Fiction

The usually reliable Wickham (Shopaholic series author Sophie Kinsella's alter ego) falters with this overplotted and heavy-handed smorgasbord of weddings and family shenanigans. Upon meeting wedding photographer Alexander Gilbert, Milly Havill realizes that he had photographed her when she first married 10 years earlier. Since that wedding was done as a favor to help keep Allan Kepinski, the American half of a gay couple, in England, Milly never told anyone about it, including her now-fiancé, Simon Pinnacle. The thought of Alexander revealing her past sends Milly into a panic. But that's just the beginning: Simon is bent on bettering his multimillionaire father in business and in marriage; Milly's bitter father, James, seems to appreciate Milly's independent older sister, Isobel, more than Milly; Isobel gets pregnant and is certain the father would not want a baby; and Rupert, the other half of the couple Milly had helped out, is now a born-again Christian. Unfortunately, the characters' struggles with identity, abortion and homosexuality are filtered through strained prose and too-obvious setups. A lighter touch and a tighter story would have helped. (June)

Egan's debut, an odd blend of young adult melodrama and unsuccessful metafiction, winds itself into knots of empty story lines. Recognizing that their dullard daughter, Carley, needs an academic boost, Gretchen and Francis Wells hire author Bree McEnroy to write a book to Carley's specifications. Though Carley's love for reality television and Bree's fondness for self-conscious literary tropes should, in theory, unite to make a delightful story-within-a-story, it is often neglected or underwritten. Meanwhile, the cardboard secondary cast floats around Bree and Carley: there's Hunter, Carley's crush, whose alcoholic rakishness, we are assured, masks a poet's interior; Carley's social-climbing mother and philandering father; and Justin, Bree's college chum, who has become, on dubious merit, a literary star. Carley and Hunter's friendship is jeopardized by both his addictions and her unrequited adoration, and Bree and Justin reconcile. Plagued by thin, when not wildly inconsistent, characterization from the start, the narrative's tendency to flit from character to character without revealing anything memorable or insightful further blurs the point. Unfortunately, there isn't enough heart to redeem the dopiness. (May)

A Canadian in 1987 goes to Texas and gets crushingly corrupted in Martin's sexy, funny and devastating debut. Bobby Clark is 16 when he leaves a dead-end setup with his single mother and grass-is-greener girlfriend, Wendy, and heads to Fort Worth to get into the fine jewelry business under the stewardship of his salesman brother, Jim. In no time, Bobby and Jim are snorting lines, Bobby's moving in on (and smoking crank with) Jim's mistress, Lisa, and getting a crash course in amazingly crooked business. Scams, bait-and-switch deals, bogus jewelry and startling treachery are day-to-day at the jewelry store, until the store's gregarious owner gets into trouble at the same time Bobby tries to save Lisa from a massive flame-out. Years later, Bobby's back in Fort Worth, married to Wendy (and with a child) and still in the jewelry business with Jim when Lisa reappears, engaged in an equally questionable if older profession. Bobby's helplessly honest narration is a sublime counterpoint to the crooked doings he's complicit in. Reading this is like watching one man's American dream turn into a soul-sucking nightmare. (May)

Molly Divine Marx is dead. No one is quite sure how—murder, suicide, tragic accident?—and even Molly's own recollection doesn't explain much. Narrating this charming novel from an afterlife limbo known as the Duration, Molly follows the investigation of her death while keeping tabs on the living she left behind. Nearly everyone is a suspect: Barry, Molly's philandering plastic surgeon husband; Kitty, her controlling mother-in-law; Luke, Molly's lover; and the cabal of wifely hopefuls who line up for a shot at Barry before Molly's casket is safely in the ground. Longtime magazine editor Koslow (Little Pink Slips) knows her way around expertly tuned phrasing, and Molly is a delightful gem of a heroine. Equal parts self-deprecating, wry and sassy, Molly is honest about her faults and easily forgiving of the others' as she reviews her life with a hearty dose of honesty and humor. Though the anticipated delicious revelation doesn't quite live up to expectations, the narrative's heavy dose of hilarity and heartbreak will win readers over. (May)

Lipton's second effort (after It's About Your Husband) is a feast of standard genre fare redeemed by the author's wit. After a night of partying in Vegas, Peggy Adams wakes up married to a stranger. Her new husband is Luke Sedgwick, scion of an old Connecticut family who manages the dwindling family fortune and cares for his elderly aunt Abigail in the crumbling ancestral manse. When Peggy arrives in Connecticut to sign the annulment papers, Abigail intervenes, unwilling to let the last living Sedgwick get divorced on her watch. She poses a deal: if they stay married for a year, Abigail will allow them to sell the Sedgwick estate and split the proceeds. Since Peggy needs a windfall to save her faltering business and Luke wants to pursue his dream of becoming a writer, they agree, but married life brings plenty of familiar obstacles and a foregone romantic conclusion. Lipton's skewering of WASPy “culture” is reliably entertaining, and her perfectly mismatched leads are sturdier than most. It won't change your life, but it'll help kill a couple hours at the beach. (May)

In what Whitehead describes as his “Autobiographical Fourth Novel” (as opposed to the more usual autobiographical first novel), the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist John Henry Days explores the in-between space of adolescence through one boy's summer in a predominantly black Long Island neighborhood. Benji and Reggie, brothers so closely knit that many mistake them for twins, have been coming out to Sag Harbor for as long as they can remember. For Benji, each three-month stay at Sag is a chance to catch up with friends he doesn't see the rest of the year, and to escape the social awkwardness that comes with a bad afro, reading Fangoria, and being the rare African-American student at an exclusive Manhattan prep school. As he and Reggie develop separate identities and confront new factors like girls, part-time jobs and car-ownership, Benji struggles to adapt to circumstances that could see him joining the ranks of “Those Who Don't Come Out Anymore.” Benji's funny and touching story progresses leisurely toward Labor Day, but his reflections on what's gone before provide a roadmap to what comes later, resolving social conflicts that, at least this year, have yet to explode. (Apr.)

