Fiction

In her 67th novel (following May's The House) bestselling author Steel (more than 530 million copies sold) fashions a plot around a single event: an invitation to a debutante ball in New York City. Attorney Olympia Crawford Rubinstein manages to juggle a challenging full-time job; a loving relationship with her second husband, Harry (an appeals court judge who is her former law professor); the care of their five-year-old son, Max, and her three older children from a previous marriage. Olympia's first husband, Chauncey, is a stereotypical, upper-class snob, with no job but a passion for playing polo. Harry, son of Holocaust survivors, champions liberal causes. When Olympia's teenage twin daughters, Veronica and Virginia, are invited to an exclusive "coming out" ball, everyone's lives are thrown into turmoil. Most of the book revolves around the arguments and disagreements spurred by the invitation, and Steel appears overly didactic as she tries to pump life into the simplistic setup: Olympia's Jewish mother-in-law, Afro-American law partner and gay older son are trotted out like polo ponies at auction. Steel's métier is glamour and romance; her attempt to deal with social injustice falls flat. (July)

A somber, slow-going drama in stories by award-winning author Mason (An Atomic Romance) follows a Kentucky farm family's quiet changes over the decades. When the first story begins in 1980, Nancy, the elder daughter of the Culpepper family, is in her late 30s, has an eight-year-old son with husband Jack Cleveland (a Yankee) and lives outside Philadelphia. Returning to the family farm to help her parents, Lila and Spence, move Granny into a nursing home, Nancy concerns herself with old photographs buried in Granny's house that feature Nancy's namesake, a long-lost aunt whom no one seems to know anything about. Subsequent stories deal with Granny's death, the decline and death of Jack's dog, the building tension between Nancy and Jack—both yearning for the spontaneity of their swinging '60s courtship—and the fate of the Culpepper farm. In the longest story, Lila is diagnosed with breast cancer, undergoes surgery and is lovingly nursed by Spence, Nancy and her sister, Cat. Though detailed and honest in its depiction of illness and loss and skillful in handling Nancy's lingering discomfort with the North, Mason's novel-in-stories lacks her usual sparkle. (July)

Scandal catches up to the Cuban émigré community in America circa 1967 in this fresh, relevant first novel by TV writer Santiago. The story switches point of view among three women who grew up in Palamagria, Cuba, and now ride to work together every day at a Union City, N.J., toy factory. Single mother Graciela is a kind, insecure romantic hoping more than anything for the same true love that redeems the beleaguered women on the nightly telenovelas. Caridad, a vain gossip, and Imperio, bossy and sharp-tongued, share a lifelong indignation ("Imagínate!") over Graciela's nerve: in Cuba, marrying above her station and cheating on her desirable husband and in America learning English and catching the eye of the factory foreman, Mr. O'Reilly. So it's with barely contained envy—and a comical penchant for over-justifying their bitterness—that the two try to interfere in Graciela's attempts to better herself in America. Though the two antagonists can grate—their vitriol against Graciela is constant—the detailed immigrant community is vital and entertaining. (July)

Death, birth and the complications of both are the threads running through Bakken's debut story collection. In "The Effects of Light," Jack and his soon-to-be–ex-wife travel to Greece seeking closure after his sister Kate's suicide. Jack, all his life the "brother-knight charged with [Kate's] safekeeping," must learn how to carry on when the burden of caring for her has been lifted. In "Eggs," Annie and Noah, anxious to start a family, suffer through months of "unreproductive sex" and fertility treatments while Annie's friend gets and remains pregnant just long enough to abort. The title story centers on the impending birth of Mike and Gwen's daughter; Mike feels neglected as Gwen shares a bond with their unborn child that he can't share. His alienation is further compounded when he decides to help a troubled teenager in his English class who pours out her self-destructive longings in a class journal. Mike finds himself unsure of how to contend with the implications of his good intentions and wonders how he will cope with parenting. Bakken's quiet exploration of life's bookends makes for an auspicious first outing. (July)

Williams (On the Right Side of a Dream) delights in this chronicle of the evolving friendships among four African-American women from fifth grade through their 30th high school reunion. In a black Ohio community in the early '60s, bookish Vaughn Jones is rescued from an elementary school bully by pretty, popular Reenie Keller, who introduces her to angel-voiced Su Penn. Joined in junior high by seemingly flawless Audrey Taylor, the girls nurse one another though a litany of typical coming-of-age events: the death of relatives, troubled parents, boyfriend stealing, teen pregnancy and eating disorders. Later years find the four professionally successful, but still fraught with man trouble and family issues. Narrated in turn by each of the four characters and buoyed by vivid dialogue, the roster of obstacles rings true. While her first three narrators—Vaughn, Reenie and Su—sound similar, Audrey's neurotic voice shines: raised by a military father who demands perfection, Audrey is critical, driven and surprisingly funny. Despite a few anachronistic details (Starbucks in 1970s Ohio?) and a glossing-over of race issues, Williams's sustained portrayal of female friendship, with its loyalties and betrayals, is extremely entertaining. (July 25)

Debut novelist Young climbs aboard the Templar bandwagon, but sets the bar high in this initial installment of a trilogy on the Knights and the last crusade. Christendom's desperate attempts to maintain a foothold in the Holy Land against a furious Muslim jihad is embodied by Sir William Campbell, a young, idealistic Knight Templar, and the devout Baybars Bundukdari, the sultan of Egypt, determined to rid the region of Western influence. Young shifts between the rival camps; there is plenty of battlefield action, and a romantic interest for William in Elwen, the beautiful young niece of his fallen mentor. There's also a mystery for William to solve: the disappearance of the Book of the Grail, which contains the explosive (and heretical) agenda of a secret group of Brethren within the Knights Templar. Combining rich historical detail, clever plotting and engaging characters, Young has crafted a historical thriller that will have readers turning pages and envisioning the sequel. (July)

When caterer Kate Bickford's 11-year-old son, Tomas, vanishes after his Little League game in Fairfax, Conn., she races home, hoping to find him. Instead, she discovers a mother's worst nightmare: Tomas's kidnapper, Capt. Steve Cutter (former Special Ops). Cutter is not only an abductor but also a ruthless liar, who frames the wealthy young widow for the murder of her son's baseball coach, Sheriff Fred Corso, whose body has been dumped in Kate's basement freezer. After delivering the ransom that Cutter demands, Kate soon discovers the kidnapper has no intention of returning Tomas, and she is the prime suspect in Corso's murder. To make matters worse, the authorities seem totally indifferent to finding her missing child, the one false note in this otherwise riveting suspense tale from Jordan, pen name for Rodman Philbrick (Freak the Mighty). Kate hires Maria Savalo, a sharp attorney, and Randall Shane, an eccentric expert in child abduction cases, and even snags assistance from two of her loyal employees to find Tomas. Jordan's full-throttle style makes this an emotionally rewarding thriller that moves like lightning. (July)

