New Fiction

March 1 - 7, 2010

Walking to Gatlinburg: Mosher, Howard; 2010; A Civil War odyssey in the tradition of Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain and Robert Olmstead's Coal Black Horse, Mosher's latest (after On Kingdom Mountain), about a Vermont teenager's harrowing journey south to find his missing-in-action brother, is old-fashioned in the best sense of the word. Seventeen-year-old Morgan Kinneson goes in search of his older brother, Pilgrim, a Union soldier reported MIA at Gettysburg. But first, Morgan accidentally causes the death of a runaway slave he was leading to safety in Canada. In the course of tracking down his missing brother, Morgan is pursued by slave catchers, accompanies an elephant on an Erie Canal showboat, visits the battlefield at Gettysburg, meets an escaped slave who turns out to be the dead slave's granddaughter, and gets wounded during a mountain feud before learning of Pilgrim's fate. Complicating matters is a rune stone the dead slave left to Morgan, which could compromise the security of the Underground Railroad if the slave catchers get their hands on it. The story of Morgan's rite-of-passage through an American arcadia despoiled by war and slavery is an engrossing tale with mass appeal.
Shalador's Lady: a black jewels novel: Bishop, Anne; 2010; The rambling eighth Black Jewels epic fantasy (after 2009's The Shadow Queen) doesn't glow as brightly as earlier installments, but faithful fans will cheer to find Lady Cassidy at last on track to a happy ending. Plain jane Cassie, a Rose-jeweled queen, lost her Bhak court to prettier but bratty Lady Kermilla. She's now recovered from the loss and ready to restore her new land of Shalador to prosperity. When Lady Kermilla pays an unwelcome visit, Warlord Prince Theran Grayhaven, pledged to Cassie's service, starts making eyes at their guest. Fearing another betrayal, Cassie flees to Eyota, but her heart remains with Grayhaven gardener Jared Blaed. Bishop's dialogue-heavy prose, ornate magical politics, large cast, and complex caste system bog down the narrative flow, and even the introductory guides will do little to enlighten new readers, leaving this one strictly for the fans.
Abraham Lincoln: vampire hunter: Grahame-Smith, Seth; 2010; Indiana, 1818 - Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness." "My baby boy..." she whispers before dying. Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire. When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House. While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years. Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.
The Cross Gardener: Wright, Jason; 2010; From the "New York Times"-bestselling author comes an inspiring story of life, love, and moving on. This timeless tale explores one man's hope that even in his darkest hours, he is not alone.
Hush: White, Kate; 2010; New York Times bestselling author and Cosmopolitan's editor-in-chief returns with a sizzling, page-turning thriller in which an ordinary woman flees the scene of a murder-and realizes it's not just the law that's hunting her.When Lake Warren learns that her husband, Jack, is suing for full custody of their two kids four months after their separation, she's pretty certain that things can't get any worse. The upside is that she's working with the Advanced Fertility Center as a marketing consultant, alongside the attractive, flirtatious Dr. Keaton. But the morning after their one-night stand, Lake finds Keaton with his throat slashed and discovers that things can indeed become worse-they can become deadly.So as not to jeopardize her case for custody, Lake is forced to lie to the police. Having just been intimate with a man who has been murdered, and wanting to protect herself from being charged with the crime, she begins her own search for the truth. Meanwhile, the police start looking at her closely, people at the clinic start treating her with hostility, and strange clues begin dropping-quite literally-on her doorstep, and Lake realizes that she is dangerously close to dark secrets, both about Keaton and the clinic. But can Lake stop what she's started before it's too late?

