Readers > New Books > Fiction, October 2008
Fiction, October 2008
General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
General Fiction
- Aiken, Joan
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In Aiken's sequel to Jane Austen's novel, after heroine Fanny Price marries Edmund Bertram, they depart for the Caribbean, and Fanny's younger sister Susan moves to Mansfield Park as Lady Bertram's new companion.
- Aswany, Alaa Al
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The author of The Yacoubian Building returns with a story of love, sex, friendship, hatred and ambition set in Chicago with a cast of American and Arab characters achingly human in their desires and needs.
- Ghosh, Amitav
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At the heart of this vibrant saga — the first book in a new trilogy — is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, and its purpose is to fight in China's vicious 19th century Opium Wars.
- Johnson, Diane
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From the award-winning author of Le Divorce comes a mesmerizing new novel of a young woman who visits Marrakech for two reasons — to visit her English lover and to gather foreign intelligence on the English and Islamic communities in the area.
- LeCarre, John
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Issa is a half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat who is smuggled into Hamburg in the dead of night. He has a large amount of cash in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? Annabel, a German civil rights lawyer, is determined to save Issa from deportation, and soon her client's survival becomes more important to her than her own career -- or safety.
- Levison, Iain
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In a small New Hampshire town two men — Philip Dixon, a bank robber, and Elias White, a university professor — confront each other, separated only be a handgun. When Dixon's narrow escape from the police lands him in the quaint college town of Tiburn, he fears his dreams of a better life had come to an end. After all, there's not many places to hide in such a small town. But when he finds Professor White making love to his neighbor's underage daughter, he enlists the academic to help him plan his escape.
- Lopez, Lorraine
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Having lost their mother, the four Gabaldon sisters consider their elderly Pueblo housekeeper as their surrogate Grandmother. As the girls grow into women, they learn the truth about their mysterious caretaker, her legacy and a family secret.
- MacBride, Stuart
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When body parts show up in a container at Aberdeen's harbor, they kick off Scotland's largest manhunt in 20 years — since the last time they had pursued Kenneth Wiseman. A brutal killer, Wiseman had been acquitted on a technicality. But now police are certain he's at work again.
- Mosley, Walter
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Socrates Fortlow is a 60-year-old ex-convict, now freed after serving 27 years in prison. Disheartened by the chaos of the streets, he calls together local people of all races to conduct meetings of a Thinkers' Club, where all can discuss the unanswerable questions in life.
- Neville, Katherine
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A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, spanning two centuries and three continents, continues in this sequel to The Eight.
- Olson, John B.
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A monstrous waking nightmare is pursuing graduate student Hailey Maniates across San Francisco to Golden Gate Park where she is rescued by a towering homeless man. She seems to be able to read her rescuer's mind, but is it just a delusion? In this supernatural thriller, Hailey can no longer tell reality from fantasy.
- Reese, James
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Reese delivers an intricately layered, richly detailed novel of literary suspense that imagines a dramatic clash between Jack the Ripper and the author of Dracula.
- Saramago, Jose
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On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration: they have achieved eternal life. Then reality hits home, in this latest novel from the Nobel Prize-winning author.
- Updike, John
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More than three decades have passed since the events described in The Witches of Eastwick. Alexandra, Jane and Sukie had each remarried and left town. Now all three are widowed and have returned to the Rhode Island seaside town in this long-awaited follow-up to Updike's 1984 bestseller.
Mysteries
- Bowen, Michael A.
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The fourth book in the Rep and Melissa Pennyworth series finds the pair dealing with frat boy hijinks, burglary, theft, jury-tampering, forgery of an explosive papal document from World War II — and murder.
- Brandon, Ruth
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Dr. Reggie Lee, new at London's National Gallery, is planning a small exhibition of three almost identical Caravaggio paintings when she discovers a fourth. One must be a forgery, a discovery that detonates multiple murders. Like Flavia di Stefano in Iain Pears' art history mysteries, Reggie is attractive and knowledgeable when it comes to art, and percipient when it comes to people with motives to defraud.
