Fiction Reviews: Week of 10/1/2007

Set on China's fraught, ruggedly beautiful border with North Korea, Talarigo's tense, atmospheric second novel (after The Pearl Diver) movingly dramatizes the human faces behind political oppression. A nameless middle-aged Chinese man—whose mother was Chinese and father was Korean—maintains a quiet, relatively stable life gathering the valuable ginseng root. In strict adherence to family traditions, he takes only a single root a day when he can find them; once a month he stays overnight in the city of Yanji, at Miss Wong's bordello. On one such trip, he spends the night with a young North Korean refugee who tells a harrowing story of oppression. Alternating with her story is the tale of a North Korean mother and young daughter who are forcibly separated during famine; the daughter washes up tragically at the gatherer's door, while the mother might or might not be the refugee prostitute. Talarigo hypnotically weaves the strands of these stories together against a backdrop of stunning scenery and of cruelty, creating a memorable, morally stringent tale. (Apr.)

From the author of Nine Wives comes this amusing tale of an insecure college grad who wants nothing more than to drop a few pounds, write the great American novel and lose his virginity. Raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Justin Hearnfeld is plagued by his lackluster track record with the opposite sex. After landing a job teaching English at the Clarke School for Boys, his abhorrent former high school, Justin becomes obsessed with striking yet unattainable co-worker Beverly Kinney. But his friend and fellow teacher David Grinstein, persuades him to instead try for Sadie Black, a teacher at Clarke's sister school. To add to the complication, Justin's pious ex-girlfriend, Abigail Wilson, comes back into his life with a newfound enthusiasm for sex. Enmeshed in an awkward and slightly unbelievable love triangle, Justin has to contend with the many uproarious obstacles standing between his virginal self and sex. Elish's lighthearted romp will strike a chord with the early 20s set. (Apr.)

A real-life dating columnist and book author (Stop Getting Dumped!), Daily puts her debut novel's heroine into her professional shoes. Darby Vaughn, 31, is enjoying her success as the nation's most popular romance expert: she's got bestselling books, TV appearances and even her own perfume. But her empire threatens to topple when her cheating husband, aka her publicist, humiliates her and leaves her vulnerable to giant aftershocks in the press. After a few days of intense girlfriend therapy, Darby emerges from the haze of margaritas and sappy movies to rebuild her life starting with “spin dating”—i.e., “dating for publicity.” Besides being photographed canoodling with a basketball star and a young model, Darby hires the best divorce lawyer in town, who also just happens to be the hottest. Daily keeps things moving along quickly, and though her style is not exactly seasoned, she delivers some surprising depth and a heroine with heart to root for. (Apr.)

In Spencer's (Endless Love ) witty and perceptive latest, struggling New York writer Avery Jankowsky has a midlife crisis at 37. Weary of his hand-to-mouth existence and obsessed with never being able to afford to buy an apartment, Avery's anxiety intensifies when he discovers that his younger girlfriend, Deirdre, has been unfaithful. His Uncle Ezra offers to help him get back on track by sending him on a high-end sex tour that includes stops in Reykjavik and Oslo, and Avery gets his big idea: write a book about the experience. One fat advance later, his life would seem golden, but Avery has not reckoned with the complex personalities of the men he is traveling with nor with the long-buried conflicts within himself that come bubbling to the surface as the tour goes on. Although some of the plot isn't entirely convincing, the details from moment to moment are rich, captivating and often hilarious, and the description of Reykjavik's atmosphere dead-on. There's not enough plot for a great novel, but Avery is intensely self-aware and intoxicatingly articulate even when his feelings (and actions) are less than savory. (Mar.)

The melodrama is thick and heavy in Fowler's debut. Meg Powell turned her back on the love of her life, Carson McKay, to marry Brian Hamilton, the scion of a banking family who saved her parents' farm from foreclosure in exchange for her hand. Now, 16 years later, Meg and Brian are so busy with their careers that they overlook their 16-year-old daughter, Savannah, who has typical adolescent concerns about being pretty and popular. Carson, meanwhile, has become a rock star and is now on the verge of marrying a much younger surfing champion, but he's never gotten over Meg. Trouble comes as Meg is diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and Savannah meets an unsavory 23-year-old man online who woos her with the kind of positive reinforcement she wants to hear. Unfortunately, Fowler does little to create narrative tension or well-rounded characters: Meg and Carson reunite before Meg's health declines, Brian is a predicable schmuck, and Savannah gets a rough comeuppance at the hands of her bad news beau and his pals. The bungled handling of saccharine material limits this would-be tearjerker. (Mar.)

Jamaican-born novelist Winkler recounts the journey of Taddeus Augustus Baps, a 47-year old Jamaican man who becomes a “duppy,” or spirit, after he dies. Shocked by his unexpected death, Baps discovers he's unable to touch anything earthly and quickly surmises his new status will enable him to “overhear scandal and rumor, eavesdrop on backbiting and tale-telling” and witness men “grind” on their housekeepers. But before Baps can have any fun, a deceased thief arrives to escort him to heaven, where nothing measures up to Baps's expectations, especially the minibus—not chariot—trip to the Promised Land. Once in heaven, Baps meets Miss B, a country general store proprietress who takes him as her lover until she's called to another duty. After her departure, a perennially cranky Baps takes control of her shop and struggles to get the other heavenly villagers to respect him. In addition, Baps befriends God, bickers with a conflicted American philosopher and travels in an effort to expand his otherworldly horizons. Winkler (Dog War) earns a lot of chuckles as he pokes fun at cultural stereotypes and the afterlife. (Mar.)

A mysterious, holy grail–like object, a document with the potential to “bring about peace between the different peoples of the world,” is at the center of White's erudite second novel set in late 19th-century Istanbul and featuring city magistrate Kamil Pasha (after The Sultan's Seal). The minister of justice, Kamil's boss, orders him to find the thieves who are looting Istanbul of its religious relics and selling them to unscrupulous dealers in London. Kamil's friend Malik, the caretaker of a local mosque, has a specific task for him—locating a stolen reliquary, a silver box that contains a secret message known as the Proof of God. Kamil—smart, brave and compassionate—proves an appealing sleuth. Intriguing love interests include the daughter of the leader of the strange Abyssinian sect to which the reliquary belongs. White, a professor of anthropology, clearly knows her period and place, though some readers may wish that she had toned down the esoteric knowledge and upped the thriller quotient. Author tour. (Feb.)

