Fiction Reviews

In the gilded age of a few months ago, hedge fund managers were “the kings of ka-ching.” Of course, now they're not, and there's a sparky frisson to Momzilla author Kargman's lively chronicle of a queen of ka-ching who ditches her hedge fund manager hubby. Hedge-fund wife Holly Talbott, 34, has forgone Botox and boob jobs and considers herself “more J. Crew than J. Mendel.” She also thinks she has a happy marriage despite her ferocious mother-in-law and the cattiness of keeping up with the yummy mummies of her son's schoolmates. But once she and best friend Kiki discover her husband's cheating ways, the knives come out: among other things, the tough pre-nup makes divorcing the ultra-rich hedgie trickier than she expects. Dating isn't much easier, but readers will know to hold out for the glowing happy ever after. Effervescent Holly's romp through wealthy Manhattan is a gleeful little bonbon. (Apr.)

Oprah-anointed Hamilton once again takes readers to the Midwest, this time lacing her narrative with winning humor. Laura Rider and her husband, Charlie, live in Hartley, Wis., where they own and run Prairie Wind Farm. After 12 years of marriage, Laura decides to stop sleeping with Charlie, and although lovemaking is his “one superb talent,” she's convinced she's “used up her quota.” Also, Laura has a secret fantasy: to be an author. After she meets local public radio host Jenna Faroli, Laura decides to write a romance and encourages a flirtation between Charlie and Jenna, an experiment that she thinks will help her write her book. Their flirtation quickly slides into an affair, with Laura's sly interference. Laura, at once jealous and pleased, benefits from the inevitable chain of events, while Jenna isn't so lucky. Though the plotting is a bit predictable, the female characters are sharply observed and delineated, and the humorous tone will be an appealing surprise to Hamilton's readers. (Apr.)

Following up on the success of Three Day Road, Boyden delivers the powerful story of former bush pilot and Cree native Will Bird. The novel opens with Will in a coma, with his niece Annie, who just returned from an eight-month excursion in search of her sister, by his side. Narrated by Will and Annie, the story backtracks to tell of Will's fight to keep his bush-country Indian life alive and protected while he suppresses painful childhood memories (and befriends an old bear). Annie, a skillful hunter and animal trapper, dictates her escapades after rushing off to New York City in pursuit of her sister, Suzanne, a model who has shacked up with a member of the narcotics-smuggling Netmakers family. As Will struggles to survive and Annie reintegrates into the isolated bush, the two stories dovetail as the Netmakers cross paths with Will. Though the incongruously melodramatic denouement doesn't fit with the richly textured narrative preceding it, the novel as a whole is an intelligent, multilayered accomplishment, and well worth reading. (Mar.)

Bayou shepherd of half-sunk souls, Gautreaux returns to the land of the lost and the lonely in his haunting and transient third book (after The Clearing). Post-WWI Louisiana is a “root-buckled” and “magnolia-haunted” underworld for seedy, drunken mobs and twisted backwoods families. Floating through the chaos is Sam Simoneaux, who, “half dead” after the slaughter of his parents and the later loss of his two-year-old son to fever, undertakes a quest to find a missing girl. Encountering embittered thieves, forlorn vaudevillians and icy bourgeoisie, Simoneaux is a keen observer who can find the one good stitch of humanity in an otherwise sordid tableau, even as his investigation begins to connect back to his family's murders. He is also a refreshingly candid voice, brimming with a lyrical intensity that graces some of the best Southern literature. Though the hasty, romantic wrapup to Sam's investigation and his refusal to exact revenge on his family's murderers—emotionally tepid even through the novel's decisive climax—obscure Gautreaux's finer redemptive tones, Sam's struggle to redeem the memories of his son and parents sustains the book's raw beauty. (Mar.)

Tweaking some thematic elements of his previous novel, The Stolen Child, Donohoe now tells the story of Norah, a nine-year-old who appears on the doorstep of Margaret Quinn, a widow living a solitary existence in a small Pennsylvania town in 1985. Margaret eagerly takes in Norah to make up for the loss of her own daughter, Erica, who disappeared 10 years earlier after running away to join the Angels of Destruction, a West Coast revolutionary group. Margaret passes off Norah as her granddaughter and enrolls her in school, where Norah becomes friendly with a boy who's been abandoned by his father. Complications ensue when Margaret's sister arrives and has to be convinced that Norah is Erica's daughter. Sandwiched between the story of Margaret and Norah's unusual relationship is the flashback narrative of teenage Erica's road adventures with her boyfriend on their way to join the Angels of Destruction. Norah's unexplained origins form the enigmatic core of this story, and though she comes across as more of a novelistic conceit than a flesh and blood character, the novel movingly illustrates the quest for connection hardwired into every human heart. (Mar.)

Memoirist Gordon ventures into fiction with this mixed academic comedy set at a Texas university. Ruth Blau, a once-promising novelist married to philosophy professor Ben, achieved some acclaim years ago, but she never got around to following it up. When celebrated memoirist Ricia Spottiswoode and her protective husband, Charles Johns, are added to the faculty, Ruth hopes this will give her a chance at the literary life she's dreamed of. In the meantime, Ben suffers when a flaky, fairy-obsessed woman replaces his longtime secretary. Ruth and Ben also try to juggle the demands of their mentally ill son, Isaac, whose only contact with them is through his therapist. The central characters, unfortunately, are too passive and spend most of their time observing each other and what happens around them, and though Gordon's prose is sharp—she particularly excels in scene-setting—the overall effect is one of disconnection: from character to character and writer to reader. (Mar.)