The Horse Whisperer and National Velvet meet Jackie Collins behind the barn in this libidinous fly-on-the-stall peek at horse racing and California real estate chicanery, just in time for beach read season. Irresistible Bobby Cameron, 23, and already one of the most skilled horse breakers and trainers in the world, inherits Highwood, his father's 3,000-acre California ranch, but not the money to keep it out of foreclosure. He takes a job training two horses on a highly regarded racing stud farm in Newmarket, England, where he falls for the farm owner's 17-year-old daughter, Milly Lockwood Groves. Milly is a frustrated rider forced by her family to give up her career after a neck injury, and she's living in the shadow of her neighbor and rival, Rachel Delaney, a sexy and successful pro rider. Milly's dad has a minor stroke and finally agrees to let her return to riding and to train with Bobby at Highwood. While Milly grows closer to her dream of professional riding—and outshining Rachel—naïve Bobby takes on a sleazy partner with big bucks and an ulterior motive. This follow-up to Bagshawe's surprise bestseller, Adored, should satisfy this year's crop of vacationers. (June)

Ali's 2003 debut, Brick Lane, was a brilliant family saga told largely from within a Bangladeshi woman's apartment on London's ramshackle East End. Ali, who was born in Dhaka and grew up in London, sets her sophomore effort in a similarly struggling community, the rural Alentejo region of Portugal, where cork prices are falling, the region is still healing after the brutal Salazar regime and the locals don't quite care to cater to tourists. But where Brick Lane was quietly symphonic, this blues-like novel is more of a dirge: João, in old age, comes upon his old friend (and sometime lover), Rui, hanging from a tree, his Communist dreams dashed; the English Potts family scrapes by as indolents-in-exile; the writer Stanton, also British, works away on a second-rate literary biography; tavern-keeper Vasco sadly and silently reminisces about his marriage to an American, Lili; and young Teresa is preparing to leave the village for an uncertain future "outside." The simultaneous sense of stasis and great change is Ali's forte, and her characters' perceptions are sharp. But when anyone other than the Brits speak, it's as if Ali is trying to ventriloquize an incompletely acquired dialect. The characters' lives generate little tension, much like the pinball machine in Vasco's cafe that Stanton plays badly. (June 20)

Bestseller King (The Game) meshes her two best-known series—contemporary police procedurals set in San Francisco featuring Kate Martinelli of the SFPD and the period stories of Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes—to create an intelligent, satisfying novel of suspense. Martinelli is investigating the death of Philip Gilbert, an obsessively avid Holmes collector (he's even transformed his San Francisco house into a replica of 221B Baker Street), when she discovers what could be the motive: a previously unpublished story from Arthur Conan Doyle, told from Holmes's point of view, a find that could be worth millions. The present-day narrative is interspersed with the purported Conan Doyle story, which resonates with the account of Martinelli's own domestic life. A fine, perceptive storyteller, King is particularly adroit at capturing the milieus in which her characters reside. Fans of both series will be well rewarded. (June)

Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus, homicide detectives on the Mobile, Ala., police force, hit the ground running in Kerley's appealing third suspense novel (after The Hundredth Man and The Death Collectors). In a race against other cops, the pair take up the case of a young journalist, Taneesha Franklin, who's been slashed to death. The victim was close to Carson's girlfriend, TV reporter Dani Danbury, who was mentoring her. Almost every trail leads in some fashion to the Kincannons—a family with great wealth, skeletons in the closet and a matriarch with tenuous control over her fractious, unstable sons. Ryder and Nautilus make an effective team—until one of them is taken out of action and each has to fight for survival on his own. Kerley has a nice feel for the Gulf area, and his detectives are a couple of aces sharing competence, bravery and camaraderie. (June)

British novelist Gardam has twice won the Whitbread and was shortlisted for the Man Booker. This, her 15th novel, was shortlisted in Britain for the Orange Prize; it outlines 20th-century British history through the life of Sir Edward Feathers, a barrister whose acronymic nickname provides the title: "Failed in London, Try Hong Kong." At nearly 80, Feathers, retired in Dorset after many years as a respected Hong Kong judge, is a hollow man with few real friends and a cold, sexless marriage that has just ended with the death of his wife, Betty. For the first time, "Filth" (as even Betty called him) delves into the past that produced him: a "Raj orphan" raised by a series of surrogates while his father worked in Singapore, Filth served briefly in WWII (guarding the Queen) and had a lackluster stint as a London barrister before emigrating. The flashbacks contrast British privilege and the chaos that ensues when the empire (especially Filth's childhood Malaya), starts to crumble. As Filth undertakes chaotic visits to his Welsh foster home and other sites, Gardam's sharp, acerbic style counterpoints Feathers's dryness. Well-rounded secondary figures further highlight his emptiness and that of empire. (June)

Arana, author of American Chica and editor of Washington Post Book World, revisits her native Peru with a tale as bawdy, raucous and dense as the jungle whose presence encroaches on every page. Arana's first novel depicts a family—and a country—on the fulcrum between the old ways and the new, between feudalism and revolution. At the height of the Great Depression, paper engineer Don Victor Sobrevilla pitches his small empire where the trees are—in the heart of the rain forest—constructing a highly successful paper factory and a vast hacienda, Floralinda, far from the political centers of Trujillo and Lima, linked only to the outside world by the dangerous and unpredictable Amazon. When, in 1952, Don Victor discovers the formula for cellophane, his household is afflicted with a "plague of truth," a compulsion to confess their most shameful histories and most hidden yearnings, to make their stories as transparent as the paper itself. When desires are laid bare, so are the conflicts that the family has kept hidden for so long, resulting in interlocking quests for power. The novel's broadly comic first half makes the story's violent culmination even more harrowing. (June 27)

