Fiction Reviews: Week of 5/5/2008

In her latest foray into the lives and minds of Elizabethan shakers and movers, Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl) takes on Mary Queen of Scots during her 16-year house arrest. By the secret order of her cousin, Elizabeth I, Mary is held at the estate of George Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, and his wife, Bess of Hardwick; the latter three share first-person narrative duties. The book centers on Mary’s never-ending clandestine efforts to drum up enough support to take her cousin’s throne, but the real story is in the clash of two women and the earl who stands between them. Shrewsbury’s refusal to recognize superior intelligence and force of will in his wife, who runs the estate, and in Mary, who tries to make him her instrument at every turn, makes for one delicious conflict after another. The voices are strong throughout, but Gregory’s ventriloquism is at its best with Bess of Hardwick, a woman who managed to throw off the restrictions of birth, class and sex in order to achieve things that proved beyond her titled husband. (Sept.)

Four books of nonfiction (Fargo Rock City; Klosterman IV; etc.) and a steady magazine presence have established Klosterman as a pop culture writer known for his air-quotes wit. There’s plenty of that sensibility in his first novel, and fans and detractors alike may be pleasantly surprised to find Klosterman delving beneath the quirky surfaces of Owl, N. Dak., the “overtly idyllic” but “paradoxically menacing” town that provides a perfect backdrop for the author’s sense of humor. (The time in which the novel takes place—1983, an era of Def Leppard and feathered hair—tickles the author’s love of the vapid.) The book shifts perspective among three Owl residents: Mitch, a smart teenager who’s “not clutch” on the football field or with girls; Julia, a teacher fresh out of college and discovering an affinity for booze and beaus; and Horace, a widower whose life revolves around coffee and bull sessions. Though no single narrative line binds the three—the event that ultimately unites them is a creaking deus ex machina—Klosterman creates a satisfying character study and strikes a perfect balance between the funny and the profound. (Sept.)

Following Muñoz Molina’s acclaimed 18th book, Sepharad, this translation of his third novel (published in his native Spain in 1986) dives into a bleak corner of Franco’s waning dictatorship. In 1969, Minaya, a student who has attracted secret police notice, leaves Madrid for his uncle Manuel’s house in a small town in Cordoba. There, he plans to research Republican-era poet Jacinto Solana, who briefly stayed at Manuel’s house after being released from prison in 1947. The house itself is a gloomy place of stale secrets and arrested lives: Manuel’s mother, Doña Elvira, lives reclusively at its top; Manuel still doesn’t forgive her for her disapproval of Mariana Ríos, the artist’s model whom he married in 1937 and who was killed, supposedly by a stray fascist bullet—and whom Jacinto Solana also loved. Minaya (with help from Manuel’s young maid, Inés) finds hidden manuscripts by Jacinto, which put him on the trail of the true story. Molina keeps an iron grip on the plot’s intricacies. The abrupt payoff is more Agatha Christie than anything else, but Molina’s slow moves through the story’s maze capture the wrenching tragedy of 20th-century Spain. (Aug.)

Gray (Ten Men) portrays the world of Westernized yoga, from its true disciples to spandex-wrapped poseurs, in this uplifting tale of starting over. Languishing in an unfulfilling pharmaceutical sales job, unhappy in her relationship with an unemployed single dad and still mourning the death of her previous boyfriend, Londoner Grace sees the daily yoga classes at Swami P’s as her only salvation. A business meeting that turns personal inspires Grace to ditch both job and boyfriend and become a yoga teacher. Yet Grace’s new path is far from blissful; she teaches “heart sinker” patients at a health clinic and privately instructs socialites, a starlet and an aging supermodel. She also carries on a correspondence with the doctor who sparked her decision to change her life, and their letters are full of potential for a future together. The narration can be frustrating—in the same passage, the reader will be inside of Grace’s head one moment and a detached observer the next—but if Grace seems distant, her decisiveness at making a new life is still an inspiration for anyone who’s ever yearned to pursue a dream. (Aug.)

It’s 1977 in Ceausescu’s brutal Romania, and 17-year-old Mona Manoliu is falling for brooding Mihai Simionu, whom she meets on summer vacation in the Carpathian mountains. What should be a grandly simple first love is complicated by fear, especially for Mona’s father, a Bucharest poetry professor tracked by the secret police. Death and secrets plague Mona and Mihai’s affair, as friends and relatives die under suspicious circumstances. While the country slides further into poverty, paranoia is the norm, and Mona doesn’t know whether to believe the rumors she hears about Mihai. But after her father is detained by police, and then released through the intervention of a former student, it’s clear that Mona must leave Romania. Of the many well-known escape routes, she chooses to take the train to “Trieste” (actually the Yugoslav border). The book takes her much further than that, all the way to a confrontation with the truth about the men in her life, both past and present. Radulescu gives Mona a convincingly overwrought voice, loading her observations with sensory detail, literary and cultural references, and keening emotion. It won’t be for everyone, but it offers a unique look at the shadowy world of a brutal dictatorship. (Aug.)

Born in Germany on December 31, 1899, Lilly Aphrodite is orphaned almost immediately: her lonely and tragic struggle for connection and survival drives Colin’s haunting debut and offers an intriguing look at the early 20th-century German film industry. Soon after the orphanage where Lilly spends her early years closes, she goes to Berlin to live with Hanne, an independent and fearless teenage girl who works in a bar and subsists on men’s handouts. As life in WWI Germany becomes increasingly bleak, Lilly must cope with Hanne’s sudden departures, find work, fend off troublesome men and unwelcome women, and make love (when she finds it) last when each day more soldiers are sent off to war. The out-of-nowhere growth of the German silent film business is charted along with Lilly’s progress as a budding star, but she’s drawn more to Russian exile Ilya Yurasov, who directs her, than to her increasing fame. With the rise of the Nazi Party comes a drain of cultural talent, and Lilly (now Lidi), must choose among several paths open to her. This grim and sorrowful novel will captivate readers as it recreates Germany’s cinematic revolution and the country’s subsequent tragic course through history. (Aug.)