With another multigenerational, wonderfully crafted Midwest ensemble cast, Cooper (Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns) presents the town of Wideland, Okla., through the eyes of folksy nonagenarian Hattie B. Brown. This community sentinel, though sometimes short on memory, acts as tour guide and historian, introducing the town at the beginning of the 20th century, when the railroad first arrived and, with it, a growing population. Among the new residents, Hattie introduces the industrious, loving African-American cowboy Val Strong and his Cherokee “brother-friend” Wings; Val's hardened but beautiful wife, Irene Lowell; and their two strong-willed daughters, Rose and Tante. Following the Strong family and their associates through the better part of the 1900s, Hattie finds history running roughshod through their lives, crushing some and strengthening others, introducing new generations and obstacles to love, home and happiness. Cooper's characteristic motherly wit carries an appealing raft of characters through a world tougher than it is tender, but touched with beauty and wisdom. (Mar.)

Ironic, beautifully written, brutal and ugly, Khadivi's ambitious debut novel follows a Kurdish boy who is tragically and violently conscripted into the shah's army after his own people are slaughtered in battle. Assigned the name Reza Pejman Khourdi—Reza after the first shah of Iran, Pejman meaning heartbroken and Khourdi to denote he's an ethnic Kurd—the boy suppresses all things Kurdish within him, fueled by a sense of self-preservation and self-loathing. Channeling fear and hate into brutal acts against the Kurds, Reza makes a quick climb up the military career ladder, eventually gaining an appointment to Kermanshah, a Kurdish region in the north of Iran. There, as overseer of his own people, Reza promotes Kurdish assimilation and the budding nation of Iran while mercilessly silencing voices of Kurdish independence. As he grows old with his Iranian wife, Meena, Reza's internal conflicts simmer, then boil over, with unexpected and terrible results. This difficult but powerful novel, the first of a trilogy, introduces a writer with a strong, unflinching voice and a penetrating vision. (Mar.)

Smith's newest historical fiction (after Daughter of York) is a complex exploration of a turbulent period of English history, taking on one of its biggest mysteries: the fate of princes Edward and Richard, locked up in the Tower by Richard III. Protagonist Grace Plantagenet is the illegitimate daughter of Edward IV and had been confidant to his family—including her imprisoned half-brothers Edward and Richard. After Richard III is killed and the princes disappear, a man named Perkin Warbeck appears to challenge Henry VII, claiming to be the presumed dead Prince Richard. Determined to discover the truth of Warbeck's claim, Grace throws herself into the politics of the court, knowing that if Warbeck is Prince Richard, it could be drastic for Grace's family—especially for her half-sister Elizabeth of York, now Henry's queen. Examined through the eyes of a minor historical figure, Smith introduces readers to 15th-century political intrigue with thought, courage and honesty. Though her major historical figures (especially Henry VII) get the broad-brush treatment, Smith is careful to make Grace and her world detailed and engaging. (Mar.)

Historian and author Lebra (Women Against the Raj) makes her fiction debut with this historical novel concerning one of Japan's most ancient practices, sake brewing. Rie Omura, the daughter of a brewing merchant in 19th-century Kobe, decides at a young age to get into the business, even though women aren't even allowed inside the brewing house. Guilt over her brother's fatal accident drives Rie's fantasy to make her family's enterprise number one. Soon, however, the company's success falls to Rie's drunk, delinquent husband, the heir to another brewing house. Rie begins gently suggesting risky but profitable ventures to the men of the office, expanding shipments and wrangling with competitors (in sometimes excessive detail). The family grows alongside the business, as Rie reluctantly agrees to adopt her husband's illegitimate children (by geishas), hoping to build the great brewing dynasty her father always wanted. A paragon of determination and suppressed emotion, Rie can seem stagnant, especially amid a swirl of characters, but Lebra's focused, businesslike style and attention to detail make a fine match for her protofeminist heroine. (Mar.)

In this strong debut novel, Schwartz takes a hard look at the dark secrets hiding within a marriage. Depressed over the death of her mother six months before, Jane Rosen, a stay-at-home mom of three girls and longtime wife to busy, self-absorbed rabbi Saul, finally flies down to her mother's long-empty Florida house to put her affairs in order. There, Jane finds evidence of a mother she never knew, while Saul contends with the girls—in particular unhappy, fragile 16-year-old Malkah—and a dying congregant's bombshell confession, that he had an affair with Jane 10 years before. Shocked and wounded, Saul tells Jane not to come home, leaving her to pursue her mother's secret life. Soon, Jane's caught up with a gardener who traps her in a spider web of drugs, sex and secrets. At home, Malkah's descent into depression and Saul's compounding fury push the family toward tragedy. Though readers may feel the couple is let too easily off the hook, Schwartz pursues both threads of the story unflinchingly to the end. (Mar.)

Klein (Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington) crafts a charming philosophical lesson in this story of destiny and history colliding in a fictional New England town. Wendell deVries, a solitary man with a “dog-like dedication to familiarity,” operates the projection booth inside the Phoenix theater in Grandville, Mass., founded by his grandparents. He shows movies for New York “second-homers” and locals, except on Tuesdays, when his 37-year-old daughter, Franny, conducts drama club meetings. When Franny's set design is criticized by Babs Dowd, a well-known New York designer who challenges Franny's role as drama leader, Franny's life spins out of control and she lands in the sanitarium. Reluctantly agreeing to a buyout from Babs in order to take care of his family, Wendell must leave his insular world in the projection booth and face the real world. All the while, Franny's daughter, Lila, struggles to find her niche in high school. Blending the present-day story with tidbits from Grandville history, Klein brings the town vividly to life. As the drama unfolds, the actors remind us that destiny is writ in history. (Mar.)

