Fiction Book Reviews: Week of 6/8/2009

Byatt's overstuffed latest wanders from Victorian 1895 through the end of WWI, alighting on subjects as diverse as puppetry, socialism, women's suffrage and the Boer War, and suffers from an unaccountably large cast. The narrative centers on two deeply troubled families of the British artistic intelligentsia: the Fludds and the Wellwoods. Olive Wellwood, the matriarch, is an author of children's books, and their darkness hints at hidden family miseries. The Fludds' secrets are never completely exposed, but the suicidal fits of the father, a celebrated potter, and the disengaged sadness of the mother and children add up to a chilling family history. Byatt's interest in these artists lies with the pain their work indirectly causes their loved ones and the darkness their creations conceal and reveal. The other strongest thread in the story is sex; though the characters' social consciences tend toward the progressive, each of the characters' liaisons are damaging, turning high-minded talk into sinister predation. The novel's moments of magic and humanity, malignant as they may be, are too often interrupted by information dumps that show off Byatt's extensive research. Buried somewhere in here is a fine novel. (Oct.)

An immigrant Ukrainian family suffers unrelenting hardship on the tundra of late 1930s western Canada in this grim frontier tale. Thrown in prison for two years for helping himself to some of his own grain after defaulting on a homesteading contract, Ukrainian immigrant Theo Mykolayenko must deal with his nearly destitute wife and children. His oldest son helps to plow and plant fields owned by Theo's sister, Anna, who is married to Stefan, a wayward and violent military man. Theo's long-suffering wife, Maria, is tireless in caring for her family, nurturing the garden that feeds them and mending every stitch of clothing they wear. Meanwhile, unhappy Anna, pregnant with a child she does not want, is beguiled by the howling coyotes that surround the homestead at night. The extended family survives fire, dust storms, cold and hunger, only to face a nastier enemy much closer to home. This ambitious novel, full of the minutiae of the savage existence of a frontier family, comprises a harsh picture of lives lived in an unforgiving landscape, though some readers may find themselves wishing for an occasional break from the grinding woe. (Sept.)

The first novel from poet and playwright Lodato is a stunning portrait of grief and youthful imagination. Narrator Mathilda Savitch is an adolescent girl negotiating life after the death of her older sister, Helene. Her parents, especially her alcoholic mother, are too traumatized to give her the comfort she needs, so she lives in an elaborate world of her own invented logic. Mathilda evaluates sex, religion and national tragedy in language that is constantly surprising, amusing and often heartbreaking. She speaks with the bold matter-of-factness of a child, but also reveals a deep understanding of life far beyond her years: “I wondered why god would unlock a door just to show you emptiness,” she says. “It made me wonder if maybe he was in cahoots with infinity.” Lodato chooses every word with extreme care; Mathilda's observations read like a finely crafted epic poem, whose themes and imagery paint an intricate map of her inner life. She's a metaphysical Holden Caulfield for the terrifying present day. (Sept.)

In this unconvincing allegorical postapocalypto, Pa lives on an island with his three children, Alice, Finn and Daisy. They are survivors of a civilization-destroying flood; mom Mary wasn't so lucky—she died while trying to save one of her children. Into this setting washes up Will, a handsome young man who comes ashore and seems to know much about the family. Befriended by Finn, Will faces off with an increasingly hostile Pa, especially after Pa discovers that Alice has fallen in love with Will. As the novel progresses, flashbacks (largely via journal entries) detail life before the flood and the events leading up to the world's drowning; through these same entries, an incredible truth is hinted at, and it's Will presence that allows for its revelation. Unfortunately, though, the “shocking” surprise ending isn't very shocking, and Taylor's take on life after the apocalypse fails to persuade in either its allegorical implications or the day-to-day drama of its Swiss Family Robinson–style situation. (Sept.)

French novelist Barbery's sensuous first novel, being released here after the phenomenal success of her second novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, encompasses a series of witty reflections on the life and career of famous, unlovable French food critic Pierre Arthen, as he lies on his death bed desperate to recapture “a forgotten flavor.” Lapsing through chapters into nostalgic memories of early, formative tastes, women and pets, Arthens reveals himself as a man driven by “gastronomic ecstasies,” from his childhood impressions of eating grilled meat in Tangiers to summers gorging on fresh fish in Brittany. Alternating with these splendid remembrances are decidedly more salty commentary by his resentful children (“Die in your silk sheets, in your pasha's bed, in your bourgeois cage, die, die, die”); long-suffering wife, Anna; the exultant tramp outside his Paris apartment building whom he ignored for 10 years; even his faithful cat, Rick (named for the character in the film Casablanca). Barbery's debut, occasionally rough-edged and uneven in structure, showcases her lush and satisfying prose and sets the stage for what has come. (Sept.)

Known for his stand-alones, bestseller Finder (Power Play) introduces Nick Heller, an elite corporate intelligence specialist and former Special Services badass, in this exciting series opener. After a frantic call from his 14-year-old nephew, Gabe, Heller returns home to Washington, D.C., from a job in California to find Gabe's mother in a coma and Gabe's stepfather, Roger, who is Heller's older brother, vanished without a trace. Though the brothers have been estranged since their father's much-publicized securities fraud conviction years earlier, Nick vows to protect Gabe and his mother and unravel the mystery of Roger's alleged abduction. The investigation leads him to some disturbing revelations about Roger, not the least of which involves a powerful—and dangerous—private military company. Written in staccato chapters that are emotionally supercharged and action packed, this thriller will more than satisfy adrenaline junkies and have them guessing until the very end. (Aug.)

