Fiction Book Reviews: 6/15/2009

Mayle uncorks a winning wine caper in the tradition of To Catch a Thief. When a hot-shot Hollywood lawyer's most treasured and expensive wines are stolen, his insurance company calls in Sam Levitt, a gourmand and lawyer-of-all-trades with a varied background, to investigate. The investigation takes Sam to Paris and Bordeaux, where he hooks up with the elegant insurance agent Sophie Costes, a fellow wine and food snob. The trail finally leads them to a man named Francis Reboul in Marseille, and soon, with the help of Sophie's journalist cousin, Phillipe, they get an in with Reboul and close in on closing the caper. While the plot may be predictable, the pleasures of this very French adventure—and there are many—aren't in the resolution, of course, but in the pleasant stroll through the provinces and in the glasses of wine downed and decadent meals consumed. (Oct.)

New World Monkeys Nancy Mauro. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23 (304p) ISBN 978-0-307-46141-4

In this unabashedly eccentric debut, a young couple with a troubled marriage make the fateful decision to summer in a decaying upstate New York house, leading to a series of bizarre events. First, their car slams into a wild boar, and Lily, seeing it squealing in pain, smashes its skull with a tire iron. But when the two arrive in town, they realize the boar—Sovereign of the Deep Wood—was the town mascot and the beloved pet of a nasty local named Skinner, who is eager to find the culprits. Then Duncan uncovers a gravestone and a human bone in the house's backyard, and the two barely speaking spouses excavate the skeleton and ponder a decades-old whodunit. Meanwhile, ad-man Duncan commutes back and forth to the city and struggles with a campaign that could make or break his career, while Ph.D.-thesis avoidant Lily befriends the town pervert. As the intrigues heighten to an absurd degree, the question of whether Duncan and Lily will reforge their bond in the midst of the macabre goings-on catapults the book to a surreally satisfying climax. It's fun, funny and touching—a great summer book. (Sept.)

The pseudonymous Dryden, a British journalist, eschews both technological marvels and implausible action scenes in his absorbing debut, a spy thriller that exposes the links between the “old” Russia of the Cold War and the “new” Russia of Vladimir Putin. In 1999, Anna, a colonel in the Russian foreign intelligence service, becomes romantically involved with Finn, an MI6 agent stationed in Moscow whom she deliberately targets for seduction. Meanwhile, Finn has learned of “the Plan,” a long-nurtured and fiercely guarded scheme to undermine the West. Finn and Anna each play a decade-long and dangerous double game as they seek to uncover incontrovertible proof that will thwart the Plan and allow them to leave intelligence work together without fear of reprisals. The detailed accounts of the financial maneuverings of the KGB and its successor, the FSB, are mind-boggling. Despite lackluster prose, Dryden's fact-based scenario provides worrisome food for thought. (Sept.)

Middle-aged underachiever Andy Whittaker plots a preposterous literary festival in this scathingly funny epistolary pastiche from Firmin author Savage. Andy is the editor of Soap, an inconsequential literary magazine ridiculed by rival The Art News, which Andy dismisses as “the in-house journal for a tiny clique of very conventional, very middle-class writers and painters.” His wife, Jolie, has left him, his mother is dying and the apartment buildings inherited from his father are crumbling. Fern Moss, a precocious poetess, taunts Andy with provocative poems and photos, while Dahlberg Stint, a hardware store employee and former Soap contributor, sends increasingly sinister threats. After his phone is shut off, a beleaguered Andy hunkers down to compose plaintive letters to Jolie, excuses for not visiting his mother, dismissive replies to Soap hopefuls, snide notes to his tenants, pitiful missives to a former one-night-stand, fake letters to the editor and “prose poems, little existential parables of tedium and despair, set in Africa probably.” Andy's self-aggrandizing and self-pitying grow more desperate as Savage expertly skewers Andy's comically insufferable exterior to reveal the tragic if insubstantial soul of a frustrated writer. (Sept.)

In bestseller Kellerman's solid 18th novel to feature L.A. police detective Lt. Peter Decker and his wife, Rina (after The Mercedes Coffin), Rina finds that some jury duty should include hazardous duty pay. A shooting rampage at the 70-acre compound and mansion owned by shopping mall magnate Guy Kaffey leaves Kaffey, his wife and two guards dead. Kaffey's oldest son, Gil, apparently was left for dead and two other guards are missing. A plethora of suspects and motives has Decker and his colleagues looking at Guy's brother, Mace, and Guy's younger son, Grant, as well as the missing guards, other household staff, the remaining off-duty staff and possibly business rivals. Decker's cool professionalism is thoroughly tested when a chance courtroom encounter thrusts Rina into the case and puts her in harm's way. Kellerman expertly keeps interlocking investigations moving along with a minimum of confusion but plenty of doubt as to the guilty party or parties. (Aug.)

Dope smuggling, prostitution and murder preoccupy Sgt. Matt Payne of the Philadelphia PD in the uneven ninth Badge of Honor novel from bestseller Griffin and son Butterworth (after Final Justice). Payne, known as the Wyatt Earp of the Main Line because of his involvement in so many shootings, receives a call from an old pal, Chad Nesbitt, who tells him that a mutual friend, Skipper Olde, is somehow involved in a catastrophic fire. Matt doesn't care about Skipper, but Skipper's girlfriend, whom Matt had a crush on in high school, has been badly burned. Meanwhile, 21-year-old Juan Paulo Delgado, “El Gato,” is going about his usual business of pimping, beating and beheading undocumented Mexican women. Sophomoric, jokey dialogue and intrusive author lectures will lead many readers to tire of the whole business long before the evildoer receives his just and expected reward. Author tour. (Aug.)

