Fiction, September 2004

General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

General Fiction

Ackroyd, Peter: The Clerkenwell Tales (September 2004)

From a master historian comes a brilliantly original historical novel set in late 14th-century London. Sister Clarisse, a nun in the House of St. Mary at Clerkenwell, experiences visions. She dreams of the English King. Are her prophesies the babblings of the crazed? Or can she "see" a future in which Henry Bolingbroke overthrows Richard II?
Amidon, Stephen: Human Capital (October 2004)

As the fortunes of two crumbling families become perilously interwoven, a terrible accident leads one of the patriarchs to begin speculating with human lives instead of money. The unforeseen consequences bring the novel to a devastating climax.
Banks, Russell: The Darling (September 2004)

This historical thriller raises serious philosophical questions about terrorism, political violence and the clash of races and cultures.
Barlow, John: Eating Mammals: Three Novellas (September 2004)

Gypsies, businessmen, servants, masters and unwise children come together in three mythical tales from Victorian England.
Berry, Steve: The Romanov Prophecy: A Novel (September 2004)

The author of The Amber Room returns with a thriller predicated on Rasputin's cryptic prophecy that the 1918 murder of the Romanovs was not the final chapter in their story.
Chalmers, Robert: Fortune's Bastard (September 2004)

After a series of disastrous events leaves his life in ruins, a tabloid newspaper editor winds up in a small town in Florida, which is populated by ex-circus freaks, criminals and misfits who teach him how to love and how to stand up for something he truly believes in.
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee: Queen of Dreams: A Novel (September 2004)

In lush and elegant prose, Divakaruni has crafted a vivid and enduring dream–the story of Rakhi, a young artist, who finds solace in a dream journal written by her recently deceased mother.
Goldman, Francisco: The Divine Husband: A Novel (September 2004)

Award-winning author Goldman delivers his third novel, a masterpiece love story, supported by an unforgettable cast of characters striving for love or success in the heady late 19th-century atmosphere of Guatemala City and New York.
Gutteridge, Rene: Boo Who: A Novel (September 2004)

As the world's favorite horror writer watches his literary career plummet, his fiancee shoots to stardom as a domestic diva. Together they must discover how to nurture love while carving out new identities in their quirky — yet charming — hometown.
Hinton, S. E.: Hawkes Harbor (September 2004)

An orphan and a bastard, Jamie Sommers is tough enough to handle anything, from foreign prisons and pirates to a shark attack. But in a quiet seaside town in Delaware, Jamie discovers something that will drive him insane, for it is in Hawkes Harbor that he comes face to face with the ultimate evil.
House, Silas: The Coal Tattoo: A Novel (September 2004)

House's masterful third novel tells the story of how two sisters — who can't live together yet can't bear to be apart — learn to live through their painful pasts and need each other once again.
Isaacs, Susan: Any Place I Hang My Hat (October 2004)

From bestselling author Susan Isaacs comes a novel about one extraordinary young woman looking for a place to belong.
Jen, Gish: The Love Wife (September 2004)

From the author of Mona in the Promised Land and Who's Irish? comes a generous, funny novel about the new "half-and-half" American family.
Jin, Ha: War Trash (October 2004)

From the National Book Award–winning author of Waiting, here is his most ambitious work to date; a powerful, unflinching novel that opens a window on an unknown aspect of a little-known war — the experiences of Chinese POWs held by Americans during the Korean conflict — and paints an intimate story against a sweeping canvas of confrontation.
Kallos, Stephanie: Broken for You (September 2004)

Funny, heartbreaking and alive with a potpourri of eccentric and irresistible characters, this fresh and readable debut novel is about two women in self-imposed exile whose lives intersect, transforming both their worlds.
Krich, Rochelle: Grave Endings: A Novel of Suspense (September 2004)

Crime writer Molly Blume is determined to solve the six-year-old mystery of her best friend's death in this sequel to Krich's national bestseller, Dream House
Means, David: The Secret Goldfish: Stories (September 2004)

From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning author of Assorted Fire Events comes an extraordinary story collection.
Roberts, Gregory David: Shantaram (October 2004)

Based directly upon the experiences of its author, Shantaram is the story of a man who escapes from a maximum security prison in Australia to arrive in Bombay, the crossroads of the underworld, where he works in a first-aid station and smuggles drugs and guns.
Robinson, Peter: The First Cut (September 2004)

Young university graduate Kristen survives a vicious attack by the "Student Slasher" and becomes obsessed with finding her attacker. In a nearby seaside town, writer Martha Browne pursues a mysterious mission that leads her to Kristen. Quotes from English authors and a clue from Kristen's linguistics class bring the women into a battle with the killer. Robinson is the author of the popular Inspector Banks series.
Saramago, Jose: The Double (October 2004)

Tertuliano Afonso is depressed. After a colleague suggests he rent a certain video, Tertuliano is astonished to see a man who looks exactly like him — or, more specifically, like he did five years before. Against his own better judgment, Tertuliano pursues his double.
Sheldon, Sidney: Are You Afraid of the Dark? (September 2004)

Two women become reluctant allies in a game of cat-and-mouse when their husbands are killed in separate "accidents." An important link between the victims rises up from their ashes: each was employed by Kingsley International Group (KIG), the world's largest think tank.
Singleton, George: Why Dogs Chase Cars: Tales of a Beleaguered Boyhood (September 2004)

