Fiction, April 2005

General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

General Fiction

Abrahams, Peter: Oblivion (April 2005)

When the brilliant private investigator Nick Petrov awakes in a hospital bed, his memory of the past two weeks a complete blank, he attempts to resume his former life—with frightening results.
Alarcon, Daniel: War by Candlelight: Stories (April 2005)

Born in Peru and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Alarcon takes the reader from Third World urban centers to the lines that divide nations and people, personalizing the shifting realities of our contemporary world.
Allende, Isabel: Zorro (May 2005)

The bestselling author of Daughter of Fortune reveals how Diego de la Vega, born in the late 18th century to a Spanish landowner and a Shoshone warrior in Southern California, grew up to become the legendary masked hero Zorro.
Aslam, Nadeem: Maps for Lost Lovers (May 2005)

Set in an unnamed town in England, Maps for Lost Lovers is a moving novel about a Pakistani family at the crossroads of culture, nationality, religion and the most intimate crises of faith.
Bass, Rick: The Diezmo (May 2005)

In the early days of the Republic of Texas, two young men, wild for glory, impulsively volunteer for an expedition Sam Houston has ordered to patron the Mexican border. But the dreams of triumph soon fade into prayers of survival when they are captured in a raid.
Born, James O.: Shock Wave (April 2005)

Florida lawman Born follows his crime debut Walking Money with an explosive novel of hunter and hunted.
Buffa, Dudley W.: Trial by Fire: A Joseph Antonelli Novel (April 2005)

Attorney Joseph Antonelli finds that murder can be a very public affair in this moody novel of love, loyalty and revenge in the Edgar Award–nominated series.
Caputo, Philip: Acts of Faith (May 2005)

Reporter and novelist Caputo updates Graham Greene's The Quiet American in this timely new novel about the physical perils and moral crises faced by a of group aid workers in contemporary Sudan.
Clarke, Stephen: A Year in the Merde (May 2005)

A bestseller in the United Kingdom and an urban antidote to A Year in Provence, this laugh–out–loud account of a year in the life of an expatriate in Paris is the almost–true story of the author's own experiences.
Dangor, Achmat: Bitter Fruit (April 2005)

Anti-apartheid activist Dangor examines South Africa's political history and its damaging legacy.
Deb, Siddhartha: An Outline of the Republic: A Novel (April 2005)

The border between India and Burma is the setting for this tense narrative that sheds new light on India at moral, political and social crossroads.
Edwards-Jones, Imogen: Tuscany for Beginners (April 2005)

Absolutely Fabulous meets Under the Tuscan Sun in this satire of the idealized expatriate life in Italy.
Ellis, David: In the Company of Liars (April 2005)

Told in chronological reverse, this original thriller is centered on a woman on trial for murder and caught between compelling forces, each represented by someone who may not care if the pressure kills her in the end.
Finder, Joseph: Company Man (April 2005)

After CEO Nick Conover becomes the most hated man in Fenwick, Michigan, for presiding over massive layoffs, he must protect his family when he's faced with a dead body, damning circumstances and a web of intrigue within his own corporation.
Gann, Kirby: Our Napoleon in Rags (April 2005)

Gann's second novel is the story of the regulars at the Don Quixote, a bar in a decaying Midwestern city, whose lives are torn apart when their self-appointed "Napoleon," Haycroft Keebler, bipolar son of a famous local politician, falls in love with a 15-year-old male hustler.
Hickey, Elizabeth: The Painted Kiss: A Novel (April 2005)

In the tradition of Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Painted Kiss reimagines the tempestuous relationship between Viennese painter Gustav Klimt and Emilie Floege, the youngest daughter of a bourgeois businessman.
Jones, Tayari: The Untelling (April 2005)

The Hot Kid (May 2005)

Who Does She Think She Is?: A Novel (April 2005)

From the author of Good Hair and The Itch comes a multigenerational story of three powerful women.
McMann, Richard: Mother of Sorrows (April 2005)

Mother of Sorrows is a series of portraits of an American family living in the post-World War II suburbs of Washington, D.C. — a world of tract houses, fallout shelters and sun-struck, treeless lawns, a world from which grief and sexuality have seemingly been banned.
Miller, Sue: Lost in the Forest (May 2005)

Set in the vineyards of Northern California, Lost in the Forest is the tale of a family breaking apart and coming together again.
Palahniuk, Chuck: Haunted: A Novel of Stories (May 2005)

