Fiction Reviews: Week of 7/14/2008

Egyptian author al Aswany (The Yacoubian Building) weaves a vivid tapestry of clashing cultures in post-9/11 Chicago. Dr. Ra'fat Thabit, an Egyptian-American professor at the University of Illinois Medical School, has burrowed deep into American culture, but finds his identity threatened after his rebellious daughter falls under the sway of a shady boyfriend. Ra'fat's colleague, Dr. Muhammad Shamay, retreats from his American wife into extended reveries of his life in Cairo in the 1970s when he was young and in love with a revolutionary. His histology student, Nagi Abd al-Samad, really wants to be a poet. Nagi begins a relationship with an American girl named Wendy (who just so happens to be Jewish). Meanwhile, Shymaa Muhammadi, a medical student who wears a veil, finds her traditional values under siege when Tariq Haseeb, another Egyptian med student, begins seducing her with dogged persistence. The characters are beautifully realized—Ra'fat's family trouble is especially well done—and though their cumulative effect is muted, each of the story lines is individually compelling. (Oct.)

In her affecting debut, Spechler raises the question of whether, in rescuing others, we risk ruining ourselves. Thirteen years after the abduction of youngest child Alena at the age of six, the remaining members of the Kellerman family are still deeply damaged by their shared loss. The irresponsible oldest daughter, Bits, seeks out random sexual encounters with near strangers to fill the voids in her life. Son Ash, meanwhile, dabbles in a variety of compulsive behaviors before settling on Orthodox Judaism, cutting himself off from the rest of the family and moving to Jerusalem. The mother, Ellie, enlists the help of a charismatic stranger to help save Ash from what she views as a cult, and when Alena's remains are discovered, Bits determines to bring Ash home for their sister's long-overdue memorial service. Told in alternating chapters by Bits, Ellie and Ash, the narrative is notable in large part for how little these family members actually interact with one another despite the drama that confronts them all. Though the ending is overly tidy, Spechler's debut raises provocative questions about religion, violence and the resilience of families and individuals. (Oct.)

Argentine Birmajer presents a complicated tale of political intrigue revolving around Javier Mossen, a 32-year-old Jewish Argentine journalist obsessed with sex, the one who got away and looking out for number one. Mossen is reluctantly writing a Sunday feature on Elias Traum, a Jew and former Argentine revolutionary now residing in Israel and recently returned for a visit. When he goes to meet Traum at the airport, Mossen is assaulted and Traum kidnapped. Traum is later dumped naked but alive on the side of the road, and a terrified Mossen is so relieved his subject survived that he finds himself being drawn in by the activist's tales of political intrigue and heroism. When he realizes he's being followed, and his editor suddenly warns him away from Traum, Mossen becomes fearful, and then suspicious. Though the focus is political—so much so, readers may become confused—Argentine sexual attitudes also form an important thread, allowing Birmajer to indulge in some macho, misogynistic characterization and more than a little casual denigration of gays. Still, Birmajer skillfully explores the importance of Judaism in contemporary Argentina through an unlikely friendship and a crackerjack conspiracy plot. (Oct.)

Lopez's engaging novel chronicles how four sisters' lives are shaped by the early loss of their mother and their belief that they were granted magical abilities upon the death of an enigmatic loved one. Bette, the eldest Gabaldón sister, is a preteen in the late 1960s when Fermina, the family's beloved and very old housekeeper, dies, and Bette and her sister Loretta tell the younger girls, Rita and Sophia, that Fermina gave them all special powers. As the siblings grow up, they long for more information about the mysterious Fermina, particularly as their supposed talents continue to manifest: Bette is a preternaturally good liar; Loretta can heal animals; Rita can offhandedly hex people; and Sophia can make people laugh. The author skillfully writes from different points of view and teases out Fermina's background in a satisfying way as the sisters try to learn more about her story. Lopez establishes herself as an excellent storyteller with this multilayered tale of sisterhood, growing up, self-awareness and honoring history. (Oct.)

Winner of the John Simmons Short Fiction Award, McNett's neat, chipper collection of seven stories uncovers surprising, tender moments in the lives of Midwestern farm dwellers. Gordon, the recently divorced, forlorn and none-too-clean bachelor protagonist of “Wishbone,” has let himself and his old farm deteriorate to such a point that the goth girls on the school bus have started a wicked rumor about him and his ponies. “Catalog Sales” finds two middle school–age sisters of divorced parents trying to navigate their painful adolescence while at the same time having to make the appalling acquaintance of their father's pretty, much-too-young-for-him Philippine fiancée. McNett's enormously appealing title story pursues an elderly member of the church, Mr. Bob, as he botches the care of the minister's beloved, incontinent beagle while the minister and his family are away on vacation. Bob doesn't like or share the minister's sense of blessed entitlement, and he even concludes he is helping the minister's overburdened wife a favor when he loses the dog. There is graceful movement and candor to McNett's work, and a palpable sense of possibilities. (Oct.)

A courageous African-American housewife and mother of five seeks freedom from domestic abuse in Birch's powerful ode to self-renewal (and her own work with domestic violence victims). When Syreeta Lynch marries Randall Michael Taylor III, her high school sweetheart, she has no idea that, 11 years later, she'll feel trapped by her perfect union. In that time, Randy becomes a successful investment banker, but also a manipulative monster with no qualms about physically and emotionally punishing his 32-year-old wife when she doesn't behave according to his whims. Then Syreeta's chance encounter with therapist Dr. Jordan Curtis leads her to seek help. With an intense first-person narration, Birch depicts Syreeta's journey of healing; raw, intimate struggles with Randy, revealing sessions with Dr. Curtis and a late-book conversation with her angry older son, K'wan, are especially well-wrought. Syreeta's Aunt Edie dispenses advice on the nature and importance of responsibility (“Every day is a choice”), in case the empower-yourself message didn't quite make it through; if readers can forgive Birch's occasional excesses, they'll find this an honest and inspiring novel. (Nov.)

