aiming to establish a Judeo-Christian alliance that would seize Jerusalem from Ottoman control. In Halter's remarkable imagining of David's travels, throngs of followers flock to David as he makes his way through the center of Christendom, mesmerized by the strange man's vast knowledge and regal charm. The prince's tactical and strategic plans to create a Jewish homeland soon win the monetary and diplomatic support of Pope Clement VII and King João III of Portugal. In time, David is given 12,000 men to fight the Turks, an unprecedented feat at a time when European Jews were persecuted and forced to live in ghettos. But David's lofty goals also attract ruthless enemies and eager fanatics who mistake David for a messiah, all of whom jeopardize his mission. The harrowing adventure is satisfying in its ample twists and turns, but Halter's writing of David Reubeni into the historical fabric of premodern Europe—imagining David taking refreshment with Machiavelli, becoming the subject of a sculpture by Michelangelo and suggesting the creation of the College des Lecteurs Royaux to King Francis I—is the book's major pleasure. (Apr.)

A teenager's gift of premonition becomes a curse in Proulx's confident debut. It's the fall of 2002 in Stokum, Mich., a “rank little pinprick of a town,” where a night of pot smoking brings about Luke Hunter's prediction that his friend Stan will be crushed by a red van with out-of-state license plates. When the random prophecy comes true, a “media madhouse” infiltrates Luke's quiet life while his parents remain confused and frustrated. Dubbed the “Prophet of Death,” Luke experiences more “death flashes” that become reality. Terrified by his new ability, Luke gets a prescription for a powerful sedative, which stops the visions for a while, but soon they—and his general disillusionment with life—return. As Luke tries to make peace with his psychic abilities, he crushes out on a girl at school and is the subject of an attempted religious intervention. Though a couple of plot points are left unexplained or unresolved, Proulx channels the ennui, insecurity and inner yearnings of a teenage boy to produce a fast-moving tale of struggling youth that has a great potential for YA crossover. (Apr.)

In this affecting debut, Lebanese novelist Younes artfully presents the overlapping struggles of four woman living in the same Beirut apartment building during the bloody, stop-start Lebanese civil war of 1975–1990. While the city slides into violent chaos, Lilian watches as those around her break under the weight of grief until the desire to emigrate is so strong that she begins living out of suitcases, even bringing them down to the nearby bomb shelter. Crumbling emotionally, Warda pines for her daughter, Sara, from whom she is separated by the fighting. Maha, separated from her lover by the hostilities, remains in the building for the duration of the war, adjusting the rhythm of her everyday activities to accommodate the swelling violence. Camilia, the fourth woman, returns to Lebanon after a long time away to film a war documentary and moves in with Maha, a friend of a friend. Maha and Camilia's stories are the most interlinked, and it is through their combined perspectives that the book reaches a moving climax. Younes delivers a fractured Beirut with acute empathy and insight. (Apr.)

This debut bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Everything Is Illuminated, both in plot—a Jewish American travels through Europe, gleaning secrets about his family and the Holocaust—as well as tone—comic to make the mystical, sentimental stuff go down—but Herbach largely manages to pull out something worthwhile. The book presents, via letters and suicide notes (compiled by a Green Bay, Wis., priest who thinks the narrator may have been involved in a miracle), the odd case of T. Rimberg, a “skittish part-Jew who grew up underachieving in a small Midwestern town.” T. has lost his wife, kids and girlfriend, but when a large inheritance check arrives from his long-lost Holocaust survivor father's estate, T. undertakes a quixotic voyage to Europe to... what? Find the truth about his dad? Kill himself? And what to make of his nightmares? A more secure T. emerges, however, as he discovers startling things about his father, the meaning behind his strange dreams and, on a Wisconsin highway, his own power to act heroically. While the tenor of the novel is comedic, Herbach infuses T.'s story with some serious inquiry into faith, inheritance and what makes a good life. (Apr.)

McIntosh's fifth medieval whodunit to feature Archbishop's Quaestor (constable) Gil Cunningham (after 2007's St. Mungo's Robin) may frustrate some mystery fans because whether a conventional crime has been committed is unclear for a long time. When a corpse turns up in a peat bog, its skull crushed and throat slit, in Beltane parish outside Glasgow, no one has a clue how long the remains have been buried. The parish chaplain blames village healer Beatrice “Beattie” Lithgo and demands her arrest based on his obsessive reading of a tome on witchcraft. Gil and his new bride, Alys Mason, try to identify the body and clear Beattie's name, traveling from haunted coal mines to the coast, where they interview “salt boilers” who may have known the victim, rumored to be decadent fee collector Thomas Murray. More cadavers spark lurid allegations about Murray's relationship with a young collier (coal miner) and other missing men. An unconvincing confession briefly distracts Gil and Alys from the case's shocking resolution. U.S. readers should be prepared for plenty of Scottish brogue (“I wouldny ken about that”). (May)

