Fiction Reviews: Week of 7/7/2008

Fans of Johnson's NBA finalist Le Divorce will know what to expect: a fish-out-of-water story about a clash of cultures. Still, the tone and scope of this agreeable if quiet story owes more to the author's early work—Persian Nights, in particular—than the better-known ones about Franco-American culture clashes. Like that 1987 book, this one has more than a soupçon of politics thrown into its cultural comedy of manners. Lulu Sawyer is a CIA agent who arrives in Morocco, both to rekindle her romance with worldly English boyfriend Ian and to trace the flow of Western money to radical Islamic groups. She meets with characters both Western and Eastern, which allows for some typically Johnsonian observations (“[Honor killing is] not so common among Algerians.... It's usually the Turks,” opines one character). The book works best in small moments and in scenes involving the supporting characters, but the central plot—about Lulu and Ian's relationship—never quite catches fire, and Lulu-as-CIA-agent seems tired and unnecessary. Most fans will wade through the overdetermined plot to get to the sly asides and the astute observation that are and always have been Johnson's forte. (Oct.)

Corrick follows his promising debut (The Navigation Log) with another intricate novel where readers must work to detect the story within a sparse yet elegant narrative. This time the setting is contemporary England, the protagonist a man whose life passes quietly until an extraordinary event strikes. James Watson Bolsover is first seen seated on a dock, waiting for a ferry. Raised by parents who leave him their house and little else, Bolsover, at age 20, finds his home and income as a technical writer enough to attract a delicate 19-year-old wife, Katherine. Bolsover tries to work out what love and life are about as he puzzles over his bride's budding passion. After 16 years, he becomes a widower, adding grief to the emotions he experiences without understanding. An accident in middle age then propels him into the nightmare that puts him on the dock. Corrick proves as meticulous as Bolsover at crafting a story that will send readers racing back to reread so they can retrace Bolsover's steps and savor Corrick's language. (Oct.)

Merritt goes to the Aloha State for his insightful latest foray into domestic upheaval. Morgan Cary is a one-hit wonder novelist and former Kona fisherman who returns to Hawaii following the sudden death of his alluring but emotionally volatile wife, Victoria. Uncertain of the events leading up to Victoria's death and immensely guilt-ridden, Morgan spends his days incapacitated with grief and his nights boozing. It's not until he meets Ben Kamakani, a fellow fisherman, that Morgan's life begins to regain a sense of purpose, and after Ben dies, Morgan buys his boat and truck and begins turning himself around. While Morgan's life rolls on, Merritt backtracks to unfurl Victoria's story, loaded with abandonment, betrayal and violence. It is soon clear that though Morgan and Victoria were married, they remained separated by their inabilities (or unwillingness) to understand one another. Merritt has the right instincts when it comes to exposing the vagaries of human relationships, and though his novel's structure is unruly, Merritt crafts a thorough emotional examination of a couple who spend their lives side by side while managing to remain unknown to one another. (Oct.)

Longtime NPR commentator Cheuse returns with his ambitious if not entirely successful ninth book, a novel based on the life of Edward Curtis, the photographer who in 1904 dedicated his life to creating a pictorial record of Native American tribes. Narrated by Curtis's assistant, William Myers, the novel also tells the story of Jimmy Fly-wing, a Plains Indian who leaves his tribe to learn the ways of the white man and aids Curtis in his quest. Curtis's passion for his project is palpable, and his dedication forces him to choose between his family and his work. Though he becomes estranged from his wife, Clara, he is rewarded by the faith and gratitude of many of the peoples he photographed and by glimpses into secret tribal traditions. Though the historical material is often compelling, the novel's focus can diffuse as Cheuse moves between the narrative strands and struggles to keep the story moving over 50 years. When not stuck in the doldrums, the narrative brims with keen insight. (Oct.)

Revenge is the game plan for Peach Harrison, an ambitious and ruthless television journalist in Bailey-Williams's intense drama (after Floating). Peach still remembers with bitterness her hardscrabble life as Claudia Fryar, love child of Louis Harrison, a wealthy African-American Philadelphian, and her mother, Georgia, a seamstress who worked in Louis's home. Louis, who loved Georgia but never divorced his horrid wife, Eliza, secretly took care of Claudia in his will, but Claudia doesn't find out about that until Eliza cheats her out of her inheritance. Vowing revenge, Peach becomes an expert at manipulation and, while in college, has an affair with the husband of Eliza's daughter. After graduation, Claudia becomes Peach Harrison and forges her own success story, her eye perpetually on getting back to Philly and getting some payback. She gets what she's after, but she also learns that vengeance exacts a high toll. Bailey-Williams writes with a chilling precision that's disturbingly eloquent, and readers will be entranced by Claudia-cum-Peach's shrewdness. (Oct.)

This suspense novel from Collins, author of more than 60 books, packs a wallop in the foothills of the Ozarks, although the lightning-fast pace, despite many plot twists, has an ending that leaves too much unresolved mystery. When a tranquil evening at a fund-raiser ends in a horrible murder, the victim's husband, Elijah Evans, and Det. Diana Curtis discover evidence from a cold case that may free an innocent man on death row—if they don't get killed or foiled by the politician and attorney general who put him there. Dialogue is curiously understated—as Elijah ducks bullets, he says, “I'm starting to get mad. I'm tired of being used for target practice.” Yet description is vivid and even graphic for a Christian novel, and Collins creates a wide range of peculiar characters. Suspense plays well, but Collins sometimes cashes in his chips too soon rather than building the tension over time. While flawed, this morality tale is a robust offering to the growing genre of Christian suspense. (Oct.)