Moriarty (Three Wishes) presents a stunner several shades darker than typical chick lit, about a family and the outsider who inherits a house on Scribbly Gum, their (fictional) Australian island and a popular tourist destination. Sophie Honeywell hasn't heard from ex-boyfriend Thomas Gordon since she broke his heart three years ago. He's since married and fathered a child, while Sophie remains single, pining for a baby. When Thomas's Aunt Connie leaves her house on Scribbly Gum Island to Sophie, the family is largely nonplussed—but then, they're used to mysteries. The famous 1932 discovery of baby Enigma by Connie and her sister, Rose Doughty, led to the successful "Munro Baby Mystery" tour that kept the sisters afloat for years. Among the large, eccentric family, Sophie starts a new life, befriending Thomas's cousin Grace, who is suffering through postpartum depression; finding a dangerous mutual attraction with Grace's husband, Callum; and dealing with bitter, intense Veronika, Thomas's sister, who covets Connie's house. Moriarty expertly handles a large cast and their relationships, keeping everyone guessing as the true story of baby Enigma—and its role in Sophie's strange inheritance—is slowly revealed. Moriarty's prose turns from funny through poignant to frightening in an artful snap. (June)

Det. Insp. Alan Banks investigates the apparently motiveless murder of Nicholas Barber, a rock journalist from London visiting a small town near Banks's Yorkshire police precinct, in Robinson's less-than-stellar 14th novel to feature the Yorkshire police detective. Meanwhile, another mystery unfolds in a parallel narrative, the fatal stabbing of a young woman at a local rock festival back in 1969. Needless to say, the cases are intertwined—as Banks puts it, "the past is never over"—and part of the pleasure is trying to piece together the links. Unfortunately, Robinson takes too long to connect the two stories, and the earlier thread suffers from the lack of Banks's engaging presence (though it does capture, with great fidelity, that odd mixture of self-absorption and idealism of the late 1960s and the whole hippie/rock music scene). As always, the author's prose is clear, observant and intelligent, but the story itself is not nearly as compelling as 2005's Strange Affair. 6-city author tour. (June)

The bestselling author of Something Borrowed and Something Blue now tells the story of what happens after the "I do"s. As a successful editor at a Manhattan publishing house, Claudia Parr counts herself fortunate to meet and marry Ben, a man who claims to be a nonbreeding career-firster like she is. The couple's early married years go smoothly, but then Ben's biological clock starts to tick. A baby's a deal breaker for Claudia, so she moves out and bunks with her college roommate Jess (a 35-year-old blonde goddess stuck in a series of dead-end relationships) while the wheels of divorce crank into action. Even after the divorce is finalized and Claudia embarks on a steamy love affair with her colleague Richard, she begins to doubt her decision when she suspects Ben has found a smart, young and beautiful woman willing to bear his children. Standard fare as far as chick lit goes, but there are strong subplots involving Claudia's sisters (one is coping with infertility, the other with a cheating spouse) and the childless-by-choice plot line produces above-average tension. 300,000 announced first printing. (June 13)

Kaufman, a former L.A. Times staff writer, and Mack, a former attorney and Golden Globe Award– winning film and TV producer, check in with this solid, thoughtful chick lit debut. Dora, at 35, is a twice-divorced former young reporter on the rise at the L.A. Times. Second ex-husband Palmer is now head of Sony Pictures, and still supporting her. Dora's depressed, and she only leaves the house to stalk Palmer and buy more books. At the bookstore, she meets elegantly scraggly comp lit Ph.D. Fred, and they begin an unlikely courtship. Dora is soon surprised by Fred's invitation to meet his mother, Bea, whom Dora likes instantly, all the more so when she learns Bea is also raising Harper, the six-year-old daughter of Fred's troubled sister. The bond between Bea and Dora gives Dora something she never had with her own, alcoholic mother, and helps her make decisions that bring her life back into focus. Dora is the kind of deadpan and imperfect heroine with whom readers can easily identify. Kaufman and Mack mishandle the abrupt ending and epilogue, but are most likely setting up a welcome sequel. (June 6)

Can Xue (Dialogues in Paradise) is a Chinese writer in her 50s whose pen name means "dirty snow that refuses to melt." In this enigmatic collection, she writes in the artless prose of fairy tales and employs a curious dreamlike logic in her narratives. Characters witness grotesque illnesses, dodge natural catastrophes and endlessly wander through dark labyrinths of misunderstanding. In "Snake Island," a man revisits his hometown, looking for his uncle, only to discover that his uncle is dead, his own grave has been prepared and some villagers believe he is a ghost. It's seems clear that much of Can Xue's cruel, absurdist vision—where children, like the protagonist of the title story, are betrayed by their own parents and other family members—draws on her childhood during the Cultural Revolution. The narrator of "A Negligible Game on the Journey," says of fishing nets, "Only a random string is needed—the less related, the better," and it's a deft description of Can Xue's eccentric storytelling. (June)

The Sleeping Angel Killer provides the chilling focus to Spindler's 12th bloodcurdling romantic thriller (after Killer Takes All). Kitt Lundgren and Mary Catherine "M.C." Riggio of the Rockford, Ill., VCB (Violent Crimes Bureau) vow to catch a serial killer who sets the suffocated bodies of 10-year-old girls in their own beds, dressed like angels in frilly white nightgowns, hair spread out on their pillows and pink lip gloss applied postmortem to their mouths. Spindler's setting of a "meat-and-potatoes" Midwest town provides a fresh background for two believable and very cool investigators. Kitt, a recovering middle-aged alcoholic, tried and failed to catch the murderer five years earlier, during a 2001 killing spree, while her own child was dying of leukemia and her marriage was falling apart under the strain. Now, when eerily similar crimes recur, someone calls Kitt, identifying himself as the original killer and the new perp as just a copycat. M.C., an ambitious, distrustful newbie, is assigned to help Kitt with the investigation. The detectives must overcome their personal problems in order to catch the monsters, a task culminating in a breathless finale. (June)

Bestsellers Preston and Child have come up with another gripping, action-packed page-turner in this concluding volume to a trilogy pitting their Holmesian hero, FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast, against his Mycroft-turned-Moriarty—his younger brother, Diogenes. Picking up shortly after the events of 2005's Dance of Death, the book opens with the arrival of a package of fine dust at the Museum of Natural History; Diogenes has returned the diamonds he stole earlier. Meanwhile, Aloysius is in prison, having been framed for a number of murders. As his friends plot to spring him, his adversary lays the groundwork for a crowning criminal achievement. A mysterious benefactor funds the restoration of an ancient Egyptian tomb at the museum, but the work is beset by the mayhem Preston and Child's readers have come to expect—gory murders and suggestions of the supernatural. This entry, tying up many loose ends from its predecessors, is less likely to work as well for first-time readers, but followers of Aloysius Pendergast's previous exploits will find it a satisfying read with a tantalizing, ominous twist at the end. 10-city author tour. (June)

