Readers > New Books > Fiction, April 2009
Fiction, April 2009
General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
General Fiction
- Al-Harez, Siba
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Al-Harez tells the story of a nameless teenager at a girls’ school in the heavily Shi’ite Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Like her classmates, she has no contact with men outside her family. When the glamorous Dai tries to seduce her, her feelings of guilt are overcome by an overwhelming desire for sexual and emotional intimacy. Al-Harez's erotic, dreamlike story of looming personal crisis is a remarkable portrait of hidden lives.
- Bennette, Vanora
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The author of Portrait of an Unknown Woman returns with a captivating saga, set against the backdrop of England's War of the Roses, that is rich in history, intrigue and passion.
- Boyne, Walter J.
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The former director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air & Space Museum brings readers the final book in a trilogy highlighting the history of the aircraft industry.
- Chessex, Jacques
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1903, Ropraz, a small village near the Jura Mountains of Switzerland. On a howling December day, a lone walker discovers a recently-opened tomb, the body of a young woman violated, her left hand cut off, genitals mutilated and heart carved out. There is horror in the nearby villages: the return of atavistic superstitions and mutual suspicions. Then two more bodies are violated. A suspect must be found.
- Ferreras, Alberto
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For Beauty Marie Zavala, the only thing she resents more than her name is the way others judge her extra weight. B's new tax accountant, a modern-day matchmaker, is determined to boost B's flagging self esteem. But will B fall for the one guy she shouldn't?
- Flanagan, Richard
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From one of the most inventive and important international literary voices comes this powerful and moving tale of colonialism, ambition and the lusts and longings that mark humanity's nature.
- Goldman, Ivan
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The Barfighter takes the reader on an often whimsical journey deep inside the heart of boxing, which can turn from sweet to savage with the snap of a punch, and where a sport that's not a game becomes an existential microcosm of the world around it. The story moves from Folsom Prison to the fight capital, Las Vegas, stopping in diverse locales that include the now-shuttered infantry post of Fort Ord, California, Ken Kesey's hot tub, the L.A. County Jail and the Cafe de la Paix in Paris.
- Goldstein, Jonathan
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A hilarious re-imagining of the heroes of the Old Testament for a modern world — and the neurotic, demanding reader.
- Hamilton, Jane
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Laura and Charlie Rider have been married for twelve years. Although Charlie's enthusiasm in the bedroom has worn Laura out, they are happy enough — until they meet radio show host Jenna Faroli, and everyone's lives are transformed in ways that are hilarious, poignant and beyond Laura's wildest expectations.
- Horn, Dara
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A gripping epic about the great moral struggles of the Civil War in which a Jewish soldier in the Union army is ordered to murder his own uncle, who is plotting to assassinate President Lincoln.
- Kirkpatrick, Jane
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This luminous coming-of-age tale deftly exposes the intricate shadows that play across every dream worth pursuing — and the irresistible light that beckons the dreamer on.
- Malloy, Mary
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Historian Lizzie Manning didn’t set out to become a sleuth, and she had no intention of becoming personally involved in a medieval mystery. Her expertise lay in 18th century maritime voyages, and her assignment was to find a Tlingit Indian corpse robbed from its grave 200 years ago during Captain Cook's Pacific voyage. As with Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody and Amanda Cross' Kate Fansler, Mary Malloy creates a heroine who is a respected scholar in her field, and who draws on her expertise to solve the mysteries that come her way.
- Mankell, Henning
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From the prizewinning author of the Kurt Wallander series comes the surprising and affecting story of a man well past middle age who suddenly finds himself on the threshold of renewal.
- Marsot, Vanina
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Sexy, sophisticated and infused with the sights and sounds of Paris, this enchanting debut novel is a humorous, poignant look at one woman trying to understand who she is in two cultures.
- Roncagliolo, Santiago
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Reminiscent of Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives comes this chilling, internationally acclaimed political thriller by one of Latin America's most important young writers.
- Sanders, Annie
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When Alex Hill's demanding mother moves in with her, Alex realizes she needs someone more committed than a maid — what she needs is a "wife." Someone distinctly male shows up, and Alex can't help wondering if her new "wife" could perhaps have husband potential.
- Scheft, Bill
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In this hilarious new novel from the head writer of "The Late Show with David Letterman," a fraudulent self-help expert finds himself in need of a little help himself.
- Trojanow, Ilija
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This fictionalized account imagines the life of Sir Richard Francis Burton — a 19th-century British colonial officer and translator with a rare ability to assimilate into indigenous cultures.
- Ure, Louise
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A roadside assistance operator hears a man being killed while she's on the phone with him and now she's the only witness — to murder.
- Vine, Barbara
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Writing under the pen name Barbara Vine, the international bestselling author Ruth Rendell has created an unrelentingly riveting novel of mystery and suspense.
