Fiction, May 2005

General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

General Fiction

Amick, Steve: The Lake, the River and the Other Lake (May 2005)

As the lives and loves of the people of Weneshkeen — a once-quiet village on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan — unfurl, readers are treated to a big-hearted tale that is by turns uproariously funny and dark, and always poignantly real.
Baker, Sam: Fashion Victim: A Novel (May 2005)

When an up-and-coming designer is killed and the cause listed as accidental, Annie Anderson, an investigative journalist turned style magazine guru, plunges into the shadowy underworld of fashion in search of the killer.
Barr, Emily: Solo (May 2005)

A self-made diva, dissatisfied with her stale marriage and her artistically shallow career, takes an extended trip to New York — and her baggage makes the transatlantic journey with her. The media demands, the increasing threats of a determined stalker, and a long kept secret could ruin her image and all of the relationships she holds dear.
Buckley, William F.: Last Call for Blackford Oakes (May 2005)

Set against the backdrop of sinister Cold War intrigue, newly minted CIA agent Blackford Oakes crosses paths — and swords — with Kim Philby, perhaps the highest-ranking in the parade of defectors to the Soviet Union.
Busch, Frederick: North: A Novel (May 2005)

Haunted by memories of his dead wife and child, Jack returns to upstate New York where he uncovers a brutal crime and finds himself involved with a treacherous woman.
Chao, Patricia: Mambo Peligroso: A Novel (May 2005)

This novel of the New York world of mambo — hot-blooded, fast-paced and Latin — is penned by the author of Monkey King.
Coe, Jonathan: The Closed Circle (May 2005)

The adolescent characters of The Rotter's Club now face the vengeance of middle age in a story very much of the moment, charged with such issues as 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Connelly, Michael: The Closers: A Novel (May 2005)

The death of a teenage girl almost two decades ago comes back to haunt all of L.A. — and detective Harry Bosch.
Dickey, Eric Jerome: Genevieve (May 2005)

Genevieve hits all the notes readers have come to expect from a Dickey novel, delivered in a style that is sexy, raw, humorous and thrilling all at once.
Ephron, Amy: One Sunday Morning (May 2005)

This tale of wealth, society and scandal set in Jazz Age New York and Paris in the 1920s is from the author of A Cup of Tea.
Gaige, Amity: O My Darling: A Novel (May 2005)

Gaige's first novel is the story of a couple whose marriage begins to implode when they move into their first house.
Hornby, Nick: A Long Way Down (June 2005)

In four distinct first-person voices, Hornby depicts a mother, a teenager, a musician and a former TV talk-show host confronting the limits of choice, circumstance and their own morality.
Hribal, C. J.: The Company Car: A Novel (May 2005)

Both comically tragic and touching, this novel is a sweeping, generational saga about a family caught in the changing landscape of American life.
Kanehara, Hitomi: Snakes and Earrings (May 2005)

An international bestseller, Snakes and Earrings is the riveting story of a young girl's descent through the dark and disturbing underbelly of Tokyo.
Kerr, Philip: Hitler's Peace: A Novel of the Second World War (May 2005)

From the author of the Berlin Noir trilogy comes a stunning World War II "what if?" thriller in which the fate of Europe — and of its remaining 3,000,000 Jews — hangs in the balance.
Koontz, Dean R.: Velocity (May 2005)

Bill Wile is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. Everything changes when an anonymous note tells him to choose whether a schoolteacher or elderly woman is killed. The police agree it seems like a sick joke, but less than 24 hours later, the first murder is discovered. Then he gets another note, another deadline, another ultimatum and two new lives hang in the balance.
McCall Smith, Alexander: 44 Scotland Street (June 2005)

Love triangles, a lost painting, intriguing new friends and an encounter with a famous Scottish crime writer are just a few of the ingredients that add to this witty portrait of Edinburgh society.
Miller, Adrienne: The Coast of Akron (May 2005)

In her ambitious first novel, Miller introduces readers to the unforgettable Haven family of Akron, Ohio. This is not a typical Midwestern family, and Lowell Haven is a most unusual patriarch — a seducer, a wannabe aristocrat, an artist and a liar.
Ohlin, Alex: The Missing Person: A Novel (May 2005)

Lynn Fleming happily abandoned dusty Albuquerque to study art history in New York, but when her younger brother disappears she reluctantly answers their mother's summons and returns home.
Olson, Neil: The Icon (May 2005)

A religious icon thought to have been destroyed during World War II reappears in contemporary New York in this debut thriller that blends faith, art, history and suspense.
Rabagliati, Michel: Paul Moves Out (May 2005)

Quebec cartoonist Michel Rabagliati delivers another thinly veiled memoir with his semifictional protagonist, Paul. This time Paul takes another step into adulthood by moving out of his parents' house and into his first apartment with his girlfriend, enjoying life's pleasures as well as confronting its challenges.
Robinson, Patrick: Hunter Killer (May 2005)

Bestselling author Robinson presents a startling if all-too-real scenario that pits the United States against France and Saudi Arabia.
Rollins, James: Map of Bones: A Sigma Force Novel (May 2005)