Parrish's debut novel begins with the mother of all Christian fiction clichés: a young urban sophisticate is forced, much to her chagrin, to move from the city to the country. Despite this scenario playing out largely according to the formula (stock rural characters teach said sophisticate important life lessons), the story feels fresh. Parrish's protagonist, Sarah Graham, is unabashedly self-centered, unfriendly, promiscuous and lazy—and amazingly enough, she holds on to these characteristics throughout most of the novel. The conversion she experiences in the brutally poor mountain hamlet of Jonah is full of hiccups and reversals. Just when it seems that Sarah has been rehabilitated, she tosses off yet another casually diabolical thought or action with absolutely no remorse. The people of Jonah are flawed and complicated, too, and Parrish allows readers to savor every moment of genuine, hard-earned human connection. With its vast array of richly imagined characters, its humor and its substance, this debut is sure to resonate with a wide and appreciative audience. (Oct.)

Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller by muckraking Swedish journalist Larsson. At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden's dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman. Larsson died in 2004, shortly after handing in the manuscripts for what will be his legacy. 100,000 first printing. (Sept.)

Journalist, playwright and short-story writer Viswanathan's absorbing first novel, based on her grandmother's life, goes deep into the world of southern India village life. Starting in 1896, the story follows Sivakami, a Tamil Brahmin girl, from her marriage at the age of 10 through her long widowhood, while Indian political and social life lumbers through immense changes. Before he dies, Sivakami's astrologer husband, Hanumarathnam, foresees his death in the malignant interactions between his stars and his son Vairum's. Though he trains a trustworthy servant to assist Sivakami until their son comes of age, the world that Hanumarathnam leaves behind is rapidly changing, and the family is not entirely fit to survive it; Vairum, especially, suffers the pain of a father's disaffection and, later, a widowed mother forbidden to touch any human being during daylight hours. Irreconcilable conflicts between tradition—especially the strict caste rules of Brahmin life—and the modernizing world lead predictably to alienation and tragedy, but on an epic scale. Viswanathan is especially adept at unobtrusively explaining foreign customs and worldviews to Westerners while wholly respecting the power and significance they hold for practitioners. (Sept.)

Mystery novels, ever in need of fresh points of view, are given to strange genre hybrids like Fuller's debut novel: part investigative procedural, part narrative of American slave life. Cassius, a secretly literate slave on a Civil War–era Virginia tobacco plantation, is determined to track down whoever killed his mentor and surrogate mother, Emoline Justice, a free black woman. Making liberal use of his limited freedoms, Cassius takes to the road, playing the obvious disadvantages of life under the yoke to his favor. Along the way, he encounters slave traders, Underground Railroad conspirators, Confederate soldiers, Northern spies and a wide assortment of African-Americans, slave and free. Fuller, a screenwriter, has palpable sympathy for his African-American characters, and Cassius's encounters with other characters—like the haunted slave owner Hoke Howard—are the book's strongest parts. Unfortunately, Fuller's solid plot doesn't carry the novel through to its end, and, despite sourcing the work of historians Eugene Genovese and John Hope Franklin, the novel gives off a distinct whiff of unreality. (Sept.)

Kiriyama-winner Aslam (Maps for Lost Lovers) takes an ambitious and moving look at the human cost of Afghanistan's war-torn reality. Marcus, a British doctor, lives near Jalalabad and quietly mourns the loss of his Afghan wife, their grown daughter and his hand to the Taliban and tribal warring. His houseguests includes Lara, a Russian woman searching for the truth about her soldier brother's disappearance, and David, a formerly zealous CIA operative whose love for Marcus's murdered daughter binds him to the older man as they search for her missing son. There's a tremendous tension in the first half of the book as the connections between the characters and the country are built up, and Aslam exploits the setup perfectly when a cast of younger characters—a fervent jihadi, a charismatic but arrogant American soldier, a rebellious local schoolteacher—arrive at the house and bring danger with them. Lyrical but not overwritten, the novel creates an unflinchingly clear picture of a country whose history of strife is still being written. (Sept.)

A deeply flawed—and endearing—protagonist powers Peacock's impressive debut. Joel Deveraux, once an up-and-coming corporate litigator at one of New York City's most prestigious law firms, resigned in disgrace after a paralegal working on one of his cases died from a heroin overdose. Joel later tries to resurrect himself personally and professionally by becoming a public defender in Brooklyn. But when he's asked to help enigmatic lawyer Myra Goldstein with a high profile case involving the shooting death of a white college student “gunned down in the projects,” Joel is forced to revisit some of the same issues that almost ruined him years earlier. Peacock's intimate knowledge of the courtroom and carefully crafted prose aside, the gritty realism, intense emotional intimacy and socially relevant subject matter—racism, America's war on drugs, the “corporate culture” of drug dealers—make this a deeply thought-provoking read in a genre that can be anything but. (Sept.)

Politically liberal readers will probably best appreciate Cohen's near-future thriller, in which corporate oligarchs run America and the middle classes acquiesce through fear of the displaced underclass, composed of those generally left behind by globalization. A coalition of trade unionists, environmentalists, religious groups and civil libertarians opposes the oligarchs. When the administration hacks electronic voting to rig elections, a general strike is called that's put down with Blackwater-style mercenaries. This leads a small group of activists to launch a campaign of assassinations and sabotage to force the government into allowing elections, but this triggers even more repression. While Cohen (Invisible World) vividly describes the dynamics of a demonstration as it evolves into a riot, even those in sympathy with the author's message may find this paranoid fantasy too heavy-handed and strident for their taste. (Sept.)

Shuman's provocative third thriller to feature blind psychic Sherry Moore (after Last Breath) puts a troubling, unsavory issue front and center. When Sherry uses her unusual gift—the ability to “see” the final seconds of a dead person's life—to help save some stranded mountain climbers in Alaska's Denali National Park, she gets an unexpected and horrific glimpse of the sexual slave trade. After learning more about the tortured women she sees in her vision, Sherry doesn't hesitate to make a dangerous trip into the wilds of Haiti in search of justice. Sherry's unique talent opens doors for her, but it's her determination to live a full, active, useful life and her grit when things get rough that makes her such an appealing hero. Shuman puts a human face on the victims of human trafficking while painting a shameful picture of the failure of the world's nations to address the problem. (Sept.)

