Fiction Book Reviews: 9/28/2009

Mason's fantastic first novel, a deft reimagining of Homer's Odyssey, begins with the story as we know it before altering the perspective or fate of the characters in subsequent short story–like chapters. Legendary moments of myth are played differently throughout, as when Odysseus forgoes the Trojan horse, or when the Cyclops—here a gentle farmer—is blinded by Odysseus while he burgles the Cyclops's cave. Mason's other life—as a computer scientist—informs some chapters, such as “The Long Way Back” in which Daedalus's labyrinth ensnares Theseus in a much different way. Part of what makes this so enjoyable is the firm grasp Mason has on the source material; the footnotes double as humorous asides while reminding readers who aren't familiar with the original that, for instance, Eumaios is “the swineherd who sheltered Odysseus when he first returned to Ithaca and later helped him kill the suitors.” This original work consistently surprises and delights. (Feb.)

A family's future is in the hands of one very brave young Irishwoman in this accomplished debut set between WWI and the growing violence of the Irish war of independence. Eileen O'Neill inherits a lifetime of struggle and heartbreak when her family is ripped apart by war, disease, mental illness and greed. And if civil war and family strife weren't enough to deal with, Eileen is torn between James Conlon, a passionate Irish nationalist, and Owen Sheridan, a British army officer and the son of a wealthy family. As the war's presence in her life intensifies, Eileen continues to weigh her heart's pull against national pride, family loyalty, class divisions and her own spirit. This novel delivers the best of both worlds: secrets, intrigue and surprising twists will keep readers flipping the pages, while Falvey's insight and poetic writing tugs at the heartstrings of the most cynical audiences. (Feb.)

In Brit Rose's pleasant debut, single career girl Jessica Taylor experiences love at first sight shortly before being struck by lightning. She awakens in the hospital in the body of Lauren Richardson, an unhappily married, materialistic mother of four who was also hit by lightning. While in Lauren's body, Jessica bonds with Lauren's neglected children and with Lauren's down-to-earth sister, Karen, who has sensed the change in her sister from the very start. After Jessica confides in Karen, the two attempt to make sense of why the switch happened. Rose's narrative initially uses all the old chestnuts of chick lit, pitting the life of a career girl against married motherhood; finding the perfect guy at the wrong time; the dubious current love interest (in this case, Lauren's questionable husband). As the story progresses, Rose's novel evolves into a statement about the pitfalls women encounter and the deals they make with themselves in order to make life livable. Rose's light tone packs a punch as the decidedly somber ending looms, taking the story to a foreseeable but still bittersweet conclusion. (Feb.)

This slight and gauzy novel fails to find anything new in the familiar terrain of mothers and their volatile teenage daughters. After Elizabeth storms out of the house in the wake of an argument on her 15th birthday, her mother, Laura, writes her a letter, endeavoring to tell Liz “the truth about how a girl grows up” by recounting her own adolescence. Laura's high school romance with Tim, a poor Cajun boy, is an act of rebellion against her intolerant parents that resulted in her transfer to a Catholic girls' school. Though Laura's relationship is a source of cruel mirth for her classmates, her correspondence with Tim continues, even as Tim ships off to Vietnam and Laura questions her devotion to her long-distance lover. Bishop's debut may be an interesting exercise in writing from the opposite gender's point of view, but most of the novel's insights into the mother-daughter relationship, and into female adolescence, have been explored innumerable times—and in more compelling ways—in countless young adult novels. (Feb.)

Dee's four prior novels (Palladio; etc.) cast an intelligent, calculating eye on the culturally topical, which sparked comparisons to the writings of Updike, DeLillo and Franzen. The wedding of Adam and Cynthia Morey, a young and charming couple who quickly expand into a brood of four, begins Dee's fifth. Adam and Cynthia's nuanced personalities and playful, sincere exchanges form the novel's empathic backbone as Adam begins to profit immensely from risky side ventures while working for a hedge fund. Dee establishes a trust with his readers that allows Adam's murky business ethics to escape the spotlight of outright moral scrutiny, and by showing how Adam endangers his privilege—while his children endanger their own lives—Dee reveals how risk is a kind of numbing balm. April, Adam's daughter, responds to the boredom of material comfort by resorting to drug-induced self-effacement. The novel climaxes as the children face the possibility of their own death, though lucidity after mortal danger is fleeting: “I can feel myself forgetting what it feels like to feel,” April says. Dee notably spurns flat portraits of greed, instead letting the characters' self-awareness and self-forgetfulness stand on their own to create an appealing portrait of a world won by risk. (Jan.)

Chevalier's newest is a flat historical whose familiar themes of gender inequality, class warfare and social power often overwhelm the story. Tart-tongued spinster Elizabeth Philpot meets young Mary Anning after moving from London to the coastal town of Lyme Regis. The two quickly form an unlikely friendship based on their mutual interest in finding fossils, which provides the central narrative as working-class Mary emerges from childhood to become a famous fossil hunter, with her friend and protector Elizabeth to defend her against the men who try to take credit for Mary's finds. Their friendship, however, is tested when Colonel Birch comes to Lyme to ask for Mary's help in hunting fossils and the two spinsters compete for his attention. While Chevalier's exploration of the plight of Victorian-era women is admirable, Elizabeth's fixation on her status as an unmarried woman living in a gossipy small town becomes monotonous, and Chevalier slows the story by dryly explaining the relative importance of different fossils. Chevalier's attempt to imagine the lives of these real historical figures makes them seem less remarkable than they are. (Jan.)