Made up of 23 horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing tales, Haunted is Palahniuk at his most extreme and his most provocative.
Perez-Reverte, Arturo: Captain Alatriste (May 2005)

A fictional 17th-century Spanish swordsman's instruction to frighten two travelers becomes a murder-for-hire arranged by Emilio Bocanegra, the name synonymous with the Spanish Inquisition. What happens next is only the first in a series of riveting twists and turns, with implications that will reverberate throughout the courts of Europe.
Pouncey, Peter R.: Rules for Old Men Waiting: A Novel (April 2005)

Robert MacIver, a historian who long ago played rugby for Scotland, creates a list of rules by which to live out his last days. The most important rule — to tell a story to its end — spurs the old Scot to invent a strange and gripping tale of men in the trenches of the First World War.
Rodriguez, Antonio Orlando: The Last Masquerade: A Novel (April 2005)

In the Roaring Twenties, two worldly young aristocrats embark on a journey to see one of their idols, the Italian actress Eleonora Duse, who, to their delight, has recently returned to the stage. What follows as they prepare for their adventure and, later, when they arrive in the Cuban capital, is a hilarious, erotic and political tragicomedy, told in hallucinatory language, volcanic in its invention and replete with Rabelaisian characters.
Sallis, Eva: Mahjar: A Novel (April 2005)

Interspersed with evocative Arab fables, these vibrant stories explore the differences between Middle Eastern and Western culture, between immigrant parents and their native-born children and between new lives and old memories.
Sankaran, Lavanya: The Red Carpet: Bangalore Stories (April 2005)

Ageless traditions and modern-day mores collide in this witty yet compassionate debut story collection set in contemporary India. Wry humor and the friction between generations in Bangalore, India's own Silicon Valley, are the collection's hallmarks.
Slovo, Gillian: Ice Road (April 2005)

Loyalties, love and family ties are tested to the limit in one of the most devastating moments of human history: the siege of Leningrad during World War II.
Wilson, Dolores J.: Big Hair and Flying Cows (April 2005)

Bertie Byrd, mechanic and tow truck driver in Sweet Meadow Georgia, has an unusual life and some very unusual friends. Once her exploits make the Letterman show, life will never be the same.
Woods, Gillen D'Arcy: Hosack's Folly: A Novel of Old New York (April 2005)

Set in 1820's Manhattan, Hosack's Folly weaves a vibrant tapestry of a time, a place and a people on the verge of surrendering their innocence and idealism for the greed and glory of the Gilded Age.
Zafris, Nancy: Lucky Strike (April 2005)

Lucky Strike follows a colorful cast of characters into uncharted fictional territory, landing in the canyon country of the desert Southwest in 1954. They each embark on very personal divergent journeys across an unforgiving countryside, even while their quest to find uranium unites them. In the process, a young widow and her two children learn much about uranium but even more about the nature of the love that binds them.

Mysteries

Baantjer, A. C.: DeKok and Murder by Melody (May 2005)

Mustering his decorated experience and reverence for the dead once more, a triple murder in the Amsterdam Concert Gebouw has DeKok unveiling the truth behind two dead ex-junkies and their housekeeper.
Block, Lawrence: Tanner's Virgin (April 2005)

Published in paperback over 30 years ago, Tanner's Virgin was originally entitled Here Comes a Hero and features Evan Tanner, the thief who couldn't sleep.
Bredes, Don: The Fifth Season: A Novel of Suspense (May 2005)

Hector Bellevance of Cold Comfort is back in Vermont, growing vegetables, dating Wilma, the hotshot reporter at the local paper, and acting as town constable when Marcel, a contrary old coot who works as the town's road commissioner/snow plow operator, seems to go berserk and is accused of murdering three of the townspeople.
Craig, David: Hear Me Talking to You (April 2005)

Detective Sally Bithron has been tipped off by an informer about a clandestine meeting in Cardiff, Wales, of two sets of drug pushers, but her stakeout goes wrong when violence and murder ensues. The patriarchs of a South London crime gang, whose daughter was brutally battered in the bungled meeting, demand revenge.
Daniel, John M.: The Poet's Funeral (May 2005)

A romp rich with poetry, publishing, book collecting and literary gossip, The Poet's Funeral is a story of ego, love, art and murder, set during four hot days at the 1990 ABA convention and starring a cast that ranges from smalltime players to the famous Rock Bottom Remainders.
Estleman, Loren D.: Little Black Dress: A Peter Macklin Novel of Suspense (April 2005)