Friendship, Hollywood-style, is the subject of Cline's underpowered second novel (after her well-received What to Keep). Mousy film editor Annabeth Jensen and chic, ambitious indie director Laura Katz, both in their 30s, meet at an industry party. Annabeth, who has a dark past (“the mostly absent alcoholic father, the raging mother”), is between jobs, and Laura is looking for a producer for her new project. Annabeth and Laura become unlikely friends and together begin prepping the feature, Trouble Doll, “about a girl from the Midwest who comes to L.A. to find fame and fortune and winds up dead on the side of the road.” But as soon as the movie goes into production, the women's friendship shifts, with Annabeth feeling more like just another employee than a confidante. How Annabeth deals with a grand betrayal of their friendship forms the dramatic crux of this novel, but Annabeth's attempt to reassert control over her life may come too late; her defining (and not overly gripping) feature is her grinding insecurity, and it eventually tiptoes into maudlin territory. This novel is likely too meek to leave a lasting mark in the pantheon of Hollywood fiction. (Feb.)

In Poster's dazzling debut, set amid the Victorian gloom of 1881, snobbish John Stannard leads the restoration of a small, architecturally undistinguished church in a remote British village. It's unglamorous work that the young architect thinks beneath him, what with having to disinter corpses, fend off enraged townsfolk and dole out 19th-century workers comp to injured laborers. Further complicating Stannard's effort is the church's curate, Mr. Banks, who seeks to preserve all of what Stannard aims to modernize and improve, no matter how rotten or broken. The debate between the two men escalates when, stripping plaster from a wall, one of Stannard's employees uncovers a Doom Painting—a folk mural blending Christian and pagan influences dating from medieval times. At the same time, the buttoned-up Stannard begins to experience previously unknown passion, falling for the beautiful 19-year-old Ann Rosewell, an emigmatic local woman. The variously grotesque characters are spot-on, as is the static, lugubrious setting. Poster, who has worked as an archeologist, is formidable in his command of Victorian architecture and restoration, and uses his skills to construct an unlikely, subtext-ridden conflict—over the possibility of restoration to some original state of grace—that is wholly involving from start to finish. (Feb.)

Bombay-born Shroff opens a window on that city's commercial bustle, “as lived in the heads of its people” (as his introduction puts it) one profession at a time. The opening “Dhobi Ghat,” follows Mataprasad Mahadev, 53, delivering laundry, and establishes a pattern followed by later stories: a man (it's most often a man) is shown at work; his backstory then explains how he got there and leads to an ambiguous, open-ended conclusion. Whether wealthy tycoon, taxi driver or writer, modernization and globalization are eroding livelihoods, making previously unimpeachable choices untenable, and causing massive nostalgia. There are flashes of excellence here, as in the portrait of an elderly, neurotic army widow in “The Great Divide,” but heavy symbolism weighs down some of the otherwise carefully nuanced portraits. Shroff proves adept at unraveling Bombay's rituals, rumors and rhythms from the inside out. (Feb.)

The title only hints at the freaky-deaky content in the first installment of a street lit series that could also qualify as urban erotic horror. In Atlanta, Bentley Manor is a cage for four young women. Aisha, whose pampered lifestyle takes a big hit after her dealer husband gets locked up, goes to dangerous lengths to keep up her ghetto fab image. Devani is single and, at her mother's direction, plans on tricking NFL star Tyrik Jefferson into marrying her by getting pregnant. Lexi has five kids by four men and hopes Luther, the man who finally married her, will buy them a house, but will his sub-par sack performance tank her dreams? Molly is the “white trash” wife of oversexed, abusive and often absentee Junior; she, like the other women, dreams of getting “up out Bentley Manor.” The authors, who also publish under Niobia Bryant and Adrianne Byrd, hold back little in this cautionary tale dripping with sex, vice and yearning. (Feb.)

Veteran British novelist Smith returns from 2006's Whitbread Award–winner The Accidental with a cheerful, sexy, disorienting take on the gender-shifting myths of Iphis (as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses). Fragile, rootless Anthea arrives at the Inverness, Scotland, offices of the slick, multibrand corporate behemoth Pure, where her up-and-coming sister Midge has gotten her a job. Raised on their grandfather's strange stories of rebellion and gender switching, the sisters undergo very different transformations when confronting “Pure oblivion,” the corporation's goal of being simultaneously ubiquitous and invisible. Drifting at work, Anthea meets kilt-clad graffiti artist Robin, who awakens destructive passions within her. Midge, meanwhile, is summoned to Pure's London headquarters by Keith, the charismatic “boss of bosses,” and her meeting with him sets her on an unexpected course with the company. Smith's spare and sharp lyricism makes the action secondary, but the ironies that arise from the corporate setting for a very old myth are handled with glee (including jabs at water supply privatization), and Smith's cadences, which read like classical drama, carry the novel along beautifully. (Jan.)

The two young professionals of Collins's polished debut, Holly and Peter, meet on a flight bound from New York to L.A. They tacitly understand they are soul mates, and she invites him to dinner, but Peter soon discovers that he has lost the number Holly wrote on a page torn from Mann's The Magic Mountain. With Peter's financial career and New York society as a mundane backdrop, years pass and Holly ends up married to Jonathan, a successful author and womanizer—and, conveniently, Peter's best friend. Still aching for his one-time seatmate, Peter marries Charlotte, a dull Francophile, because it “made sense.” Charlotte, of course, is also in love with someone else—a former flame, Maximilien-Francois-Marie-Isidore. At Peter and Charlotte's wedding, Jonathan is struck by lightning, precipitating an endless series of events that changes the lives of family, friends and lovers alike—including Peter's boss and Charlotte's ex-stepmother. Former Time editor Collins, 48, writes as if fully aware that anyone who saw any one of a thousand other romantic comedies will find the plot familiar: he plays romantic comedy clichés with an expert coolness. Anyone for whom chick lit is a guilty pleasure will find the tone here multiple notches above the usual fare. (Jan.)