In his “children's book for grown-ups”/“grown-up book for children,” Robbins (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) takes readers on a whimsical tour of all things beer, written in the language of a bedtime story. Factoids about everything from how beer is made to the number of gallons of beer sold globally each year (36 billion) are woven into this story about six-year-old Gracie Perkel, who craves time with her beer-guzzling Uncle Moe. When Moe disappoints Gracie, she reaches for a drink and is visited by the Beer Fairy, who flies her through the “Seam” and offers an education about life and, of course, beer. The drive to inform the reader about malt and hops is sometimes relentless, and the language can be frustratingly dumbed-down (“If you're unfamiliar with the word podiatrist, you're not alone. Fortunately for Gracie [and now for you], Uncle Moe was quick to define podiatrist as a doctor who investigates and treats disorders of the feet. A foot specialist”). Still, the premise and execution of this unique book lends itself to moments of real humor. (Apr.)

An especially far-fetched plot and unconvincing dialogue mar this romantic thriller, set primarily in Afghanistan and Russia, from bestseller Johansen (Dark Summer). Emily Hudson, a U.N. artifacts expert, is trying to track down a vicious criminal who may have stolen “Zelov's hammer.” Hidden inside the old mallet is a treasure map to the long-lost riches of Russia's assassinated Romanov family. Helping Hudson is a rough-and-ready CIA tracker, whose physical charms prove irresistible to the usually proud and independent Hudson. As is Johansen's wont, the romance competes head-to-head with the chase, with annoying effect. Love scenes and hokey romantic dialogue closely follow or precede those of perilous action. On one page, Hudson will be steely and adept, then, on the next, fragile and feeble. By the time the plot hits the homestretch, many readers will have a hard time taking it seriously. 650,000 first printing. (Apr.)

Never one to avoid a glamorous vacation spot, Stone Barrington travels to Key West, Fla., in this easygoing entry in bestseller Woods's long-running series (Hot Mahogany, etc.) to feature the New York cop turned lawyer. Stone is supposed to track down Evan Keating, a young man whose signature is needed on documents allowing his father to sell the family business, except that Evan doesn't want to be found and when he is, doesn't want to sign the papers. Meanwhile, there's always time to enjoy good food and romance. Stone and Dino Bacchetti, his former NYPD partner, eat a lot of conch, while a beautiful Swedish doctor, Annika Swenson, learns the hard way that being involved with Stone is the most dangerous job in America. Woods handles the proceedings with dispatch and good humor, the pages fly by, and contented readers will sit back and eagerly await the next installment. Author tour. (Apr.)

Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz doesn't have a moment to spare as she frantically tries to pull everything together for two upcoming wedding receptions, including last-minute venue and menu changes from a spoiled bridezilla, in bestseller Davidson's entertaining 15th culinary suspense novel (after Sweet Revenge). When Harold “Doc” Finn, Aspen Meadow's beloved retired doctor, dies under mysterious circumstances on his way to the first wedding ceremony, Goldy wonders if it was an accident or murder. When her godfather and Doc Finn's good friend, Jack Carmichael, is also attacked, it's obvious that Goldy will have to venture out of the kitchen and put her detecting skills to use once again. Stir in a slimy spa owner, rumors of a malpractice suit and the usual cast of supporting characters—including Goldy's patient cop husband, Tom, and her capable culinary assistant, Julian Teller—and you've got another winning entry in Davidson's mouthwatering series. 6-city author tour. (Apr.)

Like the itinerant Irish storyteller at the crux of this riveting novel, Danish-born author Moerk mixes mythology, Arthurian legend, fairy tales, noir and horror in his American debut. When reclusive Moira Hegarty and her two nieces, Fiona and Róisín Walsh, are found dead in Moira's secluded home in a Dublin suburb, evidence suggests the sisters were imprisoned for months by their aunt, along with a third person, perhaps Róisín's twin sister. The young women left behind two diaries, one of which a postal clerk finds. Three years before, they fell under the spell of Jim Quick, a séanachai (or bard), whose tales of wolves and kings gave him rock star status in the sleepy town of Castletownbere. Only the Walsh sisters appear to have seen beyond the charm of “darling Jim,” whose presence coincides with several women's murders. Moerk tightly meshes each separate plot strand—the murders, the diaries and Quick's tales—into an enthralling story that never falters. Author tour. (Apr.)

During the idyllic post–War of the Roses reign of Edward IV, two daughters of a wealthy merchant take divergent roads to success and power in Bennett's solid historical. Isabel, widowed young, resolves to pursue her mother-in-law's silk business. Isabel's sister, Jane, becomes Edward's third mistress, a position of comfort, though lacking in security. Isabel finds a lover of her own in Edward's brother, Richard, duke of Gloucester. When Edward dies suddenly and Richard makes a grab for the throne, the sisters must make difficult choices to ensure their survival. Bennett immerses readers at once in Yorkist England, and while the narrative favors the dynamic Isabel over the flirtatious Jane, it's easy to root for them both. Readers of historical fiction will be pleased with Bennett's sure-handed storytelling. (Apr.)

