Readers > New Books > Fiction, August 2009
Fiction, August 2009
General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
General Fiction
- Casares, Oscar
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Casares' hilarious, heart-breaking story of two feisty, aging brothers and their bumpy road trip to the past is a delightful romp.
- Dai, Sijie
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From the author of the beloved Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress comes a haunting tale of love — and the beguiling power of a lost language — in this story that carries readers across the breadth of China's past.
- De Robertis, Carolina
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A gripping and lyrical story, this debut novel is a deeply intimate exploration of the search for love and authenticity, power and redemption, in the lives of three women.
- Dorgathen, Hendrik
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With his pioneering, wordless graphic novel, Hendrik Dorgathen has been hailed as the first illustrator to bridge the gap between comics and art.
- Eisdorfer, Erica
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Bright and clever with a sharp-tongued, adventurous heroine who offers a candid and often funny look at the business of nursing babies in Victorian England, this is a debut novel that will have everyone talking.
- Fabry, Chris
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June Bug believes everything her daddy tells her. That is, until she walks into Wal-Mart and sees her face on a list of missing children. The discovery begins a quest for the truth about her father, the mother he rarely speaks about, and ultimately herself.
- Farrell, Fiona
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A chance encounter one night introduces Walter Allbones to the beautiful Eugenia and her grandfather, Pitford, a natural scientist. Within months of their meeting, the three embark upon a perilous voyage that will produce dramatic and unexpected results.
- Ferrigno, Robert
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A retired shadow warrior and his wife battle to save a futuristic America controlled by an Islamic regime.
- Fesperman, Dan
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Nat Turnbull, a history professor who specializes in the German resistance, is only mildly surprised when his estranged mentor, Gordon Wolfe, is arrested for possession of stolen World War II archives. But what's in the archives is staggering.
- Gregory, Phillipa
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The best-selling author presents the first title in a new series set amidst the turmoil and intrigue of England's passionate family feud, The War of the Roses.
- Kim, Eugenia
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A sweeping debut novel, inspired by the life of the author's mother, about a young woman who dares to fight for a brighter future in occupied Korea.
- Larsson, Stieg
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The follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo features Lisbeth Salander, the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker, as the focus and fierce heart of its story.
- Lavalle, Victor
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A fiendishly imaginative comic novel, Big Machine is a mind-rattling literary adventure about sex, race and the eternal struggle between faith and doubt.
- Levin, Daniel
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In the tradition of The Rule of Four and Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon novels, The Last Ember is a gripping literary thriller about the high-stakes search for the legendary Temple Menorah, which was stolen from the Second Temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago and lost to civilization since.
- McMurtry, Larry
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In this novel of love and regret, McMurtry bids a final farewell to his beloved character, Duane Moore, and the rapidly changing town of Thalia, Texas.
- Murphy, Peter
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Suffused with family secrets, eerie imagery, black humor and hypnotic prose, this debut novel grapples with the pull between friendship and betrayal.
- Pinon, Nelida
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In exquisite prose, Pinon tells the story of One Thousand and One Nights told from Scheherezade's perspective, giving readers the full depth and breadth of her jealousies and resentments, her longings and desires.
- Rankin, Ian
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The comic book debut by author of the Inspector John Rebus detective series mixes pulp mystery, supernatural suspense and celebrity culture parody.
- Ransom, Christopher
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What begins as a new start for a troubled marriage dissolves into a story of possession, sexual obsession and ultimately murder, as the couple comes under the spell of their new home, a turn-of-the-century birthing house.
- Russo, Richard
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In this follow-up to Bridge of Sighs, Russo delivers a novel of deep introspection and every family feeling imaginable, with a middle-aged man confronting his parents and their failed marriage, his own troubled one, his daughter's new life and, finally, what it is he thought he wanted and what in fact he has.
- Starr, Jason
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An intruder, a desperate struggle, a family under siege: Starr brilliantly blends psychological and physical suspense to create the ultimate page-turner.
- Tobin, Betsy
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Infused with the rich history and mythology of Iceland, Tobin's sweeping novel is an epic adventure of forbidden love, lust, jealousy, faith and magical wonder set under the shadow of a smoldering volcano.
- Vasquez, Juan Gabriel
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When Gabriel Santoro publishes his first book, A Life in Exile, it never occurs to him that his father, a distinguished professor of rhetoric, will write a devastating review in a leading newspaper. The subject seems inoffensive enough: the life of a German Jewish woman (a close family friend) who arrived in Colombia shortly before the Second World War. So why does his father attack him so viciously? Do the pages of his book unwittingly hide some dangerous secret?
- Wyld, Evie
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Set in the haunting landscape of eastern Australia, this debut novel examines the inescapable past: the ties of family, the wars fought by fathers and sons, and what goes unsaid.
Mysteries
- Abel, Kenneth
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Former New Orleans prosecutor Danny Chaisson's latest case is bid-rigging. But as his investigation proceeds, a gathering storm named Katrina blasts his world apart.
- Airth, Rennie
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The murder of a young Polish girl in wartime London puts John Madden on the trail of a ruthless hired killer.
- Alfieri, Annamaria
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The silver-rich, Spanish-ruled city of Potos, Peru, faces brutal upheaval in this intricate mystery debut.
- Atkinson, Michael
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A witty, literate and action-filled debut, Hemingway Deadlights catches the famed author in his later years, battling to solve the injustices in a flawed world.
