Fiction Reviews: Week of 4/28/2008

Chilean author Subercaseaux's intense and engrossing novel (the first one to be translated into English) delves deeply into the troubled psyche and marriage of a woman dying of cancer. In the last months of her life, 46-year-old Clara Griffin, the reserved, childless, well-to-do wife of architect Clemente Balmaceda, begins a fictionalized journal that her husband will secretly read and agonize over. In alternating chapters, Subercaseaux (the great-great-granddaughter of composer Robert Schumann) sets up a coiled tension between what Clara has written, an intimate roman à clef about her coming death and lack of passion for her husband, and her husband's reaction. Clemente is by turns bewildered by her “embellishments” and shocked by her revelations. The crux of Clara's grief stems from Clemente's longstanding affair with another woman, which Clara, as Clemente learns from her notebook, has endured in silence for years. A method of instilling desire, exacting vengeance or simply finding happiness, Clara's notebook digs into the slippery, treacherous nature of love, deception, truth, guilt and loyalty. (Aug.)

Bonfiglioli (1928–1985), author of the offbeat Mortdecai trilogy, offers a surfeit of delights in this historical romp, first published in 1978. The novel opens with Karli Van Cleef, a young Dutch Jew of prodigious alimentary and sexual appetites, fleeing the consequences of his unscrupulous romantic life. Karli lands in mid–19th-century London with nothing but his wits and a chest of his mother's fine china, and makes an immediate and considerable success as a porcelain dealer. Lured by the promises of adventure and rich profit offered by the opium trade, however, he quickly closes shop to go east. From here, there are swordfights and treasure, pirates and mutineers, a typhoon, and prostitutes in every port. But if the plot is easily anticipated, Bonfiglioli colors his picaresque with an abundance of wit and narrative verve. Indeed, the novel often reads like an unapologetically bawdy Pirates of the Caribbean. (Aug.)

Izzo (1945–2000) returns to Marseille (setting of Total Chaos and other of his books) with a bleak, affecting tale about a man on the skids, despairing of love's ability to heal. Rico, the 40-something, hard-drinking transient protagonist, still smarts from a breakup in Rennes with his beautiful, avaricious wife, Sophie. Living on the streets of Paris when his down-and-out friend, Tito, dies curled up on the metro train, the grief-stricken Rico decides to return to Marseille, the city where 20 years before, as a recently demobilized marine, he meet his first love, Léa. The novel becomes a kind of desperate road trip (Tito used to tell Rico about Kerouac's On the Road), as Rico bums his way from Paris to Marseille. Abdou, a 13-year-old Algerian refugee boy in search of a father, takes over the narrative when Rico, increasingly ill, beat up and alcoholic, sinks into a state of delusional regret. Izzo's last novel proves riveting and grim. (Aug.)

A young Dublin woman searches for her soul mate in this murky spiritual quest from popular bestselling Brazilian novelist Coelho (The Witch of Portobello), first published in 1990 and available in English in the U.S. for the first time. Brida O'Fern, 21, discovers she has occult powers and seeks out two masters who will validate her abilities and teach her how to become a true witch. One, the Magus, twice her age, is a teacher in the Tradition of the Sun, who recognizes Brida as his own soul mate, and urges humility. The other is Wicca, her teacher of the Moon, a mature, wealthy woman who advocates senses-altering sex, and who is eager to know what the Magus, with whom she once had a relationship, sees in Brida. For her part, Brida is already in love with Lorens, a modest, unassuming physics student who gradually comes to embrace her spiritual view of the world despite his scientific background. Brida's initiation into magic involves a choice between the two men while staying true to her gift. The relationships and occult elements don't quite mix, and Coelho steers a cluttered path between Christian and pagan visions. (July)

Powered by Cassella's 25 years in the medical field, this nicely wrought debut follows the travails of an experienced Seattle anesthesiologist after an eight-year-old patient dies while under the knife. In the aftermath, Dr. Marie Heaton is entangled in both her grief and a malpractice lawsuit. As the many meetings with attorneys blur together and autopsy results are awaited, Marie, who regrets having missed out on the “intended stream of marriage and motherhood,” mediates the domestic squabbles in her sister's family; leans on and gets leaned on by colleague and ex-lover-turned-best friend, Joe Hillary; and tries to come to a détente with her widowed father, who is losing his vision and with it his autonomy. As Marie is increasingly scrutinized, a few unexpected twists slyly work themselves into the investigation of the death, and the ice between Marie and her father slowly thaws. The prose is competent and the plot moves at a brisk pace, but the real hook is Cassella's knowing portrayal of the health industrial complex's inner workings; she knows the turf and doesn't spare readers the nasty bits. (July)

As they navigate midlife in Manhattan, 50-somethings Kaye, Barbara and Ellen are not shrinking violets: Kaye, her children grown, is having an affair; Barbara, widowed with an empty nest, writes erotic novels under a pen name; and Ellen, whose husband has left their childless marriage, must watch him start a new family with a much younger woman—while bearing a secret. The three rely on each other, but Kaye and Barbara have kept the affair and erotica secret, and Ellen's own secret, long held, is only now about to surface: she gave birth at 16 and was forced by her family to give her daughter up for adoption. As Barbara and Kaye accompany Ellen to her father's funeral, none can guess the cascade of revelations that will rock all of their lives. Schieber (Willing Spirits) never falls back on easy answers or convenient outcomes; with patience and sensitivity, she illuminates the three women's choices and their friendship. (July)

Attorney Terrell follows The Chrysalis with an uneven sequel that reprises art-sleuth heroine Mara Coyne and spans six centuries and five continents. Coyne, who specializes in recovering art “with a controversial past,” is hired by “legendary conservative kingmaker” Richard Tobias to find a rare Chinese map that has been stolen from an archeological dig. Dating from an expedition of Admiral Zheng He to circumnavigate the earth, it is the “first map in history to accurately show the entire world” and was smuggled into Europe after an isolationist emperor ordered all accounts of the expedition destroyed. The map found its way to Portugal, where explorer Vasco da Gama used it to “discover” a sea route to India. There are lots of people hoping to suppress the existence of such a map, and Mara and archeologist Ben Coleman play a potentially deadly game of cat-and-mouse against powerful and sinister forces as they try to locate it. The imaginative narrative shifts among Zheng's expedition, da Gama's historic voyage and Coyne's investigation, but unfortunately, Terrell slows the action with superfluous characters, awkward dialogue and languid prose. (July)