Insp. John Rebus has just 10 days to solve the apparently motiveless murder of Alexander Todorov, an expatriate Russian poet, before he reaches 60 and mandatory retirement in Edgar-winner Rankin's rewarding 17th novel to feature the Edinburgh detective (after The Naming of the Dead). When the dogged Rebus and Det. Sgt. Siobhan Clarke look into the crime, they find an array of baffling conspiracies involving Russian businessmen, Scottish bankers and local politicians pushing for an independent Scotland. A second murder, of a man who'd taped one of Todorov's poetry readings, ensures the case gets extra resources, and Rebus's own interest is whetted by the possible involvement of Edinburgh crime boss “Big Ger” Cafferty. Clever, insightful prose more than compensates for the byzantine plot. There's an appropriately wistful tone to this final entry in the series. Fans will miss Rebus and wonder what on earth he'll do in retirement. (Sept.)

Sittenfeld tracks, in her uneven third novel, the life of bookish, naïve Alice Lindgren and the trajectory that lands her in the White House as first lady. Charlie Blackwell, her boyishly charming rake of a husband, whose background of Ivy League privilege, penchant for booze and partying, contempt for the news and habit of making flubs when speaking off the cuff, bears more than a passing resemblance to the current president (though the Blackwells hail from Wisconsin, not Texas). Sittenfeld shines early in her portrayal of Alice's coming-of-age in Riley, Wis., living with her parents and her mildly eccentric grandmother. A car accident in her teens results in the death of her first crush, which haunts Alice even as she later falls for Charlie and becomes overwhelmed by his family's private summer compound and exclusive country club membership. Once the author leaves the realm of pure fiction, however, and has the first couple deal with his being ostracized as a president who favors an increasingly unpopular war, the book quickly loses its panache and sputters to a weak conclusion that doesn't live up to the fine storytelling that precedes it. (Sept.)

In bestseller Bell's rousing fifth thriller (after Spy), Alex Hawke fights the leaders of a new and invigorated Russia, where Vladimir Putin has been locked up in a lethal prison built over a massive radioactive waste site. Evil mastermind Count Ivan Korsakov (aka the Dark Rider) is determined to return Mother Russia to her rightful place in the world order by reacquiring her former colonies, after which he intends to conquer Europe and reign as the new tsar. The only thing standing in his way is Hawke, who, as series fans well know, is more than up to the task of thwarting those who try to take over the globe. Life throws Hawke a curve when he finds himself falling in love with the astoundingly beautiful Anastasia, who just happens to be Korsakov's daughter. As always, Bell pulls out all the stops with terrific action scenes, fiendish murders, diabolical villains, dramatic rescues and all the cool weaponry the reader could possibly hope for. (Sept.)

Fans of bestseller Peters's Vicky Bliss series will welcome her solid sixth suspense novel to feature the plucky art historian, last seen in Night Train to Memphis (1994). In Munich, where Vicky is an assistant curator at the city's National Museum, she and her longtime love, John Tregarth (formerly Sir John Smythe, notorious art thief), are shocked when their friend Feisal, the “Inspector of Antiquities for all Upper Egypt,” arrives unexpectedly and informs them that King Tut's mummy has been stolen from its tomb in the Valley of the Kings and that John is the prime suspect. Vicky and company, including her inquisitive boss, set off on a whirlwind quest beginning in Europe and ending in the Egyptian desert to clear John's name and recover the famous corpse. In compensation for a slower pace than in earlier books, Peters offers vivid descriptions of Egyptian landmarks, which will resonate with readers of the MWA Grand Master's beloved Amelia Peabody historical series. (Sept.)

Russian novelist Pelevin's chaotic latest examines contemporary Russia as viewed through the eyes of A. Hu-li, a 2,000-year-old werefox who is able to transform into a beautiful nymphet. The opening chapter is both an introduction to werefoxes as well as an account of how werefoxes, working as prostitutes, utilize their stunning looks to absorb a man's life energy. Hu-li's experiences are standard for an ancient werefox until she meets Alexander, an attractive Russian intelligence officer who happens to be a werewolf. The two share a whirlwind romance, and after some trouble, shack up in Hu-li's bomb shelter. While hiding out, Hu-li and Alexander argue about religion, death, truth and the like until they both claim to be the “super-werewolf.” This argument—and Hu-li's disclosure of her true age—rupture the bliss. Pelevin creates interesting enough characters, but the unexplainable plot twists and the author's preoccupation with philosophical ramblings are nearly as perilous as a silver bullet. (Sept.)

Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren “Lars” Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars together face life's hardest struggles about where true meaning is found, which dreams are worth chasing and which only lead to emptiness, and why faith and hope are essential on life's difficult path. Meissner's prose is exquisite and she is a stunning storyteller. This is a novel to be shared with friends. (Sept. 16)

Examining the Spanish Civil War and the town that was famously firebombed by the Germans on the eve of WWII, this multigenerational family saga begins with the three abandoned Ansotegui boys, struggling to survive on the family farm at the end of the 19th century; younger brothers Josepe and Xabier become a fisherman and a priest, respectively, while the eldest, Justo, marries and raises a stunning daughter named Miriam. Charismatic, beautiful and the best jota dancer around, Miriam attracts the attention of Miguel Navarro, who winds up moving them to ill-fated Guernica after a run-in with the Spanish Civil Guard. Meanwhile, in nearby Bilbao, Father Xabier waxes political with real-life future Basque president José Antonio Aguirre, striking up an invaluable friendship. Boling's portrait of the Guernica tragedy is vivid, as is his illustration of the Basque people's oppression; wisely, he sidesteps elaborate political explanations that could slow the family drama. Boling is skillful with characters and dialogue, possessing a great sense of timing and humor, though some historical cameos feel forced (especially Picasso, who pops up throughout), and some plot twists can be seen from quite a long way off. (Sept.)