British author Banks fulfills the promise of 2000's The Big Blind with this tough and assured crime novel. Callum Innes, recently released from prison, works as an unlicensed PI in Manchester, England. His brother, Declan, has gone home to Edinburgh to kick his heroin habit, and Innes is determined to stay straight this time as well. Morris Tiernan, local crime boss and Innes's former employer, however, insists that he complete one final job: tracking down the blackjack dealer who has disappeared with Tiernan's 16-year-old daughter, Alison, and a sizable chunk of his money. Complicating matters is Tiernan's son, Morris Junior (or “Mo”), a psychotic speed freak, who vows to overthrow his father's underworld reign. Mo despises Innes, envies the respect his father gives him and decides to show them both what he's really capable of. The results, inevitably, are both comically inept and violent. Some American readers may struggle a bit with Tiernan's street dialect, but like Ken Bruen and Allan Guthrie, Banks is updating the noir novel with an utterly original sensibility. (Jan.)

Mimicking many nonfiction books about the CIA, Weisberg, a former CIA officer, has included a blizzard of redacted (blacked out) words and sentences in his second novel (after 10th Grade), as if the agency's publications review board had worked the manuscript over with a heavy hand. Did they? Or is it just a clever ploy for verisimilitude? Mark Ruttenberg, a newly minted agent, is on his first foreign assignment trying to persuade citizens of an unknown country (the location has been redacted) to spy for American interests. He's doing well until he starts sleeping with one of his contacts and his superiors eventually fire him. Back in America, Ruttenberg meets another cashiered spy, Bobby Goldstein, and the two men share their experiences. Ruttenberg and Goldstein may be pretty ordinary spies, as the title suggests, but their stories compel, thanks to the author's deft prose and insider expertise. Given the quantity of blacked-out material, some readers may be more annoyed than intrigued as they puzzle over the missing information. (Jan.)

Children's-book author Young (who, as Sara Pennypacker, penned the celebrated Stuart series) makes a stunning adult debut with this beautifully told and heart-wrenching novel set in WWII Europe. Cyrla, half-Jewish, is no longer safe hiding in the home of her Dutch relatives under the increasingly harsh Nazi occupation. When cousin Annika, whom Cyrla closely resembles, becomes pregnant by a German soldier, Annika's father enrolls her in a Lebensborn, a birthing center for Aryan children, where the slogan is “Have one baby for the Führer.” In a tragic turn of events, Cyrla discovers her only chance of survival is to hide in plain sight: she must assume Annika's identity and live in the German Lebensborn until rescued. Within the Lebensborn's walls, mothers-to-be receive proper nutrition and medical care until their children are taken from them for adoption into Aryan families The horrors Cyrla witnesses are softened only by her resounding optimism and strength. (Jan.)

Moore, whose novels have been translated into German, Japanese and eight other languages, makes his U.S. debut with a low-key thriller, part of a series to feature Vincent Calvino, a disbarred American lawyer working as a PI in Bangkok, Thailand. An apparent suicide in a failing massage parlor below Calvino's office may be related to the suspicious heart attack of his biggest client, attorney Andrew Danielson. When Danielson's law firm refuses to pay Calvino's outstanding fees, luck arrives in the form of prissy attorney John Lovell. Lovell has been cut loose from the same law firm because of fears he might pry into Danielson's death. He also knows a lot about local celebrity Khun Weerawat's shady deals, which may be relevant to Calvino's investigations for Danielson. As Calvino tries to connect the dots and find out what happened to Danielson, he also attempts to solicit business from four women afraid their husbands are cheating on them. The breezy quality of the scenes with the suspicious wives, the lack of depth to Calvino's character and a predictable resolution undermine an otherwise complex, intelligent novel. (Jan.)

Archeologist Watson concludes her popular Dalriada trilogy (after The Dawn Stag and The White Mare), with another richly imagined and action-packed saga. Watson's heroine, Minna, is a nursemaid for a Roman family living south of Hadrian's Wall that separates Roman Britannia from barbarian Alba (present-day Scotland). A half-caste with “unnatural eyes and strange ways,” Minna runs away after the death of her beloved grandmother. Traveling north where her brother serves with the legions, Minna is captured by slave traders and sold into slavery. Her new owner, Queen Maeve, the wife of King Cahir of Dalriada—one of the tribal kingdoms of Alba—assigns her “to tutor royal children.” King Cahir soon realizes that the new tutor is a “'sign of the prophecy'” that it is his destiny to “free Alba of Rome.” King Cahir forges an alliance among the usually fractious northern tribes and marches south to confront the Romans. Standing in their way are the hated Roman legions, their despised Wall, Minna's split allegiance to her Roman roots and her captors, and treachery among Cahir's family and allies. Watson's work is as inventive, eloquent and exotic as ever; her fans will relish this rousing conclusion. (Jan.)

Seitz (Prints Charming) continues to integrate fiction and scrapbooking themes in her new chick lit series, with mixed results. Thirty-year-old Tandy Sinclair is a hotshot attorney in Orlando, Fla., who is trying to quell memories of her homeless childhood. When an ethical dilemma causes Tandy to take a leave of absence from work, she heads home to the small town of Stars Hill, Tenn. There, she runs into her hunky high school sweetheart, who has started a band and now runs a cafe. Tandy's three adopted and diverse sisters (in an equal-opportunity contrivance that feels forced, one is Asian, one African-American and one Caucasian) urge Tandy to re-evaluate her priorities and give her old flame a second chance. References to scrapbooking are worked into as many scenes as possible, which will please hobbyists. However, problems plague the novel, including prolonged passages, lengthy back-to-back dialogue and too much mechanical detail. Other passages are breathlessly dramatic (“Daddy waited down that winding gravel path. Daddy—and a lifetime of memories”). The timeworn cliché of the city girl returning home to the country to find love and wisdom is in full force, and the ending holds no surprises. Plans call for each book in the series to feature a different sister; readers will hope subsequent installments have more substance. (Jan.)