The solid fourth Honor Bound thriller from bestseller Griffin and son Butterworth picks up where 2000's Secret Honor left off, with OSS agent Cletus Frade still tangling with high-level Nazis in supposedly neutral Argentina in 1943. Fans of WWII-era military fiction, many of whom will likely know little about the South American theater during this period, will welcome this encyclopedic tome, which leaves no small or large historic fact unturned, including recently discovered information exposing the involvement of future Argentine leader Juan Perón in the Nazi cause. In a story that's more spy-vs.-spy than military action, the authors meticulously recreate place and time. Those seeking an easier entry into Griffin's military novels might be advised to start with one of the better-known series such as Presidential Agents (By Order of the President, etc.) or Men at War (The Last Heroes, etc.). Author tour. (June)

In Clark's muted third installment to the Hill family saga, the clan gathers in Towne, Mass., for the summer. At the center of the story is Lily, the quiet matriarch who runs a fruit and vegetable stand; around her swirl Aunt Ginger (who is ill with cancer) and Ginger's daughter Betsy and granddaughter Sally, who come to visit from the West Coast. Sally spends most of the summer involved in an unlikely friendship with Cam, a math whiz Cambodian child who works for Lily at the stand. Alden and his grown children are back as well, though the men seem to be especially peripheral here, handing the focus to Alden's daughter, Julie, who is recently engaged to the mysterious (and possibly fictitious) Nicholas Davenant, a geologist who is in Siberia for the summer. The plot's slowness mirrors a lazy summer, and even if too many developments are saved for third act, readers who enjoyed the previous two Hill novels will be delighted to again dip into another unhurried and gently humorous WASP summer. (June)

In her densest, most ambitious work yet, chick lit specialist Keyes (Sushi for Beginners) pushes into dark territory, exploring alcoholism, depression and domestic violence with authenticity and even offbeat humor. When Paddy de Courcy, “Ireland's most eligible politician,” announces his engagement, the news breaks hearts all over Dublin. Lola Daly, a celebrity stylist who has been dating him for the past 16 months, is the most heartbroken of all and retreats to County Clare. Meanwhile, Dublin reporter Grace Gildee remembers Paddy from their college years, when he had a chaotic, codependent relationship with her twin sister, Marnie. Grace digs a little, and as the true extent of Paddy's capacity for evil is revealed, Grace moves to stop him—and to finally teach him a lesson. To do so, she must make fragile Marnie revisit the most painful years of her life and engineer Lola's return to Dublin. Dry wit and distinctive narrative voices add levity and balance to a sad set of life circumstances. Pages will fly like wafting hankies toward the stunning, breathless conclusion. (June)

After a convoluted setup, romance master Palmer settles into her sizzling story about drug smuggling in Texas. Central to the tale is tiny, unpretentious Gloryanne Barnes, a formidable prosecutor in the San Antonio district attorney's office whose bum hip, twice broken in childhood, has left her disabled. A major drug czar whom Glory put away is using his worldwide connections to plot a hit on her. After a bullet whizzes by her ear, she's sent to work as a canner at a small organic farm to keep her out of harm's way—a move that turns out to be unexpectedly fraught with danger and romance. Taciturn farm manager Rodrigo Ramirez is more than he appears to be, as is Glory, undercover as a “little country hick.” It takes a tragedy for the two proud individuals to learn trust, as both are swept up in violence and passion. (June)

Ex-cop turned PI Boone Daniels lives to surf, as do the rest of the Dawn Patrol, who gather every morning on the beach just north of San Diego, Calif.—Hang Twelve, Dave the Love God, Johnny Banzai, High Tide and Sunny Day—in this terrific thriller from Winslow (The Power of the Dog). Boone works his PI job just enough to keep his near idyllic life afloat, but before Winslow's done with him and he's back on his board, he'll have weathered some heavy seas and taken some perilous falls. Dan Silver, owner of Silver Dan's strip club, may have burned down his own warehouse to collect on the insurance money. When the insurance company hires beautiful lady lawyer Petra Hall to sue Silver, she turns to Boone to do the detective work. If all this sounds mildly comic, it is, but it's also dark, violent and plenty serious as Winslow keeps raising the stakes, as well as the waves, for all involved. Author tour. (June)

An art scandal enlivens this au-so-courant novel of romantic suspense from bestseller Lowell (Innocent as Sin), set in various locales around the American Southwest. Zach Balfour, a sexy freelancer working for St. Kilda Consulting, a security firm, falls in love with an attractive client, wilderness expert Jill Breck, while investigating Jill's recent inheritance of unsigned paintings possibly done by the late Thomas Dunstan, a legendary Western painter who had been the hard-drinking lover of Jill's artist grandmother, Justine Breck. Jill—and the paintings—are at risk because some greedy art connoisseurs realize that new Dunstans might adversely affect the price of his works slated for an upcoming Vegas auction. Lowell's keen insights into art world shenanigans serve to remind the reader about the value of art for art's sake rather than art for money's sake. (June)

What begins as edgy and smart gets stuck in the sand in popular chick lit author Green's (Second Chance) soggy beach read. Richard and Daff separate after Richard has an affair, which plays havoc with their daughter, Jess. Bee and Daniel, who go to therapy to bridge their emotional gap, wind up facing the uncomfortable truth of what really separates them. Middle-aged Michael keeps finding all the wrong women, and Michael's dotty and endearing mom Nan, facing flagging finances, raises funds by letting rooms in her venerable Nantucket beach home, only to have to ward off ravenous developers. There's enough upheaval to keep the tale humming until the cast lands on Nan's doorstep, where, with unrelenting good humor and wisdom, the troubles with couples, families, kids, singles and sexual identity are predictably resolved before the Labor Day exodus. Unfortunately, the payoffs diminish as the story wears on. (June)

