Readers > New Books > Fiction, April 2008
Fiction, April 2008
General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
General Fiction
- Adiga, Aravind
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This rambunctious story of contemporary India shows how religion doesn't create morality, and money doesn't solve every problem — but a person can get what he wants out of life by eavesdropping on the right conversations.
- Altschul, Andrew Foster
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In this sprawling debut novel, Calliope Bird Morath is the daughter of legendary punk-rock star Brandt Morath, whose horrific suicide devastates the world.
- Bingham, Sallie
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Forty-year veteran of the novel, noted feminist, and author of over ten books, Sallie Bingham returns with Red Car, a collection written in her signature style — discreet, sly prose circling taboo subjects. Her new offering is about love enjoyed, whether alone or with lovers, sensual or familial, comedic or tragic, often with a wry twist.
- Dietrich, William
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Surviving murderous thieves, a nerve-wracking sea voyage and the deadly sands of Egypt with Napoleon's army, American adventurer Ethan Gage solved a 5,000-year-old riddle with the help of a mysterious medallion. But the danger is only just beginning in this thrilling new work.
- Gruber, Michael
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Gruber creates a fascinating world of secrets, genius and conspiracies and combines it with brilliant storytelling, complex characterizations and sterling prose to produce this spellbinding novel.
- Gunning, Sally
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An indentured servant finds herself bound by law, society and her own heart in this new novel set in colonial Cape Cod from the author of The Widow's War.
- Hall, Sarah
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In this dark fable set in the near future, life in Britain in unrecognizable. Much of the country is now underwater and assets have been seized by the sinister Authority that runs the government. Hall's innovative work is a testament to the triumph of the individual in dire circumstances.
- Halter, Marek
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Halter creates a remarkable alternative history, based on facts, of the little-known crusade by a 16th century Jew to marshal support for a Jewish state, four centuries before the creation of modern-day Israel.
- Harrison, Colin
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In his electrifying thriller, a young, beautiful Chinese woman, Jin-Li, gets involved in a scheme to steal valuable information from corporations in New York City. When the plan is discovered, she must go on the run from those who will stop at nothing to have their fortunes returned.
- Hoffman, Alice
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Three mesmerizing tales of love and betrayal, inspiration and despair, survival and hope, interact as characters merge from one fictional incarnation to the next.
- Huber, Jeff
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In the wicked satirical tradition of Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut, the adventures of two naval men follow America's rise to global dominance as its military burns off excess testosterone, connives to justify its bloated budget, and prepares for the ultimate challenge — the War on Evil.
- Kane, Andrea
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As women vanish, former FBI special agent Sloane Burbank vows to kick start an investigation. But her involvement is unwanted, particularly by the agent in charge — her former lover Derek Parker.
- Lahiri, Jhumpa
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lahiri delivers eight dazzling stories that take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.
- Le Guin, Ursula K.
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In The Aeneid Virgil's hero fights to claim the king's daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a this novel set in the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.
- McGrath, Patrick
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Set in 1980s Manhattan, Trauma tells the story of a New York psychiatrist who specializes in helping Vietnam vets suffering from trauma. As he learns more about his own family life, though, he finds himself caught up in his own trauma and fighting the madness he knows is approaching.
- Morton, Kate
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This gorgeous debut novel is set in England between the two World Wars. The story of an aristocratic family, a mysterious death and a vanishing way of life is told in flashbacks by a woman who witnessed it all and kept secrets for more than 50 years.
- Oates, Joyce Carol
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A wonderfully bizarre new collection of short stories by Oates, Wild Nights! reimagines the final days of five major American writers — Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Henry James and Ernest Hemingway.
- Pressfield, Steven
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Hitler's legions have swept across Europe, leaving Churchill and the English isolated. In North Africa, Rommel and his Panzers have routed the British Eighth Army and stand poised to overrun Egypt, Suez and the oil fields of the Middle East, in Pressfield's latest historical novel.
- Rong, Jiang
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An epic Chinese tale, Wolf Totem depicts the dying culture of the Mongols — the descendants of the Mongol hordes who at one time terrorized the world — and the parallel extinction of the animal they believe to be sacred: the fierce and otherworldly Mongolian wolf.
- Sager, Mike.
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The first novel from best-selling journalist Sager offers a mad, vivid and daring romp through a society in crisis, telling the story of what happens when one frustrated father decides to just say yes.
- Sutcliffe, William
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Amusing and insightful about family life, Whatever Makes You Happy will strike close to home for all the parents who yearn for a closer relationship with their adult children, and for the younger generation who might seem to want the opposite, yet can never quite relinquish the hope that their parents will swoop in and set things right.
- Trollope, Joanna
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From a master of literary domestic drama comes a page-turning novel that dissects the complexities of female friendship and the choices that define women's lives.
Mysteries
- Camilleri, Andrea
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Moody Inspector Montalbano has no time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man shot at point blank range in the face with his pants down commands his attention.
- Coleman, Reed Farrel
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For over 20 years, retired NYPD officer and PI Moe Prager has been haunted by the secret that would eventually destroy his family. Now, two years after the fallout from the truth, more than secrets are haunting the Prager family. Moe follows a trail of graverobbers from cemetery to cemetery, from ashes to ashes and back again in order to finally solve the enigma of his dead brother-in-law Patrick.
