Near the start of this outstanding novel of psychological suspense from Edgar-winner Lippman (Life Sentences), Eliza Benedict, a 38-year-old married mother of two living in suburban Maryland, receives a letter from Walter Bowman, the man who kidnapped her the summer she was 15 and is now on death row. The narrative shifts between the present and that long ago summer, when Eliza involuntarily became a part of Walter's endless road trip, including the fateful night when he picked up another teenage girl, Holly Tackett. Soon after Walter killed Holly, Eliza was rescued and taken home. Eliza must now balance a need for closure with a desire to protect herself emotionally. Walter wants something specific from her, but she has no idea what, and she's not sure that she wants to know. All the relationships, from the sometimes contentious one between Eliza and her sister, Vonnie, to the significantly stranger one between Walter and Barbara LaFortuny, an advocate for prisoners, provide depth and breadth to this absorbing story. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 08/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

The Sub Rosa of this convoluted, heavy-handed debut's novel title is "a secret street of magical working girls," known as "Glories," magnificent women with no recollection of their pasts who help "live ones" from the city regain a measure of beauty in their lives. Into this world comes Little, a down-on-her-luck runaway. Captivated by the splendor of her new home, Little is glad to forget her old life. But when Sub Rosa is threatened by a rebellious Glory, Little, who longs to prove herself, must embark on a quest into the Dark, a threatening realm just beyond Sub Rosa where Glories are first trained. There, Little encounters Jellyfish, a former Glory who poses profound and terrifying questions, which force Little to decide whether happy oblivion is worth the price of her freedom to remember and to be herself. The transgressive–fairy tale aspect grows tiresome long before the predictable moral of the story is revealed. Meanwhile, the internal logic of Sub Rosa becomes increasingly strained, its mythology difficult to sustain, its inhabitants difficult to care about. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 09/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Big girls in 19th-century England don't cry in Graeme-Evans's light tale about a plucky heroine who endures a series of harsh trials on her way to becoming London's leading dressmaker. Things start to go south for curate's daughter Ellen Gowan on her 13th birthday, when the dress Connie, her mother, makes her, entices one of her father's students to steal a kiss. Scandal and ruination seem imminent when her father dies, forcing mother and daughter to seek refuge with Connie's sister, who lives in terror of her baronet husband. There, Ellen's friendship with her cousin, Oriana, blossoms, until once again a young man stirs trouble, and Connie and Ellen land in London, where Connie succumbs to illness and Ellen marries a cad who leaves her pregnant and alone. But with a little help from friends, family, and unlikely sources, Ellen becomes the go-to creator of "all manner of finery" for England's most prominent families. Yes, it's formulaic, far-fetched, and soppy with sentiment, but it's also a lot of fun, and Graeme-Evans (The Innocent) is unapologetic in her celebration of the joys of pretty clothes and the thrills of overcoming adversity. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 10/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

When 77-year-old Liverpool widow Daisy Phillips, ostensibly the narrative crux of this deeply botched debut, comes across a watch given to her by an old flame, she goes to the United States to track him down. There, the focus shifts to Daisy's American relatives, particularly the family of Elizabeth, her cousin Ann's daughter. Elisabeth is miserable in her job and convinced that her husband is "Dart Man," a bicyclist who shoots women in their butts with darts. Her son, Michael, meanwhile, is deep in the throes of teen angst. No matter, though: Michael's growing pains are assuaged by his interest in Daisy, and Elisabeth's Dart Man obsession awakens her to her own happiness. Eventually, the characters recall Daisy's purpose in visiting, leading to a lazy, coincidental resolution. Though sloppily executed and inconsistently plotted, McGlynn's use of participles, with superfluous lines like "Dennis nodding" appearing multiple times on every page, is what's most deadening. McGlynn's ear for dialogue can be pleasing (she has a film M.F.A.) but the monotonous style and wandering story line kill any potential.(Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 10/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