When a demon succubus falls for a mortal man, their relationship faces some sticky sweet obstacles in Mead's follow-up to her steamy 2006 paranormal debut, Succubus Blues. By day, shape-shifting beauty Letha, aka Georgina Kincaid, works at a Seattle bookstore; by night, in flagrante, she sucks the life energies of mortals. Her besotted bestselling writer boyfriend, Seth Mortenson, has agreed to a no-sex arrangement, and the “will they or won't they?” plot line grows tedious, as does Letha's character as the succubus with a heart of gold. Luckily, Mead provides cool side action when Letha's incubus pal, Bastien, enlists her help in taking down rabidly conservative radio host Dana Dailey. And bookstore co-worker Doug Sato finds his brushes with the demonic have some very pleasant side effects. It's hard to suspend disbelief, but this urban sextacular is a hoot. (Jan.)

The real-life marriage of Irish actress Harriet Smithson (1800–1854) to composer Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) is the ostensible subject of Morgan's latest (following Indiscretion), but the two don't meet until two thirds of the way into this thickly embellished historical romance. After initial reluctance, the young Harriet, her passion for theatre inflamed by Shakespeare, joins her family's traveling theater company. As drink dissipates her father, weight softens her mother and minimal talent limits her brother Joseph, Harriet takes charge of the family business and appears with theatrical stars of the time. But it's her magnificent interpretation of Ophelia in Paris that brings her a public, including Hector, the son of a successful doctor and a pious mother. Young Hector's path to a musical education is told in parallel to Harriet's youth. After her Ophelia, Harriet turns away Hector's ardent pursuit, but as her theater begins to fail and his musical star begins to rise, she attends a performance of his Symphonie Fantastique, inspired by her. Morgan's modernist style, with frequent shifts in tense and POV, won't be for everyone, but it lets Morgan nicely capture the multiple levels of consciousness a performer juggles on stage (“the three minds”) and gives the novel real texture. (Dec.)

In his darkly humorous adult fiction debut, Fuqua (YA novels The Reappearance of Sam Webber; Darby; etc.) mines familiar territory: adolescent growing pains. Writing from the perspective of sixth-grader Caley, Fuqua crafts an intimate story of one boy's descent into depression and near-madness as he struggles to deal with his parents' divorce, their borderline negligence and occasional cruelty, and the instability and loneliness brought on by moving—from Virginia to Missouri to, eventually, Florida—every couple of months. Filled with self-loathing (“A better kid would've been a better person. I became a huge let-down to me”) and hopelessness, Caley develops insomnia, dabbles in petty crime and gets drunk with his older brother, Fulton. He finds a brief bit of respite and companionship in John, a similarly outcast Missouri schoolmate whose plight is worse than Caley's. Fuqua conveys pathos and heartbreak while maintaining Caley's rich voice; the coming-of-age narrative and straightforward arc should add YA crossover appeal. (Dec.)

Screenwriter Epperson (coauthor of the script for One False Move) makes an effortless transition to novel writing with this hard-biting noir set in 1930s Los Angeles. While the contours of the plot will strike many as familiar, the author avoids clichés in his tale of Danny Landon, who works for vicious mobster Bub Seitz (aka “the Kind One”). Danny, who suffers from amnesia, only dimly recalls the events that led to his receiving the epithet “Two Gun Danny,” but finds the accounts he's been given of his violent past at odds with his current revulsion for bloodshed. When Seitz, a mercurial figure with a hair-trigger temper, asks Landon to keep an eye on his current squeeze, Darla, the two men soon find themselves in conflict. With spare prose, Epperson presents Landon's inner turmoil plausibly and manages to throw in an occasional turn of phrase that Raymond Chandler might have penned. While this book lacks the depth of James Ellroy's L.A. noir novels, it's an impressive debut and deserves to be followed by more. (Dec.)

In this third novel of a series (Sweet Tilly; Morning Glory) about the Anderson cousins of Healdton, Okla., the newcomer is Addison Carter, a physician hired sight unseen by Magnolia Oil and fired for being a woman as soon as she reports to work. In 1917, the men of Healdton are not ready for a female doctor. She's about to head out again when Tucker Anderson, a farmer and one of the the Anderson cousins, falls from the barn roof. Cousins Tilly and Clara appeal to Addison, who proves her worth as a doctor by attending to Tucker's injuries. Rather than being thankful, anti–women's suffrage Tucker is immediately suspicious of his bossy female doctor. Tucker squabbles with Addison about everything from his treatment to the running of the farm. By the time he is able to get out of bed, they are both smitten, but neither is willing to admit it. Tilly and Clara come up with a way to keep Addison in Healdton until Tucker comes to his senses, but their plans are complicated by Katy, the new teacher in town who has designs on Tucker. It's a serviceable conservative romance with a traditional plot and plenty of wholesome, down-home detail. (Dec.)

Marcella Tartaglia is a diligent, ambitious young associate at Gracious Living magazine with top-of-the-masthead dreams. Sent on assignment to England to cover the wedding of the magazine's departing senior editor, Marcella has her heart set on filling the editor's position. Then she meets William Stafford, a “movie star” handsome, motorcycle-riding “bad boy” who also happens to be “the Honorable William John Anthony Grafton Stafford, son of Lord Wiltshire, the Eighteenth Viscount of Wiltshire” and a vicar as dedicated to his congregation as she is to her career. Not one for a weekend fling, William invites her to share his world permanently. Unsure of whether she is cut out to be a vicar's wife, Marcella returns to New York. But can she immerse herself in work so much that she forgets about William? Can any other man hold a candle to the smoldering hunk she left in the English countryside? Norato's debut is sweet and sincere, a defanged Prada by way of a more innocent Bridget Jones. (Dec.)

Jacobs's latest is a lighter-than-air meringue with little conflict and anemic drama that manages to charm the reader anyway. Vancy Salo is stricken by her Hungarian grandmother's wedding curse, or so she believes after her fiancé leaves her at the last second for a waitress. Soon, Vancy's hounded by the local press, who think the wedding curse story could have the same legs as a recent, popular runaway bride story. At the same time, Matt Wilde, the landscape contractor for Vancy's family's construction business, has just had dumped on him two nephews he didn't know existed. He takes care of them, but the stress of looking after them while both working and searching for their father has him at wit's end. So when he desperately suggests Vancy stay with him until the media attention dies down, she shocks herself and him by agreeing. The rest of the story is predictable in the extreme: without so much as a disagreement or misunderstanding, the burgeoning lovebirds decide to keep their ready-made family. Charming but thin, this book is for those who like their romance light and sweet. (Dec.)