This solid novel begins with young Lulu finding her mother dead and her sister wounded at the hands of her alcoholic father, who has failed at killing himself after attacking the family. Meyers traces the following 30 years for Lulu and her sister, Merry, as they are sent to an orphanage, where Lulu turns tough and calculating, searching for a way into an adoptive family. Eventually, Lulu becomes a doctor specializing in “the almost old,” though her secretiveness about her past causes new rifts to form in her new family. Meanwhile, Merry becomes a “victim witness advocate,” but her life is stunted; she's dependant on Lulu, drugs and alcohol, and she can't find love because she “usually want[s] whoever wants me.” In the background, their imprisoned father looms until a crisis that eerily mirrors the past forces Lulu and Merry to confront what happened years ago. Though the novel's sprawling time line and undifferentiated narrative voices—the sisters narrate in rotating first-person chapters—hinder the potential for readers to fall completely into the story, the psychologically complex characters make Meyers's debut a satisfying read. (Jan.)

Yarbrough's tightly constructed latest is hobbled by the ordinariness of its characters and the situations they find themselves in. The story is told from the point of view of Luke May, a high school teacher and history buff living in a small Mississippi River delta town where he and his wife carry on a passionless marriage. During Luke's childhood, a family friend killed his wife, and Luke never fully understood the circumstances. After Maggie, one of the slain mother's children, returns to town as the new high school French teacher, Luke begins to unravel the murder, which coincided with one of the key moments in the civil rights movement. He also begins an affair with Maggie, providing a bit of tension as the reader wonders where the affair will lead and what Luke will learn about the shooting. The book's pacing and language are superb, and while Yarbrough (The End of California) is terrific at getting inside the head of his protagonist, what's inside isn't very special. (Jan.)

Full of glimpses into the workings of low-level tech crime, bestseller Wambaugh's entertaining third “Hollywood station” novel (after Hollywood Crows) provides lots of laughs and gasps along with a few tender sighs. Trouble ensues after a husband-and-wife team of identity thieves, the weak-willed Dewey Gleason and his domineering mate, Eunice, cross paths with Malcolm Rojas, a creepy teenager with major anger-management issues. The heart of the story, though, comes from the vignettes of life on patrol among the cast of the station cops, including “Hollywood” Nate Weiss, the actor turned cop; Weiss's beautiful partner, Dana Vaughn; and the surfer duo, Flotsam and Jetsam, who at one point engage in a hilarious, extended dialogue of surfer-speak straight off the waves at Zuma. Spare and punchy prose fuels descriptions so on target that readers will feel they are riding shotgun, gazing out on Tinseltown's tawdry landscape. (Dec.)

Set mainly during WWII in England, this quiet story about a woman who makes a new life for herself falls short of bestseller Smith's best work. After La Stone's husband leaves her for another woman in France, La retreats to a small cottage in Suffolk given to her by her mortified in-laws. The isolation and peacefulness suit La, who joins the Women's Land Army soon after the outbreak of war. When Feliks Dabrowski, an attractive Polish ex-pat, is assigned to the same farm where La is assisting with chores, La is attracted to him, despite her suspicions that Feliks hasn't been fully truthful about his past. La's idea to launch an amateur local orchestra to boost morale proves an unexpected success and helps give her purpose during the war's darkest days. While the understated prose appeals, La just isn't as interesting a creation as the author's two female sleuths, Precious Ramotswe (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) and Isabel Dalhousie (The Sunday Philosophy Club). (Dec.)

Marcinko and DeFelice keep up a withering fusillade of wisecracks as Marcinko's fictional alter ego, Dick Marcinko, tangles with an aging Fidel Castro in the loosely plotted 13th outing for the former Navy SEAL (after Rogue Warrior: Dictator's Ransom). Dick (aka the Rogue Warrior) and his Red Cell International cohorts must prevent a deadly attack on the U.S. to be triggered by the demise of the Cuban dictator. The action hinges on the central joke that Dick, with some age-related makeup, actually looks so much like Fidel that he can imitate the leader well enough to trick the authorities and general citizenry of Cuba into doing what Dick and the CIA want done to free the island from the yoke of tyranny. Series fans will cheer as Dick and company run all over Cuba, killing people and causing trouble. (Dec.)

Nasty, brutish and deadly describes the world of Jackson Steeg, as shown in Berkowitz's third novel to feature the ex-NYPD homicide detective with one lung and a weakness for the bottle (after Old Flame). When a warehouse owned by Steeg's mob-connected brother, Dave, goes up in flames and kills three squatters and two fire fighters, an additional six bodies, sexually mutilated and placed in packing crates, turn up in the basement. Dave is an easy target for an indictment, and when Steeg tries to locate the real culprit, he steps on the wrong toes and finds himself in deep trouble. Berkowitz's brisk style is a perfect fit for this violent world of killers, scam artists, crooked politicians and the downtrodden of all sorts. Steeg is loyal to friends and family, and if that means turning a blind eye occasionally or administering his own form of justice, then so be it. There are no white knights, no storybook endings for Berkowitz, just vivid, ragged slashes of life. (Dec.)

Historical fiction author Davis churns out another folksy, lighthearted story set in 1885 about a not-so-feminine heroine who shoots better than most men. Gert Dooley has spent years caring for her widowed brother, Hiram, who is Fergus, Idaho's, only gunsmith, and that position strategically places her to practice shooting all types of firearms. Second to none, Gert sets up a women's shooting club after a killer comes to town, and while the womenfolk are eager to learn from Gert's experienced hands, the men in town balk. As Gert trains her friends to protect themselves, she finds herself strangely attracted to the new sheriff, Ethan Chapman. Slowly the two begin a dance, and who knows which one will fire the first shot of romance. Davis's evenly paced tale, kicking off a series, reads smoothly and predictably, but perhaps too much so for avid readers who hanker for unexpected plot ambushes here and there. (Dec.)

