Fiction Reviews

In the latest from Dufresne (Love Warps the Mind a Little) novelist John’s newest manuscript doesn’t impress his girlfriend, Annick, who thinks “it doesn’t breathe.” So he goes back and rewrites it as a memoir: a book within a book. In it, Johnny and Audrey grow up in Requiem, Mass., with their unraveling mother, Frances, who believes her children were replaced by aliens and who bathes in gasoline. Their secretive truck driver father, Rainey, almost certainly has something odd going on down South. The book unfolds like a series of nesting dolls: John meanders around his coastal Florida home, writing his novel, visiting with friends and going on appointments for teaching jobs, while Johnny lives with his mother’s worsening condition, his father’s absences, his mother’s hospitalization and a momentous trip South. Then there are stories within the memoir within the story, including the one a woman tells about her friend, Ginger Rae, who talks of writing a neighbor’s suicide note, then claims it’s part of a story she herself is writing. John is a very amusing unreliable narrator, and Dufresne’s witty, sardonic take on life’s fictions leaps off the page. (July)

When last seen, the irrepressible Lizzie Nichols was canoodling with Chaz after she and Luke, Chaz’s best friend, broke up (Queen of Babble in the Big City, 2007). Now—shocker alert—Luke returns to New York and slips a three-carat diamond engagement ring on her finger. Lizzie accepts even though she’s still all googly over Chaz, who bluntly warns Lizzie that Luke’s all about Luke and couldn’t love her the way he does. Lizzie, a wedding dress restorer and budding designer specializing in wedding garb, faces a hives-inducing decision: dump rich Luke, who wants to be an investment banker in Paris, and hook up with Chaz, who wants to teach? Or should she marry Luke and ditch New York for Paris? And then there’s the matter of her burgeoning design business, helped along by Ava Geck, a Paris Hilton–like celebrity heiress. Cabot takes full advantage of the material, delivering her trademark wit, sharp banter and lively antics from the first page. Fans of the series have another one to savor. (July)

With flashes of prose as crisp and haunting as the frozen Minnesota setting, Enger’s debut opens 10 years after Jesse Matson’s father’s alleged suicide, as 17-year-old Jesse sits down to write his own version of events. While hunting with his father in the woods surrounding their hometown of Battlepoint, Minn., the young Jesse hears a shot and finds his father dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Adamant that his father could never take his own life, Jesse determines to uncover the truth. While his mother, Genevieve, retreats to her room and his younger brother, Magnus, looks to him for reassurance, Jesse becomes convinced that his uncle Clay actually killed his father. Despite a lack of evidence or support from law enforcement, Jesse hatches a plan to avenge his father’s death, bolstered by his deepening relationship with a girl who has plenty of problems of her own. Allusions to Hamlet and Hemingway’s In Our Time (Jesse reads both in school) do a little too much foreshadowing, but the landscape is beautifully rendered, and Jesse’s confusion is palpable. (July)

In this creepy, lyrical debut, Raisin explores the fine line between sanity and insanity with Sam Marsdyke, an awkward late teenager who was thrown out of school after being accused of attempting to rape a schoolmate. Sam now works his family’s farm along with his father, and there he notices Josephine Reeves, a 15-year-old whose family has moved from London to the Yorkshire village where Sam resides. After an inauspicious beginning, Sam and Josephine strike up a friendship that culminates with them running away together. Soon, Sam’s tenuous grip on reality slips, giving the reader a frightening glimpse into the mind of a psychopath. What happens next will shock readers, yet compel them to read faster to learn the outcome. Although the author’s liberal use of the Yorkshire dialect and a stream-of-consciousness narration (“Sackless article the wether kept indoors, as Father went and in the pen and fastened the tupping harness around the ram’s neck, and the gate was unsnecked”), it’s true to the protagonists roots and lends an air of authority to this tightly plotted and disturbing effort. (July)

In the latest from seasoned Texan social satirist Bird (The Flamenco Academy, etc.), Blythe Young’s recent divorce from Trey Dix has left her outside the protective bubble of Austin’s high society. As her catering business goes broke and the IRS starts to chase her down, Blythe seeks a haven at Seneca House, the housing co-op where she lived 10 years ago during college. There, she must face Millie Ott, one of many friends Blythe shucked off in a frenzy of social climbing. Once portly Millie is now slender and, as a perfect foil for Blythe, also saintly: she delivers aid to the homeless by way of a tandem recumbent bike (which Blythe names the “dorkocycle”). At Seneca House, Blythe tries to make amends with people she’s stepped on, to avoid the IRS, and to kick both a lingering drug habit and an addiction to scamming people into helping her out. She slowly starts to wins over the affection of her housemates until one of her unthinking decisions brings potential ruin on the co-op’s financial well-being. The result is a laugh-out-loud addition to Bird’s long line of estrogen-fueled dramedies. (June)

The debut of former Jossey-Bass senior editor Hayes is a crackling foray into a dangerous past, the first of a projected trilogy. On Wide Valley plain 14,000 years ago, wolf Kaala is born into the Swift River pack—a half-breed outcast with Outsider blood. As she grows into adulthood, the spirited pup continues to come into conflict with pack leader Ruuqo. She also sneaks off to be with humans, who are encroaching on wolf territory and who often drive the wolves from their kills. Fraternization is strictly forbidden, but as Kaala’s mother has foreseen in dreams, it may also be the key to saving every wolf and human in the valley. Hayes’s remarkable fluency when writing in Kaala’s voice is immediately absorbing. The mythologies of the societies she invents are underdeveloped, but the relationships between the human characters and the wolf characters are keenly felt, and the conflicts sharply imagined. Hayes’s keen interpretations of wolf behavior, senses and sensibilities will enchant paranormal fans and animal lovers alike. (June)

