Readers > New Books > Fiction, November 2006
Fiction, November 2006
General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
General Fiction
- Allende, Isabel
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From the author of Portrait in Sepia comes a new novel that chronicles the brave deeds and passionate loves of Inés Suárez, a spirited woman who journeys to the New World and helps establish the nation of Chile.
- Andrews, Mary Kay
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Andrews brings back the lovable characters from Savannah Blues and Savannah Breeze for a funny and touching story that offers a little Christmas cheer with delicious Southern recipes.
- Barry, Dave
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From the Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist comes a nostalgic tale about a boy and his dog on Christmas Eve, 1960.
- Bass, Rick
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Filled with Bass's hallmark lean and beautiful prose, these stories are narrated by men and women with compelling life tales.
- Berg, Elizabeth
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In this novel about love and trust, hope and belief, Berg transports readers to Nazareth in biblical times to reimagine the events of the classic Christmas story.
- Braffet, Kelly
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Twenty-something drifter Miranda crashes her car late at night on a lonely highway and is picked up by a passing stranger who soon reveals himself to be more sinister than at first glance — he's rumored to be a serial killer stalking young women. This novel explores the often ambiguous nature of danger and the dark secrets kept to protect loved ones.
- Christianse, Yvette
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This debut novel tells what it was like to be a slave in South Africa through the first-person narrative of Sila, once a slave, now a prisoner on Robben Island off Cape Town in the 1820s.
- Connolly, John
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In the tradition of C.S. Lewis and Gregory Maguire's Wicked, Connolly offers a coming-of-age story about one boy's journey into adulthood by combining dramatic themes with suspense and a fantastical imagination.
- DeMille, Nelson
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DeMille's new novel features Detective John Corey and an all-too-plausible conspiracy to detonate a nuclear bomb in two major American cities.
- Ginsberg, Debra
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Angel Robinson lands a job as the assistant to literary agent Lucy Fiamma, and soon discovers that working for Lucy is no picnic, particularly when she's ordered to whip a mysterious manuscript into shape. But when the chapters take a disturbing turn, Angel finds her sanity in danger.
- Hiaasen, Carl
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Honey Santana — impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes" — has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference and dinnertime sales calls. She's taking rude, gullible Relentless, Inc., telemarketer Boyd Shreave and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress, Eugenie, into the wilderness of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands for a gentle lesson in civility.
- Kalogridis, Jeanne
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Set against the drama and danger of 15th-century Florence, I, Mona Lisa is an intricately drawn tale that rings through with the captivating voice of Mona Lisa.
- Koontz, Dean R.
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Koontz's hero leaves the small desert town of Pico Mundo for the solitude and peace of an isolated monastery as he tries to find a way to live fully again. But Odd Thomas has a knack for finding trouble and must confront an enemy who eclipses any he has yet encountered.
- Lehrer, James
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Late one night, Hugo Marder stumbles upon an online auction for a Silver Star, the medal awarded for bravery in battle. He bids and wins. But it is only after he places the medal on his jacket that he realizes the enormity of his actions.
- Lessing, Stephanie
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It's the feminist vs. the fashionistas as Issues editor Zoe Rose sets out to reform an entire nation of women, beginning with the readers of the most notorious magazine on Madison Avenue.
- May, Antoinette
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May makes her fiction debut with this retelling of the last days of Jesus, as seen through the eyes of the wife of Pontius Pilate.
- Moning, Karen Marie
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The quest to find her sister's killer draws MacKayla Lane into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed — a gift that allows her to see into the dangerous realm of the Fae.
- Munro, Alice
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In stories that are more personal than any that she's written before, Munro pieces her family's history into gloriously imagined fiction. Evocative, gripping, sexy, unexpected — these stories reflect a depth and richness of experience.
- O'Shaughnessy, Perri
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For ambitious, troubled architect Ray Jackson, the nightmare begins one sultry California night when his wife disappears. Ray is suddenly confronted with the most agonizing decision of his life — to face his own violence-laden past, acting to prevent another horrendous act of violence, or not. His choice will leave nothing and no one the same.
- Pollard, Eve
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Mixing fact and fiction, this novel looks into the secret life of one of the most beloved but enigmatic women of the 20th century — Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
- Rosenbaum, Lisa Pearl
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A Jewish woman's ghost in Poland tries to influence three generations of a family of nonbelievers in this debut novel that confronts themes of Jewish identity and belief in God.