February 22 - 28, 2010

Apple Turnover Murder: Fluke, Joanne; 2010; It's June in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and for Hannah Swensen, that means bridal showers galore, plus a massive fundraising event in need of confections-not to mention a killer who never learned that charity begins at home... Early summer brings plenty of work for Hannah, even before Mayor Bascomb's wife drops by The Cookie Jar to place an order ...for eleven-hundred cookies! Stephanie Bascomb is organizing an elaborate three-day event to support local charities, and though it's a worthy cause, Hannah almost flips when her business partner, Lisa, suggests setting up an apple turnover stand. Hannah's never made a turnover-but, pushover that she is, she places her faith in Lisa's mother-in-law's recipe and agrees to be a magician's assistant in the fundraiser's talent show... Dozens of pastries and one hideous purple dress later, Hannah has to admit that stepping out of her comfort zone has been fun as well as profitable. The only snag is the show's host, community college professor Bradford Ramsey. Hannah and her younger sister Michelle each had unfortunate romantic relationships with Ramsey, and when the cad comes sniffing around between acts, Hannah tells him off. But when the curtain doesn't go up, she discovers Ramsey backstage-dead as a doornail with a turnover in his hand... Now, to protect her reputation and Michelle's, Hannah must get to the bottom of the professor's bitter end. There are plenty of scorned suspects, including an ex-wife who feels cheated in more ways than one, and a prominent local who may have been using Ramsey to avenge her own randy spouse. But who was unstable enough to snuff out Professor Love? A killer who's flakier than puff pastry-and far more dangerous...
Big Girl: Steel, Danielle; 2010; In this heartfelt and incisive new novel, Danielle Steel celebrates the virtues of unconventional beauty while exploring deeply resonant issues of weight, self-image, sisterhood, and family. A chubby little girl with blond hair, blue eyes, and ordinary looks, Victoria Dawson has always felt out of place in her family, especially in body-conscious L.A. Her father, Jim, is tall and slender, and her mother, Christina, is a fine-boned, dark-haired beauty. Both are self-centered, outspoken, and disappointed by their daughter's looks. When Victoria is six, she sees a photograph of Queen Victoria, and her father has always said she looks just like her. After the birth of Victoria's perfect younger sister, Gracie, her father liked to refer to his firstborn as "our tester cake." With Gracie, everyone agreed that Jim and Christina got it right. While her parents and sister can eat anything and not gain an ounce, Victoria must watch everything she eats, as well as endure her father's belittling comments about her body and see her academic achievements go unacknowledged. Ice cream and oversized helpings of all the wrong foods give her comfort, but only briefly. The one thing she knows is that she has to get away from home, and after college in Chicago, she moves to New York City. Landing her dream job as a high school teacher, Victoria loves working with her students and wages war on her weight at the gym. Despite tension with her parents, Victoria remains close to her sister. And though they couldn't be more different in looks, they love each other unconditionally. But regardless of her accomplishments, Victoria's parents know just what to say to bring her down. She will always be her father's "big girl," and her mother's constant disapproval is equally unkind. When Grace announces her engagement to a man who is an exact replica of their narcissistic father, Victoria worries about her sister's future happiness, and with no man of her own, she feels like a failure once again. As the wedding draws near, a chance encounter, an act of stunning betrayal, and a family confrontation lead to a turning point. Behind Victoria is a lifetime of hurt and neglect she has tried to forget, and even ice cream can no longer dull the pain. Ahead is a challenge and a risk: to accept herself as she is, celebrate it, and claim the victories she has fought so hard for and deserves. Big girl or not, she is terrific and discovers that herself.
Heresy: a thriller: Parris, S.J.; 2010; Set in 1583 against a backdrop of religious-political intrigue and barbaric judicial reprisals, Parris's compelling debut centers on real-life Giordano Bruno, a former Italian monk excommunicated by the Roman Catholic church and hunted across Europe by the Inquisition for his belief in a heliocentric infinite universe. Befriended by the charismatic English courtier and soldier Sir Philip Sidney, the ambitious Bruno flees to more tolerant Protestant England, where Elizabeth I's secretary of state, Sir Francis Walsingham, recruits him to spy, under the cover of philosophical disputation, on secretly Catholic Oxford scholars suspected of plotting treason. As one Oxford fellow after another falls to gruesome homicide, Bruno struggles to unravel Oxford's "tangled loyalties." Parris (the pseudonym of British journalist Stephanie Merritt) interweaves historical fact with psychological insight as Bruno, a humanist dangerously ahead of his time, begins his quest to light the fire of enlightenment in Europe.
Split Image: Parker, Robert; 2010; Family ties prove deadly in the brilliant new Jesse Stone novel from New York Times-bestselling author Robert B. Parker. The body in the trunk was just the beginning. Turns out the stiff was a foot soldier for local tough guy Reggie Galen, now enjoying a comfortable "retirement" with his beautiful wife, Rebecca, in the nicest part of Paradise. Living next door are Knocko Moynihan and his wife, Robbie, who also happens to be Rebecca's twin. But what initially appears to be a low-level mob hit takes on new meaning when a high-ranking crime figure is found dead on Paradise Beach. Stressed by the case, his failed relationship with his ex-wife, and his ongoing battle with the bottle, Jesse needs something to keep him from spinning out of control. When private investigator Sunny Randall comes into town on a case, she asks for Jesse's help. As their professional and personal relationships become intertwined, both Jesse and Sunny realize that they have much in common with both their victims and their suspects-and with each other.
The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson: Charyn, Jerome; 2010; What if the old maid of Amherst wasnâ€™t an old maid at all? Her older brother, Austin, spoke of Emily as his â€œwild sister.â€ Jerome Charyn, continuing his exploration of American history through fiction, has written a startling novel about Emily Dickinson in her own voice, with all its characteristic modulations that he learned from her letters and poems. The poet dons a hundred veils, alternately playing wounded lover, penitent, and female devil. We meet the significant characters of her life, including her tempestuous sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert; her brooding father, Edward; and the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, who may have inspired some of her greatest letters and poems. Charyn has also invented characters, including an impoverished fellow student at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, who will betray her; and a handyman named Tom, who will obsess Emily throughout her life. Charyn has written an extraordinary adventure that will disturb and delight.

February 15 - 21, 2010

The Last Surgeon: Palmer, Michael; 2010; The New York Times bestselling author and master of medical suspense delivers another shocker of a thriller filled with insider details and a terrifying psychopath. Four murders. Three accidents. Two suicides. One left. . . The Last Surgeon. Michael Palmer's latest novel pits a flawed doctor against a ruthless psychopath, who has made murder his art form. Dr. Nick Garrity, a vet suffering from PTSD--post traumatic stress disorder--spends his days and nights dispensing medical treatment from a mobile clinic to the homeless and disenfranchised in D.C. and Baltimore. In addition, he is constantly on the lookout for his war buddy Umberto Vasquez, who was plucked from the streets by the military four years ago for a secret mission and has not been seen since. Psych nurse Gillian Coates wants to find her sister's killer. She does not believe that Belle Coates, an ICU nurse, took her own life, even though every bit of evidence indicates that she did--every bit save one. Belle has left Gillian a subtle clue that connects her with Nick Garrity. Together, Nick and Gillian determine that one-by-one, each of those in the operating room for a fatally botched case is dying. Their discoveries pit them against genius Franz Koller--the highly-paid master of the "non-kill"--the art of murder that does not look like murder. As Doctor and nurse move closer to finding the terrifying secret behind these killings, Koller has been given a new directive: his mission will not be complete until Gillian Coates and Garrity, the last surgeon, are dead.
The Dark-eyes' War: Coe, David; 2010; A bitter old woman's curse and the deeds of previous generations wreak terrible consequences on both sides of a misbegotten war between the Qirsi of the Southlands and an Eandi army from Stelpana.
A Night Too Dark: Stabenow, Dana; 2010; Bestseller Stabenow deftly explores the environmental and economic impact of gold mining in her sizzling 17th novel to feature Alaska PI Kate Shugak (after 2009's Whisper to the Blood). Global Harvest Resources is intent on opening the Suulutaq Mine, where substantial deposits of gold, copper, and molybdenum have been found on state leases in the middle of the Iqaluk Wildlife Refuge, 50 miles from Niniltna. When Kate, "chair of the board of directors of the Niniltna Native Association," and state trooper Jim Chopin find bear-eaten human remains near the truck of Global Harvest roustabout Dewayne A. Gammons, they assume the remains are Gammons's. After all, there was a suicide note in Gammons's truck. Weeks later, a wounded and nearly catatonic Gammons emerges from the woods near Kate's homestead. More puzzles-and murder-follow. An uneasy resolution to the crimes suggests further drama ahead for Kate and her fellow "Park rats." Author tour.
Shadow Tag: Erdrich, Louise; 2010; "Here is the most telling fact: you wish to possess me. Here is another fact: I loved you and let you think you could." When Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a safe-deposit box. There she records the truth about her life and her marriage, while turning her Red Diary--hidden where Gil will find it--into a manipulative farce. Alternating between these two records, complemented by unflinching third-person narration, Shadow Tag is an eerily gripping read. When the novel opens, Irene is resuming work on her doctoral thesis about George Catlin, the nineteenth-century painter whose Native American subjects often regarded his portraits with suspicious wonder. Gil, who gained notoriety as an artist through his emotionally revealing portraits of his wife--work that is adoring, sensual, and humiliating, even shocking--realizes that his fear of losing Irene may force him to create the defining work of his career. Meanwhile, Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three children: fourteen-year-old genius Florian, who escapes his family's unraveling with joints and a stolen bottle of wine; Riel, their only daughter, an eleven-year-old feverishly planning to preserve her family, no matter what disaster strikes; and sweet kindergartener Stoney, who was born, his parents come to realize, at the beginning of the end. As her home increasingly becomes a place of violence and secrets, and she drifts into alcoholism, Irene moves to end her marriage. But her attachment to Gil is filled with shadowy need and delicious ironies. In brilliantly controlled prose, Shadow Tag fearlessly explores the complex nature of love, the fluid boundaries of identity, and one family's struggle for survival and redemption.
Roses: Meacham, Leila; 2010; Spanning the 20th century, the story of Roses takes place in a small East Texas town against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries, industries controlled by the scions of the town's founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married but unwisely did not, and now must deal with the deceit, secrets, and tragedies of their choice and the loss of what might have been--not just for themselves but for their children, and children's children. With expert, unabashed, big-canvas storytelling, Roses covers a hundred years, three generations of Texans and the explosive combination of passion for work and longing for love.