At the start of Hayder's superb third crime novel to feature Det. Insp. Jack Caffery (after The Treatment), Sgt. Phoebe “Flea” Marley, a police diver, retrieves a severed hand from Bristol harbor. Without a corpse, the investigation stalls, until fingerprints identify the hand as belonging to Ian “Mossy” Mallows, a known heroin junkie. While Caffery pursues the drug angle, Flea uncovers a possible connection to muti, a brand of African witchcraft and traditional medicine that incorporates body parts into its rituals. Digging deeper, Caffery and Flea discover that Mallows may still be alive and the men responsible may be using muti as a cover for even darker purposes. Meanwhile, Flea mourns the accidental death of her parents two years earlier while they were diving in a remote pool in Africa's Kalahari desert. Hayder vividly evokes torture and drug abuse, but the violence is never gratuitous. Readers looking for visceral thrills need look no further than this gritty English series. (Sept.)

In British writer Lodge's (Author, Author) modest 13th fictional effort, an elderly man's hearing loss embroils him in a sticky situation with a beautiful, manipulative young woman. Sexagenarian Desmond Bates wears a hearing aid after being diagnosed some 20 years earlier with “acquired deafness” and consistently misinterprets people's words (which Lodge milks to maximum comic effect). Bates longs for activities after his retirement from teaching applied linguistics, other than contemplating e-mail spam about erectile dysfunction and watching his wife, Winifred, enjoy her success as an interior designer. The novel takes the form of his newly begun daily diary. At a gallery event, Bates mistakenly agrees to help shapely, enigmatic American student Alex Loom with her Ph.D. thesis on suicide notes. It quickly becomes clear that Loom's intentions are anything but academic and her instability shakes not only the sound foundations of Bates's family life but his long-since-stagnant fantasy life as well. Lodge's amiable, deliberate narrative tickles like a feather, but his frequent pauses for lengthy, expository grace notes may not appeal to every reader. (Sept.)

Pendle turns out a wicked satire of death in this faux autobiography. Death, the spawn of Sin and Satan, begins his story at the dawn of creation, before the beginning of God's newest project, Earth. With only a bit of “the Darkness from the deepest depths” as a keepsake, Death and family travel to the freshly minted Earth, where Death's father takes advantage of the gullible animals (prior to Satan's arrival, the T-Rex was a vegetarian). It isn't until Death accidentally kills a unicorn that he realizes his calling, and soon he recounts his role in some of the most celebrated deaths in history, including Cain's murder of Abel, Socrates' suicide and the resurrection of Jesus. However, Death's profession is demanding and solitary, and at the urging of his only human friend, he begins to dabble with Life to relieve stress. He forms a “physical dependency on Life,” and after a 10-day period in 1582 when nothing dies, Death is forced into rehab and begins his painful recovery. Pendle's coruscating wit is a great match for the material, and he makes the most of it. (Sept.)

A hard-working San Diego accountant changes his station in life in Tyree's overlong, phoned-in latest. After Ivan David is embarrassingly denied entrance to a hip, downtown party, he goes home and dreams of becoming a big-time party promoter. Then he gets to work on pursuing that dream, and good things happen. His first party is a hit, and he hooks up with Lucina Gallo, who has a ton of great connections. As bigger and bigger money flows in, Ivan and Lucina experience their share of growing pains. Things work out and Ivan makes a pile of money, but readers may find themselves wondering after several hundred pages what the point is. (Sept.)

Podrug's less than gripping fifth posthumous collaboration with bestseller Robbins (after The Devil to Pay) uses the recent tragic history of Cambodia as the backdrop for a torrid story of sex and antiquities theft. After falling into professional disgrace, New York City art expert Madison Dupre struggles to get by with a freelance business. Then one day a Thai restaurant deliveryman shows up at her door with a sandstone bas-relief that appears to be Khmer art from the Angkor Wat temple. Before Dupre can thoroughly evaluate the artwork, the man disappears, and her pursuit of him ends with her in police custody. The NYPD, which suspects her of trafficking in smuggled art, gives her the option to go undercover for them in Cambodia, an assignment that leads to dead bodies and sex encounters described in some detail. The horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime make an uncomfortable match for the narcissistic Dupre's escapades. (Sept.)

Errol Flynn would feel quite at home in Hubbard's ripping yarn of Caribbean piracy in the year 1680, first published in 1935. Press-ganged into the Royal Navy, Tom Bristol faces 100 lashes just as buccaneers attack the British man-o'-war on which he reluctantly serves. Tom soon realizes the pirate life is for him, a life replete with swordplay, maroonings and naval battles with ships lost in the roiling fog of cannon smoke. Supplementing the illustrated text are an extensive glossary of nautical and period terms, an essay entitled “L. Ron Hubbard and American Pulp Fiction,” and a foreword by Kevin J. Anderson on the golden age of pulp fiction. The man who would go on to found Scientology never achieves the visceral intensity of such fellow pulp writers as Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, but he conducts his minisaga in just the fashion readers of the era expected. (Sept.)

This quietly powerful short novel should bring much deserved attention to Gifune (The Bleeding Season), who succeeds in imbuing what could have been a clichéd and formulaic noir premise with haunting emotional depth. In 1999, writer Andrew DeMarco returns to his working-class hometown of Warden, Mass., after his mother's only brother, Paul, is shot dead. Andrew had been estranged from his uncle since the rape years earlier of his then-12-year-old sister, Angela, and the subsequent disappearance of Angela's 15-year-old assailant, whom Andrew suspects Paul did away with. Thus Andrew pushed away the one father-figure in his life. Gifune effectively balances flashbacks to the 1970s with Andrew's investigation into his uncle's murder. Even walk-on characters, like the drunk who corners Andrew to recount his story of betrayed love, are fully imagined. Fans of understated, sophisticated crime fiction are in for a treat. (Sept.)

Rambo fans may enjoy Domenici's debut, a workmanlike thriller about a stateside rescue and recovery mission. More than three decades after Capt. Fred Custer was paralyzed by a bullet in Vietnam in 1973, he recruits Ted Hickman, once a sergeant in Custer's Special Forces unit, to find Larry Yoder, a third member of the unit who's disappeared. After Vietnam, Yoder became a minister and revived a failing Southern Baptist church in Belle Glade, Fla., which had been run for years as a private fiefdom by the powerful and corrupt Cole family, who oppose Yoder's efforts to help the poor migrant workers in the local sugarcane fields. When Hickman suffers a concussion and a serious stab wound in the course of his quest, he retreats until Custer can mobilize more of the old crew to launch a full-scale assault on the Coles, who may have had a hand in Yoder's disappearance. Readers should be prepared for stock action sequences and martial sentiments (“As such men are apt to do, they talked of battles won and lost”). (Sept.)