The sails are mostly slack in Stockwin's latest Thomas Kydd sea adventure. It's 1805, and as the British prepare for Napoleon's expected invasion of England, Kydd, a rising star in the Royal Navy, is given command of a frigate and ordered to join admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's forces in the Mediterranean. Much of the story is taken up with historical naval activity such as the British blockade of French ports and Nelson's pursuit of the French fleet across the Atlantic and back, with all of the sailing leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar, where the British defeat the combined French and Spanish fleets. Unfortunately, Kydd plays no part in the epic sea battle. In fact, Kydd and his ship spend most of this tale patrolling and carrying messages between fleets. Stockwin is a master of vivid, accurate narratives of seamanship and Napoleonic era naval warfare, but the lack of suspense and uneven bouts of action leave this series installment feeling limp. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 10/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Ragen (The Saturday Wife) brings a bitter intensity to this story of betrayal and a Jewish family brought to its knees by a financial scam to fund overseas terrorism. Boston accountant Adam Samuels gets ensnared in political and religious turmoil after his arrest for allegedly transferring more than $150 million to terror groups, charges that upend the lives of his wife, Abigail, and youngest daughter, Kayla, a Harvard law school student engaged to be married. The scandal bares the hidden cracks in this not-so-perfect family, and soon a panicked Kayla runs for the desert hills of Israel, where a charismatic leader opens her heart, and Abigail, chasing after, has her own epiphany. The arcs of self-discovery contrasts sharply with the darker portrait of ambition and hypocrisy that haunts the Samuels family, and though it doesn't always jibe—Abigail's admirable strength turns unbelievably into mush as she embraces her inner hippie—the unexpected turns Ragen puts on this family's path to healing and happiness are a pleasant surprise. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 10/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Steel (Big Girl) rebounds from a string of less than stellar books with this inspiring story about a frustrated woman who rediscovers her passion for life during a genealogical quest. After Brigitte Nicholson loses her archeologist boyfriend and her university admissions office job in the span of two days, she agrees to help her mother do some research for a family history project. Brigitte becomes hooked after she discovers a mystery in their family's past: how did a Dakota Sioux princess end up buried in Brittany as a noblewoman alongside a distant relative? Brigitte's quest to learn the story of the Marquise de Margerac (née Wachiwi) takes her from Salt Lake City to Sioux Falls, S.D., and eventually to Paris, where she meets Marc Henri, a fetching Sorbonne literature professor. Steel splices in passages from Wachiwi's life—abduction by a Crow war party, traveling to France, surviving the French Revolution—to create a doubly absorbing romantic adventure. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 09/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

Dunn's debut, a near-future crime novel, offers a scary view of a fiscally devastated New York City, but the execution falls short of the concept. NYPD Det. Sixto Santiago works for the controversial Citywide Anticrime Bureau, an outfit launched to combat an uptick in crime whose actions in response to a police fatality have led to citywide riots. Assigned to undercover work, Sixto ends up on a murder case, which he views as a chance for advancement, after the mutilated corpse of Eyad Fouad, an Egyptian immigrant and cabdriver, surfaces near the Manhattan entrance of the Holland Tunnel. Predictably, the trail takes a few twists and turns before the reader learns that Fouad's death was not a simple murder. Less than memorable characters and a dive into unsubtle farce toward the end (city officials have names like Janice Anopheles, Isabella Trichinella, and Tsetse Fly) don't help. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 09/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

This strange and searing novel (after Human Parts) follows the exploits of Doctor Dolly as she traverses a nightmarish Tel Aviv–like metropolis known as Dolly City. Her University of Katmandu medical training not recognized in Israel, Dolly is unable to legally practice medicine and instead experiments in her home lab on animals she infects with diseases of her own invention. But when Dolly finds an abandoned baby wrapped in a plastic bag, her maternal urges are unexpectedly awakened, and as she grows more and more obsessed with her son—whom she names Son—she succumbs to a madness manifesting itself as fanatical concern with Son's health and the conviction that cancer is everywhere. Dolly's agitated mind increasingly parallels the deterioration of Dolly City, "the most demented city in the world," besieged by "Arabophobia" from within and French air raids from without. This parable about motherhood, nationhood, and the intersection of the two is never less than gripping, though its insistence on the graphic depiction of life in a war zone—whether private or public—sometimes makes it tempting to look away. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 10/01/2010 | Details & Permalink

In a slight departure from his usual sword and musket epics, Cornwell (Agincourt) delivers a straightforward fictionalized account of a disastrous 1779 American military campaign in today's Maine (then Massachusetts) that's heavy on historical figures and tense battle scenes. After the British establish a fort on the Penobscot River, the Massachusetts patriots mount an expedition to oust the redcoats. Unfortunately, the campaign is poorly planned and ineptly executed, pitting an ill-trained and undisciplined force against experienced British soldiers and the Royal Navy. The commander of the American land force is Gen. Solomon Lovell, a useless and dithering Boston politician, and the American navy is led by Cmdr. Dudley Saltonstall, an obstinate officer who refuses to risk his ships. Then there's Paul Revere, artillery commander and shameful yellow belly. In fact, the only American officer with any spirit for a fight is a former schoolteacher, Gen. Peleg Wadsworth. This is a rousing yarn of clashing personalities, crashing cannons, and lively musket and bayonet work, along with spies, cowardice, and moments of incredible bravery. Cornwell presents a fascinating, accurate, and exciting history lesson enlivened with a generous blast of gun smoke and grapeshot. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2010 | Release date: 09/01/2010 | Details & Permalink