British novelist diRollo's mixed debut, set in 1850s England and colonial India, tells the story of twin sisters Alice and Lilian Talbot, who were born into an aristocratic but eccentric English family and raised by their widowed father among his collected curiosities and creepy acquaintances. One of those acquaintances, closet pornographer Dr. Cattermole, assists the Talbots in their curatorial obsessions. Their quiet existence is thrown into upheaval when Lilian is married off against her will to a missionary and forced to move to India with him. The sisters struggle and rebel against their suffocating situations—Lilian slogging through the subcontinent, Alice under the cruel and exploitative manipulations of Dr. Cattermole—until Lilian sends her sister a coded letter and a photograph, setting events in motion to bring them together. The vivid and sometimes graphic details of Victorian-era obsessions are intriguing, though the prose quality is spotty and the dialogue is often wooden (“ 'Release me!' cried Alice. 'You are committing a grave and punishable crime to hold me in this way' ”). The premise is wonderful, but the execution doesn't do it justice. (Apr.)

National Review editor Lowry (Legacy) and Korman (Swan Dive) have written an exciting, intelligent novel that delivers the thriller goods and tosses barbs at do-gooder politicians, government obstructionists, reporters and a wide array of liberal weenies. Unlikely hero Peter Johnson, a mildly buffoonish writer working for the Crusader, a left-wing magazine, is recruited by CIA agent Stewart Banquo for the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist. Banquo figures no one would ever suspect Johnson, known for his drunkenness and willingness to take a bribe, to be working for the CIA. Johnson, who accepts the job for a variety of reasons, heads off to Iran. A series of double crosses lands Johnson in the hands of the Iranians and sets up the rest of the plot involving a chillingly plausible terrorist attack. A major thread left untied points to what should be a much anticipated sequel. Expect a boost from author appearances on Hannity's America. 6-city author tour. (Apr.)

Bestseller Barr skillfully blends sticky border issues, marital strife and politics in her exciting 15th novel to feature National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon. Anna, on leave because she's still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder suffered in 2008's Winter Study, takes a delayed honeymoon with her sheriff husband, a rafting trip in Texas's Big Bend National Park. The Rio Grande reveals a number of surprises, including a stranded cow and, more disturbingly, a dying pregnant woman caught in a strainer. Fortunately, the resourceful Anna is able to perform a C-section and save the baby's life if not the mother's. Things get really serious after a sniper kills first the couple's guide and then a fellow rafter. Meanwhile, at Big Bend's Chisos Mountain Lodge, Houston mayor Judith Pierson announces she's running for governor, and her security chief must worry about keeping Pierson's errant husband in line. The vivid Texas backdrop lends color. Author tour. (Apr.)

A tragic operating room error has cost Swedish surgeon Fredrik Welin his career in this moving novel from Mankell, who's best known for his Kurt Wallander mystery series (Firewall, etc.). Welin, 66, lives on a remote island with only his dog and cat for company. His routine is abruptly shattered by the arrival of an elderly woman who proves to be Harriet Hörnfeldt, the youthful love he ditched four decades earlier. Hörnfeldt, who's dying of cancer, has sought out Welin because she wants to share a secret about their relationship. This reintroduction to the world of human emotions and interactions proves to be the first of many, leading the doctor to an awkward attempt to get absolution from the woman whose perfectly healthy arm he mistakenly amputated. Mankell displays his considerable gifts for characterization as he succeeds in making his emotionally limited lead character sympathetic. (Apr.)

In Falconer's mediocre fourth contemporary thriller to feature Special Boat Services operative John Stratton (after The Operative), a lucky missile strike downs a British helicopter in Afghanistan. From the wreckage, the Taliban retrieve a security case containing a computer chip with data on 1,443 indigenous British- and U.S.-run agents and informants throughout the Middle East. A doctor implants the chip in the body of a Taliban fighter, Durrani, who later winds up in American custody. Fearing embarrassment if the Yanks discover the chip, MI6 send Stratton after Durrani, who's confined in Styx, a secret prison 300 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico for “highest-category prisoners” and “since the announced closure of Guantánamo... a terrorist-detention centre.” In order to infiltrate Styx, Stratton takes the place of a look-alike inmate, Nathan Charon, who's being transferred there. Fans of cartoonish action yarns will be the most satisfied. (Apr.)

Mostert (Season of the Witch) cleverly melds mystery with the supernatural in this Zen-tinged thriller. Mia Lockhart Cortez, a South London tattooist and martial artist, employs her mystical gifts to watch over modern-day warriors—kickboxers—in her secret role as a “Keeper.” Mia is particularly concerned to protect her boyfriend, Nick Duffy, who's preparing for a big fight. During an out-of-body excursion (“stepping out”), Mia has a violent, erotically charged encounter with Adrian “Ash” Ashton, an “impossibly good-looking” vampiric thief, who drains chi, a person's life force, instead of blood from his victims. Nick feels threatened by Mia's attraction to the seductive Ash, who may have drawn on the power of The Book of Light and Dust, “a mixture of personal philosophy, diary entries and science,” to murder several U.K. kickboxers. Some Net-related touches, including Ash using text messaging to taunt Mia, add to the intrigue. (Apr.)