Written as a blog, this debut novel stars Katie Kampenfelt, who types away at her very own Internet reality show. A sassy suburbanite teenager who defers college for a year, Katie takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy family and chronicles her day-to-day life online in the time of Netflix, Barack Obama and Internet lingo. The divulging blog entries start in October 2007 and end in May 2008, instantly gaining popularity as Katie confesses her promiscuous behavior and charts her uncensored thoughts and emotions. Her audience provides constant feedback, both supportive and critical. She notes that only on the Internet can one be both lonely and popular simultaneously, which is a comment on our culture and being 17. When Katie's admittedly superficial arrogance is under control, she is insightful and hilarious, exposing her fears and insecurities. Name and event changes in order to keep the blog's anonymity are disappointing, a fiction within fiction, and raises the question, what is truth? On the Internet, who is really anonymous? Perhaps our dear Katie wasn't such an undiscovered gyrl after all. Burnett's novel is intriguing, but seems at times contrived. (Aug.)

In this heartwarming collaborative debut from country music star Evans and Christian romance veteran Hauck (Sweet Caroline), antique dealer Jade Freedom Fitzgerald of Whisper Hollow, Tenn., must make peace with her hippy mama, Beryl Hill, before she can marry her lawyer fiancé, Maxwell Charles Benson. But wait, there's more: she also needs an annulment from an elopement at 16, to resolve her anger at the father who abandoned her, to learn how to get along with a pushy mom-in-law-to-be and take responsibility for a dire choice she made 13 years before. The arrival of Jade's mother and her tempestuous little sister, Willow, before the big day shakes things up further, especially after Beryl reveals an unhappy secret of her own. Comforting in that Southern way and inspirational without being too saccharine, Evans and Hauck's first outing together shows promise. (Aug.)

The Yale campus becomes the site of an increasingly tense siege in this stunning novel from bestseller White (Dead Time). After unidentified attackers quietly take over a building belonging to one of Yale's secret societies, they transform it into a virtual fortress holding an unknown number of students hostage. As officials become aware of what has happened, the response escalates in predictable fashion, but these hostage takers are completely unpredictable. They make no demands, agree to no negotiations and execute or release hostages as they choose. Suspended Boulder, Colo., policeman Sam Purdy eventually teams with maverick FBI agent Christopher Poe and CIA terror expert Deirdre Drake in an effort outside official channels to figure out what's going on. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this intellectually challenging and provocative thriller brings home the lesson that 9/11 might have been a mere prelude to more sophisticated assaults. (Aug.)

In bestseller Hitchcock's whirling and suspenseful comedy of manners, gauche, aggressive Cynthia Rinehart, a self-made millionairess, explodes onto the philanthropy scene and the grand dames of old money Washington collectively clutch their husbands. Meanwhile, the Beltway Basher, suspected to be a member of the D.C. elite, continues to bump off young brunettes. Reven Lynch, an unmarried antique-shop owner, is tapped to play society informant, perhaps because her love interest, notorious playboy (and the D.C. version of Sex and the City's “Mr. Big”) Bob Poll, is also a person of interest in the case. Gossip, manipulation and infidelity all happen behind Washington's velvet curtain, and it's the stuff of high school, but with higher—nay, deadlier—stakes. And among the backbiting, Hitchcock (Social Crimes) manages to stew a convincing homicide plot, peppered with enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing, and guessing again, to the novel's neat finish. (Aug.)

When the bodies of seven headless monks are found on the rocks below a Greek mountain monastery, Nick Dial, head of Interpol's homicide division, investigates in Kuzneski's fourth novel to feature ex–Special Forces warriors Jonathon Payne and David Jones (after Sword of God). Meanwhile, Payne and Jones are in St. Petersburg, Fla., when Payne receives a phone call from a frightened American woman, Allison Taylor, in St. Petersburg, Russia, who says her boss, a wealthy antiquities researcher, has just been shot dead there. Payne flies to Russia to rescue Allison. Both of these plots eventually join as all involved head off to find a mysterious lost artifact, now known to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Despite the silly, juvenile banter between Payne and Jones as they go about the business of killing bad guys and the book's weak denouement, readers will find the Greek setting a refreshing change after the usual Rome and Jerusalem venues of many such religious thrillers. (Aug.)

Da Vinci Code addicts will enjoy Levin's debut, a dense, complicated novel of religious suspense. Jonathan Marcus, classics scholar–turned–lawyer, is sucked back into his former life in archeology after becoming involved in an antiquities theft case his law firm is handling. A few minutes in the presence of a chunk of the ancient Roman Forum and a reunion with an old girlfriend from his student days, Dr. Emili Travia, and Jonathan is ready to cast off his three-piece suit and return to unearthing ancient subterranean mysteries. The prize this time is the 2,000-year-old Tabernacle menorah, eight feet of solid gold stolen from Herod's Temple in Jerusalem and hidden somewhere in Rome. The forces of evil are represented by Sheik Salah ad-Din, who seeks to find and destroy the menorah. The fevered pace slows only to deliver a multitude, perhaps too much of a multitude, of interesting historical factoids. (Aug.)

