Readers > New Books > Fiction, February 2007
Fiction, February 2007
General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
General Fiction
- Alarcon, Daniel
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For ten years, Norma has been the voice of consolation for a people broken by violence. She hosts Lost City Radio, the most popular program in their nameless South American country, gripped in the aftermath of war. Each week, she returns to the airwaves while hiding her own personal loss: her husband disappeared at the end of the war. Her life changes forever when a young boy arrives from the jungle and provides a clue to the fate of her long-missing husband.
- Auster, Paul
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A man pieces together clues to his past — and the identity of his captors — in this fantastic, labyrinthine novel.
- Berry, Steve
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Cotton Malone retired from the high-risk world of elite operatives for the U.S. State Department to lead the low-key life of a rare book dealer. But his quiet existence is shattered when he his son is kidnapped and his Copenhagen bookshop is burned to the ground. It becomes brutally clear that those responsible will stop at nothing to get what they want — and what they want is nothing less than the lost Library of Alexandria.
- Clinch, Jon
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Some 120 years ago, Mark Twain left Huckleberry Finn's father dead in a room crowded with oddities: a wooden leg, women's underclothing, two black cloth masks and more. Clinch's debut draws from the nation's literary heritage to create this completely original story.
- Davies, Peter Ho
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During World War II, the British held German POWs in camps in remote Wales. Davies' third novel imagines the unexpected and perilous romance that blossoms between a secretive local girl and a German prisoner, and explores the indelible bonds of love and duty that hold us to family, country and ultimately our fellow man.
- Davis, Jill A.
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From the author of Girls' Poker Night comes the hilarious yet poignant story of a woman trying to resist the urge to live with one foot constantly out the door.
- Dean, Louise
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November 1979, the height of Northern Ireland’s Troubles and Sean has just been transferred to the hypersecure H-block in Belfast’s notorious Maze prison, where he soon emerges as a force in the extreme protest that political prisoners are staging. John Dunn is also newly arrived at the prison, having taken on the job of guard — a brutal but effective way to support a house and a girlfriend. As rumors of a hunger strike begin to circulate, Dean’s novel places two parents, two sons and two enemies on a collision course that ends in a surprising and deeply resonant climax.
- Francis, Patry
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Answering the question of what is more powerful — family or friendship?, this debut novel shows how far one woman would go to protect either. Liar's Diary will thrill fans of Jodi Picoult and Sue Miller.
- Franklin, Ariana
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Set in medieval England, this chilling novel combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the detail and drama of historical fiction, as a mistress of the art of death — an early version of a medical examiner — arrives in Cambridge from Italy to investigate the suspicious deaths of four children.
- Gold, Robin
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Delilah White, televisions semi-famous and completely endearing Domestic Diva, likes herself just the way she is: a perfect size twelve. When her boss announces that she's taking an early retirement, Delilah finds herself pitted against her rival, the statuesque Margo Hart, for one of the most coveted promotions in television. As the office politics are heating up, Delilah jumps at the opportunity for a long weekend at her friends family estate in the Catskills, only to have Margo make a surprise appearance and start stirring up trouble. As one disaster follows another, it takes all of Delilah's charm, ingenuity and spirit to come out on top.
- Helon, Habila
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Mamo and LaMamo are twin brothers living in the small Nigerian village of Keti, where their domineering father controls their lives. With high hopes the twins attempt to flee from home, but only LaMamo escapes successfully and is able to live their dream of becoming a soldier who meets beautiful women. Mamo, the sickly, awkward twin, is doomed to remain in the village with his father. Gradually he comes out of his father's shadow and gains local fame as a historian, and, using Plutarch's Parallel Lives as his model, he embarks on the ambitious project of writing a "true" history of his people. But when the rains fail and famine rages, religious zealots incite the people to violence — and LaMamo returns to fight the enemy at home. Habila is the author of Waiting for an Angel, which won both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Caine Prize for African Writing.