- Gorman, Edward
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Gorman's latest political thriller looks at how money, power and unchecked ambition have turned election campaigns into modern gladiatorial contests.
- Gregorio, Michael
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Napoleon's army has swept over Prussia, leaving in its wake a conquered land occupied by the French, in this superb sequel to the acclaimed Critique of Criminal Reason.
- Haddam, Jane
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Former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian, fleeing from his own wedding preparations, is hired to review a case — one that he finds has little evidence and is twisted by an out-of-control media — in what may be the most compelling case of his entire career.
- Johnson, Claire M.
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San Francisco pastry chef Mary Ryan is back at her old alma mater. Initially ecstatic to be teaching, Mary finds herself trying to straddle both worlds. But when faculty and staff begin dying, Mary must uncover the truth before another chef bakes his last pie.
- King, Peter
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Set in 1870 London, King's lively first in a new series introduces hansom cab driver Ned Parker, who hides out with such colorful cohorts as Smiling Sid, Paddy Reilly and Benny the Brain at Hangman's Corner, a former gallows site in Battersea Park. Publisher's Weekly
- Lovesey, Peter
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Gemma loathes her sleazy boss, which she confides in her friend Jo. On a double date with Rick and Jake, they discuss forming a mutual murder society, in jest of course. When three of Gemma's coworkers go missing, is it just a coincidence, or has the joke gone too far?
- Reed, Mary
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John the Lord Chamberlain spends his days counseling Emperor Justinian and passes the small hours of night in conversation with the solemn-eyed little girl depicted in a mosaic on his study wall. He never expected to meet her in a public square or afterwards to find her red-dyed corpse in a subterranean cistern.
- Rusch, Sheldon
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Rusch plunges brave protagonist, Illinois State Special Agent Elizabeth Hewitt, into a new series of crimes. Estranged couples are being beheaded by someone with a twisted agenda — a violent secret ceremony, to which Hewitt has been invited.
- Sidor, Steven
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Two brothers were snatched from their home and out of the arms of their babysitter in a small Midwestern town. Now, disturbing new details of the afternoon that changed their lives will come to light — with unthinkable consequences for all involved.
- Stansberry, Domenic
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San Francisco's North Beach comes to life as Dante Mancuso retraces a past investigation to clear a fellow PI in the third chilling novel in this series from Edgar Award-winner Stansberry.
Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Asprin, Robert
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In this first novel in a new series, a low-stakes con artist and killer poker player, Griffen "Grifter" McCandles, learns the strange family secret: that he and his sister are actually dragons. Griffen heads to New Orleans to make a living the only way he knows how.
- Butcher, Jim
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An old bargain has placed Harry in debt to Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe. She's calling in a small favor he can't refuse — one that will strain his skills and loyalties to their very limits.
- Freeman, Pamela
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A thousand years ago, the Eleven Domains were invaded and the original inhabitants forced on the road as Travelers, belonging nowhere, welcomed by no one. Now the Domains are governed with an iron fist by the Warlords, but there are wilder elements to the landscape which cannot be controlled and which may prove their undoing.
- Gellis, Roberta
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As Edward VI lay dying, Mary is groomed for England's throne by the evil elf lord Vidal Dhu. Urged to order Elizabeth's death, Mary instead plans to command Elizabeth to marry and bear a child to be the Catholic heir, in this follow-up to By Slanderous Tongues.
- Gunn, David
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The sequel to Death's Head features Lieutenant Sven Tveskoeg — the antisocial, antihero, one-man killing spree whose best friend is an intelligent handgun with a bad attitude and whose worst enemy is just about everybody else.
- Hogan, James P.
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Something strange is happening on the planet Cyrene, which is in the early phases of being developed by the mammoth Interworld Restructuring Corporation. Terrans from the base there have been disappearing and Myles Callen, a ruthlessly efficient Facilitator, is sent to investigate.
- Judson, Theodore R.F.
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Set two thousand years from now, in a world very much like Imperial Rome, this is the story of General Peter Black, the last decent man, as told through the eyes of his devoted (and illegitimate) daughter, Justa.
- Rogers, Rob
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A city where corruption and heroism walk hand in hand, and justice and mercy are bought and paid for in blood, Devil's Cape is a city like no other. Rogers blends the gritty crime novel with a heavy dose of the supernatural and weaves a tale of superhuman heroes and villains.
- Sedia, Ekaterina
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This anthology of 21 original fantasy stories explores humanity's most dynamic and forceful creation — the city and features tales from fantasy heavyweights such as Hal Duncan, Catherynne M. Valente, Jay Lake, and Barth Anderson. Mutilated warrior women, dead boys, mechanical dogs, and escape artists are just some of the wonders and horrors explored in this bizarre assembly of works from voices new and old.
- Steele, Allen
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Expelled from the Union Astronautica space fleet, Jules Truffant agrees to sign up as shuttle pilot aboard the freighter Pride of Cucamonga in exchange for amnesty. Jules must take part in a voyage across the galaxy to place a probe squarely in the path of a black hole.