Former Basic Books editor Liebmann-Smith, who cocreated Comedy Central's The Tick, takes “what's in a name?” to amusing extremes in his debut novel. Novelist Henry James and Harvard psychologist William James really did have two younger brothers, neither of whom amounted to much. That situation changes drastically in Liebmann-Smith's goofball historical conceit, part The Bostonians and part Blazing Saddles. In 1876, Henry James travels by train on a New York Tribune–commissioned journalistic tour. When the train is suddenly ambushed by a group of bandits led by Frank and Jesse James, the latter exclaims, on encountering the novelist: “Holy shit.... It's Harry!” The jokes and historical squiblets go off like six-guns in the 200-plus pages that follow, with Frank and Jesse James starring as the wayward brethren of the illustrious New England Jameses (which, in real life, they most certainly were not). Liebmann-Smith includes enough plot, to keep this single-joke, creatively imagined biography chugging along. (June)

In a second Letts title where a pivotal event occurs at a Wal-Mart (the first was the author's bestseller Where the Heart Is), two long-neglected kids have to fend for themselves—and quickly. After their father's ex-girlfriend, Floy, who is their guardian, drops dead at the chain's Spearfish, S.D., megastore, 15-year-old Lutie McFee persuades her 11-year-old brother, Fate, to take off in Floy's Pontiac to their long-gone dad's last known address, a fleabag hotel in Las Vegas. There, they discover discouraging secrets about their father's whereabouts. Lutie gets fake working papers and a string of dead-end jobs. But with the threat of foster care looming, Lutie and trivia-mad Fate are soon at the mercy of child predators. Letts (whose son Tracy won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) manages this potentially maudlin or lurid material with a frank lyricism, delivering a heartbreaking tale about love, loss and survival that will stick with the reader long after the last page is turned. (June)

The past comes back with a vengeance in bestseller Connolly's unsettling eighth novel to feature ex-NYPD detective turned disgraced PI Charlie “Bird” Parker (after The Unquiet). Parker's confidantes Louis and Angel—an ex–hit man and his lover—are targeted by members of a shadowy group of assassins known as the Reapers, of which Louis was a member. From Gabriel, his father-figure and mentor, Louis learns that the father of one of his long-ago targets is tracking him down bent on revenge. Thrown into the already explosive mix is Bliss, a former colleague of Louis's who went rogue and has his own reasons for wanting Louis dead. When Louis and Angel head upstate for a showdown with the killers, Parker follows as back up. Series fans may initially be disappointed to see Parker on the sidelines, but Connolly's rich prose and compelling plot more than compensate. 10-city author tour. (June)

Beres's new thriller toys with the intriguing if implausible notion that the horrific meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, near Kiev, was no accident.In 1986, months before the meltdown, Mihaly Horvath, a senior engineer at the power plant, suspects that the facility is being intentionally overextended as part of a government experiment. When catastrophe strikes, Mihaly's detective brother, Lazlo, finds himself pursued by a psychotic and sadistic KGB major, Grigor Komarov, who hopes to establish that foreign elements, possibly linked to the CIA, were responsible. While the writing quality is a step up from Beres's last thriller, Final Stroke, many readers are likely to find neither the mystery of who caused the disaster nor the political intrigue sufficiently engaging. (June)

In the 27 brief stories in German author Biller's collection (his first to be published in the States, and magnificently translated by Bell), characters fall in love, have affairs, spy on their neighbors, break up and do everything in between, all of which is described with a mix of chic simplicity and Hemingwayesque poignancy. In “The Mahogany Elephant,” a seemingly banal exchange between two reunited lovers leads to a crystallization of their relationship. In “Baghdad at Seven-Thirty,” two people making small talk at a bar come to reveal a complicated bond. In “Melody,” a troubled couple's expansive romantic lives are distilled into just over two pages. Some stories disappoint, such as “In Bed with Sheikh Yassin,” about a justifiably reluctant bride who fantasizes about another man on her wedding day. Biller's chief concerns—fidelity and longing—are examined from every conceivable angle, and the stories, short as they are, carry an unexpectedly powerful emotional wallop. (June)

Set in Edinburgh, this gutsy crime novel from Edgar-finalist Guthrie (Hard Man) tweaks the tired conventions of the genre in refreshing ways. Seasoned ex-con Andy Park is doing his best to keep his family together: son Richie is a contract killer and currently in prison; his psycho daughter, Effie, is recently released; and his invalid wife, Liz, needs the kind of care he can't afford. Effie comes up with the perfect scheme to solve all their problems—blackmail the sleazy businessman, Tommy Savage, who put out the hit on her boyfriend's father. When Savage starts getting calls from a “Mr. Smith” demanding 50 grand or else, Savage enlists his ne'er-do-well brother, Phil, and son Fraser as back up for a money exchange with the Parks. In the ensuing mayhem the two families wreak enough havoc on each other to satisfy Shakespeare. Fans of Ken Bruen, Derek Raymond and Jim Thompson will love this stylish, blood-drenched tartan noir. (June)

Monroy's spirited, overreaching debut tracks a rocky coming-of-age. Milagro Márquez's father is a wealthy, powerful Mexico City native, but her mother, a California-raised Jew, who works for the foreign service, won't tell Milagro who he is. As mother and daughter move from Clinton-era Washington, D.C., to Mexico City for her mother's latest posting, Milagro sees a chance to seek him out. Thrust into the heady, drug-fueled world of diplomatic offspring and Mexican rich kids at her exclusive private school, Milagro quickly transforms from a “good girl” into a rebellious club kid, spending chunks of time with fresas, or “Eurotrash with Mexican passports.” Her late teen precocity soon puts her at odds with her overbearing mother, who embarks on a series of far-fetched schemes to get Milagro back on track. Monroy makes Milagro a terrific observer of telling details, but her voice isn't built for the larger points Monroy tries to make about the contradictions of teenage life and the economic fragmentation of Mexican society. The result is more a fictive diary than a satisfying novel. (June)