In her sixth novel, Maynard (To Die For) tells the story of a long weekend and its repercussions through the eyes of a then 13-year-old boy, Henry, who lives with his divorced mother, Adele. On Labor Day weekend, Henry manages to coax his mother, who rarely goes out, into a trip to PriceMart, where they run into Frank, who intimidates them into giving him a ride. Frank, it turns out, is an escaped convict looking for a place to hide. He holds Adele and Henry hostage in their home, an experience that changes all of them forever, whether it's Frank tying Adele to the kitchen chair with her silk scarves and lovingly feeding her or teaching the awkward, unathletic Henry how to throw a baseball. The bizarre situation encompasses Henry's budding adolescence, the awakening of his sexuality and his fear of being abandoned by his mother and Frank, who are falling in love and planning to run away together. Maynard's prose is beautiful and her characters winningly complicated, with no neat tie-ups in the end. A sometimes painful tale, but captivating and surprisingly moving. (Aug.)

This accomplished poet, novelist, and story writer's collection packs a devastating punch. Lasdun peels back the facades of middle-aged, middle-class types through their run-ins with cancer, infidelity and loss that lead them to deal with unexpectedly large and often ugly recognitions. The title story is less than three full pages, but generates near-boundless futility and regret as a businessman, having just attended the funeral of a long forgotten former lover, can't help falling back into the old habit of lying to his wife about how he's spent the day. “The Incalculable Life Gesture” builds to a climax of relief as an elementary school principal, feuding with his sister, follows through a series of tests that indicate he has lymphoma—until a specialist reveals the truth of his ailment. In “Peter Kahn's Third Wife,” a sales assistant in a jewelry boutique models necklaces for a wealthy wine importer who brings in a series of successive wives-to-be over the years. Jewels of resignation and transformative personal disaster, these stories are written so simply and cleanly that the formidable craft looks effortless. (Aug.)

Fans of intelligent page-turners will be more than satisfied by Larsson's second thriller, even though it falls short of the high standard set by its predecessor, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which introduced crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist and punk hacker savant Lisbeth Salander. A few weeks before Dag Svensson, a freelance journalist, plans to publish a story that exposes important people involved in Sweden's sex trafficking business based on research conducted by his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, a criminologist and gender studies scholar, the couple are shot to death in their Stockholm apartment. Salander, who has a history of violent tendencies, becomes the prime suspect after the police find her fingerprints on the murder weapon. While Blomkvist strives to clear Salander of the crime, some far-fetched twists help ensure her survival. Powerful prose and intriguing lead characters will carry most readers along. (Aug.)

At the start of bestseller Clark's smooth third Eliza Blake puzzler (after It Only Takes a Moment), the KEY to America TV host is looking forward to attending a party to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi at Ennis and Valentina Wheelock's newly renovated villa in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Soon after Ennis's suicide by stigmata in the villa's greenhouse puts an end to the party, someone begins killing anyone who knows too much about the Wheelocks' connection to a 20-year-old cold case involving an abandoned convertible and its missing owner, landscaper Martin O'Shaughnessy. Each murder mimics “aspects of the Passion of Jesus Christ.” As Eliza and her three KEY co-workers, who have dubbed themselves the Sunrise Suspense Society, swing into action, Eliza must fight to avoid becoming headline news herself as the killer's next victim. Those curious about Tuxedo Park will appreciate the well-researched portrait of the real-life exclusive community. (Aug.)

Betrayals public and private collide in Colombian author Vásquez's first novel to appear in the States, a crushing and beautifully tricky novel. Gabriel Santoro's publication of a book about a family friend, Sara Guterman, a German Jew who arrived in Colombia with her family in 1938, unexpectedly enrages his father, a famous professor of rhetoric (also named Gabriel Santoro) who prefers that the past remain forgotten. When the elder Gabriel has a change of heart (after a health crisis), it coincides with a sexual relationship he begins with Angelina, his physiotherapist. But after Gabriel confesses to Angelina long-held past transgressions shortly before his accidental death, Angelina turns against Gabriel on national television while the younger Gabriel watches. The younger Gabriel then delves into Sara's memories of wartime intrigue and anguish revolving around suspected Nazi sympathizers. But Gabriel's lust for the truth makes him susceptible to committing harsh betrayals of his own. In Vásquez's intricate narrative, morality is ambiguous and as treacherous as the early-1990s Bogotá backdrop, and its intelligence and unsparing tone will hold readers rapt through its many twists and turns. (Aug.)

In Kura, a prehistoric village of women, peace and stability reign under the rule of the tribal Mother. The granddaughter of the current Mother, Snap, is about to undergo her first Bonding ritual, when the women choose mates. Bapoto, a strange man with unfamiliar spiritual ideas, arrives and begins to accumulate power, shifting the society away from its matriarchal structure. Snap resists and is driven from the village. Desperate and pregnant, she must find the wisdom and courage to save her village from Bapoto's threat. Austin, a former doctor with a serious passion for paleoanthropology, brings exhaustive research and strong writing to her debut. She accomplishes an extremely difficult task—to get readers to understand a community that resembles both human and animal societies, but the world she depicts is so alien that at times it's difficult to relate to. Still, this is a remarkable first effort, and Snap and her companions will easily engage readers. (Aug.)