LaValle has garnered critical acclaim for his previous works (a collection, Slapboxing with Jesus, and novel, The Ecstatic), and his second novel is sure to up his critical standing while furthering comparisons to Haruki Murakami, John Kennedy Toole and Edgar Allan Poe. Gritty, mostly honest-hearted ex-heroin addict protagonist Ricky Rice takes a chance on an anonymous note delivered to him at the cruddy upstate New York bus depot where he works as a porter. Quickly, Ricky finds himself among the “Unlikely Scholars,” a secret society of ex-addicts and petty criminals, all black like him, living in remote Vermont and sifting through stacks of articles in a library devoted to investigating the supernatural; the existence of a god; and the legacy of Judah Washburn, an escaped slave who claimed to have had contact with a higher being that the Unlikely Scholars now call “the Voice.” Ricky's intoxicating voice—robust, organic, wily—is perfect for narrating LaValle's high-stakes mashup of thrilling paranormal and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, as the fateful porter—something of a modern Odysseus rallied by a team of “spiritual X-men”—wanders through America's “messianic hoo-hah.” (Aug.)

When Elvis Presley's celebrated blue suede shoes, the prize exhibit at an Elvis festival in Salt Lick, Tex., go missing in Cash's cute fifth cowgirl crime novel (after Don't Make Me Choose Between Me and My Shoes), the Domestic Equalizers (and Styling Station beauty operators), Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin, investigate. Soon after Debbie and Edwina decide to substitute an old pair of slippers belonging to Ed's husband for the real item, they discover that the person who sent them the blue suede shoes, “Adolf Sielvami, Keeper for the King Museum” in Las Vegas, appears not to exist. In a sweet subplot, unrepentant matchmakers Debbie Sue and Edwina promote the fumbling romance between Fort Worth Star-Telegram journalist Avery Deaton and Dallas Morning News rookie sports reporter Sam Carter. As Salt Lick fills with Elvis lovers, the pseudonymous Cash (a Texas writing-sisters duo) taps winningly into the Elvis myth. (Aug.)

The newest novel from Leaving Las Vegas author O'Brien (1960–1994) imagines a Los Angeles house full of shut-ins, alcoholics, prostitutes and quasi-philosophers. Like the other residents in his atypical household, narrator William pays no rent, buys no groceries and has no knowledge of how Double Felix, the group's benefactor, pays for their indulgent lifestyle. Unconcerned with the mystery, William spends his days focusing on his attraction to Double Felix and newcomer Laurie, as well as drinking excessively, watching The Love Boat and sleeping with his sometimes-girlfriend Zipper. As both William and Double Felix vie for Laurie's affection, the plot begins clicking with a wild rivalry and jealous domestic partners. Unfortunately, the dustup comes too little, too late; the deed, when it's finally done, with Laurie, does curiously little to affect anyone. A predictable climax answers some questions, but isn't the jaw-dropper it's set up to be. Though basket-case William is an entertaining narrator, this third posthumous work from O'Brien is largely unsatisfying, leaving readers to wonder what a final revision from the late author could have produced. (Aug.)

At the start of bestseller Reichs's outstanding 12th thriller to feature Dr. Temperance Brennan (after Devil Bones), Brennan finds herself bound and injured in an underground tomb. In flashbacks, Reichs fills in the how and why of the forensic anthropologist's deadly predicament. When Brennan and Andrew Ryan of the Sûreté du Québec arrive in Chicago on business, she's accused of botching the autopsy of Rose Jurmain, a Canadian heiress. Knowing only that an anonymous caller instigated the investigation, Brennan is determined to uncover who's out to sabotage her. Back in her Montreal lab, Brennan soon realizes that not only is Jurmain's death possibly linked to the brutal murders of other elderly women but that whoever is out to tarnish her reputation refuses to back off. With her usual blend of cutting-edge forensic science and a stubborn, compelling heroine, Reichs manages to juggle several story lines without losing an ounce of momentum. (Aug.)

Whyte puts the Knights Templar to rest in the uninspired final volume of his Templar trilogy (after Knights of the Black and White and Standard of Honor), a lengthy and pedantic history of the Knights and their 200-year-old tradition of service to the pope and Christianity, loaded with historical detail, but offering little suspense and even less action. When the Knights are declared outlaws by King Philip IV of France in an effort to crush their influence and seize their treasure, the Knights are arrested and tortured or driven into hiding. Templar knight Sir William Sinclair leads the survivors to temporary sanctuary in Scotland, where they team up with Robert Bruce, king of the Scots, who is embroiled in civil war and war with the English. After a promising opening, the story downshifts into a narrative bog of plots, schemes, court intrigues and hand-wringing over the Templars' future, but very little actually happens. This tale has great potential for a rousing, sword-swinging adventure, but instead is just a plodding medieval history without any zip. (Aug.)

A decrypted 1943 cable concerning a meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt propels Ghelfi's ambitious third thriller to feature contemporary Russian criminal and spy Alexei “Volk” Volkovoy (after Volk's Shadow). When the body of Everett Walker, an elderly U.S. cinematographer who was blacklisted by Hollywood, turns up in a Moscow warehouse where Volk used to make pornographic videos, Volk gets charged with Walker's murder. Walker, who came to Russia to look for Volk, was carrying a microdot copy of the cable as well as a photo of himself with Volk's disgraced father, Stepan, who disappeared in 1974. To clear himself, Volk must go to the U.S. to determine whether Stepan was a bona fide agent of the GRU (military intelligence) or a defector and traitor. Neither the Russians nor the Americans are sure which agents are real and which are double, and the doubt goes all the way back to WWII. Plentiful action scenes keep the pages turning. Author tour. (Aug.)