All hell breaks loose in this over-the-top romantic thriller from bestseller Kenyon (BAD Attitude) and Love (aka Dianna Love Snell, Worth Every Risk). Terri Mitchell, a beautiful blonde agent with the Bureau of American Defense (aka BAD), saw her last partner killed while pursuing Anton Marseaux, a New Orleans gangster. A mysterious U.S. operative goes MIA while on a government mission and resurfaces two years later to help Terri with her investigation. But is he Jamie Drake, a newly released jailbird, or the phantom of Jamie's brother, Nathan, found murdered while working as a mole within Marseaux's organization? Whoever he is, he's hot, really buff—and he wants to protect Terri and make love to her until her toes curl. Da Vinci Code–derivative components tweaked with a bioterrorism twist add extra punch. (June)

The trio of unusual characters forged into a family unit in Flacco's The Last Nightingale—Det. Randall Blackburn and his two adopted children, Shane Nightingale and Vignette Nightingale, who are now grown to young adulthood—face new challenges in this entertaining sequel, set in 1915 as San Francisco prepares to host the Pan-Pacific International Exposition on fairgrounds constructed on earthquake rubble. Blackburn is assigned to babysit famed mesmerist J.D. Duncan, one of the exposition's headliners, who introduces the recently invented drug methylenedioxymethamphetamine to America. A woman with her sights set on Blackburn, a killer with his sights set on Duncan and civic leaders bent on rebuilding San Francisco's reputation at any cost, all threaten the members of the Blackburn family, whose evolving relationships form this historical's most appealing aspect. (June)

White's stunning second crime novel to feature ex-cop and ex-PI Jackson Donne fulfills the promise of his debut, When One Man Dies (2007). Restaurateur Franklin Carter, Donne's obnoxious but rich brother-in-law, hires him to investigate Donne's mother's claims that his grandfather murdered someone. Since Donne's mother is suffering from dementia, the detective has his work cut out for him, even before someone bombs Carter's New York City restaurant and later abducts Carter. When Donne becomes a suspect after his elderly aunt and uncle are gunned down in their quiet New Jersey home, he must ally himself with a sympathetic cop to gain any traction in the case. Readers will readily forgive a major coincidence at the heart of the plot because the author does such a fine job of depicting the inner conflicts of his fallible but ultimately heroic protagonist. (June)

Memoirist Leary (An Innocent, a Broad) follows in her fiction debut the unraveling of Julia Ferraro after she accidentally discovers a racy message in her Golden Globe–nominee husband's voice mail. As the doubts about her husband, Joe, mount, Julia begins examining other areas of her life with closer scrutiny, and her behavior becomes increasingly erratic as her paranoia grows: she dabbles in Restylane and Botox, attempts to seduce her shrink and plants rumors about her husband on Gawker. In addition to Julia's marital angst, she is also managing a shaky relationship with her entitled, adolescent daughter, Ruby, and is wracked with anxiety over her own lack of a career. Julia is a sharp and self-aware narrator, though there are moments when she seems too much a romantic, particularly for someone with otherwise worldly and wry sensibilities. Leary, the wife of actor Denis Leary, has an eye for the comedy of manners of the rich and idle. As Julia's daughter observes, “You don't really have to do anything.” Julia responds: “I know. You have no idea how stressful that is.” (June)

The latest novel from Shem (The House of God) is the funny and wrenching account of Dr. Orville Rose's return to his hometown, Columbia, N.Y., after the death of his mother in 1983. Orville's mother's will states that he will receive nearly a million dollars, the family house and a luxury car if he stays and works in Columbia for a year and 13 days. At first he is appalled, but he eventually decides to stay, working with local doctor Bill Starbuck. As he tends to the sick and injured, Orville falls in love with local historian Miranda Braak, becomes acquainted with the locals' careless mean-spiritedness (it's so pervasive that Miranda is working on a thesis called “The Columbian Spirit”), observes a townwide battle over whether to save a grand old hotel and receives ghostly visits from his antagonistic mother. It's hard to put down the book as Orville must decide, once the required stay reaches its end, whether to remain or flee with his newfound wealth. Shem deftly comments on the Wal-Mart-ization of smalltown America while entertaining the reader. (June)

Set in the Shetland Islands, Bolton's compelling debut pits young obstetrician Tora Hamilton, newly arrived from London, against local Nordic folklore, suspicious islanders and a monstrous but brilliant plot with mythic overtones. While digging a hole in a field for her dead saddle horse, Tora discovers a young woman's corpse, with Viking runes incised in the back and the heart torn from the breast. How long the body has been buried is uncertain, but during the autopsy Tora realizes the victim had recently given birth. Longing for a child of her own, Tora dissects away layer after layer of deceit and deception involving everyone she used to trust, especially her husband, Duncan Guthrie, who grew up on the Shetlands and chose the site of their new home. Though Bolton's operating-theater realities and her characters' powerfully inhuman motivations may jar fainthearted sensibilities, this promising new talent delivers some profound insights into the eternal nature of evil. (June)

Two nihilistic novellas from Amdahl (Visigoths) are at once crude, funny and insightful on the lengths to which a desperate (or bored) man will go for fulfillment. The unlikely protagonist of “I Am Death, or, Bartleby the Mobster (A Story of Chicago),” Jack is a freelance journalist in 1980s Chicago hired by a lawyer George Swanson to help write the autobiography of Frank Fini, soon to be a mob boss. It takes a silly and heartfelt horde of extras, including Jack's ex-wife, Dorothy, and a suicidal morgue delivery driver named Ricky Friend, to make Jack understand that messing with the mob may not be in his best interests. In “Peasants,” Walter Rasmussen, working at a publisher specializing in geographical information, gets friendly with his quirky Australian boss, Kyle Boatman, only to discover that Kyle may be skimming. Walter also embarks on getting closer to his beautiful young office mate Jessie, an urban planner, threatening his marriage. Amdahl leans heavy on pulp, but knows his male characters don't know what they want. He maintains a foul but sophisticated stream-of-consciousness perspective on the male condition throughout. (June)