- Harding, Georgina
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In 1616, in the north Atlantic, an English whaling ship prepares to head back toward home. Thomas Cave, however, bets the rest of the crew that he can spend a winter on an Arctic island. From his post at the edge of the known world, Cave sees his own past and begins to reflect on man's relationship with God and the wilderness.
- Ings, Simon
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The Weight of Numbers describes the metamorphosis of three people: Anthony Burden, a mathematical genius destroyed by the beauty of numbers; Saul Cogan, transformed from prankster idealist to trafficker in the poor and dispossessed; and Stacey Chavez, ex-teenage celebrity and mediocre performance artist, hungry for fame and starved of love. All are haunted by Nick Jinks, a malevolent curse of a man who seems to be everywhere at once. As a grid of connections emerges between a dusty philosophical society in London and an African revolution, between international container shipping and celebrity-hosted exposés on the problems of the Third World, Ings' debut novel sends the specters of the Baby Boom’s liberal revolutions floating into the unreal estate of globalization and media overload — with a deadly payoff.
- McCarthy, Tom
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A man is severely injured in a mysterious accident, receives an outrageous sum in legal compensation, and has no idea what to do with it. Then, one night, an ordinary sight sets off a series of bizarre visions he can’t quite place. How he goes about bringing his visions to life — and what happens afterward — makes for a riveting, complex story.
- Nassib, Selim
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Albert Pharaon, son of a rich Palestinian family and heir to an enormous fortune, has a lover in Haifa. And not just any lover: she is Jewish; she is a militant Zionist; her name is Golda Meir, future president of Israel.
- Pike, Christopher
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Pike explores the depth and breadth of human emotion through two brilliantly etched characters: Kelly Feinman, who pays a terrible price to understand the nature of true evil; and Matt Connor, a classic anti-hero. They should be enemies — instead, they become friends, and together, they help each other become whole.
- Pollen, Bella
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On the run from her claustrophobic marriage in London, Alice Coleman moves her two small children to the American desert hoping to find the solitude she craves but hadn’t thought possible. But the vast and unruly Southwest has room for the dreams of more than one fugitive — from Benjamin, an abandoned mining town’s Mexican caretaker; to the immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border; to Duval, the laconic cowboy Alice finds herself falling for. What seemed idyllic turns deadly as Alice must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice in order to preserve not only her freedom, but Benjamin and Duval’s as well.
- Richards, David Adams
Richards' new novel explores the dying days of the lumber industry in the mid-twentieth century. This is a transfixing love story of betrayal, envy and sexual jealousy, which builds to a tragically inevitable climax. It is also a devastating portrait of a pre-mechanized time, and a brilliant commemoration of the passing of a world. Twice winner of Canada's Governor General's Award, Richards has been compared to John Steinbeck, Thomas Hardy and Dostoyevsky for the way in which he is able to deal with eternal themes of ambition, love, honor and betrayal.
- Smiley, Jane
Taking Boccaccio's Decameron as her model, Smiley gives her version of a Hollywood novel in this sparkling tale about a group of friends and family gathered for ten transformative days in the Hollywood hills.- Spiegelman, Peter
Chilling and psychologically complex, Red Cat is the electrifying story of a banker who is stalked by a lover he met online — a woman who films shocking videos of her affairs to sell as art.- Taylor, Patrick
In this charming and engrossing tale, a recent medical school graduate arrives in a rural Irish village to be an assistant to an older physician. The young doctor soon finds out more about life — and love — than he ever imagined back in medical school.- Wood, Brian
America's worst nightmare has come true. While the U.S. Army and National Guard are fighting overseas, an anti-establishment militia rises up and begins a second civil war. Wood's grim graphic novel picks up where DMZ: On the Ground left off.- Yu, Michelle
The Joy Luck Club meets Sex and the City in this sassy romp about three Asian-American women balancing life, love and cheongsams in the big city.