Eleven raucous stories, set in Singleton's fictional town of Forty-five, South Carolina, where everyone's dirty laundry is in plain sight.
Spence, June: Change Baby (September 2004)

When her mother nearly dies in a fire, Avie Goss — born almost a generation after her siblings — returns to the South she abandoned after college and begins to unravel the story of who she is.
Toure: Soul City: A Novel (September 2004)

From the author of the groundbreaking debut The Portable Promised Land comes an inventive and hilarious first novel about an African-American utopia threatened by the darker side of human nature.
Vissanji, M. G.: The In-Between World of Vikram Lall (September 2004)

The author of The Book of Secrets, winner of the first Giller prize, brings readers a novel that is rich in sensuous detail and political insight. Neither colonists nor African, neither white nor black, an Indian brother and sister find themselves somewhere in between in their band of playmates. These are the friendships that will haunt the rest of their lives.
Ward, Amanda Eyre: How to Be Lost: A Novel (October 2004)

To their neighbors in suburban Holt, New York, the Winters family has it all: a grand home, a trio of radiant daughters and a sense that they are safe in their affluent corner of America. But when five-year-old Ellie disappears, the fault lines within the Winters family are exposed.
Zacharius, Walter: Songbird: A Novel (September 2004)

In this debut novel that echoes the emotional intensity of The Pianist, a young woman must rely on her remarkable strength of character in order to survive the devastation of World War II.

Mysteries

Berenson, Laurien: Jingle Bell Bark (September 2004)

This year, all Melanie wants for Christmas is a dull moment — but she's not going to get it. Between her eight-year-old son, her teaching job, her show dog and now the mysterious death of her son's bus driver, she's got her hands full.
Carcaterra, Lorenzo: Paradise City (September 2004)

The New York Times bestselling author of Sleeper returns to what he does best with a thriller — part police procedural, part international intrigue — set in New York City and Naples, Italy.
Davis, Lindsey: 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.
Druett, Joan: A Watery Grave (October 2004)

"A vivid, immediate setting and an original hero highlight this first mystery by historian Joan Druett, who brings her knowledge of 19th-century sailing ships and Maori culture to this salty tale of murder at sea." Dana Stabenow, author of A Grave Denied.
McCall Smith, Alexander: The Sunday Philosophy Club (September 2004)

Filled with endearingly thorny characters and a Scottish atmosphere as dense and savory as oatmeal, The Sunday Philosophy Club is irresistible, and Isabel Dalhousie is the most delightful literary sleuth since Precious Ramotswe.
Parker, Robert B.: Melancholy Baby (September 2004)

When a college student comes asking for help in finding her birth parents, Sunny Randall takes the case, if only to distract her from her personal life. But life and work have a curious — and dangerous — way of intersecting.
Stukas, David: Biceps of Death (September 2004)

Everyone's favorite accidental gay sleuths — Michael, Robert, and their lesbian sidekick, Monette — are back in another wickedly entertaining ride. The dynamic trio is out to find out who murdered a personal trainer/hustler.
Truman, Margaret: Murder at Union Station: A Capital Crimes Novel (September 2004)

The latest Capital Crimes thriller serves up presidential indiscretions, CIA assassinations and a stolen tell-all manuscript by a former mob hit man.
Wesson, Marianne: Chilling Effect: A Novel (September 2004)

Boulder attorney Lucinda Hayes pulls the gruesome page from the fax machine, not suspecting it will draw her into the realm of pornographic film and pit her against the giants of the mainstream film industry. As the case unfolds Cinda must call upon all her legal talent and argue for a new understanding of the law of free speech; it also forces her to revisit her past and face its ghosts. Equal parts courtroom drama, intellectual journey, and character study, Chilling Effect is Marianne Wesson's most provocative Lucinda Hayes mystery to date.

Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

Barrett, Neal, Jr.: Prince of Christler-Coke (September 2004)

Set in a future where the power of big corporations has reached unbelievable heights, this sardonic and humorous story traces the adventures of Asel Iacola, former head of the Christler-Coke corporation, who has been banished to a corporate prison after a hostile takeover. With the help of fellow deposed corporate noble Sylvan Lee-McCree, Asel escapes with hopes of confronting his rival, Jackie-Cee of the Disney-Dow corporation. Making his way across a nation ruled by big business, Asel is confronted by the country's forgotten poor, and discovers the enormous gulf between the haves and have-nots created by companies like Christler-Coke.
Douglass, Sara: Sinner (September 2004)

When strange powers threaten to come through the Star Gate bent on the destruction of all he holds dear, Caelum, Supreme Ruler of Tencendor, will have to find the strength to fight this threat.
Moon, Elizabeth: Marque and Reprisal (September 2004)

Marque and Reprisal is the second installment in Moon's military science fiction series featuring Kylara Vatta, who must save her family from ruin.
Pohl, Frederik: The Boy Who Would Live Forever: A Novel of Gateway (October 2004)

Returning to his bestselling Gateway universe for the first time in nearly 20 years, Pohl has written a science fiction novel to captivate the readers who helped Gateway and Beyond the Blue Event Horizon win the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Stephenson, Neal: The System of the World: Volume Three of the Baroque Cycle (September 2004)

New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson pens the final volume in his ambitious and compelling epic of intrigue, adventure and excitement, filled with a remarkable cast of characters in a time of genius, discovery and change.
Zahn, Timothy: The Green and the Gray (September 2004)

This exciting novel tells the story of an alien feud that threatens to erupt into open warfare in New York City.