Readers > New Books > Fiction, October 2007
Fiction, October 2007
General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
General Fiction
- Banks, Iain M.
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Dark family secrets, a long-lost love affair and a multimillion pound gaming business lie at the heart of this intriguing new novel by the author of The Algebraist.
- Barone, Sam
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When an Irish immigrant working on the construction of the Empire State Building meets an alluring artist who just happens to be a paramour of a major gangster, life suddenly turns exhilarating — and dangerous.
- Barrett, Andrea
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The National Book Award-winning author of Ship Fever delivers her new novel, set in 1916, in an isolated town in the Adirondacks, far from the war raging in Europe.
- Carrell, Jennifer Lee
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On the eve of the Globe's production of Hamlet, Shakespearean scholar Kate Shelton is given what is claimed to be the Bard's long-lost work. When a killer decides to stage theatrical murders as flesh-and-blood realities, Shelton must decipher a string of clues before anyone else dies.
- de Alba, Alicia Gaspar
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This rich historical novel tells the story of a Latina slave who is swept up in the Salem witchcraft trials by an act of betrayal.
- Dick, Philip K.
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Set in San Francisco in the late 1950s, Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is a tragicomedy of misunderstandings among used car dealers and real estate salesmen: the small-time, struggling individuals for whom Philip K. Dick always reserved his greatest sympathy.
- Follett, Ken
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In 1989 Follett wrote The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping novel set in 12th century England that centered on the building of a cathedral and the hundreds of lives it affected. This sequel takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries later.
- Gaspar de Alba, Alicia
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This rich historical novel tells the story of a Latina slave who is swept up in the Salem witchcraft trials by an act of betrayal.
- Hart, John
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From the author of The King of Lies comes the story of a small Southern town and the lengths to which people will go for money, family and pure greed — and whether or not forgiveness is ever attainable.
- Harvey, Kenneth J.
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After fourteen years in prison, Myrden is released, proven innocent by new DNA evidence. Greeted by friends and enemies, and a wife who'd lost no time moving on while he was away, he is now unwittingly famous as he awaits a hefty financial settlement from the government. Myrden clings to his young granddaughter and to a girlfriend from his past, hoping that the money can free them all from the cycles of revenge and failure that have marked his life. But it's not easy to leave the old neighborhood behind.
- Humphreys, C. C.
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London 1759 and Jack's life is easy. A scholar at Westminster School, a master with cricket bat or billiard cue, the leader of a gang of bucks about the town, he has both a girl he worships and a courtesan teaching him the arts of love. Yet he plans to give up all carousing, sit the examinations for Cambridge, find a career in any field he chooses — if he can just stay out of trouble for one night. Fans of Patrick O'Brian will enjoy Humphreys' swashbuckling regency adventure.
- Kinder, R. M.
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Meet Arthur Blume: charming guy, small-town college English professor, struggling writer and occasional murderer. In this chilling debut novel, R.M. Kinder draws on her firsthand experience of dating a convicted murderer to brilliantly channel the voice of a polite, even sympathetic man who just happens to be a serial killer.
- King, Rachael
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Written in sensuous prose and ranging from the demure gentility of turn-of-the-century England to the lush, dangerous jungles of Brazil, The Sound of Butterflies is a breathtaking and compelling debut.
- Listfield, Emily
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This hauntingly beautiful novel — based on the author's own experiences — tells of a magazine editor and mother whose life is changed forever when her husband vanishes without a trace.
- McCammon, Robert
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McCammon's new novel featuring Matthew Corbett, the magistrate's clerk who investigates New York City's first serial killer in 1702.
- Percy, Benjamin
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The war in Iraq empties the small town of Tumalo, Oregon, of men — of fathers — leaving their sons to fight among themselves. But the boys' bravado fades at home when, alone, they check e-mail for word from their fathers at the front. Set in rural Oregon in the shadow of the Cascade Mountains, these stories bring you face to face with a mad bear, a house with a basement that opens up into a cave, and a nuclear meltdown that renders the Pacific Northwest into a contemporary Wild West.