Former BBC journalist Ashford follows up her debut, Frozen, with an engaging second lead appearance for British profiler and forensic pathologist Dr. Megan Rhys. The young head of Heartland University's Department of Investigative Psychology, Megan struggles to keep a problematic relationship with one of her former Ph.D. students under wraps while profiling a serial killer who carves pentagrams on his victims' foreheads. Megan finds that the first victim, Tessa Ledbury, a wife and mother, had once been involved with Sean Raven, a charismatic local Wiccan coven leader, which makes Wolverhampton Det. Supt. Steve Foy's theory that the killing was occult-related look likely. But Megan isn't convinced, and her uncertainty is shared by her friend Delva Lobelo, a BTV journalist. When more victims are discovered, the investigation expands, and an unfortunate incident brings Megan's sister into the mix. Ashford's tight plotting and clean prose keep the tension building, making this an admirable sequel. (Dec.)

This uneven debut introduces bail bondsman Herman Jackson, who sees nothing unusual when a woman calling herself Amy Cox comes to his office to arrange bail for her brother. She offers her violin as collateral, claiming it's an Amati worth $60,000 or more. Shortly after handing over the instrument to Jackson and getting a replacement from a nearby pawn shop, Amy is killed and the loaner stolen. Thus begins a wild, extravagant bait-and-switch. To get to the bottom of Amy's death and figure out who's conning him, Jackson must go back 60 years to learn the full story of the violin. The most charming character is a brassy waitress, Rosie, who plays Watson to Jackson's Holmes. Jackson himself is not especially well-developed, and the mystery would be stronger with fewer plot twists. Still, Jackson's location on the edge of the justice system is a good setup for a sequel, and with a bit of seasoning, Thompson may have a successful series on his hands. (Jan.)

In what may be the most captivating mystery to date in Rickman's Merrily Watkins series (after 2006's The Smile of a Ghost), victims in several car accidents near the Malvern village of Wychehill report swerving to avoid ghosts. One doesn't have to be a believer in the paranormal to become engrossed as Merrily, parish priest and exorcism consultant, examines connections that some have made to the famous English composer, Elgar, who once lived in Wychehill and is venerated by many residents of the town. As the investigation takes Merrily deeper and deeper into the lives of the villagers, her teenage daughter is fighting her own battle at home against a proposed housing development that will destroy what's considered ancient sacred space. Rickman provides (at some length) meticulous historical background on Elgar and vivid descriptions that create the backdrop for an unusual cast of characters and a dramatic, thrilling conclusion. (Dec.)

Just in time for Christmas, Murphy brings in feline sleuth Joe Grey to celebrate the season and try to rescue a frightened child in her 14th mystery set in Molena Point, Calif. (after Cat Pay the Devil). Joe's tortoiseshell pal, Kit, discovers and reports a child clinging to a dead man under a Christmas tree. By the time the police arrive the body has disappeared (disposed of by the killer), as has the little girl (hidden by the cats). As Joe and company try to solve the mystery and keep the girl safe, intruders—perhaps linked to each other and the murder—break into Kit's house and a noted artist's studio at the Home for Orphan Children. Murphy's fans will be happy to curl up under a blanket as they savor the finely crafted suspense set against the backdrop of holiday feasts and festivities and the crashing waves of the Pacific. (Dec.)

The brisk 11th Decius Metellus Roman historical (after 2006's SPQR X: A Point of Law) finds tensions increasing between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Series hero Decius has been elected praetor peregrinus, traveling magistrate in charge of all cases involving foreigners. A relaxing stay in a southern Italian town near the legendary volcano Vesuvius is disrupted by the murder of Gorgo, the attractive young daughter of the local priest. Anger quickly grows against her forbidden lover, Gelon, a Numidian, but Decius's instincts tell him that another is responsible for the killing. The solution owes more to a chance discovery than reasoned deduction, and the political upheaval of the time is more distant background noise than an immediate concern for the characters. Though the details and overall impression of ancient Rome aren't at the high level of Steven Saylor, readers looking for a crafty and entertaining journey to the past won't be disappointed. (Dec.)

Deputy sheriff Steve Two Crow Martinez encounters a bizarre killer in his exciting third Porcupine County, Mich., adventure (after 2006's A Venture into Murder). The discovery of a headless and handless embalmed corpse in an abandoned building leads to a demented geocaching game—using GPS receivers to find hidden trinkets or, in this case, bodies—conducted via an anonymous chat room. The gamers are led by a sociopath who resorts to murder when he can't buy cadavers to stock his caches. Martinez must solve this creepy puzzler while waging a heated campaign for sheriff, a position his elderly boss, Eli Garrow, is reluctant to relinquish. He also faces new responsibilities as he cares for his girlfriend's Objibwe Indian foster son, Tommy Standing Bear, while she's out of town. When Tommy gets lost in the woods, Steve must rely on old-fashioned methods to find him—and again to catch the killer. Kisor delivers an educational chiller that also serves as a cautionary reminder about overreliance on fallible technology. (Dec.)

Hart's engrossing 15th mystery to feature lesbian restaurateur Jane Lawless (after 2006's Night Vision) will make excellent election-year reading. When Jane's father, Ray, is drafted to run for governor of Minnesota, the whole family gets involved in the race. Ray's chances look good until a fearless reporter, Melanie Gunderson, who happens to be in Jane's social circle, begins sniffing around a decades-old unsolved murder that might involve several of Ray's key staffers and financial backers. When Melanie is brutally attacked, Jane decides to solve the cold case herself. Her search takes her to smalltown Iowa and draws her into a debate about patriotism and military service that, although ostensibly about Vietnam, has contemporary resonance. The book isn't flawless; Hart gratuitously puts her own name on a list of queer lit authors, and Jane's long-distance lover, Kenzie, deserves a bigger role. Still, those are minor quibbles with an otherwise fun whodunit. (Dec.)