At the start of this routine political thriller from the Shlians (Double Illusion), Dr. Ni-Fu Cheng arranges for his daughter to escape to America from Communist China in 1949. Forty years later, Foreign Minister Lin plots to regain control of the Chinese Communist Party by coercing Dr. Cheng into revealing the results of his research into increasing human longevity. To force the scientist's hand, teams are dispatched to the U.S. to find Cheng's granddaughter, Dr. Lili Quan, a resident at an L.A. hospital. Dylan O'Hara, a fellow doctor who may have romantic designs on Quan, happens to be conducting research of his own into the immune system to identify the gene controlling aging. Full of clichéd prose (“Had he been a fool to fall in love with someone from such a different world?”), this novel fails to use to best advantage the dramatic events leading to the Tiananmen Square massacre. (June)

Screenwriter Stennett offers a satirical look at a non-Christian's ascent to pastor of a megachurch in this engaging, highly readable novel. Ryan Fisher is a 28-year-old real estate agent who doesn't believe in God, but lists himself in the Christian Business Directory (along with a Jesus fish symbol) to beef up sales. He and his wife, Katherine, attend church to validate his new religious image, where he sees the possibilities of utilizing business principles to create his own megachurch. They move to Bartlesville, Okla., and create “The People's Church” where Ryan preaches a feel-good, do-good gospel (“I'm not encumbered by things like the Bible and Jesus”). As church numbers swell, Oprah calls, local pastors are on the warpath, a religious fanatic plots Ryan's assassination, and Katherine is smitten with Cowboy Jack, a karaoke singer-turned-worship leader who pens Christian lyrics to popular radio tunes. Is Ryan in over his head? Interesting narration and Dave Barryesque footnotes make this humorous entertainment with a faith-based message. (June)

This slender, graceful allegory from Mostly Bob author Corwin embraces creation, humor and joy. In children's book illustrator Frazier's subtle facing-page sketches, Mr. Fooster is a tall, rangy, hale fellow in a rumpled suit and hat. Carrying an unread letter from his great uncle in his pocket, he walks through the world in childlike wonder, blowing soap bubbles with a red wand, noticing the smile on a katydid, helping a weak newt find his pond. But once Mr. Fooster stops in confusion, not knowing which way to go, he grows roots. Only after a truculent builder determines to keep out the world with a wall does Mr. Fooster learn the lesson of the letter. Full of surprises, Corwin's aphoristic gift book invites repeated readings. (June)

When seven women die in a van that skids off an icy highway and bursts into flames near Bratislava, Slovakia, at the start of Genelin's chilling debut, evidence suggests that the victims were murdered, pawns in a human trafficking ring. After a nightclub is blown up, Slovak police commander Jana Matinova discovers that a vicious criminal, Ivan Makine (aka Koba), may be involved in the women's deaths. The author deftly interweaves Matinova's investigation with the somewhat tragic backstory of her relationship with her husband. Past intersects with the present when Matinova has a chance meeting in Strasbourg, France, with her daughter's husband. From there, multiple murders lead to a mysterious man whose reason for the murders may be more poetic than practical. Matinova's no-nonsense personality anchors the action throughout. (July)

The outstanding fourth whodunit to be made available in the U.S. from Vargas (Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand) makes it's easy to see why he's twice won the CWA's International Dagger Award. Paris Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, an endearing oddball sleuth in the tradition of John Dickson Carr's Henry Merrivale, is convinced that the two narcotics dealers recently found with slit throats weren't the victims of business rivals, relying largely on his intuition and the unexplained presence of dirt under the dead men's fingernails. Adamsberg's dogged pursuit of small details leads him to a series of unusual mutilations of wild deer as well as to a serial killer who targets virgins and may be seeking the ingredients to an elixir for eternal life. While the final twist will be less than shocking to some readers, the immensely enjoyable prose, seasoned liberally with humor, should help the author gain the larger American audience he deserves. (June)

World-weariness in a detective is well and good—but what if it ends up costing innocent victims their lives? That's the predicament in which Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren finds himself in this moodily affecting mystery, the first to appear in Nesser's native Sweden but the third to be published in the U.S. (after The Return and Borkmann's Point). Though the melancholy cop suspects accused killer Janek Mitter is innocent of drowning his new bride during an alcoholic blackout, Van Veeteren opts to focus on such more personally compelling matters as his own ruptured marriage and to let the judicial process run its course—until a second, truly shocking murder boots him and the book into high gear. The suspense intensifies as it becomes apparent that the initial killing was no garden-variety domestic drama but part of a bloody tapestry worthy of Greek tragedy. Even if you guess the book's final twist a bit early, this is a hauntingly powerful tale you won't soon forget. (June)

In Nabb's somber final Marshal Guarnaccia mystery (after 2007's Death of a Dutchman), Guarnaccia investigates the shooting death of beautiful 25-year-old Daniela Paoletti, the elder daughter of a wealthy Florentine nightclub owner, in her tower bedroom of the family's villa in the hills above the city. Daniela's murder unsettles the marshal, a compassionate, sensitive man who's preoccupied with such midlife issues as taking early retirement from the military. Guarnaccia senses something is amiss in the Paoletti household, where everyone suffers from one malady or another. The father is recovering from a mild stroke in the hospital while his wife appears to be in a constant state of alcoholic intoxication. Rumors of the lucrative trafficking of young women from Eastern European countries sound alarm bells for the marshal, who decides he has to put aside personal concerns to pursue the truth. Nabb, who died in Florence in 2007, will be much missed by those who like their mysteries to raise the big questions of life. (June)

London barrister Trish Maguire, now a Queen's Counsel, undergoes messy professional and personal tribulations in her thought-provoking ninth outing (after 2007's Evil Is Done). When her head of chambers is severely injured in an accident, Trish assumes the defense of Clean World Waste Management against Angela Fortwell, who's arguing her own case after her husband died on their marginal Northumberland farm in a CWWM chemical tank explosion. The caring heart under Trish's judicial robes goes out to Angela, but it doesn't stop Trish from making a scrupulous and unorthodox defense. In addition, Trish; George, her partner of 10 years; and her early-teen stepbrother, David, struggle to free David's near-feral friend, Jay, from his slum-dwelling abusive family, like the one Trish herself once had to overcome. As current as today's environmental causes and as eternal as a woman's tightrope walk between self and others, this legal puzzler testifies to Cooper's insight and narrative powers. (June)