Destitution and scandal drive 19th-century British gentleman Charles Redbourne on a voyage to Australia in Poster's atmospheric second novel. Charles hopes to collect specimens of rare wildlife, but his trip soon goes literally and figuratively offtrack. His stay with a family friend is unsettled by his host's daughter, a volatile artist with a troubled past. Bullen, his expedition manager, clashes violently with their porter, Billy Preece, deriding the servant's guidance, even though Billy's Aboriginal heritage provides their only authentic connection to the untamed land they traverse. As the journey devolves toward danger and even death, Poster (Courting Shadows) evokes complex Victorian attitudes toward nature, culture, progress and science. Charles is a compelling portrait of a man moving uneasily among conflicting possibilities of his time, but his personal story never truly gels, while the book's suspense and romantic elements jostle uneasily against its ruminative philosophic themes. (Apr.)

A rare, mesmerizing journey into the cloistered consciousness of a pious Shi'a university student in Qatif, Saudia Arabia, this controversial bestseller centers on a young woman whose lesbian affairs intensify her religious experience and compound her sense of self-abasement. A sheltered teenager living with her protective mother and studying Islamic jurisprudence at a women's college, the nameless narrator falls into a passionate physical relationship with another student named Dai, who is despotic and fiercely jealous. Given to flights of breathlessly manic description, the narrator depicts her secret shared moments with Dai in ecstatic bursts, all the while exploring Internet homosexual chatrooms and dabbling in flirtations with men and women. Erratically, she reveals details about herself, such as that a health issue has decreased her marriage prospects in a culture where early arranged marriage is the norm (her best friend essentially disappears when she gets engaged); as well, the narrator suffers from the losses of her father and brother. Al-Harez (a pseudonym) harnesses a great deal of a young woman's raw emotion, creating a startling and passionate work. (Apr.)

Nicaraguan author Sergio Ramirez's fragmented, multinarrated—and at times frustrating—novel recounts a quest to recover a mysterious photographer's past. In 1987 Warsaw, an unnamed narrator becomes obsessed with a photographer named Castellón when he stumbles upon an exhibit showing the same scenes before and during the Nazi occupation. He learns that Castellón was Nicaraguan and took the photos while traveling with the Nazis, who had murdered his daughter and son-in-law. From here, the book shifts to Castellón's own voice as the story moves back and forth in time, connecting Castellón to luminaries such as Chopin, George Sand, Turgenev and Flaubert. Although an intriguing look into Nicaraguan history—as well as Europe between 1870 and 1940—the constantly shifting narratives and occasionally stiff translation make this novel difficult to navigate. Still, those who stick with the literary puzzle are likely to come away with a new understanding of Nicaragua and its culture. (Apr.)

This 2007 Miles Franklin award–winning novel is the latest masterpiece from Wright, an indigenous Australian author and land rights activist. In the town of Desperance, in northern Queensland, Australia, the question of land ownership is complicated, and every family stakes a claim. There's Normal Phantom's family, Mozzie Fishman's gang and the white settlers who control the region, but can't quite figure out how to get the native Pricklebush people to assimilate to the white man's ways. The drama unfolds with all the poetry and eclecticism of a Bob Dylan song: a drunken white mayor dismisses a murder case, a lying deaf policeman named Truthful has his way with Aboriginal women, and a brave young activist sabotages the town's mining industry. When the mythical Elias Smith, who appears in Desperance one day after “walking out of the sea,” is found murdered, a series of tragedies follows, awakening latent feuds and underlining the injustice of colonialism. Rarely does an author have such control of her words and her story: Wright's prose soars between the mythical and the colloquial. (Apr.)

Maritime historian Malloy (Devil on the Deep Blue Sea) makes an impressive fiction debut with this first installment of a planned trilogy. Elizabeth “Lizzie” Manning, a history professor on winter break from St. Patrick's College in Charlestown, Mass., is intrigued when George F.R. Hatton, a British aristocrat, asks for her advice on family artifacts. George's ancestor, Lt. Francis Hatton, collected the pieces when he accompanied Capt. James Cook on his third voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Lizzie soon discovers more than just a treasure trove at George's Somerset estate: there's also a family “curse” of once-a-century suicides of all the Elizabeth Hattons, with Bette, George's mentally ill sister, the only survivor. Through her research, Lizzie learns that she might be a Hatton relation and suffers eerie “flashbacks” and fears that she might be the next victim. Malloy mixes history and fantasy with flair (one of the not-so-doomed Elizabeths had an affair with pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti) and delivers a wonderfully satisfying puzzler. (Apr.)

An award-winning poet and novelist, Enquist (The Secret) presents a slim volume of dramatic monologues. In the first piece, set in 1906 Vienna, Alma is a pianist whose role has morphed into wife of the composer, Gustav Mahler, and mother to his children. During Mahler's absence, Alma reflects on her life with the man who forced her to give up her music. In another monologue, Cato is a young woman anxiously searching for her lover in war-torn 1940 Rotterdam, not afraid of the bombs but that “he has forgotten me.” In “The Doctor” a black physician in Rotterdam, whom the Nazis insult by not allowing him to treat their general, faces an ethical dilemma. Although Enquist creates believable protagonists, her lapses into melodrama are overkill; the backdrop of war and the resulting pain has pathos enough. (Apr.)