Bestseller Jance brings together her two most popular characters, Seattle homicide investigator J.P. Beaumont and Cochise County, Ariz., sheriff Joanna Brady, for a gripping tale that's easily one of her best. While their first dual outing, 2002's Partner in Crime, stagnated with clichéd professional and sexual tension, this time the combination excels with a focus on parallel investigations that naturally—and chillingly—intersect. In Seattle, Beaumont looks into the burned bodies of six unidentified women. In Arizona, Brady handles the murder of an ATV park caretaker. Beaumont and Brady pool their information when a murdered woman links back to the missing sister of Jaime Carbajal, one of Brady's detectives. While Brady stays in Arizona, Carbajal's arrival in Washington sets off a chain of events with fatal consequences. Brady's side investigation of a substandard nursing home adds punch. 10-city author tour. (Aug.)

Pell Ridley is the adventurous heroine in this serviceably told tale, the fourth novel for London-based Rosoff, who has written successfully for the YA market. On her wedding day, Pell leaves town on her faithful horse, Jack, grudgingly bringing along her mute younger brother, Bean. Pell shirks expectations and jilts her childhood beau, Birdie, with an oddly modern defiance of 1850s England convention. No matter that Birdie seems a nice enough man, unlike her abusive preacher father—Pell is stubborn in her desire to flee the domestic life in Nomansland that mires her mother in a sea of children and overwork. Pell arrives at the Salisbury horse fair and her adventures begin. She is separated from Bean and her horse but meets a poacher she dubs Dogman (he travels with a pack of dogs) and together they wander the countryside living on bread crusts and flickering hope. Pell's love and knowledge of horses factors largely in her fight for survival, but it's human love—romantic and familial—that drives plucky Pell and leads us to this simple but satisfying story's happy if unsurprising conclusion. (Aug.)

Near the start of bestseller Reich's stellar sequel to Rules of Deception, Dr. Jonathan Ransom flies from Africa to London for a medical conference. That same day, intermediaries arrange for him to meet his fugitive wife, Emma, once a secret agent with the Pentagon group known as Division, in a cheap hotel. The next day, Jonathan's world is literally and figuratively torn apart after a large car bomb explodes in Westminster, seriously injuring the Russian interior minister. Jonathan is sure Emma is behind the car bombing, but the police, led by Det. Chief Insp. Kate Ford, think Jonathan is responsible. Thus begins a convoluted chase—Jonathan hunting his wife, Kate and the cops along with MI5 agent Colonel Graves tracking Jonathan. Everyone, including the reader, remains clueless, except for master spy Emma, as to who is really the guilty party. A blinding twist at the end adds a spectacular fillip to a masterful performance by one of the genre's elite. (Aug.)

In this uneven medical thriller from bestseller Cook (Foreign Body), Dr. Jack Stapleton, a New York City forensic pathologist who lost his first wife and their two children in a plane crash, is devastated when his newborn son by his second wife is diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma. As a diversion from his efforts to find a cure for his son, Stapleton seeks to expose unscrupulous practitioners of alternative medicine. In particular, he investigates the death of a healthy woman whose vertebral arteries were damaged by a chiropractor. Then the plot swerves into Da Vinci Code territory as two of Stapleton's college friends—the archbishop of New York and an archeologist—battle over skeletal remains that may be those of the Virgin Mary. When the characters themselves comment on the events as something out of a horror movie or a book, suspension of disbelief becomes even more of a challenge (e.g., “He felt like he was a participant in a kind of unfolding real-life mystery-thriller”). (Aug.)

Tobin's second novel (after Bone House) is set in Iceland, A.D. 1000, just as Christianity is taking a foothold and the volcano Hekla is growing restive. In this slick re-imagining of Norse myth, humans, dwarves, giants and gods differ superficially but suffer life's trials equally and are susceptible to love, loss, violence and even the weather. The central character, Freya, is an Aesir (a god), who is essentially human but for her ability to fly and her address: she notes that her kind “occupy the space that men create for something larger than themselves.” (In Freya's case, she occupies “the tainted realm of love.”) Among numerous subplots, Freya's story follows her quest for a powerful gold necklace, the Brisingamen, accompanied by a love-torn human teenager named Fulla. Tobin's rich understanding of the source material, backed up by deft historical touches—beds made of moss and skins, turf-roofed houses, earthenware cups—brings the narrative to life. Though women take center stage, Tobin sketches the thoughts of both male and female characters with skill. With an introspective dwarf, the god Odin and a fearsome band of giants, Tobin has this one aimed squarely at the Mists of Avalon audience, and she hits big. (Aug.)

When the Bommarito sisters, Isabelle and Janie, hear that their domineering mother is going in for open heart surgery, they must forget the trauma of their childhood and return to their riverside Oregon hometown, Trillium River. Taking care of their mother and their demented grandmother (who believes she's Amelia Earhart) and watching after their mentally handicapped brother, Henry (possessed of an almost saintly, unconditional love for people), the independent sisters try to find a place in the world they've left behind. Lamb (The Last Time I Was Me) delivers grace, humor and forgiveness along with a litany of family trauma, which might seem heavy-handed in lesser hands. Fortunately, this finely pitched family melodrama is balanced with enough gallows humor and idiosyncratic characters to make it positively irresistible. (Aug.)