Taïa's slim and disjointed autobiographical coming-of-age story begins in poverty in Salé, Morocco, where young Abdellah reports on the impoverished town's doings. As a young adult, he falls for an older man who introduces him to Europe and the possibility of leaving home and its repressive social mores behind. But the story feels haphazard, and the narrative hinges on a string of taboo-breaking accounts of Taïa's amorous encounters, from his incestuous desire for his older brother to his troubled first love, then a threesome, then a random encounter in a public toilet. For all its frank sexuality and candor, the novel feels canned and unconvincing. (Mar.)

At the start of bestseller Robb's megablast 28th novel to feature Lt. Eve Dallas (after Salvation in Death), Eve is dismayed to discover at a Manhattan crime scene that the victim is a friend, Det. Amaryllis Coltraine, who's been fatally zapped by her own stun gun. Dallas uncovers a connection to Coltraine's ex-boyfriend, Alex Ricker, whose father, a notorious criminal serving a life sentence at the Omega Penal Colony, blames Dallas and her husband, Roarke, for his imprisonment. Humorous touches, like the wild poolside wedding shower Dallas must abruptly leave after receiving word of a prime suspect found shot to death, provide relief from the intensity of the murder investigation. In a nice paranormal twist, Dallas uses dream visits with Coltraine to help expose a devious killer whose identity is a stunner. Robb (aka Nora Roberts) has a real gift for keeping this long-running thriller series fresh. (Feb.)

Barnes's second novel, a compelling supernatural thriller, shows his impressive debut, The Somnambulist (2008), was no fluke. Shadowy figures working for a covert government agency called the Directorate inform Henry Lamb, a clerk with London's civil service archive unit, that his grandfather, recently felled by a stroke, was once a major player in their secret war against the House of Windsor. In 1857, Queen Victoria promised the souls of the people of London to a monstrous Lovecraftian entity known as the Leviathan. Now the bill is due. Since Lamb's grandfather held the secret to the whereabouts of a woman named Estella, who's critical to containing the Leviathan, the members of the Directorate regard Lamb as their best hope for locating Estella. Thanks to Barnes's evocative prose, readers will easily suspend disbelief. Those who enjoy the grafting of fantasy elements onto contemporary urban landscapes will be more than satisfied. (Feb.)

In this taut, suspenseful SF thriller from bestseller Child (Deep Storm), an obscure scientific expedition in Alaska's remote Federal Wilderness Zone stumbles on the frozen body of what appears to be a saber-tooth tiger in a cave, though only the eyes are clearly visible through the ice. When news of the find reaches the cable television network sponsoring the expedition, Emilio Conti, a legendary documentary filmmaker, rushes to the scene, where he plans to film the thawing of the animal on live TV. After the frozen creature disappears, Conti suspects sabotage, until horribly eviscerated corpses begin to pile up at the military base hosting the expedition. Paleoecologist Evan Marshall suspects that the prehistoric beast is responsible—and that the initial identification of it as a saber-tooth was mistaken. While the story line of a horrific monster picking off a shrinking group of survivors in a confined area is nothing new, Child's superior writing raises this above the pack. (Feb.)

Last seen in Catfish Café (1998), Thomas Black finds his memory playing tricks on him at the start of Emerson's dark and disturbing 12th novel to feature the Seattle PI. As Black recuperates in the hospital after being severely wounded in an explosion, he can't remember if his lawyer wife, Kathy Birchfield, is alive or dead. Kathy was to have been a passenger on a chartered plane, along with Sen. Jane Sheffield, that crashed into the sea with no survivors. In flashbacks, Black and Birchfield work on opposing senatorial campaigns until the crash eliminates Birchfield and the blast injures Black. Twin brothers, Elmer “Snake” Slezak and Bert Slezak, play key roles—Snake protects Black; Bert, a former CIA sniper and confirmed conspiracy nut, tries to persuade the PI that the plane crash was no accident. Conspiracy buffs should enjoy this thriller with its references to real-life events like 9/11 that some consider coverups, while Thomas Black fans will welcome his return after a long hiatus. (Feb.)

British author Unsworth (The Not Knowing) delivers a gripping thriller inspired by the good old days of in-your-face post-punk rock. Bad boy singer Vincent Smith of a New Wave group patterned after the Sex Pistols disappears in 1981, at the peak of Blood Truth's fame, after his wife of six months, Sylvana, lead singer of Mood Violet, overdoses in Paris. More than 20 years later, journalist Eddie Bracknell lands a deal to write a bio of Vince, but ferreting out the truth about the rocker's mad love for Sylvana and his iconic group, whose members disliked “the New Wave goddess,” becomes a fierce trip down a memory lane mosh pit squirming with vipers, liars and tricksters. The tension builds as Unsworth switches from the past to the present, bringing to dramatic life the players in this twisted tragedy. The shocking scoop on what really happened between the doomed couple finds Eddie discovering that raising the dead can come with a hefty price tag. (Feb.)

Novack's lyrical and finely crafted first novel is set in a small, idyllic Pennsylvania town circa 1978 and charts the crumbling of two families. At the center of the novel is the Kisch family, sisters Sissy and Eva and parents Frank and Natalia. Nine-year-old Sissy is introverted and impressionable, while older Eva is having an affair with Peter, her high school English teacher. Her parents' marriage, too, is rapidly deteriorating, and soon Natalia takes off for Italy with her lover, leaving Frank to try to deal with the remnants of their family. A few houses away, 10-year-old Vicki Anderson (whose relationship to Sissy is troubled), has gone missing, leaving her mother, Ginny, panicked and grief-stricken. Unhappiness, it seems, dwells everywhere, though there may be a dash of hard-won hope as Natalia returns home and the Kisches recalibrate. Ginny, meanwhile, fails to receive any good news about her missing daughter. The graceful prose and bleak atmosphere underscore the loneliness of each character. Novack takes the massive distance between friends, husbands and wives, and makes it her home. (Feb.)