In Dahlie’s entertaining debut, Arthur Camden is a fly fisherman, devoted husband and father, and minor Manhattan socialite who would like nothing more than to avoid “troubling introspection.” Yet his slow botching of the family import-export business and the sudden dissolution of his marriage certainly have something to do with his bursting into tears at a meeting of the Hanover Street Fly Casters—a men’s club founded by his great-grandfather—and declaring his steadfast love for its members. This display of emotion is only the first crack in his reputation, and a sojourn to his son’s Colorado ranch begins a retreat to the safety of the club’s restricted world, while sorting out a bevy of complex feelings he struggles to recognize, let alone process. In the balance is nothing short of his identity and self-worth, stakes that debut novelist Dahlie makes abundantly clear with light comic touches. Dahlie’s dry and understated portrayal of old upper-crust Manhattan is as crisp and authentic as a well-made gin and tonic; the various turns of plot are swift and precise; and one is soon rooting for Arthur to get his groove back. (June)

Sherwood peeks into the seedier side of Japan in his U.S. debut, a clever, fast-paced noir. Aozora Fujiwara, an apathetic student at the University of Kyoto, finds himself deep in debt to a local gangster who runs an illegal mah-jongg parlor. Luckily, Aozora learns that a distant aunt has named him and his sister, Mai, as heirs of her estate. In order to redeem the inheritance, Aozora must track down Mai, who has disappeared from opera school. Aozora finds her performing as an entertainer in “Amsterdam,” a creepy Dutch-themed amusement park (tourists can visit “Harry Potterdam” and eat an “Oranje Burger”), but getting her out proves to be troublesome: Gondo, a yakuza boss, is forcing Mai to “entertain” his clients and will not let her leave. Determined to free his sister (and solve his financial crisis), Aozora hatches an improbable plan with help from some unlikely friends. Sherwood has a firm handle on red-light personalities, and his narrator dazzles as the self-aware antihero in this thriller for the Facebook generation. (June)

At the start of bestseller George’s stellar new suspense novel, the grieving Thomas Lynley, a Scotland Yard detective who left the force after the murder of his pregnant wife, Helen, in With No One as Witness (2005), is filling his days with a long trek in his native Cornwall. During his ramble, Lynley stumbles on the body of teenager Santo Kerne, who apparently fell from a cliff onto some rocks, though it soon becomes evident that someone tampered with Kerne’s climbing gear. As the first on the scene, Lynley himself comes under suspicion, despite his lack of history with the victim, by the investigating officer, the capable but crusty Det. Insp. Bea Hannaford. Lynley fittingly plays a secondary role in the homicide inquiry as he continues to struggle to find a reason for living after his devastating loss. The plausible resolution of the crime leaves enough ambiguity to satisfy readers who prefer psychologically sophisticated plots and motivations. 10-city author tour. (May)

Will romance triumph over the feud between the aristocratic Langleys and the slightly lower-in-social-pecking-order McGees in Frank’s latest Southern charm–filled romp? Though the answer is obvious from the get-go, the author fills this spirited tale with well-drawn characters, not the least of whom is formidable Charleston doyenne Louisa Langley. Betts McGee and J.D. Langley are uneasily headed to the altar—Louisa has a hard time with her son dating down. When Betts’s mother dies in a car wreck, a generations-old grudge—abetted by Louisa—flares up, and Betts flees to Manhattan. There, she raises her son (J.D. didn’t know she was pregnant when she left) solo and thrives in the distressed property turn-around business for a good 20 years until an assignment sends her back to Charleston to help develop a former wildlife refuge. The local partner in the venture is none other than J.D., who is now unhappily married and childless. Frank steers through several terrains with great aplomb as the story unfolds from both Betts’s and J.D.’s points of view. Frank shines as Betts finds out if there’s really no place like home. (May)

Swede Ohlsson draws a secondary character from Hjalmar Söderberg’s classic Doctor Glas out to center stage, where his tragic inner life is displayed with an extraordinary depth of feeling. Pastor Gregorius is overweight, slovenly and desperate. As a priest living in turn-of-the-20th-century Stockholm, he has come to see God’s gift as “the capacity for love,” a love he feels he has been denied. As he goes from one small parish tragedy to the next, his ministrations feel like “a bit of convincing acting” and his overwhelming anxiety makes him feel like a fraud. But his sharpest pains come from his strained relationship with his much younger second wife and his continued failure to sire a child. Prescribed a long stay at a sanitarium to treat a heart that feels like “a mink inside [his] breast,” he continues his search for authentic connections to other people, however fleeting. His gracefully rendered tides of self-loathing and hope, combined with settings at once alien and picturesque, add up to a truly intimate novel, one that deepens greatly with familiarity with Doctor Glas. Written with a deft and sensitive hand, this is a remarkable dissection of angst and spiritual unrest. (May)

Told largely in retrospect, this ambitious debut by Indian émigré filmmaker Vachani is narrated by Sweta, who presides over her family history with equal parts passion and uncertainty. Born in 1958, Sweta lives with her grandparents, while her father, Ranjit “Ronu” Kalra, serves as an Indian air force pilot. The book takes its title from the khadi cloth favored by Gandhi, and it becomes a symbol of the unhappy divide between Sweta’s grandfather, a fighter for Indian independence, and her grandmother, a fashion plate. The fight for independence, WWII, border battles with Pakistan, and Vietnam permeate the novel, separating families and dividing the populace along religious and ethnic lines. Sweta darts in and out of the story as, most of the time, an inscrutable, sullen and overweight teenager. Around her swirl the stories of her grandparents’ ugly marriage, of her father’s childhood as a film star and of his first love. Most moving is the figure of Nanaji, Sweta’s grandfather, a tender man committed to principles and making the best of the hand he’s dealt. The book opens with his death and frontloads the many characters, but Nanaji and Sweta’s poignant relationship pulls the reader through manifold tragedy and serendipity. (May)

Best known for his Kurt Wallander mysteries (Firewall, etc.), Mankell alternates between the coming-of-age story of Hans Olofson, a provincial Swede who grows up in a motherless home with an alcoholic father, and Olofson’s later experiences in Zambia in this fine, unsentimental exploration of vastly different cultures. Having come to believe that Sweden holds nothing for him, Olofson decides to go to Africa to visit a mission, prompted by the strangest woman in town, Janine, who’s shunned because of an operation that left her with no nose. Olofson stays in Zambia for 18 years, running a struggling egg farm and dealing with a culture he never fully understands. Mankell is terrific at sketching the cultural differences between the West and Africa—in particular, “the anguish of the independent states.” Sweden and the West may be more pragmatic and less superstitious than Africa, but greed and corruption are universal. Still, it’s the character of Olofson and his complex, unsettling relationship with the Zambians and Africa that make this disquieting novel so compelling. (May)