This disappointing procedural captures the tedium of real police work too well for its own good. It's the summer of 1969, a man is about to walk on the moon, and Det. Sgt. Ted “Steve” Stephens has a welcome distraction from the mire of self-pity he's been wallowing in since his wife left him: the professionally executed assassinations of a prominent Houston attorney, his wife and his mob-connected mother. A rival detective is convinced that the attorney's hippie son did it, upset at being cut out of the wills of both his father and his grandmother, but Stephens is too good a cop to fall for easy answers, and he runs down all the leads with the assistance of a mentoring private investigator. It's too bad that Anthony-winner Crider and real-life celebrity PI Wilson couldn't come up with characters who exhibit actual personalities instead of a collection of quirks, and the plot is resolved through a literal deus ex machina that leaves much to be desired. (Dec.)

With exceptional restraint and the accretion of small but telling details, DuBois, already acclaimed for his 2003 thriller Betrayed, leaps to the forefront of speculations on the future of the war on terror with this quietly devastating cautionary tale. His callow but sympathetic hero, Canadian journalist Samuel Simpson, has joined a United Nations unit attempting to gather evidence against those responsible for a devastating terror attack and document war crimes in the ensuing civil strife. In a twist Rod Serling would have been proud of, Dubois reveals that Simpson's beleaguered team, dodging gunfire in a shattered landscape, is assigned to the United States, which has fallen into anarchy after a dirty bomb destroyed lower Manhattan and other attacks seriously damaged electrical systems across the country. The balance between action and introspection is superb, and DuBois is confident enough of his readership and his premise to avoid a pat, upbeat ending. Those seeking a thoughtful look at a plausible aftermath of further attacks on America will find much to ponder. (Nov. 29)

Turtledove explores the mythical lost continent of Atlantis in this somewhat formulaic alternate history, the first volume of a planned trilogy revolving around the colonization of the legendary island. When an English fisherman discovers an isolated paradise between Europe and Terranova (North America) during the reign of King Henry VI, he and a group of disgruntled countrymen pack up and set sail for a new life. Free from social, political and religious repression, Edward Radcliffe and his family thrive until an exiled nobleman shows up on the shores with dreams of establishing a new kingdom with himself on the throne. Generations pass and Radcliffe's descendants find themselves fighting with colonists from rival nations and bickering among themselves. Featuring Turtledove's trademark multithread narrative and realistic depiction of warfare and its aftermath, the predictable story is disappointing; readers hoping to find Atlantis full of advanced civilizations or mythical creatures will have to settle for oversized, flightless birds, miles of undeveloped wilderness and the inevitable struggle between settlers from opposing countries. (Dec.)

Each of the 16 selections in Strahan's superb anthology (the launch of an annual series) does a disturbing take on a premise that genre fans may find familiar from more mundane examples of science fiction, fantasy or horror. Paul Brandon and Jack Dann's “The Transformation of Targ” and Ysabeau S. Wilce's “Quartermaster Returns,” both horror stories, simultaneously unsettle and amuse. Jeffrey Ford's metaphorical “The Drowned Life” explores a debtor's despair. Peter S. Beagle's “The Last and Only or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French” veers all too close to contemporary reality, while Terry Dowling's “Toother” is as much about the grim realities of the Napoleonic and American Civil Wars as it is about the horror of serial killers. Ellen Klages's “Mrs. Zeno's Paradox” plays a delightful twist on the classical thought experiment. Gwyneth Jones's “In the Forest of the Queen” is at once hauntingly ethereal and an arresting reinterpretation of humans wandering into faerie. Every selection both defines and challenges our genre expectations. (Nov.)

At the start of Shinn's exciting fourth Twelve Houses fantasy (after 2006's Dark Moon Defender), King Baryn decides it's time to marry off his daughter, Amalie, given the precarious political situation in Gillengaria. Baryn recruits a group of talented mystics, led by gray-eyed Senneth, to help stabilize the succession. Cammon, a commoner with special powers, watches over Amalie as men pay court, even as he and Amalie fall hopelessly in love. As their relationship flowers, the political situation worsens after Baryn's assassinated. Landowners struggle for power and armed clashes begin, but the real battles play out on a personal level. First, Senneth is kidnapped by a hopeful would-be king, Halchon, whose mere touch takes her magic away. Then, Senneth must confront Halchon's sister (and her longtime nemesis), Coralinda, in an epic showdown that unites the mystics in a struggle for their very right to exist. Intrigue, love and magic weave into Shinn's hallmark romantic, happy-ever-after ending. (Nov.)

This gripping sequel to 2006's Night Train to Rigel takes hardboiled intelligence operative Frank Compton and his winsome assistant, Bayta, in search of an archeological relic. They hope to protect it from the Modhri, an alien group mind who needs it for a sinister plan that could lead to galactic war. When a man connected with the relic is murdered on a Quadrail interstellar train, Compton and Bayta head off to find his nephew and his fiancée. Their quest is hampered by suspicious Inspector Morse of the EuroUnion Security Service, who seems to have an old grudge against Compton, and various hostile aliens telepathically possessed and controlled by the Modhri. Memorable characters such as Compton and Batya's wise Bellido ally, Korak Fayr; the growing intimacy between the pair; and loving details of the almost-plausible Quadrail technology lift this SF action thriller. (Nov.)

A fantastic cat-and-mouse game among a shape-changing troll, Elemental Masters and a gifted dancer in Victorian England makes Lackey's latest Elemental Masters installment (after 2005's The Wizard of London) a charmer. When young, impoverished Ninette Dupond is fired from the Paris Opera Ballet after upstaging its star, her Elementally gifted cat, Thomas, reveals his extraordinary skills and urges her to flee France. Once in Blackpool, Thomas shows her how to assume the identity of Nina Tchereslavsky, a Russian prima donna, and brings her to the attention of Elemental Master Nigel Barrett and his theatrically inclined cohorts. Soon, “Nina” is dancing happily in their latest theatrical production, until the real Nina—or rather, the troll that long ago possessed the real Nina's body—learns of the imposter and rushes to unmask her. This is Lackey at her best, mixing whimsy and magic with a fast-paced plot. (Nov.)

