Fiction Reviews: Week of 9/3/2007

Psychiatrist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) fought to free Algeria from French rule, and wrote several key texts on colonialism, including The Wretched of the Earth. Wideman (Brothers and Keepers) offers a fragmented look at Fanon's life, presenting three narratives in fits and starts. The first documents episodes from Fanon's life, including his Martinique childhood and death in a Bethesda, Md., hospital. In the second, a 60-year-old novelist named Thomas writes a screenplay about Fanon that he hopes to sell to Jean-Luc Godard, and, in a jarring narrative turn, receives a package that contains his own head. In the third, a character named John Edgar Wideman writes about his “twin” (Thomas), wrestles with his obsession with Fanon, visits his imprisoned brother Rob and thinks about his wheelchair-bound mother in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh (where Wideman grew up and has set many past stories). Some of the Fanon anecdotes are excellent, but the book as a whole is a series of glittering dead ends, interspersed with thoughts on writing and current affairs, and the irritating story of Thomas's head. Beautifully written but inconclusive, Wideman's 18th book is best approached as a meditation on fiction and character. (Feb.)

At the heart of this sprawling, dizzying debut from a quirky, assured Australian writer are two men: Jasper Dean, a judgmental but forgiving son, and Martin, his brilliant but dysfunctional father. Jasper, in an Australian prison in his early 20s, scribbles out the story of their picaresque adventures, noting cryptically early on that “[m]y father's body will never be found.” As he tells it, Jasper has been uneasily bonded to his father through thick and thin, which includes Martin's stint managing a squalid strip club during Jasper's adolescence; an Australian outback home literally hidden within impenetrable mazes; Martin's ill-fated scheme to make every Australian a millionaire; and a feverish odyssey through Thailand's menacing jungles. Toltz's exuberant, looping narrative—thick with his characters' outsized longings and with their crazy arguments—sometimes blows past plot entirely, but comic drive and Toltz's far-out imagination carry the epic story, which puts the two (and Martin's own nemesis, his outlaw brother, Terry) on an irreverent roller-coaster ride from obscurity to infamy. Comparisons to Special Topics in Calamity Physics are likely, but this nutty tour de force has a more tender, more worldly spin. (Feb.)

Kelly's ninth novel, a cross-generational contemporary romance set in Ireland, is packed with high drama and the emotion to match. At 60, Christie Devlin and her peaceful home and garden are the heart of Dublin's picturesque Summer Street. But when a surprising nook of art teacher Christie's past is unearthed, the 30 fulfilling years Christie has spent with her husband, James, and their family threaten to unravel. Her neighbors, meanwhile, have their own crises to attend to: single mom Faye Reid is horrified when her daughter, Amber, drops out of college to travel with her musician boyfriend, prompting Faye to follow her to try to prevent her from making the same mistake Faye made in her youth. Wounded by an awkward adolescence and a cheating boyfriend, 30-year-old Maggie Maguire wishes she could stop letting her past hold her back from self-acceptance as she returns home to care for her ailing mother. If Kelly's sins are too many peripheral characters, an uneasy transition into Amber's teenage voice and meandering passages that could have been edited out, then they are easily forgiven. Kelly's evocation of mother-daughter relationships shines, and her handle on romance storytelling combined with her characters' feel-good, empowering evolutions make this a satisfying novel. (Jan.)

From the U.K. comes this promising debut novel narrated by the sole witness and survivor of a set of murders that left three children dead in an abandoned Greenwich, England, mine in 1986. Seven years later, Anita Naidu, now nearly 20, lives in quiet isolation in Bristol. She tells her tale largely in retrospect, with her opening bluster soon giving way to the vulnerability of her 13-year-old self. Having recently lost her mother and moved with her family to a council house in South London back then, Anita's only friends are the overweight and learning-disabled Denis and her volatile neighbor Kyle. The young Anita identifies with Kyle's social invisibility and, more disturbingly, his violence. The friends spend their adolescent summer wandering around Greenwich, running from bullies and seeking hidden caves. As the novel progresses toward its horrific surprise conclusion, Anita gradually reveals more and more disturbing information both about Kyle—and his mysteriously disappeared little sister—and about herself. Anita's story is intriguing and her portrait of the desperate Kyle touching, but the way Anita's damaged psychology plays out seems more a result of narrative necessity than of a realized character. Still, readers will react to the bold material and stark storytelling. (Jan.)

On a picturesque acreage near Prairie Bluff, Ill., 13-year-old Penny Entwistle, and her mother, Anne Marie, run a retreat where literary heroines seek temporary refuge from their tragic destinies. Franny Glass, Madame Bovary, Scarlett O'Hara, Catherine Linton and others find respite from their varied crises, but must return to their books eventually and suffer the fate that awaits. Penny, in the first throes of teenage rebellion, has little patience for her mother and the heartbroken or otherwise distraught women Anne Marie refuses to counsel (lest she change the course of their stories). And Anne Marie lavishes on her heroine lodgers the attention her daughter longs for. But when a mythical Celtic knight arrives, searching for his lost heroine Deirdre, Penny gets caught up in a web of deception that lands her in the loony bin. While the staff diagnoses her fabulous story as an attempt to deal with the long-ago death of her father, her mother commits Penny as a means of protecting her from peculiar goings-on at the house, and Penny must rely on the very fictional characters her mother favors to help her. Favorite offers a fun take on the impact literature can have on our lives. (Jan.)

When literature professor Joseph Licht invites his five adult sons to celebrate his 50th birthday in 1996 Tel Aviv, he hopes to win his boys' love and forgiveness by plying them with their favorite foods. From that opening in Fallenberg's ambitious debut, Joseph's life unfolds in retrospect: 20 years earlier, as a married father of five, Joseph discovers he is gay as he falls in love with a charismatic, and married, rabbi. The rabbi kills himself not long after he and Joseph start their affair, and a crushed Joseph, in one fell swoop, jettisons his marriage and adherence to Modern Orthodox Judaism. The familial repercussions are myriad and extreme, leaving Joseph's wife bereft and his sons with issues that range from low self-esteem and lack of trust to fanatical nationalism and religiosity. While Joseph and the rabbi's lovemaking is sentimentalized, and Joseph's and one son's homosexual awakenings seem abrupt, Fallenberg's descriptions of Israeli life, from the rural and academic arenas to the gay milieu, are credible and absorbing. The book adroitly sketches the heartfelt struggles of a sympathetic cast. (Jan.)

