Current Issue: Fiction

Brown, Rita Mae A NOSE FOR JUSTICE September 1, 2010 - City dog meets country dog to solve crimes ancient and modern. Magdalene Rogers’s Wall Street life is a bust. So she and her dachshund Baxter head west to her feisty great aunt Jeep, née Magdalene Reed, who welcomes Mags to ... Full Review

Bruce, Alison THE SIREN September 1, 2010 - Cambridge DC Gary Goodhew (Cambridge Blue, 2008) must deal with arson, kidnapping, murder and worse. Three years after Nicholas Lewton disappeared from his job at the Celeste pub with a sizable sum belonging to his father, Celeste owner Dougie Lewton, ... Full Review

Byrd, Bobby LONE STAR NOIR September 1, 2010 - Noir and Texas link 14 previously unpublished stories—two first-rate, the rest not bad. Done to a turn, Claudia Smith’s “Catgirl” is a banality-of-evil story centering on four children, girls, aged about 10, and the charismatic mom of two of them. ... Full Review

Caldwell, Bo CITY OF TRANQUIL LIGHT September 1, 2010 - In 1906, Mennonite missionaries move to China to proselytize through providing health care and food. A farmer’s boy from the Midwest and a young nurse, they marry and spend the better part of their lives suffering with, and becoming close ... Full Review

Campbell, Liza THE DISSEMBLERS September 1, 2010 - A female art-school graduate chasing the muse of Georgia O'Keeffe in Santa Fe is drawn into a forgery ring and struggles to embrace her individuality as a person. In Campbell's brief, intensely introspective debut, Ivy Wilkes' dream of becoming a ... Full Review

Cannell, Stephen J. THE PROSTITUTES' BALL September 1, 2010 - In Shane Scully’s tenth (The Pallbearers, 2010, etc.), the savvy LAPD cop encounters Hollywood glitz, a homicide blitz and almost nothing that is what it seems to be. Can Scully actually stomach as his new partner Sumner “Hitch” Hitchens, a ... Full Review

Child, Lee THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2010 September 1, 2010 - Guest editor Child chooses 20 atmospheric tales whose settings and crimes are all over the map in this 14th entry in Penzler’s annual series. Crime is everywhere. In teeming Campeche City on the Yucatán, a hit man catches up with ... Full Review

Cleeves, Ann BLUE LIGHTNING September 1, 2010 - Nobody, not even the murderer, can leave the island until the storm clears. Jimmy Perez, a thoughtful, taciturn inspector in the Highland and Islands Police, takes his fiancée Fran, an artist steeped in London gossip, mores and sociability, home to ... Full Review

Donaldson, Stephen R. AGAINST ALL THINGS ENDING September 1, 2010 - Daggers and wizards, time travel, leprosy—for fans of fantasy, there’s much to like in Donaldson’s latest installment in the multivolume Thomas Covenant epic series of yore. When last we saw Thomas, way back in 1983, he was, to put it ... Full Review

Duffy, Margaret CORPSE IN WAITING September 1, 2010 - A holiday in Bath designed as a little break from household routine plunges the vacationers into danger. Ingrid Langley is recovering from childbirth, and her husband Patrick Gillard still isn’t back to normal after being drugged in his last case ... Full Review

Dunn, Adam RIVERS OF GOLD September 1, 2010 - New York taxicabs form the nexus of the drug trade in this messy near-future crime novel, journalist Dunn’s debut. The city is a bleak place in 2012, ravaged by double-digit inflation and unemployment. Buildings stand empty, restaurants shuttered. Organized crime, ... Full Review

Erickson, Carolly RIVAL TO THE QUEEN September 1, 2010 - The Virgin Queen has competition for the affections of dashing Robert Dudley in the form of her cousin, lovely Lettie Knollys. Erickson (The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots, 2009, etc.) charts the 16th-century Knollys siblings’ affairs of the heart. ... Full Review

Franco, James PALO ALTO September 1, 2010 - Bleak tales of growing up in the eponymous city. Actor Franco’s stories are impressive: crisp, spare, depressing. Numerous characters recur from story to story, sometimes appearing as narrators, other times as characters within someone else’s narrative frame. Almost all are ... Full Review