February 8 - 14, 2010

A Dark Matter: Straub, Peter; 2010; The incomparable master of horror and suspense returns with a powerful, brilliantly terrifying novel that redefines the genre in original and unexpected ways. The charismatic and cunning Spenser Mallon is a campus guru in the 1960s, attracting the devotion and demanding sexual favors of his young acolytes. After he invites his most fervent followers to attend a secret ritual in a local meadow, the only thing that remains is a gruesomely dismembered body and the shattered souls of all who were present. Years later, one man attempts to understand what happened to his wife and to his friends by writing a book about this horrible night, and it's through this process that they begin to examine the unspeakable events that have bound them in ways they cannot fathom, but that have haunted every one of them through their lives. As each of the old friends tries to come to grips with the darkness of the past, they find themselves face-to-face with the evil triggered so many years earlier. Unfolding through the individual stories of the fated group's members, A Dark Matter is an electric, chilling, and unpredictable novel that will satisfy Peter Straub's many ardent fans, and win him legions more
True Confections: Weber, Katherine; 2010; Take chocolate candy, add a family business at war with itself, and stir with an outsider's perspective. This is the recipe for True Confections, the irresistible new novel by Katharine Weber, a writer whose work has won accolades from Iris Murdoch, Madeleine L'Engle, Wally Lamb, and Kate Atkinson, to name a few. * Alice Tatnall Ziplinsky's marriage into the Ziplinsky family has not been unanimously celebrated. Her greatest ambition is to belong, to feel truly entitled to the heritage she has tried so hard to earn. Which is why Zip's Candies is much more to her than just a candy factory, where she has worked for most of her life. In True Confections, Alice has her reasons for telling the multigenerational saga of the family-owned-and-operated candy company, now in crisis. * Nobody is more devoted than Alice to delving into the truth of Zip's history, starting with the rags-to-riches story of how Hungarian immigrant Eli Czaplinsky developed his famous candy lines, and how each of his candies, from Little Sammies to Mumbo Jumbos, was inspired by an element in a stolen library copy of Little Black Sambo, from which he taught himself English. Within Alice's vivid and persuasive account (is her unreliability a tactic or a condition?) are the stories of a runaway slave from the cacao plantations of Cote d'Ivoire and the Third Reich's failed plan to establish a colony on Madagascar for European Jews. * Richly informed, deeply moving, and spiked with Weber's trademark wit, True Confections is, at its heart, a timeless and universal story of love, betrayal, and chocolate.
Snow Angels: Thompson, James; 2010; The first thriller in a new series, "Snow Angels" features Inspector Kari Vaara, the haunted, hardened detective who must delve into Finland's dark, violent underbelly.
Remarkable Creatures: Chevalier, Tracy; 2010; A voyage of discoveries, a meeting of two remarkable women, and extraordinary time and place enrich bestselling author Tracy Chevalier's enthralling new novel. From the moment she's struck by lightening as a baby, it is clear that Mary Anning is marked for greatness. On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, she learns that she has "the eye"-and finds what no one else can see. When Mary uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious fathers on edge, the townspeople to vicious gossip, and the scientific world alight. In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is barred from the academic community; as a young woman with unusual interests she is suspected of sinful behavior. Nature is a threat, throwing bitter, cold storms and landslips at her. And when she falls in love, it is with an impossible man. Luckily, Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a recent exile from London, who also loves scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy. Ultimately, in the struggle to be recognized in the wider world, Mary and Elizabeth discover that friendship is their greatest ally. Remarkable Creatures is a stunning novel of how one woman's gift transcends class and social prejudice to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century. Above all, is it a revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of female friendship.
New World Monkeys: Mauro, Nancy; 2010; In this unabashedly eccentric debut, a young couple with a troubled marriage make the fateful decision to summer in a decaying upstate New York house, leading to a series of bizarre events. First, their car slams into a wild boar, and Lily, seeing it squealing in pain, smashes its skull with a tire iron. But when the two arrive in town, they realize the boar-Sovereign of the Deep Wood-was the town mascot and the beloved pet of a nasty local named Skinner, who is eager to find the culprits. Then Duncan uncovers a gravestone and a human bone in the house's backyard, and the two barely speaking spouses excavate the skeleton and ponder a decades-old whodunit. Meanwhile, ad-man Duncan commutes back and forth to the city and struggles with a campaign that could make or break his career, while Ph.D.-thesis avoidant Lily befriends the town pervert. As the intrigues heighten to an absurd degree, the question of whether Duncan and Lily will reforge their bond in the midst of the macabre goings-on catapults the book to a surreally satisfying climax. It's fun, funny and touching-a great summer book.

