Fiction, February 2004

Brite, Poppy Z.: Liquor (March 2004)

A manic, spicy romp through the kitchens, dive bars and drug deals of New Orleans, Liquor is equal parts ambition, scandal, Cajun hot sauce, cocaine, crayfish and murder.
Carey, Lisa: Love in the Asylum (April 2004)

This is a novel of two lost souls who find love and salvation against all odds.
Dreyer, Eileen: Head Games (March 2004)

Very few people have lived through the trauma Molly Burke has and remained sane but somehow she has managed it. Working two jobs just to stay above the poverty line she is doing her best to deal with her troubled nephew Patrick and the threatening letters she is receiving.
Freemantle, Brian: Triple Cross (March 2004)

Moscow's Organized Crime Bureau chief Dimitri Danilov teams up once more with William Cowley, head of the FBI's Russian desk, in an attempt to thwart a unified global mafia.
Hallowell, Janis: The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn (March 2004)

A failed prodigy and child of divorce, Francesca Dunn is also an adolescent like any other, trying to find her identity and figure out her place in the world. One night Chester, a visionary homeless man, "sees" Francesca hovering over the river bathed in celestial light. Days later, as Francesca serves meals to the needy in a local café, Chester falls to his knees before her in adoration. Word spreads, hordes of followers converge and the result is a catastrophic storm of fervent belief and doubt and an adolescent trapped by events far beyond her control.
Hegland, Jean: Windfalls (April 2004)

Young and pregnant, Cerise and Anna make two very different decisions about their lives as the Oregon author of Into the Forest explores the very essence and complexity of womanhood and what it is to be a mother.
Karnezis, Panos: The Maze (March 2004)

In the summer of 1922, after a series of decisive defeats at the hands of the Turks, the Greek army is in retreat from Asia Minor. Thousands of soldiers sweep toward the Mediterranean coast leaving behind their dead and their dreams, to wander in the Anatolian desert under a seemingly inexpiable curse.
Kinsella, Sophie: Can You Keep a Secret? (March 2004)

Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit and just a few little secrets.
Lindgren, Torgny: Hash (March 2004)

The main ingredients in the recipes for Swedish hash differ widely. The meats, offal and grain that go into its preparation (an elaborate process of boiling, pickling, steaming, and stewing) can range from the heinous to the dangerous. The search for the most delicious dish of hash forms the backbone of this blackly comic, innovative new novel from one of Sweden's bestselling authors.
Lynds, Gayle: The Coil (April 2004)

The cousin of former CIA agent Liz Sansborough has been kidnapped. As ransom, the kidnappers demand the missing files of Liz's dad who is a notorious Cold War assassin.
Murkoff, Bruce: Waterborne (February 2004)

From various directions and distances, two men and a woman are drawn to the Boulder Dam construction site in the Nevada desert, along with their families, their friends and their fellow travelers.
Picoult, Jodi: My Sister's Keeper (April 2004)

This novel is about a teen who was conceived as a bone marrow match for her sister Kate and what happens when she begins to question who she really is.
Silva, Daniel: A Death in Vienna (March 2004)

Art restorer and sometime spy Gabriel Allon is sent to Vienna to authenticate a painting but the real object of his search becomes something else entirely: to find out the truth about the photograph that has turned his world upside down.
Steel, Danielle: Ransom ((March 2004)

A violent crime brings together four lives in Danielle Steel's 60th novel, the story of a mother's courage, a family's terror and a triumph of human strength and dignity in the face of overwhelming odds.
Tropper, Jonathan: The Book of Joe (March 2004)

After Joe Goffman's Bush Falls becomes a runaway bestseller, events force him to go back to his small Connecticut hometown and face the outrage generated by the dark secrets his autobiographical novel reveals.
Westlake, Donald E.: The Road to Ruin (April 2004)

From the Grand Master of suspense comes the latest novel featuring the lovable but hapless crook John Dortmunder.

Mysteries

Deere, Dicey: The Irish Village Murder (March 2004)

The last thing American translator Torrey Tunet expects when she returns home to Ballynaugh late one night is to find a young girl at the bus stop, lost and alone in the dark. But that's nothing compared to what she finds when she escorts the girl to her final destination.
Dunning, John: The Bookman's Promise: A Cliff Janeway Novel (March 2004)

The Bookman is back and now he's after a missing collection featuring 19th-century explorer Richard Burton that seems to have inspired murder.
Gorman, Ed: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (March 2004)

Marital infidelity, murder and the threat of nuclear holocaust hangs over the heartland in the sixth installment of the popular Sam McCain mystery series.
Hart, Ellen: An Intimate Ghost: A Jane Lawless Mystery (March 2004)

Ray Lawless, prominent defense attorney and father of Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless, tries his biggest case yet defending an accused serial murderer and arsonist whom the media has dubbed "The Fireman."
Mankell, Henning: The Return of the Dancing Master (March 2004)

This is the new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries.
Slater, Susan: Five O'Clock Shadow (February 2004)

As a great balloon bearing the image of a clock swoops across the Rio Grande, Pauly Caton watches her husband of four days fall from the sky. The reason for his death is only one of the questions Pauly is left to tangle with.
Turnbull, Peter: Treasure Trove (March 2004)

A retired academic returns to some of his childhood haunts and makes the grim discovery of four corpses, all members of the same family, all murdered. Suspicion soon falls on the one surviving family member. As DCI Hennessey and DS Yellich delve further into the case, they unravel the story of a family which has fallen from grace with the peerage and discover a strange, remote, village in the vale of York with its own secrets and intrigue hidden behind its placid facade.

Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

Asher, Neal L.: The Skinner (April 2004)

Spatterjay is a watery world where the human population inhabits the safety of the Dome and only the quasi-immortal hoopers are safe outside amidst a fearful range of voracious life forms. Somewhere out there is Spatterjay Hoop himself and monitor Keech cannot rest until he can bring this legendary renegade to justice for atrocious crimes committed centuries ago during the Prador Wars.
Doctorow, Cory: Eastern Standard Tribe (March 2004)

Art is a member of the Eastern Standard Tribe, a secret society bound together by a sleep schedule. Around the world, those who wake and sleep on East Coast time find common cause with one another, cooperating, conspiring to help each other out, coordinated by a global network of Wi-Fi, instant messaging, ubiquitous computing and a shared love of Manhattan-style bagels.
Feist, Raymond: King of Foxes: Conclave of Shadows: Book Two (March 2004)

The second installment in the Conclave of Shadows series is an epic saga of adventure, danger, magic and intrigue.
Ford, John M.: Heat of Fusion and Other Stories (March 2004)

Heat of Fusion and Other Stories collects stories and poems written over the course of two decades including award winners and award nominees, some rarities, amusements and astonishments.
Shinn, Sharon: Angel-Seeker (February 2004)

Author Shinn returns to the fascinating world of Samaria in a richly romantic tale that begins where Archangel left off.