- Fowler, Christopher
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Fans of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next mysteries will delight in the latest adventures of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit. The case files of the PCU never disappoint when it comes to uniquely atmospheric and rewarding mysteries.
- Karp, Larry
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Set in New York in 1916 at the decline of ragtime music, The King of Ragtime tells a story about the fallout of a real-life dispute between Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin.
- Muller, Marcia
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Traumatized by a recent investigation, Sharon McCone flees to her ranch in California's high desert country to contemplate her future. Determined not to investigate anything during her stay, McCone is drawn into the plight of a young woman, where danger lies closer than she expects.
- Spillane, Mickey
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The best-selling American mystery writer, along with his frequent collaborator Max Allen Collins, brings back the world-famous private investigator Mike Hammer for his biggest — and most dangerous — case.
Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Anderson, Taylor
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Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy, along with the men and women of the USS Walker, have chosen sides in a war not of their making. Swept from the World War II Pacific into an alternate world, they have allied with the Lemurians, a mammalian race threatened by the warlike reptilian Grik.
- Czerneda, Julie E.
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On the distant world of Cersi, Omaray Aryl Sarc and her supporters have been exiled from the rest of their people. Finding refuge in the mountains, they work to rebuild the ruined village of Sona, even as they try to discover what happened to the original Sona Clan. But Sona has a history among all three of Cersi's races — a history that may soon threaten the future of Aryl's newly- founded clan.
- Anthony, Piers
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The future of Xanth is in frightful peril. A powerful magical bird named Ragna Roc has embarked on a campaign to become absolute ruler of that mystical realm. Those who swear loyalty to him are spared. The rest simply disappear.
- Armstrong, Kelley
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They're smart, sexy and supernatural. They're the men and women of the Otherworld — a realm of witches, ghosts and werewolves who live unseen among us. Only now a reckless killer has torn down the wall, trapping one very human woman in the supernatural cross fire.
- Butcher, Jim
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Let's get something clear right up front. I'm not Harry Dresden. Harry's a wizard. A genuine, honest-to-goodness wizard. He'll spit in the eye of gods and demons alike if he thinks it needs to be done, and to hell with the consequences — and yet somehow my little brother manages to remain a decent human being. I'll be damned if I know how. But then, I'll be damned regardless. My name is Thomas Raith, and I'm a monster.
- Carver, Jeffrey A.
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John Bandicut and his eclectic band of aliens must find the cause of stars prematurely going supernova. These aren't natural disasters — someone or something is murdering stars.
- Flint, Eric
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As an enormous vessel approaches its system, the planet Miran sends a ship to investigate. After the crew enters one of the vessel's habitats, savage creatures called humans attack. One member barely escapes, and he needs to get back to his spaceship. He needs one human's help to do that.
- Flynn, Michael
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The January Dancer tells the fateful story of an ancient pre-human artifact of great power and the people who found it. Starting with Captain Amos January, who quickly loses it, and then the others who fought, schemed and killed to get it, we travel around the complex, decadent, brawling, mongrelized interstellar human civilization the artifact might save or destroy.
- Lackey, Mercedes
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In this chronicle of the early history of Valdemar, a 13-year-old orphan named Magpie escapes a life of slavery in the gem mines when he is chosen by one of the magical Companion horses of Valdemar to be trained as a Herald.
- Maguire, Gregory
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Civil war looms in Oz and an ancient oracle named Yackle prepares for death. But before she can die, the Cowardly Lion arrives seeking knowledge about Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West — the woman who had defended him when he was a cub.
- Sanderson, Brandon
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To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin has killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness — the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists — is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Now, humanity appears to be doomed.
- Stirling, S. M.
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Rudi MacKenzie continues his trek across the land that was once the United States of America. His destination: Nantucket, where he hopes to learn the truth behind The Change that rendered technology across the globe inoperable.