Fiction Book Reviews: 11/16/2009

A bold new collection by relentlessly surprising Scottish author Kennedy (Day) finds her characters pinned somewhere between love and pain. In the title story, about a lone man's evening attending a smalltown cinema, the denouement comes very gradually, as it does frequently throughout, reflecting a kind of reluctant dawning of consciousness: the protagonist, a forensics expert traumatized by having seen so much carnage, has left his wife after the death of their young daughter, an event that has rendered them unable to stand the guilt and anger evoked by the other's presence. “Wasps” captures a young wife and mother as she is making a Sunday breakfast. This seemingly typical scene is frozen by the menace of the philandering husband's leaving for good and his icy treatment of his angry wife. “Saturday Teatime” depicts the panicked delayed memory shock experienced by a child listening to her father's abuse of her mother, while “Marriage” portrays the excruciating emotional and physical aftermath of a violent sexual encounter between a husband and wife. These stories are polished to perfection, full of very dark turns and exemplary of Kennedy's inventiveness. (Apr.)

The Bradshaw family of suburban London is discontent. Thomas Bradshaw has taken a sabbatical from his job to learn to play the piano; his wife, Tonie, has become head of a university English department; their eight-year-old daughter, Alexa, watches as father and mother begin to suffocate under the failure of their expectations. The Bradshaws' brothers, sisters, parents, and in-laws, though sometimes faintly amusing, are no better off. Sister-in-law Claudia, a painter, never paints, blaming her nonproductivity on husband Howard, Thomas's older brother. Little brother Leo and his uneducated wife, Susie, drink too much—public knowledge because their children tattle on them—and the older generation of parents disapproves of them all. Cusk (Arlington Park) dissects her characters with a surgical precision, and all can be diagnosed with the same bourgeois malady: acute but indeterminate angst about the nature of existence. Cusk is a gifted writer who has a knack for razor-sharp characterizations, but the lack of plot—everyone is sad, little is done—is a serious detriment. (Apr.)

Salway (Tell Me Everything) refutes the adage about old dogs and new tricks in this breezy epistolary novel set in a British retirement home. Not that the residents of Pilgrim House don't know plenty of old tricks already: Salway's appreciation of her characters is refreshingly nonpatronizing—her oldsters have rich and naughty pasts, but live in the present, very much alive and eager to gossip, conspire, and seduce. George Griffiths is the archetypal stuffy widower, determined to control the behavior of anyone near him. He's also the only male resident of Pilgrim House until Martin Morris, a photographer who specializes in female nudes, moves in with his cameras and his photo collection. Martin's a schemer who, unbeknownst to George, had an affair with George's wife decades earlier and has been obsessed with her since; he saved all the letters he wrote her but never sent, and continues to write to her about his increasingly menacing plans. Although the epistolary device requires that some key revelations are reported from a distance, relationships and characters evolve nicely in this lighthearted novel about family and lovers and the not-so-lighthearted secrets that separate them. (Apr.)

Sebastian Prendergast, the teenage narrator of Bognanni's funny and unique debut, lives in Iowa's first geodesic dome with his grandmother, a devout follower of futurist philosopher Buckminster R. Fuller. But when Nana has a stroke, Sebastian is thrown together with Janice and teenageJared Whitcomb, who were touring the home when Nana was stricken. Soon, Sebastian and Jared form an unlikely bond via the great teenage tradition of punk rock, starting their own band despite the objections of everyone around them and Sebastian's lack of musical ability (holding a guitar for the first time, Jared says, “Strum,” and Sebastian asks, “What do you mean?”). And while Jared succeeds to some degree in socializing Sebastian—teaching him about music, smoking, and curse words—Sebastian ends up getting more than he bargained for when the two get caught up in Whitcomb family drama. The boys here don't come of age—girls are just beginning to exist and lifelong struggles are only taking root—but their connection is an honest, noisy, and raucous look at friendship and how loud music can make almost everything better. (Mar.)

The story of the Donner Party is sketchily retold in Burton's new novel, which reimagines the tragedy through the eyes of Tamsen Donner, 45-year-old wife of George Donner, the leader of the party that, in 1846, set out from Springfield, Ill., for California and wound up snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for the winter. In journal entries and letters to her sister, Tamsen dutifully recounts her early life in Massachusetts, Donner's courtship, their decision to move to California, and the blunders that ate up time and trapped their party for four months in the mountain snow, where Tamsen proves to be a pillar of strength for her injured husband, their family, and the other families depending upon them for survival. The narrative builds to what readers will be most curious about: how did the cannibalism come about? The answer is supplied by Tamsen in a matter-of-fact way that is in keeping with the other horrors she describes. In the end, the narrative's feminist trappings feel forced, and the result is a novel that only fitfully fulfils its goal of dramatizing the famous events from a new point of view. (Mar.)

Fishman strikes the right balance in her warm-fuzzy debut of rekindled friendship and self-empowerment. When four women who'd gone to college together run into each other at an alumni mixer, an instant bond is formed as Charlie convinces Bess, Naomi, and Sabine to join a beginner yoga class for just the four of them at her Brooklyn yoga studio. During the six weeks of class, the foursome proves to be easy to relate to as each discovers the strength to overcome some obstacle in their life. Bess has hard news aspirations, but is stuck peddling celebrity news at a gossip rag. Single mom Naomi has shuttered her photography career for better-paying Web design work. Sabine has worked at the same publishing house since graduation, shelving her desire to be an author. And though Charlie has taken the leap from her Wall Street career to business owner and yoga instructor, she's weighed down by the hurt left by an ex-boyfriend. It's perfectly adequate if not especially distinguished from the trove of other books of female friendship, bonding, and weathering the vicissitudes of life with a little help from a hobby. (Mar.)