When a group of parishioners is burned to death in a German cathedral, the U.S. sends in the SIGMA force. The tragedy is more than a case of arson; someone has stolen the priceless treasure stored in the cathedral's golden reliquary: the bones of the biblical Magi, the legendary Three Kings.
Rose, Isabel: The J.A.P. Chronicles (May 2005)

Sex in the City meets Jane Austen in this entertaining debut novel that follows the fortunes and misfortunes, expectations and regrets, of seven women who shared long-ago summers at an elite Jewish girls' camp.
Simon, Scott: Pretty Birds: A Novel (May 2005)

This mortal chess game of guile and manipulation plays out against the backdrop of beautiful, war-torn Sarajevo as two high school friends — one Muslim, one Christian — struggle to survive the Serbs' ethnic cleansing.
Smith, Wilbur: The Triumph of the Sun (May 2005)

British trader and businessman Ryder Courtney, Captain Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars, and British Consul David Benbrook unite in their fight to survive the bloody siege of Khartoum in this epic adventure set on the banks of the Nile in 1884.
Urrea, Luis Alberto: The Hummingbird's Daughter: A Novel (May 2005)

This historical novel is based on Urrea's real great-aunt Teresita, who had healing powers and was acclaimed as a saint during the Mexican civil war.
Verissimo, Luis Fernando: Borges and the Eternal Orangutans (May 2005)

Vogelstein is a loner who has always lived among books. Suddenly, fate carries him off to Buenos Aires, to a conference on Edgar Allan Poe, the inventor of the modern detective story. There Vogelstein meets his idol, Jorge Luis Borges, and finds himself at the center of a murder investigation that involves arcane demons, the mysteries of the Kaballah, the possible destruction of the world, and the Elizabethan magus John Dee's theory of the "Eternal Orangutan,",which, given all the time in the world, would end up writing all the known books in the cosmos. Verissimo's small masterpiece is at once a literary tour de force and a brilliant mystery novel.
Wheeler, Susan: Record Palace: A Novel (May 2005)

Set in Chicago during the late 1970s, Record Palace is an eccentric debut novel about jazz, art, race and identity.
Wilson, A. N.: My Name is Legion (May 2005)

From the historian and novelist comes a new work of fiction set in the darkly glamorous media world. Wilson's London is a bleak, if occasionally hilarious, place — murderous, lustful, money-obsessed and haunted by strange gods.
Wood, Monica: Any Bitter Thing: A Novel (May 2005)

After her parents were killed in a plane crash, Lizzy Mitchell was sent to live with her beloved Uncle Mike, a Catholic priest, who raised her from the age of two. When Lizzy turned nine, Father Mike was dismissed from the church under allegations of impropriety with her — even though nothing happened — and she was sent away to boarding school. Now 30 years old and in a failing marriage, she is nearly killed in a traffic accident. What she discovers when she sets out to find the truths surrounding the accident — and about the accusations that led to her uncle's death — does more than change her life.

Mysteries

Box, C. J.: Out of Range (May 2005)

Game warden Joe Picket returns in a twisting, action-packed tale of greed, power and murder.
Childs, Laura: Chamomile Mourning (May 2005)

When the owner of a local auction house dies under suspicious circumstances, tea shop owner Theodosia Browning's investigation leads her into the murky swamps of the South Carolina Lowcountry in search of answers. Includes a recipe and tea-making tips.
Crumley, James: The Right Madness (May 2005)

Detective C. W. "Sonny" Sughrue is as tough and cynical as he is goodhearted and weak kneed when it comes to women and booze. He's back to take readers on a bender through small Texas towns, dark bars and dank hotel rooms in a novel charged with Crumley's gift for the poetry of violence.
Gregson, J. M.: Dusty Death (May 2005)

Chief Inspector Peach finds the memories of squatters hard to budge. Everyone in Brunton is happy to see the decaying houses of the old cotton town finally demolished to make way for a new industrial development. Happy, that is, until the clearance reveals a grisly secret. As the bulldozers level the site and the old walls are toppled, a decaying arm appears among the debris. The corpse gradually acquires an identity, and it seems that this woman lived out the last months of her life as a squatter in one of the derelict houses. DCI Peach discovers a nun, a concert pianist and other, less savoury, characters who were among the victim's companions at that time. But he finds their memories are not easily stirred about things they would rather forget.
Harris, Charlaine: Dead as a Doornail (May 2005)

Dead as a Doornail, the fifth novel in the award-winning Southern Vampire series, continues the story of psychic waitress Sookie Stackhouse.
Harrison, Mike: All Shook Up (May 2005)

This hard-edged mystery features Eddie Dancer — Canada's newest and toughest private eye. Two years as a city cop have convinced Eddie he is better off working for himself as a private investigator. When he is hired to track down a tough, professional bank robber, Eddie has no idea he is about to pry the lid off a very nasty can of worms.
Kandel, Susan: Not a Girl Detective (June 2005)

Cece Caruso meets a fascinating collector of early Nancy Drew books who offers his vacation house when she attends a wacky fan convention of Nancy-holics, but, amid the fun, Cece discovers her patron dead, and now she has to unmask a very sly killer.
Kellerman, Jonathan: Rage: An Alex Delaware Novel (May 2005)