Axtaga returns to Obaba, the fictional village at the heart of his acclaimed novel Obabakoak, to tell a gorgeous and ambitious story about the Basque land and language. Much of the book is set in the 1960s, when David Imaz, the teenage son of an accordionist, begins to suspect his father participated in the execution of villagers accused of being Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Twenty-five years after the war officially ended, political—even inadvertently political—choices remain deadly, but fear of Franco's civil guard neither darkens the innocence or exuberance of the young nor lightens the guilt of their parents. In Obaba, grudges and friendships are long-lasting and deep, and secrets are buried only shallowly. The narrative moves back and forth through time, from the 1990s, when gravely ill David reflects on his life from a ranch in California, to the war in the 1930s and through David's sometimes dangerous coming-of-age up through the 1970s. Originally written in Basque (and later translated into Spanish), the novel is a worthy addition to both Axtaga's body of work and the Basque canon. (Feb.)

In Seewald's tepid second novel of romantic suspense to feature psychic librarian Kim Reynolds (after The Inferno Collection), Kim and her police detective boyfriend, Lt. Mike Gardner, look into the murder of Rick Bradshaw, an unrepentant womanizer found floating in the swimming pool of the apartment complex where Kim lives in Webster Township, N.J. Suspects include Rick's fiancée, his current lover, an ex-lover and assorted cuckolded husbands. Gardner welcomes Kim's help on the case, but he's mainly interested in persuading her to marry him. The romantic scenes between the pair flow better than the slow progress of the murder investigation. Some readers may be disappointed that Kim, who's haunted by ghosts, doesn't use her psychic talents until late in the proceedings. (Feb.)

In this routine medical thriller from bestseller Palmer (The First Patient), Dr. Thea Sperelakis, an idealist who's been working for Doctors Without Borders in the Congo, rushes back to Boston after learning her physician father, Petros, an intimidating figure known as the Lion, is close to death, the victim of a hit-and-run. Thea faces one challenge after another, including having to resuscitate Petros when his heart stops beating. Her brilliant if socially challenged older brother, Dimitri, adds to her anxiety with his computer reconstruction of the accident, which indicates the driver struck Petros deliberately. When Thea manages to communicate haltingly with her father, she suspects he's stumbled on some medical fraud that's made him the target of those behind the fraud. Aided by the requisite hunky ex-cop turned hospital security guard, Thea doggedly seeks out the truth. Robin Cook fans have seen all this before and in more engaging form. (Feb.)

Sigel's powerful and elegantly crafted second novel (after The Kermanshah Transfer) explores the impact of the disappearance of a boy shortly before his 14th birthday on his parents. Daniel Sandler is adored by Joshua and Nathalie, an upper middle-class couple who summer in a small rural Massachusetts community. One day, the Sandlers return to their summer home from a mundane errand to find Daniel gone. As the hours pass with no clues to Daniel's whereabouts, their despair and anxiety escalate geometrically, and hopes that their child will return unscathed evaporate. Despite the dogged efforts of local law enforcement, weeks and then months pass without progress in the investigation. The uncertainty takes its toll on Joshua and Nathalie, both as individuals and as a couple. The mystery's resolution is secondary to Sigel's subtle and probing look at the consequences of a tragedy. (Feb.)

Satisfying psychological depth and original characters help move along Hendricks's clumsily plotted latest. Sunny Cooper still has problems with Gwen, her mother. Raised on a New Mexico commune, Sunny now lives in Albuquerque with her boyfriend, Michael, doing voice-over work. When Michael is killed in a mysterious accident, Sunny discovers he was not who she thought he was, and creditors and cops inundate her. Looking for solace, Sunny heads back to the commune, where she finds her mother to be the same maddening hippie chick she always was. Again, fed up and out of options, Sunny decides to sell everything and leave, this time for San Miguel Island off the coast of Washington, where, in a little town called Harmony, she tries to rebuild her life. But events from her past follow her to the island, and before long she's heading off-island for some closure. Hendricks's gentle humor and vivid depictions of island and communal life put a little sugar on the unfortunate and overbusy plot. (Feb.)

First published in Albania in 1970 and translated into French in the '90s, Kadare's (The Successor) beast of a novel traces a 15th-century Ottoman siege of a Christian citadel in Albania. Ugurlu Tursun Pasha is commander-in-chief of a vast number of Turkish infantry troops, cavalry, swordsmen and janissaries. From his pink pavilion on the plain, the pasha must vanquish the Albanians, who refuse to surrender. Readers meet several on the pasha's side during the bloody battles, including the rather hapless Mevla Çelebi, chronicler to the Ottomans, and the enlightened quartermaster general. Although there are few Albanian characters, Kadare, a Man Booker International Prize–winner and Nobel contender, crafts a story whose details add up to a glimpse into the soul of his own country. Kadare's metaphors leave no doubt that the novel is also an insightful commentary on life in late 1960s Albania, when the book was written. (Feb.)

Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) revisits William Bligh's doomed expedition in this adequate seafaring historical. Captain's servant John Jacob Turnstile, a 14-year-old orphan and thief, avoids a prison sentence by accepting a position aboard Bligh's ship, the Bounty. The ship's mission to Tahiti is tumultuous, and once the ship reaches its destination, some crew members become enamored of the island women. On the return voyage, they stage a mutiny and turn the ship around, forcing Bligh and the sailors loyal to him onto a small boat with minimal provisions. Boyne's take on the story capitalizes less on the tension among the warring factions, focusing more heavily on Turnstile's coming-of-age, while Bligh wavers between an abrasive task master and a health nut with a sensitive side. The novel succeeds as a historical adventure, but it doesn't add much to the already bulging bulk of Bounty books. (Feb.)