In his incisive latest, Becker (2008 Flannery O'Conner Prize–winner for Black Elvis) recounts the misadventures of Bernice Click, a volatile young woman determined to raise the biological daughter she gave up for adoption. With the help of her boyfriend, Bernice kidnaps five-year-old Emily from her adoptive parents in Colorado and ends up in Baltimore, where she attempts to make a new life for herself and the girl. Meanwhile, Tessa Harding, Emily's adoptive mother, tries to recover Emily without involving authorities. Struggling with the revelation of her husband's indifference to the child, not to mention his adultery and increasingly sadistic behavior, Tessa embarks on a riveting adventure. The novel relies on a far-fetched coincidence to launch Tessa's mission, but resulting scenes are sufficiently tense and thought provoking to justify the stretch, while Becker's portrayal of Tessa's faith is moving and psychologically complex. As desperation mounts on all sides, Becker piles on devastating events, creating a remarkably taut narrative and a rousing testament to humanity's capacity for resilience. Nobody gets off the hook, though they do find uneasy deliverance in unexpected places. (Feb.)

Given that its nine linked stories are set in a postapocalyptic near future, the pleasure of Amsterdam's debut collection is surprising. Over the course of the book, just about every possible disaster assails the unidentified country in which the stories are set. Floods, drought, mob rule, and a virus that has one deranged character coughing up blood—each play a role in the disintegration of the world as we know it, and Amsterdam's narrator survives them all, first as a thief, later as a bureaucrat (which turns out to be not much different from a thief), and finally as a 40-year-old, cancer-ridden tour guide. Among the high points are “Dry Land,” in which the narrator encounters a drunken mother and her daughter clinging to each other in a cataclysmic flood, though each is more likely to survive alone; and “Cake Walk,” with a narrator who hides in a tree while a man infected with a deadly virus destroys his campsite. Though a couple of the later stories lack polish and punch, Amsterdam's varied catastrophes are vividly executed, while his resilient narrator's travails are harrowing. (Feb.)

An alien invasion turns the United States, if not the world, upside down in this smart, witty romp—but not in the ways that extraterrestrial enthusiasts might expect. Ralph Bailey is working as a sandwich-fetching attaché to an inept president who assigns him to act as a liaison to the recently arrived aliens. As one of the few White House employees who seems to understand the Woody Allen–obsessed, generally laid-back visitors, Ralph begins to interrogate his existential angst: “I think everything has happened before,” he says to his girlfriend, Jessica Love (it's that kind of book), “...every grief has been endured, every idea has been explored, every joke has been told.” And in Mandery's world, it's certainly the truth. As we meet the intergalactic characters, we find that jokes, situations, prejudices, and even pets are the same no matter where you go. While coincidences add up and characters lives bleed into one another, Mandery's sharp sense of humor and habit of addressing the reader make for a stimulating and intelligent read that's never short on laughs. (Feb.)

The lovelorn characters in Riske's debut collection are riven by confusion, to sometimes charming, sometimes infuriating effect. In the title tale, Casey Ford, a San Francisco ad executive married for 26 years, flirts with the idea of having an affair; the troubling memories his wayward thoughts arouse render the possible affair more trouble than it's worth, and in the end he realizes he wouldn't have the gumption for it anyway. Similarly timid characters find the thought richer than the deed, such as the college-bound narrator of “Sleeping with Smiley,” a rower who is faced with the perfect opportunity to sleep with the girlfriend of his rowing partner and best friend (moreover, she really wants to) and turns it down. Bill and Jody meet at church in “Just Admit It” and entertain a mutual attraction, only for Bill to tell the crestfallen girl, as he scrambles to think of a suitable line of scripture: “We just got Christian love mixed up with the other kind.” The reader might laugh if the characters were drawn with some depth. (Feb.)

In Ferris's remarkable second novel (after Then We Came to the End), a life of privilege comes to ruin as a result of a strange and mysterious illness. Attorney Tim Farnsworth thought he had recovered from a disorder that compels him to walk to the point of exhaustion. But now his walking disease has returned and shows no sign of going into remission. His wife, Jane, supportive beyond measure, does everything she can to keep Tim safe during his walks, including making routine midnight trips to pick him up. As the disorder takes increasing control over their lives, however, the sacrifices they make for each other drive them further apart. Ferris manages to inject a bizarre whimsy into a devastatingly sad story, with each of Tim's outings revealing a new aspect of his marriage. The novel's circular aspects, with would-be happy endings spiraling back into chaos and then descending further, integrate Ferris's themes of family, sickness, and the uncertain division between body and mind into a vastly satisfying and original book. (Jan.)

In bestseller Parker's disappointing third Charlie Hood novel (after The Renegades), Hood, a Los Angeles sheriff's deputy, joins Operation Blowdown, an attempt to staunch the near constant flow of money and guns across the U.S.-Mexican border. When a shootout during a botched weapons buy leaves the son of the head of a powerful Mexican cartel dead, the fight becomes personal as cartel soldiers cross the border to take revenge on Hood's team. Meanwhile, a faulty product has driven Pace Arms, a family-owned gun manufacturer, nearly to bankruptcy. Unbeknownst to Hood, the man brokering an illegal deal between Pace and another Mexican cartel chief for the production of a revolutionary handgun is Bradley Smith (aka Bradley Jones), the son of bank robber Allison Murrietta, the antiheroine of L.A. Outlaws, the first and best entry in the series. In this installment, the massive scale of the criminal activity overwhelms the characters. (Jan.)