This quiet, powerful novel from Argentinian author Lisé is told by a young woman caught up in the country's March 1976 coup d'etat. As General Videla's thugs prepare to overturn the government of General Peron's widow, 20-year-old medical student Berta witnesses her Peronist lover thrown off a balcony. Fearing for her safety as the province of Tucuman succumbs to chaos, Berta flees to her mother's sister, then to the family's hardscrabble farm at Olpa to live with her uncle. Nearly two years pass at this idyllic outpost, with time spent among a happily mixed community descended from original Spaniards and native Indians, where Berta uses her medical training to aid the local, aging midwife, before danger encroaches again. Avoiding ponderous political allegory with graceful writing, lawyer and professor Lisé sketches Berta's quest for autonomy and self against the vivid, violent backdrop of a country seeking the same: “Argentina was like an unfinished poem somebody was keeping in a bottle, for later.” (Aug.)

Ledger's accomplished debut offers a compelling view of married life through the prism of unacknowledged grief. Baltimore physician Simon Bear is a confident, magnanimous man with an inflated view of himself and his abilities. His wife, Emily, a star public relations executive, handles corporate crises with an ease, but can't find a way to connect with their moody adolescent daughter, Jamie. While the Bears outwardly appear an enviably successful couple, neither Simon nor Emily has ever resolved the tragic and early death of their firstborn. Simon buries himself in work and with all-consuming hobbies (his latest is winemaking). Emily, too, is consumed by work, though she's privately devastated about her shortcomings as a mother and tempted by another man. Jamie, meanwhile, presses her mother's buttons, knowing she can never make up for the loss of the dead brother she never knew. Ledger follows the trajectory from achievement to failure with rare insight, suggesting that it is through Jamie that Simon and Emily can find redemption. An impressive portrait of a family in crisis, executed with finesse and assurance. (Aug.)

In this follow-up to Behind the Veil, Perkins continues the sordid, suspenseful tale of heroine Angelica Barnes. Five years after we last saw her, Angelica has just been released from prison, her reward for getting mixed up in ex-boyfriend Robert Santiago's illegal activities. Angelica returns to Fayetteville, N.C., but desperate for a change, moves to New York to stay with a distant cousin-in-law; before long, however, she runs into Santiago and finds not only that she can't escape her past, but that she's drawn her loved ones into a dangerous situation. An enjoyable, sexy thriller, this sequel doesn't require familiarity with the first volume to follow or enjoy, but readers who know what they're in for will be more likely to forgive awkward pacing and dialogue, some mismatched motivation and sketchy characters. (Aug.)

Back in the hood but movin' on up, Tasha and Trae Macklin have reformed somewhat but are still in urban grit mode. In Clark's latest street lit, her fourth novel in the Thug series, the couple's moved to L.A. although Trae briefly returns to the East Coast for some revenge killing after his cousin Shaheem's murdered. Three years later, Tasha has three children and it's all good except Trace opens up a flashy nightspot, Club New York. To do this, he makes a connection with Charles Li, a Chinese mobster, and his dangerous daughter, Charli. Then Sabeerah, a devious young witness to Trae's New Jersey crime, moves to L.A. and tries to blackmail Trae. In another plot line Det. Rick Bryant, the couple's neighbor, gets involved with Kyra, Tasha's old friend, whose hubby, Marvin, is using drugs. Clark, who started her writing career while incarcerated, depicts Tasha's travails and Kyra's problems with a brutally honest squint, but it's hard to care about extra thuggy Trae. (Aug.)

Chris Fabry (Dogwood)—evangelical fiction author of more than 60 titles and coauthor of Left Behind: The Kid series—offers a lovely, moving, present-day account of sacrifice linking to the famed novel Les Misérables. It all begins in a nondescript Wal-Mart parking lot where nine-year-old June Bug sees an artist's rendition of herself on a missing child poster in the store where they've parked their broken-down RV trailer. With questions galore, June Bug starts pestering her “dad” about their RV vagabond life and where they're headed next. Johnson, little June Bug's father, is obliged to face his past in short order as a series of unexpected media events force his hand and reroute his life. Afraid and emotionally battered, Johnson returns to the “scene of the crime” and discovers what he thought was lost forever. Fabry's retelling of the world-renowned Victor Hugo tale is a stunning success, and readers will find themselves responding with enthusiastic inner applause. (Aug.)

The amazingly prolific Rice reintroduces characters from 2009's Geometry of Sisters for this heart-tugger about a reunion of a mother and her two daughters who've been separated for 10 years due to a disturbing secret. Set on the picturesque isle of Capri, Rice's touching tale reflects on how families can survive and thrive despite tragedies. Lyra Nicholson is a lonely heiress living in Italy while her equally lonely daughters, 16-year-old Pell and Lucy, a 14-year-old math whiz, live in Newport, R.Iwith their grandmother. Lucy's already tried to contact (via equations) the ghost of her dead father with Beck, her BFF and the sister of Pell's boyfriend, Travis. Pell travels to Italy, wanting Lyra, who abandoned her and Lucy, to finally take responsibility for them. Max Gardiner, her mother's smitten playwright neighbor, encourages Pell, even as she is distracted by Rafe, Max's 19-year-old recovering addict grandson. Rice gives Pell an old-beyond-her-years stability that Lyra lacks in this beguiling beach read that would suit YA readers as well as their mothers. (Aug.)

