Fiction, August 2004

General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

General Fiction

Acito, Marc: How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater (September 2004)

Set in 1983, this is a deliciously funny romp of a novel about one overly theatrical and sexually confused New Jersey teenager's larcenous quest for his acting school tuition.
Altman, John: The Watchmen (August 2004)

In Altman's most gripping thriller yet, a terrorist is questioned, a psychiatrist is tested, and an assassin is dispatched — all in the same remote safe house in the American Northeast.
Andrews, Mary Kay: Hissy Fit (September 2004)

Welcome to the wonderful world of bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews, where the bourbon is cold, the manners are genteel, and a cheating varmint of an ex-fiance gets the comeuppance he so richly deserves.
Benioff, David: When the Nines Roll Over, and Other Stories (September 2004)

From one of Hollywood's hottest young screenwriters and the author of The 25th Hour comes a collection of cool, urbane and skillfully crafted stories.
Benmalek, Anouar: The Lovers of Algeria (August 2004)

The Lovers of Algeria follows Anna, an elderly Swiss woman, and Jallal, her nine-year-old translator, as they search for her lost lover from decades ago.
Boyle, T. Coraghessan: The Inner Circle (September 2004)

Fresh on the heels of his bestselling Drop City, Boyle's tenth novel features fabulous characters, a rollicking plot, and more sex than pioneering researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey ever dreamed of documenting . . . or almost.
Burke, Shannon: Safelight: A Novel (August 2004)

Manhattan paramedic Frank Verbeckas maintains his emotional distance from the pain of urban life through his photography, but his relationship with 21-year-old Emily Pascal, a fencer with HIV, thaws his frozen feelings.
Clarke, Susanna: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (September 2004)

Sophisticated, witty and ingeniously convincing, Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so enchanting that it leaves readers longing for more.
Conde, Maryse: Who Slashed Celanire's Throat? (August 2004)

Based on a true story reported in Guadeloupe in 1995, this provocative and sensual new novel is from one of the most celebrated authors of the Caribbean.
Edugyan, Esi: The Second Life of Samuel Tyne: A Novel (September 2004)

Haunting and atmospheric, this debut novel portrays the heartbreak, hardship and moments of surprising grace in the life of a man struggling to realize his destiny.
Folsom, Allan: The Exile (August 2004)

The bestselling author of The Day After Tomorrow and Day of Confession returns with a massive, heart-pounding novel where Jack Barron — the youngest cop on the LAPD's murderous 5-2 squad — will get a baptism of blood and fire on a night he will never forget.
Francis, Brian: Fruit: A Novel (August 2004)

Peter Paddington is 13, overweight, the subject of his classmates' ridicule and the victim of too many bad movie-of-the-week storylines. When Peter's nipples begin speaking to him one day and inform him of their diabolical plan to expose his secret desires, Peter finds himself cornered in a world that seems to have no tolerance for difference. Peter's only solace is "The Bedtime Movies" — perfect world fantasies that lull him to sleep every night. But when the lines between Peter's fantasy world and his reality begin to blur, no one is safe from his imagination's machinations — especially Peter himself.
Higgins, Jack: Dark Justice (August 2004)

A failed attempt on the President's life is just the beginning. Someone is recruiting a shadowy network of agents with the intention of creating terror. White House operative Blake Johnson and his British counterpart set out to trace the source of the havoc.
Holliday, Alesia: American Idle (August 2004)

A hilarious look at one young woman trying to negotiate the treacherous pitfalls of love and life while working on a reality TV show.
Hurwitz, Gregg: The Program (August 2004)

Master of suspense Hurwitz returns with this gripping, inventive new thriller, featuring the return of The Kill Clause hero Tim Rackley.
Jen, Gish: The Love Wife (September 2004)

From the highly praised author of Mona in the Promised Land and Who's Irish? comes a generous, funny, explosive novel about the new "half-half" American family.
Lewis, Heather: Notice (August 2004)

As a young adult, she started to turn tricks in the parking lot of the local bar. A sadist takes her home to replay family dramas with his beautiful wife, and she becomes hopelessly drawn into their dangerous web, and eventually ends up in more trouble than she ever bargained for.
Lewis, Jeffrey: Meritocracy: A Love Story: A Novel (September 2004)

A group of recent Yale graduates deals with the repercussions of the Vietnam War in a tragic coming of age story.
McGarrity, MIchael: Slow Kill: A Kevin Kerney Novel (September 2004)

Sante Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney launches his own investigation into a murder that is being pinned on him. In the process, he stumbles across a 30-year-old mystery that may clear him if he solves it.
Mina, Denise: Deception: A Novel (August 2004)