At the request of a dying friend, Mickey Ryser, Zack Chasteen goes on a hunt for Ryser's daughter, Jen, in Edgar-finalist Morris's enjoyable if flawed fourth thriller set in Florida and the surrounding waters (after A Deadly Silver Sea). Ryser hasn't seen Jen in 20 years, but she was supposed to be sailing her boat down from Charleston, S.C., with a crew of friends to meet him on Lady Cut Cay, a tiny island in the Bahamas, which Chasteen calls “Baja Florida.” Chasteen follows the trail blazed by an incompetent detective hired by Ryser, tangles with a ring of boat thieves, and winds up wanted by the Bahamian police. Improbably, neither Ryser, who doesn't know what Jen looks like, nor Chasteen, tries to locate a recent photo of Jen, who's being held prisoner. That readers are privy to Jen's continuing travails lessens the suspense. On the other hand, Chasteen's knack for getting into trouble, his unusual Taino shaman companion, and a rousing ending more than compensate. (Jan.)

At the start of bestseller Woods's entertaining 17th Stone Barrington novel (after Loitering with Intent), the handsome New York lawyer smoothly picks up Carrie Cox, an aspiring actress who's recently moved from Georgia to New York City, at Elaine's, his favorite Manhattan restaurant. As usual, every beautiful woman Barrington encounters pursues him, including Carrie, art gallery assistant Rita Gammage, U.S. attorney Tiffany Baldwin, and mentally unstable Dolce Bianci, to whom he was once briefly married. In spite of all the female attentions, Barrington manages to shield Carrie from her ex-husband, protect young heiress Hildy Parsons from a con artist/drug dealer, and plot to take down Ponzi scammer Sig Larsen. Too crafty to let Barrington sail unscathed through encounters with women or criminals, Woods devises plenty of snarls to provoke laughs and keep the action interesting in a series that excels at playing out male fantasies. (Jan.)

Slathered in blood and gore, Saxon warlord Uhtred of Bebbanburg hacks his way through the ninth century in the exciting fifth installment to bestseller Cornwell's Saxon Tales series (following Sword Song). This action-packed novel continues the saga of warfare for supremacy in Britain, a brutal period when Saxon and Danish swords, battleaxes, and treachery ruled the day. By now, Alfred the Great is old and feeble, unwilling and unable to repel the Danish invaders. He relies on trusty pagan warlord Uhtred, but Uhtred's temper and an unexpected violent act force Uhtred to break his oath of loyalty to Alfred and flee north with his men, intending to reclaim his ancestral home. En route, they face marauding Danish armies, betrayal, battles for a pirate treasure, and the curse of a vicious Danish witch, only to eventually be manipulated back into fighting for Alfred. Vivid descriptions of merciless battlefield slaughter, rape, and destruction are artfully related by a masterful storyteller. Uhtred is victorious in some battles, but the outcome of others will have to wait for the sequel. (Jan.)

This new translation of an affecting early novel about love and social climbing by deceased Egyptian Nobel laureate Mahfouz (the Cairo trilogy) follows the fortunes of a Cairo university graduate eager to make his way in a venal 1930s imperialist society. When new graduate Mahgub Abd al-Da'im learns his father is at death's door and his monthly stipend will soon be terminated, he accepts a ministry position out of desperation. There is also a very large string attached: he must marry the minister's beautiful young mistress. The dishonor of this Faustian bargain is further underscored by the revelation that the young woman, Ihsan, was the ideal love of one of Mahgub's university friend's, and the two intended to marry before she was encouraged by her calculating family to accept the minister's seduction. Fallen characters, Mahgub and Ihsan set out on their single-minded path toward material advancement. Mahfouz is a master at depicting shifting forces of motivation, and despite some dated stereotypes, he offers a keen psychological portrait of a complex society in the midst of radical transformation. (Jan.)

Det. Insp. Jack Caffery of Bristol's Major Crime Investigation Unit looks into the case of Misty Kitson, a footballer's wife who vanished from rehab, in Hayder's chilling thriller, which picks up a few days after the grisly climax of 2008's Ritual. Caffery is distracted by the apparent suicide of a young man who he's convinced shows signs of mutilation similar to the victims of muti, the African black magic that figured in the previous book. Meanwhile, Sgt. Phoebe “Flea” Marley, a police diver, is busy exploring a series of flooded quarries in search of a missing woman, but her mind is elsewhere, too: the discovery that her brother, Thom, plays a vital role in Misty's much publicized disappearance. After two more alleged suicides, Caffery isn't sure if he's imagining a connection to muti, or if the answer is closer to home but no less deadly. Hayder captures the claustrophobia of Flea's dives in unsettling detail and continues to build on her two damaged heroes. (Jan.)

In Krentz's paranormal Arcane Society series, she bounces from contemporary romantic thriller (Running Hot) to steampunk historicals (Perfect Poison, as Amanda Quick). This trilogy kickoff concerns the present-day descendents of Nicholas Winters and Sylvester Jones, magic-obsessed 17th century rivals locked in a generation-spanning struggle. In Seattle, paranormal PI Chloe Harper is hired by financier Jack Winters to find the “Burning Lamp” his ancestor Nicholas created. Unrealistic whiz-bang action follows, including otherworldly powers that Winters must learn to control and a romance that may unleash an ancient curse, occasionally interrupted by psychic mobsters who also pursue the lamp. Arcane Society fans will be thrilled with the brand-new intrigue, but newcomers will need to read earlier books to understand Krentz's world. (Jan.)

Fans of the TV series 24 will best appreciate this two-part serial thriller written by 22 members of International Thriller Writers. Based on an idea by Deaver (The Broken Window), who provides the opening and closing chapters of each segment, the volume recounts the adventures of middle-aged Harold Middleton, an ex-U.S. military intelligence officer. In part one, “The Chopin Manuscript,” the discovery of a previously unknown Chopin score leads to murders, betrayals, and frantic efforts to stop a villain code-named Faust from carrying out a terrorist outrage. Part two, “The Copper Bracelet,” sets Middleton and his allies on the track of a Kashmiri planning the assassination of the U.S. secretary of state. While the contributors include many of the biggest names in the genre (Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Gayle Lynds, S.J. Rozan, etc.), the constraints of the form all but assure homogenized prose, thin characters, and stock action scenes atypical of their solo work. (Jan.)

