Fiction Reviews

The cult novelist's collection of short stories plumbs veins of dark humor amid the sex and gore his fans have come to expect. The contents range from short shorts—a rumination on “The Fifteen Worst Russian Gay Porn Web Sites” and an abortive episode entitled “One Night in 1979 I Did Too Much Coke and Couldn't Sleep and Had What I Thought Was a Million-Dollar Idea to Write the Definitive Tell-all Book About Glam Rock Based on My Own Personal Experience but This Is as Far as I Got”—to longer pieces in which sadistic male characters explore their preoccupations with the murder, mutilation and rape of nihilistic teenaged boys. Stories of the latter group often feature text pared down to dialogue alone or resembling scripts complete with stage directions. The lighter fare, such as it is, provides much needed comic relief, as in the case of “The Anal-Retentive Line Editor,” which proceeds through interstitial edits upon a series of drafts of a piece of gay erotica, forming a running conversation and problematic seduction between author and editor. This is classic Cooper: explicit, unconventional and, to the uninitiated, alarming. (June)

Weil's debut is a stark and haunting triptych of novellas set in the rusted-out hills straddling the border between the Virginias. In “Ridge Weather,” Osby, a hardscrabble cattle rancher, finds himself lonely and isolated after his father's suicide. In the aftermath he struggles to make some sort of a personal connection in increasingly desperate attempts to be needed by someone. In “Stillman Wing,” the elderly Charlie Stillman, afraid of his own mortality, tries to reinvigorate his life by stealing and reconditioning a tractor, all the while maintaining a relationship with his obese, promiscuous daughter and coming to terms with the death of his barnstormer parents. “Sarverville Remains,” takes the form of a letter from Geoffrey Sarver, a mildly retarded orphan, to an incarcerated man whose wife he has fallen in love with, and takes on the elements of a well-told crime story. All three pieces, despite their somber tones, offer renewal for their protagonists. Taken individually, each novella offers its own tragic pleasures, but together, the works create a deeply human landscape that delivers great beauty. (June)

Bosnian-born Hemon (The Lazarus Project) again beautifully twists the language in this collection of eight powerful and disquieting stories. The 1992 Bosnian war colors in the background of all the tales, whose settings range from Africa to Chicago and Sarajevo. Arranged chronologically, all but one feature a Hemon-like narrator named Bogdan, first met as a surly teenager during his diplomat father's assignment in Zaire, where he's happily corrupted by a degenerate American espionage agent. In each successive story, Bogdan recalls the surreal and salient experiences of his life: his youth with his ironically depicted family; his early determination to be a poet; his accidental sojourn in America, where he was caught after the commencement of hostilities in Bosnia; and his return to a “cesspool of insignificant, drizzly suffering,” where he has a transformative night interviewing a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer. Hemon arranges words like gems in a necklace. A necktie is “stretched across the chair seat, like a severed tendon”; a car is “stickered with someone else's thought”; a character's teeth are “like organ pipes.” Writing with steely control and an antic eye, Hemon has assembled another extraordinary work. (May)

Meno (Hairstyles of the Damned) continues to employ his keen observations of human nature, this time exploring the tumultuous landscapes of a contemporary Chicago family. The narrative rotates between members of the Casper family, giving each time and space to dig into their respective quirks. Jonathan, the father, is a scientist caught in a quest for a prehistoric squid and is prone to seizures at the sight of clouds. Madeline, Jonathan's wife, also a scientist, studies the behavior of her murderous lab pigeons and is distressed by the growing distance between family members: elder daughter Amelia is a teenage anticapitalist crusader already becoming weary of the fight; youngest daughter Thisbe's desire to find God is met with much concern from her atheist parents; grandfather Henry's sole desire is to make himself disappear. As the family's preoccupations rattle on and bang up against one another, the recently begun war in Iraq provides background noise and another dimension to the intricate and intimate tale. Meno's handle on the written word is fresh and inviting, conjuring a story that delves deeply into the human heart. (May)

Edgar-finalist Freeman's fourth thriller to feature Duluth, Minn., police lieutenant Jonathan Stride (after Stalked) may be his most ambitious—and accomplished—work to date. As the title suggests, even those involved in the closest relationships can be kept in the dark about a loved one's past. When a woman shows up in town and informs Stride that she's writing a book about the 30-year-old mystery surrounding the murder of the older sister of the girl who grew up to become Stride's spouse, he's forced to re-examine the validity of his bond with not only his late wife, Cindy, who died of cancer five years earlier, but also that involving his current love interest, a former Vegas cop turned PI, Serena Dial. Powered by darkly poetic atmospherics and deep character development (especially Stride, whose understated intensity, dignity and resilience are emblematic of the Twin Ports area itself), this harrowing and heartrending novel will leave readers guessing until the very last pages. Author tour. (Apr.)

Sierra Leone's decades-long civil war and its tragic legacy of “lost boy” soldiers serve as the backdrop for Harris's journeyman debut. When Danny Kellerman, a British journalist in the midst of a flourishing career and a faltering marriage, receives an unexpected note pleading for help from Maria Tirado, a children's relief worker who was his lover during his brief assignment in Sierra Leone four years earlier, he does a Google search on her. To his horror, Danny learns that Maria was murdered before her note reached him in what authorities in Sierra Leone are sweeping under the carpet as a botched roadside robbery. Determined to learn the truth, Danny finagles his way back to West Africa, where he uncovers dangerous truths that suggest his government and his friends aren't the upstanding paragons he took them for. While the surprise-filled final chapter may strike some as a hastily contrived escape hatch, Harris shows a flair for intrigue that bodes well for future novels. (Apr.)