James speculates in her easy-reading debut on a romance between Austen and a landed British gentleman. The prologue presents the narrative as a long-lost journal Austen kept between 1815 and 1817, recently discovered during a renovation at Chawton Manor House and annotated by Oxford University Austen scholar Mary I. Jesse, whose footnotes appear throughout. The first-person account describes how Mr. Ashford, the son of a baronet, saves the spinster writer from a climbing accident after her father's death. The two meet again in Southampton, and Mr. Ashford encourages Austen to fulfill her dream of becoming a “renowned novelist” and even supplies the name of “Dashwood” when she is working on Sense and Sensibility. Austen and Mr. Ashford seem a perfect match in matters of head and heart (both have read Wordsworth, Walter Scott and Dr. Samuel Johnson), but James portrays them as doomed lovers, and though she hews closely to the historic record, she creates a modicum of will-they-or-won't-they suspense that culminates with a proposal and an “intensely” kissed Austen. It's a pleasant addition to the ever-expanding Austen-revisited genre. (Dec.)

Blevins's ninth western novel—the fifth to feature mountain man Sam Morgan—picks up in 1828 as Sam and his trapper friends are whooping it up at a Mexican double wedding in Santa Fe. Shortly after the ceremony, the two brides are kidnapped by Navajo raiders, which enrages Sam because the women are his adopted daughters. Accompanied by his hotheaded adopted son, Tomás, and trapper Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, Sam sets out in pursuit, though his heart is heavy because his lover, Paloma Luna de Otero, is dying of breast cancer. The rescue mission is hampered, threatened and deceived by a corrupt Mexican governor, manipulative Indian chiefs, devious white men and murderous raiders. By the time Sam catches up with the two captive girls, he is faced with a surprise that confounds him and leads to murder. Blevins is a master of mountain man lore, and he certainly knows the beaver and buffalo hide business, as well as the politics of the region and era. Loaded with action, drama, vivid descriptions and colorful historical characters, this is a whopper of a western yarn. (Dec.)

A young man struggling under his cursed family history marks Japanese author Miura's first work translated into English, an intricately layered if claustrophobic collection of six stories from 1960. Five of the six stories are set in postwar Japan and treat in a chronological jumble a university student narrator's courtship with and marriage to a young Tokyo waitress and his decision not to have children because of the fate of his siblings: the narrator's two older brothers ran off, two sisters committed suicide and several of them were visually impaired, leaving him, the youngest, feeling ashamed and sinful. He marries the cheerful, hardworking waitress Shino, but won't find a job, and despite the money Shino brings in, they descend into penury. Upon the death of his father, the narrator rescinds his decision not to have children, and with Shino pregnant, they return to his family's home in Honshu, hoping for a “fresh start.” The sixth story involves different characters but similarly treats a husband's hope to “start fresh” after he learns his wife was raped before marrying him. The five connected stories, despite their erratic time lines, present an intriguing and kaleidoscopic view of a life. (Dec.)

Høeg built his bestselling mystery, Smilla's Sense of Snow, around the science of ice. In this labyrinthine, intellectual thriller, Høeg focuses on the nature of sound, and in particular the music of Bach. In a near future where an earthquake and resulting flood have submerged a portion of the city of Copenhagen, Kasper Krone, a world-famous clown and passionate Bach fan, is about to be deported for not paying his taxes. But an official in a secret government agency known as Department H offers to make the charges disappear if Krone will help them locate a young girl, KlaraMaria, who was once his student and shares his peculiar psychic abilities. The blend of science, erudition and slow revelations could only have been written by Høeg, and will appeal to his many fans and other readers with a taste for the literary offbeat. (Nov.)

The embattled characters who people McCall's trenchant, slyly humorous debut novel (following the 1994 memoir Makes Me Wanna Holler and a 1997 essay collection) can't escape gentrification, whether as victim or perpetrator. As he turns 40, Barlowe Reed, who is black, moves to buy the home he's long rented in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. His timing is bad: whites have taken note of the cheap, rehab-ready houses in the historically black neighborhood and, as Barlowe's elderly neighbor says to him, “They comin.” Skyrocketing housing prices and the new neighbors' presumptuousness anger Barlowe, whose 20-something nephew is staying with him, and other longtime residents, who feel invaded and threatened. Battle lines are drawn, but when a white couple moves in next door to Barlowe, the results are surprising. Masterfully orchestrated and deeply disturbing illustrations of the depth of the racial divide play out behind the scrim of Barlowe's awkward attempts to have conversations in public with new white neighbor Sandy. McCall also beautifully weaves in the decades-long local struggle over King's legacy, including the moment when a candidate for King's church's open pulpit is rejected for “linguistic lapses... unbefitting of the crisp doctoral eloquence of Martin Luther King.” McCall nails such details again and again, and the results, if less than hopeful, are poignant and grimly funny. (Nov.)

This laugh-out-loud, darkly intelligent debut suggests that Thewlis might meet with considerable success should he decide to quit acting and take up the pen full-time. London artist Hector Kipling paints huge canvases dominated by a single head. He's doing well, but he's not nearly as famous as his best friend, conceptualist Lenny Snook. Eaten up by jealousy, Hector believes that Lenny has made his fortune with stolen ideas. As Hector struggles to cope with an absent girlfriend, his parents' insane expenditures and a vandal attacking his most valuable painting, things begin to go very wrong indeed. Readers who have mourned the end of Sue Townsend's wonderful, long-running Adrian Mole series will find solace of a sort here, as will anyone who enjoys a thought-provoking skewering of modern art by a knowledgeable writer and an inescapably doomed but appealing hero. (Nov.)