When high-level executive Mark Ludlow is discovered beaten to death in front of his house early one morning, forensic scientist Theresa MacLean and her fiancé, homicide detective Paul Cleary, investigate in Black's underwhelming debut, a thriller set in Cleveland. Paul immediately heads downtown to interview Ludlow's co-workers at the Federal Reserve Bank and walks right into a botched robbery attempt and hostage situation. Lucas Parrish and Bobby Moyers want $4 million, but top hostage negotiator Chris Cavanaugh isn't ready to give in to their demands. When Paul is shot in the leg and becomes a hostage, Theresa breaks protocol and convinces Lucas to let Paul go and take her instead. It's up to Theresa on the inside and Chris on the outside to uncover the motive behind the robbery and Ludlow's murder before anyone else gets hurt. Theresa, despite her professional training, devotes little time to scientific deduction. Readers can expect to find richer plots on most TV crime dramas. (Sept.)

In Dagger-winner Cleeves's uneven second installment in her Shetland Island quartet (after Raven Black), Insp. Jimmy Perez sees a stranger sobbing in front of a painting at an art exhibit featuring the work of Perez's new girlfriend, Fran Hunter, and mythic local painter Bella Sinclair. Claiming to be suffering from amnesia, the unknown man disappears before Perez can question him further, but turns up dead that same night, hanged in a fishing shed. In his investigation, Perez focuses on Bella, whose talent is matched by her penchant for drama and extravagant parties. When another body turns up, Perez must sift through generations of closely guarded island secrets to find the truth. Despite characters as vivid as those in Raven Black, Cleeves struggles to sustain a suspenseful plot, which slows to a crawl in the middle and packs too much action at the end. Still, this slight misstep shouldn't deter fans of the introspective Perez from looking forward to Cleeves's next thriller. (Sept.)

Those concerned about America's dependence on Saudi Arabia as an ally in the Middle East will find nothing of comfort in Lathrop's debut, a somewhat drawn-out account of intrigue, incompetence and inamorata among the sand dunes. When Steve Kemp, a failed American businessman, returns to Saudi Arabia after many years and runs into his former girlfriend, Helen, now married to an older U.S. diplomat, the pair strike up a clandestine romance. Steve and Helen struggle to keep their love—and themselves—alive amid a sudden Shiite coup that threatens the unpopular and corrupt Saudi regime. Lathrop, who knows the Middle East well from his years of working there, invokes both The Quiet American and The Ugly American, but the deft manner in which the reader is kept guessing who the “good” guys and the opportunists are is the author's own. (Sept.)

In this extraordinary thriller from Canadian author Pyper (The Wildfire Season), Patrick Rush, a lowly TV critic for a Toronto newspaper whose life has been slowly deteriorating since the untimely death of his wife, struggles to remain employed while trying to raise his precocious young son. When Rush decides to join a local writing circle in hopes of pursuing his lifelong dream of being an author, he becomes obsessed with a horrific work-in-progress written by a would-be writer in the group, a possibly autobiographical tale about being haunted by a “terrible man who does terrible things.” Rush begins finding connections among the story's supernatural villain, a shadowy serial killer with a predilection for dismemberment that has all of Toronto living in fear, and his own unraveling sanity. Powered by an ingeniously nonlinear narrative and suffused with a tone thick with dread, this is easily Pyper's most ambitious—and absorbing—work to date. (Sept.)

The intricacies of the ancient Egyptian court are brought to life in Moran's fascinating tale of a princess's rise to power. Nefertari, niece of the famed “heretic queen” Nefertiti, becomes part of the court of Pharaoh Seti I after her family is deposed, and she befriends Ramesses II, the young crown prince. When Ramesses is made co-monarch, he weds Iset, the granddaughter of a harem girl backed by Seti's conniving sister, Henuttawy, the priestess of Isis. As Nefertari's position in the court becomes tenuous, she realizes that she, too, wants to marry Ramesses and enlists the help of Seti's other sister, Woserit. But when Nefertari succeeds in wedding Ramesses, power struggles and court intrigues threaten her security, and it is questionable whether the Egyptian people will accept a heretic descendant as their ruler or if civil war will erupt. Moran (Nefertiti) brings her characters to life, especially Nefertari, who helped Ramesses II become one of the most famous of Egyptian pharaohs. Nefertari's struggles to be accepted as a ruler loved as a leader and to secure her family's position throughout eternity are sure to appeal to fans of historical fiction. (Sept.)

Starting off as a refugee in Guldenberg, Germany, was tough enough, but for Bernhard Haber, whose family—led by his one-armed carpenter father—fled Breslau after the 1945 Soviet invasion, things never got easier. From his first days in school, tossed into a class with students a year younger than he, when Bernhard makes quick business of exacting revenge upon a bully, to later injustices like the arson of his father's workshop, the murder of his dog and his father, Bernhard can't get a fair shake. Not one to gripe, he sticks it out. Through stints as a goon for a farmers' collective, a smuggler, a carpenter and town powerbroker, Bernhard remains a steady, if mysterious, character as his story is told by five acquaintances. Hein, a former president of PEN Germany, has a history of politically themed writing, and this novel does his legacy proud with its smart prose and keen social commentary. Seeing the postwar German landscape through the eyes of smalltown dwellers whose greatest moments involve their wooden bridge being used for a briefly rerouted autobahn, a reader can soak up the refugee experience. (Sept.)

How could a mother kill her children? This breathtaking first novel from photojournalist Kogan (Shutterbabe) attempts a heart-wrenching answer. Elizabeth “Lizzie” Burns Steiger, a 41-year-old TV producer/journalist, has a hallucination while watching a performance of Medea at a Manhattan theater; she sees her best friend in first grade, April Cassidy, who was killed by April's depressed mother, Adele, in 1972 in Potomac, Md., along with April's sister. In addition to exploring her memories in therapy, Lizzie interviews the Cassidys' former neighbor and others who knew the family for a proposed cable network documentary, but a priceless Pandora's box—tapes of Adele with her psychiatrist—provides the most startling revelations. Kogan skillfully interweaves Lizzie's struggles with her troubled marriage, parenting and a personal trauma shared in the Balkans with a former lover in this unflinching portrait of filicide, which still manages to find light in the darkness of a very disturbing subject. (Sept.)