Martin (Mary Reilly; Property) adroitly plays with the boundary between reality and performance in her fluidly written new novel about a group of New York thespians in the 1970s and '80s. Aspiring actor Edward Day is the book's charismatic if self-centered narrator who begins his tale with reminiscences of his deceased mother, a woman whose “gender issues” left him confused and guilty, emotions he mines in his acting. During a New Jersey shore beach party with a group of ambitious fellow acting students including Edward's love, Madeleine, Edward falls into the ocean and is rescued by Guy Margate, who becomes his rival in love and in the theater. The tension and constantly shifting exchange of power between the two men as they battle for Madeleine's attentions and struggle with their careers propels the plot until the love triangle comes to a dramatic head. Guy is a slippery character, while Edward, in his search for truth in acting and in life makes a compelling fictional memoirist. Another winner for Martin, who never disappoints. (Aug.)

The line between fiction and reality blurs with disturbing results for Spanish mystery writer Luisa Dávila in Posadas's disappointing suspense novel. Luisa's latest mystery focuses on the strange death of a child at a Madrid private school, similar to the one where Luisa's 11-year-old daughter, Elba, is enrolled (and Luisa herself attended as a teen). She also draws on the accidental death 40 years earlier of her classmate, Antonio Gasset, who fell while playing with his twin brother Miguel, Luisa and the bewitching Sofía Márquez. Now, Sofía is a teacher at the school, and her daughter becomes Elba's best friend. When Miguel's son, who also attends the school, dies under mysterious circumstances, Luisa is alarmed by the parallels not only to her own life but to the story she's creating for her character. The similarities Posadas (The Last Resort) draws between Luisa's childhood, the fictional case and Elba's school life are frustratingly heavy-handed, leaving nothing to the reader's imagination. (Aug.)

A blend of supernatural horror and psychological thriller, Ransom's impressive debut chronicles a couple's descent into madness after they purchase a 140-year-old Victorian house in rural Wisconsin. Failed L.A. screenwriter Conrad Harrison, whose marriage is on the rocks and who's still coming to grips with the sudden death of his estranged father, decides it's time for a change and, on a whim, buys a turn-of-the-century birthing house he fatefully found after driving the wrong way out of Chicago. But the sprawling structure has a dark history, and after his wife lands a new job and leaves for a few weeks of training in Detroit, Harrison begins to unravel the house's bloody past, even as his own sanity is unraveling. Replete with subtle symbolism that supports the birthing motif (spiders with bulging egg sacs, a moist clutch of snake eggs, etc.), this addictively readable ghost story will keep readers up all night, with the lights on, of course. (Aug.)

A tale by BBC radio documentary producer Nicholson about a man and an elephant canters along at a delightful pace, from the first meeting between the two on the quay in Bristol, England. In 1773, Tom Page writes a history of the well-trained elephant, Jenny, and his life as a “humble groom” for the Harrington family's elephants that he learned to care for as a teenager. Lizzy Tindall, a bold young maid, endears herself to Tom and his elephants, but when the female, Jenny, is sold, Lizzy urges Tom to stay—that Jenny is “only an Elephant.” Tom, outraged, chooses to go with Jenny. The animal and keeper communicate, converse even, in their quarters in the elephant house. The pair subsequently move from master to master, ending up in a miserable menagerie in London. “Befogged and befuddled” in the cruel city, an aged Tom strays from Jenny only to discover that his respect for the tenderhearted elephant is singular. Nicholson's elegiac alternate endings leave only the memory of their lasting bond—the elephant's legendary ability to “never forget” is finally ours. (Aug.)

Elmore's less than suspenseful thriller debut opens with a French news report dated March 23, 2003, describing the manhunt for Jeffrey Delanne. An American, Delanne is suspected of having had a hand in the murders of two federal agents as well as the poisoning death of the former head of the school where Delanne worked as a teaching assistant in Lourange, France. The action then flashes back three weeks to relate how Delanne became a patsy for shadowy conspirators with murky motives. The cash-strapped TA agrees to serve as a translator for an elderly Arab entrepreneur, who turns out to want Delanne's help in getting information out of a British man he's holding hostage. Despite this frightening experience, Delanne is unable to avoid a second assignment that crosses the line between interpreter and torturer. Too easily manipulated, Delanne is more apt to make readers impatient than gain their sympathy. (Aug.)

Boaz's 2008 debut followed a near-deaf painter through three eras of her life; her second novel uses a smaller canvas to draw a convincing picture of a woman caught between stifling domesticity and physical passion. Frances, a teacher of writing, has fallen in love with Joseph, an older poet (he writes “tundra poetics” and translates Sanskrit poetry), though she is married to stodgy Harry, and Joseph is involved with formidable beat poet Arlene Manhunter. The novel's present takes place in Paris, where Frances and her daughter, Cathy, have come to escape the drama back home. In flashbacks, Boaz charts the course of Frances and Joseph's relationship as well as Frances's marriage to Harry, whom she wedded “because he has a lovely phone voice and is shy and wears thick glasses like coke bottles.” Adding tension to Frances's ongoing introspection is the fact that Arlene has vanished, and Joseph is implicated in her disappearance. Enter Lewis, a gentle, poetry-loving private investigator who trails Frances throughout the City of Light, and it all adds up to a compelling picture of love and its attendant travails. (Aug.)

