Readers > New Books > Fiction, November 2009
Fiction, November 2009
General Fiction |Mysteries |Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
General Fiction
- Bear, Greg
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In an America driven to near bankruptcy, the Talos Corporation stands out as a major success story: it trains soldiers and security forces from around the world. But Talos has a more sinister motive than anyone realizes — the destruction of the federal government.
- Benedict, Helen
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In 1960, when her husband, Rupert, a British diplomat, is posted to the remote Seychelle Islands in the Indian Ocean, Penelope is less than thrilled. But she never imagined the danger that awaited her family there. Her sun-kissed children run barefoot on the beach and become enraptured by the ancient magic, or grigri, in the tropical colonial outpost. Rupert, meanwhile, falls under the spell of a local beauty who won’t stop until she gets what she wants. Helen Benedict’s acerbic wit and lush descriptions serve up a page-turner brimming with jealousy, sex and witchcraft in a darkly exotic Eden.
- Gargash, Maha
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Set in the 1950s in what is today Dubai, The Sand Fish is the story of a young woman from the mountains who is sent away from her family to become the third wife of a rich and much older pearl merchant.
- Jin, Ha
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National Book Award winner Ha Jin's new collection of stories depicts the lives of Chinese American immigrants as they struggle to remain attached to their native land and traditions while also exploring their newfound social and economic freedoms.
- King, Stephen
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On a beautiful fall day, the town of Chester's Mill, Maine, is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. No one knows what this barrier is and when — or if — it will go away.
- Maguire, Gregory
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The author of Wicked retells and illustrates the classic Hans Christian Andersen story for modern times, in this charming gift book.
- Marias, Javier
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Marias concludes his acclaimed and disquieting trilogy with the last increment of Jacques Deza's story, finding him recruited as a character analyst by a shady British intelligence agency.
- Moorhead, K. R.
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If Bukowski were alive and writing from the point of view of a troubled young woman, it would read like this.
- Munro, Alice
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With clarity and ease, Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate — and often transcend — what happens in their lives.
- Poyer, David
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Featuring exciting action, espionage and exotic locales, The Crisis raises questions about America's obligations to relieve the suffering of other countries and the role of a democratic government in nations with no central leadership.
- Robbins, David
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Set against the backdrop of the Los Banos prison raid — one of the most daring episodes of World War II — Broken Jewel tells a powerful story of war, love and survival.
- Rutherfurd, Edward
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The master of historical fiction weaves a grand, sweeping drama of New York from the city's founding to the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Mysteries
- Chaney, Roy
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Hagen thinks his family has escaped the criminal underworld of Las Vegas for good. But when Hagen's brother's body is found on the outskirts of the city, Hagen has no choice but to come back and track down his brother's killer.
- Cole, Sam
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Set along the coast of Cape Town, this crime novel introduces two private investigators who get involved in seemingly different cases. Jeffrey is hired by the wife of an adulterous financial consultant, while Vincent is contracted to find out who is stealing from an abalone farm. But the two cases converge, and the mastermind behind them both is a mesmerizing international gangster.
- Delany, Vicki
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During a Christmas Eve snowstorm in Canada, a car veers off the road into the deadly icy river. What the autopsy reveals plunges Constable Smith and Sergeant John Winters into the world of sexual predators, drugs, privilege and high living.
- Finch, Charles
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The Agatha-nominated Charles Lenox series returns with the gentleman detective investigating the violent murders of two reporters.
- Kandel, Susan
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Cece Caruso — mystery biographer extraordinaire, vintage clothing enthusiast and part-time sleuth — is in freefall. First, she calls off her wedding, for reasons even she can't explain. Second, her newest biography (of Alfred Hitchcock) is way past deadline. So Cece puts on a houndstooth suit with peplum and heads out to see Vertigo, only to come home with a cell phone belonging to a stranger named Anita Colby. Nothing if not a good citizen, Cece tries to return the cell phone — only to hear someone push Anita off a cliff.
- Madsen, Diane Gilbert
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Who'd have guessed that running employee background checks at the HI-Data Corporation would make DD McGil the target of a ruthless killer? For DD, a 30-something English professor turned investigator, the routine job should have been a welcome distraction from her fiance's death and her eccentric Aunt Elizabeth's quest to authenticate an unlikely literary treasure — a Robert Burns text worth millions if proven genuine. Relying on her own moxie (bolstered by the occasional shot of Glenlivet), her sexy lover and the fact-finding acumen of her antiquarian bookseller friend, DD races to find out who's behind the high-tech treachery at HI-Data before it's too late.
Horror/Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Bledsoe, Alex
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Above Angelina's Tavern in down-and-dirty Neceda you'll find the office of Eddie LaCrosse, a freelance sword jockey who, for 25 gold pieces a day, will take on any task short of murder for hire. Eddie's on his way back from a routine investigation when his horse almost runs down a half-naked blonde in serious trouble. Against his better judgment, he promises to protect the frightened young woman, only to find himself waylaid by unknown assailants and left for dead beside her mutilated body.
- Boyett, Steven
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Thirty years ago the lights went out, the airplanes fell, the cars went still, the cities all went dark. The laws humanity had always known were replaced by new laws that could only be called magic. The world has changed forever. Or has it?
- Brokaw, Charles
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A thrill-seeking Harvard linguistics professor and an ultrasecret branch of the Catholic Church go head-to-head in a race to uncover the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis.
- Chadbourn, Mark
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A devilish plot to assassinate the queen, a cold war enemy hell-bent on destroying the nation, incredible gadgets, a race against time around the world to stop the ultimate doomsday device...and Elizabethan England's greatest spy! Meet Will Swyfte — adventurer, swordsman, rake, swashbuckler, wit, scholar and the greatest of Walsingham's new band of spies.
- Dann, Jack
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Whether portrayed as fire-breathing reptilian beasts at war with humanity or as noble creatures capable of speech and mystically bonded to the warriors who ride them, dragons have been found in nearly every culture's mythology. In The Dragon Book, today's greatest fantasists reignite the fire with legendary tales that will consume readers' imaginations.
- Gregory, Daryl
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Switchcreek was a normal town in eastern Tennessee until a mysterious disease killed a third of its residents and mutated most of the rest into monstrous oddities. Then, as quickly as it had struck, the disease — dubbed Transcription Divergence Syndrome (TDS) — vanished, leaving behind a population divided into three new branches of humanity: giant gray-skinned argos, hairless seal-like betas and grotesquely obese charlies. Paxton Abel Martin was 14 when TDS struck, killing his mother, transforming his preacher father into a charlie, and changing one of his best friends, Jo Lynn, into a beta. But Pax was one of the few who didn't change. He remained as normal as ever. At least on the outside.
- Jordan, Robert
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Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
- Rusch, Kristine Kathryn
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Boss loves to dive historical ships, derelict spacecraft found adrift in the blackness between the stars. Sometimes she salvages for money, but mostly she's an active historian. Then one day, Boss finds the claim of a lifetime: an enormous spacecraft, incredibly old and apparently Earth-made. It's impossible for something so old, built in the days before Faster Than Light travel, to have journeyed this far from Earth. What Boss finds could rewrite history, cost lives, and start an intergalactic war.
- Vandermeer, Jeff
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In this powerful novel, the past and the future collide with the cosmic and the gritty. What will happen if Finch uncovers the truth about two strange murders? And will the fantastical city of Ambergris ever be the same?
- Weber, David
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Someone is assassinating the leaders of both the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the recently liberated former slave planet of Torch. Though most believe the Republic of Haven is behind the murders, Anton Zilwicki and Havenite secret agent Victor Cachat believe there is another sinister player behind the scenes.