In this complex and lyrical literary thriller from Goodman (The Sonnet Lover), University of Texas classics professor Sophie Chase, after barely surviving a gunman with ties to a sinister cult, joins an expedition to Capri. A donor has funded both the exact reconstruction of a Roman villa destroyed when Mount Vesuvius buried nearby Herculaneum in A.D. 79, and a computer system that can decipher the charred scrolls being excavated from the villa's ruins. Sophie's hopes for a recuperative idyll fade after her old boyfriend, who disappeared years before into the same cult as the campus gunman, appears in the area, implicating the cult in a criminal conspiracy. Meanwhile, extracts from the scrolls—the journals of a Roman visiting the villa just before the volcano erupted—shade toward bloodshed and betrayal. The scrolls' oddly modern tone aside, Goodman deftly mixes cultural and religious history, geography, myth, personal memory, dream and even portent without sacrificing narrative drive, against the beautiful backdrop of the locale with its echoes of unimaginable loss. 5-city author tour. (Sept.)

Mattison's latest combines a dark comedy of manners with even darker midlife family suspense. Constance “Con” Tepper plays the starring role in two long vignettes that take place 14 years apart. In the first vignette, Con is 45 and staying in her mother Gertrude's Brooklyn apartment to watch the cat. During this episode, “Gert” has a terrifying and paralyzing experience, the repercussions of which affect both her and others' lives in the intervening years and in the later vignette. Although there are almost too many threads to keep track of in Con's story, the one that is most important and most fully realized jumps back to an even earlier episode: a mid-century correspondence between Gert and her friend Marlene Silverman. This fascinating epistolary device acts as a tempting breadcrumb trail through the women's lives and leads to the wrenching denouement. Though not all the subplots work (a major one involving Con's biracial daughter, Joanna, is flat), the overarching examination of friends and family is captivating. (Sept.)

Allen melds gritty urban life and magical realism in his first collection (after the novel Rails Under My Back). At times, the combination works—in the title story, full of contemporary slang, a character grows wings, but instead of ethereal white feathers, they are “dried up and brown and crusty, like some fried chicken wings.” In “It Shall Be Again,” more of a prose poem than a story, characters open their mouths to catch a “thick dirty” rain of pennies. Some stories lack cohesiveness, and although Allen isn't attempting to write traditional pieces, the stories would benefit from coherency. Even in the weaker entries, though, Allen delivers striking images—two brothers chewing on wads of toilet paper, a scalp that looks like “watermelon meat chewed down to the rind.” It is these images, rather than particular events or characters, that leave the strongest impressions. Though scattered cultural references and spot-on dialogue root these stories mainly in the present, they have a distinct feeling of being outside of time. (Sept.)

At the start of Bradshaw's rousing adventure novel set in 246 B.C., the galley Atalanta, “just out of the naval shipyard of the island republic of Rhodes,” runs into a pirate vessel while returning to Rhodes on its maiden voyage. Led by Isokrates of Kameiros, Atalanta's helmsman, the Rhodians defeat the pirates and rescue the attractive Dionysia, who claims to have been the concubine of King Antiochos of Syria. Before the pirate captain abducted her, Dionysia was headed for Alexandria, where she intended to pass on some information to Antiochos's royal rival, Ptolemy. The sensitivity of this intelligence places Dionysia and Isokrates in harm's way, in particular from the pirate captain, who escaped during the sea battle. While the romance between the two principals is standard issue, Bradshaw (Dark North) does a splendid job of bringing to life a period of ancient history underutilized in fiction. (Sept.)

Marcom's three previous (and provocative) novels earned her much critical acclaim, but none shocks the reader like her intensely raw latest endeavor. This short novel is the story of a nameless woman and her lover and husband, who are intricately involved in the oscillating pleasure and angst of passion. The text is filled with unflinchingly rendered sex scenes, stream of consciousness, mythology, dreams and dreamlike realities, all blurred into each other, resulting in a narrative that portrays with disturbing accuracy the intimate behaviors and thoughts of lovers. Its explicit language, an invigorating mix of debauchery and poetic complexity, is disturbing at times, as in episodes of sexual violence or of uncommon acts (urine-drinking, for instance). Through this vivid imagery, Marcom gives voice to the essence of obsession and sexuality while tracing the deterioration of relationships. This novel is a cultural, feminist and human statement, but at its core, it is an unrestrained exploration of the intersection of emotion and physical desires. (Sept.)

Koontz's lumbering second Cold War thriller to feature master spy John Apparite (after 2006's Under Cloak of Darkness) veers toward unintentional parody. After a prologue set in Belgium in 1944, the story shifts to 1956 New York City, where Apparite, whose more-secret-and-more-powerful-than-the-CIA employer has given him the title of “Superagent,” is recovering from the trauma of a previous mission. When Apparite blows off steam by picking a fight with a professional boxer, his boss sends him on a mission to Berlin, where he again crosses swords with a Soviet assassin. The run-of-the-mill assignment involves East German defectors and a clichéd love interest. Patches of uninspired prose include an overly detailed description of a fired bullet's path (“the powder ignited and the bullet left the pistol faster than the speed of sound,” etc.). Some readers may find the final revelation more appropriate to a soap opera than a hard-hitting espionage yarn. (Sept.)

Superb prose and psychological insights distinguish Loehfelm's debut. Because Staten Island bartender John Sanders Jr. was regularly physically abused as a child by his father, he reacts at first with indifference to the news that John Senior has been killed, execution style, by an unknown assailant. The death has a greater impact on Sanders's sister, Julia, who returns from Boston to make the necessary arrangements and to attempt to reconnect with her brother to create some sense of family from their mutual childhood trauma. While Sanders channels some of his frustration and anger into a search for answers, the emphasis is on family relationships rather than mystery solving. Loehfelm excels in making Staten Island itself a palpable presence, brilliantly evoking the reek of the world's largest landfill that gives the novel its name, as well as the despair of the local residents. (Aug. 21)Note: Loehfelm is the winner of Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award, a contest in which PW reviewed manuscript submissions.