A few years after the traumatic events in Critique of Criminal Reason (2006), Napoleon Bonaparte's troops still occupy Prussia in Gregorio's outstanding second historical. The residents of Lotingen who haven't fled their homes, including magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis and his family, live in a constant state of fear. A chance encounter at a formal dinner with Colonel Lavedrine—a French officer interested in criminology—leads Stiffeniis, who learned a novel approach to criminal investigation from legendary philosopher Immanuel Kant in Critique, to look into the gruesome murder of the three small children of Prussian Maj. Bruno Gottewald and the disappearance of his wife. When Stiffeniis travels to the military garrison where Gottewald is posted to inform him of his loss, the sleuth finds that the major has also been killed. Gregorio again demonstrates a rare gift for constructing a compelling whodunit rich with the kinds of psychological insights typical of the work of such contemporary crime masters as Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters. Readers will race through the pages to reach the solution. (Apr.)

In Rosett's sparkling third Mom Zone mystery (after 2007's Staying Home Is a Killer), air force wife Ellie Avery tags along with her husband, Mitch, while he's attending a FROT (Foreign Reciprocity Officer Training) class in Washington, D.C. Ellie is ready for some tourist R & R, but while on a sightseeing trip with other air force wives she sees someone who looks like her sister-in-law, Summer Avery, push a man off the Metro platform. The victim turns out to be Jorge Dominguez, a sinister gardener who happens to have been stalking Summer, making her a prime suspect in his murder. Vickie Archer, who runs the Women's Advancement Center where Summer works, also knew Jorge. When, at Summer's suggestion, Ellie redoes the Archer daughter's messy bedroom for Mom Magazine, Ellie finds a major clue and becomes a moving target for the real killer. Rosett skillfully interweaves a subplot about a Korean war veteran recovering his memory and provides practical travel tips from Ellie's organizational Web site, Everything in Its Place. (Apr.)

In Edgar-winner Stansberry's compelling third mystery to feature PI Dante Mancuso (after 2006's The Big Boom), the former San Francisco cop becomes entangled in a cold case surrounding the unintentional shooting death of a woman during a bank robbery involving a group of militant political anarchists in 1976. In a paranoia-fueled post 9-11 America with new antiterror laws, a federal prosecutor with a deep-rooted grudge arrests Bill Owens, an acquaintance of Mancuso's who was the prime suspect in the 1976 murder. Hired to help exonerate Owens, Mancuso tracks down individuals linked to the original case—aging conspirators of a once radical San Francisco underground populated by activists, freethinkers and street poets. But instead of finding justice and some kind of resolution, Mancuso learns firsthand what it feels like to become a victim in a much larger drama being played out between the government and those that oppose its policies. Equal parts contemporary crime fiction and dark, existential poetry, this novel should win Stansberry new fans. (Apr.)

Former attorney China Bayles, now the proprietor of a small herb shop in Pecan Springs, Tex., finally gets some answers to her questions about the death of her cold, distant father, who perished in a fiery car accident 16 years earlier, in the satisfying conclusion to a trilogy that began with Bleeding Hearts and Spanish Dagger, the preceding two books within Albert's long-running cozy series. When China's half-brother, Miles, hires China's husband, Mike McQuaid, a former homicide officer struggling to establish himself as a PI, to investigate the fatal crash, China isn't sure this is a good idea. Her reservations prove well founded after the secretive Miles turns out to have his own agenda. Fans will be pleased that by supplementing China's usual first-person narration with McQuaid's third-person perspective, Albert casts fresh light on his character and his relationship with China. Snippets of plant lore, mostly to do with the nightshade family, add spice. (Apr.)

At the start of Cannell's meandering 13th Ellie Haskell mystery (after 2007's Withering Heights), Ellie's dear friend Dorcas Critchley, the games mistress at St. Roberta's boarding school, asks the amateur sleuth to investigate the theft of the Loverly Cup, a trophy awarded annually by “Lady Loverly of the Hall at Upper Swan-Upping to the winner of the area schools' lacrosse championship match.” A former “inmate” of St. Roberta's, Ellie returns to campus, where she's forced to rub shoulders with old classmates she would rather avoid. The suspicious death of Marilyn Chips, a retired coach whose skills enabled the school to retain the trophy for many years, makes the loss of the Loverly Cup, if not irrelevant, certainly less important. Ellie and her housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy, enchant as always, though the student characters, in particular Ellie's precocious detecting pal, 14-year-old Ariel Hopkins, may strike some readers as too adult. Witty dialogue helps offset the slow pacing of this alternately funny and stodgy cozy. (Apr.)