Cussler takes a breather from his several ongoing series with this historical thriller set in the western states, circa 1906. The U.S. government hires the renowned Van Dorn Detective Agency and its equally renowned lead agent, Isaac Bell, to capture the bank robber known as the Butcher Bandit. The Butcher has gunned down 38 men and women and two children, leaving behind neither witnesses nor clues. Bell heads the manhunt and finally figures out the Butcher's true identity, which is when the real chase begins. Unfortunately, Cussler's style is patterned on the clunky dialogue (“I pray you catch the murdering scum”) and improbable characters of the period's dime novels, and his in-depth research makes his descriptions sound like advertising. Once San Francisco gets hit by the 1906 earthquake and the principals climb aboard a pair of fire-breathing locomotives, the novel cranks up a head of steam and some high-speed thrills. (Nov.)

Masterful thriller writer Mills returns to his series hero, former FBI agent Mark Beamon (last seen in 2002's Sphere of Influence), with a pulse-pounding apocalyptic scenario that is terrifying in its plausibility. Maverick environmentalist Erin Neal has become a pariah after his provocative book angered both conservationists and conservatives, and a recluse after the death of his ex-lover, eco-terrorist Jenna Kalin. His solitude is interrupted when Beamon, now the head of energy security for the U.S. government, tracks him down to stop a disaster: the destruction of the world's major oilfields by bioengineered bacteria remarkably similar to ones Neal himself considered designing. The bioweapons have already infected the major Saudi sources of oil, and the impact on the U.S. economy makes the identification of the terrorists and a plan to stem the spread of their microorganisms the national priority. While such plots are a dime a dozen, Mills's meticulous research, pacing and carefully developed characters make this variation particularly convincing. (Nov.)

Scottish author Ramsay's atmospheric and melancholic novel is a solid but unremarkable debut. Deeply flawed Glaswegian police constable Alan McAlpine is obsessed with an unsolved case more than two decades old, involving an acid attack on a young pregnant woman who committed suicide shortly after giving birth. As McAlpine investigates a bizarre series of “Crucifixion” murders, in which all the victims have been disemboweled and laid out with arms spread and feet crossed at the ankle, he begins to suspect that this killer is somehow tied to the mystery of his “blonde angel.” The pacing is sluggish, but Ramsay manages to paint a vivid picture of rain-lashed Glasgow. The stark late autumn landscape is a fitting backdrop to the brutal murders as well as McAlpine's dark epiphanies. Ramsay has tremendous potential, but there needs to be more to McAlpine than formulaic angst if he's to succeed as a series protagonist. (Nov.)

Though billed as a critical examination of the interrogation camps run by the U.S. military, this dramatic thriller is more a finely tuned character study of a man in personal crisis. George Young, a private contractor, interrogates prisoners in a remote island fortress known as Omega. Young appreciates the challenge of his job, but dislikes the many uncomfortable strategies he must employ and is haunted by his role in the death of prisoner #4141. The professional anxieties only aggravate his personal troubles: a vanished libido, a wife who drinks too much, a young son whom he fears may be homosexual. Holdefer (Nice) shows a polished touch with detail and dialogue. The rare humorous moment is dry and often tragic, and the interrogations are so vivid as to make the reader squeamish. A valuable entry in the Gitmo field, all that's missing in this well-wrought novel—or simply lost in the intricacies of Young's story—is the promised critique of state-sanctioned torture. (Nov.)

Stunning, wrenching and inspiring, the fourth novel by Canadian novelist Hill (Any Known Blood) spans the life of Aminata Diallo, born in Bayo, West Africa, in 1745. The novel opens in 1802, as Aminata is wooed in London to the cause of British abolitionists, and begins reflecting on her life. Kidnapped at the age of 11 by British slavers, Aminata survives the Middle Passage and is reunited in South Carolina with Chekura, a boy from a village near hers. Her story gets entwined with his, and with those of her owners: nasty indigo producer Robinson Appleby and, later, Jewish duty inspector Solomon Lindo. During her long life of struggle, she does what she can to free herself and others from slavery, including learning to read and teaching others to, and befriending anyone who can help her, black or white. Hill handles the pacing and tension masterfully, particularly during the beginnings of the American revolution, when the British promise to free Blacks who fight for the British: Aminata's related, eventful travels to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone follow. In depicting a woman who survives history's most trying conditions through force of intelligence and personality, Hill's book is a harrowing, breathtaking tour de force. (Nov.)

A sprawling take on the dark legacies of WWII and its aftermath, Verhaeghen's debut follows three main characters: Paul Andermans, a Flemish postdoctoral student in Potsdam in 1995; the shadowy Goldfarb, a German nuclear scientist who now teaches at Andermans's university; and Jozef De Heer, who survived the Holocaust to live a “meek” existence in reunited 1995 Germany. The book unfolds as De Heer tells his life story to Andermans when the two meet by chance at a local hospital. The book's central conundrum is how De Heer's life as a survivor and refugee relates to that of Goldfarb, who plays a key role, as the narrative shifts 50-plus years backward, in the Manhattan Project and resulting arms race. But Verhaeghen is also after something much bigger: the nature of complicity in the 20th century's grim history. De Heer's Holocaust material has less gravitas than nonfiction accounts, but Verhaeghen's relentless verbal fireworks (lots of alliteration and rhyme) and comic touches (a children's magician masterminds the Berlin Wall's speedy construction) lighten things. As De Heer's and Goldfarb's lives further intertwine, the novel strains to tie together loose ends, but the big convoluted twists and outlandish ending may be part of the point. This is an ambitious, epic literary debut, and it's not surprising that Verhaeghen, in trying to orchestrate a familiar epoch, falls short of Gravity's Rainbow and Underworld. (Nov.)

Born in Brussels of Russian revolutionary exiles, Serge (1890–1947) has long had a reputation as polemicist and journalist, but this powerful novel of the descent into WWII makes a strong case for his political fiction. In the pressured atmosphere just preceding the outbreak of war, a secret agent, D., breaks with the “Organization”—Stalin's spy network—and escapes from Paris with his lover, Nadine. With extreme paranoia that he cloaks in exquisite manners, D. tells only one person where they are going: an old comrade named Daria. In the next, flash-forward section, Daria, having been arrested, is released from exile in a Soviet backwater and thrust into the siege of Leningrad. The third section opens in 1945 Berlin, where Daria witnesses a host of Germans, injured and half crazy, try to survive aerial bombardment—a moment that, as W.G. Sebald noted, has been deeply underserved by literature. In the final section, Daria escapes Europe and follows D. and Nadine to Mexico, escaping (she thinks) the long reach of Stalin's agents. Serge remains sophisticated even during the book's more noirish moments, and action sequences form an inseparable part of his hypnotic, prophetic vision. (Nov.)