Set in New England, presumably in the 19th century, Tinti’s Disney-ready first novel (after story collection Animal Crackers) follows one-handed orphan Ren’s not quite rags-to-riches tale. Ren, with his love for religion and penchant for thievery, is immediately likable, and when rugged, tall-tale spinning con man Benjamin Nab strolls into Ren’s orphanage one day and claims Ren as his brother, it seems too good to be true, and it is. Benjamin, along with boozy partner-in-crime Tom, lead Ren throughout New England, using the endearing, crippled orphan to “open doors” and make their hustling life easier. When they finally end up in North Umbrage, a town that looms large in Benjamin’s past, the trio’s luck dries up, and Ren must decide who he can trust and what he is willing to sacrifice in order to have this family. For a novel full of scams, shams and underhanded deals and populated by hustlers, thieves and grave robbers, the sense of menace is muted, but as an adventure yarn with YA crossover appeal, it’s tough to beat. (Aug.)

Plague’s debut is designed nearly to death and mocks the minor talents of the art school set. Ollister (spelled with a Greek Omega as the O), the enfant terrible of Uni-Arts College, and Adelaide, his ex-girlfriend, find themselves in the clutches of Platypus, the “ruler of the local art scene,” who, convinced that the secret to Ollister’s genius lies in Ollister’s journal, turns the former lovers against one another in hopes of securing the notebook. This sets off a chain of near catastrophes overseen by Punk, Ollister’s dim-witted punk rocker henchman. As Ollister and Punk plot their revenge on the Platypus, they stumble upon an intoxicating Viagra-like drug and unleash an ambitionless group of “Art Terrorists.” Plague’s seething contempt for banal art gives this satire an edge, but much more attention is paid to aesthetics (myriad designs and fonts are deployed—sometimes sublimely, sometimes to distraction) than to the prose, which could use some sharpening. It’s an intriguing concept, but the execution makes it feel more like an exercise than a harmonious whole. (Aug.)

In his ambitious adult debut, Fabry, the author of more than 50 novels for children and young adults, offers an unusual and occasionally confusing story with a twist. In Dogwood, W.Va., wise spiritual sage Ruthie Bowles wants to help prison inmate Will Hatfield and his old flame Karin resolve their tragic pasts. Karin, introduced as a pastor’s wife and mother of three, feels she has settled for a “safe” man “faithful as an old dog but better smelling,” rather than Will, who she believes was the passionate love of her life. She struggles to resolve the lingering regrets that have poisoned her soul. From another point of view, we learn that Danny Boyd survived a horrific accident that took the lives of his little sisters. He blames himself and can’t move forward. The novel starts slowly as readers juggle several points of view, flashbacks and characters, but once the story starts cooking, it’s difficult to put down what with Fabry’s surprising plot resolution and themes of forgiveness, sacrificial love and suffering. (Aug.)

The un-put-downable sixth spy novel from bestseller Reich (The Patriots’ Club, which won an International Thrillers Award in 2006) shows he’s the equal of such masters of suspense as Ken Follett and Frederick Forsyth. The twisting story line revolves around Jonathan Ransom, a 37-year-old surgeon for Doctors Without Borders, whose wife is killed while mountain climbing in the Swiss Alps. As Ransom struggles to come to grips with this tragedy, he receives two mysterious baggage claim tickets addressed in her name. Ransom tracks the luggage to a remote train station, where two Swiss police officers attack him shortly after he picks up the baggage. Once safely away, he examines the contents only to realize that his wife was an undercover agent involved in “the blackest of black ops”—a plot that includes unmanned airborne vehicles, secret uranium enrichment facilities in Iran and the destruction of Israel. This first-class adrenaline fest will leave readers guessing until the last page. Author tour. (July)

Sopranos fans will welcome British author Cole’s U.S. debut, the U.K.’s #1 hardcover bestseller for 2006, which offers plenty of violence, sex, intrigue and skullduggery involving London’s criminal Brodie family over several decades. In the 1960s, young Patrick Brodie cuts a path to the top by brashly brushing aside those running the city’s East End clubs with their illegal liquor and prostitutes. Meanwhile, he marries a beautiful, abused factory girl, Lily Diamond, who soon bears him a brood. Pat provides brains and brawn, but Lily is the glue that holds the fractious family together as their fortunes rise and fall with increasing waves of violence. In the Brodies’ world, the only law is corrupt, the only trust is in family (and that’s not absolute) and the only certainty is death. Despite needless repetitions (Pat Brodie was “not a man to cross,” “a man to respect,” “a man only a fool would cross,” etc.), this book should appeal to those who like their crime fiction raw. (July)

Capers don’t come much ballsier than the heist of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, the stranger-than-fiction saga that serves as the frame for this stylistically daring if occasionally dragging novel by Argentinian author Caparrós (Boquita). Eduardo de Valfierno, the mastermind behind the theft, refuses to be squelched by his squalid beginnings as Bollino, son of an Italian widow toiling as a servant in the Argentine backwater of Rosario. He repeatedly changes himself during his progress up the social ladder, becoming the perfect symbol for a frontier nation in the process of creating itself. And Valfierno just might be shifting shapes yet again during his extended, chronology-scrambling and confusing reminiscences, at least to judge by the discrepancies between his accounts and those of such confederates as inside man Vincenzo Perugia and ascetic art forger Yves Chaudron. This picaresque novel, the author’s eighth, won the Premio Planeta award in 2004. (July)