McCafferty's mixed follow-up to Fourth Comings begins with Jessica Darling running through an airport to catch a flight to her friend's wedding, only to trip over ex-boyfriend Marcus Flutie, fresh off the plane from New Orleans, where he was building houses. Jessica is reluctant to start things anew with Marcus, who had in an earlier book proposed to her and still longs for her. McCafferty does a terrific job of recounting her protagonists' pasts while keeping the story feeling fresh, and Marcus's friend Natty Addison makes for a charming foil, though the narrative really lags during part two, with 80 pages of nonstop dialogue—and a series of 54 haikus doesn't do the book any favors. Fans of the series might be hooked, but newer readers may find the intimacy irritating and even boring. McCafferty writes strong characters with rich, believable inner lives, but the attempts at formal cuteness don't allow the book to properly flourish. (Apr.)

Ella Varner grew up with a troublesome mother and an insecure sister, but she has managed to come out of it reasonably sane, with a good (if vegan) boyfriend, Dane, and a job as an advice columnist. All of this gets turned upside down when her sister disappears and sticks Ella with her newborn, Luke. Determined to find Luke's father, Ella tracks down a likely suspect—millionaire playboy Jack Travis. The encounter results in Travis and Ella unexpectedly engaged in an irrepressible attraction. Meanwhile, Ella grows fond of baby Luke and fears what will happen when Tara returns. As Ella grapples with conflicting desires, she learns some important lessons about love and trust. Though Kleypas has trouble breaking her male characters out of archetype and the arc is familiar, Ella's familial dysfunction distinguishes her from other heroines, and her self-awareness draws her out of a stereotypical shell. This will please romance fans, even if it hews a bit too closely to genre conventions. (Apr.)

Quick (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) delivers her reliable blend of sex and suspense in her latest Arcane Society novel. In Victorian London, spinster botanist and psychic Lucinda Bromley meets her match in Caleb Jones, a member of the Arcane Society and descendant of an alchemist family that makes him “the stuff of myth and legend.” Together, this paranormal pair of snoops sets out to track down a thief who made off with a dangerous plant implicated in the death of a wealthy lord, but wind up uncovering a sinister secret order. Quick invents two dazzling 19th-century sleuths who combine paranormal prowess and raw sexual heat. But if they excel at fooling Mother Nature, it's their all too human nature that brings this uncommon Victorian duo to life. (Apr.)

Bestseller Sullivan's first thriller since 2003's The Serpent's Kiss displays his usual knack for setting and scenario. On New Year's Eve during a snowstorm, members of the Third Position Army, a group devoted to fighting corporate greed, seize the Jefferson Club, “a twelve-thousand-acre ultra-private resort for the super-rich,” in southwest Montana. General Anarchy, the group's leader, and his troops free most of the vacationers, but take the world's six richest men hostage and sequentially put them on trials broadcast over the Internet. Summary executions follow in most cases. The twist: the 14-year-old triplets of the club's security chief, Mickey Hennessy, manage to squirrel themselves away within the resort's back rooms and stealthily work to foil the terrorists. Vile villains, the inevitable romance and the children-in-peril dynamic move the plot efficiently if predictably toward the harrowing finale in the rugged wilderness. This is a solid return for Sullivan, but a place keeper at best. (Apr.)

A Civil War spy page-turner meets an exploration of race and religion in 19th-century America in Horn's enthralling latest. Jacob Rappaport, the 19-year-old scion of a wealthy Jewish import-export family, flees home and enlists in the Union army to avoid an arranged marriage. When his superiors discover his unique connections, he is sent on espionage missions that reveal an American Jewish population divided by the Mason-Dixon line, but united by business, religious and family ties. After being sent to assassinate his uncle in New Orleans on Passover, Jacob's next assignment proves even more daunting: marry the feisty Confederate spy Eugenia Levy. What starts out as a dangerous game for both Jacob and Eugenia ends up being a genuine romance, fraught with the potential for peril, betrayal, tragedy and redemption. Horn propels the love story at a thriller's pace; the mix of love and loyalty played out in a divided America is sublime. (Apr.)

Past and present converge in Las Vegas and ghost town Indigo, Nev., the site of a long-ago gunfight, in this engrossing paranormal romance from bestseller Graham (The Death Dealer). Just as Jessy Sparhawk, who's part Lakota Sioux, wins a bundle playing craps at the Vegas Sun, Tanner Green, a bodyguard for the owner of the casino where Jessy works as an entertainer, falls dead on top of her with a knife in his back. Dillon Wolf, a local PI who's part Paiute, and LVPD homicide detective Jerry Cheever soon have a second victim on their hands when a hit-and-run driver kills a Sun parking lot attendant who saw Tanner get out of a limo shortly before he collapsed on Jessy. Jessy and Dillon, both of whom are nightwalkers who can communicate with ghosts, must love and protect each other as another violent showdown approaches in Indigo. Graham's dependable romantic flourishes enhance this bewitching blend of Native American lore, ghostly shenanigans and modern-day chicanery. (Apr.)

This intelligent thriller from Altun, his first to be published in the U.S., nicely evokes modern Istanbul. After Arda Ergenekon's domineering mother dies of cancer, the well-to-do 27-year-old seeks to learn more about his illustrious mathematician father, Mürsel, who was murdered when he was 14. In a postmodernist touch, a character named Selçuk Altun assists Ergenekon in his inquiries into the past. Meanwhile, Bedirhan Öztürk, whose backstory is more compelling than Ergenekon's, is considering retiring from his career as an assassin. What Ergenekon discovers leads him to devote himself to tracking down Mürsel's killer, who, unsurprisingly, turns out to be Öztürk. While some readers may be disappointed by what happens when the two main characters finally meet, the lean prose and deft pacing make this more than a routine revenge tale. (Apr.)