Garcia, Tristan HATE September 1, 2010 - Four Parisians navigate a shifting personal and political landscape in a modern, sexually liberated Europe. Tracing the rise, fall and subsequent reinvention of a generation through a few key relationships, this deliberately provocative novel makes for a gossipy snapshot of ... Full Review

Glass, Julia THE WIDOWER'S TALE September 1, 2010 - Another heartwarming winner from the NBA-anointed Massachusetts author. Glass (I See You Everywhere, 2008, etc.) observes and gently mocks her charmingly self-absorbed characters in an unmannered manner reminiscent of her popular contemporary Allegra Goodman and their accomplished forerunner Anne Tyler. ... Full Review

Gorman, Ed STRANGLEHOLD September 1, 2010 - A Chicago political consultant hired by a suburban Illinois Congresswoman discovers that dirty tricks are even dirtier, and more felonious, outside the Windy City. Dev Conrad isn’t running Susan Cooper’s campaign himself. His staffers Ben Weinberg and Kristin Daly are ... Full Review

Grass, Günter THE BOX September 1, 2010 - A family documentary in the form of a novel, leaving the reader to decide where the line blurs between fact and fiction. This book by the Nobel Prize–winning German author (Peeling the Onion, 2007, etc.) ostensibly allows his eight offspring ... Full Review

Greenman, Ben CELEBRITY CHEKHOV September 1, 2010 - The stories of Anton Chekhov are hijacked by American celebrities in New Yorker editor Greenman’s latest (What He's Poised to Do, 2010, etc.). The author makes a modest proposal in this thinly conceptualized literary mash-up. “Chekhov drew his characters from ... Full Review

Gregorio, Michael UNHOLY AWAKENING September 1, 2010 - Could the serial killer terrorizing the village of Lotingen be a vampire? Procurator Hanno Steffeniis has witnessed multiple tragedies in his small town, including a pack of murderous dogs and the horrible death of his baby son Anders during a ... Full Review

Grossman, Paul THE SLEEPWALKERS September 1, 2010 - In Grossman’s debut novel, a Jewish cop in 1932 Berlin hunts the perpetrators of a grotesque crime, against a backdrop of political turmoil. Willi Kraus, the cop famous for catching the infamous Kinderfresser child murderer some years back, is called ... Full Review

Handler, David THE SHIMMERING BLOND SISTER September 1, 2010 - Even in toney Dorset, background checks are advisable. Connecticut state trooper Des Mitry has her hands full. A flasher is spending his weekend nights ringing the doorbells, but not the chimes, of the town’s rich old ladies. He leaves no ... Full Review

Hannah, Sophie THE TRUTH-TELLER'S LIE September 1, 2010 - Professional and personal relationships collide with the energy of supernovas. When Naomi Jenkins’s married lover Robert fails to show up at Traveltel’s Room 11 for their regular three-hour tryst, she scurries to his house, glances in his living room window ... Full Review

Hart, Carolyn GHOST IN TROUBLE September 1, 2010 - The latest case for one of Heaven’s cleverest sleuths forces her to break a lot of rules. Wiggins, her boss in Heaven’s Department of Good Intentions, knows that Bailey Ruth Raeburn (Merry, Merry Ghost, 2009, etc.) means well. Even though ... Full Review

Katz, Jon ROSE IN A STORM September 1, 2010 - Rose (Dog Days, 2007, etc.) pens a simple novel of super-canine loyalty and heroism. Relationships and respect—between animals, as well as between animals and humans—feature in this short, heart-tugging tale of a dog with a planet-size work ethic. The story ... Full Review

Kent, Kathleen THE WOLVES OF ANDOVER September 1, 2010 - In this prequel to The Heretic’s Daughter (2008), Kent tells the fictionalized story of her ancestor Martha Carrier’s courtship with her future husband years before she became a victim of the Salem Witch Trials. In 1673, Martha’s father sends her ... Full Review

Leonard, Elmore DJIBOUTI September 1, 2010 - Leonard’s company of stock character types—the veteran law enforcer, the savvy professional woman, the seen-it-all sidekick, the horny billionaire—are so cool that they can confront international terrorism without batting an eyelash. Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Dara Barr wants to make a ... Full Review