Fans of Schwarz’s Oprah Book Club selection Drowning Ruth are likely to be disappointed by this convoluted novel about loyalty, love and obsession. Jon and Ginny Kepilkowski, high school sweethearts who were pushed into marriage by a freak accident, come to a crossroads when Jon, after an argument with Ginny, decamps to spend the day with mistress Freddi. Ginny, meanwhile, meets clients for her landscaping business, one of whom, Walter Fleischer, is part of a long-ago family conflict that is weakly developed in flashbacks to the summer of 1963, where Jon and Ginny’s parents are embroiled in a perplexing revenge plot against Walter over lust gone wrong. Back in the present, Ginny comes close to discovering Jon’s infidelity while Jon and Freddi are pursued by Ethan, whose clunkily rendered obsession with Freddi leads to a violent, if poorly presaged, climax. When the novel finally reveals its long-foreshadowed secrets, their import remains frustratingly unclear. (July)

Clark’s profound and moving third novel (after Plain Heathen Mischief and Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living) explores the disparity between justice and jurisprudence. Mason Hunt, while visiting his mother at home in Virginia during his final year of law school, inadvertently becomes the sole witness to his deadbeat brother Gates’s cold-blooded murder of a man on a back road in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In the crime’s aftermath, the brothers vow to keep their involvement secret. Years later, Gates is incarcerated for an unrelated crime, while Mason goes on to become a prestigious attorney. Then Mason’s life is turned upside down when Gates, in a desperate attempt to free himself, turns state witness against Mason and accuses his brother of murder. Clark, a circuit-court judge, takes his storytelling prowess to the next level in what is his most substantial and thought-provoking work to date. Author tour. (July)

In bestseller Gardner’s engaging if highly disturbing 10th thriller, Delilah Rose is a Georgia prostitute familiar with pregnant FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy (“beautiful, brainy, and pedigreed”) through Kimberly’s well-publicized nabbing of the Eco-Killer in The Killing Hour (2003). Delilah asks the detective to investigate her friend Ginny Jones’s possible abduction by a creepy-crawly john who calls himself Dinchara, an anagram of “arachnid.” Delilah, however, turns out not to be who she claims she is, and her ties to the spider-obsessed killer are more complicated than she’ll admit. As the missing persons count rises, some readers may have trouble keeping track of the time sequence amid the shifting points-of-view. Still, Gardner delivers a satisfying resolution in line with what her fans have come to expect: a suspenseful freak show wrapped up with a neatly tied bow. (July)

In the quiet but evocative latest from Swiss writer Stamm (Unformed Landscape), Andreas, a 40-something Swiss expatriate, teaches German in Paris and spends much of his time musing over Fabienne, the lost love of his youth, while sleeping with women he doesn’t much like. Andreas thinks of himself as quiet and passive, and is thus surprised by the intensity of his reaction when told he may have a serious lung disorder. He reacts by allowing a casual affair with 24-year-old Delphine (a teaching colleague who had briefly been involved with Andreas’s best friend, Jean-Marc), to intensify. He tells Delphine about his illness; she reciprocates by taking care of him as he recovers from surgery. The two seem poised to take a chance on one another, but Andreas’s fidelity to Fabienne is still to be reckoned with. Andreas’s sorrows and changing perspectives are surprisingly powerful in this muted, thoughtful novel of second chances. (July)

Craze’s sequel to By the Shore is again told by the now teenage May, the levelheaded London girl coping with little brother Eden and wayward mother Lucy. When Lucy’s partner, Simon (depicted in By the Shore as May’s biological father but not Eden’s), heads to India to buy goods for his London shop, Lucy heads to a California ashram, taking the siblings with her. There, all three’s hunger for love and approval leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. While Lucy works on her troubles with the guru, Parvati, May becomes involved with Sati, a seductive young woman whom Parvati favors. May often lacks some of the sharpness of observation and tone that makes By the Shore so winning (particularly in the characterizations of fraud Parvati), but the scenes with Sati are frank and wonderful. (July)

Wingate’s Katharine Bakeless Nason Prize–winning debut collection is dominated by first-person narratives of men with women problems. In “Beaching It,” an itinerant metalsmith working the craft fair circuit sleeps with a rich married woman and is surprised by the unexpected turn their seemingly predictable affair takes. The narrator of “Me and Paul” adopts an alter ego to woo a single mother, but his ruse doesn’t turn out the way he had hoped. In “Meeting Grace,” a man makes the mistake of introducing his mentally unstable sister to his fiancée, without forewarning her of his sister’s condition; things end badly. And a verbal showdown between the woman ambulance driver in “Three A.M. Ambulance Driver” and the story’s motivational speaker narrator shocks the narrator. In each story, longing, inertia and confusion compel characters to act in unexpected ways, and though the stories (except “In Flagstaff,” the longest and weakest piece) all hit the same note, they hit it well. (July)