Quirky characters lift Rusch's convoluted third mystery to feature Illinois state investigator Liz Hewitt (after 2006's The Boy with Perfect Hands). The newly engaged Hewitt is in a contest with Jen Spangler, a single mom and criminal justice student, for the approval of Jen's father, who happens to be Hewitt's cop mentor. These two smart, cuttingly self-aware women also compete to stop a lunatic from decapitating estranged married couples. The present atrocities turn out to be related to a pair of cold case murders, and the swarm of suspects includes a libidinous psychiatrist, the pathetic editor of a neighborhood newspaper, an ultraempathetic priest and a mob of marriage counselors. Hewitt doesn't so much weigh evidence as blow cool jazz riffs on it, and Jen shows flashes of the same clever, nervous intuition. Rusch's style, dense with disconcerting wordplay and detached irony, works especially well in the chapters exhibiting the killer's skewed viewpoint. (Apr.)

As the first anniversary of the kidnapping of two-year-old twins Liam and Shane Boyle approaches in Sidor's bone-chilling third novel, Chicago freelance journalist Jase Deering decides to investigate with his partner and girlfriend, the blind Robyn Matchfrost. Jase has his own demons: his 12-year-old brother, Matthias, was abducted and murdered when they were children. With the help of police detectives, Jase traces the palindrome mirrorrorrim, which the twin's abductor carved into their nanny's living flesh, to cult leader Aubrey Hart Morick, who advocated human sacrifice. Though Morick is long dead, Jase discovers that his son, Graham, lives in the area and isn't as harmless as he first appears. As Jase spends the next 10 years delving deeper into the world of Morick's cult, he realizes that even if he finds the Boyles, it may be too late to save them or himself. Sidor (Bone Factory) is a master of the unsettling, and each twist is more grisly and unexpected than the last. Readers won't be able to resist staying up all night to finish this haunting tale, though they may wish they hadn't. (Apr.)

A new publisher launches the impressive first in a historical series, which effortlessly alternates between Washington, D.C., in 1862 and the same city 95 years later. In 1957, Ben Carey, an ambitious young beat cop with a troubled marriage, becomes the head of a new planning unit that hopes to obtain funding for innovative police programs. When his wife kicks him out, Carey bunks in the decrepit Victorian mansion that houses his unit, only to find the building apparently haunted by the spirit of Mordechai Finkel, heir to a department store fortune, who died there from wounds sustained in the second battle of Bull Run. After a little digging, Carey comes to suspect that Finkel was murdered and takes a break from his official duties to solve the nearly-century-old cold case. While the supernatural aspect won't be to everyone's tastes, and the author's 1950s are more convincing than his 1860s, this debut shows definite promise. Though Horwitz died in 2004, he left behind several more Ben Carey mysteries in manuscript. (Apr.)

Multiple Hugo- and Nebula-winner Card offers short, revealing commentaries on these 22 compelling short stories, novelettes, and novellas, noting that short work has inspired some of his best and best-known long fiction. These short science fiction, fantasy and “literary” stories, along with a handful of Hatrack River tales (related to the Alvin Maker series) and four stories “written by a Mormon, about Mormon culture, for Mormon readers,” illustrate Card's fascination with complex child protagonists, touchingly portrayed in “Inventing Lovers on the Phone”; absorption with moral dilemmas, wrapped up in family love and tensions in “Worthy to Be One of Us”; and new views of old traditions, familiar and discomfiting in “Homeless in Hell” and “Christmas at Helaman's House.” Card intended several of the included stories, like the powerful “In the Dragon's House,” to open novels not yet written, but even on their own they provide significant examples of his perennial themes: morality, salvation and redemption. (Apr.)

Intricate yet accessible plotting and near-Arctic winter weather mark the 10th Harry Dresden adventure from bestseller Butcher (after 2007's White Night). A friendly snowball fight opens the Chicago-based wizard-detective's latest tale, but it's not long before a host of more dangerous foes are out for Harry's blood. A missing human mobster is said to be seeking greater influence among Chicago's extranormal population, but the true threat proves both more subtle and of much greater consequence. Butcher smoothly manages a sizable cast of allies and adversaries, doles out needed backstory with crisp efficiency and sustains just the right balance of hair's-breadth tension and comic relief. Encounters with a series of increasingly dangerous “Billy Goats Gruff” unfold with particular cleverness, and key developments involving Sgt. Karrin Murphy, Harry's reluctant police liaison, will intrigue seasoned fans as well as newcomers attracted by last year's TV adaptation of the series. (Apr.)