At the start of Andrews's exciting third helix-twister to feature Dr. Alex Blake of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (after The Silent Assassin), DEA agent Ted Silliman suddenly dies in Taos, N.Mex., during a date rape drug investigation. Ted's partner, agent Castro Baxter, disputes the cocaine overdose diagnosis, while Alex suspects a violent hyperimmune response. When Castro and Alex join forces to find answers, they find a connection to a Taos public square fountain, and Alex later learns eight similar deaths occurred locally on the same night. As the death toll climbs, she's determined to stop a potentially serious epidemic. So why does Homeland Security's head, Martin Kincade, oppose her? And could Red Rights, a radical Native American group, be responsible? Andrews, a real-life authority on genetics (The Clone Age), spikes the chills with a talking DNA computer named Sam and insights into hot-button Native American issues. (Sept.)

Jones (Mr. Pip) crafts a vivid tale of love and the redemption of dance. Argentinean piano tuner Paul Schmidt arrives in New Zealand near the end of WWI. He meets Louise Cunningham, who hides him when ruffians decide to kill Schmidt because his name sounds German. In their makeshift camp, Schmidt teaches Louise the tango. After Paul returns to Buenos Aires, he receives a letter from Louise, who admits she fell in love during their first dance. The pair keep their love alive through letters, even when they are oceans apart and eventually marry other people. The letters later provide clues for Paul's granddaughter, Rosa, who moves to New Zealand and is curious about Paul's mysterious past. Lionel, a university student and dishwasher in Rosa's restaurant, traces Paul and Louise's story, seeing parallels to his own ill-fated love for the older (and married) Rosa. Just as Paul taught Louise, Rosa teaches Lionel how to tango. With his elegant language, Jones moves gracefully between the two stories and time periods, capturing the sensuous interplay between partners in dance and in life. (Sept.)

This breezy follow-up to Househusband follows Linc Menner, a stay-at-home dad whose home renovation project suddenly makes him long for a life less momlike. Linc has always been the full-time dad and felt content driving his “Man Van” to chauffeur daughter Violet around as his wife, Jo, works demanding hours as a hospital administrator. However, insecurities begin to brew beneath Linc's calm, even-keeled demeanor as Violet enters adolescence, causing Linc to feel less indispensable. Finally, when Linc overhears an obnoxious comment by a subcontractor, he questions his masculinity, leading him on a hell-bent journey from one masculine signifier to another, culminating in some realizations and life lessons, including “women are cool—they talk about things that matter.” Clunky lines like this, coupled with an awkward narrative that jumps between four first-person points of view detract from what is overall a light diversion that should serve as a welcome treat for devotees of mom lit. (Sept.)

A loosely autobiographical story of free love and family set against the hopeful but disappointing Carter presidency, Shreve's third novel skillfully interweaves the story of teenager Daniel Truitt with that of the United States at a crossroads. On the eve of the nation's bicentennial, the Truitts relocate to a deteriorating Washington, D.C., mansion after Daniel's father, Pete, loses yet another teaching job. Pete plans to launch an experimental school where students and teachers are equal, but Daniel's mother, Valerie, weary of their peripatetic life and her husband's failures, sees the school as their last chance. Soon, Valerie's hippie brother shows up, bringing trouble with him in the form of his wife and her lover. When the ragtag group manages to attract a few students for Our House, as the school is named, the family's hope for success grows in proportion to its members' enthusiasm for a Democratic president. The political backdrop is perfectly played, as is the bittersweet nostalgia that makes the book and its freewheeling gang irresistible. (Sept.)

Millar (Lonely Werewolf Girl; The Good Fairies of New York) is laconic as ever in this loving tribute to disaffection and the hopefulness of youth. It's 1972, and for 15-year-old Martin Millar, who narrates, it's a time of hazy ambivalence and chronic dissatisfaction. Millar and his best friend, Greg, vie for the attention of Suzy (though she has a boyfriend) and play make-believe games in which they are masters of the Fabulous Dragon Army of Gothar. The defining event of their young lives, a Led Zeppelin concert in Glasgow, is, of course, awesome, but after the postshow glow dims, Millar's personal life takes a few harsh blows. The author's prose is deliberately oversimplified (“I know you have a short attention span,” he explains), and while the result effectively portrays his resigned melancholy, the reader is often left in want of deeper self-reflection. Still, the character's passionate nostalgia for his one encounter with “the best band in the world” is an endearing reminder that fleeting happiness is better than none at all. (Sept.)

Ungainly florid prose and a plodding narrative mar York's latest, which centers on a polygamous Mormon family in 1860s Utah. Erastus Hammer's four wives could not be more different. There is tyrannical head wife Ursula, an early convert and worshipper of founder Joseph Smith; demure Ruth, mother to most of Erastus's children and keeper of silkworms; vain ex-actress Thankful, who satisfies his sexual fantasies but can't seem to give him a child; and awkward girl-bride Dorrie, an expert taxidermist around whom the bulk of the story revolves. York traces the family's tumultuous history through dreamy flashbacks highlighting each character's suffering and conversion, with the spirit and the flesh serving as dueling poles throughout. York writes about taxidermy and the dark corners of Mormon history with impressive authority, but the overreaching prose and narrative inertia make this tough to get into. (Sept.)

First published in 1938 and now available in English, Keun's antic road novel set in pre-WWII Europe is a charmer that unfortunately sours. Ten-year-old narrator Kully's problems are bigger than the usual preadolescent angst. With Kully and her mother, Annie, in tow, her father, Peter, a novelist and journalist, has abandoned their native Germany, where many of his colleagues have been imprisoned during the fascist 1930s. The family is constantly on the move, from Poland and Belgium to the Netherlands and France. Peter—irresponsible, frequently broke, too fond of booze and women—has his family living on credit at fancy hotels and scrounges constantly and outrageously off publishers, relatives and acquaintances, often leaving Kully and Annie for weeks on end as he travels to drum up funds. Kully is often canny and amusing, and her dysfunctional family will resonate with many contemporary readers, but her voice and precociousness quickly become grating, and the political impressions of this European Eloise promise more than they deliver. (Sept.)