Murder upsets a Wisconsin writing conference in the engaging fourth entry in Cook's cozy series featuring do-it-all newswoman Monona “Mo” Quinn (Murder at Midnight, etc.). When Mo's husband, Doug, stumbles on the body of conference star attraction Fletcher Downs, an author whose personality offends fans as quickly as his books win them, there are plenty of suspects, starting with the students in the mystery writing class Downs was teaching. Mo once again puts her curiosity and news-seeking skills to good use, despite admonitions from Doug and Detective Sergeant Lafferty to let the law handle the investigation. Readers who like their mysteries relatively bloodless and leavened with a pinch of romance, humor and regional color should find this a perfect fit. (June)

In Sefton's chatty fifth knitting cozy (after 2007's A Killer Stitch), Colorado yarn aficionado Kelly Flynn investigates the murder of a member of her knitting group, whose body she discovers half-submerged in a dye tub in a yarn shop basement. Despite her friends' warnings, Kelly determines to catch not only the killer but also the vandal who's targeted her house and tried to poison her dog. Meanwhile, Kelly is busy remodeling her newly purchased alpaca ranch in a nearby canyon. When her car brakes fail and she barely escapes serious injury on a treacherous mountain road, Kelly fears this case could be her last. Instructions for knitting a cloche hat and a recipe for pecan pie round out a volume sure to please series fans. (June)

Barcelona police inspector Petra Delicado is in the doldrums, both personally and professionally, at the outset of Giménez-Bartlett's excellent third mystery to be made available in the U.S. (after 2007's Prime Time Suspect). Due to a staffing shortage, Delicado and a new partner, Sgt. Fermín Garzón, wind up investigating a rape case in which the assailant left a flowerlike brand on the 17-year-old victim's arm. When the rapist strikes again, pressure on the pair mounts. After a third girl falls victim, the girl's influential father pulls strings to get the case reassigned, but Delicado refuses to surrender easily. Delicado's unsparing insights into her own contradictory personality lend human interest as does the by-play between her and the paunchy, middle-aged Garzón. The many plot twists will please readers who like a balance between in-depth characterization and detective work. (June)

Fresh, intense and funny, Schreck's second mystery to feature unrepentant Elvis fan and dog lover Duffy Dombrowski (after 2007's On the Ropes) packs a knockout punch. When a serial killer starts taking out students at McDonough High in Crawford, a small town that appears to be in New York State, the police suspect Howard Reinhart (aka Hackin' Howard), recently released after serving 12 years of a 30-year prison sentence for doing in two cheerleaders, a quarterback and a class president after they repeatedly abused him as a geeky teen. Duffy, an Irish-Polish heavyweight boxer who also works as a counselor at the local Jewish Unified Services, where Howard is one of his clients, isn't so sure. After Howard disappears and begins phoning Duffy, pleading his innocence, Duffy turns amateur sleuth. The affable Duffy makes an admirable hero in his compassion for at-risk teens and in his belief that even criminals deserve second chances. (June)

This profoundly moving third Blood book (after 2001's The Living Blood), set in 2015, finds that beneath the seemingly endless conflict in the Middle East is another, secret war waged over the drug Glow, made from magical blood that can heal any illness and even bestow eternal life. Psychic teen Fana Wolde, the daughter of 500-year-old assassin Dawit Wolde, was born with this “living blood” running through her veins. The Life Brothers, Ethiopian immortals who believe the living blood first came from Christ, think Fana is a deity. When she escapes their American compound, wanting to control her destiny and dispense her healing blood via a complex underground railroad, the Life Brothers and her parents race to protect her from the Italian immortals of the Sanctus Cruor, false priests who want Fana to fulfill a terrible prophecy. Due brings Fana's complex and passionate story to life with her trademark flair. (June)

In the languorous second installment of Rhodes's Elven Ways saga (after 2007's The Four Forges), civil war threatens to destroy the Vaelinar, a magical race that was mysteriously displaced to the sprawling realm of Kerith generations earlier. Several factions among the native races, angry and fearful at having to share the land and all its riches with the strange and powerful Vaelinar, have begun to plot their demise. As an all-out war looms, lovers Sevryn and Rivergrace must solve problems close to home before they can engage with their many adversaries: Sevryn battles the residue of demon within his soul, while Rivergrace tries to find peace with an elemental goddess who has become a vital part of her being. The intricately plotted, character-driven saga of the Vaelinar's desperate struggles finds anchors in folklore and legend, appealing to fans of slower pacing and detailed world building. (June)

Forensic archeologist Anderson uses fascinating, little-known historical details to bolster his debut tale of modern marines transported to a parallel world where dinosaurs still roam. Whisked away in the midst of battling the Japanese in the early days of WWII, Lt. Cmdr. Matt Reddy, captain of the USS Walker, finds his ship, crew and passengers suddenly involved in a very different war between the peaceful mammalian Lemurians and the vicious, raptor-descended Grik. Reddy must support his crew through the loss of their home world, teach the Lemurians to use steel and steam and keep a sister ship, commanded by a delusional army captain, from falling into the claws of the Grik. Paying homage to such tales as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Robinson Crusoe and William R. Forstchen and Greg Morrison's Crystal Warriors, Anderson expands on familiar concepts with high-tension nautical battles and skillful descriptions of period attitudes and dialogue. (June)

This lively and thought-provoking sequel to 2007's Mainspring expands Lake's alternate 19th-century world of baroque politics and gothic clockwork. Paolina Barthes is a teenage scientific prodigy born in a small Portuguese fishing village at the base of the massive equatorial gear-wall. Determined to learn from English engineering “wizards” and understand the work of the great gears and wheels that move the universe, Paolina creates a homebrew chronometer, or “gleam,” and sets off toward London. When she discovers the gleam has astonishing magical properties that only she can evoke, she becomes a target of various political and philosophical factions. Her efforts to figure out what the gleam can do while evading capture and persevering on her quest recall Lyra and the alethiometer from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, but Paolina's sharp engineer's mind puts a very different spin on her journey. Lake effectively anneals steampunk with geo-mechanical magic in an allegorical matrix of empire building and Victorian natural science. (June)