- Wright, Alexis
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Alexis Wright employs mysticism, stark reality and pointed imagination to recreate the land and the Aboriginal people of Carpentaria. Trapped between politics and principle, past and present, the indigenous tribes of Queensland fight to protect their natural resources, sacred sites, and above all, their people.
- Yardley, Cathy
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Meet Lisa Falloya, an aspiring half-Japanese, half-Italian American manga artist who follows her bliss by moving to Tokyo to draw the Japanese-style comics she's been reading for years. Leaving behind the comforts of a humdrum desk job and her workaholic fiancé, Lisa has everything planned but hasn't taken into account that being half-Asian and enthusiastic isn't going to cut it. Faced with an exacting boss and a conniving "big fish" manga author, Lisa risks her wedding, her friends and her fears for a shot at making it big.
Mysteries
- Atkins, Ace
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From the critically acclaimed, award-nominated author comes a new noir crime classic about one of the most notorious trials in American history — the 1921 manslaughter case against silent screen comedy star Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle.
- Bradley, Alan
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In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison.
- Clark, Carol Higgins
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Regan Reilly and her husband Jack head the New York Major Case Squad. As they're relaxing on the beach near her parents' house in the Hamptons, Regan receives a frantic call from a former Los Angeles neighbor, Abigail, who begs Regan to come back to L.A. to track down her former boyfriend, a con man she dumped, and who she now believes is out for revenge. Regan is convinced her friend needs her and heads to Los Angeles for a week to investigate. But what Regan learns is that Abigail, her boyfriend and several other seemingly benign characters are definitely on the wrong side of the law.
- Craig, Daniel Edward
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Trevor Lambert is on the brink of fulfilling every hotelier's fantasy: managing his own inn. In Vancouver, Canada, stands the perfect B & B — a Victorian mansion called Graverly Manor. But first he must impress the elderly owner, who swans around in ball gowns and spins tall tales of her royal bloodline. Screams in the night, foul odors and the sudden disappearance of a chambermaid have Trevor looking over his shoulder. Trevor is dying to see Lady Graverly's private rooms, but she refuses. What dark secrets is she hiding?
- De Recacoechea, Juan
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This murder mystery follows a tragic overnight train journey in 1952 from Bolivia to Chile, presenting a moving environment at once carnivalesque and sinister.
- Disher, Garry
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Inspector Hall Challis and his team investigate the brutal beating of the chaplain of a prestigious school and the murder of the woman in charge of punishing local land use violations. But will Challis and Ellen Destry's new romantic relationship interfere with their work?
- Gregorio, Michael
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Dark, intelligent and vividly written, A Visible Darkness continues a masterful series of historical mysteries that portray a past torn between nationalism and humanism, superstition and science.
- Herron, Mick
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When a body is hauled from the River Tyne, Sarah Tucker heads to Newcastle for a closer look. She identifies the dead woman as private detective Zoë Boehm, but putting a name to the corpse only raises further questions. Did Zoë kill herself, or did one of her old cases come back to haunt her? Why was she wearing a jacket a murderer had stolen years before? And what's brought Sarah's sparring partner, Gerard Inchon, to the same broken down hotel?
- Ifkovic, Edward
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In 1955 during the filming of her novel, "Giant", author Edna Ferber and her sidekick, Mercedes McCambridge, get involved in investigating the murder of a young actress, said to be James Dean's mistress. Ferber discovers a powerful studio obsessed with coverup and uncovers the dark underside of glittering Hollywood.
- King, Laurie R.
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For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve — the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives. But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from her husband’s past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with — and exonerated from — murder. Now the talented and troubled young man was enlisting their help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.
- LaPierre, Janet
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Rosemary Mendes, looking for a new life after her husband's death, believes she has found a refuge in California's remote Trinity Alps — a place where she can live alone and not bother or be bothered by anyone. Contrary to her intentions, she is drawn into the life of the small community. And she has a growing sense of identification with another newcomer whom she never met, a young woman found shot dead in the forest, whose dog she adopts. Rosemary's efforts to learn more about "Wandering Girl" (the murdered woman's e-mail alias) prove both successful and dangerous.
- Malliet, G M
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As the wildly successful darling of the publishing industry, chick lit mystery writer Kimberlee Kalder is the guest of honor at an exclusive writers' conference at Dalmorton Castle in Scotland. But jealousy and resentment are soon replaced with shock when Kimberlee is found dead at the bottom of the castle's bottle dungeon. It's up to Detective Chief Inspector St. Just to track down the true killer in a castle full of cagey mystery connoisseurs who live and breathe malicious murder and artful alibis.
- McCall Smith, Alexander
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The 10th installment of the bestselling The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series finds Precious Ramotswe in personal need of her own formidable detection talents.