Stirling (The Sunrise Lands) shows off his prowess in both alternate history and military SF with his first short story collection. Noteworthy selections include the original Holmesian mystery “Something for Yew,” set in Stirling's Emberverse (an alternate universe where Earth's modern civilizations have lost all technological advances), in which an intrepid English detective inspector must solve a murder with subtle political underpinnings before it triggers an apocalyptic world war; “Three Walls–32nd Campaign,” a military SF gem about a legion of Roman soldiers who, having been enslaved by an alien trading guild, become their low-tech killing machines; and Island in the Sea of Time tie-in “Riding Shotgun to Armageddon,” which follows a renegade American who brings advanced weaponry to Bronze Age Egyptians. While the lack of thematic scope will limit the collection's potential audience, fans of David Drake, Harry Turtledove and Eric Flint will find Stirling's short fiction both meticulously researched and compelling. (Nov.)

Underplotted and overstuffed with grisly mayhem, this extreme horror extravaganza unfolds like an exhibit at the supernatural theme park in which it's set. The Haunted Forest, a giant woodland that's home to otherworldly demons and monsters, has become a major tourist attraction in Cromay, N.Mex., thanks to an armored train tour that a shady cryptozoology business runs through it. One Halloween, two tour trains collide, stranding dozens of vulnerable tourists in the heart of the forest and sparking a splattery feeding frenzy among the ravenous monsters. Moore (Blood Red) and Strand (Mandibles) devote considerable effort and energy to ghoulishly inventive descriptions of dismemberment, disembowelment and death, but the relentlessness of the carnage and the casualness with which the monsters dispose of even major characters quickly pall. A belated plot thread concerning a businessman's deal with the monsters sealed with the sacrifice of human lives only underscores how much this story is intended primarily to be a simple bloody monster mash. (Nov.)

This collection of 17 short stories by popular fantasy author Huff (the Smoke trilogy) celebrates an author praised for smart, funny dialogue, memorable characters and an optimism that's never naïve. The wise heroes of “I Knew a Guy Once” and “Slow Poison” know that even the most difficult goals—whether improving morale on a remote space mining station or defeating a brutal warlord—can be achieved with perseverance and patience. Traditional fantasy clashes hilariously with the contemporary world in “He Said, Sidhe Said” (a retelling of the old Scottish ballad of Tam Lin) and “Jack” (revisiting Jack and the beanstalk), while a Girl Guide leader faces a real challenge with her latest crop of Brownies in “Tuesday Evening, Six Thirty to Seven.” Several stories revisit familiar settings, including “After School Specials” (set in the world of Smoke and Shadows), “Not That Kind of War” (a prequel to the Valor series) and three stories—”The Demon's Den,” “Brock” and “All the Ages of Man”—set in Huff's friend Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar world. An essay on Huff's work by Erica L. Neely rounds out this highly entertaining volume. (Nov.)

Entertaining and exciting throughout, there's enough seduction, laughter and surprises in the second Desperate Duchesses installment to satisfy even the most demanding fans of historical fiction. In the spring of 1783, four years after they married for love, irreconcilable differences in the bedroom have left the duke of Fletcher desperate for a mistress and Poppy, his wife, certain that “Fletch” no longer cares for her. Poppy was brought up by the ruthless and unwittingly hilarious Lady Flora, who believes that all men should take mistresses to relieve their wives of unpleasant marital duties, so she can hardly help her distaste for intimacy. When she discovers Fletch's plans for infidelity, she leaves him and moves in with the vivacious and sexy Jemma, duchess of Beaumont, who educates her in the merits of independent living. Meanwhile, Fletch contrives a plan to win her back. To round out a wonderfully busy and well-delivered plot, Jemma's likely paramour, the duke of Villiers, has developed an unlikely affection for the plain, brash spinster Miss Charlotte Tatlock, rumored to be another duke's mistress. With a menagerie of charming, unconventional characters and a great sense of fun, James's latest foray into Georgian romance suffers not a single dull moment. (Dec.)

From its tongue-in-cheek title to its melding of romance and zombie-killing action, there's little in Sinclair's newest sci-fi romance (following Games of Command) that doesn't surprise, grip or entertain. The story's premise: artificially engineered creatures with razor-sharp claws and bodies covered in wriggling “energy worms” have gone rogue, dispersing across solar systems to breed and kill. It's up to alien soldiers like Lt. Jorie Mikkalah, essentially high-tech humans from another planet, to disable them. Jorie's search leads her to present-day Earth, where she must outsmart a glut of zombies holed up in Florida and rely on whip-smart detective Theo Petrakos for a base of operations, a convenient cover and a steady stock of “glorious” peanut butter. The narrative bounces easily from zombie attack to a visit with Theo's matchmaking neighbor, from military strategizing to tender moments between Theo and Jorie. This strange mesh of elements, held together by Sinclair's strong characterizations and methodical plotting, makes the book an unexpected treat. Though it may prove too light for sci-fi enthusiasts, fans of romance and fantasy hunting for edgier fare can stop singing the blues. (Dec.)

Since vampires murdered her parents, Kacie Renault has sworn to slay any that cross her path. After casually dispatching a bloodsucker in her father's town of Hocksley, England, Kacie is surprised to find that she's become the target of a deadly vengeance campaign organized by the dead vampire's powerful family. What she doesn't know is that her old vampire friend, Erik Winslow, is the victim's brother; torn between family and his powerful feelings for the slayer, Erik reluctantly stands against his siblings to protect Kacie. As the unlikely duo go on the run, ultimately yielding to growing passion, they discover that the situation is far more complicated, and deadly, than they believed. The third entry in Popp's Night Slayer series (following Tempted in the Night) bristles with action; Popp's ability to keep tension crackling and sensuality palpable while crafting a twisty, satisfying story justifies her growing popularity among fans of paranormal romance. (Dec.)

In her latest outing, Sala's emotionally and physically scarred bounty hunter, Cat Dupree, finds herself on an assignment that could finally put her personal demons to rest: searching for Solomon Tutuola, the man who slashed her throat and murdered her father years ago. Though Tutuola should have died in a house fire six weeks ago, Cat's GPS program indicates he's still on the loose. Ditching her love-struck comrade and occasional bedmate, Wilson McKay, Cat travels alone to Mexico in search of Tutuola. Once there, she's quickly diverted from her mission by the discovery of a baby in the desert alongside its dead mother; the detour Cat takes to find the infant's family serves to open the first cracks in her tough shell. Fortunately, she's still got her heart set on vengeance, and it isn't long before she catches up with the sinister Tutuola. Though the second half, concerned largely with Cat's changing feelings toward Wilson, doesn't offer nearly as much suspense as the first—substituting the chilling Tutuola for much weaker antagonists—Sala's characters are vivid and engaging, and an explosive conclusion almost makes up for the latter half's lack of action. (Nov.)