For 12-year-old Love Liu, foreign languages are a way of life: he lives in gossipy Xinjiang in far northwest China, where the sounds of Uyghur, Russian and Chinese mingle. But when Second Prize Wang, a dashing English teacher from Shanghai, arrives at his school, Love Liu wonders what use it would be to learn English. However, he's enamored of the confident and cosmopolitan teacher. Love Liu dives into his studies and soon befriends Second Prize Wang, and their unconventional friendship becomes one of the only constants in Love Liu's world as the Cultural Revolution wears away at the people of Xinjiang. Love Liu's friends are smacked with accusations, his school gets closed down for months at a time and his parents are alternately lauded and condemned. The more quotidian aspects of the novel can be repetitive—Love Liu cycles endlessly through the same handful of teenage tribulations—but the novel's larger portrait of Love Liu and Second Prize Wang's friendship emerges with touching clarity and provides a perfect counterbalance to the corruption and confusion of the Cultural Revolution. (Apr.)

At the start of this taut crime novel from Shamus Award–winner Ure (The Fault Tree), Jessie Dancing, an operator for a roadside emergency service in Phoenix, Ariz., receives a call from a driver in Tucson, Darren Markson, who sounds as if he's being murdered. Not content to merely contact the local police, Jessie tracks down Markson's family and is surprised when his wife tells her he's still alive. Back in her hometown of Tucson, Jessie's past returns to haunt her, including her acquittal three years earlier for a cold-blooded murder she may or may not have committed. When a young woman she meets near the site of Markson's phone call gets blown up in her car, Jessie is once again thrown into a world where the lines between guilty and not guilty blur. As Ure slowly peels back the layers of scar tissue to reveal Jessie's past crimes, the investigation of the woman's murder takes on even more depth as readers come to realize just how damaged the feisty heroine truly is. (Apr.)

Two mysterious occurrences anchor Gwyn's uneven first novel (after a collection, Dog on the Cross): an outcast half Chickasaw/half Mexican boy named J.T. goes missing in smalltown Oklahoma and a strange hole appears in the yard of Hickson Crider, a veteran of the first Gulf War. The thread that pulls the two story lines together is Sheriff Martin, whose investigation into J.T.'s disappearance is slow out of the gate. As for the seemingly bottomless hole in Hickson's yard, it could be an abandoned well, a sink hole, a tunnel to an underground city built by Chinese immigrants or the doing of a Plains Indian incarnation of Satan. Secondary characters—like the sheriff's wife, who spends her pregnancy building model airplanes, or Hickson's neighbor—are compelling though never fully realized, and the supernatural elements don't get much traction. Gwyn is a talented writer working with a compelling premise, but in this novel, the pieces don't fit together. (Apr.)

Jesus Christ's mortal remains turned up in a secret crypt below Jerusalem's Temple Mount in Byrnes's 2007 debut, The Sacred Bones. Now DNA extracted from those remains cures geneticist Charlotte Hennessy of cancer in this equally outlandish sequel. Assassins track Hennessy to Phoenix, Ariz., where they kill her boss and significant other, Evan Aldrich. Hennessy and her ally, Fr. Patrick Donovan, struggle to survive as they attempt to foil the schemes of a motley assortment of villains in search of the now missing Jesus relics, notably American-born Rabbi Aaron Cohen. Another duo, Israeli archeologist Amit Mizrachi and his romantic interest, Egyptologist Julie LeRoux, also attract Cohen's unwelcome attention. A formulaic plot, which includes abduction and the threat of sexual violence, builds to a denouement that will be familiar to viewers of the first Indiana Jones movie. (Apr.)

At the start of bestseller Dugoni's fast-paced second legal thriller to feature Seattle attorney David Sloane (after The Jury Master), the plaintiff's lawyer, who's won an astonishing 18 jury verdicts in a row, agrees to take on a wrongful-death claim with a strong emotional tug. Beverly Ford, the widow of a national guardsman killed during the second Iraq War, is convinced her husband perished as a result of inadequate body armor. Sloane soon learns that established case law makes the prospect of victory over the federal government practically impossible. When the lawyer discovers that other members of Ford's platoon have died under strange circumstances since returning to the U.S., he begins to suspect a conspiracy to conceal the truth. While Dugoni does a good job of conveying litigation tactics, predictable situations—Sloane's crusade endangers his wife and stepson—are a reminder that the author's forte is page-turning action, not imaginative plotting. (Apr.)

An overly convoluted plot and stilted dialogue mar Barcomb's third crime novel (after Blood Tide and Undercurrent), the first in a projected series. The testimony of eight-year-old Tookie “Lucky” Gale, who watched her father, Paul, murder her mother, is enough to send Paul to jail for 21 years. After he's paroled, Paul sets out to find Lucky and get his revenge. Meanwhile, a string of gruesome homicides in Manhattan stump Det. Frank Russo, who's writing his own criminal justice book and yearns to make his legendary retired cop father proud. Frank soon suspects that the killer he's chasing is a woman, because of the crimes' disturbing sexual component, but he and his partner, Jerry Blodgett, hit one dead end after another as the body count climbs. Barcomb clumsily shifts among Frank, Lucky and Paul without ever revealing much about any of them, and the cop chatter in the station and at crime scenes sounds as if it were recycled from old TV shows or dated detective novels. (Apr.)

