In the middle of the Revolutionary War, Capt. Matthias Murray Thomas is freed from British imprisonment by Scotsman Jamie Munro, who charges him with locating Munro’s daughters, Caroline and Virginia. The two have taken shelter at Matthias’s family plantation under assumed names; he meets them there when he goes to check on his mother. Miscommunications, omissions, and deceptions follow as Matthias and Caroline try to keep their secrets in the face of the ever-present British army. Sparks (Vampires Gone Wild) creates a detailed representation of war-ravaged South Carolina. Cameos from historical figures such as Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion and Gen. Cornwallis lend verisimilitude, while enlightened attitudes toward women and slavery help keep the story palatable for modern readers. The romance between Matthias and Caroline is sometimes overshadowed by the war, but it’s always the core of the story. Fans of Sparks’s paranormal romances may be surprised by the lack of vampires, but will not be disappointed. Agent: Michelle Grajkowski, 3 Seas Literary Agency. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

As Robert the Bruce’s war against England continues, McCarty’s seventh Highland Guard romance (after 2012’s The Recruit) stays fresh by exploring the role of the Catholic Church in supporting the Scottish rebels. Ewen “Hunter” Lamont is the greatest tracker in Scotland, so he’s the obvious choice to locate and retrieve a missing courier bearing information critical to the war. The gorgeous woman he believes to be Sister Genna, a feisty Italian nun, is actually the courier he seeks: Lady Janet of Mar, sister-in-law to Robert himself. The basic premise is a familiar one of two hard-headed people kept apart by class and duty but inevitably drawn to each other while facing hardships and danger, with one of them promised by arranged marriage to someone else. Despite the predictable aspects, McCarty creates an enjoyable romance with torrid chemistry, appealing characters, and believable historical situations. Agent: Annelise Robey and Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

An oil heir makes an environmental statement by claiming the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as a nation in this fast-paced ecological adventure. Chas Worthington III is working on technology that will help clean up oil spills to counter the environmentally hazardous initiatives of the company that his family started (which has since gone public). But due to his playboy attitude, his ideas are dismissed by the board. He fakes his death with the help of his best friend and builds a research station on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where he faces the wrath of a giant octopus, a group of indigenous cargo-cult descendants, and a band of pirates after Soviet-era nuclear weapons. Despite being based on the misconception that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a solid, islandlike entity, the story is a phenomenal ride of not only good old-fashioned action and sea monsters, but also of Chas’s self-discovery. The art buoys the story at every turn, and the images looking at the action from below the thin layer of garbage that supports the main characters are particularly well done. A strong first volume in a new series. (May)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

While collective memory might offer some hazy grasp of McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklists, all but forgotten is the real American Communist Party and its Depression-era heyday. In this epic and complex new novel, Lethem considers what happened to the ACP, as well as some other questions, about maternal isolation and filial resentment. The book begins with the case of Rose Zimmer, in Queens, New York, who was officially ousted from the party in 1955 for sleeping with a black cop. Rose’s daughter, Miriam, is a teenager at the time, and she soon discovers the pull of Greenwich Village bohemians. Rose’s and Miriam’s stories are interwoven, as the narrative moves back and forth in time, uncovering Rose’s doomed relationships, as well as Miriam’s fiery determination to escape her mother’s rage. Miriam’s son, Sergius, also comes into the story—as a child and an adult, juxtaposing three generations—along with Cicero Lookins, the son of Rose’s black cop boyfriend, an unexpected member of the family by proxy and the most interesting character of the book by far. Cicero formed an unexpected relationship with the bitter, Jewish woman as a kid, and, in turn, became a beneficiary of her intellect. All together, the cast makes for a heady, swirly mix of fascinating, lonely people. Lethem’s writing, as always, packs a witty punch. The epoch each character inhabits is artfully etched and the book is as illuminating of 20th-century American history as it is of the human burden of overcoming alienation. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME Entertainment. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