A fatal hunting accident propels this disappointing debut set in Detroit and environs from Leonard, the son of legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard. Given that 16-year-old Luke McCall shoots an arrow that passes through a deer and kills his former race-car champion father, Owen, one might expect more focus on Luke’s psychological torment than on the efforts of Owen’s devastated widow, Kate, to contend with a string of unscrupulous suitors, starting with her old lover, Jack Curran, who once rescued Kate from a Peace Corps assignment in Guatemala turned ugly. Curran conceals not only his recent prison stint but also his continued association with a group of desperate and sadistic criminals, including Teddy Hicks, who assaulted Owen several years earlier. A kidnapping engineered by Hicks and company leads to a violent showdown at the McCalls’ hunting lodge. A muddled plot, one-dimensional characters and a predictable ending will leave readers hoping for better things in Leonard’s next novel. (May)

Evans demonstrates his playwright’s mastery of dialogue and tension in his accomplished and whimsical first novel about love and the bizarre behavior it ignites. Lawyers Lena and Nick are divorced, with Lena retaining control of their Minneapolis firm and Nick pulling political protest stunts with a hand-puppet named Sancho. When Nick lands himself in jail for filling the pool at the mayor’s mansion with lobsters, Lena, feeling guilty about maybe having given up on the marriage too soon, shepherds Nick into rehabilitation, saving him from jail time or, worse, commitment to a mental institution. Between long, painfully comedic conversations with Lena about their failed marriage, Nick performs community service at an animal shelter, where he finds a new cause to rally against: animal euthanasia. The real “rehabilitation” takes place in Nick and Lena’s relationship, but even that doesn’t stop Nick from pulling one final stunt that will shock the entire community, person and animal alike. As with any good trial, Evans’s book has closing statements to resolve any questions he has left unanswered, and solid proof that he is just as much a talented novelist as he is a playwright. (May)

Alexander’s mildly entertaining debut, a political thriller, gets off to a fast start, but suffers from imagination fatigue as it settles into a predictable course. Soon after Sen. Bobby Hart, a rising California Democrat, gets word that terrorists are planning to strike on American soil as the presidential race heats up, the killings, code-named “Rubicon,” begin. The Democratic nominee falls victim to a suicide bomber in Los Angeles; the leading Republican suffers the same fate in Atlanta. Doggedly and almost single-handedly, Hart forages around until he figures out that Rubicon is not the work of Islamic extremists. Blatant similarities between the book’s Republican administration and the current Bush administration may irk even hardcore Democrats, while a subplot involving Hart’s emotionally fragile wife back in California verges on the silly. The story limps to the finish with a tedious courtroom scene. (May)

At the start of Freely’s complex, often riveting novel set in contemporary and Cold War Turkey, a journalist known only as “Miss M” returns to Istanbul in 2005 after a long absence at the request of Jeannie Wakefield, whose father, William, was an American spy. Jeannie hopes that Miss M will write an article to help her husband, once Miss M’s lover, who’s been detained in the United States and sent to Guantánamo. A few months later, Jeannie disappears, leaving behind a long letter detailing events from the 1960s. The main narrative threads—extracts from Jeannie’s letter; Miss M’s memories of Istanbul from that same period and her present-day account of investigating Jeannie’s long-ago indoctrination into a Communist cell, which was at one point charged with the infamous but possibly apocryphal Trunk Murder—interweave toward a quietly stunning conclusion. Both mystery/thriller and mainstream literary readers will be well rewarded. Freely is the English translator of Nobel Prize–winner Orhan Pamuk’s novel, Snow. (May)

Returning from the story collection Do the Windows Open? (1996) and novel, The Unprofessionals (2003), Hecht’s married, childless photographer is still stuck in her mid-40s. Diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and counting the Nantucket days until she can see her psychiatrist again, she quietly frets the summer away over the course of seven expertly heartbreaking tales. The narrator has mastered her issues, but only to the point that her horror—of other people’s meat eating, of their bodily flaws and of almost everything else about them—surfaces in only the mildest passive-aggressive forms; what goes on beneath that surface is what comprises the book. “Over There” chronicles two visits to an elderly hard-of-hearing neighbor: its tacit comparison of the narrator’s ways of accommodating her illness with her neighbor’s accommodations of old age is exquisite. “Being and Nothingness” records the narrator’s use of an Emerson biography and of taking the flag down as an antidote to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Elsewhere, she intervenes in a gay actor-waiter acquaintance’s health regimen, and instructs her intractable Jamaican “cleaner helper” Norma on the dangers of radiation—and on how to dress for her job. A life that consists entirely of neurotic avoidance produces a peculiar pathos, and Hecht nails it unfailingly. (May)

In an entertaining if uneven debut novel from a U.K. publishing executive, dual story lines feature spirited English heroines—a 17th-century country girl and a modern-day craft shop owner—both with a gift for embroidery. As a farewell gift from her married lover, Julia Lovat receives a book published in 1625 and filled with a variety of sewing patterns. Inside the manual, Julia discovers the words, scribbled in pencil over the pages, of Cat Ann Tregenna, a 19-year-old British servant kidnapped by Muslim raiders and taken to Morocco to be sold into slavery. En route, the pirate leader, Al-Andalusi, is wounded in a battle, and Cat and her needlepoint skills are called on to stitch up the man’s wounds, an encounter that leads to a tangled interfaith rivalry. As Julia struggles to shake off the dregs of her affair, she finds inspiration in Cat’s makeshift diary and travels to Morocco to track down proof that Cat really existed; in the process, she discovers a new life of her own. Johnson imbues her historical story line with a captivating energy and momentum, but the humdrum contemporary quasi-romance doesn’t pull its share of the weight. (May)