Yoon's collection of eight richly textured stories explore the themes of family, lost love, silence, alienation and the effects of the Japanese occupation and the Korean War on the poor communities of a small South Korean island. In the namesake story, a lonely young waiter connects with an American widow who has come to find the cave where her husband claimed to have carved their initials during his tour of duty in Korea. The narrator shifts between Jim coping with the loss of his big brother, a fisherman killed by a surfacing American submarine, and the sorrow of the widow. In “Among the Wreckage,” aging parents Bey and Soni hope to recover the body of their son, Karo, killed in a U.S. military bombing test on what was thought to be a deserted island. The sad journey provides Bey an opportunity to examine his inability to show affection to his wife and only child. Yoon's stories are introspective and tender while also painting with bold strokes the details of the lives of the invisible. (Apr.)

Miller's follow-up to Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects once again experiments with narrative, exploring the life and death of prolific science fiction novelist Phoebus K. Dank through a definitive encyclopedia of the author's work; the commentators—one sycophantic, one antagonistic—devote as much space writing about themselves as they spend on their subject. Dank, based loosely on Philip K. Dick, wrote scores of novels involving secret Martians, twins and doppelgängers, enhanced or diminished senses, and near-futures in which global warming and new viruses lead mankind in drastic new directions. Unlike Dick (who features in one of Dank's alternate universe tales), Dank is an extraordinary hack (though one of his commentators would violently disagree). The book is clever and often very funny, and the murder mystery at its heart is more complex than it first appears. A near total lack of dialogue, though, creates a feeling of endless description, and the structure lends itself to momentum-crippling padding. This novel should prove a delight, though, to science fiction fans with a sense of humor about their genre. (Apr.)

Freed's sixth novel, a moving and unconventional romance spanning 20 years, blossoms in post-WWII South Africa, where Cressida, a precocious nine year old, lives with her mother, Muriel; sister Miranda; and her comatose father. Faced with an uncertain future, the family moves into the servant's quarters at family friend George Harding's stately manor. When Cressida makes an impression on Harding, a wealthy but disfigured former RAF pilot, she is invited to the big house to serve as a companion to Harding's “slow” nephew. Harding also appoints himself mentor to Cressida, and it gradually comes to light that his interest in Cressida may extend past mentorship, even though his gnarled body becomes a physical manifestation of Cressida's many fears. With time, as Harding's health worsens, however, Cressida is beguiled by what she initially perceived to be grotesque. Freed handles issues of class, wealth and dedication with a light but knowing hand, adding depth to a bittersweet love story. (Apr.)

Goodman delivers a commanding investigation of love, family and freedom set in a New York City housing project. Abraham Singelton, born in 1982 to a 13-year-old mother, comes of age in the Ever Park projects, watching The Cosby Show and dreaming about a future in Brooklyn as a Huxtable. The generous narrative features a cast of deftly drawn characters: Lyndon Gaines, a former boxer turned community activist who courts Abraham's grandmother with a cage full of lovebirds; Lindbergh, a damaged Vietnam vet, now turning trash into elaborate models of helicopters; and cousin Donnel, whose one constant is the pledge, made at Abraham's birth, to “hold love strong.” A keen observer and deeply empathetic young man, Abraham grapples with the inescapable truths of his childhood yet understands the promise contained in education, love and personal expression. Though the narrative features its share of urban fiction tropes (crack-addicted mother, an uncle with NBA potential doomed by the allure of quick money, a series of senseless deaths), Goodman manages to pull together a vibrant canvas of project life, perfectly capturing the pain and magic of living despite narrow opportunities. (Apr.)

Agarwal's atmospheric if excessively detailed debut takes readers deep into the mysterious heart of Bombay in the 1960s. Thirteen-year-old Pinky Mittal lives with her obese, matriarchal grandmother, Maji; her alcoholic uncle, Jaginder; bitter aunt Savita; and three teenage male cousins. Taken in as an infant by her grandmother after her mother died, Pinky knows she's Maji's favorite, even if her aunt despises her. Driven by adolescent curiosity, Pinky unlocks a door in her family bungalow that has been bolted her entire life and unleashes the ghost of an infant girl and her midwife, sending her whole family into a tailspin. Surrounded by superstitions and spirituality, Pinky tries to unravel a past rife with pain and deceit as three generations of her formerly stalwart family crumble around her. This multigenerational family saga is rich with eccentric characters and period details, but Agarwal too often clogs the page with nonessential descriptions. (Apr.)

Move over, Ugly Betty; Fat B's in town and she's just as bewitching, bodacious and beautiful as the unconventional Latina TV star. In Ferreras's dazzling debut, Cuban-American Beauty Maria Zavala—“B” to her friends—bounces off the page like a firecracker while she discovers how to embrace her curves under the tutelage of a wise madam. At the outset, B's not just ashamed of her chubby bod, but finds it standing in the way of a promotion at her Manhattan ad agency—thanks to a bitchy boss—and she hasn't been laid in ages. B's best friend and co-worker, petite Lillian, tells B to “reinvent” herself. Natasha Sokolov, her Russian-American tax preparer, goes a step further by offering her a moonlighting position “comforting” men with a fetish for voluptuous women—men who will pay “to worship a body like yours.” B accepts the proposition (selling time but not sex), only to find once again the sting of rejection: her first client rejects her for being too lightweight. It's just one of many illuminating, funny and deliciously awkward moments on B's page-turning road to love and happiness. (Apr.)