The third novel to feature television producer and accidental sleuth Sonya Iverson (who appeared last in 2006's Shooting Script) promises A-list celebrity scandal and style, but delivers only graying socialites and secondhand couture. Sonya is assigned to cover the 40th anniversary of Woody's, a high-end thrift store, for The Donna Fuller Show. Opened in the 1950s by Anthea Woodruff, wife of New York publishing magnate James Woodruff, the store is now run by her three daughters Hilda, Julia and Ellin, and doting confidante Gussie Ford. The fluff piece unfolds into a hard news lead when Gussie turns up murdered in the shop days before the anniversary gala. Sonya probes into the dirty little secrets of the Woodruff family while arrogance, addiction and treachery come into full view. Klensch's prose lacks the brio to invigorate the trite controversy at the heart of the novel. Her celebrity characters are too thinly drawn, their motives too obviously vapid, and so the novel leaves unanswered that first question of every good news story: why do we care? (Nov.)

Bestselling author Kingsbury (Forever; Sunrise) sets her first hardcover novel in the world of professional football. Derrick Anderson, a retiring quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, promised his dying son that he would win a Super Bowl for him. His hope may rest on upcoming star Aaron Hill, who is beginning to find the glitz and glamour of life at the top meaningless. To complicate things, there's a young foster child named Cory who believes that Aaron is his dad and is determined to get his point across, and sparks fly (of course) between Aaron and Megan, Cory's foster mother. Kingsbury's fans can probably guess exactly how the story will turn out, but will still enjoy the ride. Woven into the light inspirational romance is a message about the needs of foster children, inspired by Alex Smith's work with the foster care system—Smith is the real-life 49ers' quarterback and penned the foreword. The writing at times plods, and everything is simple, sometimes unbelievably so—the story, the dialogue, the characters' Christian faith. But Kingsbury's fans like her novels sweet, and this one may motivate them to get involved and make a difference with some of the neediest kids. (Nov.)

A young associate at a white shoe New York law firm, J.J. Spencer finds himself with a morally repulsive client who has purchased a bundle of defaulting mortgages at 43 cents on the dollar, and is gleefully foreclosing and evicting people from their homes. When J.J. breaches attorney-client confidentiality to help the Eagans, a sadly duped Queens couple, his firm fires him, and a spiteful partner leads the charge to have him disbarred. Battling to salvage his career and the Eagans' house, J.J. recalls his childhood at the mercy of a violent, alcoholic father, as well as his dynamic law school days, where a legendary professor helped J.J. develop his ethics and sharp debating skills. Nussbaum (Blue Road to Atlantic) gives plenty of nuance to J.J., who knowingly allows his seduction by corporate law at the expense of his ideals. The Eagans' doltishness and a plot that hangs on the legal ins-and-outs of foreclosures will frustrate some readers, but J.J. is sympathetic, and with the mounting mortgage crisis, the story could not be more timely. (Nov.)

Scenes from the rich, contentious life of a dying Jewish South African country doctor flash before his expatriate daughter's eyes in Landsman's frustrating second novel (after The Devil's Chimney). A skinny boy with a hot-tempered mother and a good-hearted father, Harry Klein grew up in pre-WWII Germany, where he married a woman from a socially superior Jewish family during medical school and later endured the wartime death of his father from influenza. After his emigration to South Africa, patients of all races revere him as “Doctor God,” but he clashes with his artist daughter (who narrates, maddeningly, in the second person) and can't shake his life-long jealousy of his younger brother, a flashy, respected cardiologist. This novel offers a few insights on death, the frailty of the human body and the ties between parent and child, but the overly lyrical prose tries too hard, and the second-person narration does the mostly opaque narrative few favors. (Nov.)

The pain involved in a drawn-out divorce is conveyed through a blend of poetry, prose and journal entries in Royal's debut novel. From the very first scene, a dreamy vignette of an intimate moment, it is hard to feel any sympathy for narrator Claire McCloud's ex-husband-to-be, Tobin Kleinherz, as he lights candles (with vanilla-flavored wax) on her bare back. The book's first half jumps around in time, beginning with the day Tobin moves out of the family's suburban Chicago home and then flashing back to Claire's past relationships and the beginning of Claire and Tobin's romance. Twenty-eight days after meeting, they are engaged. The couple lives in Tobin's native Germany for four years, and they have two children before moving back to the States, where the marriage dissolves. Claire punctuates the narrative—essentially the long road to an official decree—with her quirky thoughts: her “slamDUNK” journal advice to divorcées; a discussion of PAU (perfectly amazing underwear); and the new names she gives local businesses—Kinko's becomes Kinky's and the Unicorn Cafe becomes the Hormone Cafe. While the book's fractured style and self-indulgent narration are hard to get into at first, Royal eventually finds an enticing, offbeat rhythm. (Nov.)

In Aaron's latest steamy relationship drama (after Extra Marital Affairs) a sharp African-American kid goes from bagging groceries to bedding a famous retired African-American TV actress and co-creating a successful modeling firm, Premium Fudge Unlimited. Only problem is, Spencer Lewis gets a lot more than he bargained for when he becomes Tia Stern's personal assistant “to handle the common things in life.” That includes cleaning her bathroom, helping her spend her divorce settlement and being at her beck and call in the bedroom and out. Becoming her live-in help is fine by Spence and he's thankful for the fabulous perks, including his new digs in the moneyed part of Stamford, Conn., and Tia's help in launching his dream modeling agency. But her dramatic, self-obsessed ways begin to bother him, especially after they hire Cassandra Evans to help manage Premium Fudge. Suddenly, being Tia's “nurturing confidant” with hot young models around, plus two women who want his body begins to spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e. Aaron's depiction of Tia as the dream woman–turned–nightmare devouring diva is over-the-top, but that's Aaron's style, and the book's a hoot. (Nov.)