Marias concludes his enormously praised and disquieting trilogy with the last increment of Jacques Deza's story, finding him recruited as a character analyst by a shady British intelligence agency. He's working for Bertram Tupra, who welcomes Jacques into the intelligence fold by using him in his plot to assault a Spanish embassy employee. Soon, Tupra shows him horrifying blackmail videos gathered by the agency that “poison” Jacques's soul. The effect of this poison becomes apparent when Deza returns to Madrid to see his father and his estranged wife, Luisa, who sports a black eye presumably inflicted by her boyfriend, Estaban Custardoy. Jacques begins to secretly track down Custardoy with the intent of persuading him never to see Luisa again, and when Jacques finally confronts Custardoy, Marias's masterful depiction of the ecstasy of violence makes it difficult not to exult in Jacques's barbarous behavior. The intrigue yet to come pushes Jacques into a crisis of conscience. Costa does a flawless job of translating the strange mixture of high cultural references and Jacques's essentially thrillerlike story line, making for a reading experience like no other. (Nov.)

This year's Pushcart anthology offers consistently good prose and poetry that covers a broad range of styles and topics. On the historical front, “Tied to History” by Greil Marcus and “A Poetics of Hiroshima” by William Heyen are among several pieces that reinvigorate well-plowed terrain from WWII, while “Return to Hayneville” by Gregory Orr offers a shocking true tale of police rounding up, imprisoning and battering peaceful protestors in the segregated South. Contemporary standout pieces from J.C. Hallman (“Ethan: A Love Story”) and Charles McLeod (“Edge Boys”) mine the rich veins of, respectively, video games and suburban teenage prostitution. But not all of the pieces work: two of the unsuccessful stories in this volume—Mary Gaitskill's “The Arms and Legs of the Lake” and Brock Clarke's “Our Pointy Boots”—are failed efforts to interrogate the realities of troops returning from the second Iraq War. The anthology is at its most innovative with its poetry, which surpasses the prose in experiments with language and form. (Nov.)

In White's less than exciting sequel to The House on Tradd Street, Melanie Middleton reprises her role as the Lowcountry realtor with psychic powers. This time out, she's enlisted to help her estranged mother, opera star Ginnette Prioleau Middleton, buy back her family's ancestral home. Ginnette fears Melanie's in danger from a supernatural force, and she plans to keep her daughter close, even though Melanie's long since written Ginnette off. Meanwhile, local hunk author Jack Trenholm again offers his investigative services to determine and neutralize the threat, and a nosy local reporter is intent on writing a story about Ginnette's return. Jack's attempts at intimacy with Melanie are generally rebuffed, and their “relationship” comes off as annoying background noise compared to the better-handled relationship between Melanie and Ginnette. It doesn't help that the ghostly doings develop at an excruciatingly slow pace, and the reporter's role (of course much more important than it first appears) takes too long to gel. Hopefully, White's next installment will regain the snap of her first outing. (Nov.)

Myers draws on her own experiences as the daughter of white missionaries living in the Belgian Congo for this dazzling novel full of authentic African lore. In 1958, Amanda Brown and her fellow passengers suffer only minor injuries when the plane bringing them to the diamond mining community of Belle Vue makes a crash landing. The 23-year-old South Carolina native, who's spent six months in Belgium studying French and the Congolese language of Tshiluba, has come to Belle Vue to run a missionary guesthouse, where she soon employs one of a local witch doctor's two wives, the delightful, no-nonsense Cripple. The discovery of a huge uncut diamond sets off a chain of unfortunate events leading to Cripple's being charged with murder. This marks a major breakthrough for Myers as she displays storytelling skills not recently seen in the claustrophobic confines of her Pennsylvania-Dutch (Batter Off Dead) and Den of Antiquity (Poison Ivory) mystery series. (Nov.)

Romanian journalist Teodorovici's quizzical fable pursues the thwarted efforts of a couple of ne'er-do-wells to commit suicide. The narrator, having experienced his share of drunkenness and failure, no longer entertains hope for the future and contemplates jumping from the ledge of his fifth-story apartment building each morning. One day, he ends up “saving” a young man from hanging himself. The narrator soon learns the man (referred to only by his orange suspenders) frequently stages his hanging, only to be rescued by passers-by. Still, the narrator senses a kindred spirit and follows him to a bar, where the two become involved in a brawl. Later, they pursue then dodge “the urge,” and the novel allows the randomness of their actions to stand in for a kind of existential tension. In the end, though, for all its playfulness, there's no rhyme, reason or plot to this sadly inexplicable adventure. (Nov.)

The first work by East German writer De Bruyn translated into English, this subtle moral fable follows the rebellious stand of a privileged young man, the son of a government “big shot.” Viktor Kösling, unlike his famous father J.K., is not ambitious or commanding, and has been sent for the winter to a country retreat to finish his dissertation. Once there, Viktor's assiduous study plans dissolve under the spell of the house's orbiting personalities: closet drinker Olga and her shady partner, Max, who run the place; the lonely, romantic widow, Frau Erika, who sends Viktor love letters addressed to “Prince Hamlet”; the hirsute, jealous gardener, Sebastian; and elderly Tita, a dotty woman constantly causing trouble for her harried granddaughter Thilde, the house chambermaid. Smitten with Thilde's endearing imperfections, Viktor is unsure over his taboo love and finds further trouble when his parents catch wind of it. Set in 1984, on the eve of East Germany's cataclysmic political implosion, de Bruyn's novel cleverly explores a proud but decrepit society secretly desperate for change. (Nov.)