Owens's latest entry in the Heart series (Heart Dance, etc.) is a touching tale of learning to trust again. Lahsin Burdock Yew is an underage noblewoman being abused by her brutish husband. When she comes of age, she repudiates her marriage and flees to a sanctuary where she can go through her Second Passage, a difficult and sometimes deadly ritual that will cause her magical Flair to be revealed. Meanwhile, nobleman Tinne Holly is recovering from a scandal: his wife has divorced him, making it the first divorce in noble history. Tinne knows that Lahsin is his Heartmate (his soul mate), but he is forbidden by law from telling her. Instead he goes to the sanctuary to heal his own broken heart and try to protect Lahsin from her Passage and help tend to her emotional wounds. But as they grow closer, the specter of Lahsin's ex-husband looms, threatening her freedom and their happiness. Even for readers unfamiliar with the Heart world, Owens makes it easily accessible and full of delightful conceits such the Residences, houses with consciousnesses and personalities. (Sept.)

A vicious attack on Ervin Benally, the son-in-law of a wealthy and powerful businesswoman, points to deep-seated tensions on a New Mexico Navajo reservation in the Thurlos' solid 14th Ella Clah mystery (after 2007's Turquoise Girl). Benally had recently stirred up controversy with his plans to install StarTalk, a satellite phone system that would allow the Navajos to communicate across miles of sparsely populated reservation land. The interference of the Fierce Ones, a vigilante group known for dishing out swift and sometimes misconceived justice, has Ella Clah of the Navajo Tribal Police wondering exactly where and why their involvement began—or will end. As Ella and her team investigate further, they realize they must uncover the traitor within to solve the larger problems plaguing the community. Despite too many red herrings and wild goose chases, the Thurlos' intimate knowledge of Navajo culture and legends make for another crowd pleaser. (Oct.)

Racial tensions fuel Krueger's outstanding ninth Cork O'Connor mystery, which delivers everything its predecessors like Thunder Bay have promised—and more. Threats from all sides assail former sheriff and part-time PI Cork O'Connor, who's part Ojibwa, in his efforts to mediate the smoldering feud between Tamarack County's whites and the recently formed Red Boyz: threats from Buck Reinhardt, brutal father of a girl destroyed by drugs dealt by Lonnie Thunder; from the Red Boyz after the gang-style execution of their leader, Alex Kingbird, and his wife; from the Latin Lords, expanding their drug trade into northern Minnesota. Simply and elegantly told, this sad story of loyalty and honor, corruption and hatred, hauntingly carves utterly convincing characters, both red and white, into the consciousness. Krueger mourns the death of ideals and celebrates true old values. As Cork tells an Ojibwa friend, “Maybe you can't alter the human heart... but you can remove the weapons”—the first step, perhaps, in blazing a trail toward sanity and hope. (Sept.)

In Harrison's captivating second mystery set in the 16th-century kingdom of the Burren in western Ireland (after 2007's My Lady Judge), the murder of an arrogant steward, Ragnall MacNamara, leaves a wide field of suspects, as does the suspicious death of another surly citizen. The learned Mara, the sole woman Brehon (or judge) in Ireland, is responsible for all crimes on the Burren as well as for deciding such delicate questions as inheritances and even, in certain circumstances, approval of a marriage proposal. Harrison depicts the intricacies of Irish law so clearly and marries them to her plot so adroitly that despite their unfamiliarity they are easily understood. Engaging characters from the honorable King Turlough Donn O'Brien to Mara's eager law students add to the pleasure. Mara's quest to solve the murders and “to restore peace to the people of the Burren” makes for compelling reading. (Sept.)

When a bound and nude female body turns up in Holland Park in Forbes's solid second police procedural to feature the Barnes Murder Squad of West London (after 2007's Die with Me), Det. Mark Tartaglia rushes to the scene to investigate. In the mouth of art dealer Rachel Tenison is a page of verse, eventually identified as an excerpt from Swinburne. Tartaglia soon finds that the ostensibly respectable and staid victim had a darker side, and that some people close to her, including her step-brother, an MP, have something to hide relevant to the murder. When the squad learns of a similar crime a year earlier that claimed the life of university lecturer Catherine Watson, they wonder if a copycat killer might be at work. While the plot line is formulaic and the final twist one that many readers will anticipate, those who don't demand intricate plotting or in-depth psychological examination should be well satisfied. (Sept.)

Bebris's fourth Mr. & Mrs. Darcy mystery is less true to the spirit of Jane Austen than its predecessor, North by Northanger (2006). Soon after the birth of their first child, Elizabeth and Darcy visit Mansfield Park, where they get caught up in intrigue involving mistaken identities and sudden disappearances more suited to a bedroom farce than anything in the Austen canon. Taken as a Regency romp, the story has much to recommend it—a lively plot, engaging characters and a surprising finale. Some of Austen's characters are cast in a different light than they appear in their original incarnations: Anne de Bourgh and Colonel Fitzwilliam benefit, while others become caricatures of themselves. As usual, Bebris slips in esoteric information on such matters as the code of honor and dueling without slowing the pace. (Sept.)

At the start of Berenson's warm and fuzzy 15th dog mystery (after 2007's Hounded to Death), Melanie Travis, standard poodle lover and dedicated amateur sleuth, checks out the Pine Ridge Canine Care Center in Stamford, Conn., on behalf of Alice Brickman, a mom recently returned to the work force who needs a place to park her golden retriever. On Melanie's second tour of the posh doggie day care center, she discovers the corpse of “seriously cute” Steve Pine, who co-owned Pine Ridge with his sister, Candy. On Alice's wacky recommendation (“She's like Nancy Drew. Melanie finds murderers and makes them confess”), Candy asks Melanie to catch the killer. Who cares if Melanie isn't a licensed PI or the local police department doesn't appear to investigate anything? With winning pluck and lots of luck, Berenson's cluehound pursues another cute tail-wagging puzzler. (Sept.)