British author Bauer's solid debut focuses on Steven Lamb, an unhappy 12-year-old boy who lives with his mother, grandmother, and five-year-old brother in Shipcolt, Somerset. Steven's grandmother is still haunted by the disappearance and suspected murder of her 11-year-old son, Billy, 19 years earlier. The authorities assume Billy was killed by pedophile Arnold Avery, who was convicted of six counts of murder and is serving a life sentence in Longmoor prison. Determined to find Billy's remains, Steven has been methodically digging up the moor near his house. Frustrated by his lack of progress, he writes a letter to Avery asking for information, and so begins a cat-and-mouse game that will have dire consequences. Bauer creates believable tension within the Lamb household as her characters shoulder enormous psychological burdens, though a somewhat far-fetched climax dilutes the quiet power of the preceding story. (Jan.)

At the start of Irvin's solid romantic suspense debut, San Antonio, Tex., homicide detective Ray Johnson (aka “Bible Boy”) is hiking with his girlfriend Susana Acosta's eight-year-old son, when he falls down a ravine and lands near the body of Joey Doyle, the victim of a hired assassin, Lalo Hernandez, who has cut off Doyle's ring finger. When the police discover Joey was the youngest son of a wealthy car dealership owner (apparently unaffected by the auto industry meltdown), they investigate members of Joey's family, starting with his wife, Melody. Aware of her husband's infidelities, Melody had plenty of motive. Ray, a likable Christian cop who's not too holier-than-thou, has to decide whether he stays on the force or studies for the ministry to keep Susana's heart. In contrast stands Hernandez, the aging Latino assassin, whose laconic attitude makes him all too chillingly real. (Jan.)

Private lives become fodder for public consumption in Zepeda's sendup of the blog/traditional media divide. Austin, Tex., investigative journalist Sandy Saavedra blogs for LatinoNow when Levy Media turns the hard news Web site into a cheezy entertainment Web site, Nacho Papi. Becoming a pun-writing gossipmonger is not one of her goals, but Sandy dives into her job with total OMG results: a post about the Chupacabra leads to a recurring advice column (“Ask the Chupacabra”) and a booming sideline in related merchandise. Problem is, the source of the Chupacabra craze is a little bit off, didn't sign a release form, and has a personal connection to Sandy's beloved late great aunt Linda. Then Sandy's outed as the author of her anonymous and very personal blog, My Modern TragiComedy, leading to outraged responses from those she's skewered. Internet celebrity follows, as do the inevitable office politics and romantic troubles, and though they get more stage time than warranted, Zepeda (Houston, We Have a Problema) gives readers a funny and smart heroine that readers will easily pull for, even in the dull bits. (Jan.)

Darlington, a debut author and winner of the 2008 Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest, enters the evangelical Christian publishing arena with a story that deals in antique bookselling and unresolved interpersonal relationships. Orphaned sisters Christy and May Williams have chosen very different paths after the sudden death of their parents 15 years earlier. Christy retreats into alcohol and abusive relationships, while younger sister May tries her hand at running a ranch. When the death of a close relative brings the two estranged sisters together, internal pain resurfaces that cannot be ignored by either one. Slowly, amid violence and false accusations, Christy moves toward May, emotionally and spiritually, as both young women discover the possibility of second chances. Darlington's setting in the fascinating world of antiquarian bookselling is clever; unfortunately much of the story is too formulaic to provide what could have been a compelling reading excursion. (Jan.)

One of Russia's bestselling contemporary poets, Pavlova is the most recent international darling to break into the American literary scene, first in the New Yorker and now with this first full-length collection to appear in English. Almost always less than 10 lines each, the collection's 100 poems explore universal themes like love, sex, and motherhood. That they have been translated by Seymour, Pavlova's husband, adds intrigue and intimacy to the collection, which has its share of “semen,” “saliva,” and “wild strawberries,” as well as “placental slime and blood.” Throughout, Pavlova works to combine registers of the sublime and the everyday. Because of the brevity of the poems, a tremendous amount rides on the impact of these quick juxtapositions. They often fall short of transcendence: “Armpits smell of linden blossom,/ lilacs give a whiff of ink.” The collection's success depends heavily on one's personal response to Pavlova's voice, including ungainly phrasings like “two gays smooching on a bench” and tell-it-straight lines like “Death from depression seems/ a bit ridiculous.” Some poems, however, quietly achieve a surprising depth, such as number 50, which reads in its entirety: “I have brushed my teeth./ This day and I are even.” (Jan.)

What can one say about a new book by John Ashbery (Notes from the Air)? That Ashbery is as prolific in his 80s as ever? Yes, there are 99 new poems, sequenced alphabetically and most of them a page long, in this book. That his wit is still sharp, the poems still rife with clever juxtapositions and colliding voices? Absolutely. That he still culls from the highs and lows of culture, making for unlikely yet somehow inevitable meetings? Of course: “I'm barely twenty six, have been on Oprah/ and such,” he says in a poem that also asks, thinking of mortality as he has been of late, “The song that started/ in the middle, did that close down too?” That perhaps Ashbery has learned a thing or two from his own legions of imitators and acolytes? That's harder to prove, but almost certainly true (note the hip and lovely cover by poet/designer Jeff Clark). That, as in his last several books, there's nothing entirely new , but that the poems are almost always satisfying and strange? Indeed. And that, perhaps most surprising, depending on one's biases, this, Ashbery's 28th volume of poems, ranks among the most vital collections of the year. Or maybe that's not a surprise at all. (Dec.)