In bestseller Sandford’s solid 18th Prey novel (after Invisible Prey), Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent Lucas Davenport, who’s received numerous promotions in the course of the series, ought to be taking the desk aspects of his job more seriously. But the man remains more comfortable working a stakeout, interviewing suspects and taking down bad guys than he is filling out personnel evaluation forms on his staff—which explains why he’s still getting shot at, peeping at a cocaine dealer’s wife hoping for a glimpse of her husband and, at his wife’s behest, looking into the unsolved kidnapping and presumed murder of a wealthy young woman into the goth scene. It becomes clear that a serial killer is targeting goths as well as anyone, including Lucas, who gets in the way. While some pretty murky psychology encumbers the plot, Sandford delivers the kind of riveting action that keeps thriller fans turning the pages. (May)

This fanciful thriller from bestseller Neggers (The Widow) starts slowly, but picks up steam once the action moves to Ireland. When Keira Sullivan, a young Boston illustrator and folklorist, decides to travel to Ireland to research a Celtic legend about three brothers battling for a stone angel, she pays no heed to warnings not to go from eccentric antiques collector Victor Sarakis, even after Victor drowns under suspicious circumstances in the Public Garden pond. At a Beacon Hill benefit, Keira fortuitously meets FBI agent and search-and-rescue expert Simon Cahill, who later volunteers to locate Keira after she goes missing in southwest Ireland. When Simon rescues the trapped Keira from an ancient ruin, the stone angel she claims to have found disappears and mysteriously reappears in the United States. Is it magic or the work of a madman? Either way, fans of romantic suspense will be charmed. (May)

This Civil War thriller from Wilson (Armada) fails to deliver on the promise of its gripping opening scene at the first battle of Bull Run in July 1861. When hot-headed Yankee Capt. Fitz Dunaway defies the retreat order of his superior, Colonel Pettibone, and rallies his command to repel a Confederate attempt to break through the Union line, Dunaway winds up in the guardhouse for insubordination. Thaddeus Prescott, the U.S. assistant secretary of war, hands Dunaway a way out by offering him a place on President Lincoln’s protective detail, but Dunaway’s real job is to pose as a malcontent eager to join forces with conspirators seeking to assassinate the president. Unfortunately, the author doesn’t supply enough plot twists or psychological depth to compensate for the lack of suspense about the outcome of any design on Lincoln’s life in 1861. Readers looking for quality political intrigue and mystery against a Civil War backdrop might turn instead to Owen Parry’s Abel Jones series (Rebels in Babylon, etc.). (May)

Jacobs follows The Friday Night Knitting Club with another multigenerational tale, this time on the foodie circuit. Popular Cooking with Gusto! host Augusta “Gus” Simpson, a widowed mother of two adult daughters who’s about to turn 50, is tiring of her many obligations, which include throwing an annual birthday bash for herself. That trial pales, however, in comparison with the introduction of saucy former beauty queen and YouTube star Carmen Vega as Gus’s cohost: Carmen is younger, hotter and very tight with the boss. It’s soon apparent on the set that this new situation isn’t working, so the two are packed off, along with a forgettable cast of secondaries, to a corporate team-building weekend, complete with New Age guide. When the resort’s head chef calls in sick, a team-building opportunity presents itself. Jacobs gives Gus a reasonable love interest and provides the requisite bickering and backstabbing, but the foodie moments lack passion, and the results yield no stars. (May)

Cristina Wilson, the heroine of Molist’s subpar adventure novel, receives two rings on her 27th birthday: one an engagement solitaire from her longtime boyfriend, the other a ruby set-in-bone from her dead godfather, Enric. The arrival of Enric’s ring sets in motion a chain of events (strange dreams among them) that sends Cristina to Barcelona for the reading of Enric’s secret will. In Spain, Cristina is reunited with old flame Oriol, whom Cristina partners up with after reading a letter from Enric that tells her to “[f]ind that treasure that I couldn’t find.” Molist throws many familiar obstacles in their path as they search out the treasure: paintings with hidden clues, a crooked art dealer, a mysterious guardian, modern-day Templars, the ancient diary of a Templar monk and a hidden treasure that may be the Holy Grail are all trotted out before the mystery is solved. Though the passages describing Barcelona are well done, the narrative’s hobbled by weak prose (exclamation points are much abused), characters that act as pawns of the plot and improbable twists. There are much stronger contenders in the Templar subgenre. (May)

Mehran’s second novel (after Pomegranate Soup) resumes the story of three Iranian sisters making their lives anew in smalltown Ireland. Beautiful and creative Marjan Aminpour cares for her younger sisters, Bahar and Layla; together the three run Babylon Cafe, and few locals can resist its charms or the amiability of its proprietresses. Although Marjan rules the roost, her sisters have secrets of their own, and their growing independence forces Marjan to allow them their freedom and confront her own needs—especially after she meets handsome Julian Winthrop Muir. As Marjan gives her sisters more space, the suspicious and xenophobic local busybody Dervla Quigley remains determined to uncover whatever foul play the “foreign women” have up their sleeves. And when Marjan’s friend Estelle reveals that she has rescued and helped a drowning girl, Marjan becomes involved in a secret that soon has Dervla plotting their downfall. Gourmands will savor the foodie passages (recipes, of course, are included), while the sisters’ exploits will win over readers into lighter fare about making a new home and growing up. (May)

In her sequel to Doesn’t She Look Natural, Hunt’s story moves into heavier themes as Jennifer Graham attempts to rebuild her life after her divorce. Jennifer, just shy of 40 and at the end of her first semester of mortuary school, is happy that her two boys are settling into the small Florida town of Mount Dora. Business is brisk at the family’s inherited Victorian house, which doubles as Fairlawn Funeral Home, under the watchful eye of the elderly live-in embalmer Gerald Huffman. However, things unravel quickly; 13-year-old Clay has fallen in with a trio of shoplifting, rabble-rousing ruffians, and tragedy seems inevitable. When Jennifer unexpectedly discovers she has an illegitimate half-sister with a fundamentalist bigot stepfather, Jennifer’s belief in God’s love and mercy is strained—and more tests of faith loom. Hunt is a prolific, competent author who easily handles the mechanics of her novel. The present-tense narration gives the story an unusual urgency. This novel is more issue-driven than the first, and while the prolife and racial equality themes are weighty, the message of unconditional love helps leaven any preachiness. Readers who enjoyed the first book in the series will find this one more somber, but still engrossing. (May)