A Shaker romance sounds like a nonstarter idea for a novel, since the Shakers, a socially revolutionary religious sect, practiced celibacy. But therein lies the tension in this historical romance, Gabhart's second Shaker outing (after The Outsider). Raised by Shakers since the age of six, when he ran away from his river rat father, Ethan Boyd is a Believer—someone who has signed a covenant to join the Shakers. But he's thrown into emotional turmoil when Elizabeth Duncan and her two younger siblings, following the sudden death of their father, seek refuge in 1833 at Harmony Hill, the Shaker community in Kentucky where Ethan lives. Elizabeth is also escaping from a predatory landlord with designs on her. A number of supporting characters are well drawn, including Elizabeth's siblings Payton and Hannah and the kind Shaker, Issachar, Ethan's benefactor. Other characters are more like caricatures—Elizabeth's landlord is an Oilcan Harry, mustache-twirling kind of villain. On balance, the book rings with researched authenticity and will appeal to Amish romance fans. (Aug.)

Silver Dagger Award–winner Lovesey's 10th Peter Diamond investigation (after 2007's The Secret Hangman) may offer a less intricate plot and more procedural work than usual, but Diamond remains one of the most realistic and human of fictional sleuths. During a recreation of an English Civil War battle outside Bath, Rupert Hope, an academic who's playing a cavalier, and another participant discover a human femur. Presented with this minor puzzle, the police eventually unearth the entire skeleton, minus the skull. After someone bludgeons Hope to death, Diamond wonders whether Hope's murder and the headless skeleton are connected, and his team redoubles their efforts to identify it. A zipper found near the skeleton may point to a link with London's Russian community. While some readers will anticipate the solution with little trouble, sharp prose and characterization make this another winner in this enduring series. (Sept.)

Set in New Orleans shortly before and during the Katrina catastrophe, Abel's outstanding third Danny Chaisson crime novel (after 2002's The Burying Field) strikes with hurricane force, leaving plenty of shattered truisms in its wake. When sadistic hoodlums kidnap Louis Sams, who's been pressured by the Feds to turn in his crooked concrete manufacturer boss, Danny, a former assistant DA now making a slim living with insurance claims and deposition summaries, desperately tries to save Sams. As Danny slogs through a city violent at best and now caught up in a killing rage, drowning because of engineering failures, construction shortcuts and venal politicians, he discovers that all he and some of the poorest of the storm's victims have is each other. Brilliantly executed, Abel's exploration of decency and grace in the face of human brutality and natural disaster testifies to mutual respect, the only thing, Danny knows, that keeps the knife from your throat. (Aug.)

Discovering a murdered colleague isn't quite the adventure Deborah Knott anticipated during her getaway/conference in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., but as fans of Maron's Edgar- and Anthony-winning series know, trouble seems to cling to her like cornmeal on hush puppies. Her 15th outing (after 2008's Death's Half Acre) finds the feisty judge agreeing to aid local investigators with discreet inquiries among her fellow conventioneers. She quickly encounters plenty of folks none too distressed by the victim's demise, including one of her own exes, and escalating danger. Unfortunately, as the pace quickens the plot starts to fall apart, culminating in a pell-mell scramble to a rather unconvincing denouement. On the plus side, Maron's homespun evocation of people and place is typically pitch-perfect, her use of the judicial milieu skillful—and her engaging heroine as welcome a companion as you could wish for under a beach umbrella. (Aug.)

Setting and character more than compensate for a routine plot in Cotterill's sixth procedural to feature Laos's irreverent 73-year-old national coroner, Dr. Siri Paiboun (after 2008's Curse of the Pogo Stick). In March 1978, Siri gets into trouble after the authorities discover he's been living above his wife's noodle shop rather than in the housing assigned him by the inept and corrupt socialist government. Luckily, he's soon called to examine the body of an attractive young woman, who was found strangled, sexually abused and tied to a tree outside the capital of Vientiane. The country's backward communication methods, which even affect law enforcement, make identifying other similar crimes difficult, but Siri's doggedness eventually uncovers other such cases. While some may find the light tone the author takes in presenting the brutal crimes off-putting, the glimpses of everyday life in Laos will appeal to those readers curious about a culture unfamiliar to most Americans. (Aug.)

The amusing first in a new cozy series from Craig (A Dyeing Shame) introduces Myrtle Clover, a sturdy octogenarian who writes a column for the Bradley, N.C., newspaper, the Bradley Bugle. When developer and realtor Parke Stockard, an unpopular busybody, dies from blunt force trauma while messing with church altar flowers, Myrtle helps her police chief son, Red, investigate. Could the killer be rival Bugle columnist Josh Tucker; Parke's drugged-out son, Cecil; or a gossipy book clubber like Kitty Kirk? When Kitty's killed by another blunt force trauma, the plot thickens, and with Bradley's population only 1,500, chances are Myrtle knows the criminal. Myrtle's wacky personality is a delight (she collects garden gnomes that she trots out to her yard whenever she's displeased with Red), but hopefully Craig will add more depth to the snooping in the sequel. (Aug.)