Gangi serves up a judicious portion of gangsta street talk (“Break out the raws, cuzzie-cuz”), rough romance and raw violence in this exciting and gritty debut thriller. Even though he's 38 and been working the streets for years, Izzy is what is known in crime circles as a “stickup kid”—a gunman who preys on other criminals. He and his partner, the jittery, brutal Mal, have one hard-and-fast rule when pulling a job: once they kill someone, all the witnesses have to die. Since their victims are armed thugs, this rule usually results in a roomful of bodies. Mal is the chief killer, but he insists that Izzy contribute his fair share. Through a series of improbable scenarios, Izzy ends up on the run from a gang of vicious Albanians after refusing to shoot his girlfriend when she witnesses Mal shooting several dealers. That shouldn't faze any reader willing to let plausibility take a back seat to compelling action and reluctant admiration for cool, well-spoken Izzy. (Nov.)

Gansky's suspenseful novel grabs hold of the reader on the first page and doesn't let go. The hero—and he is very much a courageous, old-style hero—is “Tuck” Tucker, a NASA astronaut who is devastated when, on his third mission in outer space, every member of his crew gets violently sick and he is the only one to survive. Was the inexplicable illness that claimed Tuck's crew a freak accident, or did someone try to destroy the mission? Tuck blames God for failing to save the crew, and it takes a year of anger, plus a gentle talking-to from his spiritually insightful and disarming father, before he can make peace with his maker. Indeed, many people are deeply affected by the tragedy: Vincent Pistacchia, whose son died on Tuck's watch, plots revenge; Tuck's family members admit that they've always found his space travel terrifying; and Tuck, plagued by survivor's guilt and nightmares, is deemed unfit to return to space and given a NASA desk job. Tuck gets one last chance to command a space trip thanks to a startup company that makes space travel available to well-heeled tourists, But someone's out to get Tuck, and things go dreadfully wrong. Fast-paced plotting and strong character development make this one of Gansky's best. (Nov.)

When she was writing Suite Française in 1940, Némirovsky, who died in Auschwitz in 1942 before turning 40, was also reworking this novel, newly discovered among her papers. Though composed on a smaller canvas, it is another keenly observed study of human nature, and in this case of Burgundy paysans. In a leisurely narrative, middle-aged narrator Silvio recounts three interlocking stories of love and betrayal over two decades. These secret affairs, he says, can be explained only by “fire in the blood,” the intense passion that can overtake men and women when they are young, highly sexed and vulnerable. Silvio's laconic descriptions of unappeasable desire are seasoned by bitter assessment of the wisdom earned after things cool. Linked through blood and common local history, the characters in this la ronde of betrayal exist in a seemingly idyllic community that is always alert for deviations from the social code. Némirovsky's restraint in unfolding her story contributes to the emotional crescendo at the story's denouement. In its penetrating distillation of manners and mores, this spare and elegant book makes a worthy follow-up to Suite. (Oct.)

The well-crafted fifth Ben Abbott whodunit (after 2006's McMansion) opens on the beautiful summer's day that graces the tercentennial celebration in Newbury, Conn. As members of the town don period costumes to portray people of the past while village residents tour the serene cemetery, recorded classical music suddenly blasts from the large, ostentatious mausoleum nicknamed the “McTomb,” recently erected by real estate developer Brian Grose. When the tomb is opened, its murdered owner is found inside. The Newbury Cemetery Association wastes no time in bringing in Ben Abbott, real estate agent, private detective and ex-con, to solve the case. When an Ecuadorian immigrant unexpectedly becomes the prime suspect, Ben seeks to exonerate him while investigating the many other people who despised Grose and wanted him dead. The intriguing mystery features a cast of fascinating characters and an honest look at the effects of modern ideas and design on a steadfast New England town. (Dec.)

The former U.S. intelligence agent writing as James Church offers a unique perspective on North Korea in his standout second Inspector O mystery, following 2006's acclaimed A Corpse in the Koryo. Series hero O, an inspector with the ministry of public security, is determined to maintain some moral and professional standards while toiling in an inefficient bureaucracy where competing intelligence services spend significant time spying on each other to detect the slightest trace of ideological impurity. His assignment this time is a classic no-win: his superior directs him to investigate a bank robbery, an unheard-of crime in Pyongyang, but no one is cooperating, suggesting that the truth is not something the government actually wants discovered. O is further taxed when a visiting British dignitary's arrival apparently triggers an assassination plot that could have ramifications for the current regime. With wit and efficiency, Church masterfully evokes the challenges of enforcing the law in an authoritarian society and weds the intriguing atmosphere to a fast-moving and engaging plot. (Nov.)

Despite some excellent individual efforts from a Who's Who of crime writers, this uneven anthology of poker-related stories never truly capitalizes on the game's innate drama. Any mystery lover will enjoy Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks story, “The Eastvale Ladies' Poker Circle,” though poker is merely a backdrop in this and too many of the stories. Michael Connelly fans will appreciate Harry Bosch bluffing out a murder suspect in “One-Dollar Jackpot,” while a rigged poker game on a cruise ship has dire consequences in Alexander McCall Smith's haunting “In the Eyes of Children.” Poker does occupy center stage in Jeffery Deaver's “Bump,” where a former TV star tries to increase his popularity by appearing in a made-for-TV poker tournament, but the poker details are suspect. Professional poker player Howard Lederer's introduction reminds the reader of the enormous effect poker has had on American culture, but this anthology never really mines the game's explosive popularity. (Nov.)

The turbulent Korean peninsula provides the backdrop to this fine military mystery, the fifth (after 2005's The Door to Bitterness) to feature U.S. Army criminal investigation agents George Sueño and Ernie Bascom. A crack combat unit stationed near the strife-torn demilitarized zone proves strangely uncooperative when a military policewoman disappears. The missing soldier had made herself unpopular with her chain of command when she attempted to testify against two GIs who accidentally killed a Korean schoolgirl while speeding. As Sueño and Bascom dig past the obfuscation, they uncover an unsavory mix of black marketeering, sexual harassment, corruption, rape and murder, risking disgrace in their quest to find their fellow cop before it's too late. Limón, a veteran who spent 10 years stationed in the Republic of Korea, captures precisely the experience and atmosphere of the tension that exists between the American military and South Korean society, two vastly different worlds bound together only by realpolitik. (Nov.)