Declaring that short stories are the “heart and soul of fantastical fiction,” prolific and venerable editor Datlow collects 16 impressive original stories in this unthemed anthology. Standout selections include Margo Lanagan's deeply disturbing “The Goosle,” which eloquently corrupts the Hansel and Gretel fable with bubonic plague, sexual slavery and mass murder; Jason Stoddard's “The Elephant Ironclads,” which describes an emergent 20th-century Navajo nation struggling to become a world power while staying true to its culture; Elizabeth Bear's “Sonny Liston Takes the Fall,” a poignant tale about the life, death and sad legacy of the troubled heavyweight fighter; and Pat Cadigan's “Jimmy,” a strange and supernatural coming-of-age story set in the moments just after John F. Kennedy's assassination. The thematic diversity and consistently high quality of narrative throughout make for a solid and enjoyable anthology. (Apr.)

This colorful series opener from comic fantasist Asprin (Myth-Chief) introduces lazy con artist Griffen McCandles, who got through business school on his “charm and quick wits” and now expects to be given a job working for his uncle Malcolm's company. Then Malcolm reveals that Griffen and his sister, Valerie, are near pureblood dragons, expected to chose sides in an international battlefield of magic and ancient rivalries. With assassins and a professional dragon-slayer on their trail, Griff and Val head for New Orleans (with no mention of Hurricane Katrina) to ally with Mose, an unlicensed casino operator and leader of a band of renegade dragons who hope Griff can bring them some respect as well as power. Asprin promises much but delivers little, apparently saving his plots for later books, but with all the characters and factions now in place, the series may eventually develop into something more engaging. (Apr.)

This intense third installment of Zindell's Lightstone epic (after 2007's The Silver Sword) finds seventh son Prince Valashu, descendant of the Star People, fighting both self-doubts and skeptical monarchs in his attempt to unite the free peoples of Ea against the magical assassins and mercenary armies following Morjin the Liar, the fallen angel known as the Great Red Dragon. In addition to the conventional fantasy hero challenges of tourneys, battles, quests and romance, Valashu struggles to determine his true place among the legendary figures looming large over the Grail-like Lightstone, which he stole from Morjin and must now reunite with its destined wielder. Zindell packs in frequent and substantial references to mythology and excerpts of prophetic poetry, sometimes mingling created theology with real-world mythical terms and sly pop culture references such as Valashu's lightning bolt–shaped forehead scar. This gives Ea an unusual depth and richness at the expense of slowing down and sometimes confusing the plot. (Apr.)

Over eight previous delectable novels, the seven members of the Sisterhood have exacted multiple pounds of flesh from men who have wronged them. Michaels's latest revenge fantasy finds them living in exile in Barcelona, where they receive word that Pearl Barnes, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, will expose one of their contacts in the U.S. if they don't help her keep her own deep dark secret. Barnes runs an underground railroad for women and children who have been abused by their husbands and boyfriends, and her former son-in-law, Tyler Hughes, has threatened to expose her illegal activities if she doesn't throw an upcoming vote. The Sisterhood members are soon plotting to get back across the pond—no easy task, since they're wanted ladies—in order to swing into action and deliver revenge that's creatively swift and sweet, Michaels-style. (Apr.)

Atwell's breezy debut fires something unusual in the furnace of low-key Tucson glass blower Emmeline (Em) Dowell, just after she befriends a fragile-looking redhead named Allison McBride. As Em attempts to figure out who plunged a man's head into the 2,000-degree furnace of her studio—and who the victim was—she's forced to resurrect a long-dead acquaintance with ex-lover police chief Matt Lundgren. When she's not busy making and selling art glass and hanging with Allison, Em is dodging surly strangers and trying to figure out why the FBI is so interested in the case. Em is likable; the mystery is satisfactory; and an introduction to glass-blowing techniques and lingo (plus a recipe for Em's specialty, mac & cheese with hotdogs) keep things light. (Mar.)