- Salway, Sarah
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Hapless overweight Molly Drayton is given a room by a man who wants her to tell him stories as he fondles her calves. As her storytelling skills become more clever, Molly begins to make a few friends in the English neighborhood, and even finds a boyfriend, who has delusions of being a spy.
- Self, Will
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Five centuries after Dave Rudman wrote a gripping text — part memoir, part deranged philosophical treatise, and part handbook meant for his son when he came of age — it is discovered by the inhabitants on the island of Ham, where it becomes a sacred text of biblical proportion, and its author is revered as a mighty prophet.
- Shaara, Jeff
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The author of Gods and Generals embarks on his most ambitious undertaking to date with this first novel in a trilogy that portrays the events that pulled America into the vortex of World War II.
- Sington, Philip
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Drawing directly from the private papers of Russian artist Madame Zoia (1903–1999), the last surviving member of the Romanov court, Sington merges past and present, fact and fiction into a psychological detective story that reveals the underbelly of the art world and the secret history of Zoia's life.
- Steel, Danielle
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In a novel where ancient traditions conflict with reality and the pressures of modern life, a young European princess proves that simplicity, courage and dignity can win the day and forever alter her world.
- Turner, Frederick
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Francis Muldoon is a special policeman in the notorious Storyville District of New Orleans in 1913. Once a member of the city's regular police force, he now works for the District's vice lord, Tom Anderson, patrolling his patron's honky-tonks and saloons and whorehouses. When Adele, a beautiful singer at the Tuxedo dance hall, draws Francis into a rivalry for her affection, a fatal shootout is the inevitable conclusion, sending the District into a scalding eruption and revealing the central characters for what they are.
- Waller, Robert James
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The author of The Bridges of Madison County returns with a tale of greed, corruption and redemption in the American West.
- Wambaugh, Joseph
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They call him the Oracle. He's got 46 years under his belt and more hash marks than a football field. But more than that, he's got a crew of cops to look out for on the streets of Hollywood. From his understaffed office, he keeps a close eye on his squad. As they make their way from the drug dens to dirty street corners, a string of seemingly unrelated events lures the cops of Hollywood Station to their most startling case yet — and reminds them that nothing's too horrific or extreme for Los Angeles.
- Wilson, Robert
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The discovery of a mosque in the basement of a devastated apartment building in Seville confirms everybody's terrorist fears. As more bodies are dragged from the rubble and the media interest and political pressure intensify, Inspector General Javier Falcon suspects that all is not what it appears to be.
- Winegardner, Mark
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The third and final installment in Puzo's epic chronicle of the Corleone crime family imagines the role of the Mafia in the assassination of a young, charismatic president.
Mysteries
- Chang, Henry
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This debut mystery powerfully conveys the sights, sounds and smells of Chinatown, as well as the attitudes of its inhabitants. Detective Jack Yu is assigned to his old neighborhood where he must confront a serial rapist and solve the murder of a respected community leader.
- Clark, Mary Higgins
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America's queen of suspense joins forces with her daughter, Carol, author of the Regan Reilly mysteries, for this fast-paced novel set on a holiday mystery cruise.
- Cornwell, Patricia D.
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Fresh from her battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice. It seems like an ideal situation, until the new battles start — with local politicians, with entrenched interests, with someone whose covert attempts at sabotage are clearly meant to run her out of town. And that's even before the murders and other violent deaths begin.
- Fredrickson, Jack
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An extortion letter arrives at Crystal Waters, one of Chicago’s wealthiest gated communities. It makes no specific threats, gives no instructions, demands only that $50,000 be gotten ready — chump change for an enclave where the cheapest house is worth three million. It’s easy to see it as harmless — a note from a nut. Then a mansion explodes and the homeowners panic. They hire Vlodek Elstrom to investigate. "Dek" Elstrom used to soar high, too, when he lived with his multimillionaire wife at Crystal Waters, but that was before a scandal destroyed his career as an investigator and his ex-wife threw him out. Now reduced to living in a crumbling stone turret, he needs the money — and the chance to reconnect with his ex-wife. Another bomb goes off, and Dek realizes the culprit must be someone who is angry, needs money and used to live at Crystal Waters. Then he realizes he himself is the prime suspect.
- Gregorio, Michael
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Hanno Stiffeniis, a young magistrate, has been called to Königsberg to assist in the investigation of a string of murders. Is it part of a plot formed by Napoleon’s spies to undermine the Prussian king or the work of a solitary, unknown killer? The case would seem unsolvable, were it not for the assistance and unmatched intellect of his mentor, Immanuel Kant. Together Stiffeniis and the elderly, eccentric philosopher must track down the killer who has the city of Königsberg by the throat.