McMahan's debut novel is a vividly drawn but uneven love letter to coastal South Carolina. Emmett and Lauren Sullivan's lifestyle has never matched their upper-crust neighbors', but they've been comfortable raising their daughters in their “money pit” of an ancestral home. Then their nine-year-old daughter, Ainslie, is stricken with a rare form of cancer, and the family is plunged into chaos. Suddenly Emmett is battling a recalcitrant insurance company; the stress of caring for a sick child full-time begins to take its toll on Lauren; and 18-year-old Sloan's college plans are in jeopardy. As the parents' financial and emotional problems consume the family, Sloan finds escape with a new boyfriend whose preppy good looks and moneyed charm mask a dangerous streak. McMahan's descriptions of the Lowcountry and its unique climate and customs jump off the page, but her characters and plot have trouble matching the wealth of scenery. There's emotional sincerity and depth, and ample talent for description and pacing, but the eventual payoff and resolution, though unconventional, falls slightly flat. (Apr.)

In this lackluster suspense novel from bestseller Mills (Darkness Falls), ex-con Josh Hagarty, who's just earned an M.B.A., but fears his tainted past is a liability, leaps at a job offer from NewAfrica, a charitable organization that operates in Africa, despite his ignorance of the continent. Shortly after his arrival in an unnamed country devastated by civil strife, Hagarty learns his new employer concealed the truth about his predecessor's death. More disturbing revelations quickly follow that place him at odds with NewAfrica and put his life at risk. Assisted by two of the oldest clichés in the genre—the cynical journalist who sees his efforts as a chance for redemption and the attractive, selfless aid worker—Hagarty fights to expose the truth about his employer and the corrupt rulers of the country where he's been assigned. Some readers will groan at the plot contrivances that enable Hagarty to get out of a tight spot. 6-city author tour. (Apr.)

Miami defense attorney Yoshi Lomax bribes, manipulates, blackmails and uses her body to win cases and a promotion at her firm, but her physical assets and flexible morals end up doing her more harm than good in this undistinguished potboiler. Yoshi's singular and clichéd motivation is money, and it drives her to, among other things, sleep with her boss, betray her DEA agent best friend and make some questionable calls about what clients she takes on. Then her lucky streak ends: she gets demoted at work, loses her bid to get a case dismissed, gets arrested for drug possession, gets abandoned by her best friend and is framed for murder. The convoluted plot is thick with overblown revenge schemes, and while the characters are about as strong as wet cardboard, the action is unrelenting and over-the-top. Readers looking for pure grit will want to take a look. (Apr.)

This debut story collection from Canadian poet Malla (All Our Grandfathers Are Ghosts) is a disappointing assemblage of pieces from a writer who has not yet found his voice. The mishmash of styles ranges from nearly Victorian (“The Love Life of the Automaton Turk”) to kitschy postmodern (“The Film We Made About Dads”). Several of the stories have undeniably empathetic characters, especially the nine-year-old girl who narrates “Pushing Oceans In and Pulling Oceans Out”; suffering from OCD, she lives with her mentally retarded brother and their single father, who masturbates to porn films after the children are in bed. At times, Malla's heavy-handedness feels cynical, as in “Respite,” when the story's theme is literally delivered via a tossed wedding bouquet that lands squarely on the plate of the narrator's cranky and uninterested girlfriend. But even given so many of the pieces' dramatic premises, Malla chooses the road of obfuscation, too often denying the reader crucial information. (Apr.)

A pair of petty crooks think they've lucked into the ultimate blackmail material in Byrnes's unwieldy latest. Chase LaMarca and Grant Lambert get information that gay icon Romeo Romero is actually straight, but their incompetent associate loses the incriminating videotape in a cab. Before LaMarca and Lambert can retrieve the tape, it falls into the hands of tabloid reporter Ian Hadley, who has blackmail on his mind, too. The gaggle go to extremes (and the Hamptons) to get what they want in this comedy of errors, and while the characters are charmingly inept, the coincidences that drive the plot are woefully absurd, and the setting is threadbare window dressing. The competing capers have some fun moments, but the plotting leaves much to be desired. (Apr.)

Despite a laconic style that helps temper some of the more disturbing content, Preston's tale of a woman struggling to stay afloat on a contemporary Oklahoma ranch is too distancing to be truly affecting. Marik Youngblood lives alone on Killdeer Ridge Ranch, haunted by regrets. Her ranch is debt-ridden, but rather than ask her wealthy sister for relief, Marik leases part of her acreage to a power company for wind towers, angering her neighbor, Burt Gurdman. After Marik and Jace Rainwater, who's applying to become Killdeer's foreman, discover a dead bald eagle under one of the wind towers, they learn that Burt poisoned the bird in a failed attempt to prove the towers unsafe. Burt's hostility grows and Marik is forced to turn to Devon, a powerful man from her past. Preston (Trudy's Promise) ably frames Marik's story with the legend of Silk Mountain, the story of an 1890s frontier woman who committed suicide rather than face life in the harsh Oklahoma territory. But even the cast of multidimensional characters, especially Jace and his autistic son, cannot entirely shore up this novel. (Apr.)