Benedict (The Lonely Soldier) chronicles a year in the life of a foolish but surprisingly sympathetic British family that relocates to the equatorial paradise of the Seychelles, located between India and Africa. In 1960, Rupert Weston accepts a post in the remote British colony without consulting his wife, Penelope, and his decision isn't well received. Trying to adjust to life on the island chain, Penelope turns to Marguerite, the family's kind and trustworthy local servant, for help with daughters Zara and Chloe. She soon realizes that the Seychelles are a “dumping ground for incipient failures” and their wives, who turn to alcohol and adultery for entertainment. Weak, malleable Rupert is soon seduced by the cunning Creole Joelle Lagrenade, but Penelope won't give up her husband without a fight. As the children run feral, Penelope asks Marguerite to show her grigri, Seychelles magic. She consults local witchdoctor Monsieur Adonis, while Joelle turns to Madame Hélène, a fortuneteller, and their combined magical efforts culminate in near tragedy and certain loss. An armchair traveler's delight, Benedict's novel is an amusingly poignant look at the British abroad in the spirit of Evelyn Waugh. (Nov.)

A teenager in 1920s Tuscany slowly realizes the callousness of humanity in this first English translation of Bilenchi's (1909–1989) haunting novella. The nameless narrator watches his family's powerlessness in the wake of a drought, hard financial times and nasty neighborhood gossip. After the drought, the boy is unnerved by his grandfather's apparent dementia, and his suspicions that all relationships are tenuous are confirmed when he loses friends over trivial matters. But then an irreconcilable rift occurs between the narrator and his best friend, and the story gains momentum. The focus shifts from descriptions of the Tuscan countryside to appropriately jarring accounts of the boy's sexual awakening, the most disturbing of which involves Gino, a farmer's son who preys on young women in a sunflower field. The narrator is both interested and repelled by sex, but it's not until he stays with a group of family friends, who recount abortions and unhappy marriages, that he truly understands that his innocence is gone. Goldstein, an editor at the New Yorker, beautifully translates this timeless tale of discomfort, rejection and isolation. (Nov.)

In 23 brief, dreamy stories set in locales from Paris to Cuba, poet, actress and photographer Berdeshevsky remains transfixed by beauty and desire. “Window,” the first piece, sets the tone: a woman stands at the window wearing a garter belt and motions to her lover standing outside in the snow. Elsewhere, seductions occur in places like church, where a narrator waits to meet her neighbor; on the streets of San Francisco; within a community of Russian émigrés in Paris; or by the waiter in a Parisian cafe bathroom—scenes all depicted with a certain aloof obliqueness. Evocations rather than development are Berdeshevsky's forte, as in “Cage,” where a caged white female monkey in a Manhattan pet store becomes a metaphor for the protagonist, who is sexually assaulted in the store. In many of the pieces, accompanied by photographs of statues and nudes by the author, the protagonists wait “for a beautiful thing to happen.” These moody moments can be evanescent, but as stories they're not quite satisfying. (Nov.)

A big success when it was originally published in Iran, this slender book will likely disappoint Western readers interested in new perspectives on the lives of contemporary Iranian women. It's narrated by a nameless Iranian wife and mother whose husband, Amir, is obsessed with emigrating to Canada. The narrator, however, is unwilling to do more than stare into their dusty yard. Her refusal to move forward leads him to leave Tehran with the excuse that he can make more money elsewhere. While he's gone, she deals with her two young children, overlooks her husband's infidelity, combs through her sad and confusing childhood memories and determines that her way of coping is to stay in place and accept her situation. Unfortunately, the writing is so thoroughly introspective that the book could have been set in any grimy working-class neighborhood with loud neighbors, marital discord and selfish, demanding relatives. While the translation is lovely, the narrative is unnervingly myopic and mostly notable for its inertia. (Nov.)

Bestseller Cornwell's solid 17th thriller to feature Dr. Kay Scarpetta (after Scarpetta) finds Scarpetta—who's the senior forensic analyst for CNN—probing the murder of a Central Park jogger as well as looking into the disappearance of Hannah Starr, a wealthy financial planner. Quizzed on-air about previously undisclosed details of the perplexing Starr case, Scarpetta realizes that the tentacles of the case reach further than she imagined. Her niece, forensic computer whiz Lucy Farinelli, has her own reasons for digging into Starr's disappearance, along with Lucy's girlfriend, New York County ADA Jaime Berger. NYPD Det. Pete Marino, another series staple, is also in the loop as a member of Berger's task force. But it's the dark past of Scarpetta's psychologist husband, Benton Wesley—particularly his presumed death in Point of Origin and shocking reappearance five years later in Blow Fly—that binds the disparate pieces together and make this one of Cornwell's stronger recent efforts. (Oct.)

At the start of Crawford's diverting sixth mystery to feature Bernie and Libby Simmons (after 2008's A Catered Halloween), imperious Annabel Colbert hires the catering sisters of Longely, N.Y., to cook for her beloved pet pug's birthday lunch, demanding the same menu for the dogs and the people—at the same table no less. At the party, shortly after insulting all her human guests and drinking what she realizes is a glass of poisoned wine as soon as she gulps it down, Annabel collapses. Before losing consciousness, the wealthy entrepreneur (who dies two days later) gets Bernie and Libby to promise to find her killer. Suspects include Annabel's philandering husband; the husband's gorgeous, surgery-enhanced assistant; and the high school friend whose original idea Annabel stole to make millions. This gabby, low-key culinary cozy includes recipes for canines and humans, one a liver birthday cake you can serve to a person you dislike (“Just frost with whipped cream and leave off the dog treats and Cheez Whiz”). (Dec.)