February 1 - 7, 2010

Winter Garden: Hannah, Kristin; 2010; Female bonding is always good for a good cry, as Hannah (True Colors ) proves in her latest. Pacific Northwest apple country provides a beautiful, chilly setting for this family drama ignited by the death of a loving father whose two daughters have grown apart from each other and from their acid-tongued, Russian-born mother. After assuming responsibility for the family business, 40-year-old empty-nester Meredith finds it difficult to carry out her father&'s dying wish that she take care of her mother; Meredith&'s troubled marriage, her troubled relationship with her mother and her mother&'s increasingly troubled mind get in the way. Nina, Meredith&'s younger sister, takes a break from her globe-trotting photojournalism career to return home to do her share for their mother. How these three women find each other and themselves with the help of vodka and a trip to Alaska competes for emotional attention with the story within a story of WWII Leningrad. Readers will find it hard not to laugh a little and cry a little more as mother and daughters reach out to each other just in the nick of time.
Secret of Eden: Bohjalian, Christopher; 2010; Bohjalian (Law of Similars) has built a reputation on his rich characters and immersing readers in diverse subjects-homeopathy, animal rights activism, midwifery-and his latest surely won't disappoint. The morning after her baptism into the Rev. Stephen Drew's Vermont Baptist church, Alice Hayward and her abusive husband are found dead in their home, an apparent murder-suicide. Stephen, the novel's first narrator, is so racked with guilt over his failure to save Alice that he leaves town. Soon, he meets Heather Laurent, the author of a book about angels whose own parents' marriage also ended in tragedy. Stephen's deeply sympathetic narration is challenged by the next two narrators: deputy state attorney Catherine Benincasa, whose suspicions are aroused initially by Stephen's abrupt departure (and then by questions about his relationship with Alice), and Heather, who distances herself from Stephen for similar reasons and risks the trip into her dark past by seeking out Katie, the Haywards' now-orphaned 15-year-old daughter who puts into play the final pieces of the puzzle, setting things up for a touching twist. Fans of Bohjalian's more exotic works will miss learning something new, but this is a masterfully human and compassionate tale.
The Bell Ringers: Porter, Henry; 2010; In Porter's outstanding near-future thriller, David Eyam, the former head of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, is killed by a bomb in Colombia that was apparently aimed at others. His recently estranged close friend and former colleague in the spook business, Kate Lockhart, is surprised to learn she's the main beneficiary of Eyam's will. Her suspicions that the story behind his death is more complex than officially reported are heightened when Eyam's lawyer is gunned down soon after thugs break into his office. While the basic plot-an attempt to uncover a broad government conspiracy against daunting odds-is familiar, Porter (Brandenburg Gate) invests it with urgency and power by taking current legislation drawn up to combat terrorism and projecting how it would play out if special interests and unscrupulous leaders used it to destroy the privacy of individuals. Shaken U.S. readers will wonder how much of the fiction might soon become fact on this side of the Atlantic.
Worst Case: Patterson, James; 2010; From the authors of "The Quickie" comes their most action-packed series yet. When the children of many of New York's elite become murder victims, Detective Michael Bennett and FBI agent Emily Parker set out to capture a killer before he sends out a deadly message for the entire city to witness.
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky: Durrow, Heidi; 2010; Durrow's debut draws from her own upbringing as the brown-skinned, blue-eyed daughter of a Danish woman and a black G.I. to create Rachel Morse, a young girl with an identical heritage growing up in the early 1980s. After a devastating family tragedy in Chicago with Rachel the only survivor, she goes to live with the paternal grandmother she's never met, in a decidedly black neighborhood in Portland, Ore. Suddenly, at 11, Rachel is in a world that demands her to be either white or black. As she struggles with her grief and the haunting, yet-to-be-revealed truth of the tragedy, her appearance and intelligence place her under constant scrutiny. Laronne, Rachel's deceased mother's employer, and Brick, a young boy who witnessed the tragedy and because of his personal misfortunes is drawn into Rachel's world, help piece together the puzzle of Rachel's family. Taut prose, a controversial conclusion and the thoughtful reflection on racism and racial identity resonate without treading into political or even overtly specific agenda waters, as the story succeeds as both a modern coming-of-age and relevant social commentary.