Think Topper, that impossibly sophisticated and goofy 1937 ghost tale of blithe spirits bugging the only living soul who can hear them. Kinsella creates an equally vexing and endearing shade, Sadie, a wild-at-heart flapper with unfinished earthly business who badgers 27-year-old great-niece Lara into doing her bidding. Predictable mayhem and the most delicious and delightful romp a ghost and girl-at-loose-ends could ever have in 21st century London ensue. Sadie discovers just how loved she really is, and Lara channels her inner '20s girl to discover the difference between wanting to be in love and finding love. Kinsella, a master of comic pacing and feminine wit (see: the wildly successful Shopaholic series), casts a bigger net with this piece of fun and fluff, weaving family dynamics and an old-fashioned mystery into the familiar chick lit romance. And there's a sweet nod to old folks (“All that white hair and wrinkled skin is just cladding.... They were all young, with love affairs and friends and parties and an endless life ahead of them”). It's a breath of crackling fresh air that may well keep readers warm right through winter. (July)

Chick lit doyenne Weiner offers airtight proof that the genre thrives with this clever, sad and sweet turn on Thelma and Louise–style rage. Juggling the politics of broken families, heartbreaking betrayal and shaky self-esteem, two girlhood pals—ugly duckling Addie and wounded beauty Valerie—reconnect after their high school reunion, where Valerie exacts a long-in-coming revenge on smug former beau Dan Swansea. But the payback gets more complicated when police chief Jordan Novick, nursing a broken heart and a crush-at-first-sight with Addie, is called in to investigate Dan's disappearance. Along the way, Val and Addie stage what may be the funniest not-quite-heist ever pulled off as they evade the heat over the missing Dan. The big payoff, of course, is that Addie and Valerie mend the mean-girls misunderstanding that drove them apart as teens and discover the shared pain and loss that bound them as kids and, once again, as adults. This beach read will win readers over with its wit and wisdom. (July)

Randisi's entertaining fourth Rat Pack mystery (after 2008's Hey There, You with the Gun in Your Hand) once again displays Vegas pit boss Eddie Gianelli's skill at discreetly getting his eminent friends out of embarrassing jams. In early 1962, Dean Martin asks Eddie to help a fragile Marilyn Monroe, who's worried she's being followed and is feeling guilty she contributed to the death of her ailing co-star, Clark Gable, from The Misfits by making him wait too long on the set. The Rat Pack, which also includes Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., plays second fiddle as Gianelli tries to protect Monroe from myriad problems real and imaginary. The Brooklyn-born Gianelli, a humble straight shooter who can call on friends in high and low places, needs both when one friend helping him disappears and another ends up in the hospital. Randisi clothes a factual skeleton of information about his famous characters with an artful tapestry of vivid imagination. (Sept.)

In Parker's compelling fifth mystery set in feudal Japan (after 2007's Island of Exiles), Sugawara Akitada, now a senior secretary in the ministry of justice, suffers guilt over his failure to fulfill his promise to Haseo, a recently deceased convict who saved his life in an earlier book, to exonerate him. As Akitada makes some small progress toward finding the truth about the five-year-old murders Haseo was blamed for, he must also clear his own retainer, Tora, of the murder of a blind street singer. His inquiries on both fronts come at a time of increasing tension with his wife, Tamako, and as an outbreak of smallpox disrupts the capital city, Heian-Kyo. A capricious and unreliable boss, Soga, adds to his woes. Besides smoothly mixing action and deduction, Parker gives her protagonist an emotional depth that raises her to the front rank of contemporary historical writers, including Laura Joh Rowland, the author of a similar series set in 17th-century Japan (The Fire Kimono, etc.). (Aug.)

Littlefield's amusing, sassy debut introduces Stella Hardesty, a widow and survivor of domestic violence, who owns a sewing shop in a sleepy Missouri town. On the side, Stella solves problems and metes out justice on behalf of battered women, like Chrissy Shaw, whose abusive bully of an ex-husband, Roy Dean Shaw, Stella keeps tabs on. After Roy Dean absconds with Chrissy's baby, Stella learns he's involved with local mobsters in a stolen auto parts ring. Chrissy sheds her victimhood to team up with Stella and do battle. After girding up their weaponry, the unlikely crime-fighting duo trick their way into the home of Roy Dean's mob boss, who they suspect has Chrissy's son. Stella discovers that no amount of preparation and righteous anger can prevail over pure evil, at least not without loads of trouble. Spunky, unapologetically middle-aged and a tad cantankerous, Stella barges bravely and often unwisely into danger. (Aug.)

The successful film adaptation of Schlink's The Reader should give a boost to his third mystery to feature aging German PI Gerhard Self (after 2007's Self's Deception). On his way home to Mannheim during a snow storm, Schlink helps a stranded driver, Bertram Welker, who on learning Self's profession offers him a job. A partner in the region's oldest private bank, Welker is writing its history and asks Self to identify a silent partner in the bank. What appears to be a straightforward assignment becomes a double murder inquiry once Self comes to doubt Welker's account of how his wife perished in a hiking accident the year before and the bank's unofficial archivist dies in a suspicious car crash after handing Self a briefcase full of money. Crisp prose and some well-handled plot complications, which include the emergence of a man claiming to be Self's son, will keep readers turning the pages. (Aug.)

A rose show can drive a person to murder, as shown in Andrews's thorn-in-cheek 11th Meg Langslow mystery set in Caerphilly, Va. (after 2008's Six Geese A-Slaying). Meg's parents would love to snag the Winkleson Trophy for the darkest rose at the local garden club's first annual show, but they face stiff competition from Philomena Winkleson, who's hosting the event at her ritzy Raven Hill estate. Before the event, Meg's dad's roses are sabotaged, and Philomena's white purebred Maltese is kidnapped. During the mishap-filled show, Philomena annoys everyone with her obsessive must-win attitude. While exploring the estate, Meg discovers a woman stabbed in the back with a pair of secateurs (i.e., gardening shears). At first she thinks it's Philomena, but the victim is in fact another garden club member. Weeding out the murderer keeps Meg hopping. Andrews's droll humor saves the sometimes slow-moving plot. (Aug.)