Fluent and easy to like, serious in its take on the American life course, this second collection of poems for adults from Kearney (she's also the author of young adult verse) looks hard at the troubles and changes of Kearney's own experience, as an adopted child, as the daughter of an ailing father, as a sometime New Yorker who relocated after 9/11 to northern New England. The first—and perhaps the most verbally brilliant—poems depict the ups and downs of her teens: “When I got my head stuck between the porch rails/ I didn't know enough yet to hate my body, but I knew/ a thing or two about smoking my father's cigars.” Later she portrays herself as a grownup adrift (“Rum & Coke & a New Apartment”). In the city, “The bike-shop bag goes scrish-scrish/ against your leg as you head home,” even as, in Wyoming, “your father's hand trembles, reaching/ for the water glass”; in New Hampshire, “we're street-smart and wary/ enough not to let our Lab run the woods/ at night alone.” Defiance mixed with caution drives her conversational lines. Kearney (An Unkindness of Ravens) neither finds, nor seeks, great innovations; instead, she presents her life as representative, an occasion for tangents, for sadness, and for joie de vivre. (Nov.)

Simko's posthumous English-language debut is a long-awaited event for those who have known about his haunting poems. Simko was born in Czechoslovakia in 1969 and moved to the U.S. after the Soviet invasion of the country in the late '60s. He lived much of his life in New York—writing, participating in the literary scene, and translating an acclaimed volume of the poems of Georg Trakl—and died in 2004. Now, his executor, the poet Carolyn Forche, has shepherded his poems, which he was reluctant to publish in his lifetime, into print. Like Charles Simic, though devoid of Simic's playful humor, Simko's poetry has as its backdrop a hazy, surreal sense of life in a war-torn Eastern European landscape: “I have mentioned fists, and departures,/ the dumb choreography of the blind.” These poems are fragmentary but always sharp, their emotional weight clear. Simko probes the self, looking through pinholes for glimpses of other people: “I wake up/ and you come/ with a shawl/ black with stars.” And, like Frank Stanford, another poet whose influence has spread posthumously, Simko writes with haunting precision about death: “I am entering you the way an angel enters a scythe.” This book will be a bittersweet discovery to many who will wish this poet had more time. (Nov.)

Wagner's third collection is conversational and filled with the kind of self-consciousness that acknowledges and draws the reader in: “I'm lying down with myself and kissing myself.... I thought, you all might enjoy that,/and the honester I get, the/creepier I'll be.” Beginning with a section of “Exercises,” Wagner (Macular Hole) fixates on the body (“the joint will stay in place like a pearl in Vaseline”), and everyday pain: “Ah good the left shoulder hurts again/because the right shoulder was, and is the wrong one.” Branching into sexuality, there is fantasy and fixation, but also demystification (“well I expect you to go into the/ fucking human tunnel/ I'm going”) and mockery: “penis regis, penis immediate, penis/ tremendous, penis offend us.” Though she is an experimental writer and takes comfort in ambiguity (“it abstracted me, which was salvation”), these poems are not impenetrable. There is a fascination with the ordinary—“the apt not mine & the carpet's not my fault/ I love that”—that keeps the collection grounded and candid. Wagner is obsessed, in a good way, with the idea that “things mean, and I can't tell them not to.” (Nov.)

In a voice highly attuned to paradox and instability, Zurita confronts the traumatic upheaval brought on by Augusto Pinochet's 1973–1990 U.S.-backed military dictatorship over the Chilean people. Zurita's electrifying poems recount a multitude of transformations and philosophical reorientations (“Today I moo with my head about to fall/ as the church bells' mournful clanging/ says that milk goes to market”) brought on by this terrifying chapter in Latin American history. A central section, “The Desert of Atacama,” offers an array of shifting perspectives on “the convergent and divergent landscapes” where the self, in a Whitmanesque turn, both disappears and contains multitudes: ”my form begins to touch your form and your form/ that other form like that until all of Chile is nothing but/ one form with open arms: a long form crowned with thorns.” Lucidly translated by Deeny (whose afterword insightfully contextualizes Zurita within the broader Latin American poetics), this bilingual edition of a politically and formally revolutionary text is an exciting literary event. (Nov.)

The speaker of Card's debut is a man at war with the shortness of his attention span: “How long is the comedy/ about me?” he asks. Yet Card is less interested in answering questions than in changing the subject. “There was a ship on fire last night,” begins the opening poem. “I am ashamed and a burden to my friends.” This can be frustrating, but when he allows us to follow the faint strands of logic in his language, as though following a thread through a hedge maze, Card's voice triumphs over its attention deficiency: “I need for you to wreck/ upon yourself// the salvage you recover/ from me.” Card falters when he abandons this thread altogether, as if to suggest his bombastic speaker and his language “alone were fraught with confidence” the poems themselves need not surpass. Nevertheless, Card's strange and embattled voice works upon the ear long after the book is shut, and the originality of this debut is such that we might not yet know how to understand the operations of such a well-built yet brittle verbal machine. (Nov.)

In his 10th book, renowned prose poet Gonzalez proclaims he is at “the crossroads in [his] throat” where he “looks both ways.” Gonzalez is as quirky as ever, matching the didactic tone and jargon of a scientist with the sensibilities of artists like Kenneth Rexroth, Hart Crane and Picasso, among others, who walk in and out of the poems. Juxtaposition of unlike images is Gonzalez's m.o., making for sometimes lucid, sometimes abrasive intersections. In one poem, for instance, we learn of “Jesus still waiting to unplug his phone charger.” Yet Gonzalez's eccentric mashups are often quite convincing and powerful: “the devil is but an imagined source of fire where the ones who believe are transformed into praying objects.” When Gonzalez falls flat, these pieces read like odd short stories, and at times similar sentence structure makes them predictable. Yet many readers may find themselves awed to see “All things pray in the silence madness brings.” (Nov.)