South African author Kunzmann clearly establishes himself as a major league talent with his second book (after 2006's Bloody Harvests) to feature Johannesburg DI Jacob Tshabalala. Investigating the savage murder of Bernard Klamm, an elderly mining boss with an extensive collection of child pornography, Tshabalala quickly learns that Klamm is survived by his long-estranged ex-wife, Henrietta Campbell, and that the couple lost their daughter decades earlier to another killer. When Campbell asks the inspector to recommend a private investigator to delve into that old crime, Tshabalala taps a retired officer and friend, Harry Mason. Mason soon becomes the book's central focus as he travels to the isolated site of Klamm's asbestos mines to uncover the solution of both murders. With surprising ease, Kunzmann evokes South Africa of both the 1960s and the early 2000s while building a richly textured police procedural around a twisty but plausible whodunit. Not many authors, let alone new ones, have succeeded as Kunzmann has in creating a three-dimensional world, peopled with memorable characters. (Nov.)

How much does it cost to fix an election? That's the question uppermost in PI August Riordan's mind in his harrowing fourth adventure (after 2006's Candy from Strangers). Leonora Lee, the notorious, near-mythic “Dragon Lady” of San Francisco's Chinatown, hires Riordan to look into the city's mayoral election after her candidate, Alan Chow, finishes in single digits. Lee suspects someone has been tampering with newly installed touch-screen voting machines. Riordan has until the runoff election, less than a week away, to find the answers. But more than political shenanigans are on hand: the director of elections is found dead in his office, and Riordan soon runs up against Chinatown gang members as well as powerful forces committed to preserving the political status quo. Firmly entrenched in the classic private eye mold of Hammett and Chandler, Coggins exposes the dark underbelly of American politics, but doesn't stoop to political correctness or mindless carnage. (Nov.)

While appending a serial killer plot line to a historical setting is nothing new, Harris imbues what could be an overdone and tired narrative device with refreshing novelty, making his third Regency-era whodunit (after 2006's When Gods Die) a triumph. Sebastian St. Cyr, an unconventional nobleman with a talent for detection, is called in by Westminster chief magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy after two scions of the upper classes are found butchered and left on public display. St. Cyr soon finds a connection between the killer's calling card and a John Donne poem. As shadowy figures threaten and the parents of the victims display an inappropriate hostility to his efforts, the sleuth doggedly persists, uncovering a secret with shocking repercussions for London's upper class. Neatly meshing the page-turning whodunit plot with major developments in St. Cyr's love life, Harris shows every indication of assuming the mantle of the late Bruce Alexander as a reliable producer of quality period mysteries. (Nov.)

In Kingsbury's charming third holiday-themed Pennyfoot Hotel mystery (after 2006's Slay Bells), hotel proprietor Cecily Sinclair Baxter is supervising the final details of the decorations in the ballroom while her husband and the stable master head into the woods to gather holly. All too quickly, the horse-and-carriage return driverless, bearing only the corpse of a stranger. Frantic and dissatisfied with the Badger's End constabulary, Cecily takes it upon herself to find the missing men and identify a murderer. The Edwardian England setting is emphasized by the romances and adventures of numerous stereotypical characters, from Colonel Fortescue with his brandy-soaked tales of exploits in the Boer War to the downstairs crew of stout housekeeper, high-strung French cook and several gossipy maids. Bright, engaging Cecily doggedly seeks the truth in this fast-paced cozy that will provide warm holiday entertainment for Kingsbury's many fans. (Nov.)

Steele's intimate stand-alone novella of the frontier planet of Coyote chronicles the redemptive journey of two colony exiles, adding a brilliant brushstroke to the already vast and vivid canvas of the Coyote saga (Coyote, etc.). When Marie Montero and Lars Thompson are involved in a tavern brawl in the Liberty settlement, magistrates decide upon six months of “corrective banishment” instead of sentencing them to stockade time. The two outcasts and their enigmatic cyborg guide, Manuel Castro, set out on their compulsory expedition to survey the largely uncharted planet, beginning a journey into the wilderness that will not only endanger their lives but force them to come to grips with their deepest fears and flaws. With a sophistication reminiscent of some of the genre's greatest visionaries, Steele has created a must-read for anyone who enjoys thought-provoking SF; those new to the series, however, may not fully appreciate this memorable story, which relies heavily on the context of the other books. (Nov.)

Pulitzer Prize winner–Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen's Union) recreates 10th-century Khazaria, “the fabled kingdom of wild red-haired Jews on the western shore of the Caspian Sea,” in this sprightly historical adventure. Zelikman and Amram, respectively a gawky Frank and a gigantic Abyssinian, make their living by means of confidence tricks, doctoring, bodyguarding and the occasional bit of skullduggery along the Silk Road. The unlikely duo find themselves caught up in larger events when they befriend Filaq, the headstrong and unlikable heir to the recently deposed war king of the Khazars. Their attempts to restore Filaq to the throne make for a terrifically entertaining modern pulp adventure replete with marauding armies, drunken Vikings, beautiful prostitutes, rampaging elephants and mildly telegraphed plot points that aren't as they seem. Chabon has a wonderful time writing intentionally purple prose and playing with conventions that were most popular in the days of Rudyard Kipling and Talbot Mundy. Gary Gianni's elegant illustrations, a cross between Vierge's art for Don Quixote and Brundage's Weird Tales covers, perfectly complement the historical adventure. A significant change from Chabon's weightier novels, this dazzling trifle is simply terrific fun. (Oct.)