Somerville’s atmospheric if rudderless debut spans one action-packed day in the life of a hapless Irish journalist in Cairo, segmented into the five Islamic calls to prayer. Fin wakes up abysmally hungover to the news that he has lost his job for the Cairo Herald after a fight with an American embassy official. In desperation, Fin seeks out his bombastic Egyptian friend, Farouk, who enthralls Fin with a story of a villager named Skinhead Saïd, who suspected a trove of riches was hidden underneath his house, but the basement wall collapsed, destroying his dream. Farouk, then, is kidnapped by a man who believes Farouk was involved in a hit-and-run that left his daughter with a broken leg, and the novel becomes a high-energy chase-and-bribe tour of Cairo as a good-intentioned Fin attempts to rescue Farouk. Throughout, the story of Saïd’s treasure tantalizes Fin and provides a segue to the book’s manic conclusion. The narrative is fast-paced and colorful, and though the action can strain believability (a sequence in a hospital, for instance, is particularly tough to swallow), Somerville’s madcap tour of Cairo’s backstreets is worth the price of admission. (July)

Literate crime thrillers don’t get much better than New Yorker cartoonist Steiner’s intricately plotted sequel to his well-received debut, A French Country Murder (2003). Ex-CIA officer Louis Morgon’s idyllic life in the French village of Saint-Léon sur Dême is destroyed when his girlfriend Solesme Lefourier’s cancer returns and his policeman pal Jean Renard becomes the target of Louis’s enemy from the first book, former U.S. secretary of state Hugh Bowes. After a particularly inept thief burglarizes Louis’s house, Louis slowly comes to realize this is not an isolated incident but part of a master plan set in motion by the revenge-seeking Bowes. Soon Louis is on the run, branded by the American government as a terrorist and confidant of Osama bin Laden. Canny and brave, Louis is more than up to the task of defending himself from the cruel and loathsome Bowes. (July)

Hasak-Lowy, author of a well-received short story collection, The Task of This Translator (2005), struggles in his debut novel, set primarily in Los Angeles. Daniel Bloom, a successful screenwriter, has trouble relating to his wife and son. As his family life crumbles, Bloom conceives a new movie idea: a nameless assassin who kills all those we love to hate—greedy CEOs, two-faced politicians, peddlers of questionable influence and various symbols of unearned privilege. It’s not lost on Bloom that his brainstorm mirrors the anger and emptiness of his own life. The novel’s tight setup, however, quickly unravels in a mire of half-developed characters, a baffling trip to Israel and descriptive passages and stretches of dialogue that serve little purpose. What saves the story is Bloom’s wry wit and social commentary. He’s a 21st-century man-in-crisis, an appealing character whose plight is, unfortunately, far too drawn out. (Oct.)

Between the groans of a smog alert siren at the outset of this gripping noir from Kirino (Out), Tokyo high school student Toshi Yamanaka hears what sounds like glass shattering next door. Might a burglar be at work? Later, after learning that a female neighbor has been bludgeoned to death, Toshi suspects that she was an earwitness to the woman’s murder and that the killer was the victim’s son, a mysterious boy Toshi’s age, nicknamed Worm by Toshi and her friends. When Worm vanishes, Toshi, who also suspects he stole her cellphone, finds herself hoping that he’ll reach out to her, for reasons she doesn’t fully understand. Winner of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Kirino uses her considerable narrative gifts to evoke the tedium, pressure and angst her teenage characters suffer. Some readers, though, may find the proceedings just too grim for their taste. (July)

When charming, penniless would-be actor Hughie Armstrong Venables-Smythe answers a mysterious London ad for “an attractive, well-mannered, mentally flexible young man,” he learns that he’s to become a professional flirt, hired not to make conquests but to bring a touch of romance into the lives of unappreciated women. The catch: being a hopeless romantic, Hughie takes his job a bit too seriously. Deftly combining a sweetly improbable premise with witty, sometimes luminous writing, Tessaro (Elegance) tells the stories of Hughie’s numerous clients, whose lives intersect in unexpected ways. They include Leticia, an emotionally repressed but sexually adventurous lingerie designer; Rose, a clueless waitress who accidentally becomes the darling of the London art scene; and Olivia, an emotionally abused socialite overdue for a transformation. Along with humor and a high London hipness quotient, Tessaro scores with keen insights into romance’s perceptual and emotional hall of mirrors. (July)

Here’s a chick lit heroine with beauty and brains—and a bad-ass attitude that lands her in trouble. Out-of-work, out-of-love and out-of-luck, take-no-prisoners ad copywriter Michaela “Mike” Edwards faces off with a gaggle of giggly 12-year-olds in a “life skills” class. In a hilarious sendup of new-fashioned home ec, Mike rewrites the curriculum to accommodate information the charter school girls can actually use, and discovers, to her surprise, “that she cared.” Her reinvention as daughter to her widower father Gerry (who raised her solo) and stepdaughter-to-be of his fiancée, Deja, is a lot rockier but no less rollicking. Along the way, ex-boyfriend Jay (whose standup comedy brutally strips away the artifice of their relationship) and Aussie journalist best-pal Gunther help attune Mike to what she’s searching for. Shanman’s second novel (after Right Before Your Eyes) is a gem of razor-sharp wit and impeccable timing, and though things sag in the blended extended family passages, this is a great anytime read that comes just in time for summer vacation. (July)

British author Taylor (The Republic of Trees) makes his U.S. debut with a complex work of metafiction that will resonate with Jorge Luis Borges fans. James Purdew, a 30-year-old unemployed Englishman living in Amsterdam, suffers an identity crisis after tripping on the stairs to the apartment he shares with his Dutch girlfriend, Ingrid, and breaking his ankle. After Ingrid leaves him, Purdew rereads his journals and decides to write his life story backwards, beginning with Ingrid. He believes the project, titled Memoirs of an Amnesiac, will help him find his “way out of the labyrinth.” To complicate matters, after returning to the U.K. and finding work in construction, Purdew discovers a 19th-century manuscript titled Confessions of a Killer hidden in a wall of a flat he’s renovating. A fine stylist, Taylor keeps a lot of balls in the air, but all the philosophizing tends to slow a narrative that offers plenty of mystery but not enough resolution. (July)