Peter Macklin was a hit man for a long time and has taken steps to distance himself from his tattooed past, like quitting the mob, moving away from Detroit and marrying the gorgeous, intelligent Laurie. But retirement isn't easy for an ex-hit man.
Fowler, Earlene: Delectable Mountains (May 2005)

When the musical director of Benni Harper's church is called away, Benni finds herself "volunteered" to take over a children's play already in rehearsal. The production comes to a screeching halt, however, after Benni discovers the badly beaten body of the church handyman right in front of the altar.
Gates, Nancy Gotter: A Stroke of Misfortune (May 2005)

Recently widowed, Emma Daniels is drawn into becoming an ombudsman at her Sarasota condo by her favorite neighbor, Gerry. When Gerry dies unexpectedly while undergoing chemotherapy and her husband suffers a stroke a few hours later rendering him speechless, Emma is shocked. But when the police decide the husband suffocated his wife as an act of mercy, Emma is driven to learn the truth, knowing he is unable to defend himself.
Guttridge, Peter: Two to Tango (May 2005)

Journalist Nick Madrid finds himself up the proverbial creek — the Amazon — without a paddle when he's dispatched to South America to report on a Rock Against Drugs tour.
Hall, Oakley: Ambrose Bierce and the Ace of Shoots (April 2005)

When Colonel Studely brings his world-famous Wild West Show to town, he gets more than just a warm welcome. As the parade makes its way down Market Street, the colonel is shot dead. With clues and sinister motives — a trail of seduction, a vengeful train robber, a haze of opium — emerging from every direction, newspaperman Bierce is stymied, but pierces the fog to reveal the true culprit.
Hamilton, Denise: Savage Garden: A Novel (May 2005)

Bestselling author Hamilton returns with a new Eve Diamond novel that takes readers deep into the ethnic, multicultural back streets of L.A. in search of a killer.
Hayes, Teddy: Dead by Popular Demand (May 2005)

Behind the glitter and hype of the music business, Devil Barnett discovers a world of drugs, murder, betrayal and backstabbing, and that he may be next on the hit parade.
Lange, Kelly: Graveyard Shift (May 2005)

Feisty reporter Maxi Poole is back, and this time she's working the graveyard shift, where danger lurks in every shadow.
Leon, Donna: Blood from a Stone (May 2005)

On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a street vendor is killed in a scuffle. Commissario Guido Brunetti's response is that of everybody involved: Why would anyone kill an illegal immigrant? How far will Brunetti be able to penetrate the murky subculture in this illegal community?
Paretsky, Sara: Fire Sale (June 2005)

Private investigator V. I. Warshawski returns to her South Chicago neighborhood to coach the girls' basketball team at her former high school and confronts fierce competition between two companies that threatens the local economy.
Pearce, Michael: The Point in the Market (April 2005)

Set in Egypt during World War I, this series is penned by a former Anglo-Egyptian civil servant who succeeds in bringing a vibrant, conflict-packed age to life in a manner that illuminates the situations the world faces today.
Penman, Sharon Kay: Prince of Darkness (April 2005)

In 1193, King Richard the Lion-Hearted is still imprisoned, while his devious and unscrupulous brother, Prince John, schemes to position himself to claim the English throne. When an obscure conspiracy seeks to implicate the prince in a plot to kill the king, John turns to young Justin de Quincy, Eleanor of Aquitaine's devoted aide, for help in clearing himself of the treason charge. In his pursuit of clues pointing to a number of suspects, De Quincy stumbles across several murders.
Riggs, Cynthia: The Paperwhite Narcissus (May 2005)

In this fifth book in the Victoria Trumbull series, the 92-year-old sleuth finds herself embroiled in a series of murders after she is fired from her job as West Tisbury correspondent for The Island Enquirer on Martha's Vineyard.
Rosenfelt, David: Sudden Death (May 2005)

Edgar-nominated author David Rosenfelt returns with his hero, Andy Carpenter, who must defend a football player accused of murder. The Giants' running back Kenny Schilling stands accused of killing Troy Preston, a wide receiver for the Jets. As Andy investigates, he finds that Troy is not the only football player who was killed after contact with Kenny — and his snooping starts to set off alarms with a drug king.
Rustage, Alan: Blackstone and the Golden Egg (April 2005)