When Prentice McHoan, the irrepressible hero of Banks's wily novel whose loves include drink, cars, girls and history, returns from university in Glasgow to his family home in Gallanach for his grandmother's funeral, his thoughts turn to his uncle Rory, a travel writer who disappeared eight years earlier. When Prentice runs into Janice, an old girlfriend of Rory's, the two wonder together if Rory has gone “away the Crow Road” (Scottish for “died”), and Janice reveals that Rory gave her a folder of his poems and notes before he disappeared. Rory's writings are tantalizingly cryptic and turn out to include outlines for a novel-in-progress titled Crow Road. Fueled by his uncle's notes, his own curiosity and a good bit of brown liquor, Prentice sets off to find his uncle in an engaging narrative that admirably balances bawdy Scottish humor, crafty character development and some good old-fashioned mystery. Prentice finds his closure—for better or for worse—and things are tied up neatly (maybe too neatly) by the end. Readers unfamiliar with Banks's prodigious output have a great starting point here. (Aug.)

Spanning worlds, generations, cultures and environments, each of Meno's short stories in this stellar collection explores depression, loneliness and insanity in the world, while never quite offering a clear solution or glimmer of hope. Misery loves company, and Meno's assortment of off-center, morose characters fit seamlessly together. Even with their almost kitschy specificity, stories such as “I Want the Quiet Moments of a Party Girl” and “Art School Is Boring So” never become pretentious or unnecessarily complex. Meno plays with supernatural elements throughout the collection, and his risky moves—such as having a protagonist turn into a cloud in “People Are Becoming Clouds” or a woman whose insides are overrun by a miniature city in “Airports of Light”—always pay off. Each story is illustrated by a different artist, from Schizo series cartoonist Ivan Brunetti to the husband and wife duo kozyndan, known for their depictions of modern cityscapes. Catering to all the odd men out in the world, this short story collection succeeds word to word, sentence to sentence, and cover to cover. (Aug.)

After the travails of The Ever-Running Man (2007), Sharon McCone retreats to her high desert ranch near Yosemite in MWA Grand Master Muller's fine 26th novel to feature the San Francisco PI. Depressed, bored and uncertain about her future in a dangerous business, McCone is unwittingly drawn into a local case—the murder of Hayley Perez, the estranged niece of ranch manager Ramon Perez, and the disappearance of Hayley's teenage sister, Amy, and their alcoholic mother, Miri. As she looks into the Perezes' relationships, McCone uncovers secrets that hint at more than simply family dysfunction. Two more murders and a suicide add to the confusion, which McCone can only untangle, with the help of her husband and her Shoshone birth relatives, by tracing the victims' complex past. By the upbeat ending, McCone has learned that with judicious use of both her investigative and executive skills she can reshape her life. (Oct.)

In British author Brandreth's impressive second Oscar Wilde mystery (after 2007's Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance), the aesthete and playwright proves himself a brilliant and insightful sleuth. At a May 1892 meeting of the Socrates Club, a group founded by Wilde and including such luminaries as Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker, the members play “murder,” a game that involves writing the name of a “victim” on a piece of paper and trying to guess who chose whom and why. The amusement sours in the face of certain selections in poor taste, like Mrs. Oscar Wilde. Real murders follow, starting with the horrific death by fire of the ex-fiancée of one of the participants, a disgraced minister. As in Nicholas Meyer's second Sherlock Holmes pastiche, The West End Horror, such real-life figures as Doyle or Stoker can be easily eliminated as the killer, but there are enough other suspects to keep the reader guessing at the solution of this intricate whodunit. (Sept.)

At the start of Dunn's diverting 17th Daisy Dalrymple 1920s mystery (after 2007's The Bloody Tower), Daisy and her Scotland Yard detective husband, Alec Fletcher, have inherited a large house from Alec's great-uncle near London's Hampstead Heath. While the couple are delighted with the extra space for their growing family, they have doubts about their new neighbors. Then the maid discovers a dead body in the garden one morning, and Daisy and Alec become entangled in a case involving bootleggers, American gangsters and black ships (e.g., rum-running vessels). Meanwhile, the nanny can't get used to the idea that Daisy as a modern mother actually wants to play with her babies. Dunn provides an intriguing view of the Prohibition era from the English perspective, besides casting a witty light on the social changes of the day. (Sept.)

The fur-flying 20th entry in Douglas's cat whodunit series (Cat in a Red Hot Rage, etc.) reveals that magician Mystifying Max Kinsella, Temple Barr's former sweetie, has been secretly whisked away to a European hospital, where he suffers from amnesia and is attracted to his sexy doctor. Meanwhile, Temple, who believes Max is dead, has become engaged to Matt Devine, former priest turned radio self-help guru, Mr. Midnight. Temple is also helping her romance novelist aunt, Kit Carlson, prepare to wed, but when a bachelor party prank goes awry, Matt and various members of the groom's family wind up at the Sapphire Slipper, “the finest and classiest little licensed brothel” in Nye County, Nev., where Matt stumbles on a murdered prostitute. Midnight Louie, feline sleuth, offers his considerable expertise in solving crimes of passion. Douglas explores the campy, lighter side of “chicken ranches” at the same time she exposes their seamier aspects. (Sept.)

PI and painter Chris Honeysett combs the English spa town of Bath at the insistence of a mysterious caller, who claims to have kidnapped a 15-year-old boy, in Helton's gripping third mystery (after 2006's Slim Chance). The kidnapper, aware of Honeysett's sleuthing abilities, demands he commit a series of burglaries to save the boy from death or mutilation. Complicating matters are the dead body that turns up in Honeysett's stolen car and a “witch” who lives in a crumbling caravan surrounded by springs and gardens of herbs. Helton takes what could have been a cliché in lesser hands, the wounded good guy who must break the law to uphold justice, and makes him credible. Also vividly portrayed are Honeysett's associates, fellow painter Annis Jordan and reformed safecracker Tim Bigwood, with whom he shares an old barn that doubles as an art studio and their detective agency headquarters. Shabby genteel Bath during the soggy autumn season serves as a memorable setting. (Sept.)

