Fiction, June 2004

General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

General Fiction

Ablow, Keith: Murder Suicide (July 2004)

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Frank Clevenger delves into John Snow's complex past and tortured relationships to unlock the identity of the man's killer.
Ames, Jonathan: Wake Up, Sir! (July 2004)

This is the story of a young alcoholic writer whose personal valet just happens to be named Jeeves.
Barnes, Julian: The Lemon Table: Stories (July 2004)

Prose stylist Julian Barnes presents a collection of stories whose characters are growing old and facing the end of their lives.
Bonfiglioli, Kyril: Don't Point That Thing at Me (June 2004)

A cult classic in the UK since its first publication in the 1970s, this dark, humorous crime thriller features the Honorable Charlie Mortdecai: degenerate aristocrat, amoral art dealer, seasoned epicurean, unwilling assassin and general knave-about-Piccadilly.
Braver, Adam: Divine Sarah (July 2004)

This novel is about the last years of Sarah Bernhardt's life, her opium addiction, her sexual liaisons and her career as the greatest actress of the turn of the century.
Capella, Anthony: The Food of Love (July 2004)

This is a classic comedy of errors full of romance, culinary magic and the sensual atmosphere of Italy.
Cheever, Benjamin: The Good Nanny (July 2004)

The new nanny is perfect. A natural with children, a whiz in the kitchen and a talented painter. The only thing Miss Washington can't seem to do is make a mistake. But when Stuart Cross loses his editing job and decides to write the great American novel, the nanny's excellence quickly becomes a sore spot.
Clarke, Brian: The Stream (July 2004)

Clarke paints a portrait of a small cross-section of the environment experiencing the conflict between development and conservation.
Collins, Michael: Lost Souls (August 2004)

Among the petty vandalism and pranks on Halloween night, a police officer discovers the gruesome evidence of a hit-and-run accident. As the investigation proceeds, an ominous story unfolds.
Cronin, Justin: The Summer Guest (July 2004)

From the battlefields of Italy to the turbulence of the Vietnam era, to the private battles of love and family, The Summer Guest reveals the full history of a man who is making a final pilgrimage to a rustic fishing camp in Maine.
Day, Cathy: Circus in Winter (July 2004)

From 1884 to 1939, the Great Porter Circus made the unlikely choice to winter in an Indiana town called Lima. Day follows a colorful cast of circus people into their everyday lives and brings the greatest show on earth to the page.
D'Erasmo, Stacey: A Seahorse Year (July 2004)

In contemporary San Francisco, an extended family is transformed by the emerging breakdown of a troubled adolescent boy.
Dodd, Christina: Some Enchanted Evening (July 2004)

This is the story of one lost princess, Princess Clarice, who flees with her younger sister to Scotland, where they survive by their wits and daring. But just when Clarice begins to believe she's safe at last, she attracts the attention of one of Scotland's most powerful and dangerous men.
Dunn, Sarah: The Big Love (July 2004)

A young woman remakes herself and demonstrates a touching belief that she'll find her "big love."
Erdrich, Louise: Four Souls (July 2004)

Fleur Pillager takes her mother's name, Four Souls, for strength and walks from her Ojibwe reservation to the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. She is seeking restitution from and revenge on the lumber baron who has stripped her reservation. But revenge is never simple, and she quickly finds her intentions complicated by her own dangerous compassion for the man who wronged her.
Grodstein, Lauren: Reproduction Is the Flaw of Love (July 2004)

As his girlfriend takes a pregnancy test, Joel Miller anxiously grapples with his fears of commitment and the real possibility of fatherhood and marriage.
Hand, Elizabeth: Mortal Love (July 2004)

This is a romantic story of art, obsession and imagination that ranges from Victorian London to present-day New York.
Hiaasen, Carl: Skinny Dip (July 2004)

A shady marine scientist suspects that his wife knows that he has been doctoring water samples so that a ruthless tycoon can continue polluting the Everglades, so he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner. And that's when the real adventure begins.
Hoban, Russell: Her Name Was Lola (July 2004)

This is the witty and captivating new novel from Russell Hoban (who has been compared to Tolkien and Lewis, Salinger and Vonnegut) about a hopelessly conflicted man torn between two enchanting women.
Hoffman, Alice: Blackbird House (August 2004)

Hoffman follows her bestseller The Probable Future with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of 200 years.
Just, Ward: An Unfinished Season (July 2004)

The distinguished chronicler of American social history and political culture captures the 1950s, a time when even the small-town family could not escape the nationwide suspicion and dread of "the enemy within."
Keneally, Thomas: The Tyrant's Novel (June 2004)

In a work that evokes the classic cautionary tale Fahrenheit 451, Keneally masters the gripping perspective of a man caught between the unconscionable demands of his government and the meager prospect of running for his life.
Kraft, Eric: Passionate Spectator (July 2004)

Casting about for a source of income, memoirist Peter Leroy purchases a book from a homeless street corner peddler, Creative Self-Promotion for Taxidermists, hoping he can adapt its techniques to promote his fledgling business called Memoirs While You Wait, a writing service designed to satisfy the contemporary compulsion for confession and self-revelation.
La Plante, Lynda: Royal Heist (July 2004)

Edward de Jersey resurrects his criminal past to attempt the most audacious robbery in history.
Letts, Billie: Shoot the Moon (July 2004)

From the author of Where the Heart Is comes an eagerly anticipated tale of a small Oklahoma town and the mystery that has haunted its residents for years.
Long, Jeff: The Reckoning (July 2004)

While covering a search for the 30-year-old remains of a pilot in Cambodia, a photojournalist discovers an eerie wasteland of ghostly "dawn people" and the plot takes off on a turbulent course toward a final, hair-raising conclusion.
Lowell, Elizabeth: The Color of Death (June 2004)