Mysteries
- Bannister, Jo
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Laurence Schofield's world was torn apart when his teenage daughter vanished without a trace. But six years later, a TV crew filming in London records a few seconds' footage of a girl who just could be her. Schofield heads for the capital. But this isn't the London of the tourist brochures: it's the Tinderbox, an area of dangerous dereliction where the homeless have created an alternative society with its own rules.
- Bass, Jefferson
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Dr. Bill Brockton, the founder of the world-famous Body Farm, is hard at work on a troubling new case. A young man's battered body has been found in nearby Chattanooga, and it's up to the talented Dr. Brockton to assemble the pieces of the forensic puzzle. He recreates the Chattanooga death scene at the Body Farm, but a killer tampers with it in a shocking way: placing another corpse at the setting, confusing authorities and putting Brockton's career and life in jeopardy. Soon Brockton himself is accused of the horrific new crime, and the once-beloved professor becomes an outcast. As the net around him tightens, Brockton must use all of his forensic skills to prove his own innocence — before he ends up behind bars with some of the very killers he's helped to convict.
- Beaton, M. C.
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Mrs. Gillespie, the region's most famous maid, is struck down violently by a metal bucket. Knowing Mrs. Gillespie's penchant for gossip, Hamish Macbeth is sure she delighted in finding out her clients' secrets — which means that everyone whose home she cleaned is a suspect.
- Biddle, Cordelia
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Set in Philadelphia in 1842, The Conjurer begins with the disappearance of wealthy Philadelphia financier, Lemuel Beale. His daughter and only heir, Martha, instigates a search for her father, and in so doing, meets Thomas Kelman, an assistant to the mayor who's been assigned to the case. Kelman has also been investigating the ritual slaying of several young girl prostitutes, taking him from the slums to society ballrooms. Suspicion falls on Eusapio Paladino, the renowned conjurer and clairvoyant, a performer lauded for his gift of second sight. But just as Martha and Kelman appear to be solving the crime, a devious killer comes between them.
- Crombie, Deborah
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Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James's idyllic holiday is interrupted by murder. As the detectives are drawn deeper, they find that the past never truly dies, and that not even Kincaid's family is safe from harm.
- D.
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The debut title from The Armory, a new street-lit imprint, tells the story of a struggling college student who turns to crime to make ends meet.
- Dorsey, Tim
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Spring has sprung, and the brave citizens of Florida are about to face two lethal forces: a killer storm season and two seasoned killers vying for the title of Florida's most-wanted psychopath.
- Greeley, Andrew
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When an idealistic young man from Nuala and Dermot's West side Chicago neighborhood goes missing in Iraq, the U.S. government denies any knowledge of his whereabouts, and his grieving family has all but written him off as dead. Nuala, however, is convinced that there's more to the story.
- Haines, Carolyn
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New Iberia, Louisiana, 1944. Henri Bastion, a wealthy plantation owner, has been brutally eviscerated. Deputy Raymond Thibodeaux finds Adele Hebert covered in blood and hovering over the body. When Adele claims to be the loup garou, a legendary Cajun shape shifter disguised as a wolf, panic ensues in this small town already living under the pressure of wartime poverty. Raymond is determined to restore order, but to do so he’ll have to prove that Adele isn’t a murderer or a monster.
- Harper, Karen (S.)
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The ninth installment of this historical mystery series finds Elizabeth and the young Francis Drake being attacked by crossbows and longbows during a summer journey.
- Jacobs, Jonnie
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Kali O'Brien's brother John was desperate to tell her something. Now he's dead from an apparent suicide. The cops have more bad news: John was also the lead suspect in the murders of two Tucson women. Kali's only hope for solving the case lies in finding a witness who knows far more than she should.
- Jordan, R. T.
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The first in a new mystery series with a Hollywood edge. Showbiz legend Polly Pepper loses a part to a longtime rival and it proves to be a role to die for.
- Kellerman, Jesse
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When her boss of ten years disappears in Mexico, Gloria Mendez travels the twisted road into his backstory, discovering that Carl Perriera was not who she thought he was and ending up fighting for her own life.