While Akashic's original city-themed anthologies tend to be hit or miss, its third reprint volume (after Brooklyn Noir 2 and D.C. Noir 2) offers 17 sure winners by such literary heavyweights as Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, O. Henry, Damon Runyon, Donald E. Westlake and Joyce Carol Oates. The tales range in time from 1891 to 2008, giving the book a variety some others in the series have lacked. Block makes a persuasive case in his introduction for including Edgar Allan Poe's “The Raven,” written in 1845 on what would become Manhattan's Upper West Side, as well as poetic selections by Horace Gregory and Geoffrey Bartholomew, whose works are set respectively in a Chelsea rooming house and McSorley's bar in the East Village. If one had to choose the single story that epitomizes noir, the honors would go to Cornell Woolrich's “New York Blues,” a bleak tale of love and loneliness, madness and death. (Sept.)

Hapless, handsome Jack Romaine, a small-time gambler and drinker in 1929 Cincinnati, tracks a mysterious woman who's the key to a hidden fortune in Wimberley's evocative mystery. Hauled before gangster Oliver Bladehorn, Jack is given a simple chore that will cancel his debts: pick up a woman being released from prison who will lead him to the prize in cash and stocks. On a trail rife with cruelty, violence and murder, he finds himself in Tampa, Fla., at Kaleidoscope, a “beddy” where carnies rest between gigs and a place for people who don't fit in anywhere else. Jack goes to work as a “brodie” (a gopher) in the hopes of getting a lead, while trying to avoid the brutal Arno Becker, who's after the same fortune. Best known for his Florida-based Bear Raines series (Pepperfish Keys, etc.), Wimberley invests both Jack and the carnie freaks with distinct personalities and common dignity. This vividly captured subculture has its own grotesque charm and beauty. (Sept.)

Despite a strong beginning, Salzberg's debut takes too many wrong turns to satisfy. Henry Swann, a throwback to the 1950s PI, subsists on a bleak if steady diet of repo work until Sally Janus, an attractive, well-to-do woman, shows up at his seedy upper Manhattan office and asks him to find her missing husband, Harry. The lucrative assignment proves to be short-lived as Harry's corpse turns up in a sleazy local hotel, the victim of an apparent robbery. When Sally hires Swann again to find her husband's killer, the investigator embarks on a meandering and less-than-plausible international trek that takes him to Mexico and Germany in search of a conspiracy possibly connected with the Peking Man fossils. The contrast between the compelling and gritty opening scenes and the later tepid action sequences suggests Salzberg would be better served by focusing on the former in future books. (Sept.)

Connor introduces a tough Yorkshire female cop in his engrossing debut. After joining a fellow detective and the girlfriend of a known drug dealer for one too many drinks at a pub one evening, Det. Constable Karen Sharpe wakes up with a hangover the next morning to discover that she must identify the bodies of her companions, shot the previous night. Det. Chief Supt. John Munro, who heads the investigation, is convinced the case is tied to a botched drug deal. Sharpe, a wildcard who's used to following her own rules, pursues a different angle. She soon realizes that the murders may be linked to her own checkered past as an undercover operative. While U.S. readers may have difficulty at first keeping the various British and Irish political factions straight, Sharpe will remind many of a young Jane Tennison—stubborn, angrily vulnerable, and with some of the best instincts on the force. (Sept.)

This hefty and moving reprint collection of nine novellas written between 1995 and 2007 fills in the corners of Weber's celebrated Honor Harrington series (most recently 2005's At All Costs) and offers several other variations on political and military themes. In the title story, 20-year-old Honor joins the crew of War Maiden, bound for interstellar antipiracy duty as the Royal Manticoran Navy builds up for confrontation with the People's Republic. “The Captain from Kirkbean,” a rousing alternate naval-history yarn, and “Sword Brother,” wherein U.S. Marines are pulled into a parallel universe's sword-and-sorcery battlefield, focus on the responsibilities and price of leadership and the necessity of cooperation despite intrinsic differences. “Miles to Go” observes interstellar conflict and politics from the unusual perspective of a war robot that learns human compassion. With restraint and good taste, Weber tempers his mourning for war's destruction with heartfelt celebrations of the honorable men, women, creatures and machines of the armed forces. (Sept.)

Hill (The Woman in Black) crafts an old-school spooker in this atmospheric tale of a sinister painting imbued with the vengeful spirit of a former owner. The painting, owned by retired Cambridge don Theo Parmitter, catches the eye of a visiting former student who's intrigued by its depiction of an 18th-century Venetian carnival scene and a figure in the foreground who looks anachronistically modern. The student's questions extract from Theo the strange story of how he won it at auction and the even stranger tale of the bidder he beat: the elderly Lady Hawdon, who claims that the man in the picture is her husband, imprisoned in the painting through the designs of a jilted lover who gave it to them as a wedding present. Hill manipulates the gothic darkness of her story with great dexterity and subtlety, faltering only at its awkwardly executed finish. Regardless, her tale is a commendable exercise in the tradition of the antiquarian ghost story. (Sept.)

Crowley (Little, Big) constructs a disappointingly simplistic narrative in this weak novelette. Science fiction author Meg and stay-at-home dad John have a handicapped daughter, Lily, who cavorts on her crutches in a few charming episodes. When a snowstorm keeps Meg at a meeting with her agent, John teaches Lily and her older brother to make valentines, and this domestic action is contrasted with chapters from Meg's new novel, a trite and didactic tale of a planet of furry aliens to whom a hairless child is born. The message of both sections of the novelette is that handicapped children are special in their own ways, but little emotional impact is added to what is at best an exhausted morality play, and the SF sections make 1920s pulp look deep and subtle. A certain trademark elegance shines through, but the tale itself is oddly empty of action or fully realized characters. This is a startlingly flaccid showing from such an august source. (Sept.)

Harrier Gillain, future Knight-Mage, and his best friend, Tiercel Rolfort, High Mage in training, tread familiar ground in this sequel to 2007's The Phoenix Unchained, following the command of the Light in a quest to destroy the Dark. Accompanied by Kateta, a pushy, nagging unicorn, and the mammoth black dragon Ancaladar, the teen heroes prepare themselves in the elven city of Karahelanderialigor before setting out in search of the Lake of Fire, where the Wildmage Bisochim Bluerobe is raising a fanatic horde of desert nomads. Harrier and Tiercel's lengthy trek comes most vividly to life through the subplot of young nomad leader Shaiara, who risks her whole tribe on the chance of finding Abi'Abadshar, a legendary oasis of alien technology. Adding thinly veiled racial subtext to the customary coming-of-age world-saving story, this epic will mostly appeal to those who like their fantasy by the numbers. (Sept.)