Alfred Hitchcock fans should love Kandel's fifth Cece Caruso mystery (after 2007's Christietown), a terrific tribute that's also wickedly funny. L.A. vintage fashionista Cece, who's just returned from her solo honeymoon after dumping LAPD Det. Peter Gambino, is researching a Hitchcock biography when her life takes a Hitchcockian turn. After watching a screening of Vertigo, she returns home to find someone else's cellphone in her purse. A curious call on the cellphone leads Cece to Beechwood Canyon, where she hopes to return it to its owner, Anita Colby. Instead, Cece winds up witnessing the cool blonde's murder. As Cece gets drawn deeper into a plot with alarming similarities to the celebrated director's noir masterpieces, she fears she's become a victim of identity theft as well as a dead ringer for the Kim Novak character in Vertigo. Kandel keeps the action tight all the way to a delightful denouement that Hitch no doubt would've appreciated. (Nov.)

The near simultaneous murders on Christmas night of two giants of Fleet Street—Daily Telegraph writer Winston Carruthers and Daily News editor Simon Pierce—rock 1866 London in Finch's absorbing third historical (after 2008's The September Society). These sensational crimes disturb holiday festivities at the Mayfair home of amateur detective Charles Lenox, who jumps at the chance to further his crime-solving career. In the meantime, Lenox's restless fiancée, Lady Jane Grey, may delay their impending nuptials while Lenox is also off running for Parliament in distant Stirrington, where he learns the seamy underside of British politics. The multifaceted case includes a coded letter, wartime espionage, a gang slaying, bribery and eavesdropping, making it “all fearfully complicated” in the words of Inspector Jenkins of Scotland Yard. An exciting boat chase on the Thames leads to a slightly incongruous happy ending. (Nov.)

In the charming eighth coffeehouse mystery from the pseudonymous Coyle (the husband-wife writing team of Marc Cerasini and Alice Alfonsi), Clare Cosi, owner of the Village Blend, is preoccupied with creating flavorful and memorable drinks for the upcoming holiday season. Then one snowy December day, Clare discovers a beloved customer, Alf Glockner, shot to death in a nearby alley. Doubtful of the police conclusion that Alf, a part-time comedian who was working as a charity Santa, was the victim of a random murder, Clare sets out to find out what really happened. To her peril, she must do so on her own because her boyfriend, NYPD Det. Mike Quinn, is busy with his own homicide investigation. This light cozy will keep readers guessing until the end, while the drink and accompanying treat recipes will send anyone to the kitchen in search of a candy cane brownie and a caffe mocha latte. (Nov.)

In Anthony-winner Henry's so-so fourth whodunit to feature Alaska widow Maxie McNabb and her dachshund, Stretch (after 2007's The Refuge), Maxie and Stretch befriend John Walker, a lonely tourist. Later, in the room of the inn where he's staying in Homer, John apparently shoots himself in the head with a pistol. Earlier, John attended a supper party at Maxie's, where he'd shown no signs of being suicidal, though Maxie's visiting son had found him a little too vague about his past. Alaska state trooper Alan Nelson confirms that the victim was using a false name and enlists Maxie's skills in figuring out his true identity. The plot thickens after Maxie discovers someone broke into her home while she was visiting Anchorage, and a stranger shows up claiming to be John's sister. While Henry does her usual fine job of depicting the lovely Alaskan landscape, the rushed resolution and not knowing enough about John to care about his fate will dissatisfy some readers. (Nov.)

When a Korean fortune-teller claims the spirit of a long dead American soldier is bothering her at the outset of Limón's well-crafted sixth mystery to feature U.S. Army criminal investigators George Sueño and Ernie Bascom (after 2007's The Wandering Ghost), the pair delve deep into the more than 20-year-old case of Tech. Sgt. Florencio R. Moretti, who went missing in 1953 and is presumed dead. At first, their mission is simply to find Moretti's remains, but as they search for the truth in Seoul's red-light district, Itaewon, they uncover a past of military and government corruption, prostitution and murder. As usual, Sueño and Bascom don't hesitate to put their own lives and careers at risk. Limón's own experiences as a U.S. soldier stationed in Korea serve to enrich the intricate portrait of 1970s Seoul. While excessive attention to details of Korean language and dialect slow the pace at times, loyal fans and newcomers alike should be pleased. Author tour. (Nov.)

The 16 stories in this stellar volume in Akashic's noir series paint a vivid portrait of the underside of Phoenix, where the gulf between rich and poor ensures “[c]rime, and lots of it,” as Millikin observes in his introduction. The writers make superb use of locale so that the sprawl, desert, history and especially the heat become “characters” in their fiction. Among the standouts are Robert Anglen's “Growing Back,” an unforgettable journey through a prisoner's consciousness, from the hell of his crimes and incarceration to the incestuous bed he shared with his mother; Luis Alberto Urrea's “Amapola,” in which a teenage lothario makes the possibly fatal mistake of falling for a drug lord's daughter; and Laura Tohe's “Tom Snag,” an updated version of the Native American shape-shifter myth as visited upon a hammered, horny barfly. Other contributors include Gary Phillips, Don Winslow, Lee Child, James Sallis and Megan Abbott. This book is an absolute must-read for noir fans. (Nov.)