While not up to the high standard of Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt (2002), Thomas's fourth pastiche collection conveys the tone and spirit of Conan Doyle's original tales with nary a false note. In the clever “The Case of the Tell-Tale Hands,” an aristocrat hires Holmes to look into his cousin's eccentric behavior, which includes wearing gloves at odd times. A school teacher who fears her brothers, both lighthouse keepers, have met with foul play retains Dr. Watson as the investigator in the richly atmospheric title story. Less successful are two tales rooted in history: “The Case of Peter the Painter,” in which Holmes battles anarchists in London alongside Winston Churchill in 1911, and “The Case of the Zimmermann Telegram,” in which the sleuth serves as director of Admiralty Signals Intelligence during WWI. This volume reinforces Thomas's place in the front rank of Doyle imitators. (May)

Murder's afoot at Dead on Arrival, a crime writers' conference held at Edinburgh's Dalmorton Castle, in Malliet's superior second cozy featuring Det. Chief Insp. Arthur St. Just (after 2008's Death of a Cozy Writer). The same evening that Kimberlee Kalder, “queen of the 'chick lit' genre,” accepts an award for best debut novel from her publisher, Lord Easterbrook of Deadly Dagger Press, her broken body is found in the castle dungeon. St. Just, who's visiting from Cambridge, and the local DCI learn that not all were thrilled by catty Kimberlee's megaseller, Dying for a Latte. Suspects include Kimberlee's literary agent, who's worried another agent wants to steal her star client, a flamboyant publicist and various jealous authors. Malliet's satirical take on the mystery scene is spot-on. Adding spice is the inspector's new romantic interest, writer and criminologist Portia De'Ath, with whom the love-starved widower becomes deliciously smitten. (Apr.)

The 18th installment of Leon's wickedly entertaining series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti (after 2008's The Girl of His Dreams) focuses on garbage, illuminating the author's ongoing concern about the environment. Venice contends with polluted canals and a huge chemical complex. Trash litters Naples' streets. Incinerators in south Italy are full, and trucks laden with toxic waste travel the roads. Brunetti becomes an ecological expert when an investigator with the carabiniere wants him to look into illegal hauling that has resulted in a truck driver's murder. On a personal level, Brunetti's father-in-law asks him to investigate a potential business partner, Maurizio Cataldo. But Brunetti, who's devoted to his wife and children, is more intrigued by Cataldo's much younger second wife, whose once beautiful looks were ruined by a face lift. Leon flawlessly melds the two plot threads as she parallels her characters' vulnerability with that of Venice. 7-city author tour. (Apr.)

Fans of Louise Fitzhugh's iconic Harriet the Spy will welcome 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce, the heroine of Canadian journalist Bradley's rollicking debut. In an early 1950s English village, Flavia is preoccupied with retaliating against her lofty older sisters when a rude, redheaded stranger arrives to confront her eccentric father, a philatelic devotee. Equally adept at quoting 18th-century works, listening at keyholes and picking locks, Flavia learns that her father, Colonel de Luce, may be involved in the suicide of his long-ago schoolmaster and the theft of a priceless stamp. The sudden expiration of the stranger in a cucumber bed, wacky village characters with ties to the schoolmaster, and a sharp inspector with doubts about the colonel and his enterprising young detective daughter mean complications for Flavia and enormous fun for the reader. Tantalizing hints about a gardener with a shady past and the mysterious death of Flavia's adventurous mother promise further intrigues ahead. (Apr.)

The perils of Pauline Cook, society widow extraordinaire, include some decidedly dark twists in O'Connell's otherwise lighthearted second mystery (after 2007's Well Bred and Dead). After a long, decadent European vacation, Pauline returns to a post-9/11 America to learn she's lost nearly $20 million in bad investments. Adding insult to injury, Air France loses her Louis Vuitton luggage, plus her best friend, Whitney Armstrong, who's been taking care of her precious cat, Fleur, has vanished, along with Fleur and Whitney's dogs. Whitney's grief-stricken husband, scion of the nation's largest lingerie empire, offers Pauline a multimillion-dollar reward to find Whitney. Pauline decides she could use the money to pay for unfinished renovations on her Chicago penthouse. Brimming with witty observations about the well-heeled and the machinations of greedy businessmen, this sophisticated romp takes the daring amateur sleuth all the way to Thailand and Vietnam. (Apr.)

At the start of Cleland's absorbing fourth mystery to feature New Hampshire antiques dealer Josie Prescott (after 2008's Antiques to Die For), Josie's dependable assistant, Gretchen, fails to show up for a second day and hasn't even called. When a worried Josie checks Gretchen's apartment, she discovers the bloodied body of a strange man in his early 30s on the sofa. A valuable Meissen vase missing from the apartment and a Native American belt buckle on the dead man appear to be the only clues to guide Josie in her amateur sleuthing, though Wes Smith, a local newspaperman, later unearths the suspicious fact that Gretchen's Social Security number was issued only four years earlier, at the time she started working for Josie. Ty Alverez, a Homeland Security officer who's “drop-dead gorgeous,” lends emotional support. A Web search for the origins of the vase leads to a frightening escape for Josie and an ingenious solution to the mystery. Author tour. (Apr.)

Where Jessica Fletcher goes, murder invariably follows, as shown in Bain's taut 31st mystery to feature the crime-solving character immortalized by Angela Lansbury on the small screen (after 2008's A Slaying in Savannah). While visiting her ad exec nephew, Grady Fletcher, and his family in New York City, Jessica agrees to appear in a TV commercial as one of several celebrities promoting an international credit card. Betsy Archibald, the creative director of the ad agency handling the shoot, makes the experience uncomfortable for all involved due to frequent tantrums. When Grady's nine-year-old son, Frank, disappears on the set while watching his great-aunt perform, his parents become frantic. Jessica and Grady's search reveals Betsy, dead from a nail-gun wound, but no Frank. Did the boy witness the murder? Jessica at first irritates the police detective in charge of the investigation, but later impresses him as she cracks the case in her typical no-nonsense style. (Apr.)