In Lewis’s wryly amusing, darkly contemplative sequel to The Last Llanelli Train, ex-PI Robin Llywelyn is down and out in Swansea, only interested in maintaining a steady pint-after-pint existence until he dies. Middle-aged, homeless and of course alcoholic, the former sleuth nicknamed “Magnum” has been diagnosed with lung cancer. When Llywelyn gets pulled into an elaborate smuggling scheme as a front man, the crime element muscles its way back into the plot alongside the drinking. “Naturally, as I’d just been given a couple of thousand pounds by a psychopath to buy a machine gun, I ended up in the pub,” observes the luckless Llywelyn. Riffing off Chandler’s classic bit in The Long Goodbye about the lonely drunk you’ll find in every bar in the world, Lewis uses his fallen hero to delve deeply into the contemporary Welsh scene, like a coal miner tracing a vanishing vein of ore. (July)

The opening 20 pages of this debut griefer show New Yorker Alexandra Justice, then 24, bonding with her brother Ashley—34 and dying of AIDS in his Upper West Side apartment—after years of being only in vague touch. The remainder of the novel takes place four years later with flashbacks to Alex’s childhood, college years and recovery from her brother’s death. She inherited a million dollars from Ashley, a successful documentarian, so when she gets fired from her director’s assistant job while caring for him, she has the freedom to grieve in her own way in the aftermath. She meets Tucker, a dilettante painter and billionaire’s son; dances ’til dawn and takes road trips with her gay friend Jax and her best friend Jordy; visits her uncle diagnosed with cancer; and ultimately understands how to play the cards she was dealt. Anyone who has endured the pain of a dying loved one will recognize the feelings behind this often melancholy dirge and Alex’s slow, painful finding of her way. (July)

While in Des Moines for one last job in MWA Grand Master Block’s solid fourth Greatest Hits thriller (after Hit Parade), hit man John Paul Keller takes to the road. He’s been accused of assassinating the governor of Ohio, who was in Iowa preparing for a presidential bid. By the time Keller gets back to his New York City apartment after too many days of fast food, his prize stamp collection has been stolen. With the governor’s real killer still hot on his trail, Keller travels to New Orleans, where he rescues a woman, Julia Roussard, from a rapist in a local park. As Keller and Julia’s relationship develops, he considers leaving the old life behind, but knows he must clear his name and settle the score. Block’s trademark blend of humor and violence is a good fit for the deadpan Keller. While some fans may be disappointed to see Keller headed toward retirement, hope remains that this won’t be the last outing for one of the crime genre’s most unusual antiheroes. (June 24)

Allen’s second bewitching offering (after Garden Spells) is a candy jar of magical characters and mystical adventures set in an ordinary North Carolina town. At 27, Josey Cirrini is “plain and just this side of plump” and trying to make up for her legendary childhood temper tantrums by caring for her aging, widowed mother Margaret. Her closet features neatly stacked junk food packages and romance novels, and her life chugs along. But as the book opens, Della Lee Baker, waitress at the local greasy spoon, shows up in Josey’s closet, having propped a ladder against the house and climbed silently in overnight. She’s hiding from someone or something, and has no intention of leaving anytime soon. Instead, the very direct Della Lee sends Josey on a series and missions and misadventures that encourage our low self-esteem heroine to step outside her box and away from her snack-filled closet. As in Allen’s previous work, there’s an element of the supernatural (self-help books that literally follow one around; tears that sprout mysterious tropical flowers), and again it works. Words such as sweet, charming and delightful are weak accolades for such a pleasurable book. (June)

This tantalizing novel of suspense from bestseller Parker (The Perfect Fake), the first in a new series, introduces 37-year-old C.J. Dunn (formerly Charlotte Josephine Bryan), a flashy Miami criminal attorney. To get a better chance at hosting a new CNN show, Rich, Famous, and Deadly, C.J. accepts a client with celebrity connections, Rick Slater. Rick, chauffeur to a prominent Republican congressman, is a suspect in the disappearance and later murder of a young model, Alana Martin, last seen at a party in Miami Beach. Kylie Willis, a 17-year-old runaway who attended the party with Alana, may be able to help clear Rick, whose virility and no-nonsense attitude attracts C.J. To crack the case, C.J., who’s also a recovering alcoholic and recent widow, must face her troubled past. This thriller zings with rich subtext regarding dirty politics and the exploitation of young women “servicing” power players. 5-city author tour. (June)

In the engaging fifth entry in Cotterill’s unusual crime series set in 1970s Laos (after 2007’s Anarchy and Old Dogs), members of the Hmong tribe, an oppressed minority, spirit away coroner Siri Paiboun, for whom marriage looms, to aid in an exorcism revolving around the titular pogo stick. Cotterill sympathetically depicts the Hmong’s plight, striking a good balance between comedy and seriousness. The autopsy and investigation into the death of an unknown soldier booby-trapped with a grenade add intrigue. Readers will welcome such familiar characters as Madame Daeng, lab assistant Mr. Gueng and Nurse Dtui, though their perspectives tend to distract from Dr. Siri’s predicament. The time spent with the Hmong, not the attendant mysteries, provides the most satisfaction. (Aug.)