At the start of this solid noir from Gischler (Suicide Squeeze), the police chief of Coyote Crossing, Okla., asks Toby Sawyer, a part-time deputy, to keep an eye on the bullet-ridden body of redneck Luke Jordan, found late one night lying half-in and half-out of an old pickup truck. Since a 17-year-old girl Toby's fond of lives nearby, he can't resist the temptation to take a break from his vigil. On returning to the truck and discovering the corpse gone, Toby fears his dereliction of duty will end his job with the sheriff's office. In the course of his desperate search for the cadaver, Toby encounters a truckload of illegal Mexican aliens as well as corrupt colleagues. Meanwhile, as the body count rises, Toby's wife, with whom he has a loveless marriage, leaves town. The ending may be a bit upbeat for true noir devotees, but it leaves the door open for a sequel, which would be a welcome prospect, given Toby's appeal as a protagonist. (Aug.)

Frank Pavlicek, an ex-NYPD cop who's now a PI in Charlottesville, Va., returns to Manhattan on a missing pet case in his unsettling third outing (after 2003's Shamus Award–winning Cold Quarry). Dr. Korva Lonigan, an animal rights activist and physician, suspects her angora cat, Groucho, has been abducted or killed, along with other pets belonging to residents of Grayland Tower, an art deco building on Central Park West. The feathers of a great horned owl may offer a clue to the falconer behind the disappearances. Could the “Kitty Hitter” be the Egyptian-American developer overseeing the renovation of Grayland Tower, who's involved in a tenant dispute? Straka ups the ante as the initially lightweight investigation grows darker with the shooting of two gang members in Central Park. After Frank, himself a falconer, finally meets the elusive falconer, he learns more than he wants to know about a far more serious criminal enterprise than nabbing pets. (Aug.)

Etchells's third contemporary procedural set in Cornwall to feature Det. Chief Insp. Bill Channon (after 2006's Footprints of the Devil) offers little new in terms of either character or plot. After someone slashes the throat of Paul Stradling, a young man with the reputation of a rake, and props the body against a standing stone, Channon and his team, including his ambitious but rough-edged assistant, Sergeant Bowles, investigate. They conduct the usual interviews, quickly focusing on the Pascoe family as people of interest. The oldest Pascoe daughter reveals she was in love with the victim, and her mother admits she was coincidentally at the scene of the crime, near a crossroads, around the time of the murder. The detection consists simply of good, dogged police work, while the tension between Channon and Bowles over the latter's attitude doesn't add much. Other mystery authors, such as Robert Goddard in Beyond Recall, have made better use of the Cornish setting. (Aug.)

A major horror anthology calls for a “killer” lineup, and this 30th anniversary tribute to the Northeast Horror and Fantasy Convention features more than 50 works of fiction and nonfiction by past attendees and guests who represent the best and darkest of the genre's practitioners. Among the highlights are Stephen King's “The Old Dude's Ticker,” a retelling of Poe's “The Tell-tale Heart” as the rant of a homicidal Vietnam vet, and Peter Straub's “Response from a Surprised but Pleased Recipient,” which takes the form of creepy answers to a marketing survey. Essays and illustrations by numerous horror and dark fantasy notables round out the volume. Though mostly not convention-themed, these works easily showcase the impressive array of talents that have helped make Necon an annual highlight for horror's pros and semipros. (Aug.)

An unintentionally absurd plot is all that stands out in this by-the-numbers magickal [sic] thriller, the sequel to 1981's The Point Man. Former DJ Max August, a near-immortal magician, loses both his mentor and his wife to the demon Aleksandra. Two decades later, an old friend brings him to the rescue of Dr. Pamela Blackwell, who has found a way to cure zombis. Her discovery may interfere with the nefarious supersecret Free Range Coalition, who of course want to take over the world. The plot is further muddled by such diverse elements as sarin gas, zombi rape used to torture a woman into revealing secrets (at Guantánamo Bay, no less) and a deaf-mute assassin who communicates via Speak & Spell. August and Blackwell dully run a clichéd gantlet of villains without seeming to notice the complete implausibility of their story. (Aug.)

Explorer-scientist Langdon St. Ives and narrator Jack Owlesby (familiar from 2008'sThe Adventures of Langdon St. Ives) embark upon a new steampunk adventure in this slight but enjoyable novella. A battered old map, possibly drawn by St. Ives's long-missing companion, Bill Kraken, displays the location of a strange object that plunged to earth years earlier. Hilario Frosticos, longtime nemesis to St. Ives, is also in pursuit, and a series of amusing feints and counterfeints culminates in a frantic race to an underwater grotto. New readers will have no trouble getting oriented, but even stalwart fans will be disappointed by almost nonexistent characterization and an unfulfilling conclusion. It mostly feels like the first portion of a much longer tale; Blaylock does both his readers and the story a disservice by publishing it before completing it. (Aug.)