In this charming romantic suspense novel, Libby Keating finds herself temporarily sharing a beautiful but tiny historic home in Philadelphia with her estranged identical twin. Less than 24 hours after her arrival, Libby trips over a dead body on the front stoop, and a series of hijinks and adventures ensues. As the murder mystery unfolds—with the aid of crossword puzzles the reader is encouraged to complete—so does Libby’s backstory, which includes a series of traumatic events that ruined her adolescence. A committed Christian and devoted single mother, Libby is always trying to do the right thing, but is surrounded by people who sabotage her. However, good Christian friends—including her new neighbor, the handsome Drew Canfield—support her as she finds a way to love her enemies while standing up to them. Roper’s dialogue and character development are spot-on, which is no small feat, considering that Libby’s world is peopled by everyone from elderly patricians to two-bit gangsters. What’s more, her treatment of non-Christian characters is refreshingly nonjudgmental; she even goes so far as to portray a gay couple in an entirely positive light. Though two highly implausible plot twists come out of nowhere, this novel is a pleasure from start to finish. (May)

Using a Georges Perec line about memory as his point of departure, Rolin, a French journalist and accomplished novelist (Port-Soudan, Tigre en papier), has fashioned in forensic detail a travelogue of hotel rooms around the globe. From Room 308 in the “Polar Hotel” of Khatanga, Russia, to Room 8 in the Au Bon Accueil in Saint-Nazaire, France, another “Olivier Rolin” scribbled these brief, diarylike accounts on scraps of paper to be discovered before he supposedly disappeared for good. Along with the exact measurements of the room, descriptions of furnishings—especially the mirrors, in which he notes his reflection—the missing narrator offers clues about himself; he does some underhanded dealing with a smalltime Russian crook, Gricha; he drops literary allusions, from Homer to Malcolm Lowry; and he likes women, frequently using his rooms as trysting spots. It seems as though he could be embroiled in an international Machiavellian plot. In the end, he pines for one unattainable woman, Mélanie Melbourne, who scolds him because he can’t remember the room that signifies their “impossible life together,” Room 211 of the Hotel Crystal, in Nancy, France. Rolin’s arch antinovel works as a kind of jokester hall of mirrors or a playful, literary roman policier. (May)

The arresting third novel from pseudonymous Italian novelist Ferrante (Troubling Love) pursues a divorced, 47-year-old academic’s deeply conflicted feelings about motherhood to their frightening core. While on vacation by herself on the Ionian coast, Leda feels contentedly disburdened of her two 20-something daughters, who have moved to their father’s city of Toronto. She’s soon engrossed in watching the daily drama of Nina, a young mother, with her young daughter, Elena (along with Elena’s doll, Nani), at the seashore. Surrounded by proprietary Neapolitan relatives and absorbed in her daughter’s care, Nina at first strikes Leda as the perfect mother, reminding herself of when she was a new and hopeful parent. Leda’s eventual acquaintance with Nina yields a disturbing confession and sets in motion a series of events that threatens to wreck, or save, the integrity of Nina’s family. Ferrante’s prose is stunningly candid, direct and unforgettable. From simple elements, she builds a powerful tale of hope and regret. (May)

The world of Tildy Glick, 43, falls apart when her boyfriend, Ray says simply, “I can’t do this,” and walks out. Over the course of this first novel from poet and short story writer Messing, Tildy muses obsessively on her life, desperate to discover what went wrong. From memories of her life with Ray (their second date, Fourth of July fireworks, etc.) to childhood recollections of her mother’s lover, Jim Price, her father’s depth-of-night departure and her own confusion at her mother’s mercurial moods, Tildy covers the waterfront. To regain her equilibrium, she tries everything—placing a personal ad, calling a radio talk show, going on a blind date—with predictable results. Tildy’s adult attempts to capture and hold her incandescent mother through memory make for the most vivid and immediate scenes in the book, but the switching among recent memories in the first person and other childhood memories in the third is jarring, and keeps the childhood events at a distance. There’s some beautiful writing, but the emotional terrain is familiar. (May)

Bestseller Clark (Where Are the Children?) spins yet another imaginative tale of murder and deceit. Every Mother’s Day over the 10 years since Charles “Mack” MacKenzie Jr. disappeared from Columbia University just before his graduation, Mack has phoned his mother in Manhattan to let her know he’s all right, but otherwise reveals nothing. In the meantime, Mack’s lawyer father has perished in the 9/11 tragedy. Now Mack’s younger sister, Carolyn, a graduate of Columbia and Duke Law School, where Mack was intending to go, tells him during his annual call that she’s going to find him. When a note from Mack turns up in the collection plate at St. Francis church, asking Father Devon MacKenzie, his uncle, to tell Carolyn not to look for him, she becomes even more determined to do so. Based on a real story, as Clark notes in her acknowledgments, this novel of suspense will keep readers guessing to the nail-biting conclusion. (Apr.)

In Agatha-winner Massey’s engaging 10th mystery to feature antiques dealer and part-time spy Rei Shimura (after 2006’s Girl in a Box), Rei and her father, who’s recovering from a stroke, travel from California to Hawaii for a family celebration with previously unknown Shimura relatives, who turn out to be involved in a legal battle to recover land stolen from them during WWII. After Michael Hendricks, Rei’s CIA colleague and current love interest, arrives in Honolulu, he helps Rei access classified information that may help to resolve the land issue, but something more sinister thickens the plot. Wildfires have been plaguing the leeward side of Oahu, where Rei and her relatives have rented a house. When Rei’s newfound nephew, Braden, is arrested for arson, Rei joins Michael in a risky ploy to get evidence exonerating Braden. An appealing protagonist and memorable supporting characters blend smoothly with lessons in Hawaiian and Japanese history in a tale sure to win new readers for the series. (June)