- Cavender, Chris
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The first in a series, A Slice of Murder focuses on two sisters who run a local pizza parlor — and have a tasty sideline in solving mysteries.
- Elias, Gerald
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From concert violinist Elias comes this debut novel set in the classical music world about the theft of a priceless violin. Devil's Trill offers a peek into the world of classical music, with its backstabbing performers, venal patrons and shady violin dealers.
- George, Elizabeth
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George selects new tales of lust, greed and murder — all never-before-published — from today's top women crime writers and some talented newcomers.
- Keating, H. R. F.
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The sudden, violent death of a British memsahib launches this prequel to the long-running Inspector Ghote series.
- Koryta, Michael
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When Alexandra, the daughter of a Mafia don, left town, abandoning a million-dollar architectural project, no one considered it criminal — until the bones of her husband were found. Now Lincoln Perry has been hired to find Alexandra.
- Littlefield, Sophie
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Stella Hardesty runs a side business helping battered women. When Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help, it seems like a straightforward case. When Chrissy's husband disappears with her two-year-old son, Stella risks her own life to recover the boy.
- Royal, Priscilla
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At a manor where everyone seems to be involved in some scandal, it is no surprise when someone's throat is cut. Will Prioress Eleanor discover the dark secrets behind the killing before the murderer strikes again?
- Schlink, Bernhard
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Gerhard Self, the dour, 70-something sleuth, is back in a new chapter in the mystery series by the bestselling author of The Reader.
Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Bentley, C. F.
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The world of Harmony, along with its close-knit colony planets, has been isolated from the rest of the universe for many generations. Now, Harmony's High Priestess Sissy and Confederated Star System Agent Jake have traveled to space station Labyrinthe VII, otherwise known as The First Contact Café, where they hope to establish diplomatic relations between the Harmonic Empire and the wider universe. But when an alien ship crashes into the Harmony Diplomatic Wing of Labyrinthe VII, the precarious balance Sissy and Jake have established begins to dissolve.
- Farris, John
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With every full Moon, the greater Los Angeles area finds itself in the horrifying grasp of a werewolf epidemic, and it's one man's job to keep tabs on these creatures known as High Bloods before all hell breaks loose.
- Flint, Eric
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The popular alternative history series continues. When an inexplicable cosmic disturbance hurls a town from 20th century West Virginia back to 17th century Europe, the residents must adapt in order to survive.
- Harlan, Thomas
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It's a small change in our history: imagine that the Japanese made contact with the Aztec Empire. Instead of smallpox and Christianity, they brought an Imperial alliance, samurai ethics and technology. By the time of these books, the Emperor in Mexico City rules not just the entire planet Earth, but a growing interplanetary Empire. But the Galaxy is not a hospitable place, and there are other powers, both new and very very old, who would stop the spread of the power in Anuhuac.
- Kadrey, Richard
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Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you're James Stark, you spend 11 years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.
- Kiernan, Caitlin R.
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Sarah Crowe left Atlanta, and the remnants of a tumultuous relationship, to live alone in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house's former tenant — an anthropologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property. And as the gnarled tree takes root in her imagination, Sarah risks her health and her sanity to unearth a revelation planted centuries ago.
- Lamplighter, L. Jagi
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More than 400 years after the events of Shakespeare's The Tempest, the sorcerer Prospero, his daughter Miranda and his other children have attained everlasting life. Miranda is the head of her family's business, Prospero Inc., which secretly has used its magic for good around the world. One day, Miranda receives a warning from her father: "Beware of the Three Shadowed Ones." When Miranda goes to her father for an explanation, he is nowhere to be found.
- Lindskold, Jane
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Brenda Morris has barely had time to become accustomed to the idea that she has some of the powers of the Rat, a member of the Chinese Zodiac; that her elderly, former child-star "aunt," Pearl, is the Dragon; and that the young African-American former soldier she trains beside is the Dog. Brenda has learned that our world is not the only world and that her not-quite-Chinese ancestors came from a magical place, the Lands of Smoke and Sacrifice, created thousands of years ago by the destruction of China's books and scholars during the time of the first Emperor. Now, generations later, the Lands are once again at war, and the magics of the Thirteen Orphans are desperately needed.
- Sawyer, Robert J.
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A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: everyone in the world goes to sleep for a few moments while everyone's consciousness is catapulted more than 20 years into the future. At the end of those moments, when the world reawakens, all human life is transformed by foreknowledge.
- Shirley, John
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As far as Gabriel Bleak is concerned, talking to the dead is just another way of making a living. It gives him the competitive edge to survive as a bounty hunter, or "skip tracer," in the psychic minefield known as New York City. Unfortunately, his gift also makes him a prime target.
- Somers, Jeff
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Avery Cates is a wanted man. After surviving the worst bioengineered disaster in history, Cates finds himself incarcerated — in Chengara Penitentiary. As Chengara has a survival rate of exactly zero, the system's most famous gunner must do some serious plotting. And a betrayal or so later, he achieves his goal. All he has to do now is defeat some new personal demons, forge some unlikely alliances and figure out why the people he's killed lately just won't stay dead.
- Warrington, Freda
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Led by Auberon Fox, a group of Aetherials — the Fair Folk — live among us, indistinguishable from humans. Every seven years, on the Night of the Summer Stars, Lawrence Wilder, the Gatekeeper, throws open all gates to the Other World. But this time, something has gone wrong. Wilder has sealed the gates, warning of a great danger lurking in the realm beyond them. The Aetherial community is outraged. What will become of them, deprived of the home realm from which their essential life force flows?