Told in the style of the classical Japanese women's diaries from the Heian era (794–1185 C.E.) Jedamus's first book is a melodramatic court romance. The banishment of Kanesuke no Tachibana for his crime of seducing the emperor's daughter sets off a bitter feud between the brooding narrator—who is 29, unnamed and a provincial governor's daughter—and her friend-turned-rival Izumi no Jiju. They both love Kanesuke, and they are both ladies-in-waiting to Empress Akiko (real-life mistress to Tale of Genji author Murasaki Shikibu), and they engage in a battle to ruin each other's reputations through spying and gossip. When a ripe intrigue of the narrator's backfires with the empress, and, separately, the emperor's son and heir dies of smallpox, the narrator's moral corruption is blamed, forcing her to commit an act of sacrifice that is also her redemption. Jedamus, whose background is in art history, skillfully evokes the elegant aesthetic and elaborate pageantry of the Heian period, particularly in the book's fascinating glossary. But her writing is as florid as her plot is overwrought. (June)

In the tradition of Lake Wobegon, Toews (A Complicated Kindness) gives us Algren, Manitoba, a town noteworthy because, with 1,500 colorful residents (give or take), it ranks as Canada's smallest town. For the town's painfully shy mayor, Hosea Funk, Algren's small population spurs both pride and constant anxiety. He tallies births, deaths and all other arrivals and departures to make sure the population hews to the magic number 1,500—less than that, and the town diminishes to a mere village, but more than that and Algren might outgrow its title. Funk's obsession isn't motivated just by bragging rights, but also by a family secret: on her deathbed, Funk's mother told him that the prime minister of Canada is his long-lost father, and that same prime minister has pledged to visit the smallest Canadian town. When single mother Knute McCloud and her kinetic young daughter return to Algren and Funk's own long-distance romance threatens to catch up with him, Funk's compulsive people-counting tests his already awkward human relationships. First published in Canada in 1998, this is a sweet, funny novel full of memorable, picaresque characters and unexpected drama. (June)

Sexual politics—both public and private—play out against the cityscape of mid-1990s Manhattan in Hoffman's absorbing year-in-the-life of a group of gay men. Amid a citywide crackdown on public sex venues, the editors of two gay newspapers take opposing sides. One editor, Moe Pearlman—the 26-year-old grad-school dropout at the heart of the novel—is a founding member of the Alliance to Save Sex (get it?) who participates in civil disobedience more Candace Bushnell than Thoreau: with promiscuous oral sex, he "tak[es] a stand on his knees." The other editor, Frank DeSoto, remembers the AIDS epidemic of the '80s—when he lost his lover— and sees the crackdown as a matter of public health. Humanizing the story are the characters occupying the space between: aspiring photographer Kevin, who makes ends meet turning an occasional trick, endangering both himself and his lover, Aaron; and Gene, who must learn to give up his only fetish—control—when he's diagnosed with HIV. Though shallow characters initially stunt the narrative, the larger issues of sexual rights and AIDS add depth to their voices, making this sexually explicit debut novel an intriguing exploration of politics and psyche. (June)

In a surprising take on the tale of Noah's ark and the flood, Maheu's beguiling debut unfolds from the perspective of a crow. The crow-narrator (named "I Am") first spies Noah (the beastman) from his nest in a tree (the Giant) that Noah is trying to chop down. From the start, I Am does not trust or understand the Man who lives in the "underworld." As I Am grows up, orphaned by his parents, his survival is a daily challenge: he flies to elude predators and rummage for food, often with another bird called Plum Black, sometimes consulting with elder Old Bone. I Am soon discovers that he can recognize the words of the God Crow, who speaks to Noah with zeal and commands him to continue building the ark. Suddenly, I Am realizes that he can also understand human speech, and eventually, just before the floods, he sneaks onto Noah's ark. The names sometimes confuse, but Maheu's fable works beautifully, probing the relationship between creatures of the heavens and those of the underworld. (June)

The most authentic pieces in Nadelson's collection of eight careful stories about suburban New Jersey Jews (after Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories) turn on the inescapable mix of love and destruction in father-son or father-daughter relationships. In "Model Rockets," Nadelson's most affecting story, three well-drawn generations are locked in an uncomfortable familial embrace: Benny tries to protect, control and punish his misfit 16-year-old son, Steven, while his father-in-law—and employer—undermines his authority. But Nadelson overloads the title story, about a 16-year-old girl hemmed in by her widowed father's grief and her boyfriend's clichéd, self-serving romantic fantasies until she arrives at a feminist epiphany that feels unearned. Elsewhere, Nadelson diagrams ugly undercurrents to family dynamics or depicts lonely people yearning to connect while their relationships stall on resentment and self-doubt, as in "Half a Day in Halifax," about a doomed affair between two homely singles on a Carnival cruise. Nadelson bears unflinching witness to his characters' darkness—murderous sibling rivalry, self-loathing, selfishness—but he telegraphs too much. (June)

Levy is an avid gearhead who writes auto racing history thinly disguised as fiction. This is the fourth novel in his the Last Open Road series, following The Fabulous Trashwagon and continuing his lengthy saga of motor car racing in the late 1950s in the U.S. and Europe. It's a treasure trove of auto racing lore, covering stock cars, oval tracks and Grand Prix races; famous cars and drivers; spectacular crashes; and the heady and expensive business of auto racing. All of this racing history is very loosely wrapped in a narrative skein that links one racing anecdote to another. The story is told by Buddy Palumbo, a race fan and New Jersey salesman who follows auto racing vicariously through his race car driver friend, Cal Carrington, and Cal's co-driver, Toly Wolfgang, a ruthless competitor and a playboy celebrity. Once past the mind-numbing mechanic's jargon about gearboxes, overhead cams and carburetors, Levy tells a funny tale of the pair's Trashwagon exploits. (June)