Ex-boxer and former corporate exec Sam Acquillo, now a hard-drinking carpenter living in a run-down cottage on the shores of the Little Peconic Bay in Southampton, N.Y., becomes the prime suspect in the murder of local builder Robbie Milhouser in Knopf’s superb third Hamptons mystery (after Two Time and The Last Refuge). With the evidence against him almost overwhelming, Acquillo enlists a misfit group of supporters to help him uncover the real killer’s identity. As he digs into the dead man’s troubled past, Acquillo discovers a disturbing link between Milhouser and Acquillo’s current girlfriend, Amanda Battiston. Knopf excels in describing the rustic underpinnings of Long Island’s east end, especially its vast array of eccentric characters. Brisk pacing and sharp dialogue carry the reader along, but it’s the endearing and deeply flawed Acquillo that’s the heart and soul of this exceptional series. How can you go wrong with a philosophizing hero who drinks Absolut, reads Kant, drives a ’67 Grand Prix and has a dog named Eddie Van Halen? (May)

Coyotes, the two-legged kind that run illegals into the U.S. and then blackmail them to pay off exorbitant fees, play a prominent role in Wall’s provocative eighth Bay Tanner mystery (after 2007’s Sanctuary Hill). When Bay, a South Carolina Lowcountry PI, hears about an unidentified Hispanic girl killed in a hit-and-run, Bobby Santiago, her housekeeper’s son, fears the victim might be his political activist girlfriend, Serena Montalvo. After the dead girl is identified as Serena’s 16-year-old sister, Theresa, Bobby and Serena disappear. Bobby’s parents, Dolores and Hector Santiago, are terrified and won’t cooperate with Bay or local authorities. When Dolores vanishes, Bay is frantic. A string of bank robberies attracts the notice of FBI Special Agent Harry Reynolds, who warns Bay not to get involved. When Homeland Security adds its warning, Bay knows she’s on to something major. Wall neatly illustrates the dangers hopeful immigrants can encounter as they pursue the American dream. (May)

At the start of Kray’s compelling, character-driven third London gangland novel (after The Pact and The Lost), Len Curzon, an alcoholic reporter interviewing a small-time villain in a local prison, notices a young woman visiting with a notorious older convict, Paul Deacon. The woman reminds him a lot of an eight-year-old girl, Grace Harper, who went missing 20 years earlier. Soon after making some indiscreet inquiries, Curzon is stabbed to death by an unknown assailant outside a pub. Meanwhile, PI Harry Lind, a crippled ex-cop, tries to track down a well-known crime czar’s brother in-law, who’s also disappeared. The two plot threads intersect when Jessica Vaughn, Curzon’s friend and fellow reporter, has a boozy flirtation with Lind and persuades him that Curzon’s murder isn’t the random act of violence that the police assume. Kray captures the cadences and rhythm of underworld life, though some readers may feel some judicious trimming would have speeded up the action in spots. Still, fans of Derek Raymond and Ken Bruen will find much to admire. (May)

Just because mystery fans will be unfamiliar with many of the 16 contributors to Akashic’s latest entry in its acclaimed noir series (Brooklyn Noir, etc.) doesn’t mean the quality isn’t up to volumes boasting bigger names. The late John O’Brien, best known for his novel-turned-film, Leaving Las Vegas, offers a typically warped and nihilistic vision of the city with “The Tik,” about a thrill-killing duo, narrated by the male half, whose indifference to his prey is chilling. Columnist Tod Goldberg’s “Mitzvah” makes good use of the Las Vegas myth that people come to the city to bury their past identities and reinvent themselves. His antihero, mobster Sal Cuperine, has for years posed as Rabbi David Cohen, managing to handle the demands of the pulpit until the strain of his charade becomes too much to bear. While some readers might regret that no tale other than Janet Berliner’s “The Road to Rachel” explores Las Vegas’s past, this anthology does a fine job of illuminating the dark underbelly of Sin City. (May)

In McKevett’s entertaining 13th Savannah Reid mystery (after 2007’s Fat Free and Fatal), the California PI agrees to help her old San Carmelita police partner, overworked Det. Sgt. Dirk Coulter, find 18-year-old Daisy O’Neil because she’s reminded of a missing girl the pair were unable to find alive nearly 20 years earlier. Daisy’s terrified mother suspects Daisy’s “friends” known as “the Skeleton Key Three” may be involved. Rail-thin tabloid queen Tiffy Dante, along with Bunny Greenaway and Kiki Wallace, are famous for their glam looks, wealth and party-on lifestyle. They view Daisy as a fat hanger-on and claim to know nothing. As Tiffy preps her family estate for a Halloween party, Tiffy’s dad turns up in a prop coffin with a stake through his heart. Is there a connection between his murder and Daisy’s disappearance? When Savannah’s Granny Reid, who’s visiting from Georgia, decides to lend a hand in the investigation, things really start popping. McKevett continues to deliver witty crime solving that’s both tart and sweet. (May)

First published in the U.K. in 1986, this powerful and mesmerizing novel should gain new U.S. fans for Raymond (1931–1994), known in Europe as one of the masters of British noir. The unnamed narrator, a dogged Scotland Yarder with a gift for antagonizing his superiors, travels to Wiltshire to resolve a bizarre missing-persons case. Though Marianne Mardy, a popular local figure, hasn’t been seen for some time, her physician husband, William, hasn’t reported her missing. The police are strangely uninterested in making any effort to locate the woman, and the narrator soon uncovers evidence of official corruption. After an initial interview with William, who lives a reclusive existence in a massive, crumbling mansion, the detective gets a glimmer of what really happened to Mrs. Mardy, only to find himself struggling to reconcile the truth with what his personal sense of justice requires. With spare, often lyrical prose, Raymond digs beneath society’s civilized veneer to expose the inner rot. (May)

Hess’s delightful 17th Claire Malloy mystery (after 2007’s Damsels in Distress) pays tribute to the Egyptian novels of Elizabeth Peters, the pseudonym of Barbara Mertz, to whom the book is dedicated. Claire has at long last married her cop boyfriend, Peter Rosen, and they are ostensibly on their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt, accompanied by Claire’s daughter, Caron, and Caron’s best friend, Inez. Peter, however, is often called away on mysterious meetings with Egyptian police, and Claire and the girls are left to their own devices. Odd things start happening: the girls claim they’re being followed by a sinister Arab with a scar, a young American woman is kidnapped in the desert, and murders dog an archeological expedition. Hess throws into this heady mix a deliciously eccentric cast of supporting characters, including one Lady Amelia Peabody Emerson, reputed to be the descendant of famous English archeologists. Manipulating everything with a practiced hand, Hess concludes the story in a manner worthy of Hercule Poirot in the classic Death on the Nile. (Apr.)