At the beginning of this amusing but thoughtful sword and sorcery novel from World Fantasy Award finalist Parks (Worshipping Small Gods), evil magician Tymon the Black kidnaps Princess Ashesa and kills brave Prince Daras when he comes to rescue her. At least that's the official story. Tymon, blessed (or cursed) with an overabundance of foresight, is simply trying to prevent the damage a simple-minded, glory-addicted hero could do if he lived to become king, but even the magician's Sanchoesque dwarf companion, Seb, questions the magician's certainty that the ends justify the means. Tymon tries to make it right by helping Daras's bookish younger brother get together with spunky, guilt-ridden Ashesa, but initial intervention is increasingly complicated by the maneuverings of an exceptionally intelligent cast of characters. The tale doesn't overflow with crackling wit or moral complexity, but heroic fantasy fans will enjoy its clever tweaking of familiar clichés. (Sept.)

Experienced romance suspense author Herron (Under His Skin) kicks off her new series with a bang. FBI agent Vincent Valtrez, the son of a devil and an angel, is a Dark Lord with the potential for great good or great evil. His dead father, Zion, is about to be named the new leader of Hell's legions, and Pan, god of fear, wants to harvest Vincent's soul and win Zion's approval. He lures Vincent back to his hometown by targeting psychic Clarissa King, for whom Vincent has long felt an attraction. Herron manages to strike a balance between the romance bubbling between Vincent and Clarissa and the horror of Pan's actions. Vincent displays enough self-loathing to make him an interestingly brooding hero, and readers will enjoy the chase after Pan's earthly agents and Vincent's struggle with his figurative and literal demons, right up to the obligatory cliffhanger ending. (Sept.)

Maclaine's attention to detail and description brings this sexy, adventurous paranormal romance debut to life. In early 1800s England, Dulcinea MacGregor Craven inherits not only a small fortune but magical powers when a tragic accident kills her parents. However, at just 22, she has no clue how to tame her newfound magic. When her former suitor Lord Sebastian Montford turns out to be a vampire in cahoots with an ancient demon, Cin is forced to hide among the Righteous, a band of vampires sworn to protect the innocent. Righteous warrior Michael soon sparks a different kind of magic inside Cin's heart as she is forced to make a choice that can ensure the survival of those she loves but will shatter the only world she's ever known. Clever Cin matches sass and bravery with an innocence and vulnerability that will allow her to grow and develop through what promises to be a highly entertaining series. (Aug.)

Morren combines an unlikely pair of protagonists in this charming reversal of My Fair Lady when a minister's spinster sister attempts to redeem a man condemned to die at the gallows. In Regency England, Florence Hathaway's mission is ministering to those at London's infamous Newgate Prison. As wrongfully convicted Jonah Quinn is about to be executed, a mob rushes the hangman and Florence becomes Jonah's hostage. Florence offers Jonah shelter and decides the only way to hide the fugitive is to transform him into a gentleman. Florence's devotion to her religious faith is carefully contrasted against Jonah's skepticism regarding the sincerity of her motives, and while the sparring between the two hints at sexual tension, their attraction remains mostly hidden. Florence's servants are fascinating secondary characters who gradually lose their commonality with Jonah as he makes his transition. Engaging characters and a smooth, fast-paced story line make this a historical to be savored. (Aug.)

Connolly's less-than-gala freshman attempt at crime fiction drops Boston banker Meg Corey into tiny Granford, Mass., where she's agreed to rehab a 200-year-old house while looking for a new job. Then Meg's ex-lover is found murdered and bobbing around in her brand new septic tank, a crime that could sour Granford's big chance to lure outside commercial investors. When the local cops appear determined to look no further than Meg for a suspect, she decides to turn sleuth. Her only ally, Seth Chapin, the plumber who installed the new system, is also a suspect and not much help. The premise and plot are solid, and Meg seems a perfect fit for her role. However, so much time is spent restating the story's major conflict that both Meg and Seth remain enigmas—dropped into the plot as if from outer space—with insufficient background information to ripen into well-rounded characters. (Aug.)

Torres's husband, Eddie, started work at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center on September 10, 2001. The next day, Alissa became one of the “terrorist widows” of 9/11. American Widow chronicles Alissa's first year without Eddie—including the birth of their child, two months after his death. It also traces their courtship, marriage and the last few days of Eddie's life. This deeply personal book is at times raw, angry, bleak and lyrical. The best prose comes out of Torres's moments of pure, lonely grief, which punctuate her confusing and at times horrifying experiences with various aid agencies, family members, friends and strangers. Choi's art is reminiscent of the work of Andi Watson and Craig Thompson, and complements Torres's writing by emphasizing the ordinary in Alissa's extraordinary circumstances. Torres and Choi do best with the confusion and shock that come with a sudden death, laying out scene after scene without quite connecting them—just as events seem to go on and on without meaning when one has lost someone important. What this book lacks in technique and narrative drive, it makes up in its heartfelt look at the universality in one woman's loss. (Sept.)