Business at the venerable Crown and Anchor pub is flagging—and with good reason—in Brett's droll 10th mystery set in the West Sussex town of Fethering (after 2008's Blood at the Bookies). An outbreak of food poisoning, with attendant bad press, temporarily shuts down the establishment. Then the grand reopening is spoiled by a rowdy biker gang and the brutal stabbing death of a beloved, mentally challenged kitchen helper. Before you can say “plowman's lunch,” plucky Carole Seddon and her friend, Jude, are on the case. As “women of a certain age,” Carole and Jude are often underestimated, a circumstance they use to good advantage, along with dogged persistence, feminine wiles and people skills. Those with counter-corporate leanings will enjoy the bashing meted out on a McPub chain bent on driving traditional public houses out of business. (Nov.)

Madsen's promising debut, the first in a new cozy series set in Chicago, introduces DD McGil, a 38-year-old freelance insurance investigator and former English professor who's a whiz at breaking and entering. Two days before Christmas, a case takes DD to a computer company, HI-Data, where she stumbles on the corpse of Ken Gordon, a partner at HI-Data who happens to be the half brother of DD's late fiancé, who apparently jumped to his death from a high balcony. Since DD despised Ken, she fears the police will suspect her of murder. Meanwhile, DD's Aunt Elizabeth (aka the Scottish Dragon) arrives for the holidays with what she claims is a rare Robert Burns manuscript. Tom Joyce, DD's antiquarian bookseller friend, offers to help with research into the manuscript. Well-drawn characters and a suspenseful plot will leave readers looking forward to the next installment. (Nov.)

Spencer elevates Monika Paniatowski, the protégé of Det. Chief Insp. Charlie Woodend (A Dying Fall, etc.), to center stage in this pedestrian police procedural set in 1973 Lancashire. On her first day as Woodend's successor, Paniatowski faces a misogynistic sergeant with an axe to grind and visits the site of a grisly discovery—a bag containing a severed human hand. After another hand turns up and proves to be that of baker Tom Whittington, the police figure out the first hand belongs to Linda Szymborska, Whittington's managing director at the bakery, with whom he was having an affair. Szymborska's husband is the obvious suspect, but Paniatowski hesitates to arrest him, opening herself to charges of bias due to their shared Polish background. Readers should be prepared for stock characters—the single mother trying to succeed in a man's world, her subordinate determined to undermine her—and a routine plot. (Nov.)

In this complex prequel to Hugo-winner Bear's All the Windwracked Stars (2008), Ragnarok has already occurred, but the world must still be cleansed of the residue of the former realm. When immortal einherjar war-leader Strifbjorn rescues a strange woman from drowning, she claims to be the Lady, a long-awaited deity, and defeats Strifbjorn's champion and lover, Mingan the Gray Wolf, to take command. The ensuing internal power struggles set the einherjar at odds while the Lady attempts to rally the community against a supposedly imminent attack by giants. Numerous fantasy authors adopt the tropes of Norse mythology, but Bear actively pursues them, channeling those myths directly rather than overlaying them on more familiar ones. The result demands much from readers, but repays it in vivid, sensual imagery of a wholly different world. (Nov.)

Readers with a taste for deftly executed tales of subtle horror will welcome Roden's fine debut story collection. “Out and Back” tells of an abandoned amusement park whose attractions are sinister snares set to entrap unwary thrill seekers. In “The Palace,” a skeleton crew working the night shift at a luxury hotel finds the premises haunted by the ghosts of a serial killer's victims. Both the title story and “The Wide, Wide Sea” are set in Canadian wildernesses, where the alienated mingle freely with the ghostly. Roden is a copublisher of the classic ghost story imprint Ash Tree Press, and her fiction resonates with echoes of Poe, Conan Doyle, Coleridge, Dickens and other masters of antiquarian horror. This yields powerful expressions of the supernatural in the book's two tales of 19th-century Antarctic exploration, “Endless Night” and “The Brink of Eternity,” whose carefully crafted old-fashioned style lends atmosphere to depictions of a terra incognita rich with awe and terror. (Nov.)

Whitfield (Benighted) creates a fantasy Earth both instantly recognizable and drastically changed: history was altered by the deepsmen, merfolk who first made an appearance at Venice during the Middle Ages and now, a few centuries later, control the seas. They insist that earthly rulers be part-deepsmen, placing halfbreed children such as Henry, terrified to be washed up on shore after five years underwater, and Anne, a king's clumsy granddaughter, in play for the English throne. The tale's style is formal and historical, packed thick with detail both overt and subtle. Anne is convincing as “inconvenient” royalty, the kind the family would rather forget, while Henry embodies the deepsmen's unhuman priorities and desires. Supporting characters, most neither wholly good nor wholly wicked, are given in stark, memorable detail. Fans of English history, dense prose and high-level political maneuvering will love it. (Nov.)

Bleak, stark and creepy, Stoker-winner Nickle's first collection will delight the literary horror reader. A jarring cover illustration by Erik Mohr prepares the reader for 13 terrifying tales of rural settings, complex and reticent characters and unexpected twists that question the fundamentals of reality. All are delivered with a certain grace, creating a sparse yet poetic tour of the horrors that exist just out of sight. Standout stories include “Janie and the Wind,” where a battered, abandoned woman does what she needs to survive; “Other People's Kids,” a disturbing examination of the razor-thin moment dividing childhood from maturity and the hand holding that razor; and “The Pit Heads,” a phenomenal story about the cold remnants of a Canadian mining town and the true cost of beauty. This ambitious collection firmly establishes Nickle as a writer to watch. (Nov.)