January 25 - 31, 2010

The Fifth Servant: Wishnia, K.J.A.; 2010; Starred Review. Set in 16th-century Prague, Wishnia's outstanding debut convincingly transforms a Jewish sexton and his rabbinic mentor into a plausible pair of sleuths. Just before the start of Passover, the discovery of the bloody corpse of Gerta Janek, a blond girl, maybe seven years old, inside the store of Jacob Federn, a Jewish businessman, triggers the inevitable revival of the blood libel and threat of mass retribution against the entire Jewish community. Benyamin Ben-Akiva, the newly arrived shammes, has three days to prove that someone other than Federn is guilty of Gerta's brutal murder. He faces opposition from his own people, but manages to win the respect and support of the legendary Rabbi Loew, who helps him gain access to the body so that a rudimentary examination can be done, though many Gentiles are offended by the very notion. Well-developed characters and detailed portrayals of life at the time help make this historical crime thriller a gripping page-turner.
The Hungry Season: 2010; In her fifth novel, Greenwood calls grief by another name starvation. The Mason family, devastated by the loss of 16-year-old Franny, spends the summer in Vermont, far from home in San Diego. Renowned novelist Sam Mason cannot conjure the words that used to come so easily to him before the death of his daughter: the words are too thin, as fragile and brittle as bones. Sam can no longer connect, especially not with his wife, Mena, and begins to waste away. Hunger proves to be a powerful metaphor for the family&'s loss and desires although means of emotional escape are predictable: Mena considers adultery, while Finn, Franny&'s twin, smokes marijuana. Saving this story from convention is Dale Edwards, a wacky college student and fan of Sam&'s novels who writes letters telling Sam she has an advance from a publisher to be his biographer. Her gluttonous trek across the country to find her favorite author livens up the narrative, magnifying that this is intended as a deeply psychological read. But Greenwood&'s epilogue wraps up the mess a little too neatly.
Damaged: DuPree, Kia; 2010; Dupree's debut offers readers an unvarnished look at the troubled, violence-filled lives of inner-city youth in Washington, D.C., frequently through the eyes and experiences of Camille Logan. Ten-year-old Camille is placed with the Brinkleys, yet another foster family, where she suffers extreme mental and sexual abuse for years, until she's rescued by Chu, a low-level drug dealer who actually loves and looks after her. But when Chu is murdered in a drug deal gone wrong, Camille makes a desperate choice to join a cruel pimp's stable, where she faces her situation and struggles to change her life. DuPree displays an excellent ear for the dialogue, thinking, music and worldviews of her young characters and a talent for setting: the grimy streets, rundown hotels, beatup houses, sweaty house parties and clubs feel real and far above standard street lit. But the ending falls short, as though the author has a sequel in mind.
The Fourth Assassin: an Omar Yussef mystery: Rees, Matt; 2010; Starred Review. The relentless cycle of violence and retribution follows Palestinian detective Omar Yussef to New York City, where he must deliver a speech at the U.N. on schooling in the Palestinian refugee camps, in Rees's excellent fourth mystery (after 2009's The Samaritan's Secret). When Yussef's son, Ala, is arrested after a decapitated body is found in Ala's Brooklyn apartment, Yussef's search for the real killer leads him from Atlantic Avenue to Coney Island and back to the U.N. Secretariat. In the process, he discovers that he's not quite the cosmopolitan man he thought himself to be, a realization shared by many Arab immigrants in the story. In truth, the residents of Little Palestine are caught between its subterranean mosques and the lure of Manhattan, where forbidden pleasures are ready for the plucking. Yussef remains reliably human and compassionate toward human fallibility, while raging openly at the corruption of his own leaders.
Tinkers: Harding, Paul; 2010; Starred Review. Harding's outstanding debut unfurls the history and final thoughts of a dying grandfather surrounded by his family in his New England home. George Washington Crosby repairs clocks for a living and on his deathbed revisits his turbulent childhood as the oldest son of an epileptic smalltime traveling salesman. The descriptions of the father's epilepsy and the cold halo of chemical electricity that encircled him immediately before he was struck by a full seizure are stunning, and the household's sadness permeates the narrative as George returns to more melancholy scenes. The real star is Harding's language, which dazzles whether he's describing the workings of clocks, sensory images of nature, the many engaging side characters who populate the book, or even a short passage on how to build a bird nest. This is an especially gorgeous example of novelistic craftsmanship.

January 18 - 24, 2010

The Burning Land: Cornwell, Bernard; 2010; Slathered in blood and gore, Saxon warlord Uhtred of Bebbanburg hacks his way through the ninth century in the exciting fifth installment to bestseller Cornwell's Saxon Tales series (following Sword Song). This action-packed novel continues the saga of warfare for supremacy in Britain, a brutal period when Saxon and Danish swords, battleaxes, and treachery ruled the day. By now, Alfred the Great is old and feeble, unwilling and unable to repel the Danish invaders. He relies on trusty pagan warlord Uhtred, but Uhtred's temper and an unexpected violent act force Uhtred to break his oath of loyalty to Alfred and flee north with his men, intending to reclaim his ancestral home. En route, they face marauding Danish armies, betrayal, battles for a pirate treasure, and the curse of a vicious Danish witch, only to eventually be manipulated back into fighting for Alfred. Vivid descriptions of merciless battlefield slaughter, rape, and destruction are artfully related by a masterful storyteller. Uhtred is victorious in some battles, but the outcome of others will have to wait for the sequel.
Kisser: Woods, Stuart; 2010; Starred Review. At the start of bestseller Woods's entertaining 17th Stone Barrington novel (after Loitering with Intent), the handsome New York lawyer smoothly picks up Carrie Cox, an aspiring actress who's recently moved from Georgia to New York City, at Elaine's, his favorite Manhattan restaurant. As usual, every beautiful woman Barrington encounters pursues him, including Carrie, art gallery assistant Rita Gammage, U.S. attorney Tiffany Baldwin, and mentally unstable Dolce Bianci, to whom he was once briefly married. In spite of all the female attentions, Barrington manages to shield Carrie from her ex-husband, protect young heiress Hildy Parsons from a con artist/drug dealer, and plot to take down Ponzi scammer Sig Larsen. Too crafty to let Barrington sail unscathed through encounters with women or criminals, Woods devises plenty of snarls to provoke laughs and keep the action interesting in a series that excels at playing out male fantasies.
The Wolf at the Door: Higgins, Jack; 2010; In bestseller Higgins's exciting 17th Sean Dillon thriller (after A Darker Place), Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin is behind a plot to kill Dillon and other members of the British prime minister's private intelligence army as payback for their being such a thorn in his side over the years. In London, Gen. Charles Ferguson, who's just left a late-night meeting of Commonwealth ministers, is walking toward his car when it explodes, killing his driver. In New York City, Maj. Harry Miller, who's in the U.S. to attend a U.N. meeting, goes for a stroll in Central Park, where he neatly turns the tables on a hired hit man. Extensive flashbacks explain how the attacks on each of the marked men evolved, with much space devoted to the chief assassin, Daniel Holley. Higgins provides a more cerebral story than usual, but he doesn't stint on action. Though most of the plot threads tie up nicely, the ending makes clear that readers will be seeing Holley again.
Songs of Deliverance: Griffith, Marilynn; 2010; This isn't as good as its predecessor, but readers who liked the characters introduced in Rhythms of Grace will be happy for one more dance with Grace, Brian, Zeely, Ron and assorted supporting characters. Ostensibly stand-alone, the story gets moving faster for readers already in on the tangled web of relationships, which gets a lot more tangled, and more related, as the four major characters slowly, slowly move past the trauma that ended the first novel. Both books are set in Testimony, Ohio, a place that, in the author's clever conceit, was home to any fleeing slave who could pay $500 to settle there. The history of slavery ties the story together as it marks and twists family lines laid out in the book. This good idea suffers in execution from a few too many secrets and neat resolutions. The pace also drags, with literal sermonizing as characters sit in church or as they agonize over repeated relationship setbacks. Though her promise doesn't deliver enough, Griffith remains worth watching.
Breaking out of Bedlam: Larson, Leslie; 2010; In her delightful second novel (after Slipstream), Larson injects a jolt of liveliness into the bleak setting of an assisted living home, thanks to the obstinate and crass narrator, 82-year-old Cora Sledge. The overweight, pill-popping Cora is placed in the Palisades by her children after they deem her unfit to care for herself. Once there, she begins writing in the journal her granddaughter gave her, her entries eventually revolving around a big secret from her past. Meanwhile, around the Palisades, Cora is often in the midst of if not at the center of resident feuds, both the victim and suspect of a spree of robberies and the recipient of a suave new resident's amorous attention. Perhaps not surprisingly, Cora decides to take control of her life, and as she questions the loyalty of those closest to her, she reveals intimate feelings and personal heartaches that have always been obscured by her rough exterior. Cora's machinations sometimes wily, sometimes curious, always funny and her lovable crustiness give this plenty of heart and humor.