Mexican dentist-turned-author Valdés makes his English-language debut with six unremarkable forays into horror, erotic thriller and ghost tale. Vices are the true agents here, forcing themselves to the surfaces of the roughly drawn characters they inhabit. In the title story, a couple on a working weekend in the mountains discover a macabre cache of goods in their rented house; their greed sours the relationship. Lust drives the corruption of the Lotzano family in "Neighbors," and in "Flidia," a woman falls in love with her kidnapper because he pleases her as no man has done before. Delight in pure violence drives "Beat Me to Death," as protagonist Mateo illustrates the length to which one might go to feel alive. Valdés is interested in the changeability of the human psyche, but it is difficult to suspend belief as individuals shift from good (respectful, abstaining) to bad (raucous, addled) from one page to the next, and men repeatedly go weak-kneed before firm-breasted beauties. Forced ironic endings further undermine the proceedings. (June)

Already queenly at 15, Eleanor is heiress to Aquitaine and Poitou in her own right and therefore outright prey to any vassal or lord able to get to her first upon her father's untimely death. Never less than lightning-minded, the fair duchess decides that the only lord and master she'll have is the next king of France. Louis VII, however, is a disappointing husband, and during the ill-conceived and poorly prosecuted Second Crusade (1147–1149), she learns just how disappointing he is. Henry Plantagenet, meanwhile, a mere child when she marries Louis, sees in her a beautiful lady, straight and sharp as a sword. Having decided to divorce Louis, Eleanor looks to Henry's father, Geoffrey of Anjou, as her next husband, until she meets Henry. Vivid descriptions of life in the Holy Land and of the Byzantine Court match vivid characterizations; Eleanor emerges as a formidable woman bent on marrying for herself and her political aspirations. (June)

This novel of trenchant social realism from Le Sueur (1900–1996) packs fresh punch in this revised edition. A young woman off the farm—and known only as Girl—finds work at a speakeasy called the German Village in late 1930s downtown St. Paul, Minn. The hard-luck stories of the wretched women who congregate there form the spine of this proletarian work and offer Girl a glimmer of solace: faded beauty Belle owns the place with her husband, Hoinck, and endures his abuse out of a twisted idea of love; young prostitute Clara turns tricks on the street for a dollar until seized by sickness and insanity; and age-toughened Amelia works for the Workers Alliance (as Le Sueur did herself), distributing flyers and hoping for change. Girl watches her experienced roommate, Clara, for how to manage the brazen men in the joint, such as the sleek, dreamy, chronically unemployed Butch, and the bar's gangster protector, Ganz, who's got his predaceous eye on Girl. In her confusion of love and need, she loses her virginity to Butch, gets pregnant, and hoping to please him, signs on as the driver for their ill-starred bank robbery. Le Sueur's feminist novel, written in the '30s and first published in 1978, still strikes viscerally. (June)

Hugo Award–nominee Barnes embellishes his 20th novel with folklore, spiritualism and impressive atmospheric detail. In prehistory, the Ibandi people thrive beneath the immense shadows of Great Sky Mountain—Mount Kilimanjaro. Two youths, Frog Hopping, a boy from the Inner Boma clan, and T'Cori, a girl from the Dream Dancer group, without much parental care miraculously blossom; T'Cori is reared by mystical visionary Stillshadow, while Frog is educated by his Uncle Snake, harnessing his sexuality, hunting ability and emerging powers of premonition. Minor intra-tribe squabbling becomes the least of their worries as the vicious Mt*tk invade their territory, assaulting and enslaving T'Cori and her sister Dream Dancers. As the hostility mounts into warfare, it's up to Frog and T'Cori to scale the vast and treacherous heights of Great Sky to appeal to the ominous, omnipotent Father Mountain to save their line from obliteration. While Barnes's narrative stalls and sputters in spots, it's daringly epic in scope and written with an undeniably rich appreciation for historical legend and human ties. (On sale June 27)

How do starlets walk into the delivery room pregnant and walk out in size 0 jeans without a shred of evidence that the adorable bundles in their arms actually ever resided inside their perfectly toned abdomens? Banking on the average woman's disbelief, Margolis (Original Cyn) offers this mystery-cum-romance, putting narrator Ruby Silverman in a perfect position to blow a starlet's cover. Ruby partially owns Les Sprogs, a chi-chi celeb-frequented baby store in London's Notting Hill—where she just happens to keep running into a cute American doctor who works at St. Luke's, the "Bentley of birth centers," where stars deliver babies with shamans at their bedsides. When Ruby just happens to glance into the dressing room at her store and spots a too-flat tummy on one of her supposedly pregnant celebrity customers, her antennae go up and the investigation begins. The absurd, good-humored mystery and a colorful array of secondary characters sets this bit of chick lit a notch higher than your usual girl-meets-doctor. (June)

Koontz (Forever Odd) is likely to have himself another bestseller in this pulse-pounding thriller with echoes of Hitchcock and Cornell Woolrich. One morning, Southern California gardener Mitchell Rafferty gets a call on his cellphone from a stranger saying that Mitch's beloved wife, Holly, has been kidnapped and that he has less than three days to come up with $2 million in cash. Of course, he's warned not to involve the police. While Mitch is still on the phone, the kidnapper proves his seriousness by directing Mitch's attention to a man walking a dog across the street. A moment later the man is shot dead. Mitch must walk a fine line—cooperating with the police inquiry into this murder without revealing Holly's plight. Koontz ratchets up the tension in a manner sure to captivate most readers, though some may find the ending anticlimactic. (May 30)

MWA Grand Master Muller's richly layered 24th mystery to feature San Francisco PI Sharon McCone (after 2004's The Dangerous Hour) reminds us how much McCone has grown since she started as the lone investigator at a poverty law center in her first outing, Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977). McCone now heads a well-respected agency with a talented staff and a strong track record. She maintains solid friendships with former colleagues, works hard to keep up with her large and complicated family, and recently surprised herself by agreeing to marry her longtime sweetheart, corporate security whiz Hy Ripinsky. Muller nicely plays the joy of McCone's new marriage against two others at the center of the present case, slowly revealing their rotten core. The story takes readers on a charming tour through the fishing villages of the California coast, while the tight, crisp plot surges relentlessly forward. The tension between light and dark, between surface happiness and hidden truths, raises this novel well above the common run of whodunits. (July)