Understanding Comics' McCloud spent the first six years of his career on this lesser-known Astro Boy–inspired comic. This mammoth volume collects issues 11–36, along with lots of commentary from McCloud. The series stars Zot, a teenager from an alternate Earth where rocket-powered boots and laser guns are commonplace, and Jenny, a girl from our Earth who just wants to escape her humdrum high school existence. The zippy, pulpy stories feature Zot facing off against a multitude of villains, from robots run amok to thwarted, steampunk-style inventors. Looking through the comics peers through a window at the development of a comic writer's talents; as the art morphs slowly into McCloud's recognizable style, the stories take on more sophisticated subject matter—one later issue features Zot and Jenny discussing sex, like a scene from a soapy teen drama. McCloud's love of classic superhero comics is clear, even as he consciously contrasts it with the problems of the real world. The collection only suffers from the absence of the first 10 issues, leaving new readers confused at some unexplained plot twists, but it is sure to be a treasure trove for McCloud fans or lovers of intelligent retro comics action. (July)

This collection of the first run of Love & Rockets comes to a fitting conclusion with this swoon-worthy B sides and rarities compilation of all Los Bros Hernandez's non-Palomar, non–Maggie and Hopey stories. Most in keeping with those more familiar story lines is the wonderful “Rocky and Fumble,” about a rebellious, statuesque teenage girl who explores outer space with her adorable little robot pal, where Jaime mines his particular mix of romantic hijinks in fantastic settings. Gilbert's pocket-sized bio-comic of Frida Kahlo may be one of his most well-known works, but it's still a welcome addition. The less-published third brother, Mario, also pops up, with his pulp fiction “Somewhere in California” pieces, which are engaging enough, but lack the punch of Gilbert and Jaime's material. There is plenty to keep the Love and Rockets completist amused, like the stand-alone “Mojado Power!” a story about a couple of migrant workers' night out that features brief cameos from Maggie and Speedy. One of the highlights of Amor y Cohetes is Gilbert's daffy Bem series, an early sci-fi effort that reads like a comic blender of a dozen low-budget '50s B movies. A sublimely satisfying finish to one of the great American comics. (July)

Charley is a cyborg vampire killer (in both senses—he's trying to kill them, and he is one) in thrall to his sybaritic vampire master named Johnny. They have a love-hate relationship: Charley works for the Vatican as a kind of supernatural assassin and only feeds on Johnny; Johnny torments Charley and even seduces him, but seems to be okay with following him around when needed. The figures can be attractive, but the storytelling is severely lacking. What happens can be hard to puzzle out, especially during battles. The result is a confusing mishmash of vampires, homoeroticism, and cross and communion imagery. In many manga stories, vampirism is code for forbidden sex. That's true here, where the appeal rests on the idea of two men sucking on each other even when they say they don't want to. Fans of gothic boys' love stories will be willing to puzzle through for the occasional double entendre or erotic image, while others may draw the line at the use of actual Christian elements, like the Lord 's Prayer, in such a work. (July)

This continuation of Clash of the Titans does justice to the 1981 film that showcased Ray Harryhausen's much-loved stop-motion special effects. This story begins with the movie's leads, Perseus and Andromeda, about to become parents. Unfortunately, the happy couple is the focus of conflict among the Greek gods, as surly and devious as a roomful of Marvel superheroes. To thwart the boss of the gods, Zeus, also Perseus's father, his rival Olympian deities steal the baby and send the young hero off on a picaresque, picturesque search for his son. This plot is largely an excuse to move from one fight scene to another, but Balan and Metcalf's art bustles with Jack Kirbyesque energy as they respond to the challenge of depicting the crowd of gods and the parade of creatures they summon, climaxing with a battle between the Kraken and the Colossus of Rhodes. As with the original movie, a routine script doesn't spoil the fun. (July)

PW senior editor McEvoy takes on hypocritical politicians and a disappearing New York City in his gimlet-eyed second novel.

A guilt-ridden political consultant gets a boost from the Virgin Mary in McEvoy's raucous novel of New York. Staunch Catholic Irish-American Wolfe Tone O'Rourke, a likable enough but flawed 53-year-old campaign adviser, is saddled with shame over having failed RFK on the day of his assassination. Now, in 2000, the world-weary, hard-drinking O'Rourke is disgusted by family values congressman Jackie Swift, so after the Virgin Mary appears to O'Rourke in his dreams, he kicks off a campaign for Swift's seat under the banner of “No More Bullshit.” He's helped along by a sexy young black campaign manager who becomes his lover, and an infectious indignation. The race is knock-down vicious, and it gives McEvoy the chance to take some choice shots at politicians, religious leaders and the wussification of the city he clearly loves. It's about as New York as it gets. (Oct.)

Signature

Reviewed by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Near the conclusion of An Evil Guest, a character of no particular importance to the plot rather nicely sums up something central to understanding the story and the world in which it is set: “The distinctions we draw between past, present, and future are discriminations among illusions.” This paraphrase of Einstein stands as a sort of thesis statement for this deliriously anachronistic novel, which, though seemingly set near or at the end of the 21st century, feels more like a wild confabulation of the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s, with a bit of the '80s sprinkled here and there, and just a dash of the first decade of our new millennium.

After striking an unholy deal with extrasolar ambassador and wizard Gideon Chase, Cassie Casey—a plucky amalgam of Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert and Nancy Drew—becomes an overnight theater sensation and spends the rest of the novel coping with the cloak-and-dagger consequences. In a rapid-fire game of double-crosses, Cassie must come to terms with a world whose boundaries are not where she once believed, while avoiding death or worse. Though much of the action revolves around Lovecraft's fictional town of Kingsport, Mass., the book isn't the sort of baroque gothic horror that “Lovecraftian” usually denotes. Indeed, Wolfe moves deftly from the Oval Office to backstage Broadway and from faerie restaurants to South Sea islands menaced by the dread elder god, Cthulhu, in the nearby underwater city R'lyeh, concluding with a poignant scene that leaves Cassie looking back on the Milky Way as she races toward an alien planet.

Even as Wolfe warps time and space, he also warps and dismisses the too often indulged expectations of genre readers. There is no slavish devotion to dull futurism, but a swaggering, romantic, unabashedly unlikely tomorrowland. The gilded age of the Busby Berkeley musical rubs shoulders with a film noir curiously free of smoke and grime. The Shadow's Lamont Cranston is a real historical figure; one may have breakfast at the International House of Toast and make calls on cellphones. Buck Rodgersesque science fiction careens headlong into Cold War intrigue. Lovecraft's mythos and Miskatonic University exist alongside iPods, the Internet and intergalactic flying cars.

As befits such an homage to the pulp tradition, the novel's style is terse, minimalist, at times reading like a screenplay (or a stage musical's “book”), advancing primarily through dialogue. It succeeds by tumbling from unexpected world to unexpected world, from one grand absurdity to another, from one choreographed dance scene to the next, without ever missing a beat.

Award-winning author Caitlín R. Kiernan's most recent novel, Daughter of Hounds, was published by Penguin in 2007.