Scotland's most exciting up-and-coming mystery novelist offers the story of a man's desperate search for evidence to overturn his wife's murder conviction. As Lachlan searches the forbidden sanctuary of Susie's home office for proof of her innocence, he uncovers evidence of her secret life.
Mizner, David: Political Animal (September 2004)

This novel of loving and loathing on the campaign trail tells how speechwriter Ben must deal with the disappointment of his candidate's failings and with his developing feelings for one of his fellow campaign workers.
Nothomb, Amelie: The Book of Proper Names (August 2004)

The latest novel by France's "literary lioness" (Elle Magazine) tells the story of an orphan girl named — haplessly — Plectrude. Raised by an eccentric if loving aunt, she is a dreamy child who is discovered to have enormous gifts as a dancer. Accepted at Paris's most prestigious ballet school, Plectrude devotes herself to artistic perfection, until the body can take no more.
Phillips, Arthur: The Egyptologist: A Novel (August 2004)

This darkly comic labyrinth of a novel opens on the desert plains of Egypt in 1922, before winding its way from the slums of 1900s Australia to the ballrooms of 1920s Boston, by way of Oxford, the battlefields of the First World War, a royal court in turmoil in 1700 BC, and an idyllic English country house where nothing is quite as it should be.
Roth, Philip: The Plot Against America (October 2004)

Roth creates an alternate world in which Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR in the 1940 presidential election and proceeds to enact new laws limiting religious liberties in the name of national interest.
Rufin, Jean-Christophe: Brazil Red (August 2004)

Rufin presents two conflicting views of man and nature as he tells the story of two orphaned children who are dragged off on a French colonizing expedition where they are meant to learn the native languages and act as interpreters.
Sampson, Catherine: Falling Off Air (August 2004)

Sampson's debut thriller is about a young mother who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation when her neighbor's body falls past her window.
Stein, Michael: This Room Is Yours (September 2004)

An unnamed narrator moves his estranged mother into a retirement community near his home and, as she becomes more forgetful and confused, he finds the love for his parent that was missing from his childhood.
Wilson, Cintra: Colors Insulting to Nature: A Novel (August 2004)

Wilson's dark comedy follows the adventures of Liza Normal, a would-be starlet with more ambition than talent, determined to make it big in Hollywood.

Mysteries

Carcaterra, Lorenzo: Paradise City (September 2004)

The New York Times bestselling author of Sleeper returns to what he does best with a breathtaking thriller — part police procedural, part international intrigue — set in New York City and Naples, Italy.
Daheim, Mary: Scandal Takes a Holiday (September 2004)

Ancient Rome's organized crime syndicates have never been more dangerous or more cunning than in this latest adventure featuring first century sleuth Marcus Didius Falco.
Grimes, Martha: The Winds of Change: A Richard Jury Mystery (August 2004)

From "one of the established masters of the genre"(Newsweek) comes the latest in the acclaimed Richard Jury series. As he leans over the body of an unidentified five-year-old girl, shot in the back on a shabby London street, Superintendent Jury knows he'll be facing one of the saddest investigations of his life.
Pearce, Michael: A Cold Touch of Ice: A Mamur Zapt Mystery (August 2004)

Gareth Owen, Chief of Cairo's Secret Police, investigates the death of an Italian-Egyptian businessman, found strangled in his warehouse full of weapons on the eve of World War I.
Perry, Anne: Shoulder the Sky (September 2004)

The taut, inspiring sequel to No Graves As Yet continues Perry's acclaimed World War I series, which follows the lives of the Reavley family amid the horrors of war.

Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

Gardner, James A.: Radiant (August 2004)

Gardner makes his hardcover debut with this novel, a breakout story of honor, danger and adventure on a mysterious alien planet.
Haydon, Elizabeth: Elegy for a Lost Star (August 2004)

A son is pitted against his mother and Rhapsody is caught in the middle in Book Five of the national bestselling Symphony of Ages series.
Kirstein, Rosemary: The Language of Power (August 2004)

The next novel in the series about the steerswoman's quest to uncover the secrets of her world, following The Lost Steersman.
Wright, John C.: The Last Guardian of Everness: Being the First Part of the War of the Dreaming (August 2004)

The author of The Golden Age trilogy begins a new story of a family of mortals, the last watchmen of the dream-gate, who must battle the rising Darkness, hungry for the human world.
Zettel, Sarah: The Firebird's Vengeance: A Novel of Isavalta (August 2004)

In a world being overwhelmed by ice, the forces of evil are released into the world, and characters are forced to make incredible sacrifices to defend the land. Relying on magical powers as well as divine intervention, the woman partly responsible for allowing the evil to be freed even sacrifices her humanity in order to hunt the darkness.