Subtle humor and mostly pitch-perfect prose distinguish Atkins's compelling mix of mystery and romance, set in 1985 with flashbacks to the 1930s and '40s. When Wendell Blackmon, the 59-year-old police chief of Sand Valley, Ala., investigates the murder of a self-proclaimed witch whose charred body was found at a farm called Sorrow Wood, he discovers that the victim was loathed by many in her occult-as-an-excuse-for-free-love coven. Meanwhile, decades earlier, after a painful childhood, Wendell meets his future wife, Reva, falls in love and marries her in the course of a week. Together they build a family. Reva, who serves as Sand Valley's probate judge and believes in reincarnation, believes she and Wendell have shared several lifetimes, indicated in historical vignettes throughout. Atkins (The Front Porch Prophet) smoothly weaves past into present as the action builds to a final poignant twist. (Aug.)

The first in a new historical series from Arthur Ellis Award–finalist Mackay (Cold Comfort) offers an intriguing premise. In 1902, Clyde Deacon, formerly President McKinley's personal physician, moves to Fairfield, N.Y., to serve as “a humble country doctor” because he has yet to forgive himself for failing to save his patient's life after an anarchist shot the president the year before. Soon after Deacon's arrival, Charlotte Scott, a high school senior who played the lead in a performance of Booth Tarkington's play Angel of the Glade, is found drowned in a river. When Deacon uncovers evidence the girl was poisoned, he resists attempts to pin the murder on a Chinese tramp found in possession of Scott's locket. Given the expertise Deacon displays in arriving at his murder-by-poisoning conclusion, some may be disappointed that he solves the crime based on an eyewitness account of how the fatal dose was administered to Scott, a stereotypical “good” girl with a secret life. (Aug.)

In Dunlap's absorbing third mystery to feature San Francisco stuntwoman Darcy Lott (after 2008's Hungry Ghosts), Darcy's lawyer brother, Gary, persuades Darcy to entertain Karen Johnson, a mysterious client of his. Karen claims to be in the midst of divorcing her former football star husband, who turns out to have known her as Alison. Later, Karen appears to commit suicide by jumping off a high-rise building onto a busy freeway. Why would Karen kill herself? As Darcy probes into Karen's past, she uncovers Karen had a number of false identities, possibly including Sonora Eades, the accused killer of a famous cookbook author stabbed 25 years earlier. Darcy, a practicing Buddhist, keeps recalling a koan question Karen mentioned during their brief acquaintance, “How do you step off the hundred-foot pole?” Dunlap's Zen-spirited crime-solver finds a complicated answer via a scary confrontation with an unexpected killer. (Aug.)

Abercrombie returns to the blood-drenched arena of the First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, etc.) with this skillfully crafted and bleakly humorous sword and sorcery adventure. Duke Orso imagines that he can become king by ending the civil wars that have devastated Styria, but he errs by trying to kill his overly popular general, mercenary Monza Murcatto. Recovering from her massive injuries and mourning her murdered brother, Monza vows vengeance on Orso and half a dozen of his accomplices. Employing her own motley crew of death dealers, Monza gets her revenge, but it's neither simple nor satisfying; each target requires fresh strategy, and each death has unexpected effects. Abercrombie is both fiendishly inventive and solidly convincing, especially when sprinkling his appallingly vivid combat scenes with humor so dark that it's almost ultraviolet. (Aug.)

Green's oddly schizophrenic fifth Vampire Babylon novel (after 2009's A Drop of Red) pits a team of vampire hunters against troubled vampire schoolgirls. While Dawn and her fellow human and supernatural stake wielders search London for bloodsuckers, Della and her cohort of adolescent vampires struggle to evade their stalkers while dealing with internal discord and betrayal. Dawn's half of the novel is filled with needlessly complicated backstories and romantic angst. Far more effective is Della's story, in which the mysterious guardians called custodes guide her to the revelation that just as she preys on humans, so too do some vampires seek to prey on the naïve vampire girls. Green has some genuinely new and interesting ideas, but the paranormal romance melodrama overwhelms them. (Aug.)

Editor Scalzi (Zoe's Tale) and four well-known writers thoughtfully postulate the evolution of cities, transcending postapocalyptic clichés to envision genuinely new communities and relationships. Self-sustaining walled cities struggle with their responsibilities to dying suburbs in Scalzi's “Utere Nihil Non Extra Quiritationem Suis”; goods are exchanged through multiple microtransactions in Tobias S. Buckell's “Stochasti-City” and a reputation economy in Elizabeth Bear's “The Red in the Sky Is Our Blood.” A lone man attempts to overthrow an early enclave in Jay Lake's “In the Forests of the Night,” while Karl Schroeder's “To Hie from Far Celenia” brilliantly combines steampunk, urban sociology and network theory as entire subcultures go “off the grid.” Each story shines on its own; as a group they reinforce one another, building a multifaceted view of a realistic and hopeful urban future. (Aug.)