January 11 - 17, 2010

Treasure Hunt: Lescroart, John; 2010; When the body of Dominic Como, one of San Francisco's most high-profile activists--a charismatic man known as much for his expensive suits as his work on a half dozen nonprofit boards--is discovered, P.I. Mickey Dade and P.I. Wyatt Hunt investigate Como's business associate, Alicia Thorpe--young, gorgeous, and the sister of one of Mickey's friends.
The First Rule: a Joe Pike novel: Crais, Robert; 2010; When garment importer Frank Meyer and his family are executed in their Los Angeles home at the start of bestseller Crais's adrenaline-fueled second thriller to feature PI Joe Pike (after The Watchman), LAPD detectives soon connect Meyer to Pike, who knew each other from their days as military contractors. Pike is convinced that Meyer, who left soldiering to start a family, wasn't dirty, even though his murder is the seventh in a series of violent robberies where the victims were all professional criminals. Determined to clear his friend's name, Pike discovers that Frank's nanny and her family have ties to Eastern European organized crime. With the help of PI partner Elvis Cole (the lead in Chasing Darkness and eight other books), Pike engages in a dangerous and not always legal game of cat and mouse with some of the city's most dangerous crooks. Pike emerges as an enigmatically appealing hero, whose lethal skills never overshadow his unflappable sense of morality.
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily: Willig, Lauren; 2010; As Lady Frederick Staines, Penelope Deveraux plunges into the treacherous waters of the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad and with the assistance of Captain Alex Reid draws out the deadly plans of the spy known as the Marigold.
Freedom (TM): Suarez, Daniel; 2010; The Daemon is well on its way toward firm control of the modern world, using an expanded network of real-world, dispossessed darknet operatives to tear apart civilization and rebuild it anew. Civil war breaks out in the American Midwest, with the mainstream media stoking public fear in the face of this 'Corn Rebellion.' Former detective Pete Sebeck, now the Daemon's most famous and most reluctant operative, must lead a small band of enlightened humans in a populist movement designed to protect the new world order. But the private armies of global business are preparing to crush the Daemon once and for all. In a world of conflicted loyalties, rapidly diminishing government control, and a new choice between free will and the continuing comforts of ignorance, the stakes could not be higher: hanging in the balance is nothing less than democracy's last hope to survive the technology revolution.
The Bone Chamber: Burcell, Robin; 2009; Special Agent Sydney Fitzpatrick, forensic artist to the FBI, returns to Quantico to help identify a brutally murdered young woman. But when Sydney's friend and colleague, the forensic anthropologist who assisted her, is killed in a hit-and-run, a covert government team takes over the investigation, and Sydney is suddenly removed from the case. Certain her friend's murder is connected to the first case, Sydney investigates. She discovers that the first victim was not only an archeological student, but also the daughter of the ambassador to the Holy See. Just before she was killed, the ambassador's daughter claimed to have found one of three keys that just might lead to a map of the long lost Templar treasure. Sydney's search for answers takes her to the streets of Rome, and into the underground crypts and caverns in Naples, one step ahead of a ruthless killer. Time is running out for Sydney as a fellow government agent is kidnapped. And the ransom demanded?