The latest addition to Van Booy’s eclectic literary repertoire is a fractured but fine-tuned narrative revealed through the sum of its pieced-together parts. The story is based on actual events and told from the perspective of six distantly related characters in alternating chapters stretching from New York in 1939 to France throughout WWII, and to East Sussex, England, and Los Angeles, Calif., both in 2010; it quietly unfolds around a multigenerational family ravaged by war, loss, and regret. Mr. Hugo is a disfigured Nazi soldier atoning for his crimes; Martin is a French caretaker at a retirement home for aging starlets; Amelia is a blind 20-something searching for love while setting up programs for the sightless at New York’s Museum of Modern Art; and John survived the crash of his B-24 plane over Nazi-occupied France to join the French resistance. Using restraint and a subtle dose of foreshadowing, Van Booy (Everything Beautiful Began After) expertly entangles these disparate lives; but it’s what he leaves out that captures the imagination. Full of clever staccato sentences (“Most nights, he watches television. Then he falls asleep and the television watches him”) bookended by snippets of inner monologue—obvious, but ripe with meaning (“We all have different lives... but in the end probably feel the same things, and regret the fear we thought might somehow sustain us”), the writing is what makes this remarkable book soar. Agent: Carrie Kania, Conville & Walsh Literary Agency (U.K.) (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

Two sisters, 16-year-old Gracie and 18-year-old Danielle Sullivan, set out from their mother’s home in Denver to spend Thanksgiving with their father in Omaha, Neb. But Danielle doesn’t tell anyone that they are driving to Montana first to see her old boyfriend, Justin Hoyt, until they are on the road—she doesn’t even tell her sister or Justin. Justin’s father is Cody Hoyt, a law enforcement officer who barely acknowledges rules, much less follows them. Fired from his most recent post at the Helena sheriff’s office for planting evidence on a murdered criminal in order to assure the killer’s arrest, he continues to mentor his ex-partner, Cassie Dewell, who shakes her head at his willingness to do anything necessary to track down and arrest criminals, even as she is amazed by his skills and persistence in doing so. Ronald Pergram calls himself the Lizard King. An independent long-haul trucker, he is intelligent, cunning, filled with rage against women (be they “lot lizards”—prostitutes who work truck stops—passing drivers, or his mother), and a serial killer who enjoys capturing and torturing his prey. When the sisters’ car breaks down in the midst of wilderness, they think themselves rescued, until their rescuer turns out to be the Lizard King. When Danielle’s messages to Justin suddenly cease, he knows to turn to his father. Cody, aware that several young women have vanished in the region in recent years, is immediately suspicious, and enlists Cassie to help him find the girls and the man he knows to be their kidnapper. Filled with believable characters and hard, realistic dialogue, Edgar-winner Box’s perfectly paced novel (slated for an August release) offers a suspenseful story laced with more than a few shockingly unexpected plot twists. In unfolding his narrative he provides fascinating insights into the life of the long-distance trucker: how to maintain a Peterbilt, which states have the toughest traffic laws, which truck stops have the most lot lizards available for easy assault—and how the nature of life on the road, where the driver never stays long in a single place and can be hundreds of miles away in a matter of hours, can readily allow the criminal to get away with murder for years. While Cody confronts his own demons—including some he never expected—Cassie comes into her own as a good cop in spite of the condescension, sexism, and personal insults she has faced from most everyone save for Cody; and watching her confidence in her own skills grow as she confronts darkness greater than anything she has previously imagined is tremendously satisfying. As the film Duel demonstrated, the mere sight of an enormous truck speeding up behind you on a long, empty stretch of highway is never comforting; and Box works that inherent fear masterfully. Jack Womack is best known for his novel Random Acts of Senseless Violence.