Venerable SF author Bova returns to his Voyagers series after nearly two decades with this clumsy mashup of wildly different universes. Relativistic star flight has somehow catapulted Keith Stoner, Jo Camerata and their children, Cathy and Rick, to a parallel universe. Bova fans will recognize the setting of the Grand Tour series (most recently 2008's Mars Life), but to Keith and Jo, it is alien and seems to be doomed by environmental and cultural issues. Leaving his family to secretly tour the Earth, Keith finds a willing ally in engineer Tavalera, but their joint efforts to prevent human extinction are opposed by the shortsighted and authoritarian New Morality government. Bova's decision to merge two unrelated sets of books is baffling, and Keith's arrogant machinations transform the Grand Tour universe in ways that its fans are unlikely to appreciate. (Aug.)

Kadrey (Butcher Bird) provides biting humor, an over-the-top antihero and a rich stew of metaphoric language in this testosterone- and adrenaline-charged noir thriller. James Stark spent 11 years killing monsters in Lucifer's arena for the entertainment of fallen angels, but now he's back in seedy, magic-riddled L.A., trying to avenge his girlfriend's murder and hunt down Mason Faim, the black magician responsible for getting him sent “downtown.” He meets with some initial success, beheading second-rate magician Kasabian (whose head becomes Stark's smart-mouthed sidekick), but he can't find Faim. Instead he encounters Homeland Security agents, a near-psychotic angel and some odd nonhuman, nonangelic beings called the kissi. Darkly atmospheric settings, such as a posh gentlemen's club where angels are tortured in an attempt to bring about Armageddon, bring this violent fantasy into sharp, compelling focus. (Aug.)

A down-and-out space faring rogue finds himself the protector of a bunch of peacenik artisans in this lighthearted, adventure-filled debut from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart writer Rubens. Space adventurer Cole is a liar and a thief and a cheat, and he owes a lot of money to Kenneth, an alien who wants to incubate eggs in the deadbeat's brain. Cole's escape from Kenneth lands him in the middle of a scheme to deliver a batch of freeze-dried orphans to the backwater planet of Yrnameer, which turns out to be under attack from Cole's archenemy, the outlaw Runk. Cole's ludicrous exploits keep the laughs coming as Rubens grandly ignores the niceties of world building and coherent plotting in favor of clever pop culture references and a rocket-fast, knee-slapping narrative. (Aug.)

This middling follow-up to 2008's The Ancient plods through a familiar fantasy quest formula. With the land of Honce torn between clashing lairds, Bransen Garibond and his five human and dwarf companions have brought the head of the evil Ancient Badden to Dame Gwydre of Vanguard, the embodiment of regal responsibility. For reward, Bransen wants only to return to his wife and their home in Pryd Town, but when he gets in the middle of strife between religious and political factions, he's falsely accused of treachery and forced to choose between imprisonment and the inevitable perilous trek. Peppered with inventive religious lore, mysterious mystic warriors and the martyr's death of a boon companion, and spiked with the genre's requisite gory hand-to-hand combat scenes, this predictable tale will neither advance the saga's plot nor entertain its readers. (Aug.)

Sizzling romance mixes clumsily with ancient legends in DeHart's late-Victorian romance, the first in the Legend Hunters trilogy. Fielding Grey, viscount of Eldon and freelance archeological treasure hunter, reluctantly enters into a business alliance with the club of gentlemanly legend hunters he holds responsible for his father's death. When Fielding's mysterious uncle finds Pandora's mythical box, he kidnaps beautiful Esme Worthington, believing she holds the key. The curses imprisoned in the box escape into the world, and Esme (who is referred to as a scholar, but displays little scholarship) and Fielding fight their growing attraction as they race to prevent disaster. While DeHart (Tempted at Every Turn) makes the romance believable and enticing, the multiplication of unlikely supernatural and familial subplots distracts from it, and the layers of artificial complication added to the original myth feel forced and unconvincing. (Aug.)

Fans of the supernatural and dark fantasy will be intrigued by Maliha Crayne's quest to save her soul, though it has more flash than substance. Susannah Layhem, burnt at the stake in 1692, was posthumously recruited by a demon. She served as his pet assassin for more than 300 years before her refusal to kill a baby revealed a loophole in her contract. Now, as Maliha, she writes mysteries and tries to balance her assassinations by saving human lives, the only route to paradise. While there is an actual story centered on the murders of two hackers, this is mostly an introduction to Maliha, her eclectic group of friends and her uncanny ability to attract violence and death that somehow never counts against her efforts toward salvation. Perhaps the next book will have more plot to go with all the action. (Aug.)

Retirees in quiet Serenity, S.C., find themselves investigation a vicious crime in Oust's charming debut. When retiree Kate McCall finds a human arm in the underbrush at the local golf course, handsome sheriff Sumter Wiggins quickly takes over the case, but Kate remains determined to help out. An aficionado of forensic television shows, Kate never hesitates to follow the sheriff's car or do her own sleuthing with the help of her quirky Bunco Babes, who wonder whether the desecrated body could belong to one of three local women who recently went missing. Feisty and intelligent, Kate is an admirable protagonist with genuinely clever detective skills. Far superior to the typical cozy, this uniquely capricious mystery will engage readers from the very first page to the surprising conclusion. (Aug.)