In this anonymous work, first published in New Zealand in 1881 and lost until the 1990s, John Hope puts himself to sleep in 1950 and wakes up in 2143 to find that everyone is telepathic, and evil is almost unknown. He heads off to colonize Venus and soon encounters aliens, with whom he develops a daringly intimate relationship. Despite paltry characterization and amateurish prose by the standards of any century, Hope’s story includes surprisingly advanced ideas. This may have been the first time that anyone described space suits, air locks or the difficulties of landing on an asteroid or entering a planetary atmosphere. Alessio argues in his almost obsessively analytical introduction that the story may have had considerable, indirect influence on one of the most widely read books of the 19th century, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward. This reprint will be of considerable interest to specialist scholars of science fiction, if not the casual reader. (May)

Questions of identity and personal purpose fill this inconsistent sequel to A.E. van Vogt’s 1940s SF pulp thriller The World of Null-A. Gilbert Gosseyn, a double-brained telepath embroiled in intergalactic intrigue, struggles to undermine legendary clairvoyant Enro and his plot to take over or destroy the Milky Way. When one of Gosseyn’s clones kills the leaders of the Interstellar League, Gosseyn is left to battle Enro on his own. The often dizzying narrative acquires an ever-widening scope, eventually spanning all of space and time. Wright attempts to flesh out and make sense of van Vogt’s world while retaining a respectful distance from the original story. A mixed bag results, fluctuating between hectic action and a dense, plot-slowing web of conspiracy and psychology. The characters’ individual voices are sound, but their personalities do little to hold the reader’s interest. Though inventive, this problematic love letter to a long-gone era misses the mark. (May)

British novelist Lumley began his writing career as an H.P. Lovecraft emulator. This nostalgic collection, the second of two volumes (after 2007’s The Taint and Other Novellas) of Lumley’s best Cthulhu Mythos tales, demonstrates that his work improves the more he moves away from his model, as in the simple and unflinching title story. The more histrionic “The Caller of the Black” still takes a significant step away from its source, introducing the recurring character of the occultist-adventurer Titus Crow, who, like most Lumley characters, is much more of a man of action than the typical Lovecraft protagonist. Mixed among the contemporary horrors are sword-and-sorcery stories set in Lovecraft’s surreal Dreamlands and the Primal Land, as florid as the rest but sometimes redeemed by irony. These straightforward tales of forbidden tomes, alien gods and hideous dooms should appeal to Lovecraft fans who care more about atmosphere than philosophy or prose. (May)

Supernatural forces conspire to end a fragile peace between the independent Dakota nation and the United States in this convoluted fable from Old West fantasist Rand (Dadgum Martians Invade the Lucky Nickel Saloon!). Pregnant teenage prostitute Etta Dooley shoots the sheriff who killed her boyfriend, but the dead sheriff sits up and sobs like a woeful zombie. Etta screams all the way into the arms of Joseph Thorne, a Dakota horse thief, and together they flee from a swelling host of dead people and animals as an ancient spirit called Old Enemy collects minions in body-snatcher fashion. Conveniently enough, Joseph’s body hosts Watcher, a good-guy ectoplasmic parasite who faces off against Old Enemy. While warfare wages on the spiritual plane, Joseph and Etta fight to stop the spread of apocalyptic doom. Two final chapters of summary exposition fail to balance out the baffling prism of multiple perspectives, leaving readers confused from start to finish. (May)

Former SF author Snodgrass (Circuit Breaker) returns to novel writing after a 20-year break with this gritty narrative of a war between light and dark. Richard Oort, upper-class concert pianist turned Albuquerque cop, adds a new career as a paladin wielding a sword that embodies reason and order. Recruited by Kenntnis, a wealthy technology entrepreneur, after rescuing a sorceress in distress, Richard learns that Kenntnis is “the Serpent, and Prometheus, and Lucifer.” Richard is his latest weapon in the eons-old battle against the Old Ones, who feed on emotions stirred by religious beliefs. While Richard can be overly dramatic, he is generally portrayed sympathetically as he struggles to comprehend supernatural warfare and more earthly concerns such as his mother’s suicide. Balancing a harsh critique of organized religion with touches of humor and a good-hearted priest who grounds his faith in the Golden Rule, Snodgrass just barely avoids polemic. (May)

Real estate agent Julie Ferris and sister Laura fall asleep on the beach and wake up with no recollection of the hours that passed. Julie suffers splitting headaches; Laura begins to dream about people coming after her. Only later do they entertain the possibility that they might have been abducted by aliens—which they were. Alien commander Val Zarkazian is on a mission to study Earth and needs data. Using the body of Julie’s handsome playboy boss Patrick Donovan, Val begins a complex pursuit of information, some of it quite intimtae. A subplot involving Donovan’s relationship with some gangsters is distracting, and the body switch is initially a little bit of a gross-out. Yet Martin surmounts all difficulties with old-fashioned romance. (June)

Damien is a prince of the Vampires; Syreena is a princess and—should anything happen to her sister, Siena—heir of the Lycanthropes, a strange mutation capable of transforming into dolphins or falcons with ease. When the two meet at the discovery of a Nightwalker library, they feel an instant attraction. But it isn’t until Syreena is kidnapped by a crazed demon bent on vengeance and Damien comes to her rescue that they shatter Nightwalker taboos. As they fight both Ruth, the demon, and a love affair that is forbidden and politically explosive, they are forced to question what their priorities are: their people or their love for each other. Frank’s latest Nightwalker entry is fast-paced and steamy, nicely developing the world of her generally upstanding, gorgeous and charismatic supernatural creatures. (June)