At the outset of Bastion's sprightly second cozy to feature American-in-London public relations executive Lucille Anderson (after 2004's No Just Desserts), Lucille discovers the body of Sir Montague Taylor-Scott hanging from a trellis during a garden tour of Monty's stately home. Richard Meek, a freelance journalist who's been tailing Lucille, suggests Monty was the victim of eco-terrorists, “the Marigold Mafia,” for stealing priceless seedlings from an African tribe and planning to profit from them. Meek also warns that the group is targeting Allgood Foods, whose CEO, Braxton “Brack” Clark, is Lucille's client and lover, because the company may be genetically modifying its products. Though Brack insists she stop her meddling, the plucky Lucille pursues the Marigold Mafia to Cornwall, where she meets a handsome government agent, whose advances she finds hard to resist given Brack's odd behavior. Occasional strong language may offend those used to milder expletives. (Apr.)

In Smith's solid if unflashy seventh police procedural to feature Det. Chief Insp. Neil Paget (after 2008's Breaking Point), Paget looks into a series of unsolved burglaries that have baffled the authorities in Broadminster. Before Paget can make much headway, someone bludgeons to death Laura Holbrook, co-owner of an engineering company, in the course of a break-in. When the victim's husband, Simon, acts suspiciously soon after getting the tragic news, Paget and his team begin to examine the possibility that Laura's murder was planned. There's no shortage of possible killers, including Laura's sister, who had her sights set on Simon, and Simon's attractive assistant, who was displaced when Laura joined the company. Another murder narrows the field a bit, but puts added pressure on the police to close the case. While many readers will identify whodunit before the inspector does, clean prose and credible characterizations keep the action moving smoothly to the end. (Apr.)

Set on Hawaii's Big Island, this fast-moving stand-alone from Waiwaiole (Wiley's Refrain and two other novels featuring a Pacific Northwest pro poker player) focuses on the battles over who will control the island's lucrative drug trade. In the middle of the muddle is criminal investigator Geronimo Souza, who simply wants to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. The many often reluctant players, only a few of whom stand out, include local distributors like Buddy Kai and Dominic Rosario; established Japanese suppliers Johjima and his ambitious aide, Kitano; and L.A.-based Mexicans, led by Jesus Fernandez, who are trying to gain a foothold. Geronimo's heroic attempts to control the chaos grow increasingly desperate. Violent and profane, this noir exercise draws a devastating picture of drug-induced carnage, though readers should be prepared for plenty of island patois (e.g., “What da kine I fockin' wen tell you fo' watch?”). (Apr.)

The search for a traitor in the highest circles of power forms the main plot thread of Butcher's 11th hard-boiled fantasy novel featuring Chicago's wizard detective Harry Dresden (last seen in 2008's Small Favor). Harry, a warden of the magic-governing White Council, finds himself in an unusual position when Morgan, his fellow warden and frequent antagonist, asks for his help. One of the White Council's leaders has been murdered, and Morgan was found at the scene of the crime holding the murder weapon. If he has been framed, then another senior wizard is behind the killing and may be trying to destroy the council entirely. Aided by werewolf and vampire allies, Dresden investigates with his trademark sardonic noir flair. Despite the sprawling plot, both fans and newcomers will get into the fast-paced action. (Apr.)

Coauthored by Blaylock and a trio of his high school students, these three reflective short-short stories employing Blaylock's signature nostalgic prose are individually strong in technique, but weakened by thematic similarities. The eccentric hero of Adriana Campoy's lighthearted “Stone Eggs” uncovers an entryway into a fantastic world while house-sitting for his uncle. In Brittany Cox's well-written but unexciting “P-38,” Anderson revisits his imperfect childhood by assembling a model airplane from his father's former shop. Alex Haniford's “Houses” hurtles toward darkness when Michael returns home for his mother's funeral and accidentally unearths the chilling secret behind his father's spiraling dementia. While Tim Powers offers a short foreword and William Ashbless (Powers and Blaylock's joint nom de plume) provides a whimsical afterword, readers will recognize both as padding and be left wanting more real content. (Apr.)

The rambling conclusion to Monette's Mélusine fantasy quartet (after 2008's The Mirador) reveals the destiny of three exiles. Prince Gerrard Hume dies in an attempt to start the sinister Cymellunar engine, which he hoped would help win Caloxa's independence from Corambis. Blinded by the engine, Kay Brightmore, the margrave of Rothmarlin and the prince's illicit lover, is imprisoned by Corambis's duke of Glimmering. Meanwhile, far away in Bernatha, gay wizard Felix Harrowgate returns to prostitution to raise money when his half-brother becomes ill, but is gang-raped by Corambins in a ritual that restarts the Clock of Eclipses, another terrible Cymellunar device. Monette throws in numerous unsubtle lessons on love, lust and power, but for full effect, the intricate plot requires familiarity with prior installments. (Apr.)

First published to wide acclaim in Russia in 1996, the intriguing first Labyrinths of Echo novel introduces readers to protagonist, narrator and pseudonymous author Max Frei. Max, a self-described “classic loser,” stays up all night and sleeps during the day. His erratic sleeping habits turn out to be a blessing when a dream brings him to Echo, an otherworldly city inhabited by magicians, where he is named the Nocturnal Representative of the Most Venerable Head of the Minor Secret Investigative Force. After training to shed his terrestrial habits, Max's investigative intuition quickly makes him one of the city's most revered—and feared—men, and soon he's taking on midget murderers and rescuing bewitched sea captains. Gannon's translation preserves the book's quintessentially Russian wit and makes it easily accessible to English-speaking fantasy mystery fans. (Apr.)