A large aquaculture corporation hires Jane Bunker, “newly deputized marine insurance investigator” of Green Haven, Maine, to document some vandalism aboard the research vessel Quest in bestseller Greenlaw’s entertaining second mystery (after 2007’s Slipknot). Strong sentiment against the company’s proposed oyster farm from area fishermen and Native Americans, who have a longstanding dispute over fishing rights, hints at possible culprits. After leaving the Quest, Jane discovers an abandoned lobster boat, which leads to a body with a bait iron stuck in its chest that turns a missing person’s case into a homicide. Chasing leads up and down the rugged Maine coast, Jane is dogged by a series of sinister mishaps that nearly get her killed. With action that works best when it’s on the water and an appealing protagonist with room to grow, this cozy should win new fans for the author of The Hungry Ocean and The Lobster Chronicles, her nonfiction accounts of the sea-centered life. (July)

Snakes alive! Newlywed amateur sleuth Meg Langslow finds a creepy crawler at every turn in Andrews’s charming ninth mystery (after 2007’s The Penguin Who Knew Too Much) as Dad and Grandpa stock her Caerphilly, Va., farm with what they promise to be temporary reptilian guests. These, however, become a minor distraction after long-lost friend Karen drops off her lively toddler, Timmy, for Meg to babysit. When the mom fails to return for Timmy, Meg investigates. Is Karen in hiding or in danger or both? Meg learns that Jasper, Karen’s sleazy ex, had been a computer programmer for the same college where Karen works and Meg’s new hubby, Michael, teaches. Armed with this info, Meg starts digging and uncovers far more than she bargained for, including Jasper’s corpse. Suspense, laughter and a whole passel of good clean fun make this another strong installment in this popular cozy series. 6-city author tour. (July)

Set in 1923, Gordon-Smith’s second Jack Haldean novel (after 2007’s A Fête Worse than Death) vacillates between cozy country-house mystery and attempted comedy-of-murderous-manners, with mixed results. Jack, a former Royal Flying Corps officer who writes detective stories, finds himself knee deep in a real crime after the apparent suicide of a guest at a ball at Hesperus—the lavish estate of the uncle and aunt of Isabelle, the flighty inamorata of Jack’s forgetful friend Arthur Stanton—turns into a homicide case. Before long, Jack, Isabelle and stodgy Superintendent Ashley are also looking into the stabbing death of Lord Lyvenden, a munitions manufacturing rotter, Arthur’s disappearance and nocturnal invasions by Russian terrorists. Those who prefer watered-down Dorothy Sayers will be most rewarded. (July)

At the start of Handler’s assured sixth mystery starring film critic Mitch Berger and police trooper Desiree Mitry (after 2006’s The Sweet Golden Parachute), the crime-solving odd couple have gone their separate ways: Des has returned to her former husband, while the overweight Mitch has slimmed down, toned up and thrown himself into being a bigtime movie critic. While some of the finest citizens of Dorset, Conn., strive to bring them back together, Des gets caught up in the aftermath of an ugly domestic situation that leaves young Molly Procter, a friend of Mitch’s, with a homeless father and a strung-out mother. Des’s duties bring her into conflict with a federal investigation, and then a murder inquiry forces her to put her life on the line. Can Mitch be a movie-role hero? Handler avoids wrapping things up too neatly with a couple of well-hidden surprises. Fans will eagerly await the next installment in this edgy cozy series. (July)

King’s muddled alternate version of the epic final battle between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty teams the Baker Street sleuth with William Hope Hodgson’s Thomas Carnacki, a detective who often contends with the supernatural. Carnacki happens to be present in Switzerland in 1891 to witness the struggle between Holmes and Moriarty above the Reichenbach Falls recounted in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem.” After Carnacki and an attractive young woman, Anna Schmidt, rescue an amnesiac Holmes from the rapids, the trio dodge bullets from the professor, who turns out to be Anna’s father. As Holmes gradually regains his faculties, Moriarty chases them across the continent. Flashbacks to the master criminal’s youth offer a surprising if gimmicky explanation for his turn to evil. Despite the author’s obvious affection for the characters, he fails to provide a plot that does justice to his intriguing premise. (July)

Canadian author McFetridge’s complex crime caper, whose title comes from Toronto-born Neil Young’s first album with Crazy Horse, follows Toronto police detectives Bergeron and Armstrong as they pursue a variety of cases, starting with the body that falls off a high building and strikes the car windshield of a john just about to enjoy a hooker’s services. Meanwhile, Sharon MacDonald is under electronic house arrest, working angles on expanding her dope business, when she meets a guy named Ray with plans to smuggle literal shiploads of marijuana. A clear disciple of Elmore Leonard, McFetridge (Dirty Sweet) has almost every character talk and think like Chili Palmer (“That was one thing J.T. learned in Afghanistan—the enemy’s only half your problem, if that”), not a bad thing for a fun read. On the down side, too many subplots start and abruptly end as this noir love song to Toronto plays out. (July)

Set in 1948, Lucarelli’s magnificent final volume in his De Luca trilogy (after The Damned Season and Carte Blanche) delivers a resolution true to the series’ moral relativism. Soon after joining the vice squad of the Bologna police department, Commissario De Luca gets dragged from his usual low-pressure duties into investigating a murder at a whorehouse in the city’s red-light district. Despite clear evidence that the victim, Ermes Ricciotti, who worked at a rival establishment, could not have hanged himself, the authorities classify Ricciotti as a suicide. After another violent death, De Luca again strays outside his brief, finding evidence that the second crime had a connection to the first. The book ends on a nicely ambiguous note. On a par with J. Robert Janes’s mysteries set in Vichy France, the series as a whole does an excellent job of conveying the challenges of policing in a police state—and, postwar, in a country where the police act as if it still were. (June)