This volume collects 15 of the earliest short publications by Philip K. Dick (1928–1982), all from 1952–1953. Though the young author is clearly finding his footing in these stories, many of the elements he developed in later works are present in embryonic form. The nature of reality is held up to question in “Adjustment Team,” while self-repairing and replicating robots populate “James P. Crow,” “The Gun” and “Jon's World.” The weak must prevail against seemingly invincible opponents in “Beyond Lies the Wub,” “Piper in the Woods” and “Souvenir,” and the prospect of total destruction looms in “The Variable Man.” Rickman provides an informative introduction and detailed endnotes on each story, which alone would make this volume worth acquiring. This collection is a must-have for PKD fans. (Nov.)

World Fantasy Award–winner de Lint dusts off an enchanting epic fantasy written in 1980 but never published. Magic is fading throughout the Green Isles and the evil Icelord sees an opportunity to impose his will on all who dwell there. A small group of islanders want to waken the Summerlord, but others are conflicted, and just one traitor could spell the end of summer forever. The story progresses glacially at first, but picks up excitement and action in a slow build of tension. In his introduction, de Lint explains that he made only small changes, wanting to honor his original wide-eyed vision. The result is a delightful old-fashioned group quest, and though it occasionally lacks the older de Lint's graceful skill with language, even his nascent poetic style evokes beautiful imagery. (Nov.)

Readers unfamiliar with 2006's Trial of Flowers will be baffled by this sequel; those who have read the former are likely to be both delighted and flabbergasted by the latter. The City Imperishable is the decadent relic of a magical empire in which human and numinal forces struggled until the Old Gods were almost forgotten—but this familiar-sounding background doesn't set up a predictable heroic fantasy yarn. The city's diverse inhabitants, including demigods and manmade dwarves, are subject to violent physical and moral transformations, and Lake's lushly energetic writing pulls readers through startling developments. Major concerns this time include bloody political intrigue, a blockade by corsairs and an expedition to the North that may lead to the city's rebirth or its doom. The result is exuberantly odd, melodramatically ironic and dangerously wonderful. (Nov.)

McDevitt (Seeker) avoids flashy action scenes in this tale of two friends using a time machine to take a grand tour of history. When Adrian “Shel” Shelbourne's physicist father disappears and leaves behind a time-travel device, Shel and his friend Dave Dryden, a language expert, search for Shel's father in Galileo's Italy, Selma during the civil rights marches and other famous times and places. Realizing that time resists paradoxes and history can't be changed, the two friends seize the opportunity to live enriching, truly humane lives from Thermopylae to a few minutes in the future. As the paradoxes begin to pile up and their luck in dodging some of history's villains runs out, McDevitt ingeniously handles a tricky denouement that will leave readers satisfied. (Nov.)

Fantasy veteran Watt-Evans (The Summer Palace) unveils a new series set in a time of civil strife and famine. As noble magicians perform human sacrifice to replenish the land's fertility, the poor riot for food in the capital, Lume. Anrel, a magicless orphan and a stiff-necked cynic, returns home from Lume to learn that his childhood friend Valin has become a hotheaded, treasonous radical. When Valin is killed in a duel, Anrel implausibly swears vengeance and devotes himself to Valin's cause, making impassioned speeches even as the nobility target him for death. While the political plot lines intrigue, they are left underdeveloped and unfinished. Easily accessible and agreeable prose and fast-moving, action-packed scenes fail to distract from the unlikable characters and their many stunningly daft decisions. Only the tight plotting and absorbing new world make this tale readable. (Nov.)

British horror master Campbell (Told by the Dead) displays his gift for the unsettling in this collection of 18 recent short stories. The superlative title tale, in which guilt about a long-ago tragedy haunts the narrator, successfully transposes the understated terror of M.R. James to a modern setting. “Digging Deep,” about a man buried alive, will unnerve claustrophobes. Lovecraft fans will enjoy “Raised by the Moon,” in which teacher Bill Grant winds up stranded in a nearly deserted village. Forced to put up for the night with a gruff couple, Grant is troubled by disturbing visions of something under the water that may be linked to the blight on the area. Even in a relatively simple story such as this, Campbell shows a sure touch for evocative prose (“The luminous reflection of the arc of cottages hung beneath them, a lower jaw whose unrest suggested it was eager to become a knowing grin”). (Nov.)

Johnson's fluffy prequel to the Sons of Destiny romantic fantasy series (The Sword, etc.) focuses on Tava Ell Var, child of a human woman raped by were-tigers. Orphaned when her adoptive father is killed by bandits, shunned by the people of the only home she has ever known, Tava is unexpectedly rescued by bookish, hunky Kodan Sin Siin and his Shifterai warband. Remembering her mother's fate, Tava initially resists joining Clan Cat, but she soon finds herself at home and realizes her shape-shifting powers are well beyond the ordinary. Johnson welds together light fantasy and romantic fiction, roughly meshing them into a simple, almost sappy conglomeration. The basis for the fantasy shows great promise, but the gaping plot holes and sudden alternations between tender romance and rough sex may turn many readers off. (Nov.)

Grothaus (The Highlander) dresses up a standard forced-marriage story with references to Beauty and the Beast in this capable 12th-century historical romance. Lord Roderick Cherbon has returned home from the Crusades physically and emotionally scarred. He must nonetheless wed before he turns 30 or lose his home and wealth. Enter impoverished Lady Michaela Fortune, who believes herself engaged to Roderick's cousin, handsome Lord Alan Tornfield. When Alan weds another, humiliated Michaela decides to take Roderick's offer instead, though she knows it will be hard to win his trust. Alan confuses matters further by continuing to court her, but does he want her as his mistress or is he more interested in the Cherbon estate? Though marred by occasional anachronistic language (“Necessary rooms?” “Oh, you know... where you go to tinkle”), this romance is solid and entertaining. (Nov.)