The seventh Legion of the Damned novel (after 2004's For Those Who Fell) continues the unapologetically brutal military SF saga with a pedal-to-the-metal plot jam-packed with intrigue, deep space adventure and futuristic combat. With an interstellar war looming, Marcott Nankool, the president and CEO of the Confederacy of Sentient Beings, and his entourage are captured by the Ramanthians, a ruthless insectoid race bent on nothing short of complete dominion over all other intelligent species. Keeping their identities a secret, the POWs are shipped to a labor camp on a remote jungle planet about to become the hatching ground for billions of newborn (and ravenous) Ramanthians. Against the orders of the ambitious and unethical vice president, Legion Gen. William Booly and Capt. Antonio Santana mount an all but impossible rescue mission. Blending hardcore military fiction with elements of sociological science fiction à la Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth saga, this adrenaline-fueled Clancyesque adventure is Dietz in top form. (Oct.)

This provocative sequel to acclaimed alternate history Farthing (2006) delves deeper into the intrigue and paranoia of 1940s fascist Great Britain. Denied help from the United States, England negotiated the Farthing Peace with the Nazis to end WWII, surrendering freedom for a narrow kind of safety. Eight years later, Scotland Yard investigators like Inspector Carmichael spend as much time monitoring the activities of gays, Jews and foreigners as they do hunting criminals. Carmichael, outed to his superiors as a homosexual and blackmailed into keeping deadly political secrets, plans to retire after his current case, a bombing at the country house of respected actress Lauria Gilmore. Meanwhile, Viola Lark is preparing for the role of her life as a female Hamlet when she's coerced into a plot to kill the prime minister and Hitler on opening night. World Fantasy Award–winner Walton masterfully illustrates how fear can overwhelm common sense, while leaving hope for a resurgence of popular bravery and an end to dictatorial rule. (Oct.)

Parker (the Scavenger trilogy) raises the bar for realistic fantasy war craft with this series opener. When the engineering guild sentences Ziani Vaatzes to death for improving on its supposedly perfect specifications for mechanical toys, he manages to escape Mezentia and throws in his lot with its recently defeated enemy, city-state Eremia. In exile, Vaatzes sets up shop making weapons, but his real goal is to create a new kind of engine—one made of human components, designed to reunite him with his family. He painstakingly executes a slow-moving master plan involving love, betrayal and secrets among the two countries' leaders. The tragic aftermath of the climactic battle forces a rereading of all that went before. It takes some hard slogging to get through assiduously researched technical descriptions of everything from dressing a duke to hunting a boar, and a few too many coincidences and expository speeches mar Parker's otherwise exquisite feat of literary engineering. (Oct.)

In the two decades since this venerable series was inaugurated, so many venues have begun to welcome horror and fantasy stories that these dedicated editors play a crucial role in bringing the best new works to fans who don't always read far afield. Trend spotters will note numerous ghost stories in Datlow's horror picks, including Christopher Harman's “The Last to Be Found” and Stephen Volk's “31/10,” supremely eerie exercises in the ghost-hunt-gone-bad vein, and Stephen Gallagher's “The Box” and Glen Hirshberg's “The Muldoon,” whose spooks are equal parts psychological and supernatural. Link and Grant's eclectic fantasy picks range from the haunting magical realism of Geoff Ryman's Hugo- and WFA-nominated “Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter” to the light urban fantasy of Ellen Klages's “In the House of Seven Librarians” and Jeffrey Ford's blend of whimsy and the macabre in “The Night Whiskey.” As the line between fantasy and horror blurs, this combined presentation of their exemplars will give readers of both genres much to enjoy, and may even broaden a few horizons. (Oct.)

The intricacies of Habsburg family relations make surprisingly fascinating reading in the latest episode in Flint's saga of a 20th-century West Virginia town transported mysteriously to 17th-century Europe. The recently widowed Duke Maximilian of Bavaria reluctantly assents to a dynastic marriage with his niece, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, but her recent reading of an uptime encyclopedia and the American Constitution leads her to consider other, previously unimaginable options. Meanwhile, Don Fernando, the Spanish Cardinal-Infante, moves toward peace with the fledgling United States of Europe while laying siege to Amsterdam and searching for a suitable bride. Flint teams up once again with historian DeMarce (1634: The Ram Rebellion) to tell a complicated but coherent story. It is especially refreshing to read an alternate history that doesn't depend upon the clash of anachronistic arms, but rather on how modern ideas of human rights, education, sanitation and law might have affected the Europe of the 30 Years War. (Oct.)

Shamus and Edgar award–winner Lutz gives us further proof of his enormous talent for crafting great police fiction in his latest, a deceivingly standard story that pulls retired NYPD homicide detective Frank Quinn back into action to help stop a woman-killing madman in New York City. The Butcher, who leaves the dismembered bodies of his victims stacked in bathtubs, somehow avoids leaving any forensic evidence, and it doesn't take much persuading for Quinn's old friend Deputy Chief Harley Renz to get the old detective on the case. Teamed up with an old flame, officer Pearl Kasner, Quinn gets in emotionally complicated waters early on—but things get personal when they realize the first letter of the last names of the five women killed so far spell out Q-u-i-n-n. And that's before Quinn's headstrong daughter unexpectedly shows up in the city. As the bodies pile up, Lutz handles the familiar situation—aging detective locked in battle of wits with brilliant killer—with characteristic finesse, keeping suspense taut, details gritty and twists surprising. Though his New York might as well be Anycity, U.S.A., Lutz has a thorough command of plot and character, making this another enthralling page turner. (Nov.)

Despite the homeowner's attempt to harmonize her household through the Chinese art of feng shui, death and a series of near-fatal accidents stalk a job site manned by Erin Gilbert, returning interior designer and incidental sleuth, and her new partner, Steve Sullivan. In the latest installment of Caine's Domestic Bliss mystery series (Death by Inferior Design), artist Shannon Young seeks to remodel her home with the help of Gilbert, Sullivan and a dubious feng shui consultant by the name of Ang Chung. As it turns out, Shannon has a more serious problem than inharmonious design: a predatory neighbor, Pate Hamlin, is after her house and using a series of dirty tricks to get her to sell. When the construction foreman, Erin's half-brother, dies in what might or might not be an accident, an unsatisfactory investigation by local police causes Erin to start following her own leads. It isn't long before a rival designer shows up, trying to steal Steve away from Erin in more ways than professional. Caine, a certified interior decorator, adds helpful decorating tips to her well-constructed mystery, making this a stylish, satisfying cozy. (Nov.)