Trapped in a bleak future where human/fey relations have dangerously deteriorated, paranormal cyborg secret agent Lila Black fights dark powers in the fourth Quantum Gravity supernatural thriller (after 2008's Going Under). Lila's bosses at the Otopian Secret Service want her to hunt down and execute her missing demon husband, Teazle, framed for a bloody killing spree. Lila wants to help Teazle, but she's also obsessed with finding and resurrecting her dead lover, the charismatic elven rock star Zal. When the search for Zal uncovers a deadly plot by an ancient power to rule all the dimensions, Lila, with her sentient, bulletproof, shape-changing dress, a sword disguised as a pen and her comics-inspired battle-mechanoid body, quickly gets into large-scale mayhem. This fast-paced techno-fantasy will delight fans of manga-influenced action and violence. (Aug.)

Half-sorceress Chloe Hobbs and policeman Luke MacKenzie, the only humans in the sleepy Vermont town of Sugar Maple, face worldly and unearthly challenges in this sweetly charming sequel to 2008's Casting Spells. When Luke's ex-wife, Karen, shows up in town claiming that their dead daughter is trying to ask them for help, Chloe must deal with smalltown gossip and fix her relationship with Luke while she battles her old Fae enemy, Isadora, over the child's spirit and the future of Sugar Maple. Bretton seamlessly blends a playful world of eccentric and meddling supernatural creatures living in the midst of New England with a warm, natural and romantic story and just a hint of mystery. Scenes in Chloe's yarn shop and helpful knitting tips hold extra appeal for yarn aficionados while never distracting from the plot. (Aug.)

The inventive and solidly enjoyable fourth novel set in the bubble world of Virga (after 2008's Queen of Candesce) takes place far from the artificial suns that light the central regions. As entire towns fall victim to a mysterious threat, perhaps from “outside,” a religious movement begins insisting that the world is eternal, not created. The Eternists confiscate books, censor the news and force through a referendum subjecting science to popular vote, while sun lighter Hayden Griffin, familiar from previous books, teams up with local historian Leal to investigate the attacks. They find an expedition killed by rain, meet up with groups officially deemed “mythical” and fend off political threats and outside forces that aren't what they seem. Schroeder paints his unique world with deft touches while keeping the story moving briskly. (Aug.)

In this thin and clumsy thriller, a serial killer captures Det. Regan Pescoli, the smart, strong-willed star of 2008's Left to Die. The “Star-Crossed Killer,” plague of Montana's Bitterroot Mountains, kidnaps injured women, tends them until they are healthy again, then photographs them and leaves them to die of exposure. With time, it becomes clear that he is spelling out an obscure message with the women's initials. After a slow first third, the book settles down somewhat and focuses on Pescoli's efforts to escape her captor's maze-like lair and survive the deadly cold outside, with glimpses of her partner, Det. Selena Alvarez, attempting to track her down. Jackson spends too much time outlining the complicated plot and too little exploring the mind of the generic B-movie antagonist or the smarts and strengths of her heroines. (Aug.)

Veteran horrormeister Braunbeck breaks literary rules by the handful in his latest dark fantasy yarn, which makes reference to 2007's Mr. Hands and 2008's Coffin County without exactly being a sequel. When a high school student goes on an inexplicable shooting spree, it stirs a host of memories for unassuming suburban English teacher Geoff Conover. Returning to Cedar Hill, Ohio, the town he left as an infant after surviving another mass killing, Geoff comes to realize that his personal mysteries are inextricably bound to his birthplace. Time frames and perspectives shift multiple, tortuous times, and the blend of disorienting narrative fragmentation and the blameless blank-slate protagonist makes the tale curiously flat. The lack of a strong emotional hook will put off new readers, but aficionados of the Cedar Hill mythos will enjoy the familiar echoes and enticing new details. (Aug.)

Bruhns (Killer Temptation) makes a successful move from category romance with this fast-paced thriller. Beautiful, capable ER nurse Lorraine “Rainie” Martin never fully recovered from the death of her parents in a carjacking. At a speed-dating event, Rainie falls hard for a dark and dangerous stranger who whisks her away. Expecting a night of passion, Rainie instead learns that Kick Jackson is dodging his employers at the CIA and detoxing from Oxycontin. When the government catches up to them and forces Rainie to join Kick in fighting terrorists in Egypt, she must battle her fear of travel and help Kick overcome addiction. Readers focused on the lovers' powerful chemistry will happily gloss over the hilariously implausible action scenes. A subplot involving Rainie's friend Gina and a sexy CIA operative is left hanging, presumably for a sequel. (Aug.)

Massey (Don't Ever Tell) starts this thriller with a bang, but it quickly trails off into a whimper. Corey Webb, a successful Atlanta entrepreneur, seems to have a perfect life until Leon Sharpe, a childhood friend from Webb's days in Detroit, comes to town. Sharpe, now on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, wants a hefty sum from Webb to keep quiet about a dark secret from Webb's “quite unsavory past.” It's not long before Webb's gorgeous wife, Simone, and young daughter, Jada, get pulled into the tangle of lies and blackmail. At first, Webb's ordeal is compelling, but Massey keeps the reader waiting far too long for a disappointing revelation, and an implausible plot and stilted dialogue (“You've forgotten your roots, kiddo, it's time to pay the devil his due”) do little to make the slog worthwhile. (Aug.)

This illustrated history examines the progression of the Vietnam War, but the lack of attention to the personal experiences of soldiers and civilians on every side leaves it an incomplete view of the conflict. The major military campaigns, the political choices made on the American home front and the rise and effect of the antiwar campaign are all clearly explained. These controversial events are covered objectively, discussing what was done well without ignoring the terrible mistakes. But the book focuses on the American perspective, paying much less attention to the governments of North and South Vietnam and barely any to the experiences of the people of either nation. Given that the book acknowledges the war was decided by North Vietnamese citizens not surrendering as easily as American strategists had planned, this is a major oversight. In addition, telling the story of the Vietnam War, a conflict heavily documented in color photography, through black and white illustration seems questionable, as does glossing over some of the horrors of war with comics clichés. A decent starting point for someone looking to begin to understand a significant event in living American history, as long as more study follows. (Sept.)