After a failed rebellion, clan leader Hori Mondo and the rest of the Hori men are imprisoned and humiliated by the Aizu Kato family, which has been given control of the Hori by the shogun, despite his concern about the violent nature of the Aizu Kato leader, Akinari. Violence quickly ensues after Akinari's Seven Spears track the Hori clan's women to a divorce temple and proceed to violently murder all but seven of them. Befitting the already hyper-violent story, the Hori women vow to murder the Seven Spears in the most painful way possible and avenge their fallen clanswomen and imprisoned men. Based on the popular novels by Yamada, this is violent, misogynistic and horribly dated. (Yagyu Ninja Scrolls has inspired a movie and anime series that is equally violent and nearly pornographic.) Readers looking for classic samurai stories set in feudal Japan can find other works offering a great deal more substance. (Nov.)

Cooke's delicious reinvention of the Golden Age hero created by Will Eisner brings the elegant crime fighter into the present era while still retaining a decidedly retro look. Beginning with the Batman/Spirit “Crime Convention,” the story moves through a handful of episodes that balance noir with cheeky humor, slowly dropping bits of an origin story. A kidnapped TV news reporter uses her cellphone to broadcast her rescue; a femme fatale from the Spirit's past exacts revenge on the man who killed her husband; a madman tries to poison the city's water supply. The standout is “Media Man,” in which an unscrupulous marketer appropriates the Spirit's image to sell canned beans, and an even more unscrupulous villain tries to use those beans to get kids hooked on meth. Glancing references are made to larger story elements, like a criminal network called the Octagon and a man from Spirit's past who died but didn't stay dead. The visuals are an addictive blend of old-school color melodrama and lean, muscular lines; the credit spreads are particularly clever in their integration of the book's title into the scenery. (Oct.)

Claudia Lombardi and Barbara Apostolico, known here under the collective title Le Perrugine, mine the more PG-13 realms of the yaoi field, yielding this rote fantasy entry offering little in the way of action, either in terms of the swords/magic/monsters variety or that of the man-on-man frolicking one would expect from the genre. The title character, Cain Lovelock—a porn star name if ever there was one—is a warrior of great renown whose prowess verges on the inhuman and would allow him entry into the service any kingdom he might choose, yet he stays in the employ of a minor lord. That may be because his preference for young lads might get him into hot water elsewhere, and his interactions with his nearly grown old flame, Daniel, and the new boy in town, “Vanquisher,” lend much weight to that theory. The story reads like the romantic daydreams of an adolescent, while the art is only slightly better than the amateur scribbling found in back issues of Dragon Magazine, so curious readers would do well to find their yaoi thrills in a series that actually delivers on the genre's potential. (Sept.)

Befitting its status as one of the masterworks of comics art, Herriman's Krazy Kat has been reprinted many times over the decades. But this new volume stands out. While most collections focus on the Sunday pages, this book reprints, for the first time, a series of unusually large and graphically inventive daily strips that Herriman created over nine months in 1920. This book's distinctive 15”×7” format permits these strips to appear at nearly their original publication size. Herriman's celebrated shape-shifting landscapes often transform into abstract geometrical patterns, as the eternal triangle of Kat, Mouse and brick is played out over and over. Many of these gags are not particularly funny, but readers will be won over by the charm of Krazy's character and the marvels of Herriman's artwork. Aficionados will be delighted by one daily in which the Kat addresses the notorious question of her/his ambiguous gender. The book also reprints examples of Herriman's earlier strip, The Dingbat Family—in which Krazy and Ignatz made their debut—which explained the origin of Ignatz's crusade to clobber “kats” with bricks. This superb volume concludes with Herriman's strikingly handsome illustrations for the program book for the 1922 Krazy Kat jazz ballet. (Sept.)

Signature

Reviewed by Margot Livesey

Reading Geraldine Brooks's remarkable debut novel, Year of Wonders, or more recently March, which won the Pulitzer Prize, it would be easy to forget that she grew up in Australia and worked as a journalist. Now in her dazzling new novel, People of the Book, Brooks allows both her native land and current events to play a larger role while still continuing to mine the historical material that speaks so ardently to her imagination. Late one night in the city of Sydney, Hanna Heath, a rare book conservator, gets a phone call. The Sarajevo Haggadah, which disappeared during the siege in 1992, has been found, and Hanna has been invited by the U.N. to report on its condition.

Missing documents and art works (as Dan Brown and Lev Grossman, among others, have demonstrated) are endlessly appealing, and from this inviting premise Brooks spins her story in two directions. In the present, we follow the resolutely independent Hanna through her thrilling first encounter with the beautifully illustrated codex and her discovery of the tiny signs—a white hair, an insect wing, missing clasps, a drop of salt, a wine stain—that will help her to discover its provenance. Along with the book she also meets its savior, a Muslim librarian named Karaman. Their romance offers both predictable pleasures and genuine surprises, as does the other main relationship in Hanna's life: her fraught connection with her mother.

In the other strand of the narrative we learn, moving backward through time, how the codex came to be lost and found, and made. From the opening section, set in Sarajevo in 1940, to the final section, set in Seville in 1480, these narratives show Brooks writing at her very best. With equal authority she depicts the struggles of a young girl to escape the Nazis, a duel of wits between an inquisitor and a rabbi living in the Venice ghetto, and a girl's passionate relationship with her mistress in a harem. Like the illustrations in the Haggadah, each of these sections transports the reader to a fully realized, vividly peopled world. And each gives a glimpse of both the long history of anti-Semitism and of the struggle of women toward the independence that Hanna, despite her mother's lectures, tends to take for granted.

Brooks is too good a novelist to belabor her political messages, but her depiction of the Haggadah bringing together Jews, Christians and Muslims could not be more timely. Her gift for storytelling, happily, is timeless.

Margot Livesey's The House on Fortune Street will be published by HarperCollins in May 2008.