Set in the summer of 1880, Parker's outstanding second Silver Rush mystery (after 2003's Silver Lies) finds her heroine, Inez Stannert, corset-deep in the intrigues of Leadville, Colo. Inez's secret courtship with the Rev. Justice B. Sands is as heated as the conflict over the incoming railroad. When the local authorities question the reliability of Inez's friend, photographer Susan Carothers, who witnesses a shooting and explosion along the rail line, it's up to Inez to discover the truth. In one of the many nice twists in this appealing adventure, the attractive railroad man Inez meets during her investigation turns out to be one of the good reverend's Civil War comrades. In an effort to increase business at the Silver Queen saloon, Inez's business partner, Abe Jackson, engages an acting couple to perform. None too happily, Inez realizes why the beautiful actress seems so familiar. A ragged piece of cloth becomes a major clue as the clock ticks and the town readies for a visit from former U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant. Plenty of convincing action bodes well for a long and successful series. (June)

In Agatha-winner Hathaway's unremarkable fifth novel to feature Dr. Andrew Fenimore (after 2003's The Doctor Dines in Prague), her easygoing, middle-aged hero rejoins his old boating club on Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, where he encounters a fraternity brother from medical school, Charlie Ashburn, once a great rower. Ashburn, a patient of Dr. Fenimore's father, had to give up rowing for medical reasons, but now he seeks glory through his son, Chuck, a gifted athlete. When Chuck's mother expresses concern over her son's health, Dr. Fenimore puts aside his medical ethics and tries to intervene, lest Chuck die from the same problem that kept his father from rowing. Someone is unhappy with Dr. Fenimore's interference, however, and the good doctor finds his own life in danger. While a murder eventually occurs, the identity of the killer isn't much of a mystery. Series fans will enjoy catching up with the doctor and his friends, but others may safely paddle by. (June)

Betsy Devonshire, proprietor of a needlework shop and sometime sleuth, looks into the mysterious death of Edyth Hanraty, an eccentric, elderly multimillionaire in the engrossing 10th installment of Ferris's smalltown Minnesota needlecraft series (after 2005's Embroidered Truths). Edyth's great niece, Jan, who stands to inherit a small fortune, comes under suspicion. Betsy is determined to clear Jan, who is one of her most loyal customers. Plenty of other suspects abound—Jan's own mother, Jan's resentful and immature uncle and Lucille Jones, a charming Texas gal who claims to be Jan's long-lost sister. The discovery of a decades-old embroidered map, possibly leading to buried treasure, adds to the intrigue. The brisk plot and well-developed characters make this complex novel one of the stronger entries in this cozy series. (June)

Delany's fine second mystery (after 2005's Scare the Light Away) offers a breath of fresh air from north of the border. Soon after Elaine Benson agrees to assist Miss Moira Madison, who served with the Canadian Army Nursing Sisters during WWII, with her memoirs, Elaine learns that the first writer Moira hired drowned in the lake by Moira's summer "cottage" after less than a week on the job. Later, as members of the privileged Madison clan gather at the cottage in Ontario's Muskoka region for Thanksgiving, tensions mount, culminating in a fire. Elaine suspects that someone will go to great lengths to prevent Moira from revealing certain family secrets. The alternating rhythm of chapters of contemporary narrative and shorter sections of Moira's recollections of life as an army nurse helps build suspense. The striking setting, the picture of the Canadian social elite and several deftly handled subplots make for a richly textured and highly satisfying read. (June)

At the start of the well-plotted second volume of Padura's seething, steamy Havana Quartet (after 2005's Havana Red), Cuban detective Mario Conde (aka "the Count") is approaching the end of his police career and his 36th birthday with drunken abandon while also anticipating, almost welcoming, the arrival of a devastating hurricane. Fed up with the latest departmental purges, which have claimed his boss and mentor, Major Rangel, Conde resigns from the department only to be offered a challenge and a bargain by Rangel's newly appointed replacement. If he can solve the brutal murder of a highly placed Cuban defector within three days, Conde's resignation will be accepted without prejudice. Padura grounds his tale against a backdrop of governmental corruption, the broken promises of the Cuban revolution and the difficult relations between those Cubans who fled the Castro regime and those who stayed. This densely packed mystery's unusual locale should attract readers outside the genre. (June)

Journalist Campbell's fiction debut, a fast-moving crime caper, is too full of implausible characters and situations to satisfy most readers. Kate Fujimori, a high-tech thief, has adopted the mantle of her Pink Panther–like husband, Paul, who stole objets d'art under the identity of "the Professor." When Paul retires (and the couple separates), Kate looks for ever more challenging assignments, a search that leads her to Venice and a valuable fake Mona Lisa. When her elaborate efforts are stymied by the surprise appearance of rival thieves, she must scramble to regroup and fulfill her commission. By coincidence, she manages to hook up with an attractive stranger, who turns out to be a local detective. With a plot featuring assassins, a zombie priest and a climax deliberately lifted from Hitchcock's North by Northwest, Campbell goes deliberately over-the-top. Those who don't require their fictional crooks and cops to act realistically may find this a light diversion. (June)

Slick high-finance melodrama and dizzying technical speculation lift Edelman's SF debut, the first of a trilogy. Centuries in the future, humans rely less on machines than on upgrading their own nervous systems with nanotech bio/logic programs. Natch, a gifted young code programmer–entrepreneur obsessed with clawing his way to the top, jumps at the chance to merchandise a major new technology, MultiReal, even though he doesn't know what it is. Natch soon becomes a target for not just his business rivals but also totalitarian governmental agencies and more mysterious groups. Natch's being a borderline sociopath makes him extremely creative in business tactics and personal manipulation (and thus fascinating to read about). The world in which he operates is also fascinating, with awesome personal powers being sold on a frantic open market. Edelman, who has a background in Web programming and marketing, gives his bizarre notions a convincing gloss of detail. Bursting with invention and panache, this novel will hook readers for the story's next installment. (July)

The magnificent fourth book in Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series marks the start of a new trilogy set in Terre d'Ange, the author's reimagined Renaissance world. The story picks up where volume three, Kushiel's Avator (2003), left off, though Imriel nó Montrève de la Courcel, a prince of the blood, now narrates in place of the unforgettable heroine of the previous books, Phèdre nó Delauney. As a boy, Imriel is abandoned by his treasonous parents and subjected to terrible indignities by pirates. Later rescued and adopted by Phèdre, he grows into a position of authority and learns many skills, including sexual prowess. He has a torrid affair with a married woman, and finally survives a terrible siege at a walled city he courageously defends. The specter of Imriel's sinister, absent mother, Melisande Shahrizai, looms over the action. Credible and gripping, this is heroic fantasy at its finest. (June)