Wood's faith fiction debut, Leaper, was enthusiastically received. The evangelical Christian novelist will be warmly welcomed into the hearths and homes of fellow coffee aficionados—and lovers of all things caffeinated and comedic—with this second offering, with an equally engaging and thoroughly satisfying story line that emerges from a fortune cookie. Coffee-shop owner John Parrish squabbles with two employee friends over such heady topics as God's leading, hearing God's voice and living out one's faith. Once Parrish accepts God's cookie-embedded challenge to “take the corner,” there's no turning back. Despite fear of humiliation and failure, Parrish treks to the nearest street corner and awaits further instructions from on high. What happens in the following days is entertaining, thought-provoking and completely plausible. Quirky characters and sidesplitting dialogue, laced with the painful ironies of real life, will have readers feeling as though they are indulging in all things cozy, comforting and invigorating. (Feb.)

Authors of the highly successful Left Behind series of apocalyptic novels, pastor LaHaye and author Jenkins base their stories on Christian scripture. Their latest religious fiction project examines the era and story of Jesus Christ by constructing accounts of each Gospel writer's life. This volume of The Jesus Chronicles recounts the life story of the author of the Gospel of Luke. Luke, born as Loukon into a family of slaves, earns the respect of his master, Theophilus, as a child and is sent to the university in Tarsus to study medicine. From this point on, the plot, unfortunately, becomes contrived. While at school, Luke meets Saul, an arrogant fellow student who later becomes known as Paul after his conversion. Luke develops a hobby of writing stories and eventually composes his gospel at the feet of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who, while old and somewhat feeble, is able to recall the exact words her son spoke 20 years before. Fans of the authors' earlier work will likely appreciate this account, but it is unlikely to win any converts. (Feb.)

Near the start of Edgar-winner Goodwin's fine third historical to feature the eunuch Yashim, who serves the Ottoman rulers of early 19th-century Turkey (after 2008's The Snake Stone), Yashim's close friend Stanislaw Palewski, the Polish ambassador to the Turkish sultan, accepts an undercover assignment on the sultan's behalf. Posing as an American, the diplomat travels to Venice in an effort to locate a portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror (who reclaimed Constantinople from the Christians in 1453), painted by the legendary artist Gentile Bellini. Fortunately for Palewski, Yashim, who has a secret plan for the painting's recovery, intervenes in time to set the mission on the right track after the murder of two art dealers. While Yashim initially plays a backstage role, the eunuch and a shadowy power broker engage in an exciting and complex duel of wits in the book's final quarter. Once again, Goodwin skillfully blends deduction, action sequences and period color. (Mar.)

Comedienne Rivers (Having a Baby Can Be a Scream) and mystery pro Farmer (Sympathy for the Devil) deliver the impressive first of a new series influenced by Rivers and daughter Melissa's real-life red carpet encounters. On Oscar night, their fictional counterparts, Maxine “Max” Taylor and her daughter, Drew, are outside Hollywood's Kodak Theater as cohostesses of a Glam-TV Red Carpet Special. During Max's interview with scantily clad 19-year-old Halsey Hamilton, Drew's childhood friend and best actress nominee, Halsey drops dead. Did she overdose or was she poisoned? The supernova had just left Wonders, a posh rehab facility in Pasadena. Whirling into sleuthing mode, Max seeks answers at Wonders, where she signs in as a Sweet'N Low addict. This smooth blend of Rivers's trademark bitchy humor and Farmer's deft plotting also offers a poignant reminder about the cost of fame for too many young Hollywood celebs. (Feb.)

Stone, who died in 2007, successfully grafts a classic hard-boiled detective plot line onto the complexities and dangers of life in modern Israel in his final novel. When Prof. Jacob Kaye suspects his attractive wife, Deborah, of infidelity, he hires Levin, a former Israeli security service officer turned PI, to shadow her around the streets of Jerusalem. Levin quickly confirms his client's fears. When Deborah's art professor lover is gunned down on the road to Jaffa, an apparent victim of a random Palestinian sniper attack, Levin wonders whether Kaye was behind the murder. While the gumshoe's growing attraction to the woman in the case is stock material, Stone (A Town Called Jericho) uses it to challenge his lead character's retreat from life and generally passive attitude. The book also nicely captures the inherently tenuous nature of life in the Holy City, where a door-to-door insurance salesman offers a small extra charge for terrorism coverage. (Feb.)

In Harris's cute second dirty business mystery (after 2008's Pushing Up Daisies), landscape designer Paula Holliday is thrilled when her TV producer friend, Lucy Cavanaugh, suggests an all-expenses-paid getaway for the two of them to the Titans Hotel in Connecticut wine country. Paula even wangles a Springfield Bulletin gig to write about the “titan arum” (aka the corpse flower) on display under glass in the hotel lobby because the bloom smells so bad. When Lucy fails to appear and the dead body of new acquaintance Nick Vigoriti turns up on the hotel's loading dock, Paula considers returning home. Det. Stacy Winters's investigation persuades a TV reporter that Paula is “a person of interest” in Nick's murder, but Paula is more worried she might become the killer's next victim. The nifty puzzle that unfolds involves Native American casinos, mysterious Russians and that stinky slow-blooming flower. Author tour. (Feb.)