In the rough-and-tumble fourth military SF adventure for Marine Gunnery Sgt. Torin Kerr (after 2007's The Heart of Valor), Kerr is more than a little surprised to wake up after a disastrous battle and find herself in what appears to be an underground prisoner-of-war facility, since the enigmatic aliens called the Others take no prisoners. At least, that's the claim made by the Confederation of nominally pacifist older races that provide advanced technology to humans in exchange for waging war against the Others. Kerr soon encounters earlier arrivals, who seem oddly lethargic and resigned to their fate. She must learn what's sapping their willpower, organize an escape and figure out what the Others and the Confederation are up to. Huff's appealing heroine is as fiercely maternal as she is fierce in battle, sometimes to a degree that verges on cliché. The denouement is not unexpected, but Huff skillfully accomplishes its exposition while still managing a few surprises. (June)

It's a poignant home run for the final installment of Phillip's cute, sports-themed Hot Zone series (after Hot Stuff). Hottie John Roper, “a high-maintenance outfielder,” feels a cold downturn in his public and personal life after getting injured and losing the World Series for the New York Renegades. After meeting adorable Floridian Amy Stone at a friend's wedding, he later discovers she's his new handler at Hot Zone and Athletes Only, a sports public relations firm. Amy's wowed by John during a New Year's bash, spends the night on his sofa and attracts the paparazzi the next day. As she helps him reclaim his life (and navigate his difficult family), she decides their relationship must stay strictly professional. That love obstacle allows Phillips to wind up with a smart lesson: it's all about the game plan. (July)

Ambitious investment banker Vanessa Porter is hot on the trail of her friend Clive, who has disappeared in the Caribbean. On her heels is sexy Wade Cordell, of the security-for-hire Bullet Catchers: Wade has a plea for Vanessa from the birth mother she has tried to forget, recently incarcerated Eileen Stafford. Wade, who thought catching up with Vanessa and delivering the message would be a cinch, soon struggles to protect Vanessa from people who want to throw her off Clive's trail—or worse. Meanwhile, other Bullet Catchers (from St. Claire's First You Run) dig into the truth behind Eileen's arrest. Vanessa is a spitfire of a heroine, dedicated to her friends and passionate about her life, and Wade is the quintessential Southern gentleman warrior. The plot, while disjointed, pulls itself together enjoyably. (July)

Atlanta voice-over specialist Simone St. Claire, 28, goes to Jamaica for her best friend's wedding without her boyfriend, boxer Kevin Johnson. There, she meets devastatingly attractive Maxwell Harper, brother of the bride's new husband, who's from Jamaica but lives in Toronto, and whose connection to his family is tenuous. The two keep in touch, and Simone quickly breaks things off with Kevin to take a trip to Toronto. As she does, her best friend Natasha is murdered. The murder investigation (did Kevin do it?) and the obstacles surrounding the lovers aren't half as interesting as the drama surrounding the conflict in Maxwell's own family, making the plot a split decision. But Shaw's settings are unusually rich, lingering over homes and their families with a warmth that carries one through. (July)

Quantico-based FBI agent Kelly Jones returns (from The Tunnels) in Gagnon's straightforward procedural, called in to investigate a site in the Berkshires: six unburied skeletons spread across Massachusetts and Vermont state lines. The victims, young gay hustlers, are barely missed by the insular local law enforcement. As more bones turn up, Kelly realizes that she's dealing with two serial killers—an expert and an impulsive amateur copycat. As Kelly wrangles her uncooperative task force, the two killers play a game of cat and mouse with each other, and as Kelly draws closer, members of her team get drawn into their deadly game. Gagnon plays the antagonism between the two villains nicely, but ends up imputing more color to the antagonists than to Kelly & Co. (July)

Kohei is a special effects genius who uses makeup skills to solve others' problems. He's a terrific, relatable character, especially for the teen male reader. He's cool, he's attractive, he's talented, he's supremely aware of his awesome abilities... but he also goes goo-goo around the actress he has a crush on. His first mission is to protect her from her creepy manager, in an ever-escalating series of double crosses. The makeup process is presented by the authors as intense, with all the importance of a major operation. Later, Kohei and his stuntman partner try to prevent a violent attack on a monster theme park by a vengeful former employee and cover up scars for nude scenes. The book is full of dramatic adventure punctuated with comedy exaggeration (and the occasional breast shot), but it's the high-stakes action that sticks with the reader. The art successfully conveys both the comedy and the life-changing risks. A series about visual trickery is perfect for comics, and this one's well-executed, with some thematic depth, information about effects work and shout-outs to the real-life greats. (June)

Everyone's favorite fringe hominid returns in Roumieu's raucous follow-up to 2005's Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir. Narrated by the grammatically challenged Bigfoot himself, this latest series of adventures finds the forest creature taking to the road “like Kerouac,” doling out life lessons and observations on society. Tackling issues from global warming (“lower carbon emission by chase Bigfoot on floating log in river rather than truck, helicopter or hovercrafts”) to crumbling communities (the squirrels in Bigfoot's old neighborhood “now bury rock of crack instead of nuts”). Bigfoot is a brutally honest social critic. He also strives to set the record straight and debunk common myths: “Bigfoot no grant wishes like leprechaun or genie” and when one hears Bigfoot stomping around the woods, help him out because “Bigfoot not as confident as might first seem.” Roumieu's hilarious, effortless illustrations and handwritten text make each page a delight. Bigfoot is well on his way to becoming, as he outlines in his “self improve” plan, the “Oscar Wilde of the woods.” (May)

Keith Giffen's Tag was a pleasant surprise; a story of an ordinary man under the burden of a curse that has removed him from the land of the living. Lieb effectively carries the torch in this sequel, a story with enough weight to stand independent of its predecessor. Ed is an ordinary man who lives in the guise of an ordinary life, hiding a dark secret from his friends and neighbors: he has survived being tagged. As Ed struggles to come to grips with what he has overcome, he finds himself on an unexpected journey to find the person who has most recently been tagged and stop the curse forever. Lieb writes a fast, dramatic story that is just as entertaining as the original. Artist Chee captures a setting that is dark and desperate, a tone well fitted to the story. Tag: Cursed is a strong story that keeps the tradition of horror comics undead and kicking. (Apr.)