- Harris, C. S.
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Brighton, England, 1811. The beautiful wife of an aging Marquis is found dead in the arms of the Prince Regent. Draped around her neck lies an ancient necklace with mythic origins — and mysterious ties to Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin. Haunted by his past, Sebastian investigates both the Marchioness's death and his own possible connection to it — and discovers a complex pattern of lies and subterfuge. With the aid of his lover, Kat Boleyn, and a former street urchin now under his protection, Sebastian edges closer to the killer. And when one murder follows another, he confronts a conspiracy that threatens his own identity and imperils the monarchy itself.
- Kuhlken, Ken
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Clifford Hickey, scheduled to perform a guitar gig at a music festival, arrives at his brother Alvaro's peaceful woodland campsite, and within moments their camp is stormed by armed men who arrest the brothers for murder. Soon they are pitched into not just a murder but a duel between the Hickeys and a motorcycle gang, and the locals.
- May, Peter
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Enzo Macleod bets that he can use new science to solve the ten-year-old disappearance case of a high-ranking French diplomat.
- Oatley, Keith
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"Suffering from anorexia and depression, Emily Vincent, a patient of Sigmund Freud, is convinced she murdered her abusive guardian. Since the man was a member of the British diplomatic corps in Vienna, Mycroft Holmes engages his brother Sherlock to investigate." — Library Journal.
- Page, Katherine Hall
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In this reimagining of the Agatha Christie classic And Then There Were None, caterer and part-time sleuth Faith Fairchild is lured to a private island to help solve a very old murder.
- Perry, Anne
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Dominic and Clarice Corde, who met and fell in love in Brunswick Gardens, journey to a quaint hamlet to replace the local vicar who is away on holiday. The holiday takes a nasty turn when the vicar is discovered not to be away at all, but brutally murdered and stashed in the cellar. So instead of fulfilling the vicar's duties, the Cordes are charged with solving his murder. The crime's surprising solution reveals not only the killer, but the true meaning of the Christmas message.
- Rankin, Ian
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A master of modern mystery pens a page-turning novel of assassins and double-crossing.
- Ripley, Ann
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The lush island of Kauai is the perfect place for Louise Eldridge to film a few episodes of her gardening show, especially since an elite botanical conference is taking place at her hotel. Her taste of paradise comes to a halt when a squabbling, prima donna botanist is found battered to death.
- Tremayne, Peter
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In this latest historical whodunit, Fidelma of Cashel faces one of her most perplexing mysteries when she is called to investigate the brutal murder of an abbess and the disappearance of six young female religieuse.
Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Bova, Ben
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In the near future, microbiologist Michael Cochrane discovers a cheap and safe way to produce hydrogen fuel, desperately needed as oil has hit $110 a barrel. When he is murdered and his research stolen, his brother Paul sets out to find the murderer and the reason for his brother's death.
- Brooks, Max
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The author of The Zombie Survival Guide puts a human face on the suffering that occurred during the horrible hostilities of the zombie war.
- Card, Orson Scott
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America has collapsed into a new civil war, the president and vice president assassinated. The right and left have fallen into a shooting war, leaving everyone else stuck in the middle of the fight. But the vast majority, who only want the killing to stop and the nation to return to more peaceful days, have technology, weapons and strategic geniuses of their own.
- Cherryh, C. J.
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In this fifth book in Cherryh's Fortress series, religious and ancient magical conflicts threaten the fragile peace of the divided kingdom of Ylesuin. King Cefwyn hopes for his heir and his illegitimate son to become loyal friends and brings the boy, Otter, to court to raise with his heir — setting off a crisis with the Quinalt and with Otter's mother, a sorceress who has escaped from a tower prison to kill the king.
- Clemens, James
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Failed Shadowknight Tylar witnessed the death of a god and was healed of his crippling deformities by the blood of the dead god, but that left him marked as a Godslayer and a criminal. Tyler must fight against the Cabal, which seeks to destroy the Nine Lands.
- Dart-Thornton, Cecilia
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The Crowthistle Chronicles continue with the story of Astarial, near-immortal daughter of the Weathermaster clan. She has begun her tenure as weathermaster to the king of Narngalis, but the king of Slievmordhu, with the help of the hapless king of Ashqaleth, aims to rid the land of all the weathermasters.