The chance to cut seven rare, priceless sapphires will solidify Kate Chandler's reputation as a world-class jewel cutter. But something goes horribly, tragically wrong during what should have been a simple transfer of goods.
Lynn, Allison: Now You See It (July 2004)

David and Jessica are in the middle of the arduous process of adopting a baby when Jessica disappears. As David struggles to come to terms with her absence he rehashes each moment they spent together, ultimately questioning whether he ever really knew or understood his own wife.
Mitchell, David: Cloud Atlas (August 2004)

A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan's California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified "dinery server" on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization are the narrators of Cloud Atlas.
Nair, Anita: Ladies Coupe (July 2004)

This novel takes the reader into contemporary India, revealing how the dilemmas that women face in their relationships are the same world over.
Pywell, Sharon L.: What Happened to Henry? (July 2004)

A family struggles to understand their own son, who is either crazy or blessed.
Rash, Ron: Saints at the River (August 2004)

When a 12-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy, the people of the small South Carolina town that bears the river's name are thrown into the national spotlight.
Stahl, Jerry: I, Fatty (July 2004)

This is the strange story of Hollywood's first celebrity scandal told by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, the star at its center.
Wallace, David Foster: Oblivion: Stories (June 2004)

Here are lots of stories to enjoy from the irrepressible author of Infinite Jest.
Wignall, Kevin: For the Dogs (July 2004)

This is a psychological thriller that begins when a professional hit man murders all the members of the Hatto family except the older daughter, Ella, who is on vacation in Italy with her boyfriend.
Williams, Robin Lynn: The Assistants (July 2004)

This is the tale of five Hollywood personal assistants who band together to turn the tables on their celebrity employers.

Mysteries

Billingham, Mark: Lazybones (June 2004)

Detective Inspector Thorne is on the trail of a serial killer who is preying upon serial rapists.
Burke, James Lee: In the Moon of Red Ponies (June 2004)

James Lee Burke returns with another tale of evil and redemption featuring Texas lawyer, Billy Bob Holland.
Dezenhall, Eric: Shakedown Beach (July 2004)

Jackie Disaster, an ex-boxer who runs the Jersey shore's most ruthless damage control firm, digs up the macabre truth about a New Jersey governor with White House fantasies.
Disher, Garry: The Dragon Man (August 2004)

A serial killer is on the loose in a small coastal town near Melbourne, Australia. Detective Inspector Hal Challis and his team must apprehend him before he strikes again.
Harvey, John: Flesh and Blood: A Novel of Crime (July 2004)

Retired Detective Inspector Elder is drawn back into the unsolved disappearance of a young girl when his prime suspects are released from prison and another girl dies.
Harwood, John: The Ghost Writer (July 2004)

Harwood's tantalizing tale of suspense and family secrets weaves Victorian ghost stories into the present where they start to come true.
Jance, J. A.: Day of the Dead: A Novel of Suspense (July 2004)

Jance is back with another chilling tale of suspense set amid the stark beauty of the desert Southwest.
Katzenbach, John: The Madman's Tale (July 2004)

From the New York Times bestselling author of Just Cause and The Analyst comes a menacing depiction of evil set in and around an asylum and told by a madman.
Kellogg, Marne Davis: Priceless (July 2004)

The author of Brilliant returns with the continuing story of Kick Keswick, respectable wife of a Scotland Yard detective by day and master jewel thief by night.
Mosley, Walter: Little Scarlet (July 2004)

An irresistible story of love and death, this latest Easy Rawlins mystery takes place during the devastating 1965 Watts riots.
Muller, Marcia: The Dangerous Hour (July 2004)

Marcia Muller's beloved heroine Sharon McCone returns to investigate a personal betrayal by one of her operatives that has put her private investigation business on the line.
Tourney, Leonard: Time's Fool: A Mystery of Shakespeare (July 2004)

Welcome to Shakespeare's London, a world where the stage captures the hearts of every citizen and darkness hides dangerous and vengeful creatures.

Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

Bakker, R. Scott: The Darkness That Comes Before (June 2004)

Two men and two women are ensnared by a mysterious traveler, Anasurimbor Kellhus, part warrior, part philosopher, part sorcerous and charismatic presence.
Birmingham, John: Weapons of Choice (June 2004)

A military experiment in the year 2021 has thrust an American-led multinational armada back to 1942, right into the middle of the U.S. naval task force speeding toward Midway Atoll and what was to be the most spectacular U.S. triumph of the entire war. Initial jubilation at news that the Allies will win the war is quickly doused by the chilling realization that time travelers might have rendered history null and void.
Faust, Minister: The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad (August 2004)

Canadian author Faust, a true geek of the old Dungeons & Dragons school, provides helpful character data sheets in this romp through a multiethnic Edmonton neighborhood.
Greenwood, Ed: The Silent House: A Chronicle of Aglirta (July 2004)

Two daring treasure hunters hope to profit from unlocking the secrets of the past and harvesting the powers of its bounty. But, unbeknownst to them, an observer watches their every move and waits to make his presence known from the halls of eternity.
Niven, Larry: Ringworld's Children (July 2004)

The future of Ringworld lies in the actions of its children: Tunesmith, the Ghould protector; Acolyte, the exiled son of Speaker-to-Animals and Wembleth, a strange Ringworld native with a mysterious past. All must play a dangerous game in order to save Ringworld's population, and the stability of Ringworld itself.
Odom, Mel: The Destruction of the Books (July 2004)

When it becomes clear that dark forces are out to destroy those who might defend the world against them, it is up to two lowly librarians at Great Library to secure the sacred volumes that will lead to a new era of darkness if they fall into the wrong hands.