January 4 - 10, 2010

Noah's Compass: Tyler, Anne; 2010; A schoolteacher, forced to retire at sixty-one, must come to terms with the final phase of his life.
Snapped: Brown, Tracy; 2010; In Brown&'s latest, four New York friends find money doesn&'t buy happiness and love doesn&'t either, especially when it&'s confused with lust. Latoya Blake&'s a fashionista realtor who&'s flamboyantly single and distrustful of men because of a horrific secret in her past. Dominique Storms has a successful music industry job and a lovely 13-year-old daughter, but she&'s obsessed with an incarcerated man. Former model Camille Bingham is married to Frankie B., the trusted associate of a dying Manhattan crime lord, Doug Nobles, and she rightfully suspects her honey&'s getting far too close to Doug&'s daughter, Gillian, who&'s poised to take over after her father dies and Baron, her dangerously out-of-control brother, is out of the way. Camille&'s younger sister, Misa, yearns to be rich like her sis, but is a neglectful single mother of a three-year-old pursuing a relationship with the sadistic Baron. Brown makes these desperate women amazingly sympathetic even as they make foolish choices, and the same goes for Frankie B., despite his appalling mistreatment of Camille. It all adds up to some seriously twisted problems leading to some cliffhanging shockeroos that undoubtedly mean a sequel is on its way.
Iron River: a Charlie Hood novel: Parker, Jefferson; 2010; T. Jefferson Parker ranks among the very top tier of contemporary crime writers, and his new series has received some of the most effusive reviews of his already stellar career. In L.A. Outlaws, Parker introduced Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy Charlie Hood, plunging him into a glamorous, fast-moving world of antiheroes-and antiheroines. In The Renegades, Hood was ensnared in a major case of police corruption. BookReporter.com raved: "And while, again, The Renegades is complete in itself, my gut feeling is that with L.A. Outlaws and a future novel, it will form a trilogy that will stand as the high-water mark of Parker's work. In the meantime, a year seems too long a time to wait to find out." The wait is over. Iron River is here. This time around, Hood is running the California-Mexico border with the ATFE, searching for the iron river-the massive and illegal flow of handguns and automatic weapons that fuels the bloody cartel wars south of the border. Gunrunners by nature aren't exactly ethical, but the lengths they'll go to, and the innocent lives they'll risk, are shocking even to Hood. Most shocking of all is the close personal connection Hood finds wrapped up in events south of the border-a connection that shakes him to his core.
Unfinished Desires: Godwin, Gail; 2010; Bestselling author Godwin (Evensong; The Finishing School) brings readers back in time to the early 1950s in this endearing story of Catholic school girls and the nuns who oversee them. As Mother Suzanne Ravenel begins a memoir of her 60-plus years at Mount St. Gabriel's School in Mountain City, N.C., she's forced to re-examine the toxic year of 1951 1952, one of her worst at the school beginning with the arrival of ninth-grade student Chloe Starnes, who's recently lost her mother, and Mother Malloy, a beautiful young nun assigned to the freshman class. Starnes and Malloy's arrivals presage a shift in the ranks of freshman Tildy Stratton's cruel clique, with significant consequences for all involved. Change, when it finally comes, stems from the girls' attempt to revive a play written years before by Ravenel. Godwin captures brilliantly the subtleties of friendships between teenage girls, their ambivalence toward religion and their momentous struggle to define people especially themselves. Poignant and transporting, this faux memoir makes a convincing, satisfying novel.
Impact: Preston, Douglas; 2010; Wyman Ford is tapped for a secret expedition to Cambodia... to locate the source of strangely beautiful gemstones that do not appear to be of this world.A brilliant meteor lights up the Maine coast... and two young women borrow a boat and set out for a distant island to find the impact crater.A scientist at the National Propulsion Facility discovers an inexplicable source of gamma rays in the outer Solar System. He is found decapitated, the data missing.High resolution NASA images reveal an unnatural feature hidden in the depths of a crater on Mars... and it appears to have been activated.Sixty hours and counting.

December 28 - January 3, 2010

Days of Gold: Deveraux, Jude; 2010; The second book in the multi-generational Edilean series, Days of Gold is a sweeping romance set in 1766.
The Murder of King Tut: the plot to kill the child king: Patterson, James; 2009; Patterson and Dugard dig through stacks of evidence--X-rays, files, forensic clues, and stories told through the ages--to arrive at their own account of King Tut's life and death. The result is an exhilarating true crime tale of intrigue, passion, and betrayal.
The Honor of Spies: Griffin, W.E.B.; 2009; August 6, 1943: In his brief career in the Office of Strategic Services, twenty-four-year-old Cletus Frade has already been involved in a lot of unusual situations, but nothing like the one he's in now, standing with a German lieutenant colonel named Wilhelm Frogger in a Mississippi prisoner-of-war detention facility. Frade's job? To help Frogger escape so the OSS can use Frogger's knowledge and connections to kill Adolf Hitler.
The Hidden Flame: Bunn, Davis; 2010; In first-century Judea, Abigail together with her fellow followers of the Way face a gathering storm of persecution they never could have foreseen but find a glimmer of hope through their faith and courage to survive.
Summertime: Coetzee, J.M.; 2010; In this autobiographical novel, a young English biographer is researching a book about the late South African writer John Coetzee, focusing on Coetzee in his thirties, at a time when he was living in a rundown cottage in the Cape Town suburbs with his widowed father--a time, the biographer is convinced, when Coetzee was finding himself as a writer.

December 21 - 27, 2009

Mr. Monk in Trouble: Goldberg, Lee; 2009; Based on the USA Network television series created by Andy Breckman.
Liberating Atlantis: 2009; Frederick Radcliff is a descendant of the family that founded Atlantis's first settlement, and his grandfather Victor led the army against England to win the nation's independence. But he is also a black slave, unable to prove his lineage, and forced to labor on a cotton plantation in the southern region of the country. Frederick feels the color of his skin shouldn't keep him from having the same freedoms his ancestors fought and died for. So he becomes the leader of a revolutionary army of slaves determined to free all of his brethren across Atlantis...
A Christmas Blizzard: Keillor, Garrison; 2009; A wealthy and depressed man bound for Christmas in Hawaii is abruptly summoned home to North Dakota. He arrives just in time to be trapped there by a blizzard. During his stay, he reaches an epiphany worthy of the season and resolves to simplify his life.
Pirate Sun: Schroeder, Karl; 2009; Return to Virga, a bubble universe artificially separated from our own future universe, and the setting of "Sun of Suns" and "Queen of Candesce." Chaison Fanning, the admiral of a fleet of warships, has been captured and imprisoned by his enemies, but is suddenly rescued and set free. He flees through the sky to his home city to confront the ruler who betrayed him. And perhaps even to regain his lovely, powerful, and subversive wife, Venera, who he has not seen since she fled with the key to the artificial sun at the center of Virga, Candesce. Schroeder sets a whole new standard for hard SF space opera.