In his 18th book of poems, Berry (Given) rails against environmental destruction starting with the second poem: “While the land suffers, automobiles thrive.” He mixes philosophy, religion, politics, and personal experience in poems utilizing formal rhymes, spare jottings, and intimate letters. Most of the book is a long series inspired by Berry's regular Sunday morning walks. While Berry's various modes can make for interesting poetry, some of the poems here, particularly those that rely on a broad political brush, fall flat: “The nation in its error... //Destroys its land.” When hinging a poem on a “candle against the wind,” Berry should know he's on infertile ground. What still zings, though, are moments when this old man of letters surprises himself, as when Berry addresses his wife: “I love you as I loved you/ young, except that, old, I am astonished.” (Nov.)

This second book by Bitsui (Shapeshift) comprises a sequence of untitled fragmentary lyrics, which, taken together, form a long poem that is part stream-of-consciousness road movie of the Southwest and part visionary investigation of personal memory. In it, Bitsui attempts to extend and break with the traditions of Native American writing. Bitsui's is a world in which one's connection to the land is inevitably interrupted by centuries of merciless treatment and by the trappings of modern life. In one poem he laments, “You think you can return to that place/ where your mother held her sleeves above the rising tides/ saying, 'We are here again/ on the road covered with television snow; we are here again/ the song has thudded.' ” Throughout, Bitsui straddles borders between a long history and postmodern aesthetics: “the final chapter of this one-room story/ smells disfigured.” This is a powerful collection from a promising young poet. (Nov.)

In May's engaging fifth entry in his contemporary China series (Snakehead, etc.), American-born forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell is trying to take it easy, awaiting the birth of her first child. Her soon-to-be-husband, Section Chief Li Yan of the Beijing police, isn't so lucky—he's overwhelmed with dead bodies. Li reluctantly enlists Margaret's aid after five Chinese athletes turn up dead. Suspecting that a suicide and several “accidents” are murder, Li must discover the truth while preventing a major scandal as the country prepares for the Beijing Olympics. Worse still is the imminent arrival of Li's estranged father and Margaret's mother for the couple's nuptials. A fluid plot, rounded characters, and deft handling of two very different cultures make this a winner. Readers should note that the sixth installment, Chinese Whispers, was published in the U.S. in 2009. (Feb.)

Bestseller Camilleri's sublime and darkly humorous 11th whodunit featuring Chief Insp. Salvo Montalbano (after 2009's August Heat) finds the 56-year-old Sicilian policeman in the midst of a serious crisis with his significant other, Livia. Montalbano is uncertain what he can and should do to repair the rift that has developed between them. Meanwhile, the inspector must tackle a difficult case—the gunshot murder of an attractive young woman whose nude body was left in a dump. As Montalbano and his team first attempt to identify the victim based on a butterfly tattoo on her left shoulder, they learn of a possible link to an influential Catholic charity. Soon they start to feel political pressure to steer the inquiry in a different direction. Camilleri balances his hero's personal and professional challenges perfectly and leaves the reader eager for more. (Jan.)

Set in 1899, Jones's fine second Viennese mystery (after 2009's The Empty Mirror) opens with a falling fire curtain narrowly missing Gustav Mahler, the director of the Vienna Court Opera, but killing a soprano during a stage rehearsal. Lawyer and private inquirer Karl Werthen teams with criminologist Hanns Gross to look into this and subsequent “accidents” apparently aimed at Mahler. As the investigation descends into the “damned politics of music,” Mahler, a former Jew who must be careful to hide his contempt for fellow composer Richard Wagner, emerges as the nexus for an “ever-widening pool of suspects.” Complicating matters are big changes in Werthen's home life, in particular wife Berthe's pregnancy. Jones, the author of Hitler in Vienna, 1907–1913 and other nonfiction books about the city, smoothly blends a compelling period whodunit with bountiful cultural and social details. (Jan.)

Chief Insp. Mario Silva does battle with not only criminals but also incompetence and corruption within the Brazilian bureaucracy in Gage's darkly violent third mystery to feature the wry, competent Silva (after 2009's Buried Strangers). The case of a missing teenage girl normally wouldn't involve the Brazilian Federal Police, unless the girl, Marta Malan, is the granddaughter of Deputado Roberto Malan, a powerful politician. Marta's disappearance is tied to a kidnapping and to a vile but lucrative international trade in underage girls, prostitution, and the making and distribution of snuff films. The trail leads to Manaus—the worst city in Brazil for crooked cops, poverty, and crime. While Marta, resourceful and brave, tries to avoid her fate, Silva and his small team of top cops try to ferret out her whereabouts before it's too late. Ruthless when necessary and under no illusions about the broken system within which he works, Silva is the right man in the right place. (Jan.)

For all its fluffy powder and Green Mountain gemütlich, Vermont's Spruce Peak has a decidedly sinister side in Clinch's easy, breezy debut. Bostonian Stacey Curtis, a grad student turned ski bum, quickly discovers that when she finds a dead man with “the jagged oily chain from a chain saw yanked tight around his neck.” Though she has headed for the hills in hopes of lessening the drama in her life (think cheating fiancé), spunky Stacey's amateur sleuthing efforts send her schussing into fresh intrigue, danger, and just maybe romance with hunky ski patroller/trust funder Chip Walsh. Clinch, a Vermont resident who runs a popular Web site for women who ski (www.TheSkiDiva.com), clearly knows—and loves—the terrain, conjuring the kind of bewitching winter wonderland and endearing New England characters that will leave readers antsy for a return visit. (Jan.)