- Nesser, Hakan
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"Inspector Van Veeteren would like nothing better than to sleep through the entire month of January, as winter in Sweden makes the usually volatile detective slow and cranky. Naturally, he is not happy when his team is assigned the case of a man shot in the heart and the groin in his own front hallway. Neither clues nor motives are forthcoming until another man is shot in the same way, with the same weapon." Booklist
- O'Connell, Catherine
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This witty and urbane mystery, set against the backdrop of Chicago high society, follows a wealthy fashionista as she unravels the secrets behind her friend's suspicious disappearance.
- Pennie, Ross
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When incidents of food supply contamination dominate the news media, two investigators — Zol Szabo, a public health doctor, and Hamish Wakefield, a young infectious diseases specialist — come under immense pressure to find the cause of a mysterious epidemic before more victims show up on the autopsy table.
- Waiwaiole, Lono
- "Drug trafficking, rape and lethal fights over money and power are themes that seem more at home in the grimy underbelly of Chicago than among the tropical flowers of Hawaii. But Portland author Lono Waiwaiole chose the Big Island as the setting for his hardboiled new noir novel, spilling blood on the pristine haven tourists tend to envision." Willamette Week
Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Butcher, Jim
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The Warden Morgan has been accused of treason against the Wizards of the White Council — and there's only one, final punishment for that crime. He's on the run, wants his name cleared and needs someone with a knack for backing the underdog. Someone like Harry Dresden. Now, Harry must uncover a traitor within the Council, keep a less-than-agreeable Morgan under wraps and avoid coming under scrutiny himself. And a single mistake may cost someone his head — someone like Harry.
- Campbell, Alan
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War, rebellion, betrayal — but the worst is still to come. For in the cataclysm of the battle of the gods, a portal to Hell has been opened, releasing unnatural creatures that were never meant to be and threatening to turn the world into a killing field. And in the middle, caught between warring gods and fallen angels, humanity finds itself pushed to the brink of extinction. Its only hope is the most unlikely of heroes.
- Frei, Max
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Max Frei was a twenty-something loser — a big sleeper (that is, during the day; at night he can't sleep a wink), a hardened smoker and an uncomplicated glutton and loafer. But then he got lucky. He contacts a parallel world in his dreams, where magic is a daily practice. Once a social outcast, he's now known in his new world as the "unequalled Sir Max." He's a member of the Department of Absolute Order, formed by a species of enchanted secret agents; his job is to solve cases more extravagant and unreal than one could imagine—a journey that will take Max down the winding paths of this strange and unhinged universe.
- Rawn, Melanie
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Holly McClure and Evan Lachlan have survived the fiery beginning of their romance and left Manhattan for Holly's ancestral home to raise their children. Evan's the county Sheriff; Holly is still a trouble-making Spellbinder trying to manipulate her family as if they were characters in one of her novels. But something's not right in Pocahontas County. Churches are being burned down in mysterious arsons with a taint of magic on them. Sheriff Lachlan suspects that they have something to do with the new owners of the old Westmoreland plantation, now a very upscale Inn, but even if he could find proof, it's going to be hard to bring a case of Black Magic before a Judge — even in Pocahontas County, where witchcraft is the family business of all the oldest clans.
- Redick, Robert
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Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a six-hundred-year-old ship sets sail for enemy lands in an attempt to forge an enduring peace between the world's two greatest monarchies. A vast city afloat, the ancient vessel bears a royal bride-to-be; a stowaway tribe of foothigh warriors; an honest young tarboy with a heritage of treason; a rat with a magical secret; and a dark conspiracy centered around the Red Wolf, a legendary and dangerous artifact.
- Sawyer, Robert J
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Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, a genius at math — and blind. Still, she can surf the net with the best of them, following its complex paths clearly in her mind. But Caitlin's brain long ago co-opted her primary visual cortex to help her navigate online. So when she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness, spreading out all around her in a riot of colors and shapes. While exploring this amazing realm, she discovers something — some other — lurking in the background. And it's getting more and more intelligent with each passing day.
- Telep, Tricia
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Fall in love with someone out of this world. Let Alyssa Day, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Cheyenne McCray, Jeaniene Frost, Ilona Andrews, Kelley Armstrong, Maria V. Snyder, Carrie Vaughn, Allyson James Marland and others show you powers beyond your wildest imaginings. Within these pages mythical beasts, magical creatures of all shapes and sizes, heart-stoppingly handsome ghosts, angels and mortals with extra-sensitive sensory perception play out the themes of extraordinary desires.
- Williamson, Michael
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The galactic rumble is on! First contact with an alien species — and, surprise, the human race is far from united. The Freeholders want trade. The U.N. wants to manage. The eco-warriors want "purity" at all costs. Humans — you gotta love 'em! Once again, a historic meeting between potential friends is about to turn into a free-fire zone!