Set in an unnamed city, Berry's ambitious debut reverberates with echoes of Kafka and Paul Auster. Charles Unwin, a clerk who's toiled for years for the Pinkerton-like Agency, has meticulously catalogued the legendary cases of sleuth Travis Sivart. When Sivart disappears, Unwin, who's inexplicably promoted to the rank of detective, goes in search of him. While exploring the upper reaches of the Agency's labyrinthine headquarters, the paper pusher stumbles on a corpse. Aided by a narcoleptic assistant, he enters a surreal landscape where all the alarm clocks have been stolen. In the course of his inquiries, Unwin is shattered to realize that some of Sivart's greatest triumphs were empty ones, that his hero didn't always come up with the correct solution. Even if the intriguing conceit doesn't fully work, this cerebral novel, with its sly winks at traditional whodunits and inspired portrait of the bureaucratic and paranoid Agency, will appeal to mystery readers and nongenre fans alike. (Feb.)

In Jaffarian's bodacious fourth mystery to feature bighearted, plus-sized Odelia Grey (after 2008's Thugs and Kisses), Odelia's distraught friend, Lillian Ramsey, asks the paralegal's help in proving her famous cosmetic surgeon son, Brian Eddy, is not the Blond Bomber, a serial killer who for the past year has been plaguing Southern California. Odelia—with the aid of her wheelchair-bound husband, Greg Stevens, and the cooperation of her attorney boss, Mike Steele—discovers that both Brian and his celebrity interior designer wife, Jane Sharp, appear to be connected to the four female victims, each of whom had the word whore printed on her torso. The neatly constructed plot begins zigzagging around tough guy Gordon Harper, whose ex-wife, ex-stripper Crystal Lee, was one of the Bomber's victims. Leavened with lively humor, the action builds to a wickedly satisfying windup. (Feb.)

Mundane prose and a predictable story line mar Cox's debut, a contemporary police procedural. Matt Arnold, a South London detective sergeant whose policeman father died heroically in the line of duty when Arnold was 12, must investigate a particularly horrendous murder—the killing of three-year-old Ryan Clarkson, whose head was bashed against his bedroom wall. Ryan's parents are the obvious suspects, and evidence that he'd been abused for years makes the police more determined to ascertain who exactly was responsible for the fatal blow. Arnold's team soon finds that Ryan wasn't the first Clarkson child to die at an early age. The plot takes an unnecessary detour when Arnold's own young son becomes the victim of a hit-and-run driver and lies close to death. Hopefully, the author, who's a veteran London police officer, will put her insider's knowledge to better use in any sequel. (Feb.)

Founded upon a fratricide—or at least so goes the legend of Romulus and Remus—the Eternal City would seem fertile terrain for the newest site-inspired short story anthology in Akashic's popular noir series. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Despite the stray gem like Antonio Pascale's “For a Few More Gold Tokens,” an ingeniously constructed, darkly comic account of a caper gone hilariously wrong, most of the 16 selections made by Stangalino, a festival organizer and film director, and British editor and writer Jakubowski display a disappointing dearth of variety or distinction. Even Jakubowski's own “Remember Me with Kindness,” one of the volume's most stylishly written tales, would have shone brighter without the presence of another story hinging on the same plot twist. In anybody's book, that's a crime. (Feb.)

Set in Enid, Okla., in 1915, Casey's smart fourth whodunit to feature farmer's wife Alafair Tucker (after 2007's The Drop Edge of Yonder) sensitively evokes smalltown life. The impending demise of Alafair's ill brother-in-law, Lester Yeager, raises concern about the future of the family storage company on the part of his prospective heirs. One of them, Yeager's son-in-law, Kenneth Crawford, has embezzled money from the company. Then Crawford's corpse, lacking any obvious cause of death, turns up in a meat locker. Tucker once again adds her insights into human nature to the official investigation, before arriving at a solution that most will find both logical and surprising. Since the murder occurs well on into the book, readers whose focus is on crime may be a little impatient for something beyond family dynamics and dysfunction to happen. Those who like their puzzles cloaked in local color from a different time will be amply rewarded. (Jan.)

Four strangers are bound together in adventure, love and occasional sorrow in this parable from Tiptree winner Valente (The Orphan's Tales). The city of Palimpsest exists somewhere outside our reality, accessible only during the sleep that follows sex. The “immigrants” to Palimpsest, marked forever by the tattoo-like impression of a map on their skin, seek out one another for real-world sexual adventures that function as passports to new otherworldly quarters. In outstandingly beautiful prose, Valente describes grotesque, glamorous creatures sometimes neither human nor animal, alive nor dead, and mortal travelers who pursue poignant personal quests to replace the things (and people) they've lost. Valente's fondness for digression at times makes for a difficult read, and her fable of quest and loneliness is less an engrossing fairy tale and more a meticulous travelogue of a stranger's dream. (Feb.)

In the long-awaited sequel to 1976's Hugo and Nebula–nominated Inferno, dead science fiction writer Allen Carpenter returns to the nine circles of Dante's Hell on a quest. After witnessing infamous fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (Carpenter's Virgil-like guide in Inferno) escape from the confines of Hell, Carpenter vows to make the nightmarish journey again and liberate as many tortured souls as possible. Poet Sylvia Plath, recently freed from the Wood of Suicides, accompanies Carpenter, as do a diverse cast of notorious historic figures, including Pontius Pilate, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Anna Nicole Smith. This well-constructed tale will inspire many readers to seek out the original Divine Comedy, but fans of Inferno may find that the landscape and the plot are a little too familiar. (Feb.)

Urban realism meets dark fantasy in this spine-tingling second collaboration between authors Golden and Lebbon (after 2008's Mind the Gap) as they merge the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina with New Orleans' terrifying ghostly past. Max Corbett, a former professor at Tulane University, comes back to the Big Easy for the funeral of his lover, Gabrielle. Torn with anger and grief, he believes a stranger who claims he can put Max in touch with Gabrielle's ghost. Armed with a mysterious potion and a magical map, Max must seek out the psychic echoes of traumatic moments in the city's history. He soon finds himself trapped into experiencing all the moments, no matter how dangerous or grotesque. Golden and Lebbon have far outstripped their past efforts with this wonderfully creepy thriller of a ghost story. (Feb.)