Working with LAPD's Milo Sturgis, psychologist Alex Delaware excavates horrifying secrets from the past, coming facteto face with unthinkable evil.
Kent, Bill: Street Fighter (May 2005)

Kent's new book finds the unlikely twosome of aged obituary writer Shep Ladderback and young cub reporter Andrea Cosicki once more on the trail of wickedness in the back streets of Philadelphia.
Knopf, Chris: The Last Refuge (May 2005)

Sam Acquillo's at the end of the line. A middle-aged corporate dropout living in his dead parent's ramshackle cottage in Southampton's North Sea, Sam has abandoned friends, family and a big-time career to sit on his porch, drink vodka and stare at the little Peconic Bay. But then the old lady next door ends up floating dead in her bathtub and it seems like Sam's the only one who wonders why.
Levine, Laura: Shoes to Die For: A Jaine Austen Mystery (June 2005)

Arriving for her first day of writing ads for a high fashion retailer, Jaine discovers one of the staffers stabbed in the neck by one of her own stilettos. Although there's no shortage of suspects, she has to figure out who hated Giselle the most, in this case of death by designer knock-off.
Minchino, Camille: The Nitrogen Murder: A Periodic Table Mystery (May 2005)

In the latest installment of this series, retired physicist Gloria Lamerino and her fiance, homicide detective Matt Gennaro, attend the wedding of Gloria's best friend in California. Unfortunately, the groom has disappeared along with some top-secret research on nitrogen. As Gloria and Matt try to figure out a connection between the missing groom and the absent classified nitrogen research, the body count rises.
Nadelson, Reggie: Disturbed Earth: An Artie Cohen Mystery (June 2005)

Winter 2003: New York City is hit by the worst blizzard in years, and Artie Cohen is called to investigate a case: a pile of blood-soaked children's clothes has been found on the beach in Brooklyn. Artie finds himself drawn into a case that involves the death of one child and the strange disappearance of another, all against the backdrop of a city already on edge.
Noyer, Albert: The Cybelene Conspiracy (May 2005)

A eunuch archpriest and an unscrupulous senator smuggle products from China to Ravenna, the Roman Capital in A.D. 440, never realizing they are changing the course of western history. The second in the Getorius and Arcadia mysteries.
Nugent, Andrew: The Four Courts Murder (May 2005)

Inspector Denis Lennon and his sergeant, Molly Power, are given a lead in the murder of a hated judge in this suspenseful Irish police procedural.
Poulson, Christine: Stage Fright: A Cambridge Mystery (May 2005)

All is not well at Cambridge University's St. Ethelreda's College. The head of the English Department is dead, and Professor Cassandra James is appointed the task of running the department. When she stumbles upon the former head's private papers and realizes that the death was no accident, Cassandra is forced to use her academic expertise of solving obscure literary puzzles for a very different purpose: tracking down a killer.

Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy

Asher, Neal L.: In the far future, the Heliothane Dominion is triumphant in the Solar System, after a bitter war with their Umbrathane progenitors. But some of the Umbrathane have escaped into the distant past and positioned themselves to wreak havoc across time and undo their defeat.
Avery, Fiona Kai: The Crown Rose (May 2005)

The year is 1240 during the reign of King Louis IX. The Crown Rose weaves its tale around the actual events of the time — knighthood is still honored, though the traditions are beginning to fade; religious orders are springing up everywhere; and nations are warring to form their own identities and destinies.
Gardner, James Alan: Gravity Wells: Speculative Fiction Stories (May 2005)

Award-winning author James Alan Gardner evokes a sense of wonder that is synonymous with speculative fiction. Now, in his first short story collection, he brings together the numerous tales—many new and undiscovered — that have made his reputation, ranging from the everyday experience to the cosmic, from peanut butter sandwiches to space drives.
Gear, Kathleen O'Neal: It Sleeps in Me (May 2005)

Sora is the wise, young High Chieftess of the Black Falcon Nation, but when Skinner, an old friend, brings word of her husband Flint's death, Sora notices that it is as if he carries a part of Flint's soul inside of him.
Giller, Marc: Hammerjack: A Novel (June 2005)

This dark thriller of the near future asks the provocative question: What happens when man manages to build God? In this debut novel, humanity is trapped in a deadly evolutionary race between human beings and a biological supercomputer.
Lindskold, Jane M.: Child of a Rainless Year (May 2005)

Returning to the childhood home of her uncomfortably exotic past, Mira Fenn investigates her mother's life, setting into motion strange events. As she begins to suspect the power to which she may be heir, the childhood house itself appears to be waking up.
Martinez, A. Lee: Gil's All Fright Diner (May 2005)

Gil's All Night Diner is where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and one never knows what might be lurking in the freezer. Duke the werewolf and Earl the vampire stop at the diner for a quick bite to eat. They aren't planning to stick around until the eatery's owner offers them $100 to take care of her zombie problem.
Putney, M. J.: Stolen Magic (June 2005)

Entwining fantasy with historical romance, Stolen Magic introduces Simon Malmain, Earl of Falconer, who continues the story line begun in A Kiss of Fate.