PI Aaron Fox and L.A. cop Moe Reed, interracial half-brothers who played minor roles in 2008's Bones, take center stage in bestseller Kellerman's routine 24th Alex Delaware novel. When Fox, who used to work for the LAPD, looks into the missing-persons case of 20-year-old Caitlin Frostig, he runs into conflict with Reed. The brothers end up pursuing some predictable lines of inquiry, checking out Rory Stoltz, Frostig's college boyfriend, as well as links to a filmmaker, Lem Dement, who's suspected of domestic abuse. More A-list connections surface after the investigators learn Stoltz was the personal assistant for actor Mason Book, whose rumored suicide attempt came shortly after Frostig's disappearance. The strains between Fox and Reed don't generate much heat, while the pacing and writing aren't up to Kellerman's best. Hopefully, Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis, relegated to cameos, will be back in their usual starring positions next time. (Mar. 24)

Readers unfamiliar with bestseller Dahlquist's 2006 debut, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, which is set in an alternate world similar to Victorian Europe, may have trouble following this complicated sequel, despite the “preparatory word on what has already happened” at the start. In The Glass Books, West Indies plantation heiress Celeste Temple, naval surgeon Abelard Svenson and criminal Cardinal Chang joined forces to combat an evil cabal that smelted a mineral into “a psychotropic blue glass” that “captures human memory.” Temple, who survived the previous book's cinematic climax involving a gunfight in a sinking dirigible, finds herself suspected of a series of mysterious murders, while Svenson and Chang discover new enemies to thwart. Too much going on at the same time, including less than engaging confrontations with various over-the-top villains, undermines a clever concept that may yet be the basis for a solid adventure series. (Mar. 31)

Sharfeddin revisits many of the themes from Blackbelly and Mineral Spirits—rural life, crime and punishment, the supernatural—while striking some new chords in this bleak look at Rocket, Wash., and its unlucky inhabitants. Tom Jemmet is the widower owner of the rundown Jemmet Motel, and his relationship with his autistic 12-year-old daughter, Sienna, takes center stage in a plot packed with secrets—including the death of Tom's wife several years ago. As the summer progresses, this town, usually teeming with tourists, suffers a slow death thanks to a lack of wind, which normally brings surfers to the nearby Columbia River. After news of a strange accident befalling a motel guest hits the news (courtesy of local reporter Hap Mitsui), Rocket is flooded with undesirable visitors who stir up town secrets and prejudices. The interwoven perspectives of Tom, Hap and Lauren Kent, town veterinarian and Tom's love interest, lend the gloomy narrative speed and immediacy in Sharfeddin's best work yet. (Mar.)

A missing parent, a lethal herbal tea and a sinister cult are a few of the mysterious ingredients in Greenwood's lively third cozy to feature cheerfully fat baker Corinna Chapman (after 2008's Heavenly Pleasures). Chapman's estranged hippie mother, who organizes her time by the phases of the moon, arrives on the doorstep of Melbourne's Earthly Delights Bakery to announce her spouse's disappearance during an apparent midlife crisis. Further complications for Chapman include a toxic tea imbibed by two of her employees and a strange group of monks. To assist in finding the tea's supplier, locating her wandering father and determining the monks' activities, Chapman has a devoted, if eccentric, cohort—a sexy PI lover, a weaver, a follower of Wicca, a grand dame, a dominatrix, a retired classics professor and a nun or two. While a glossary of Australian terms would've helped the American reader, this doesn't detract from the warmhearted message that it takes a village to solve a mystery. (May)

Set in 1808, the superb third whodunit from the pseudonymous Gregorio (the husband-wife team of Michael G. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio) to feature Prussian magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis (after 2008's Days of Atonement) subtly probes the heart of human darkness. When a woman who collects precious amber, a resource Napoleon hopes to use to generate funds, is horribly butchered, Stiffeniis must work for his French occupiers to solve the mystery. As more victims follow the first, Stiffeniis's hopes of a speedy resolution that would enable him to be present for his latest child's birth are dashed. Aided by Johannes Gurten, an odd apprentice who's adopted Buddhism, the sleuth attempts to get cooperation from those working at all levels of the amber trade to identify the killer's true motive. While some readers will anticipate the solution, the pitch-perfect evocation of the period and the compelling, gloomy atmosphere more than compensate for any lack of surprise. (Apr.)

Rosett's engaging fourth Mom Zone mystery (after 2008's Getting Away Is Deadly) finds super efficient crime-solver Ellie Avery living in a new subdivision in North Dawkins, Ga., near Taylor Air Force Base with her air force pilot husband and their two children. While taking the family rottweiler for a walk, Ellie discovers skeletal remains in a forgotten cemetery at first suspected to be those of their home's first occupant, Jodi Lockworth, a freelance reporter who's been missing for 10 months. Instead, they belong to Albert Chauncey, a WWI veteran who died in 1919, and William Nash, an African-American youth missing since 1955. Jodi's parents are grateful when Ellie offers her keen organizing skills in their search for Jodi. A notebook hidden in Ellie's home offers vital clues, but the closer she comes to solving the mysteries of Nash's murder and Jodi's disappearance, the more she puts her life in danger. Some nifty party tips help keep the sleuthing on the cozy side. (Apr.)

Lowe's debut offers little suspense or surprise, though well-crafted prose suggests he's capable of better. Ex-Miami homicide cop Sean O'Brien, who's retreated to a house on Florida's St. Johns River, carries the usual baggage for a reluctant hero. His wife died from cancer six months earlier, and his policeman father was shot dead in the line of duty when he was a child. O'Brien calls in the Volusia County police after discovering a severely beaten, dying young woman on the river bank. O'Brien soon finds himself attracted to one investigating officer, Det. Leslie Moore, and at odds with another, Det. Mitchell Slater, who he believes may be covering up for the killer. Predictably, the unidentified woman's slaying may be connected with an unsolved serial murder case O'Brien worked on in Miami. Suspects include some powerful locals possibly involved in sex trafficking. O'Brien could sustain a series if he's attached to less by-the-numbers story lines in the future. Author tour. (Apr.)