- Leoni, Giulio
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Florence, June 1300. The body of an artist, his face covered in quicklime, is discovered next to the mosaic he had almost completed. Dante Alighieri, the newly appointed prior of the city of Florence, is on the case. Obscure clues lead him up and down the streets of Florence, following a trail full of intrigue and mystery. Why have seven scholars, each a master of his art, assembled in the city? What was the secret that might have been revealed had the artist lived to complete his work?
- May, Peter
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From the author of The Firemaker comes a mystery that again links American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell with Chinese police detective Li Yan. The two are necessary partners investigating an outbreak of gruesome murders that shake Beijing.
- Morris, Bob
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A young scuba guide, scouting new dive sites in the shipwreck-laden reefs that rim Bermuda, makes a fatal discovery — treasure more valuable than gold or jewels, and some people are willing to kill for it. Enter Zack Chasteen, knockabout palm-tree farmer, and his inscrutable Taino associate, Boggy, who have been dragged to Bermuda by Zack's lady love, Barbara Pickering. While there, Zack drops by the bank to visit his money, millions earned in recent exploits that Zack has in one of the country's notorious tax-free offshore accounts. Big problem: Zack's money is gone and his bankers can't explain where it is or who might have it.
- Myers, Tamar
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Magdalena Yoder discovers that the old adage about women scorned may be truer than she thought when an engaged man suffers a massive heart attack in another woman's bed just days before his wedding. The scandal gets even spicier when the coroner's report reveals possible foul play. Includes recipes.
- Norman, Michael
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A parole board chair's murder makes both politicians and the press anxious in this throwback to the lean, straight-ahead police procedurals of the Dragnet era.
- O'Connell, Catherine
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Newly widowed Pauline Cook was once the toast of the Windy City elite — but now she's practically broke. At least she's in better shape than her dear departed friend Ethan Campbell, whose corpse Pauline has had the misfortune to discover. A writer who chronicled the lives, loves, and ensembles of the Gold Coast's most elegant ladies, Ethan apparently took his own life — while inelegantly clad in old boxers, no less. And since no relatives are coming forward to claim Ethan's remains, it falls to Pauline to settle his final affairs . . . with her own dwindling funds. However, there are things about Ethan's suicide that don't seem to add up: the ratty undergarments he "chose" to die in, and the multiple birth certificates the police turn up in his apartment. Before she can truly lay her friend to rest, plucky Pauline's determined to get to the bottom of his increasingly suspicious death.
- Parker, Robert B.
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In the seventh novel of Parker's series, the murder of a controversial talk-show host puts Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone in the harsh glare of the media spotlight. When the body of a young woman is discovered a few days later, Stone is thrust into a mystery when the medical examiner reveals a heartbreaking link between the two victims.
- Rees, Matt (Beynon)
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For decades, Omar Yussef has been a teacher of history to the children of Bethlehem. When a favorite former pupil, George Saba, a member of the Palestinian Christian minority, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla, Omar is sure he has been framed. If George is not cleared, he faces imminent execution. Then the wife of the dead man, also one of Omar Yussef's former pupils, is murdered, possibly raped. When he begins to suspect the head of the Bethlehem al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the true collaborator, Omar and his family are threatened. But as no one else is willing to stand up to the violent Martyrs Brigades men, who hold the real power in the town, it is up to him to investigate.
- Wynn, Patricia
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In the third adventure of the Blue Satan Mystery series, Mrs. Kean and the earl-turned-highwayman Blue Satan solve a murder against a backdrop of espionage and treason. In the fall of 1715, supporters of the Pretender James Stuart launch a revolution that threatens to overthrow George I. As a result, all Roman Catholics have been banished from the city of London and freedom of speech is greatly restricted. Accused of printing seditious pamphlets, Mrs. Kean's brother Jeremy has been sent to Newgate prison, where he soon finds himself charged with murder. Steadfastly maintaining his innocence, Jeremy turns to the duo to help save his life. However, Mrs. Kean and Blue Satan can only uncover the motive that reveals the killer by first understanding the murderous deed.
Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Bova, Ben
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For the first time in one volume, Hugo-winner Ben Bova presents all the tales of Sam Gunn to date, including three never before collected in book form. Sam Gunn, once an astronaut for NASA before they dumped him, lives for trouble, money, women and justice as he scams his way through the solar system.
- Cherryh, C. J.
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In the ninth book in the Foreigner series, Bren Cameron is an interpreter between the Atevi and the humans. Trying to keep the peace, Bren must guard the heir to the Atevi throne from kidnappers to prevent the Atevi world from falling into revolution.
- Coe, David B.
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In the fifth book of the Winds of the Forelands saga, the Qirsi have conspired among the Eandi courts to weaken the alliances of the realms of the Forelands. A Weaver named Dusaan appears to bind the magic of the Qirsi together against the Eandi, and the ranks of Dusaan's army rapidly swell as he begins his march towards war.
- Cook, Glen
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In this second book of The Instrumentalities of the Night saga, the wells of power are weakening and the forces of Night are strong. The gods are real, and they still have some power, mostly to do harm. The Instrumentalities of the Night are the worst of these.
- Duncan, Hal
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The sequel to the multilayered Vellum depicts the eternal struggle between the angels of the Covenant and demons of the Sovereign, stretching across worlds and eons.
- Green, Chris Marie
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Life proves stranger than the movies, in this first book of an all-new trilogy, when a Hollywood underground coven of vampires comes to light and is targeted by the tough-as-nails daughter of a sexy screen siren.
- Hill, Joe
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Sooner or later the dead catch up, as Judas Coyne discovers after he buys a ghost for sale on the Internet.
- Hogan, James P.
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In the eighteen years since the first manned mission to Earth arrived from Venus, colonists have already begun spreading across the bright, sunny world of clear blue skies. Kyal Reen and Lorili have found ruins and certain baffling similarities between some Terran and Venusian life forms.
- Kay, Guy Gavriel
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The ancient structure of Saint-Saveur Cathedral of Aix-en-Provence is a perfect subject for a celebrated photographer, and a perfect place for the photographer's son, Ned Marriner, to lose himself while his father works — but the cathedral isn't the empty edifice it appears to be.
- Kaye, Marvin
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The Fair Folk gathers six stories about elves and written by such well known authors as Tanith Lee and Jane Yolen.
- Lackey, Mercedes
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In the third book of the Scepter'd Isle series the Seleighe guardians of Elizabeth must stop a plan to defeat the prophecy that she will one day rule England.
- Mieville, China
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In the newest book by the author of Perdido Street Station, a twelve-year-old girl from London named Deeba finds herself transported to UnLondon, a land of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up.
- Modesitt, L. E., Jr.
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A brilliant scientist on the planet Devanta has created a small universe contiguous to the Milky Way, along with a utopian city on one of the planets. The question becomes, though, a utopia for whom? And why is a shady entertainment mogul subsidizing the scientist?
- Moon, Elizabeth
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The fourth book in the Vatta's War series from continues the action-packed militaristic story of Kylara Vatta, who must bring together a ragtag group of traders into a cohesive force who must strike back at their foes.
- Robinson, Kim Stanley
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The concluding novel in a trilogy presents a world where time is running out as quickly as its natural resources, where surveillance is almost total, and the last — and most terrible — of natural disasters looms on the horizon.
- Turtledove, Harry
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In the Bronze Age land of the Raumsdalian Empire, the Great Glacier that once formed the northern border has retreated a few feet a year for centuries. Now a gap has opened and an expedition has set forth to explore what lies beyond the glacier and search for the fabled Golden Shrine.
- Turtledove, Harry
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In this novel, set in an alternate earth where technology is replaced by wizards and the seas have serpents, Turtledove retells the true tale of circus clown Otto Witte, who enjoyed a brief reign over Albania in 1913 thanks to a case of mistaken identity and the help of sword swallower Max Schlepsig.