The theft of the fabulous Faberge golden egg from a Russian country estate goes far beyond the bounds of mere robbery. The victim is the Prince of Wales, the egg itself a gift from the Russian Tsar, and if the Tsar takes offense at the Prince's carelessness in losing it, the delicate balance of power in Europe could be destroyed forever. The more Blackstone learns, the less he knows but the surer he is that the robbery is merely masking a much deeper, darker secret.
Saulnier, Beth: The Fourth Wall (April 2005)

After a near-fatal encounter with a serial killer, reporter Alex Bernier is assigned to cover efforts to rescue a vaudeville theater in Gabriel, New York. But when it is torn down, the body of a young actress who vanished in 1926 is found. As Alex delves into the long-buried mystery, someone is killing the people who tried to save the theater, and is more than willing to add Alex to his list.
Temple, Lou Jane: The Spice Box (May 2005)

Bridget Heaney has escaped the Great Irish Famine to become a cook in Isaac Gold's household in New York City. On her first day, she finds the body of the Golds' infant son hidden in the bread dough box. Bridget goes from cook to crime-solver to try and solve the mystery of what happened to the child. Includes recipes.
Westlake, Donald E.: Watch Your Back! (April 2005)

Dortmunder's old friend and trusted fence Arnie Albright is onto the score of a lifetime: easy access to one of the most lavish apartments in New York. But when John, Arnie and the gang round up to plan the heist, they find their beloved gin joint — the OJ — in the mob's clutches. For tactical reasons, the fate of the OJ is even more important to the crew than the enormous score. Dortmunder and crew are determined to split time, fighting the mob and robbing the rich simultaneously.
Woods, Stuart: Two-Dollar Bill (April 2005)

Stone Barrington is caught between a clever con man who's just become his client and a beautiful prosecutor.

Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

Benjamin, Curt: Lords of Grass and Thunder (April 2005)

In this fantasy set in the same Mongolia-like world as Benjamin's Seven Brothers trilogy, Prince Tayyichiut returns home a hero from a war between the gods and demons. Tayy's uncle, Mergen-Khan, ruler of the nomadic Qubal people, has declared the prince his heir, his bastard sons being ineligible to inherit the khanate. Benjamin uses the Mongol culture as background for the Qubal clans, with their love of riddles and their colorful costumes.
Bova, Ben: Mercury: Planet Novel #4 (May 2005)

Saito Yamagata thinks Mercury's position will make it an ideal orbit point for satellites that could someday create enough power to propel starships into deep space. He hires Dante Alexios to bring his dreams to life. Astrobiologist Victor Molina thinks the water at Mercury's poles may harbor evidence of life and hopes to achieve fame and glory by proving it. Bishop Elliot Danvers has been sent by the religious sect, "The New Morality," to keep close tabs on their endeavors, which threaten to produce results that contradict biblical teachings.
Brosnan, John: Mothership (May 2005)

What is left of humanity is being transported to a new world on board the Mothership Urban. Over the centuries, most of Urban's inhabitants have forgotten where they come from and where they're going: they don't even know they are on a spaceship. This loss of group memory is a carefully engineered social experiment devised and implemented by the cruel, tyrannical Elite, the technocrats who rule the Motherships. But when the Elite suddenly lose their powers and Urban's downtrodden populace rise up against their now-impotent leaders, something happens that no one could have predicted: the Elite are replaced by a new threat — a threat from deep space itself.
Butcher, Jim: Dead Beat: A Novel of the Dresden Files (May 2005)

Harry Dresden must save Chicago from black magic and necromancy — all in a day's work for the city's only professional wizard.
Doctorow, Cory: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (May 2005)

The author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom returns with a novel of secrets, lies, magic and Internet connectivity, set on the streets of modern-day Toronto.
May, Julian: Ironcrown Moon (April 2005)

From the author of The Many-Colored Land comes the second installment of an all-new saga of a land beyond the horizon, where the quest for power is eternal, where magic and mystery are feared above all, and one man seeks to reign.
Norton, Andre: Three Hands for Scorpio (April 2005)

Drucilla, Sabina, and Tamara, identical sisters born to Desmond, Earl of Skorpys, understand the price of being princesses in a realm bordered by fractious neighbors. But when these three plucky young ladies are kidnapped as part of a plot to undermine their father's domain, they are taken to a mysterious realm where they experience terrors unlike anything they could imagine.