A sadistic criminal dubbed the Sandman, who wears a clown mask while robbing and assaulting his victims, also leaves sand in their eyes and carves a pound sign in their flesh in Carter's well-crafted sixth mystery set in Birmingham, England (after 2008's Bad Press). As the Sandman's crimes increase in frequency and intensity, Det. Sgt. Bev Morriss feels extra pressure to nab him, but she's still grieving over the loss of her unborn twins and recovering from a failed romance. The stakes rise after the Sandman stabs a well-known London solicitor to death. The suicide of one of the Sandman's earlier victims provides another push for feisty Bev to catch the creepy clown. A strong narrative voice and easy to understand slang make this more accessible to U.S. readers than a lot of contemporary British police novels. (Jan.)

The complicated relationship between Inspector Starrett and his on-again, off-again significant other, Maggie Keane, threatens to overwhelm the crime solving in Charles's second procedural to feature the Irish policeman (after 2007's The Dust of Death). Starrett and his team investigate the drowning death of farmer Joe Sweeney, whose corpse turned up in a waterfront warehouse courtyard with his hair dry and combed. Despite the victim's reputation as a decent man, the Donegal police find no shortage of suspects and motives, starting with members of the extended Sweeney family. Rival food distributors, whose prices were undercut by Joe, may also have wanted him dead. While this book doesn't live up to its predecessor, given the strength of Charles's Det. Insp. Christie Kennedy series (The Beautiful Sound of Silence, etc.) readers have every reason to expect a better effort next time. (Jan.)

Set in New York City in 1946, York's snappy second Lauren Atwill puzzler (after 2003's Starstruck Dead) will appeal to readers nostalgic for the golden age of radio. Lauren, a Hollywood screenwriter, and PI Peter Winslow, her gorgeous bodyguard and lover, flee California for New York, where they become involved in investigating the murder of Hazel Keane, the producer of Adam Drake, for Hire, a popular radio mystery series. Lauren goes undercover as a writer for the show under a pseudonym, while the victim's insurance company hires Peter. They soon uncover a host of suspects, including Hazel's estranged director husband, her lover, and her two brothers. Filled with fascinating details about old-time radio production, this crime caper is as much fun as a good game of Clue. (Jan.)

Completists rather than casual Sherlockians are more likely to enjoy this intriguing compilation of seven early 20th-century Russian pastiches, two by P. Orlovetz and five by P. Nikitin. An introduction by mystery historian George Piliev traces the history of Holmes's popularity in Russia, though he admits that virtually nothing is known about Orlovetz and Nikitin, who do a less convincing job transferring Holmes to a different country than, say, the authors represented in Michael Kurland's anthology, Sherlock Holmes: The American Years (Nov. 9). One of Nikitin's stories, “The Strangler,” is clearly derivative of Poe's first Dupin story, and another, “The Commercial Centre Mystery,” bears strong similarities to Doyle's “The Red-Headed League.” Explanatory afterwords would have been welcome in two tales that end with Holmes missing or presumed dead. (Jan.)

Charming, romantic, and verging on the wistfully sweet, Kurland's PG-rated paranormal serves as a strong start to a new series. Ruith has carefully cultivated a reputation as a terrifying wizard despite having personally renounced magic, but his fierceness isn't enough to stop Sarah of Doire, a witch's daughter who has no magic, from asking him to help fight her brother, Daniel, who has decided to destroy the Nine Kingdoms with dark magic that once belonged to Ruith's father. Pretense, reputation, and generational guilt provide powerful motivation to stop the diabolic Daniel, who has more intention than ability. Can Sarah and Ruith stop him without letting each other in on their closely guarded secrets? Kurland deftly mixes innocent romance with adventure in a tale that will leave readers eager for the next installment. (Jan.)

A short but superlative substantiation of the quality of speculative fiction being published on the Internet, this exceptional anthology of the best science fiction and fantasy put online in 2008 includes gems by genre luminaries as well as rising stars like Tina Connolly and Beth Bernobich. Peter S. Beagle's fairy tale–like “The Tale of Junko and Sayuri” explores the love of a huntsman for a beautiful shape-shifter in feudal Japan. “First Rites” by Nancy Kress is a poignant examination of a genetically modified boy's connection with a cosmic consciousness. Cory Doctorow's “The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away” follows a monk/computer geek as he leaves his cubicle after 16 years in seclusion. After reading this 14-story compilation, online publishing naysayers may rethink their position. (Jan.)

Brust's enjoyable 12th Vlad Taltos adventure (after 2008's Jhegaala) brings the former organized crime figure back to his hometown, where he must avoid the many assassins still on the lookout for him. As Vlad tries to help Aliera e'Kieron, an old friend recently fallen from high places, he uncovers an increasingly complex web of intrigue aimed at creating an illegal drug trade. To thwart the plot, Vlad must navigate among the Dragaeran Empress and her associates, his ex-wife, his former associate Krager, and other schemers. Named for the Dragaeran clan of lawyers and judges, this installment has less action and more inscrutable dialogue than previous novels, providing some new insight into the interactions of the 17 clans. Newcomers will be a bit lost, but Brust fans will find a lot to think about as well as hints of larger plots to come. (Jan.)

Two very different novellas combine themes of love and zombies. Vintage horror, high adventure, and soul-aching romance blend in Archer's compelling “The Undying Heart,” prequel to the upcoming Blades of the Rose trilogy. Cassandra Fielding, a young pistol-in-the-skirts hunter of magical artifacts, renews her childhood infatuation with Sam Reed, even though he's been turned into a cold, fierce, disillusioned, but still handsome zombie by his unscrupulous Crimean War commander. In D'Arc's more modern “Simon Says,” a prequel to Once Bitten, Twice Dead, special ops agent Simon Blackwell chases contagious zombie Marines in the woods by night and dallies with military nurse Mariana Daniels by day, but both pursuits come off as lukewarm and somewhat routine. Readers who love Archer's powerful, polished tale may be disappointed to find that D'Arc's doesn't measure up. (Jan.)