Leotta, Allison LAW OF ATTRACTION September 1, 2010 - First-time novelist Leotta follows a rookie federal prosecutor on the case of a lifetime in this thriller set against the backdrop of the Washington, D.C., court system. The author, a federal sex-crimes prosecutor who hails from Michigan and has a ... Full Review

Leung, Brian TAKE ME HOME September 1, 2010 - The “home” of the title is the minuscule (and aptly named) settlement of Dire, Wyo., where Addie Maine revisits a locus of love and loss 40 years after the tragic events that had transpired there. In the 1880s, Addie travels ... Full Review

Macbain, Bruce ROMAN GAMES September 1, 2010 - A respected Roman senator turns sleuth to solve a baffling closed-door mystery. It’s 96 CE. Her husband already executed for atheism, Flavia Domitilla, niece of the Emperor Domitian, has been exiled to the island of Pandateria. With the wildly popular ... Full Review

Machart, Bruce THE WAKE OF FORGIVENESS September 1, 2010 - A wager destroys a farm family in this risk-taking first novel about Czech immigrant landowners in early 20th-century South Texas. Hard men are grabbing land any way they can. Vaclav Skala has been softened by a loving wife, who has ... Full Review

Maupin, Armistead MARY ANN IN AUTUMN September 1, 2010 - Maupin continues his popular Tales of the City saga (Michael Tolliver Lives, 2007, etc.) with the return to San Francisco of Mary Ann Singleton after 20 years in the cushy Connecticut suburbs. She’s caught her retired-CEO husband cheating via Skype, ... Full Review

Mayor, Archer RED HERRING September 1, 2010 - Joe Gunther (The Price of Malice, 2009, etc.) pursues a vindictive killer and pays heavily for catching him. Three people meet sudden deaths: two middle-aged women and a 19-year-old boy. A car wreck kills one; another dies horribly in the ... Full Review

McCabe, Patrick THE STRAY SOD COUNTRY September 1, 2010 - The Irish McCabe uses elements familiar from his previous work for his latest novel, a ghoulish small-town burlesque. The town is Cullymore, on the Irish border; it was also the setting for his last novel (The Holy City, 2008, etc.). ... Full Review

McGlynn, Stacey KEEPING TIME September 1, 2010 - A perfectly charming debut in which a septuagenarian from Liverpool travels to Long Island in search of her long-lost fiancé. Daisy Phillips is feeling the pressure to move from her quaint English home to a state-of-the-art retirement community. She loves ... Full Review

McMillan, Terry GETTING TO HAPPY September 1, 2010 - McMillan’s sequel to her popular Waiting To Exhale picks up 15 years later in the lives of the four Phoenix friends—Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine and Robin—still looking for love and happiness as they hit middle age. It’s 2005 and each of ... Full Review

Moore, Graham THE SHERLOCKIAN September 1, 2010 - Another resurrection of Sherlockiana, the conceit here being the story of tracking down Arthur Conan Doyle’s missing journal from 1900—and solving a murder associated with the journal. Owing to a couple of scholarly articles on Sherlock Holmes, Harold White has ... Full Review

Oates, Joyce Carol SOURLAND September 1, 2010 - More of (mostly) the same in Oates’s latest collection of 16 in-your-face short stories. Faithful readers will note the familiar mixture of vividly conceived psychodramas redeemed by raw intensity and immediacy, and clichéd depictions of vulnerable and victimized souls dominated ... Full Review

Oldfield, Pamela THE BOAT HOUSE September 1, 2010 - Prolific Oldfield (The Birthday Present, 2010, etc.) spins yet another tale of England, this one just before World War I in the town of Henley-on-Thames. Marianne Lefevre is a new governess. After losing both her parents, she’s found herself in ... Full Review

Parini, Jay THE PASSAGES OF H.M. September 1, 2010 - Following novels based on Tolstoy (The Last Station, 1990) and Walter Benjamin (Benjamin’s Crossing, 1997), Parini offers his seventh: a piquant exploration of the life of Herman Melville as sailor, writer and family man. Why piquant? Because Parini places considerable ... Full Review