Though Farren's sequel to Kindling (2004) contains orgiastic sex scenes, sadomasochistic romps and dark magic rituals, this alternate history is more intrigued by its own big black zeppelins than any girl-on-girl whip action. Cordelia, Jesamine, Argo and Raphael are "The Four," a multicultural band of teenagers able to function as a group mind that psychically fights Dark Things in the Other Place. Their powers are necessary to save the free world from the ravening Mosul Empire and its evil enchantress. The Four grow in mystical power and in their desire for alcohol and sex. They also become aware of their proclivities: Cordelia experiments with lesbianism and whips, while Jesamine succumbs to the sexuality of one Jack Kennedy, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Albany. Kennedy uses the Four to fight the Mosul enchantress, who seeks to enslave the world or destroy it and all its alternates. Confusing and murky, the mishmash of ahistoric detail, sexual innuendo and strange magic weighs things down until the plot is as hungover as the characters. (June)

Fans of Buffy and The X-files will cheer the latest exploits of Tony Foster, wizard-in-training, in the third novel of Huff's contemporary fantasy series (after 2005's Smoke and Mirrors). The cult vampire detective TV show for which Tony is now a trainee assistant director is filming in Vancouver—which is also the epicenter of an upcoming deadly Demonic Convergence, according to sexy stuntwoman Leah Burnett, who also happens to be the 3,500-year-old handmaiden and personal Demongate of Ryne Cyratane, "He Who Brings Desire and Destruction." Worse yet, Leah is vulnerable to demon attack, and if she dies, Ryne will be able to return and wreak havoc on Earth. Tony, who has a laptop loaded with spells left behind by Arra Pelindrake, his former wizard mentor, needs a crash course in high-power wizardry to save the world. This spinoff from Huff's popular Blood series stands alone as an entertaining supernatural adventure with plenty of sex, violence and sarcastic humor. (June)

The conclusion of David's 21st-century Arthurian trilogy will please fans of the previous two books, Knight Life and One Knight Only, but those expecting humorous fantasy on the level of Terry Pratchett or Monty Python will be disappointed. King Arthur, who has served as the mayor of New York City and even as president of the United States under the name Arthur Penn, is suddenly forced to tell the world who he really is and that he possesses the Holy Grail. Attempts to go mass market with the Grail's curative properties create complications involving Nazis and assorted other menaces. Despite the author's propensity for punning titles and silly archaisms like "Ye Olde Interlude," the resultant oil-and-water mixture achieves neither comedy nor drama, much less a blending of the two as in T.H. White's The Once and Future King. The incongruity of great, mythic figures behaving (or speaking) in an entirely banal and trivial manner is, alas, only that. (June)

The title of Stross's provocative new SF collection—a revised, expanded version of a 2002 title of the same name—is a mordant reference to catastrophes at the climaxes of these 11 stories. In "A Colder War," a stand-alone sequel to Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness," monsters from outside space and time are liberated as weapons of mass destruction by Russia and the Middle East. In "Antibodies," a mathematical theorem undermines the foundations of all computer encryption systems, forcing fugitive behavior from the narrator who has depended on the anonymity they hitherto ensured. "Ship of Fools," written in 1995, evokes the epic scale of Arthur C. Clarke's fiction in its projection of dire technological fiascos that rock the world at the turn of Y2K. In Stross's worlds, virtual reality is the new frontier, AI is a fact of life and everyone is fluent in the sometimes impenetrable technogeek-speak that goes with the territory. For all that, his characters are familiar and sympathetic hackers, slackers and opportunists, whose lives have not been improved by their technological expertise, and whose adventures he interweaves seamlessly with the circuitry. (June)

Layton's satisfying finale to her popular Botany Bay series reunites readers with familiar characters and brings well-deserved love into heroine Daisy Tanner's life. Expecting freedom after the death of her wicked husband, Botany Bay prison guard Tanner, Daisy realizes that a single woman, especially a wealthy young widow, is not free in 19th-century Australia. So she leaves New South Wales for England, hoping to marry the widowed Geoffrey Sauvage, earl of Egremont. Because Geoffrey is twice her age, Daisy assumes he will care for her "like a father or a friend," a welcome respite from the brutality Tanner inflicted on her. Geoffrey graciously welcomes Daisy but has no interest in marriage; he charges his best friend Leland Grant, the mischievous, debonair Viscount Haye, with instructing Daisy in the ways of the ton so that she can "find a good man to take care of her." Leland, suspicious of Daisy's motives toward Geoffrey, wants to protect his friend from betrayal—but as they become closer, it's Leland who courts betrayal by losing his heart to Daisy. Layton is an expert craftswoman, proved once again by tight plotting, sprightly dialogue and very human characters. (June)

After a TV dinner explodes in her microwave, modern New York City girl Cathy Vorhees wakes up in 1959, setting in motion this inventive romantic comedy from Neale (Calendar Girl). Mortified to find herself living the life of uptight Cathy Voight, office tyrant and recipe creator, Cathy bravely tries to "relax and enjoy my psychosis" with the help of her nifty '50s flatmates Tilly and Miranda, who think she's suffered an electric shock. More often, Cathy reacts like a movie heroine waking up next to a strange man "with absolutely no memory of how... the knife sticking out of his chest got there." When she isn't expressing shock at all the pork products, fur coats and sexual harassment in the workplace, she's trying to make a confidante out of hunky Hank, owner of her apartment building, and to find a way home. While some of Cathy's actions are out of character for a savvy city girl (i.e., brainlessly blurting out future events like the Kennedy assassination to Hank), she's got an enjoyable, sarcastic narrative voice that carries readers from confusion and despair ("why hadn't that microwave outright killed me?") to a You-go-girl! finale that's sure to please. (June)