December 14 - 20, 2009

Burning Desire: 2009; Dante Garrett learned the handyman trade from watching his late grandfather and his father hard at work. Painting, carpentry, and plumbing were among his talents, to the point that he became one of the most wanted men in Park Chester—but not without ducking and dodging some of the horny housewives who were his clients. In fact, Dante goes to great lengths to keep from crossing the line that separates him from clients such as the wispy Ms. Thomas and the regal Mrs. Singletary. It’s when he falls head over heels for a client’s niece, Stacy, that Dante’s life begins to change.Stacy is single and recently relocated from Atlanta, Georgia, in search of opportunities that the big city has to offer. But there are skeletons in her closet that she dare not reveal. And while Dante stands by Stacy through thick and thin, he soon discovers that not all secrets can remain hidden.
Wormwood, Nevada: Oppegaard, David; 2009; A meteorite crashing into the Nevada desert sparks a search for meaning and purpose in Oppegaard's intriguing if flat follow-up to The Suicide Collectors. Tyler and Anna Mayfield move to Wormwood, Nev., looking to escape the postcollege funk that permeated their lives in Nebraska. When a night out at the local bar is interrupted with a massive explosion nearby, the young couple find themselves in the middle of an already off-kilter town going meteor crazy. Tyler, haunted by the disappearance of his older brother years ago, sees booze, weed and fatigue-induced visions of aliens and becomes involved with a group that believes visitors will arrive imminently. Meanwhile, Anna, a former Miss Nebraska, suffers apocalyptic nightmares amid fears that the best years of her life are slipping away. Oppegaard deftly aligns the inner fears and waning hopes of his well-rounded protagonists with the paranormal tremors, but the tension all but dies in the final act as the novel unspools into a disappointingly diffuse anticlimax.
The Disciple: Coonts, Stephen; 2009; Starred Review. Last seen together in bestseller Coonts's The Assassin (2008), Tommy Carmellini, a CIA operative, and Jake Grafton, the new CIA head of Middle Eastern Operations, try to stop the Iranian president, madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from starting WWIII in this nail-biting near-future thriller. When they fail to do so, Tommy and Jake must attempt to knock out the conventional and nuclear missiles that Iran fires at targets throughout the Middle East. Coonts carefully builds his plot using a wide cast of characters, from insider Iranian spies to cutting-edge aircraft pilots and government officials both high and low. Hardly a page passes without nerve-stretching tension or flat-out action. One can only hope the U.S. president, the head of the CIA and the Israeli prime minister will have this book on their nightstands for easy reference in case fiction turns to reality, an all-too-real possibility as evidenced by recent headlines.
Divine Misdemeanors: Hamilton, Laurell; 2009; Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye and princess of faerie, determined to get to the bottom of the case even if means going up against Gilda, the Fairy Godmother. But even stranger things are happening. Mortals Gentry once healed with magic are suddenly performing miracles, a shocking phenomenon wreaking havoc on human/faerie relations.
La's Orchestra Saves the World: Smith, Alexander; 2009; It is 1939. Lavender--La to her friends--decides to flee London, not only to avoid German bombs but also to escape the memories of her shattered marriage. Settling in as small town, she organizes an amateur orchestra from the village and the local RAF base and falls in love with one of her prized recruits.

December 7 - 13, 2009

U is for Undertow: Grafton, Sue; 2009; After a recent reference to a kidnapping triggers a flood of memories, unemployed college dropout Michael Sutton hires Kinsey Millhone to locate a four-year-old girl's remains and find the men who killed her.
The Paris Vendetta: Berry, Steve; 2009; Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone isn't looking for trouble when it comes knocking at his Copenhagen bookshop. But narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight convinces him to follow his unexpected new ally--an American Secret Service agent--and help him stop the Paris Club, a cabal of multimillionaires bent on manipulating the global economy. Only by matching wits with a terrorist-for-hire, foiling a catastrophic attack, and plunging into a desperate hunt for the legendary lost treasure of Napoleon Bonaparte can Malone hope to avert international financial anarchy.
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword of Avalon: Bradley, Marion; 2009; Epic in its sweep and peopled by the remarkable women who have always inhabited Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword of Avalon expands the legendary saga that has enchanted millions of readers over the years and is sure to please Bradley's loyal readership and anyone who loves wonderfully told stories of history, myth, and fantasy.A boy raised in secret after traitors kill his parents will return to Avalon-and when he does, he'll be faced with a formidable task: to prove his worth as a son of the kings and priestesses of his land and lead his followers to victory, wielding the newly-forged sword Excalibur.
Sweeter Than Honey: Morrison, Mary; 2009; The prolific Morrison launches her new series with a harsh, explicit look at the Las Vegas sex industry. Strong-willed Lace St. Thomas is the madam at Immaculate Perception, a high-end escort service run by the nefarious, mysterious Valentino. Lace, who's been through the sex industry wringer, wants to get her favorite girl, Sunny, out of the business, but a case of mistaken identity leads to a confrontation between Valentino and Sunny (Valentino had slept with Summer, Sunny's twin sister) that ends fatally for Sunny. From there, a convoluted plot mushrooms: Summer instinctively knows something has happened to Sunny, and she, along with Lace, become involved in Det. Sapphire Bleu's vendetta to take down Valentino. (Sapphire and Sunny were best friends.) Valentino, in turn, plots to kill Lace, and Lace's abusive mother tracks down Lace to demand she return home and donate marrow to aid in her sister's cancer treatment. The final confrontation between Lace, Summer and Valentino sends Lace off on a new life to be chronicled in future installments. The plot's unwieldy and the characters aren't especially striking, but Morrison certainly knows her way around the bedroom.

The Early Work of Philip K. Dick: Volume one, the variable man & other stories: Dick, Philip; 2009; This volume collects 15 of the earliest short publications by Philip K. Dick (1928–1982), all from 1952–1953. Though the young author is clearly finding his footing in these stories, many of the elements he developed in later works are present in embryonic form. The nature of reality is held up to question in Adjustment Team, while self-repairing and replicating robots populate James P. Crow, The Gun and Jon's World. The weak must prevail against seemingly invincible opponents in Beyond Lies the Wub, Piper in the Woods and Souvenir, and the prospect of total destruction looms in The Variable Man. Rickman provides an informative introduction and detailed endnotes on each story, which alone would make this volume worth acquiring. This collection is a must-have for PKD fans.

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