Real-world first dates may often end badly, but most of the entries in this gathering of supernaturally charged dating adventures end more than well enough to satisfy. The 17 stories range widely in scope and flavor. Standouts include Scott William Carter's tale of a haunted stereo, Diane Duane's crisp updating of a Scandinavian legend, Jacey Bedford's modern yet enchanting “The Urbane Fox,” and Diane A.S. Stuckart's clever “Who's Behind the Door,” which opens the volume with a clever riff on the vintage board game referenced in the anthology's title. Few stories are less than entertaining, though Laura Resnick's “By Any Other Name” revels a little too much in deliberate clichés, and no less than three selections involve ancient Greco-Roman myths. There are both dark tales and light among the offerings, and while fantasy dominates, horror and SF are both represented. As theme anthologies go, this one is unusually successful. (Feb.)

Myhre's long-running Norwegian newspaper strip concerns a cynical young goth and her pals. Nemi's got a sort of Morticia Addams look about her; she has a very short temper and delights in shocking children and the bourgeoisie (not to mention reciting facts about spiders); she tends to party much too hard and to end up taking home the wrong guys. The daily strips (and an occasional full-page episode) are punctuated in the middle of the book by a longer story, “Free and Fearless,” in which she encounters her favorite imaginary friend, musician Alice Cooper. Nemi's a naturally funny character, but too many of these strips are generic gags that just happen to have her in them. Perhaps Myhre's jokes lose something in translation (or perhaps awkward lines like “and here's me thinking they just threw a dice” are a poor translation), but a lot of the verbal humor falls flat. Myhre's sight gags tend to go over better, but beyond her gift for exaggerated facial expressions, most of her artwork is purely functional, with a broad, big-eyed caricature style. In other words, although Nemi would probably stab anyone who said so to her face, the strip is almost an urban-hipster variation on Cathy. (Mar.)

Ion Tsuburagi was born with the ability to influence events by chanting her first name as a spell. Ion discovers that her psychic abilities increase when she holds a piece of experimental metal developed by her classmate Mikado the “boy genius.” Her powers—which allow her to fly and rescue classmates—soon take a backseat to a love story involving Mikado, who also happens to be president of the school's Psychic Power Research Society. Ion worries that Mikado is more interested in her as a psychic than a girlfriend. This manga is Tanemura's debut—her later Full Moon and Gentlemen's Alliance Cross are popular and more assured. Her author's notes in the sidebars are sometimes more interesting than the plot, revealing the story's muddled origins and providing valuable insight into the career path of a manga artist. A few pages of almost magical-girl–style psychic action are very well-drawn, but even Tanemura admits her early artwork contains too many decorative patterns based on strawberries, irises, lace and newsprint. Humor, ESP and romance coalesce well in this satisfying yet poorly paced early work by a talented author. (Apr.)

When struggling Hollywood actor Alex Martin rescues a woman from a mysterious, almost fatal accident, he becomes an instant star—and also finds that a murderous cabal is out to kill him, too. His studio assigns some high-powered bodyguards, most notably this book's title character: wiseacre Rachel Dodd, who looks like arm candy and shoots like James Bond. If you imagine that the two of them will despise each other at first, then bond through a series of action-comedy escapades (in the course of which Rachel will wear skimpy outfits and fire big guns) until romance blossoms between them, you are almost entirely right. It's unabashedly an odd-couple comedy pasted onto an action flick, and self-aware about it. Still, Cosby and Church get in some clever jabs at the movie business and its cults of personality, and the frothy script has the sort of densely packed badinage beloved by readers of Church's online comic strip, the Rack. Santolouco's artwork is at the cruder, cartoonier end of the generic mainstream continuum—he sometimes favors dramatic angles to make up for his dodgy grasp of anatomy—but the story zips along as amusingly as the B-movies it parodies and pastiches. (Mar.)

Nobu is a very troubled teenager, forced to transfer six months after his previous school disappeared into the Underworld, but school troubles fade when a demon kills his mother, and he finds himself accused of the crime and on the run from the law. Nobu's demon friend/sidekick Pixie is kidnapped by Colonel Gotoh, who is plotting to use demons to his advantage. Plot lines from early in the book are awkwardly abandoned as Nobu's former classmate Yumi has trouble at her new school and runs into even more demon-related problems. The art of the book is typical for the demon-themed anime of the 1990s, with detailed line work and grotesque monsters. Based on a 1992 Super Famicom RPG game, the events in the nine-volume series Shin Megami Tensei: Kahn are set after the videogame. The franchise spawned many sequel games, most notably the critically acclaimed but controversial Persona 3. The book has a surprising amount of violence and nudity: nearly all the female leads appear nude, including Nobu's mother. Saeko is coerced into graphic demon lesbian sex in one very long scene. At worst, this book is a poor introduction to the “MegaTen” franchise. At best, it is a mediocre story about demons and a fast pulp read. (Feb.)