Spanning the years from 1935 to 1959, Edgar-finalist McDonald's second novel to feature crime novelist Hector Lassiter (after 2007's Head Games) deftly mixes myth, history and a serial killer who arranges dead bodies to resemble surrealistic art. Lassiter, whose work embodies the “write what you live and live what you write” ethos, loves hard, drinks hard and keeps an eye on avenging the loss of the beautiful blonde he meets in a Key West bar on page one. As a popular author, Lassiter interacts with such notables as Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles, whom the author skillfully animates. Other celebrities of the day make cameo appearances. Solidly grounded in such actual events as the Key West hurricane of 1935, the Spanish Civil War and Cuba's last days before Castro, McDonald's imaginative tale takes an enjoyably different approach to art and murder. (Sept.)

In Carrington's entertaining fourth Sofie Metropolis novel (after 2007's Foul Play), the Queens Greek-American PI is on the hunt for an all-dressed-up-and-ready-to-be-viewed corpse that's been snatched from her aunt's funeral home. Sofie is also trying to prove the innocence of Johnny Laughton, a young man from the projects about to go on trial for the murder of his socially upscale girlfriend a year earlier, though her body was never found. Despite a heartbroken secretary, a meddling mother, and vampires and necrophiliacs for neighbors, Sofie pursues both cases with aplomb. Meanwhile, still recovering from the left-at-the-altar fiasco detailed in Sofie Metropolis (2005), she consoles herself in a no-strings fling with Dino Antonopoulos, a pastry shop owner, until Jake Porter, a sexy Australian bounty hunter, upsets her libido. While the plot tends to meander, romance, humor and appealing characters will keep readers happily turning the pages. (Sept.)

By broadly interpreting what constitutes noir, Pelecanos has been able to include writers as diverse as Langston Hughes and Ward Just in this high-quality reprint anthology. In his introduction, Pelecanos describes his vision of “a century-long overview of D.C. fiction that would focus on issues of race, ethnicity, politics, class, and the attendant struggles and changes that occurred in various eras of our history.” Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African-American poet, opens the book on a powerful note with “A Council of State,” a story of political intrigue first published in 1900 that will still resonate with contemporary readers. The equally powerful final selection, an excerpt from Marita Golden's novel After (2006), presents the agonizing moments just before and after a black police officer fatally shoots a fellow black man, who turns out to have been holding not a gun but a cellphone. Other contributors include Ross Thomas, Jean Toomer and Richard Wright. (Sept.)

Littlewood, a former zookeeper, knows a great deal about animal management and goes to some lengths to work her knowledge into her debut, but unfortunately, the behind-the-scenes details slow the pace and dilute the drama. Iris Oakley and her husband, Rick Douglas, are both keepers at a small zoo in Vancouver, Wash., where she works the big cats, he the reptiles. He drinks too much, they fight, she leaves. Then Rick's body turns up in the lion area, ripped to pieces. Unwilling to accept that this tragedy was an accident, Iris decides to find the truth about how Rick died and why. Soon she herself becomes the target of suspicious and increasingly threatening “accidents.” The plot, a mix of woman-in-jeopardy and standard amateur-sleuth conventions, will be familiar to most mystery readers. Still, the highly original setting is a plus. (Sept.)

Believable characters, a multilayered plot and smooth prose define Gregory's darkly ambitious debut novel. In this fascinating alternative time line, thousands of demon possessions have been carefully recorded by scientists each year since the 1950s. Each case is always the same: a recognizable, named “strain of the disorder” possesses a person, wreaks havoc and then jumps on to its next victim. Del Pierce's case is unique: when the Hellion possessed him at the age of five, it never left. Now an unhappy 20-something, Del undertakes a dangerous quest to exorcise the Hellion as it fights him for control. The trim prose keeps the pace intense and the action red hot through some emotionally disturbing scenes and heavy backstory. Absorbing psychological discussions of possession abound, from Jungian archetypes to the eye of Shiva. Readers will delve deeply into Gregory's highly original demon-infested reality and hope for a sequel. (Sept.)

The Grazianos, sibling scientists, combine speculation and science in a compulsively page-turning time-travel adventure. A physics experiment gone awry sends four people and a dog 65 million years into the past. Day-to-day survival among creatures like giant croc Deinosuchus and T. rex becomes a priority, even as the group of stranded scientists realize that getting home involves a thousand-mile trek across the amazing landscape of Hell Creek. Physicist Yariko Miyakara does the math and paleontologist Julian Whitney navigates until each is separated from the rest of the party and must fend for themselves alone. Meanwhile, police officer Sharon Earles spearheads an investigation, calling in physicists who work against the clock as the Feds prepare to shut the facility down. Details about plants, animals and insects in the distant past set the stage for a tight, scientifically plausible plot with a wholly unexpected twist that will keep readers guessing. (Sept.)

British space opera author Hamilton (The Dreaming Void) isn't quite up to his usual standards in this cautionary tale about tinkering with the human body. Several decades in the future, life has been revolutionized by the datasphere, the Internet's successor, made possible by the memory crystal. Its inventor, Jeff Baker, has been universally lionized following his altruistic refusal to patent the design. Baker, now 77, is selected by the Eurohealth Council as the guinea pig for a new biotechnology that replaces his aged genes, giving him the body of a 20-year-old. Unfortunately, the goal of the experiment—to have Baker's genius applied to energy conservation—is derailed by his raging hormones, which lead him to hit on every attractive woman in sight, including his teenage son's girlfriend. The predictable ensuing scenes of passion and parent-child conflict are not particularly interesting, and the unconvincing sentimental ending likewise disappoints. (Sept.)