Priced to sell, Norilana founder Nazarian's first anthology presents 11 intriguingly off-kilter fantasy stories where the unexpected doesn't so much jump out in the reader's path as subtly peek around corners. Tanith Lee's “The Sky Won't Listen” weaves a future on another world where the skies are filled with whales, ghosts, and loss. John Grant details an unusual way to kill a city in “Breaking Laws.” JoSelle Vanderhooft's “Death's Appointment Book, or The Dance of Death” is a tongue-in-cheek warning that Death can't be cheated, but doesn't mind if you try. Rhysling winner Sonya Taaffe proves with “Stone Song” that even her prose is poetic. Mike Allen's “She Who Runs” gives flesh to spells moving faster than time. A few ambiguous endings will put off some readers, but they don't diminish the overall high quality of the stories. (Jan.)

The lighthearted first Hope Street Church mystery introduces 32-year-old Cooper Lee as she grapples with the end of a five-year romance. Despite the best efforts of her loving sister and grandmother, the Richmond, Va., office machine technician can't muster the enthusiasm to move on. When a client, Brooke Hughes, invites Cooper to attend a service at her church, Cooper decides it's a good opportunity to mingle with a new crowd. On her first visit to the imposing church, Cooper is welcomed into the Sunday morning Sunrise Bible Study group and learns that Brooke has been murdered and the police are holding her husband as the prime suspect. The Sunrise members believe him innocent and sweep up Cooper in pursuit of the real killer. Stanley's faith-based crime detection has plenty of charming appeal. (Jan.)

Overcoming a slow start, de Pierres (Nylon Angel) presents an engaging space opera with plenty of action. Sheltered baronessa Mira Fedor, a minor noble of the mining planet Araldis, expects to become the first female pilot of the royal fleet's AI command ship. She instead finds herself on the run from the Principe, who wants to tear away her piloting skills and give them to his son, Trinder Pellegrini. When playboy Trin enrages his father and is banished to a meaningless desk job, he uncovers machinations related to the family's mines that may be connected with a burgeoning alien invasion. Playing with the time line, de Pierres creates an absorbing story as the consequences and actions resolve to show her grand design. Twists and hints will keep readers eagerly awaiting the next volumes. (Jan.)

Dynamic characters in an intriguing world kick off a new paranormal romance series from bestseller Frank (the Shadowdwellers series). Bounty hunter Asia Callahan suspects magnetic Julian Sawyer is a serial killer and knows he's responsible for her sister's disappearance. Julian is a telepathic Gatherer determined to keep Asia from jeopardizing his mission: recruiting Earth women whose energy can save his society. Asia finds herself marooned on a different plane of existence, facing unimagined dangers from Julian's enemies and her own in an environment that can kill without warning. Unflinching, kick-ass characters bent on dominating each other, Asia and Julian are in constant combat, though Julian claims they're destined to be mates. The stakes in their explosive conflict threaten disaster for them and both their worlds. Frank's world-building is exceptional, and the fast-paced plot never lets up. (Jan.)

After appearing in movies, TV, and porn parody, sci-fi icon Flash Gordon returns to the comics in this jazzy miniseries. A retooled origin story sends Flash, his girlfriend Dale Arden, and eccentric Dr. Zarkov off to the planet Mongo, where they are separated and thrown into the eponymous war between various squabbling races—hawkmen with big wings, lionmen with shaggy manes and big fangs, etc.—and tyrannical emperor Ming the Merciless, whose idea of “mercy” is to let everyone else serve him or die. Besides being impressively athletic, Flash is bright enough to realize that Ming's enemies would have a better chance of winning if they'd stop fighting each other. That's difficult to achieve; when, for example, hotheaded Prince Barin of Arboria catches his fiancée Princess Aura (who's also Ming's rebellious daughter) kissing Flash, a swordfight immediately ensues. In short, there are enough ethnic conflicts and personality quirks to keep the action bubbling. Deneen's script keeps the plot surprisingly clear, and Green's art combines mangaesque design and dramatic coloring. It's good, old-fashioned fun, freshly polished. (Feb.)

A taut thriller that slyly plays off the real-world mania for imaginary ones like that of Harry Potter, Carey's new series undercuts the mythology of such all-pervasive media-hyped creations while at the same time hinting at a brilliantly imagined one of its own. Tom Taylor is the son of Wilson Taylor and the unwilling namesake of the protagonist in his dad's wildly popular 13-book fantasy series. The Tommy Taylor cottage industry of movies, video games, and geek-ridden conventions is given an extra dash of drama by Wilson's having mysteriously disappeared years before, leaving a cynical Tom (who inherited none of his millions) to eke out a grubby living at paid appearances. Carey's story (solidly illustrated by Gross) picks up speed fast when Tom realizes some elements of Wilson's stories might not be made up. By the time the first story is done, Carey has not only created a brisk and addictive story, sketched with crafty allusions to classic literature, but also neatly subverted the celebrity-worship manias of fantasy fandom and questioned the very nature of storytelling itself. (Jan.)

Kleist taps into the mythic quality of the Man in Black's rise from impoverished farming in Depression-era Arkansas to his early success in the 1950s, pulling no punches depicting Cash's drug dependency and the gradual erosion of his first marriage thanks to constant touring and run-ins with the law. He takes readers through Cash's evolution as an artist whose work and social consciousness reflected the changing and volatile times in his troubled country. There are few figures in the history of 20th-century American music whose impact and appeal bore the resonance of Cash's, and this stark and stunning graphic novel—winner of several awards in Europe—is a marvel of visual storytelling that does great honor to both his distinctively American epic of triumph and tragedy and to the universality of the songs he sang. A solid winner from cover to cover, this effort is highly recommended for just about anyone intrigued by an American icon. (Nov.)