Compulsively readable, the latest romantic drama from bestselling author Woods (Feels Like Family) traces beautifully and honestly two suburban Miami families' emotional crises, as they face their worst fears with help from friends. When her best friend's son, Evan, is accused of date rape, recently divorced teacher Emily Dobbs immediately stands by the young man who's become like a second son to her. The boy's mother, Marcie Carter, is grateful for the support, as her domineering husband, Ken, seems more interested in destroying the reputation of the accuser than in taking care of his family. The longtime friendship between the two women is pushed to its limits, however, when disturbing suspicions emerge that victims may not be limited to one girl—and as the investigation proceeds, Emily finds her own son and daughter getting pulled into the maelstrom. Moreover, Emily's unexpected attraction to a police detective on the case further tests her loyalty and conviction. Though the serious issues raised (date rape, verbal abuse) are handled with honesty and integrity, Woods's novel easily rises above hot-button topics to tell a universal tale of friendship's redemptive power. (Oct.)

Retired soldiers Jonathon Payne and D.J. Jones return to action (after last year's Sign of the Cross), investigating a secret bunker off the coast of Korea where a gruesome scene and a missing squad from their former unit, an elite counterinsurgency team, indicate that secret interrogation proceedings have gone terribly wrong. Piecing together the facts of the case lead Payne and Jones to Mecca, where a plot to blow up the Grand Mosque suggests a global conspiracy to align forces against the United States. Soon Payne and Jones have to risk their lives to infiltrate Mecca (where non-Muslims can be summarily executed) to save the city and, ultimately, the world. Kuzneski's novel is taut and largely fast-paced; though occasionally bogged down in historical exposition, it's a fair trade that gives the book a rich sense of authenticity and plausibility. Though characters are short on depth, Kuzneski knows how to maintain a nuanced moral landscape while wresting maximum thrills from contemporary Western fear of terrorism. This globe-crossing action thriller, like its predecessor, evokes the spirit of Dan Brown, with welcome doses of Lee Child's ex-military tough-guy grit. (Oct.)

Since it started national syndication in 1999, McGruder's comic strip has been famous for its sharp satiric perspective on African-American culture. The strip ended in 2006, following its debut as an animated series on Comedy Central's Adult Swim. This new collection serves as a farewell to the series' comics incarnation and takes a very unusual form. The first section of the book collects characteristically witty Boondocks strips from 2003 through 2005 on topics ranging from Iraq and Hurricane Katrina to the frustrations of computer help lines and the inanity of newly concocted slang. Part II, “The Media,” consists primarily of interviews with McGruder from newspapers, magazines and television. These allow McGruder to express his political opinions more openly and point to various controversies that the strip aroused. This leads to Part III, “The Controversy,” which reprints many of the strips from 1999 onward that various newspaper editors refused to run. What is especially striking is the outrage over McGruder's early criticism of the Bush administration's response to the 9/11 attacks. Hence this book is not only a retrospective of this decade's most impressive comic strips, but also a sharp reminder of shifting public opinion. (Nov.)

The rich emotions and passionate characters of Hernandez (Love & Rockets; Luba) are translated to a welcome new graphic novel, which fills B-movie situations with real drama. The story tracks the harsh world of the Empress, an otherwise nameless orphan who survives a hellish existence in an impoverished environment filled with machine gun–toting survivalists, roving gangs of delinquent murderers, and vile child molesters. She is taken in by a poet who resides in an urban hellhole of a different stripe, a place rife with vice and the exploitation of human misery. The adolescent Empress becomes influenced by the intellectual challenges posed by her poet mentor and the earthier realities evidenced by a teen pimp and his “Hearts of Gold,” a trio of multiethnic whores. While briefly in control of the pimp's stable, the Empress commits an appalling murder and flees to the more “normal” confines of a Catholic home for girls, growing up to meet a lawyer who will become her husband. A brief description only scratches the surface of the story; as always, Hernandez takes his readers on a harrowing journey that examines the damage done in childhood and how it affects the individual as she moves on through life. It's heavy stuff, but highly recommended. (Sept.)

Lolos's art is the most striking thing about this book. Not unlike artists Paul Pope and Becky Cloonan, Lolos combines American, European and Japanese influences to create something very modern, and uses expressive dark lines to deepen the gaunt faces of the characters. The book starts with teenagers Sam and Alec riding around at night in a car stolen from a parent and listening to heavy metal. They are striking, with their squat bodies and big grinning mouths, but they soon prove to be the most normal characters in the book. Early on, the boys find themselves aboard a train filled with surreal creatures, showing how Lolos apparently loves drawing characters with various extended limbs and layers of bulk. The parade of oddities is intriguing, but it soon feels like a distraction. Sam and Alec are separated, but before that complication is investigated, more supporting cast members need to strut their stuff. Thankfully, by the second half of the book a story starts to unfold, and the script catches up to become as absorbing as the art. This pays off with a cliffhanger ending that blindsides the readers and leaves them curious for more. (Sept.)

The kind of shojo manga that can induce sugar shock in the uninitiated, Suda's comedy follows 15-year-old Riku Fukagawa, a kindhearted student with an infallible “sixth sense,” who discovers that he's actually a transplant from another world: Yamato, a magical land that resembles the Japan of several hundred years ago. Riku's very odd family (including a rabbit-eared brother who communicates only through handwritten signs) lives in Yamato, and he commutes from Japan to work at their family store, selling magic items such as “live soap bubbles,” although adapting to his new environment isn't easy. For one thing, the store's “welcoming cat” statue turns out to be made of “holy-spirit stone,” and it's got a disgruntled and rather unusual holy spirit inside it. (And—wouldn't you know it?—Riku's magic power turns out to be freeing spirits from captivity.) The book's got a big, daffy ensemble cast, lots of goofy ideas and a hypercute art style: word balloons occasionally end with hearts, and characters are surrounded by flowers as design elements. But Suda's better at ramping up the story's cuteness than at propelling the plot forward, and its whimsical details sometimes undermine its bigger jokes and even its storytelling; the occasional action sequences are nearly impossible to follow. (Sept.)