Debut author Cooper opens this quasi-supernatural thriller with a series of mysterious deaths in New York. Each victim received a postcard depicting a coffin just before the murder. The FBI turns to Will Piper, a talented agent with a bad attitude who's counting the days to retirement. Teamed with young agent Nancy Lipinski, Will tries to identify the killer from practically nonexistent clues. There are suspenseful moments as Will and Nancy race against time—with inevitable romantic involvement, once Will stops scorning Nancy because of her weight—but long tedious stretches focus on Will being drunk, drinking on the job or complaining of hangovers. Flashbacks to 1947 and the medieval setting that inspired the killer are poorly integrated, and while the secret behind the deaths is original and clever, its revelation is anticlimactic. (Aug.)

A principle architect and hero of the Russian Revolution, then a pariah and exile under Stalin, Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, is a perpetually controversial figure, which makes the tameness of this graphic biography so disconcerting. Geary does a good job treating a touchy subject objectively, but that objectivity is detrimental in the long run: there is no context or commentary, no point of view, and while none of the facts and philosophies behind the Russian revolution are hidden, it is all relatively passionless. The text is basically a verbose time line, reinforcing the feeling that this book is a sort of supplement for some unseen history textbook. The primary customers for this book will be Geary's fans, and they won't be disappointed. Best known for his ongoing series of graphic novels looking at famed murders, here he recreates Russia of the period in his own distinct style. It's instantly recognizable while never distracting; detailed, but not cluttered. Occasional flights of fancy, like his portraits of Trotsky done in the style of negative and positive propaganda posters, are wonderful, and the book suffers from not having more like them. (Sept.)

On another world, black-blooded humans live in remote mountain caves and fear attacking machines. Guardians are the only ones who can travel between settlements and protect the people. Legends say that their god, the Kami, who created their world, will return to save them and be known by his magical red blood. Shio, son of a Guardian, watches his father die rescuing a mysterious (Earth) girl with red blood named Matsuda. Her presence creates tensions and drama between the various factions, but she emerges as a peacemaker, protected by Shio as other powerful forces try to find or control her. As she attempts to go home, it emerges that Matsuda has the potential to unite the two cultures, human and machine. There's plenty of action in this manga with battlesuit fights against imaginative future machines and energetic, well-drawn art. The legend motivating the series is simple but resonant, providing depth to the battles. Matsuda's quest to return to our world is reminiscent of everything from The Wizard of Oz to Alice 19th, while Naruto fans may enjoy Shio's quest to live up to his father's legacy in battle. (Aug.)

In this second Young Liars collection from Stray Bullets creator Lapham, heroine Sadie Dawkins, whose personality is drastically altered following a bullet to the head, leads her friends on an adrenaline-filled adventure. Sadie's friend, mediocre musician Danny Noonan, is determined to track down the one person who may be able to snap her back to reality: her mother. But he'll have to stay one step ahead of the hit men sent by Sadie's pervert father, the billionaire owner of the Brown Bag Superstore chain. And then there's Sadie's obsession with the idea that “Spiders from Mars” are gathering an army to colonize Earth. At first, Danny is convinced it's all a delusion caused by her brain injury, but the more he sees, the less sure he becomes of what's reality and what's fantasy. Along for the ride are Sadie and Danny's ragtag group of misfit friends: male cross-dresser Donnie, rock star groupie and syphilis survivor CeeCee and cranky bulimic Annie. Lapham's hardcore, post-punk world is a gritty one, full of deviants, liars and killers. And those are just his main characters. (June)

Starting in 1962, for the king's ransom of two bits, your average red-blooded American kid could pick up a copy of Boris Karloff Thriller and be instantly transported to a world of haunted houses, doomed desert islands and criminal enterprises where the joke was always on the cleverest. Iconic actor Karloff slapped his name on these comics (crudely drawn versions of the dapper actor provided intros and moral conclusions for these creepy stories), making for a classic mid-century drugstore spinner-rack pulp thriller. Drawn with effectively crude but zippy panache by an impressive roster of journeymen like Leo Dorfman and Sparky Moore, the stories inside were strictly in the sub–Twilight Zone category, all mysterious coincidences and bumps in the night. A good number of the stories collected here (like the one where a newlywed couple is haunted by prankish ghosts) have a sharp moral to them, while many simply try to get under the reader's (presumed youthful) skin with cursed tombs and crashing thunderstorms. This sturdy edition brings together the first four issues and includes an introduction by the series namesake's daughter, Sara Karloff. The series ran into the 1980s, so one imagines there will be other volumes to come. (June)

In what is obviously a labor of love, Tyler tells the story of her father's time during WWII and her parents' early relationship, skillfully interweaving it with Tyler's own story. We see her as an adult artist and mother, creating the book even as she deals with tumult in her own life and marriage. This first volume in what will be a trilogy about her father's life, and her own, provides a moving, personal portrait of one member of what's become known as “the greatest generation.” Tyler's use of colored inks gives the line drawings an inviting depth of emotion, creating lush worlds of WWII, the house where Tyler raises her daughter and 1950s suburbs. The drawings speak with an even greater richness thanks to the evocative words that appear within and around them, commenting upon and adding to the action portrayed in the panels. An important contributor to independent comics since the 1980s, Tyler has made a name for herself with the quirky warmth of her autobiographical stories, and this wonderful book is a thoughtful work that greatly adds to the language of the graphic memoir. (June)