This career-spanning collection of 38 stories offers perspectives on various aspects of history, whether actual (“Time Travellers Never Die”), alternate (“The Tomb”) or conjectured (“Ignition”). Character actions grow out of remembered or recovered stories (“To Hell with the Stars”), while AIs are programmed to emulate St. Augustine (“Gus”) and George Washington (“The Candidate”). The hard SF shell of McDevitt's work often contains a romantic core, where a skeptical faith sustains and motivates his protagonists to struggle on (“Indomitable,” “Never Despair”). Never predictable in outcome, conflicts are resolved by a well-formed argument that enables the well-aimed blaster (“Kaminsky at War”). McDevitt's fondness for ideas such as idealism's triumph over pragmatism is a little too apparent in this single-volume setting, but his strong, clear voice easily sustains each individual story. (Feb.)

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Ross delivers a charming second anthology brimming with romantic fantasy tales of swashbuckling ladies and daring gentleman. Among the best are two sequels to stories from 2008's Lace and Blade: in Diana L. Paxson's “The Crow,” an old flame of Claude le Baron's has become entangled with a blood sacrifice cult, while in Robin Wayne Bailey's “Trial by Midnight,” Lady Elena Sanchez y Vega and her beloved highwayman, Ramon Estrada, enjoy an adventure with startling repercussions on their future together. Also outstanding are Sherwood Smith's amusing tale “Miss Austen's Castle Tour,” which suggests a “mysterious gap in Austen's letters” might have occurred when Jane visited Count Dracula, and Tanith Lee's eloquent “Comfort and Despair.” Readers will be left starry-eyed and hoping for the series to continue. (Feb.)

Fifteen-year-old twins Eliot and Fiona Post are, unbeknownst to them, descended from two age-old warring dynasties. Their oppressive grandmother, Audrey, hides them from the political machinations of their centuries-old, magic-wielding relatives by making their lives as mundane and boring as possible, an expedient that leaves them predictably miserable. The opening chapters share the sluggish pace of the Posts' life in dull Del Sombra, Calif., and even several impossible events at first fail to penetrate the twins' belief in the utter normalcy of their family. Fortunately, the characterization of Eliot and Fiona is lively and realistic, and Nylund (Halo: Ghosts of Onyx) rewards readers willing to slog through the first of the twins' three magical trials with a sparkling and complicated story filled with dangerous, intriguing events and characters. (Feb.)

Seattle video game designer Cole Warnecki takes an extreme vacation in British Columbia and ends up hunting supernatural monsters in this campy, action-packed paranormal debut. After Cole survives an encounter with a nasty werewolflike Full Blood, he lands a job with the Midwestern Ectological Group, whose Skinners act as cops for the local supernatural population. They bring him to Chicago and pair him up with experienced Skinner Paige Strobel, who gives him sound advice like “Don't gawk at a woman's ass when she's carrying a shotgun.” Paige drags Cole into the front lines of MEG's war on insane vampire Misonyk, who infects people with vampiric spores and encourages them to drain victims dry, stealing their souls. Plenty of cinematic gore and wisecracks will keep readers coming back for future installments. (Feb.)

Never before published, this fantastic and compelling hard-boiled mystery was written in 1971 by acclaimed science fiction author Zelazny (1937–1995), but only discovered after his death. The unlikely hero is Ovid Wiley, art thief turned respectable art dealer, who wakes one morning to find his former partner, Carl Bernini, dead on the floor of his gallery. Ovid is sprung from NYPD custody by a CIA agent who will arrange for charges to be dropped if Ovid travels to Rome and investigates the disappearance of money-laundering priest Father Bretagne, whose lover, Maria Borsini, was also Bernini's girlfriend and Ovid's friend. The deepening mystery sends Ovid to Brazil, where he encounters horrific villains, secret agents and salvation in the most unexpected places. The twists and turns come at breakneck pace, and vintage details add unexpected charm. (Feb.)

Don't be put off by the talking dogs; clever (human) dialogue and sassy heroines make this joint novel an amusing standout. After meeting at a local dog obedience-training session, coffeehouse owner Abby, Web writer Daisy and history professor Shar become fast friends. They also discover that the dog trainer is the Mesopotamian goddess Kammani, determined to rule the world like she did 4,000 years ago. Chosen as Kammani's priestesses, Abby, Daisy and Shar aren't quite ready to support the goddess's destructive goals, even when she grants them magical powers including the ability to understand their dogs. Established authors Crusie (Charlie All Night), Stuart (Fire and Ice) and Rich (Wish You Were Here) turn this quirky charmer into an enjoyable paranormal romp that's definitely not just for dog lovers. (Feb.)

Hodges (Let's Get It On) delivers a sizzling romance between sharp, demanding New Orleans hotel owner Winfred “Freddie” Barker and arrogant firefighter and confirmed bachelor Cleveland Alexander. After they meet at the wedding of their best friends, their champagne-fueled one-night stand turns into a tumultuous affair. Freddie's certain that Cleveland is commitment-phobic like her father, an unreliable ex-con, while Cleveland seethes at Freddie's explosive temper and scornful attitude. Various subplots, including Cleveland's difficulties at work and Freddie's frequent sparring with her friend Lillian, interrupt the swift pacing, but the sensual love scenes are plentiful and vividly executed, and the believable, three-dimensional characters keep things moving. (Feb.)