- Perrotta, Tom
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Perrotta's topical novel illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern family life and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people.
- Rose, Alex
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In the tradition of Borges and Calvino, The Musical Illusionist is an interwoven collection of postmodern folk tales — disappearing manuscripts, neuological anomalies, teleporting bacteria and a composer who manipulates sound to bend perception — that masterfully blends scientific curiosity with magical-realist caprice.
- Shalev, Meir
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This mesmerizing novel, set both in contemporary Israel and during the 1948 War of Independence, intertwines two stories of love that are separated by half a century but connected by one magical act of devotion.
- Starling, Belinda
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London, 1860. On the brink of destitution, Dora Damage illicitly takes over her ailing husband's bookbinding business, only to find herself lured into binding expensive volumes of pornography commissioned by aristocratic roués. Dora's charm and indefatigable spirit carry her through this rude awakening as she contends with violent debt collectors, an epileptic daughter, evil doctors, a rheumatic husband, errant workmen, nosy neighbors and a constant stream of wealthy dilettantes. When she suddenly finds herself forced to offer an internship to a mysterious, fugitive American slave, Dora realizes she has been pulled into in an illegal trade of sex, money and deceit.
- Tolstoy, Leo
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From the award-winning translators Pevear and Volokhonsky comes a brilliant, engaging and eminently readable translation of Tolstoy's master epic.
- Tomine, Adrian
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Tomine's first long-form graphic novel is the story of Ben Tanaka, a confused, obsessive Japanese American man in his late 20s and his cross-country search for contentment — or at least the perfect girl.
- Wells, Ken
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Justin Pitre was born and bred on his grandfather's Louisiana bayou, and he has made a promise to keep his family's prized 500 acre property safe. But across town, Big-Tex oil bigwig Tom Huff and his company have major plans to cash in on the resources that lie below the bayou by ramming a dragline through the Pitre property.
Mysteries
- Arnaldur, Indridason,
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As the Christmas rush peaks in a Reykjavk hotel, Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson is called in to investigate the murder of the hotel Santa, who at one time was famous. Sveinsson hopes that the story of his downfall may provide a motive for the crime.
- Cleverly, Barbara
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Headstrong Laetitia Talbot, Cleverly's precocious new heroine, is an aspiring archaeologist with a passion for adventure and mystery. It's 1928, and Letty arrives at an archaeological dig on the isle of Crete. But something goes amiss, and the site becomes a stage for murder.
- Delany, Vicki,
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In the small Canadian town of Trafalgar, young constable Molly Smith throws herself into solving a murder, hoping to win approval from her new supervisor, Sergeant John Winters, who has arrived with his own set of personal problems.
- Donovan, Felicia
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Strong, sexy, smart, and stealthy! The ladies at the Black Widow Agency aim to bring justice to wronged women like themselves, using a lethal blend of computer forensics, surveillance technology and women's intuition. When the Black Widows hear Amber Gordon's heartbreaking story of sexual harassment, ending in a ruined career and lost custody of her daughter, they vow to spin a trap for the sexist automotive company run by Amber's former father-in-law.
- Forbes Elena
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"A murderer is loose on the streets of London, and it's up to Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia to find him before he takes another innocent life. The perpetrator DI Tartaglia seeks is both sinister and smart : he convinces lonely, depressed women to join him in a suicide pact, then kills them instead. British debut author Forbes, a former investment banker, renders crisp prose, a clever plot and an unsettling portrait of a charismatic psychopath." Booklist
- Gaylin, Alison
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In Hollywood, a trashing in the tabloids can make or break a career, and dirty little secrets are the lifeblood of the media machine. Working for an infamous scandal sheet, Simone Glass is learning what they didn't teach her at journalism school: trust no one.
- Harris, Charlaine.
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Hired to find a boy who has gone missing in Doraville, North Carolina, Harper Connelly and her brother discover that the boy is only one of several who had disappeared over the years. As she uncovers the towns dark secrets, Harper becomes the next person likely to rest in an ice-cold grave.