Elvis, the know-it-all narrator, is the son of a single mother who runs a boarding house in the middle of nowhere. (Supposedly, it's Utah, but the book is definitely Asian in approach and mood.) The narration is stilted and pretentious from the start, describing the location as where “only those who were truly able to love everything in between [sic] dream and reality often came.” The art concentrates on moments, where lovely faces ponder the past or stare at the reader, but the story is firmly text-driven, almost an illustrated novel, with the art having little storytelling value or flow. The first chapter establishes the hotel, with a four-year-old Elvis who talks far beyond his years. Then we jump ahead to him as an adult, only to flash back again to his childhood, when he was saved from death by a mystical guest preaching oneness with nature. Many of the characters are like him, meant to be deep but coming off as exceedingly clichéd. This framework repeats, with the hotel just a device to tell stories about love lost or denied or broken parental relationships. Park's art is attractive and his people are pretty to look at and seem to be thinking deep thoughts—unfortunately, it's all a facade. (Apr.)

Aside from the fact that this adventure epic takes place under water, there are few surprises in the story of young Aqua, a boy prophesied to unite the seven seas and rule them all as king. Narrowly escaping the treacherous attack that killed both his parents, the anointed newborn is hidden with a family on land to grow up in safety. But the evil forces eventually track him down and murder his adoptive family. Returning to the sea as a boy, Aqua embarks on a series of battles, both internal and external, as he fights to embrace his destiny. The basic narrative borrows freely from both Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings mythology, but has its own touches, such as the giant turtle who narrates the tale. The impressive coloring adds a lush facet to the story, and Maybury's imaginative drawings mix manga and indie comics sensibilities. A gallery of pinups by a bevy of indie stars like Jeffrey Brown and James Kochalka adds to the feeling that this is the alterna-comics crowd's answer to widescreen epic fantasy. While there's a lot of verve and energy on display, the jumbled storytelling makes this saga hard to follow at times. (Apr.)

Three June titles from independent presses take on discovery... and recovery.

As Rivi Shenhar comes of age in mid-1970s Israel, social change is in the air and peace talks between Israel and Egypt are in the works. After divorce shatters her family, Rivi is raised by her neglectful mother and helps care for her two younger brothers. She documents her feelings of abandonment and longing in a diary addressed to Anne Frank—a conceit that actually works—and develops a crush on her vibrant, soon-to-be-married literature teacher, a woman named Michaela Berg. To Rivi's amazement, Michaela reciprocates. Katzir (Matisse Has the Sun in His Belly) takes pains to paint their relationship as tender, loving and often erotic, one that provides desperately needed intimacy for both. She also draws parallels between Rivi and Anne Frank: difficulty with their mothers, a need for privacy and a budding interest in sexuality. The power of unconditional love fuels Rivi's development into a confident young woman, a development Katzir telescopes nicely in the book's finale. (June)

As a young man, Australian native Kocan (b. 1947) was sentenced to life imprisonment after a failed attempt to assassinate a member of Parliament and served 10 years in a mental hospital for the criminally insane. In these two linked novellas, Kocan fictionalizes his time there. The plot turns on protagonist Len's various transfers from maximum to progressively lesser-security wards: paradoxically and ironically, with each security downgrade, the inmates become loonier, and Len finds he has more to lose. Carelessly administered treatments lead to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest–style ward freakouts. Len, however, discovers a vocation for poetry, and his reading and writing give him the means to understand his situation and the purpose to try to navigate it. Using a “you do this, you do that” second person, Kocan tells the story with grace and humor. (June)

The troubled inner life of an autism doctor centers this slow-moving recovery novel from Latiolais (Even Now). A progressive psychiatrist, Luke is simultaneously driven and haunted by the death of his younger sister Sadie: her possible autism was misdiagnosed as schizophrenia and medicated accordingly, with tragic results. Told in retrospect, the subsequent disappearance of Luke's father results in Luke's too close relationship with his mother, Louise, and with Janey, the punk de facto runaway adopted to replace Sadie. When Luke attends a christening and is attracted to the odd floral arrangements of Janey's employer, Alice Samara, he decides to break his familiar stasis and pursue Alice. Their budding relationship forces Luke to face Sadie's death. Apart from Alice's two-dimensionality and some awkward religious symbolism, Latiolais offers an insightful look at recovery from loss and abandonment. (June)

A major BEA galley to grab, this debut from retired California private school headmaster Edwards pulls a Back to the Future on the Vienna that produced The Interpretation of Dreams and, eventually, Mein Kampf—with a little Bill & Ted thrown in for good measure.

The subtitle of Edwards's Twain-indebted debut, written over the course of 30 years, might be “A California Yankee in Doctor Freud's Court.” Following a physical assault, Stan “Wheeler” Burden is precipitated into the past—1897 Vienna, to be exact—from 1988 San Francisco. Wheeler has been a teenage baseball star and famed rock 'n' roller, but he's dreamed of Vienna since his prep school days, where his teacher, Arnauld Esterhazy, instilled a love of the city's gilded paradoxes. Vienna of 1897 is indeed hopping: Freud is discovering the Oedipus complex, Mahler is conducting his symphonies, and the mayor, Karl Lueger, is inventing modern, populist anti-Semitism—which the young Hitler will soon internalize. Making this a true oedipal drama, Wheeler's father and grandparents come to town, too, all at different ages, and with very different agendas. Edwards has great fun with time travel paradoxes and anachronisms, but the real romance in this book is with the period, topped by nostalgia for the old-school American elite, as represented by the we-all-went-to-the-same-prep-school Burdens. This novel ends up a sweet, wistful elegy to the fantastic promise and failed hopes of the 20th century. (Aug.)