Any pairing of two masterminds can elicit murmurs of approval—or of apprehension. But all readers can rest assured that in this case, the pairing of seinen manga suspense master Urasawa and legendary cartoonist Tezuka is a very, very good thing. In Pluto, Urasawa takes Tezuka's Pinocchio-inspired Astroboy and reimagines it as a futuristic thriller. Touching on many of the themes in Tezuka's story of a robot boy—the overlap of man and machine, the capacity for artificial intelligence to feel emotion, the true meaning of humanity—Pluto offers adult graphic novel readers (and fans of Urasawa's Monster) classic, all-ages Tezuka themes in a mature package. Volume one opens with the death (or murder) of the beloved robot hero, Mont Blanc. Merging current-day life with futuristic projections, Urasawa and longtime editor/producer Nagasaki develop a world where robots live among humans, sometimes living as humans—marrying, having children, taking jobs. Hardworking Detective Gesicht is one of those robots. As he slowly unravels the mystery of the death of Mont Blanc—and subsequent, related murders—he uncovers the disturbing news that he will be next. The creators subtly and seamlessly set up Gesicht's world, while digging deep to reveal the strange dichotomy of life and living among artificial beings. For anyone who doesn't believe that there's any good mature manga in the U.S., Pluto is required reading. (Feb.)

Imagine a David Lynchian children's story scenario where talking animals, animated toys and regular humans coexist in a landscape of surreal seediness; that's exactly what Stearn achieves, and the results are both dreamlike and picaresque as lovable teddy bear Fuzz and his pal Pluck, a denuded rooster, find work at Lardy's sandwich joint only to become separated and embark on strange journeys of despair and violence. Fuzz is savaged by an unfriendly dog while out on a sandwich delivery and ends up partners with Victor, a nutcase who enlists him in a feeble scam involving access over a river, while Pluck's violent encounter with some delinquents at the restaurant catches the eye of a local fight promoter and launches him into a new career as an unlikely gladiatorial badass. The narrative bounces back and forth between the two plots, and much lunacy ensues before the pair is reunited, and, while never dull, the segments featuring Fuzz's predicament pale in comparison to the truly lysergic and disturbing arena adventures of Pluck. And when was the last time you read a story with a bad-tempered halved lemon with fly wings as one of the villains? (Dec.)

An animation storyboard artist, Casarosa (also known for his contributions to the Flight anthologies) has popularized the “Sketchcrawl”—basically wandering around and sketching everything in sight, which is ostensibly the concept behind his first book. If Casarosa had documented his 2006 trip to Venice in the series of finely observed, watercolor-hued pen-and-ink sketches that form this book's core and left it at that, it might have been very different—and better. Instead, it's a scattered, meandering journal whose focus on its own public presentation sinks it. Casarosa devotes pages on end to tedious, dashed-off cartoons about his own creative frustrations (“What's the message I am trying to convey with this comic?” he asks himself), his relationship with his girlfriend (he loves her) and the way the book was assembled (piecemeal). When he actually draws Venetian scenery from life or from memory, or focuses on details like a Bellini painting in a museum or a diagram of his favorite aperitif, it's lovely: the drawings are loose but convincing, and the blotchy imprecision of his coloring suits them nicely. But the many scenes of Casarosa simply drawing comics—or fretting about not drawing comics—occupy too much of the book. (Dec.)

Signature

Reviewed by Jonathan Segura

Written in French by an American, this was the hot book of Frankfurt in 2006 and won two of France's major literary awards. A couple of years and a reported million-dollar advance later, here it is in English. Is it worth the hype and money? In a word, no.

Dr. Max Aue, the petulant narrator of this overlong exercise in piling-on, is a rising star in the SS. His career helped along by a slick SS benefactor, Aue watches the wholesale slaughter of Jews in the Ukraine, survives getting shot through the head in Stalingrad, researches and writes dozens of reports, tours Auschwitz and Birkenau, and finds himself in Hitler's bunker in the Reich's final days. He kills people, too, and is secretly gay—a catcher—and tormented by his love for his twin sister, Una, who now rebuffs his lusty advances. He also hates his mother and stepfather. As he claims, “If you ever managed to make me cry, my tears would sear your face.”

But after nearly 1,000 pages, Herr Doktor Aue, for all his alleged coldness and self-hatred and self-indulgent ruminations, amounts to nothing more than a bloodless conduit for boasting the breadth of Littell's research (i.e., a nine-page digression on the history of Caucasian linguistics). The text itself is notable for its towering, imposing paragraphs that often run on for pages. Unfortunately, these paragraphs are loaded with dream sequences marked by various unpleasant bodily functions, a 14-page hallucination where a very Céline-like crackpot cameos as “Dr. Sardine” and dozens of numbing passages in which SS functionaries debate logistical aspects of the Jewish Question. Also, nary an anus goes by that isn't lovingly described (among the best is one “surrounded by a pink halo, gaped open like a sea anemone between two white globes”). Most crippling, however, is Aue's inability to narrate outside his one bulldozing, breathless register, and while it may work marvelously early on as he relates the troubles of trying to fit the maximum number of bodies into a pit, the monotone voice quickly loses its luster.

In the final 200 or so pages, Berlin is burning, the Russians and Americans are making rapid advances, Hitler is nearly assassinated and SS brass are formulating their personal endgames. But, alas, this massive endeavor grinds to its conclusion on a pulp conceit: two German cops, against all odds, are in hot pursuit of Aue for a crime he may or may not have committed.

Littell's strung together many tens of thousands of words, but many tens of thousands of words does not necessarily a novel make. As the French say, tant pis.

Jonathan Segura is the deputy reviews editor of Publishers Weekly and the author of Occupational Hazards.