Music journalist Theda Krakow once again proves a feisty and determined sleuth in Simon's lively fourth cat-themed mystery (after 2007's Cries and Whiskers). Theda alternates between the cat world, dominated by her pet, Musetta, and the Boston area music scene, about which she writes for local magazines and newspapers. When her retired policeman boyfriend, Bill, buys into a successful club that's a cop hangout, Theda can't help feeling a little jealous, though she admits she also has a problem with Bill's attitude—he's too patronizing. Meanwhile, contaminated cat kibble at the animal shelter run by her friend Violet may be the work of a poisoner. When Theda, guided by blood on Musetta's paw, discovers Rachel, a shelter vet, lying on the treatment-room floor with a fatal stab wound, she gets arrested for Rachel's murder. Well-drawn characters, a plot with many strings to unravel and plenty of appealing cats make this another winner for Simon. (Apr.)

LAPD homicide detectives Michael Lomax and Terry Biggs take on a killer targeting a group of police officers' wives in Karp's irreverent third mystery (after 2007's Bloodthirsty). When spouses of some of Lomax and Biggs's closest co-workers are found murdered, they begin their investigation by questioning the surviving members of the LA Flippers, the partnership of cop wives who, along with popular mystery writer Nora Bannister, have found a lucrative way to flip houses in the highly competitive Southern California real estate market. With the body count rising and pressure from Lomax and Biggs's superiors to close the case fast, the wisecracking duo must somehow track down a cunning psychopath before Biggs's wife becomes the killer's next target. Blending the gritty realism of a Joseph Wambaugh police procedural with the sardonic humor of Janet Evanovich, Karp delivers a treat that's not only laugh-out-loud funny but also remarkably suspenseful. (Apr.)

Canadian physician Pennie's mystery debut introduces a winning protagonist, an Ontario public health doctor and former chef. When Zol Szabo, a devoted single father to his disabled son, Max, gets word that his jurisdiction, which covers the province's Niagara Escarpment, may be facing an outbreak of mad cow disease, Zol and his team must race to find the truth behind the mysterious deaths of three locals in order to avoid a public panic. Fans of the TV show House will find much of the plot familiar—the detailed medical detection that attempts to identify connections between the victims as well as the false or confusing leads in the hunt to locate a tainted food source. The appealing supporting cast includes a gorgeous female PI. Pennie, an infectious-disease specialist, makes the medical jargon accessible, though he throws in a few melodramatic touches, such as his hero's fear that Max may also fall victim to deadly prions. (Apr.)

Killian's entertaining fourth mystery to feature Grace Hollister (after 2006's Sonnet of the Sphinx) takes the literary scholar from Los Angeles to England's Lake District, where an adaptation of her memoir, Dangerous to Know, is being filmed for cable TV. After the movie's screenwriter dies in a hit-and-run in L.A., Grace gets hired as a script doctor. She shifts into gumshoe mode on the set after various mishaps, including an actor's poisoning. Might there be a link between the film company's woes and two armed men breaking into the shop of her lover, Peter Fox, a former jewel thief turned antiques dealer? When not busy researching her latest forgotten female poet, Grace investigates the film crew, finding more questions than answers. Meanwhile, misunderstandings between Grace and Peter, as well as a certain local police detective in love with Grace, threaten their relationship. Series fans will eagerly await further developments in the next installment. (Apr.)

Smart prose, a compelling plot line and an original narrative voice mark Edgar-finalist Argula's third Quinn novel (after 2007's Walla Walla Suite) as a standout from the contemporary PI pack. Alex Krapp, a well-paid Hollywood screenwriter who hobnobs with Dustin Hoffman, summons the Seattle detective to L.A. for an unusual assignment. Krapp needs Quinn's help in proving the existence of 15-year-old Danny Timpkins, an abuse survivor (his parents were members of a satanic cult) who at 14 wrote a moving memoir of hope that Krapp is adapting for HBO. Because a Vanity Fair reporter seeks to show that the Danny represented in the memoir doesn't exist, Quinn must dig up proof to the contrary. Her own doubts magnify after she realizes Danny's history is similar to that of an abuse victim she put away for rape. Quinn's humorous and compassionate humanity merit her a long literary life. Recent controversies over fraudulent memoirs make this particularly timely. (Mar. 24)

At the start of Childs's soothing 10th Tea Shop mystery (after 2008's The Silver Needle Murder), Indigo Tea Shop proprietor Theodosia Browning and her horse, Captain Harley, encounter murder most unsavory during the annual Charleston Point-to-Point Race. Shortly after clearing a jump, they're spooked by encountering the corpse of Abby Davis, an evening TV news anchor, who's been shot through the forehead. In parallel with CPD Det. Burt Tidwell, Theodosia pursues her own investigation, prompted by attorney Jory Davis, the victim's brother and Theodosia's ex-boyfriend. Prime suspects include anchorman Webster Hall, who lost his job to Abby, and Abby's husband, who may have known she was having an affair. As usual, Childs's plot simmers slowly while Theodosia's dogged yet always elegant sleuthing is as satisfying as sipping a cup of jade oolong. (Mar.)

Historical fantasist Graham (Black Ships) heads to Egypt with this elegant, engaging memoir of Charmian, half-sister and handmaiden to Cleopatra. The two young women and their other sister, Iras, are inseparable from childhood, getting one another into and out of numerous mishaps. As teenagers, they vow to Isis that they will protect Egypt from the covetous Romans, and in return for their devotion, the goddess rewards Cleopatra with the throne. Graham never resorts to melodrama even at the murder of Julius Caesar or to cliché when Charmian recalls her past lives, and she supplies plenty of superb historical detail, but doesn't let it overwhelm the narrative. Charmian's shy hopes, failures and devotion to Cleopatra and Isis make her one of the most memorable “witnesses to history” to emerge from fantasy in quite some time. (Apr.)