Terminal illness leads gifted musician Caterina Shaw to seek radical treatment that turns her superhuman in this uneven romantic suspense from paranormal and category romance author Piñeiro (Honor Calls). Dr. Raymond Edwards saves Caterina's life but then traps her and continues experimenting on her with genes and hallucinogens. Out of control and desperate, Caterina escapes, only to fall into the arms of Mick Carerra, an attractive Mexican mercenary hired to find and dispose of her. Her beauty awakens his long-throttled emotions, and instead of collecting the bounty, Mick defies Edwards while his sister provides the medical treatment Caterina needs to detox and his affectionate family helps to heal her heart. The premise is intriguing, but Piñeiro never fully develops it, and too many inconsistencies distract the reader from both romance and science. (Nov.)

Drawing firmly on the pulp tradition but never shying away from the latest and most improbable gadgetry, Gabriel Hunt's third adventure (after 2009's Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear) proves him a contemporary heir to Indiana Jones, Bruce Wayne and Travis McGee. Kaufmann's storytelling, all action and little introspection, enhances the autobiographical conceit as anthropologist-archeologist Hunt, backed by the fiscal resources of the Hunt Foundation and his brother's extensive research library, travels to Borneo in search of Joyce Wingard, a family friend who disappeared while working on her doctorate and searching for information on an ancient Hittite weapon. Readers willing to suspend disbelief and embrace a touch of the supernatural (not to mention millennia-old death cults whose members engage the protagonists in hand-to-hand combat in the 21st century) will enjoy Hunt's romp across several continents. (Nov.)

This well-constructed Regency features smoldering love scenes and chapter headers from an imaginary account of arranged marriages that add a touch of charm to the entertainment. Viscount Kendall “West” Westmoreland and Persephone “Penny” Goldthwaite finally and reluctantly wed after a 13-year engagement engineered by Penny's family. When West is delayed while traveling, Penny must take up all the duties of a newly minted viscountess; protect West's careless wastrel brother from her own swindling stepbrother; fend off West's jealous and wealthy former lover and plan a grand ball even as she wonders whether her husband will return home in time to attend. Metzger (The Wicked Ways of a True Hero) takes some interesting chances with her story, populating it with well-drawn and often idiosyncratic characters and keeping it sweet without being sappy. (Nov.)

This darkly disturbing, brilliantly drawn story is the first major publication from cartoonist Rickheit, whose earlier works garnered him a Xeric award and a cult following. Brothers William and Edward are odd-ball inventors who raise the ire of New England townspeople when they make elaborate and stomach-turning musical instruments using animal carcasses. B&w pen and ink drawings elucidate complex machines and Victorian-era architecture in baroque detail, while surrealist imaginings take turns for the truly repugnant. Sexual perversion, putrefaction and serial-killer style artworks are all ornately portrayed, as are the buildings, shops, horse-drawn carriages and crumbling mansions of a 19th-century small town. The story, while told primarily in pictures, includes a stilted and formal dialogue that only adds to the perversity. A character called the Pig Lady, who lives, sleeps and does other horrific things with pigs, speaks in a Latinate crypto-language that is eventually adopted by one of the brothers, whose fate is bound up with her odd eating habits. Though not for the faint of heart, this obscure tale will offer rich rewards to the right kind of reader, one who appreciates grotesque horror, angry mobs and the creative explosion of a repressed Victorian sexuality. (Oct.)

Seventeen-year-old Ehwa bids good-bye to the man she wants to marry as the final volume of this delicate and poetic Korean historical trilogy opens. Her mother is simultaneously full of angry concern and understanding sympathy—each woman must wait, tending flowers and hoping to see their loves again. It's fascinating to see such a female-centered generational story, but it's a shame that, due to the time period, the women can take no action. They are passive, waiting, because “that is the heart of a woman”; their lives are incomplete without a man. Natural metaphors and seasonal images give the story texture: trees are undressed; male organs are chili peppers; and young men are butterflies flitting among flowers. Village girls see naked neighbors; men who aspire too much in their love are beaten to death; and marriage proposals come to the prettiest. The art is as minimally poetic as the content. Panels are spare, with plenty of white space, and the eyes are most often stacks of horizontal lines, making the characters seem thoughtful or as though they're looking sidelong at life. (Sept.)

In this morality adventure set in a starkly rendered 17th-century France, the eponymous protagonist dons a carnival mask and hunts escaped souls of the damned. The twist is that behind the marquis's mask is no dashing hero but a geriatric church inquisitor named Vol de Galle who is pious, fearful and uncertain of himself. He has good reason for doubt; the escaped souls inhabit the bodies of lowly French sinners who look like regular townsfolk and only de Galle can perceive their true beastly forms. The marquis leaves a trail of corpses that soon has the authorities, religious and secular, hot on his heels and places him in the center of a debate over his real nature, the provenance of his powers and the true measure of his faith. That overlengthy debate is mere background for the real matter at hand: disgusting devil-monsters dying in interesting ways. Davis's artwork features pages of heavily inked cityscapes crammed with gothic spires and rococo entablature, and squat and grotesque characters—both satanic and human—drawn in high contrast black-and-white. It's an entertaining if not always serious outing. (Sept.)