Pearson, Ridley IN HARM’S WAY September 1, 2010 - Pearson’s (Killer Summer, 2009, etc.) Sun Valley sheriff Walt Fleming tries to sort out his knotty personal life as he hunts for a killer, with a little help from Seattle cop Lou Boldt, another Pearson character. Things have gotten complicated ... Full Review

Ragen, Naomi THE TENTH SONG September 1, 2010 - An upper-middle-class Jewish family is thrown into turmoil when a father is accused of abetting terrorism. Things couldn’t be more idyllic for the Samuels clan of Cambridge, Mass. Abigail is exulting in the pleasurable planning of a gala engagement party ... Full Review

Rinna, Lisa STARLIT September 1, 2010 - Actress Rinna’s debut features an unscrupulous Hollywood diva who will stop at nothing to defeat a younger rival. Tally, Sadie and Mandy, three ingénues who came to L.A. hoping to break into acting, are still waitressing despite years of lessons ... Full Review

Ritter, Todd DEATH NOTICE September 1, 2010 - A small-town sheriff has her hands full with a vicious serial killer. Perry Hollow, Pa., has never had a murder of its own until a corpse is discovered in a coffin on the side of the road. George Winnick was ... Full Review

Sampson, Fay THOSE IN PERIL September 1, 2010 - Tracing the history of their paternal forebears turns deadly for the Fewings family (In the Blood, 2009, etc.). Suzie Fewings has done a bang-up job of tracing her West Country ancestry. When her husband Nick inherits a portrait of his ... Full Review

Sandford, John BAD BLOOD September 1, 2010 - An open-and-shut case of murder leads Virgil Flowers, of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (Rough Country, 2009, etc.), to a twisted, century-old conspiracy. Despite his efforts to pass off Jacob Flood’s death as an accident, it’s no secret that Robert ... Full Review

Schwartz, Stephen Jay BEAT September 1, 2010 - A harrowing catalog of all the bad things that happen to the two of you and everyone else when you fall in love with a prostitute. When he’s not working cases for LAPD Robbery-Homicide, Detective Hayden Glass (Boulevard, 2009) is ... Full Review

Shanghvi, Siddharth Dhanvant THE LOST FLAMINGOES OF BOMBAY September 1, 2010 - A rambunctious second novel from the award-winning Shanghvi (The Last Song of Dusk, 2004), in which the spectacle of Bombay serves as backdrop for a dizzying plot involving murder, adultery, AIDS, police corruption, bribery, celebrity and the lonely pursuit of ... Full Review

Spencer, Sally BLACKSTONE AND THE WOLF OF WALL STREET September 1, 2010 - Marooned in the United States, Inspector Sam Blackstone investigates the kidnapping of a business tycoon. Since an attempt on his life seven years earlier, banker William Holt has lived in seclusion in his Coney Island mansion, running his business from ... Full Review

Taylor, Patrick AN IRISH COUNTRY COURTSHIP September 1, 2010 - Continuation of Taylor’s popular series about country doctors in the tiny Northern Irish town of Ballybucklebo, circa 1964. At Number 1, Main Street, Ballybucklebo, Dr. Fingal O’Reilly still grapples with the symptoms of his motley group of patients and with ... Full Review

Tremain, Rose TRESPASS September 1, 2010 - Two very different sets of siblings, one French, one English, seek resolution to their fraught upbringings and present discontent in this latest tale of intertwining lives from Tremain (The Road Home, 2008, etc.). When his success as a London antiques ... Full Review

Willis, Deborah VANISHING AND OTHER STORIES September 1, 2010 - The well-made, mostly downbeat stories in Canadian writer Willis’s debut collection feature characters with an intimate understanding of loss—loss past, loss present, even the losses to come. In the title story, a daughter struggles to come to grips with the ... Full Review

Winer, Andrew THE MARRIAGE ARTIST September 1, 2010 - In this resolutely ambitious novel from Winer (The Color Midnight Made, 2002), a present-day art critic’s attempt to understand his dead wife and her brilliant Native-American artist-lover intertwines with the fate of an equally brilliant Jewish artist in 1930s Vienna. ... Full Review