Harvey (A Year and a Day) cobbles together gothic steampunk fantasy and fluffy lesbian erotica in this romantic, necromantic tale. Two years after Imogen Gyony's death, her spirit still frequently visits her lover, Portia. Both are Nephilim, born of a celestial and a mortal being and raised to be warriors in an age-old fight against the demonic forces out to destroy humanity. When demons capture Portia, she escapes with crossbow blazing and takes on the fiends one by one, determined to bring Imogen back from the dead and save her Nephilim chapter house from being taken over by demon-influenced mages. Readers who aren't put off by the cheesecake cover illustration of buff, busty Portia will appreciate the mix of heat, horror and humor. (Apr.)

Stross's disorganized fifth Merchant Princes story (after 2007's The Merchants' War) continues the adventures of hapless Boston journalist Miriam Beckstein. Newly free of political imprisonment, pregnant and on the lam, she finds herself at the center of a desperate power grab as political instability rocks the mafia-like Clan Corporate, who are magically able to cross between parallel worlds. When world-walkers steal nukes from a U.S. installation, it's a race against time to find out who has them, and why, before they can be deployed. The U.S. is also close to discovering a technological method of world-walking, rendering the clan both vulnerable and obsolete. Stross pays heartfelt homage to Roger Zelazny and Lois McMaster Bujold, but with too many characters and too little focus, this novel fails to match their achievements. (Apr.)

This dark and gruesome sequel to 2007's Maledicte compellingly illustrates the endless variety of human venality. Janus Ixion, former starving commoner and now the earl of Last, is fervently dedicated to bringing an industrial revolution to Antyre, a dreary, decadent fantasy realm. This goal pits him against his devious former tutor, Prince Ivor of Itarus, who schemes to become Antyre's king. When old demonic gods return to Antyre and possess Janus's wife, Psyke, and the witless orphaned boy-king Adiran, the political becomes inextricably mixed with the supernatural. Numerous grisly murders counterpoint the simmering sexual tensions underlying Janus's quest for his lost love, Maledicte. Robins's tapestry of lies, deception and violence is deftly woven but not for the fainthearted. (Apr.)

Byrd (Last Wolf Watching) successfully combines a haunting love story with complex world-building in the first volume of her Primal Instinct urban fantasy romance series. At first, Ian Buchanan refuses to listen to Molly Stratton's claims of a psychic connection to his dead mother, but then the petite blonde shows up with bite marks on her neck matching those he'd given her in a sexually charged dream. Ian soon realizes he must free his long-denied animal nature in order to battle an inhuman danger. His beast-self demands to be fed with violent sex, but Ian can't bring himself to harm Molly. His reluctance threatens their burgeoning relationship and could allow evil a toehold in the world. The love scenes are less raw than some in Byrd's earlier books, but the intense emotional and sexual connection between her leads remains. (Apr.)

O'Riley (Secrets of a Duchess) smoothly ushers in a new historical series focusing on five beautiful sisters in Victorian England. Colette Hamilton is supporting her mother and four siblings by running the family bookstore after her father's untimely death. Though Colette is happy as an independent businesswoman, her uncle wants to marry her off to the highest bidder to alleviate the family's financial woes. After meeting Lucien Sinclair, the earl of Waverly, at her bookstore, Colette continues to see him at various social events, where they experience a subtle, intense attraction. Colette's strong and unusual personality will keep readers riveted, and the tension increases as she and Lucien struggle against the prevailing belief that a woman should be meek. O'Riley's believable, charismatic characters and fast-paced plotline set this novel well apart from the usual romance fare. (Apr.)

Evans's uneven urban fantasy debut includes plenty of fantasy creatures, exotic locales and raunchy sex, but fails to bring any of them to life. In 1750s London, Rose, Comtesse de Fournier, waits in a high society garden to lure and slay an evil ogre. When several more show up, handsome vampire Gareth Barrows, Lord Shenley, helps her dispose of the ogres while exchanging arch banter that soon leads to more physical foreplay. Rose reluctantly returns to her employer, raven-haired, stormy-eyed Ambrose Minuit, who has been her ogre-fighting partner for a century and resents her cavorting with Gareth. The ogres are also behaving oddly, leading Rose and Ambrose to discover a prophecy that threatens all of humanity, but not even portents of doom can make up for the insufficiency of wit and passion. (Apr.)

Paralegal Harlin pulls out all the stops in this witty, catty and romantic mystery debut. Carol Frank, a legal secretary who merrily riffs on the petty personalities and turf wars in her Kansas City law firm, adores her kindly, obsessive-compulsive boss, Bill Nestor. Then sexy police detective Gus Haglund starts inquiring about Adrienne Maxwell, a widow whose suicide may have been murder. Maxwell wasn't the first woman to kill herself after having Bill draft her will, and his exhaustive case notes include suspiciously detailed data about security systems. Carol's investigation turns up further evidence implicating Bill, but how can she betray the best boss she's ever worked for, even to a romantic cop who knows numerous uses for handcuffs? Harlin's memorable, entertaining characters populate a well-crafted mystery that keeps readers guessing to the end. (Apr.)

Regnaud recalls his kindergarten years in France in this cute but never saccharine semi-autobiography. Jean's father is the boss at a factory, and, according to the adults in Jean's life, his mother is away on a long trip. Jean's next-door neighbor, a mischievous little girl, begins secretly reading humorous postcards from “mom” to Jean. Jean wants to believe the (clearly fabricated) postcards are true, and he is beginning to forget his mother's face. It's difficult to say if the book is appropriate for younger readers or if the ending—where the truth of the mother's status is revealed—would upset them. The sweet sadness of the five-year-old's point of view is best appreciated by adults. Bravo's attractive artwork solidly carries the story forward. However, the text is laid out primarily in narration boxes rather than dialogue balloons. The panels are usually borderless, and coupled with the narration, the book feels more like a hybrid picture book than a graphic novel. My Mommy won several awards in France, including a 2008 Literary Tam Tam Award and a 2008 Essentials Award in Angoulême. (Apr.)