- Obejas, Achy
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"The 17th in Akashic's series of original noir anthologies is the first with a non-Anglo setting — the two earlier non-U.S. locales were London and Dublin. The authors will be unknown to virtually all American readers, but by and large, they prove themselves as capable of crafting grim and gritty stories of despair and irony as their more familiar counterparts." Publisher's Weekly
Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Anthony, Piers
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When the Good Magician Humfrey's son Hugo suddenly vanishes, his disappearance sets in motion a series of misadventures that send a collection of colorful characters on a perilous pair of parallel quests. Among them are Debra, a pretty young girl beset by an obnoxious curse; Hugo's beloved wife Wira, whose sightlessness is balanced by a talent for sensitivity, Happy and Fray, a pair of sprightly storm-spirits; Nimbus, the Demon Xanth's own son; and the mysterious outlaw known as the Random Factor.
- Chabon, Michael
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In the Caucasus Mountains, circa AD 950, Zelikman and Amram are sellswords, thieves and con artists. Accustomed to tight scrapes and hasty exits, they are dragooned into service to a deposed prince of the Khazar Empire who seeks to regain his throne.
- Dietz, William C.
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As interstellar war rages, the President of the Confederacy is captured by the Ramanthian enemy. But the aliens don't realize the prize they have taken, since, at the suggestion of young diplomat Christine Vanderveen, all the captives have agreed to hide his identity.
- Hamilton, Laurell K.
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The suspenseful and sexy saga of Meredith Gentry continues. The dark Queen Andais has commanded Merry to attempt to conceive a child, an heir to succeed her on the throne. One by one, consorts have come to her bed to help save her claim — and her life.
- Lackey, Mercedes
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In 1910, in an alternate London, a penniless young dancer is visited by a cat who communicates with her. Though she is certain she must be going mad, she is desperate enough to follow the cat's advice to impersonate a famous Russian ballerina.
- Levitsky, Alexander
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A constant thread woven throughout the history of Russian literature is that of fantasy and an escape from the bounds of realism. Worlds Apart is the first single-volume anthology that explores this fascinating and dominant theme of Russian literature with all-new translations of the key literary masterpieces that reveal the depth and ingenuity of the Russian imagination as it evolved over a period of tumultuous political, social and technological upheaval.
- Moorcock, Michael
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Eleven tales of Sir Seaton Begg and his constant companion, pathologist Dr. "Taffy" Sinclair, both of whom are in charge of the secret British Home Office section of the Metatemporal Investigation Department, are collected for the first time in one volume.
- Pratchett, Terry
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The Ankh-Morpork Post Office is running like . . . well, not at all like a government office. The mail is delivered promptly; meetings start and end on time; five out of six letters relegated to the Blind Letter Office ultimately wend their way to the correct addresses. Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig, former arch-swindler and confidence man, has exceeded all expectation 151; including his own. So it's somewhat disconcerting when Lord Vetinari summons Moist to the palace and asks, "Tell me, Mr. Lipwig, would you like to make some real money?"
- Rucker, Rudy
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It all begins next year in California. A maladjusted computer industry billionaire and a somewhat crazy US President initiate a radical transformation of the world through sentient nanotechnology — sort of the equivalent of biological artificial intelligence. At first they succeed, but their plans are reversed by Chu, an autistic boy. The next time it isn't so easy to stop them.
- Stross, Charles
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In the year 2018, Sergeant Sue Smith of the Edinburgh constabulary is called in on a special case. The investigation seems pointless, but she soon realizes that the virtual world may have a devastating effect in the real one — and that someone is about to launch an attack upon both.
- Williams, Sean
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In the aftermath of a mysterious galactic catastrophe, a messiah intent on reuniting the warring factions of humanity under the banner of a false religion comes at last to the birthplace of civilization: the ancient and mysterious world of Earth. Long abandoned by its children, Earth is old and scarred but far from spent. Home for one million years to minds more powerful than any remaining in existence, it will be the setting of a battle deciding the future of the galaxy and humanity itself.