Popular mystery novelist Rankin writes fan-favorite John Constantine, from the long-running comic Hellblazer, in this original tale from the new Vertigo Crime imprint. Although the character has a history dating back to Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing, Dark Entries requires no prior knowledge. Paranormal investigator Constantine is recruited by a television executive to look into a locked-room mystery reality show that appears to be haunted. The guests, already on edge, are tormented by terrifying visions that only they can see. Of course, the only way for John to investigate is to join them. The job becomes very personal very quickly as Constantine comes to know and care about the people who share his privacy-free prison. The show's producers are more concerned with ratings than the human suffering before them, and in a way, they seem almost as inhuman as any horror Constantine has gone up against. Dell'edera's work is expressive and crisp, done almost entirely in sharp pure black inks with barely a hint of shading in sight, with an elegance to horror sequences that's far more Dante than slasher film. Possibly the best Hellblazer work in years and a strong ghost story in its own right. (Aug.)

The short story collection Mijeong handsomely showcases young manhwa artist Byung's relatively accomplished illustrative style, while his stories reveal a still-germinal narrative voice. These short tales trade in the gothic melodrama of urban malaise, with murder, assault, rape and suicide frequently present as plot points for youthful characters to repress, enact or unexpectedly react to. Byung sometimes succeeds in wringing moments of genuine pathos from his sensitive, affectless teens' responses to outsized traumas, as in the final moments of the delicately full-color “Song for You.” But the narratives work best when linking youth's behavior to specific urban landscapes and mores, which he accomplishes almost entirely visually in the semihumorous “Utility.” This collection emphasizes the artist's diverse visual treatments of his observant settings and stylized figures, though his characters are sometimes difficult to tell apart, and his visual storytelling is occasionally unclear, but Byung is clearly a talented draftsman with narrative ambitions. Byung's artwork may already earn him some fans, and Mijeong may yet go down as a somewhat interesting early work by a developing storyteller. (July)

In this expansive sequel to 2003's Palomar, Hernandez gives readers a peek into the lives of the inimitable Luba and her extended family now living in modern-day Southern California. Often taking center stage is the snarky Venus, the young daughter of Petra, one of Luba's recently discovered half-sisters. Obsessed with romance comics—and in love with the much-older owner of a comic and record store—Venus tries to make sense not only of her own life but her family's complicated dynamics. Her aunt Fritzi, another half-sister of Luba and sister of Petra, is a lisping psychotherapist who goes through boyfriends like candy and embarrasses Venus by always speaking Spanish. Luba herself, working in a local immigration office, is still torn up over the disfigurement of her husband (who's still back in Central America) when he tried to save a woman from self-immolation. The backbone of the family, and also its Achilles heel, Luba is a larger-than-life personality who jumps off every page, whether she's the focus of the segment or just a background player. Hernandez collects over 100 stories here, ranging from graphic novellas to single-page episodes, with his usual dizzying cocktail of sexual intrigue, humor and soap opera–style angst. (June)

Taking place in a 1930s slum that's a cross between H.P. Lovecraft and Little Orphan Annie—where homicidal refugees from the Little Rascals fight over fish guts, zombies are almost commonplace, but the appearance of a colossal transvestite is a matter worthy of interrupting a mission to dynamite a haunted evil burlesque house—the crazy, wonderful and macabre adventures of the Goon continue in this new collection that gets only one criticism: it is much too short, even at 128 pages. It's a dense package, a masterful blending of story and art, but newcomers to the series may find themselves adrift. The Goon, a hulking giant, is still dealing with the Zombie Priest, but other, more powerful and evil villains are working behind-the-scenes, and the return of the Bird Girls is a portent: old foes are out of the grave, especially one very angry nemesis. It seems Labrazio, the Goon's original archenemy, is on the streets, spreading mayhem and murder—or is he? Creator Powell uses humor and his offbeat imagination to take what could be a grim story—the bad guys always seem to have the upper hand—into a colorful, breathless page-turner. (June)

What can you do when your twin brother, dead at birth, is your mother's favorite? This is only one of the burdens placed on young Warren Spooner, the hero of National Book Award–winner Dexter's calamitously funny and riotously tragic new novel. Spooner, who tends toward a life of criminal mischief, turns out to be a baseball phenom, but after an elbow injury puts an end to his pitching career, he ends up a newspaper reporter in Philadelphia, where he's so universally disliked that firing him is at the top of his editor's to-do list. Spooner eventually settles down, becomes a columnist and published novelist, and starts a family. He is dogged, though, by a combination of bad luck and bad judgment, and eventually retreats to Whidbey Island, off the coast of Washington State, where he learns that good fences don't necessarily make good neighbors. Spooner's story is juxtaposed with that of his stepfather, Calmer Ottosson, a naval officer turned high school principal, whose dedication to his family is in direct contrast to his stepson's bellicose adventures. Although raggedly plotted, the rambunctious narrative is filled with hilarious scenes, including a naval burial at sea that goes horribly awry, a literary luncheon featuring Spooner and Margaret Truman that ends with a stampede of little old ladies, and a misguided act of vengeance that backfires and puts Spooner in the hospital. The novel's premise—that life is one big vale of tears and that writing about it wittily and exuberantly is the best one can do—might not work in real life, but it pays off in spades for Dexter and his tragicomically conflicted alter ego. (Sept.)