YouTube-hit Yilmaz made a name for himself through charming animations of his daily life. Shorts such as “A Conversation with My Mother” and “How I Learned About Girls” remain hits. Now, Yilmaz turns his sensibility to the printed page, adapting some of his video tales to print and writing original comics on various phases of life: childhood, high school, college and that miserable period after college when nothing seems quite right and we have to find our own direction. In this volume, Yilmaz shows off his excellent drawing skills and a quirky worldview, but the print version of his autobiography isn't as successful without his wry narration and the fascination of watching a drawing come to life in an animation. Still, sections like “Psychoanalysis of Playtime” and “Some Childhood Fears” combine a great memory for one's past with clear, crisp art. In the last section, Yilmaz struggles for the detachment that makes his online videos both sympathetic and insightful. It's a brave thing for a young artist to do and bodes well for Yilmaz's future work, even if something is lost to the reader of this book. (Mar.)

Author David B. (The Epileptic) sets down 19 of his dreams, and it makes for a gorgeous, mysterious volume. His nocturnal topics run from the French resistance, Nazis, whores and wives to figures from the mythical history of Samarkand. Most of the dreams involve chases, danger and life-threatening conspiracies, all given life by B.'s startlingly clear presentation, etched in shades of moonlight blue and black. The overall sense of foreboding is as haunting as a nightmare. The text, at least in translation, is more prosaic and adds little; it's the art that's the real treasure. B. handles panel to panel progressions like no one else: theatrical, yet loose and immediate in their storytelling, the panels are also stunningly beautiful. Think of an easy Modernism married to a novelist's sharp eye and a printmaker's graphic touch, all things “painterly.” B's eerie dreamscapes succeed mostly as an art piece, but for enthusiasts of European cartooning at its most confidently experimental, this will be a must have. (Feb.)

This updated volume recounts the story of African-Americans in the United States from the year 1619 through the election of Barack Obama, and it's a compelling (if dense) chronicle of this incendiary period, from the indentured servitude that morphed into chattel slavery, emancipation, the civil rights movement and beyond. The comprehensive text may be worth a read, but the entire book is marred with amateurish artwork. Artist Bey displays only the most rudimentary of basic visual storytelling techniques; the layouts are haphazard, with the figures' hands and heads often cut off, and the grafittiesque/”cartoony” art style is inappropriate for the material. It's disappointing that a historical work with the potential for crossover appeal gets poleaxed by subpar visuals that trivialize the text. Parts of the book bear so little visual gravitas that it comes off as a “black man's struggle” coloring book, and that's a shame. (Feb.)

Based directly on the bestselling novel by Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson, this exuberantly gruesome comic adaptation draws some themes from Mary Shelly's 1818 original but also many images from horror movies, including contemporary slasher flicks. Deucalion, the first “Frankenstein's monster,” is summoned from meditation in a Tibetan monastery by news that Victor Frankenstein, aka “Helios,” is alive and thriving in New Orleans. Although Victor poses as a philanthropist, he actually is creating hoards of genetic slaves in an abandoned hospital. His control over his creations is slipping, however, and one has become a bloody serial killer, convinced that he can find what it takes to be human if he looks inside enough people. As this installment concludes, a tough female police detective is beginning to believe Deucalion's story, while the violence increases. Booth's vigorous layout and pencils do an admirable job of keeping characters and action clear. Dixon's adaptation also effectively uses Koontz's greatest skill, his breakneck thriller plotting, so that the story races from one ghastly shock to the next. (Feb.)

Father and son writers Elmore and Peter Leonard have new novels publishing this spring.

Leonard launches three characters from previous novels on a collision course in this seemingly effortless performance. After prison buddy Cundo Rey (last seen in LaBrava) drops a bundle on a shark attorney, celebrity bank robber Jack Foley (from Out of Sight) gets his 30-year prison sentence reduced to 30 months. Jack's quickly back in the world, living large in one of Cundo's two multimillion-dollar houses in Venice, Calif., juggling a fast seduction with fortune-teller (from Riding the Rap) Dawn Navarro (who is now Cundo's lady) and the untoward attention of rogue FBI agent Lou Adams, who's waiting for Foley to rob another bank. While Dawn tries to enlist Foley in a scheme to steal Cundo's off-the-books fortune, Cundo surprises them with an early release. Betrayal simmers while Foley considers going semi-straight—with the help of a widowed starlet—Dawn hatches a plan that could get her rich and rid her of all her problems, and Cundo's associates and neighborhood toughs get sucked into the fray. The plot isn't as tight as it could be, but Leonard's singular way with words is reason enough to read it. (May)

Leonard's less than stellar second caper novel, with its Detroit setting, wacky characters and elaborate schemes that misfire, may strike Elmore Leonard fans as too derivative of his father's work. When two thieves, Bobby and Lloyd, break into the house of Karen Delaney, “a knockout” with “red hair and creamy white skin,” she manages to enlist the pair in a plot to rob her bookmaker ex-boyfriend, Samir Fakir, who has $300,000 of hers that he kept at the time he threw her out. The robbery goes off, but not without fatal hitches. Karen must scramble out of harm's way as Bobby and Lloyd, a bunch of Fakir's eager debt collectors, grasping relatives, Arab hit men and a stubborn ex-cop who's also an ex-con pursue her and the money. While Leonard (Quiver) has a ways to go before he approaches his father's high standard, he keeps Karen and the action rolling along nicely enough with occasional chuckles and mild surprises. (Apr.)