YA fantasy author Catherine Webb (The Obsidian Dagger) makes an ambitious leap to adult urban fantasy under the Griffin pseudonym. Matthew Swift, a young London sorcerer, was brutally killed thanks to the machinations of Robert James Bakker, a superpowerful mage who also targeted several of Matthew's colleagues. Two years later, Matthew revives as a “we,” sharing his body with an “electric angel.” While seeking answers, Matthew meets magician Dudley Sinclair, who wants to kill Bakker and crush his group of evil dark arts practitioners—including Matthew's former apprentice, who has become Bakker's lover. Griffin's lush prose and chatty dialogue, modeled after the best work of other modern British fantasy writers, create a wonderful ambience but often diffuse the tension, leaving readers to make their own way through the uncomplicated plot. (Apr.)

The wildly thought-provoking first installment of Sawyer's WWW trilogy, serialized in Analog in 2008 and 2009, explores the origins and emergence of consciousness. Blind teen Caitlin Decter gets an experimental signal-processing implant that inexplicably opens up her vision to the wondrous infrastructure of the World Wide Web. Inside the Web is a newborn “webmind,” a globe-spanning self-contained consciousness that is just becoming aware of the outside world. Secondary plot threads about a highly intelligent hybrid primate and Chinese bloggers battling a repressive government extend the motif of expanding awareness. The thematic diversity—and profundity—makes this one of Sawyer's strongest works to date. Numerous dangling plot threads are an unnecessary pointer to the forthcoming books; readers will keep coming back for the ideas. (Apr.)

This uneven anthology from online semiprozine Abyss & Apex collects 30 stories and poems published between 2003 and 2008. In Tony Pi's “Metamorphoses in Amber,” an immortal tries to halt his body from turning female. “In the Season of Blue Storms” by Jude-Marie Green describes an intelligent storm seeking love. In Justin Stanchfield's melancholy “God's Guitar,” an angel sends a man to search for Eric Clapton's missing guitar. Desmond Warzel's clever flash fiction “Wikihistory” records entries to the members' forum of the International Association of Time Travelers. Justin Howe's “City of Beautiful Nonsense” eloquently evokes the otherworldly mood of a city. Most of the other entries are short on speculative ideas and long on literary angst, and too-pat punch-line endings mar a few. (Apr.)

Bad-to-the-bone radical separatist witches are out to kill England's prime minister in Devereux's satirical, scary and weirdly funny debut, already on its third U.K. printing. When Jack, an agent of the Service's Special Branch, learns that the magic-wielding Enlightened Sisterhood has joined forces with the all-male anarchist group Eleven-Eleven, he sends his partner, Annie Hargreaves, to infiltrate the coven. Shortly after her initiation into the inner circle, Annie vanishes along with nine key Sisterhood members. Jack swings into action to save her and deal with the dangerous nutters. Self-proclaimed former exorcist Devereux doesn't flinch when it comes to odd magic rituals, gory violence, kinky sex or hilarious spy escapades, and Jack's brash narration is disarmingly addictive despite his quaint descriptions of “the dumbass Yank” and “Goddess-worshipping, man-hating, we-know-everything-because-we're-women” feminists. (May)

Wilde's Wedding Veil Wishes series concludes with this mellow fourth installment (after 2008's Addicted to Love). Talented architect Tucker Manning has retreated to Salvation, Colo., after the untimely death of his young wife, Aimee. Though Tucker's father-in-law, Blake, deeded him the lake house in Salvation, Houston attorney Jillian Samuels claims that Blake, her mentor, bequeathed the house to her before his death. Calling a truce, Jillian and Tuck agree to reside in the house together until they can sort out the conundrum. As Tuck attempts to overcome his guilt and sorrow over Aimee's death, Jillian searches for love despite fearing rejection. Their physical attraction heats up the pages, but their personal development forms the heart and soul of the novel, a delicately revealing in-depth character study. Wilde's clever combination of humor, sorrow and love brings a deeply appealing sense of realism. (Apr.)

The well-known authors in this wide-ranging alternate history anthology strike out in welcome new directions, often focusing on obscure events or people. The musician Ralph Vaughan Williams appears as an aging ambulance driver amid an extended Great War in Alistair Reynolds's “The Receivers,” while an astronomical phenomenon leads the conquering Inca to become the world's dominant power in Stephen Baxter's “The Unblinking Eye.” Those taking on more recognizable themes—like a magical race's diaspora in Theodora Goss's “Csilla's Story,” or an America that never suffered a civil war in “This Peaceable Land; or, the Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe” by Robert Charles Wilson—reveal their twists' horror and grit without being gratuitous. The well-realized narratives and gripping details make each tale a good introduction for any reader new to alternate history. (Apr.)

Simpson (Awaiting the Moon) launches her Lady Anne historical mystery series with flair, though at times its daring heroine seems more Victorian than Georgian. Lady Anne Addison, a clever, capable bluestocking, arrives at Darkefell Castle after receiving a distress-filled missive from her flighty best friend, Lady Lydia Bestwick, about werewolf sightings. Walking the last few miles to the castle, Anne hears screams and discovers a dead woman along the way. Lydia's concerns extend beyond the paranormal, and soon Anne becomes embroiled in gothic goings-on that clumsily point to the overbearing marquess of Darkefell, Lydia's brother-in-law, who aggressively pursues Anne despite disliking her independent nature. A slave trade subplot works well, and romance fans will love the witty byplay if not the decidedly unromantic conclusion. (Apr.)