The theft of an 18th-century portrait of one of the owners of Tolmie Park in Berebury, Calleshire, just before flames destroy part of the historic house sparks British veteran Aird’s 20th mystery to feature Det. Insp. C.D. (“Seedy”) Sloan (after 2005’s Hole in One). Bones are spotted amid the fire moments before the ceiling comes crashing down. Are they human remains? Will Sloan and his longtime sidekick, Detective Constable Crosby, be investigating murder, along with theft and arson? A local development firm has plans for Tolmie Park, but the county preservation society is up in arms against them. A rival construction company is also interested, and a rich pop singer is in the market for a country estate. Who among them might have started a fire and why? In his inimitable fashion, Sloan investigates all the angles, and Aird once again showcases her sly wit and deft plotting in a book English mystery fans will relish. (June 24)

Satire, sociology, religion and biography get tossed into a blender in New Wave poet and fantasist Disch’s latest roller-coaster ride. Claiming that he himself is God, Disch (Camp Concentration) uses notions of divinity to explore his own, sometimes fictionalized life as well as modern culture, dancing in and out of the narrative and weaving in a short story that underlines and mocks the points made in bursts of biography, poetry and no-holds-barred social commentary. Disch also brings in old grudges with fellow author Philip K. Dick, alternately harsh (condemning the “bitter, burnt-out, alcoholic all-American loser” to a personalized hell) and tongue-in-cheek, but for the most part the narrative avoids getting lost in self-indulgence. The careful reader will tease out many solid truths from the tangle of humor, history, surrealism and speculation. The density of ideas packed into this short book is as impressive as Disch’s mastery of his craft. (July)

This flawed novella, the first stand-alone publication by short story writer Prentiss, covers well-worn ground while adding little of interest. Nathan and Pam are children in suburban Maryland “in the post-hippie 1970s.” Their neurotic parents warn of drug fiends in the woods and fatal car accidents, creating the titular boundaries to keep the children safe by making them afraid. When Pam, Nathan and Nathan’s best friend, Aaron, go beyond those fences and into the woods, Aaron falls into a stream as Nathan watches, too frightened to help him. Most of the story is narrated by adult Nathan, now living in Alabama, taking care of his parents and reminiscing about his childhood. Though he’s eventually forced to confront some dark truths about his life, neither thrills nor chills result, and the abrupt ending cuts the story off just as Nathan becomes interesting. Those who shell out for this limited edition may find it a poor bargain. (July)

In this scattered sequel to 2007’s The Silver Ship and the Sea, Cooper undercuts intriguing character development with awkward pacing and a weak resolution. Genetically enhanced adolescents Chelo, Liam and Kayleen remain on Fremont, a planet colonized by unaltered “original humans” who fought and won a war against the children’s genetically enhanced parents, while Chelo’s brother, Joseph, returns to Silver’s Home, his ancestral world, to learn about his family and get help for his wounded protector, Jenna. Cooper offers tantalizing glimpses of the genemod-driven sociopolitical system of Silver’s Home and the wonderful progression of the relationship among Chelo, Liam and Kayleen, which gets complicated without ever seeming unrealistic. Once the larger threat to Fremont is unveiled, however, the pacing goes downhill, and several characters take actions that seem dictated more by plotting than by believable motivations. The result is messy and unsatisfying, and frustrating to readers who have come to like these smart, determined teens. (July)

Guns, girls and alcohol occupy almost every inch of this raucous thrill ride, providing nonstop opportunities for both action and comedy. After coming down from his mountain bunker, insurance salesman Mortimer Tate finds a world that is postapocalyptic by way of early ’90s action films. Mortimer’s quests to find his ex-wife and discover his own purpose serve as a strong center line through a haze of madcap events. He and “Buffalo” Bill, a man obsessed with the idea of cowboys as a postcivilized focal point, encounter a wide cast of characters along their journeys, including foul-mouthed, gun-toting Sheila, who at times seems the best adapted to the harsh new world. The trio hop from one explosive encounter to another, often with the thinnest of reasons. Despite the frontier violence and sketchy plot, the humor of this armageddon western is woven deeply enough to keep Mortimer’s adventures feeling like a party. (July)

In this grandly scaled space opera from bestseller Williams (Hardwired), swashbuckling computer scientist Aristide explores pretechnological “pocket” universes in search of interesting “implied spaces,” the unintended regions that come into existence between deliberately designed structures. Then he uncovers evidence of a dark collective that’s kidnapping people and sending them to pockets where a virus co-opts their minds and turns them into willing spies and assassins. Evidence implicates one of the Eleven planet-sized quantum computers, somehow corrupted in spite of its “Asimovian safeguards.” Armed with a wormhole-edged broadsword and accompanied by his sidekick, Bitsy, an avatar of one of the Eleven in the form of a talking cat, Aristide finds himself hunted, brainwashed, killed and resurrected more than once before he learns the truth. Williams tells the tale with enthusiasm and a crisp, dry wit well suited to this entertaining blend of high adventure, intrigue and postsingularity technology. (July)

Despite witches, magical amulets and “elfs,” the appealing 11th novel in Brust’s bestselling Vlad Taltos series is a classic private eye thriller. Still hurting over his recent divorce and pursued by his former employer’s assassins, antihero Taltos decides to get out of town for a bit and heads to a neighboring country in search of long-lost relatives. Accompanied by his familiars, telepathic flying lizards Loiosh and Rocza, with Loiosh playing the role of a classic B-movie sidekick (“What’s the play, Boss?”), Taltos meets with hostile reactions and a warning not to ask too many questions. Then his remaining family in the area is wiped out in a suspicious fire, and he must uncover a complex conspiracy with stealth, brute force and an endless supply of wisecracks. Longtime fans may miss familiar surroundings and characters, but will enjoy the trip into Taltos’s family’s past; newcomers will appreciate the noir touches and benefit from Brust’s deft touch with exposition. (July)