Three Vancouver constables—son-of-a-sergeant Craig Nolan, bombshell in the boys’ club Ashlyn Hart, and stolidly antisocial cop Tain—are drawn together as the rapes, arsons and child abductions they’re working on respectively converge. The three, who have a beef over a prior case gone bad, must get over their personal differences and chase scant leads before another raped woman, burned building or missing girl turns up. Ruttan manages to keep the multiple leads and seconds on the same page admirably: she doesn’t drop too many clues in their laps or allow the tension to flag. The child abduction and sex crime aspects of the story are handled without exploitation or kid gloves; the straight proceduralism from Ruttan (Suspicious Circumstances) serves the story well through the rewarding climax. (May)

Stoneham, N.H., the picturesque setting of the pseudonymous Barrett’s charming first in a new series, boasts a newly renovated main street devoted to a variety of bookstores. When Tricia Miles—mystery bookstore proprietor and city refugee—discovers her unpleasant cookbook store neighbor stabbed to death and a rare book missing, Tricia soon finds herself under the sheriff’s surveillance and dubbed the village jinx. Determined to clear her name and track down the stolen cookbook, Tricia enlists a few friendly locals to aid in her investigation. When her difficult older sister, Angelica, arrives unexpectedly, Tricia worries she’s in for another headache, but Angelica turns out to be a willing conspirator in Tricia’s search for answers. The mix of books, cooking and an engaging whodunit will leave cozy fans eager for the next installment. (Apr.)

Moriarty is probably best known now as a painter, but “Jack Survives”—his series of short painted comics vignettes about his father’s life in the ’40s and early ’50s—first appeared in RAW magazine and a short book more than 20 years ago. (This edition begins with short essays by Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware in praise of Moriarty’s work.) These pieces, none longer than four pages and most only a single page, are generally tiny anecdotes about the way Jack clings to dignity. He’s at the mercy of his environment, but he’s armed with the props of his generation—coffee, a businessman’s suit and hat, the politesse of universal small talk. In a typical story, Jack is awakened by a ringing phone, finds his arms asleep, knocks the receiver onto the floor and lies down to talk into it, only to hear the person on the other end hanging up. The virtues of Moriarty’s work, though, are mostly fine-art virtues: immaculately designed compositions that suggest a psychological state; forms suggested by a minimum of thick, tactile marks; a sense of being thoroughly layered and revised. A few word balloons have earlier drafts of dialogue faintly visible through white paint, and this volume includes ravishing pen-and-ink studies for several strips. (July)

Based on a script that never got filmed, Cox’s long-overdue sequel to his cult classic film Repo Man is every bit as fractured and uneven as its predecessor, but it too has its own kind of loopy charm. Protagonist Otto (who now believes his name is Waldo) finds himself in a late-’90s American city that looks like a composite of a dozen stereotypical war zones, the last 13 years of his life gone from memory. His dreams hint at a recent stay on Mars, but he’s too busy trying to eke out a living in a city that doesn’t bathe to pay them much attention. Between jumping from one dead-end job to another, and jumping in and out of bed with inscrutable hottie Velma, readers get hints of overarching conspiracies and alien puppet masters. Hints, but not much more—by book’s end just as many questions are left unanswered as answered. Still, it’s a ride that should appeal to fans of the original, and Bones’s overly colorful and densely chaotic visual style gleefully explores this mess of a world Cox has so lovingly built. The script’s jabs at American consumerism, which have Waldo falling for every buy-now-pay-later sales pitch imaginable, resonate particularly well. (Apr.)

Akane, an ordinary high school girl lacking personality, is summoned back in time to a magical world resembling Heian-era Kyoto. She is declared “Priestess of the Dragon God” and assigned the task of bringing back the four gods to protect the city from demon invaders, with the help of eight warriors, all of whom are attractive young men. The demons are also attractive, blond sorcerers, and Akane quickly falls in love with the chief demon. The book is based on the PlayStation 2 game Harukanaru Toki no Naka de and has been adapted into an anime series, a movie and several OAVs. Unfortunately, Akane’s lack of characterization is typical for a work based on a videogame. The only thing separating this book from similar manga series is the addition of Akane’s two high school friends to the eight guardians. The line work is extremely fine and wispy; costumes and hair are beautifully rendered. Unfortunately, the action is hard to follow, particularly to those unfamiliar with the strict subgenre conventions of this type of manga. It’s the kind of book that passes the flip-through test with flying colors, but when read, comes up very short on substance. (Apr.)

This series of wordless portraits of men is slightly disturbing, especially in its attitude toward women’s bodies, but one imagines that’s the point. Smiling, mindless women are chopped up by magicians and pulled out in pre-disassembled pieces by psychiatrists. One is tied to train tracks, run over and sewn back together by a cowboy. It’s definitely creepy commentary when a naked middle-aged fisherman reels in a naked woman, carefully measures her, then throws her back. But the book feels more like an artistic statement than a narrative, and it’s not art for art’s sake so much as art as a hammer to whack you with. At its best, it makes one giggle and wince at the same time. At its worst, it’s upsetting. The art feels quirky with its frumpy little grayscale men (some pages are toned sepia and others are blue). While not a masterpiece like Delisle’s autobiographical comics Pyongyang or Shenzhen, it’s worth reading. Much the way he captured the sense of danger in the Communist blandness of North Korea, Delisle’s portraits capture something of the sinister blankness of the Western workingman. (Mar.)

Originally a popular Web comic, the second print collection of Sava’s epic creation is a noteworthy all-ages fantasy story, impressive for both its captivating story line and impressive artwork. The elements of the story are familiar but well-rendered, picking up with college-student Alex continuing his sleep-filled visits to Dreamland, where he joins his old friends Nastajia the elf princess, Paddington the rock giant, Kiwi the fairy and the newly introduced cat girl, Felicity, in the battle against evil dragon King Nicodemus. After narrowly escaping from Nicodemus’s dungeon, Alex and his team battle their way to safety, all the while still looking to uncover the secret behind the mysterious disappearance of Nastajia’s parents. Interspersed with the mundane concerns of Alex’s waking life, the work is deftly paced, sprinkled with just the right amount of action, clever suspense and innocuous romance. The 3-D computer generated artwork creates a world of beautifully detailed environments and colorful characters; while this kind of art has rarely succeeded in comics in the past, Sava makes it easy to read. Readers raised on video games should have no trouble enjoying this superior adventure. (Mar.)