- Farland, David
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The fifth story in the Runelords series picks up eight years after the events of Lair of Bones and focuses on Gaborn's son, Fallion. Gaborn's death is the signal for an attack by powerful immortal beings that have discovered that Fallion is the resurrection of an immortal, one whose potential power is so great that he might be able to reorder the entire universe.
- Grimsley, Jim
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For 300 years since the Conquest, the Great Mage has ruled over all of humanity. Gates allow travel between planets, choirs of chanting priests maintain order and shape reality, and the armies of the empire have only known victory for centuries. On the planet Aramen, sentient trees keep human symbionts as slaves — but a power has arisen to challenge the Great Mage himself.
- Hendrix, Howard V.
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Across the globe, innocents are being slaughtered in the pursuit of ancient meteorites rumored to contain primal matter that grants the gift of telepathy. None of the thieves know the true powers or that the meteorites hide deadly secrets no one can hope to fathom.
- Hetley, James A.
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In this sequel to Dragon's Eye,the shapeshifting Morgans and the Haskell witches must unite to face the vengeful spirit of a dark sorcerer, hungry to live again.
- Kearney, Paul
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Rol Cortishane lives in a world abandoned by its Creator, where an ancient race once lived. Rol has become a pirate captain of a huge man-of-war, until a former king of thieves urges him to join the fight to save Rowen, a darkly beautiful queen, whose throne is at risk in mountainous Bionar.
- McDevitt, Jack
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Known for "combining galaxy-spanning adventures with the genuine novel of ideas" (Washington Post Book World), Nebula Award finalist McDevitt returns to the world of Chindi and Omega and humanity's struggle with its own existence.
- Palmatier, Joshua
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Varis survived the White Fire plague as a child and has risen from being a thief, bodyguard and assassin to become the latest Mistress of Amenkor, as the city teeters on the brink of starvation and civil war. The Cracked Throne holds the minds of all the previous rulers, and with that knowledge Varis must hold the city together in the face of starvation and mysterious attacks on merchant ships.
- Rosenblum, Mary
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Ahni Huang is an empath, cyborg and the daughter of the ruler of Taiwan. She has been sent up the space elevator to the synchronous platform New York Up to avenge the supposed murder of her brother. There she finds herself enmeshed in a complex web of political intrigue as various factions struggle for control of the platform's future.
- Rucker, Rudy (Rudy v. B.)
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In an alternative version of Berkeley, California, Bela and Paul, two young mathematicians, are friends and roommates, and in love with the same woman, who happens to be Alma, Bela's girlfriend. They fight it out by changing reality using cutting-edge math, to determine who gets the girl.
- Scalzi, John
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To avoid war, Earth's government must find a type of sheep used in an alien race's coronation ceremony. To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero, and hacker extraordinaire, who scours the Earth looking for the rare creature. He finds it in the unknowing form of Robin Baker, pet store owner, whose genes contain traces of the sheep DNA.
- Silverberg, Robert
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This collection highlights some of the best stories from the first five years of Robert Silverberg's lengthy career.
- Sketchley, Martin
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In the third Structure novel, intrepid time travelers Alexander Delgado and his former lover and intelligence officer, Ashala ("Ash"), must contend on the war-ravaged planet Seriatt with the conquering Sinz, a bizarre species consisting of three races — avian, amphibian and humanoid — some of whom can change shape.
- Stirling, S. M.
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In this alternate history, Mars and Venus are described as in pulp-era science fiction, earthlike and inhabited. When the 1960s space probes find Venus is habitable, the Americans and Russians scramble to set up colonies and alliances with the natives. In 1988 a Russian rocket crashes into the wilderness, but can only be reached from the American base of Jamestown, across a Venus swarming with sabertooths and dinosaurs identical to those on Earth long ago.
- Stross, Charles
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In this spy thriller, Bob Howard — a t-shirt-wearing computer geek and field agent for the super-secret British government agency The Laundry — must save the world from eldritch horrors, codenamed Jennifer Morgue.
- Ward, James M.
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Halcyon Blithe has finished his yeoman voyage and has become a Dragonfrigate wizard. He is placed second in command of a captured vessel that must fight its way past a demonship to return safely to port.
- Wright, John C.
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After being recaptured at the end of Orphans of Chaos and having their memories stolen again by their teachers, the five unusual students of an isolated English boarding school fight to escape, rediscover their memories, regain their powers and remain free.