Mysterious deaths, encounters with oddly named aliens, chases and shootouts form a skeleton of a story that never quite gets fleshed out in Zahn's weak third Frank Compton adventure. Former spy and planet-hopping PI Compton, worn out by the events of 2007's The Third Lynx, gets home to find a woman in his apartment. She needs help rescuing her little sister, Rebekah, from the group mind that Compton just got back from battling. After he turns her down in classic cynical-hero fashion, she's promptly killed. Compton, framed for the crime, acquires a new identity and heads off to find Rebekah with the assistance of “ex-Marine ex-bounty hunter” Bruce McMicking. The usual sort of mayhem leads to Rebekah's rescue, the discovery of her secret and a classic confrontation/explanation scene with the mastermind, who asks, “How did you learn this?” Clumsy back-references and a blatant setup for the next book will thoroughly discourage new readers. (Sept.)

The sword & sorcery trilogy that began with The Blade Itself (2007) and Before They Are Hanged (2008) comes to a violent, sardonic and brilliant conclusion. The shaky Union, menaced simultaneously by rampaging Northmen and by Gurkish invaders from the south, now must contend with intrigue and treachery in its capital, Adua. Summoned to play parts in a devastating confrontation between magical forces, conscience-ridden berserker Logen Ninefingers and honest, weary Union commander Colonel West come down from the north to meet painfully self-aware torturer Glokta, revenge-obsessed female warrior Ferro, pliable young adventurer Jezal and scheming, unscrupulous mage Bayaz. All these people are believable, especially as they dabble in grimly convincing magic and struggle to hear their consciences through the roar of carnage and betrayal. Abercrombie is a fresh new talent, presenting a dark view of life with wit and zest, and readers will mourn the end of this vivid story arc. (Sept.)

Novelist Candice Proctor (Why Mermaids Sing and others as C.S. Harris) and her husband, army intelligence officer Steven Harris, collaborate on this rollicking suspense novel. October “Tobie” Guinness is a remote viewer who sees unpredictable flashes of things miles away. When she discovers a conspiracy by key defense industry and government personnel to plan a 9/11-type attack in New Orleans and turn public sentiment against Iran, the conspirators decide that she and the professor training her must die. Jax Alexander, a CIA agent one mistake away from being fired, goes to New Orleans to investigate the professor's death and stumbles into the plot. Jax and Tobie run for their lives, trying to stay one step ahead of the killers, piece together the plot and avert an unjust war. While Tobie is trapped by circumstances, shockingly capable and intelligent but tormented by her gift, Jax is the consummate skeptical patriot. Conspiracy fans will love this impressive series opener. (Oct.)

This sticky-sweet conclusion to the Bakery Sisters trilogy (after 2008's Sweet Spot) wraps up the story of Jesse Keyes, the younger sister of fraternal twins Claire, a celebrated pianist, and Nicole, a Seattle baker. Jesse returns to Seattle five years after her self-imposed exile, bringing her four-year-old son, Gabe. Jesse knows Gabe's father is her ex-boyfriend, Matt, but both Matt and Nicole think Jesse had an affair with Nicole's then-husband. Matt acknowledges his son after a DNA test, but as Jesse yearns for him (inexplicably, given his curt mannerisms and reprehensible behavior), he's secretly planning to hurt her by getting custody of Gabe. Nicole and Jesse squabble over the past, but when tragedy strikes, the sisters must pull together and Matt must make a decision. Mallery provides the standard mix of romantic angst and sibling melodrama, leading to a heartfelt if predictable ending. (Sept.)

Debut author Peterson kicks off a series in fine style with this complex and action-packed conspiracy thriller. Former CIA sniper Nathan McBride, called in to investigate the disappearance of an undercover FBI agent who happens to be the grandson of former FBI director Frank Ortega, tracks down two homegrown arms dealers/terrorists, Leonard and Ernie Bridgestone, who have a huge supply of Semtex explosive. When McBride kills one of their men, the Bridgestones retaliate by blowing up an FBI headquarters building in California. As McBride chases them down, he discovers that what he thought was a clean-cut case of “catch the terrorist” is anything but, with corruption and twists that connect to Ortega and may involve McBride's own estranged senator father. Competent, intelligent, cool under pressure and romantically involved with FBI agent Holly Simpson, McBride is an extremely promising hero, and his adventures will be a big hit with thriller fans. (Sept.)

Nearly six feet tall, newspaper editor Chastity “Chas” O'Neill can hold her own with her four firefighter brothers, whose bravery is legendary in their upstate New York hometown. But at age 31, she's tired of being one of the guys and ready to fall in love and add more babies to the family brood. Too bad firefighter Trevor Meade, whom she's adored since childhood, only thinks of her as a friend. By this point—about page 16—romance readers will know exactly where this is heading, but Higgins (Catch of the Day) enlivens the journey with subplots including a handsome surgeon who falls for Chas, the unpredictable relationship between her divorced parents and attempts by an ambitious receptionist to undermine her position at the newspaper. There's also plenty of slapstick humor that ranges from amusingly ribald to uncomfortably coarse. Still, Higgins provides an amiable romp that ends with a satisfying lump in the throat. (Aug.)

This irresistible graphic novel by longtime Guardian cartoonist Simmonds is roughly based on Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd and uses it to depict the English upper-middle class having tawdry midlife crises. Beth, the wife of renowned author Nicholas Hardiman, runs an idyllic writer's retreat where she's parlayed her skill at caring for her husband into caring for other writers. She and her literary charges barely notice the locals who, jammed on council estates, look on with envy. Enter young Tamara Drewe, a newspaper columnist famed for her post–plastic surgery beauty. With Ben, her rock-star boyfriend, and her citified ways, she knocks Beth's little group on its head and gets stalked by two local girls. After Ben leaves Tamara, she decides the already adulterous Nicholas would be a nice lay on the rebound, only he falls in love with her. The art captures British frumpiness so well it's scary; middle-age spread hulks through this book like sad weight, but it's less skilled with beauty; Tamara's looks don't sway the reader the way they sway the characters in the book. But the view on how feminism has failed in moneyed Britain is priceless. A wonderful and slightly evil book. (Oct.)