This vaguely themed offering from Subterranean publisher Schafer brings together a wide array of big names and lesser-known contributors under the umbrella of dark fantasy. Tim Powers’s “The Hour of Babel,” a contemporary time-travel tragedy with metaphysical underpinnings, and William Browning Spencer’s “Penguins of the Apocalypse,” a modern fable that excels at tense misdirection, rub shoulders with Rachel Swirsky’s “Monstrous Embrace” and Patrick Rothfuss’s “The Road to Levinshir,” both heavily grounded in pseudomedieval fantasy worlds. Caitlín R. Kiernan’s “The Steam Dancer (1896)” is a warm meditation on the biological and mechanical elements of a woman’s altered body, and what Poppy Z. Brite’s “The Gulf” lacks in fantasy elements, it makes up for with darkness. Although many of the stories are individually outstanding, the jumble of modern, historical and fanciful settings, traditional monsters and imagined threats make this feel more like an issue of a magazine than an anthology with a firm motif. (July)

In this eagerly anticipated sequel to 2007’s Off Armageddon Reef, the sheer scale of the Kingdom of Charis’s naval victory against corrupt forces of the Church of God Awaiting has the Church newly wary of Charis’s technological innovations. These were introduced by Merlin Athrawes, bodyguard to King Cayleb II and actually an android imprinted with a human’s memories and personality who seeks to throw off the false religion that bars mankind from the stars. As Charis’s neighbors scramble to rebuild their shattered fleets and prepare for the inevitable reprisals, the Church lurches toward placing the entire nation under proscription and declaring holy war. The numerous characters are never reduced to stereotypes, and Weber’s portrayal of the social changes brought about by Charis’s bootstrap industrial and military revolutions ring true. If not as action oriented as the first volume, the descriptions of the rebirth of knowledge and the human spirit are at least as enthralling. (July)

Harriet, the young widowed duchess of Berrow, longs to escape the elaborate wigs and skirts of Georgian society and have a true adventure. Opportunity arises when friend Isidore wants to lure her long-absent husband back from his Far East explorations with a grand scandal. Accompanied by the trusty duke of Villiers, the two women visit the home of the scandalous Lord Strange whose home is (gasp!) regularly filled with actors and actresses. Though it’s Isidore’s plan, it’s Harriet who flirts with real danger: dressed in breeches, she poses as Harry, a mama-protected young relative of the duke’s. With her characteristic wit, James details Harry’s bravado as “he” rides without a sidesaddle for the first time, learns to fence with the formidable Lord Strange and fends off the amorous advances of an actress. Harriet revels in the freedom offered by her male identity, but her heart remains traitorously female, especially in the presence of Lord Strange, who finds himself uncomfortably attracted to the beautiful young lad. James delights with seduction, surprise and humor on every page. (July)

Lars Engel is hell’s own lieutenant, brought to life to rain down misery on the world. He commands a legion of sadistic demons, the Dark Ones, who torture and kill everything in their path. As Engel reincarnates in Buffalo, N.Y., bent on destruction, the only force that can stop him is made up of Guardians, humans with the hereditary capability of killing demons with the power of the Light. The strongest among them is 16-year-old Sara, who was stolen from her mother and raised by strangers to keep her safe from Engel. Sara runs away from home to find her long-lost mother, Laura, who lives in Buffalo—just as Engel arises. The latest from Izzo (Evil Harvest) is violent and dark, but without excessive gore—quite an accomplishment when working with demons who like to flay their victims. Deliciously, Izzo saves the more genuine terror for the human response to demonic chaos. (June)

The latest Domestic Bliss whodunit from Caine (Fatal Feng Shui) offers another creative challenge for interior design and life partners Erin Gilbert and Steve Sullivan, as the two participate in the Best Green Home in Crestview Colorado contest. When Professor Richard Thayers, a green design expert and contest judge, drops out of the proceedings and then drops dead, Erin and Steve must find out who had it in for him. As a plethora of suspects present themselves, Erin also wonders how to put the fire back in her troubled relationship with Steve. Observations from Audrey Munroe, star of Domestic Bliss (a fictional Martha Stewart–like show) offer alternative perspectives on the doings throughout. Fans of charming interior cozies and trips to Home Depot will appreciate this tragic twist on the challenges of eco-friendly innovations. (June)

In McCullough’s taut third book in the Ravirn series (after WebMage and Cybermancy), Necessity, sentient creator of the mweb, has fallen victim to a virus, and all of reality is at stake. It’s up to sorcerer/hacker–cum–minor deity Ravirn, accompanied by his faithful familiar, Melchior (laptop and goblin in one) to save the day. Of the host of evildoers interested in controlling Necessity (and thereby reality), public enemy number one is Nemesis, who is likely partnered with Fate. Meanwhile, Ravirn’s ex, Cerice, is apparently working against him, and Ravirn finds his affections torn between Eris (a Discord) and Tisiphone (a Fury)—but can he trust either of them? A hint of cyberpunk, a dollop of Greek mythology and a sprinkle of techno-magic bake up into an airy genre mashup. Lots of fast-paced action and romantic angst up the ante as Ravirn faces down his formidable foes. (May)