This enthralling science fiction thriller focuses on advances in nanotechnology that have irrevocably transformed every aspect of the not-so-distant future, remaking entire cities and eradicating death and disease for those with sufficient wealth. In Elysium, a nanotech-built island fortress, Jack, the great-great grandson of nanotech trillionaire Lucius Sterling, finds himself shut out of immortality because of a deathly allergy to the nanobiology that converts mortal men to Deathless. After 10 years of quarantine, Jack escapes to one of the few places on Earth untouched by the advances: a Mennonite enclave in Montana. His peaceful life there is disrupted when Lucius calls him back to Elysium in desperation: a mysterious cloud of particles capable of destroying any nanotech person, place or thing they come in contact with—a "dissembler"—threatens to destroy the fabric of the modern world, and Jack may be the only person who can stop it. Mitchell establishes a realistic future evolved logically from our present, giving her themes—mankind's "right" to immortality, capitalist control of scientific advancements, the slippery nature of progress—the weight of believability. Her characters are exceptionally well-drawn, and her philosophizing is skillfully balanced against the unfolding action. This book is the first in a series that should prove fascinating. (June)

Bestselling novelist Barbara Freethy (Don't Say a Word) has another crowd-pleasing page-turner in the first of a tricky romantic suspense series. After a whirlwind courtship, San Francisco artist Kayla is about to fulfill her dream of marrying Mr. Right and starting a family—but on the wedding night, her dream man abandons her. Meanwhile, engineer Nick Granville returns home to San Francisco after a few months working in Africa to find his house lived in and his bank accounts plundered. Turns out these two strangers were duped by the same man: handsome, blond, smooth-talking Evan Chadwick. Unable to get the attention of the SFPD, the two marks take it upon themselves to track down Evan and get back what's theirs. As the clues accumulate, so do the smoldering glances between broad-shouldered Nick and curvy Kayla, but Freethy's sex scenes have a reportorial feel that may leave readers cold. Evan's cat and mouse game, however, should hook suspense fans and carry them into the next volume—as Evan says, "the game will be over when I say it's over," and this is just his first play. (June)

Hoshiro's fantastic vision of a Victorian England stalked by the evil Millennium Earl is a true original, although the action takes place more than a hundred years before the turn of the millennium. A wonderfully strange destroyer of worlds, the Earl wears a top hat and tails, and bears a passing resemblance to both the Joker and the leader of the Blue Meanies. His strategy is to overrun the earth with legions of akuma, demons created through blasphemous rage. Against these nightmare soldiers are ranged the forces of good, human wielders of something called "innocence," a substance that was washed away long ago when Noah was in his ark. Chief among the good guys is our hero, Allen Walker, who has a concentration of innocence in his left hand. In his quest to keep the world safe, Walker recruits friends to his cause and seeks out the Black Order, a mysterious band recommended by his unseen master; this gang of do-gooders is also committed to fighting the Millennium Earl. Although the story line is imaginative, what makes Hoshino's work outstanding is the art, a fabulous collection of images both elegant and macabre, that should have much appeal for the crowd that reads Hellsing and similar goth adventure manga. (May)

In the second volume of Dark Horse's reprint series, we see Nexus, the intergalactic executioner of mass murderers, ending up in a black hole with his hard-drinking friend Judah and dealing with teenage killers. Baron's scripting balances humor, philosophy and emotion by creating a supporting cast that's just as fascinating as the eponymous hero. The final story doesn't even feature Nexus that much. It's just Judah and a bunch of disembodied heads up against a space pirate, a story as exciting and funny as the tales preceding it. Baron's imagination and wit go along perfectly with Rude's superior draftsmanship. Rude is one of genre comics' finest artists, and every page features his mastery of figure drawing, panel structure and line work. He creates a sleek and elegant look for both explosive action sequences and small character moments. Perfectly melding the elements of humor, high adventure and stunning artwork, Nexus feels like the continuation of the great newspaper adventure strips of the mid-20thcentury, with a larger than life feeling to match. (May)

Ayumu is faced with common high school problems: grades, fighting with friends and a general feeling of isolation. Her method of dealing with the trials of adolescence, however, is decidedly more distressing. Ayumu is a cutter, one of an increasing number of teenage compulsive self-mutilators. Tortured by a falling-out with her best friend and dealing with a competitive new school, Ayumu retreats into the cold comforts of self-imposed social exile and self-inflicted injury. Matters are further complicated when Ayumu's manic and boundlessly irritating new friend, Manami, attempts suicide after a difficult breakup. The artwork—especially the inventive page layout—adds a much-needed frisson. Frames and panels merge, fracture and dissolve, reflecting alternating extremes of tranquility and anguish. The cutting scenes are especially powerful, eschewing dialogue in favor of a dreamlike stillness in which Ayumu's chosen implement, a common box cutter, takes on the status of a magical totem. These frames, along with a genuinely haunting, semi-cliffhanger ending, more than make up for the characters' stilted language. The book concludes with a brief fact page written by a clinical psychologist that includes how to deal with cutting in real life. (Apr.)

Lucia is a cute high school student—but she is also a mermaid princess. She and her fellow mermaids, Hanon and Rina, draw their power from magical pearls, which give them "pichi pichi" (lighthearted) voices and transform them into rock stars in kick-ass schoolgirl outfits with stars, glitter and matching microphones. Just a few lyrics ("Love Shower Pitch!" Lucia shouts) can defeat any enemy. That's a good thing, too, since the evil Gackto is bent on kidnapping the princesses so he can rule the seven seas. Meanwhile, Lucia pines over the surfer Kaito, who is helplessly in love with a mysterious mermaid who once saved his life, unaware, of course, that Lucia is that mermaid. Pichi Pichi Pitch is a mermaid version of Sailor Moon with a little Hans Christian Anderson thrown in for good measure. A few cardboard villains, a recycled love story, eyes so large they take up half the page, several glitzy transformation sequences and abundant fan service (cheesecake) make for an industrial-strength shojo. It's been adapted into a very popular anime in Japan, and fans of this kind of hyper-cute tale should find this manga to their liking. (Apr.)

Based on a video game and a subsequent animated TV series, both created by Nightow (Trigun), this volume recounts the first six episodes using screen captures from the anime. The series features Brandon Heat—aka Beyond the Grave—an undead gunman hell-bent on revenging himself against Millennion, an organized crime syndicate which favors undead monsters as enforcers, lead by criminal mastermind Harry Mac Dowel, once Heath's best friend. This touches off a gangster/crime story full of double crosses and showdowns at gunpoint. All of these elements could add up to an entertaining piece of work in more competent hands, but the material's video game origins leave readers feeling as though they were watching someone else playing the source game. The full-color art is taken directly from the anime and is clean and attractive without being particularly interesting. Considering the story's intent, it is surprisingly short on action and very long on panel after panel of blank-eyed talking heads. Fans may enjoy playing the video game more. (Apr.)