Tatsumi has been called the “grandfather of Japanese alternative comics,” and this third collection of his stories shows why. Tatsumi takes on subjects as difficult as the legacy of Hiroshima, incest and the sexual humiliations of postwar Japanese soldiers, yet is never exploitative. Instead, the stories humanize all of the characters involved. Tatsumi excels at depicting honest human reactions to complex situations, and he refuses to rely on a single style of storytelling. The first story, “Hell,” is a brief masterpiece. A freelance photojournalist snaps a picture of one of the infamous Hiroshima shadows—shadows of people burnt into the walls by the intensity of the atomic blast. The shadow appears to be a boy rubbing his mother's back, but years later, the photographer learns the awful truth behind the scene. By contrast, “Just a Man” forgoes the O. Henry twist, instead telling a circular slice-of-life story about the quiet despair of a Japanese salaryman. “Rash,” a brief story of a man afflicted with a psychosomatic skin condition, reads as if Haruki Murakami decided to try his hand at manga. Tatsumi's art is masterful: he switches art styles from cartoony manga to stark realism with ease and is equally adept at depicting graceful motion, grisly suffering and complicated emotion. (July)

Originally, Kujibiki Unbalance was an imaginary manga and anime series enjoyed by the characters of Genshiken, a popular series about otaku (geek) culture and its fans. Genshiken was written and drawn by Shimoku, who provides the story here for Koume. Because of its origin, Kujibiki Unbalance was meant to be stereotypical, so it comprises clichés. “Kujibiki” means lottery, and the setting is a high school where everything is decided by random draw. The lead is a regular guy, his best friend is a cute girl, and their antagonist is a mean genius with cat ears and a love of explosions. There's a ruling school elite to order them around, upskirt panty shots, a destructive giant robot, a little girl with superpowers, flashbacks to childhood friends, a harem gathered around the lead and, surprisingly, the occasional profanity. The characters appear very young, yet there's plenty of emphasis on the body parts of the girls in very short skirts. For fans of the original Genshiken, there's a self-congratulatory three-page bonus at the end in which the characters read this volume. (July)

This gentle wisp of a book offers relief from the busy fretfulness of most comics. When Mr. Fooster leaves his home for a walk, he doesn't plan to save the world, just to appreciate its strangeness. Some of the oddities he ponders may seem too familiar to notice, such as the mechanical perfection of mandarin orange segments, but some might upset a person lacking Mr. Fooster's serene outlook. He's not startled, for example, when the soap bubble he's blowing turns into a green DeSoto sedan; he just drives it home and decides to sell it on eBay. Nor is he upset when his feet take root out in the woods so that he grows leaves and becomes indistinguishable from a tree until, several seasons later, a butterfly convinces him that he can think himself free. As the title says, Mr. Fooster likes to wander a lot, whimsically admiring the quirky world waiting for him, and the story invites readers to do the same. Corwin's text is suitably understated, especially in the most potentially thrilling or threatening episodes. Frazier's sepia-hued illustrations nicely complement the unexpectedly substantial message. Though this looks like a children's book, adults capable of childlike wonder will find it quietly delightful. (June)

The late master manga storyteller Tezuka (Astro Boy; Phoenix) returns with the next volume of his 1967–1968 horror/samurai epic, and the dire doings escalate to horrifying levels as young swordsman Hyakkimaru continues his quest to reclaim his stolen body parts from a gaggle of demons, accompanied by the self-described “world's greatest thief,” the diminutive Dororo. This time their wanderings bring them into carnage-laden conflict with fearful villagers, carnivorous fox spirits, opposing actions in a border war, a face-stealing evil Buddha statue, unrestful child ghosts and a nobleman whose loving marriage to a moth demon brings about shocking tragedy. Along this journey of despair, vengeance and the darkest of magic, Hyakkimaru encounters long-lost members of his family—with devastating results—while secrets from Dororo's past are revealed in the presence of a monk who persuades Hyakkimaru that an aspect of his thieving companion may offer a hint to his mission in life once he completes his odyssey of righteous killing. As per the previous volume, this is compelling stuff and notable among Tezuka's works for being almost relentlessly downbeat, gruesome and genuinely creepy, all elements somehow enhanced by the artist's appealing animation-influenced visual style. (June)

In a splendid flowering of the talent previously demonstrated in his crime fiction (Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River), Lehane combines 20th-century American history, a gripping story of a family torn by pride and the strictures of the Catholic Church, and the plot of a multifaceted thriller. Set in Boston during and after WWI, this engrossing epic brings alive a pivotal period in our cultural maturation through a pulsing narrative that exposes social turmoil, political chicanery and racial prejudice, and encompasses the Spanish flu pandemic, the Boston police strike of 1919 and red-baiting and anti-union violence.

Danny Coughlin, son of police captain Thomas Coughlin, is a devoted young beat cop in Boston's teeming North End. Anxious to prove himself worthy of his legendary father, he agrees to go undercover to infiltrate the Bolsheviks and anarchists who are recruiting the city's poverty-stricken immigrants. He gradually finds himself sympathetic to those living in similar conditions to his fellow policemen, who earn wages well below the poverty line, work in filthy, rat-infested headquarters, are made to pay for their own uniforms and are not compensated for overtime. Danny also rebels by falling in love with the family's spunky Irish immigrant maid, a woman with a past. Danny's counterpart in alienation is Luther Laurence, a spirited black man first encountered in the prologue when Babe Ruth sees him playing softball in Ohio. After Luther kills a man in Tulsa, he flees to Boston, where he becomes intertwined with Danny's family.

This story of fathers and sons, love and betrayal, idealism and injustice, prejudice and brotherly feeling is a dark vision of the brutality inherent in human nature and the dire fate of some who try to live by ethical standards. It's also a vision of redemption and a triumph of the human spirit. In short, this nail-biter carries serious moral gravity. (Sept.)