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

Set in fictional Alvin, Ala., in 1987, Canadian author Hiebert’s first novel courts comparison to the classic To Kill a Mockingbird, with its similar themes of justice and racism and its cast of characters—essentially Mockingbird’s key players with the sexes reversed. But the book manages to soar as a moving achievement in its own right. Tensions are already rife in the Teal household as headstrong 14-year-old Carry discovers boys, ditches 11-year-old brother Abe (the narrator), and constantly battles equally determined mom Leah Teal, a widowed police officer. Then 14-year-old Mary Ann Dailey disappears on her way home from school. Leah plunges into the investigation—as well as resurgent guilt over her failure in 1975 to find the kidnapper of another girl, who eventually turned up under a willow with her throat slit. Abe—precocious in some ways but still childish enough to enjoy rock-balancing competitions with his best friend, Dewey—struggles to make sense of the dark forces dividing his town, as well as the mysterious ways the wider world works. In Hiebert’s sure hands, psychological insight and restrained lyricism combine to create a coming-of-age tale as devastating as it is indelible. Agent: Adrienne Rosado, Nancy Yost Literary Associates. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

Hallie Elliot spent her childhood intrigued by her half-sister, Portia, the product of her mother's first marriage to an Italian prince. But Hallie's life in San Francisco—where she has the perfect successful boyfriend and a brilliant career—has turned out just as well as those of her Italian kin, or so she thinks, until she finds her boyfriend in a suspicious embrace with her boss, Kendra. Hallie flees to her sib-lings' family estate on Lake Como to sort out her feelings. There, Portia is caught between a crum-bling marriage and the scandal of divorce. At the idyllic Tesoro villa, with each other's support, the sisters are able to contemplate moving on. In the meantime, there's glorious scenery, gourmet food, and designer shopping galore. While Portia falls for a new man, Hallie finds a dream job designing a reclusive billionaire's home and connects with her client's business manager, Angus. But two big se-crets complicate Hallie's happiness—and one of them will make her wonder if she can ever trust enough to love again. Portia's engaging subplot and a few shocking revelations lend complexity and depth to Hughes's third novel (after Market Street), but the plot is bogged down by lackluster love scenes, a too-perfect heroine, and a distracting preoccupation with designer goods. Agent: Melissa Flashman, Trident Media Group. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

Originally published in the U.K. in 2000, Lock's solid first mystery featuring Det. Sgt. Ernest Best centers on the historic 1874 Regent's Park disaster. When the explosion of a London canal barge caus-es widespread death and destruction, Best tries to identify a young woman whose body turns up amid the debris. Her death appears unrelated to the blast, and her face is damaged beyond recognition. Best's investigation sends him from the gritty world of the canal workers to the upscale artistic haven of St. John's Wood. His task is complicated by his attraction to the unconventional Helen Franks, whose sister disappeared around the time of the disaster. Lock leaves the relationship between Helen and widower Best nicely unresolved. Lovers of the Victorian era will appreciate the author's attention to the details of period life, while recent headlines give her depiction of the explosion and its aftermath fresh poignancy. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

At the start of Dunn's intelligent but convoluted third thriller featuring MI6 agent Will Cochrane (after 2012's Sentinel), rogue U.S. and Russian military leaders sign a secret pact in 1995 that could lead to a devastating attack on an enemy country, though the details of why and how remain vague. To ensure the lifelong silence of the signatories, conference leader Kurt Schreiber (a former Stasi official now working for Russia) has ordered a "deep-cover sleeper agent" (code name "Kronos") to kill anyone who talks about the plan ("Slingshot"). Fast-forward to the present, when Cochrane uncovers evidence of the document—and an enormous multilateral effort to ensure it doesn't go public. Schreiber un-leashes Kronos to assassinate the whistleblower, while American, British, and Russian intelligence services engage in all manner of intrigue, double-crossing, and violence. Dunn, a former MI6 agent, clearly knows his tradecraft, but the secret plot is never credibly convincing and most characters never rise above stereotypes, particularly the evil mastermind Schreiber. Agent: Luigi Bonomi, Luigi Bonomi Associates (U.K.). (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink