Booklist articles from May 2006

Booklist archives from May 2006

Cox, Lynne. Grayson.(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Cox, Lynne. Grayson. Aug. 2006. 148p. Knopf, $18.95 (0-307-26454-8). 797.2900974. Cox, author of Swimming to Antarctica (2004), looks hack to an unforgettable experience when she was 17 years old, training for a long-distance swim. In the...

Gibbs, David and DeMoss, Bob. Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo and What it Means for All of Us.(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Gibbs, David and DeMoss, Bob. Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo and What It Means for All of Us. Aug. 2006. 272p. Bethany, $19.99 (0-7642-0243-X). 342. Gibbs was Bob and Mary Schindler's last lead attorney in their...

Kushner, Harold S. Overcoming Life's Disappointments.(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Kushner, Harold S. Overcoming Life's Disappointments. Aug. 2006. 192p. Knopf, $21.95 (1-4000-4057-4). 296.3. Rabbi emeritus Kushner, author of, among other titles, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981), scores another hit with book...

Pantano, Illario and McConnell, Malcolm. Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Pantano, Illario and McConnell, Malcolm. Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy. June 2006.474p. Pocket/Threshold, $26 (1-41652426-6). 359.9. The impetus for this memoir is the military hearing U.S. marine Pantano underwent in 2004 for...

Editor's notes.
May 1, 2006... * High-demand mysteries, which would normally appear in Upfront, are reviewed in this issue in our special Mystery Showcase. See, in particular, reviews of new novels by C.J. Box (p. 16), James Lee Burke (p.20), Alan Furst (p.30), John Harvey...

Taraborrelli, J. Randy. Elizabeth.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Taraborrelli, J. Randy. Elizabeth. Aug. 2006.528p. illus. index. Warner, $26.95 (0-446-53254-1). 791.43 The breathtaking photograph on this book's cover makes it clear why no one will ever forget Elizabeth Taylor. And if her sheer beauty...

Young, Toby. The Sound of No Hands Clapping.(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Young, Toby. The Sound of No Hands Clapping. July 2006. 288p. index. Da Capo, $24.95 (0-306-81456-0). 070.9. In the best-selling How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2002), British journalist Young hilariously tracked his rise and fall...

Berg, Elizabeth. The Handmaid and the Carpenter.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Berg, Elizabeth. The Handmaid and the Carpenter. Nov. 2006. 160p. Random, $16.95 (1-4000-6538-0). General Fiction. In this poetic, reflective, and intricate novel, Berg turns her perceptively observing eye away from the vagaries of...

Egan, Jennifer. The Keep.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Egan, Jennifer. The Keep. Aug. 2006.256p. Knopf, $24 (1-40004392-1). General Fiction. The author of The Invisible Circus (1994) and Look at Me (2001) employs gothic conventions in an absorbing examination of the clash between the Old and...

French, Marilyn. In the Name of Friendship.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... French, Marilyn. In the Name of Friendship. July 2006.416p. Feminist, $24.95 (1-55861-521-0). General Fiction. Even though feminist thinker French has written prized nonfiction, including The Waragainst Women (1992), she is still known best...

Koontz, Dean. The Husband.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Koontz, Dean. The Husband. May 2006. 416p. Bantam, $27 (0-55380479-9). General Fiction. It's another boring day in paradise for gardener Mitch Rafferty, planting impatiens on a rich client's lawn. Then his cell rings. It's Holly, his...

Lehrer, Jim. The Phony Marine.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Lehrer, Jim. The Phony Marine. Nov. 2006.224p. Random, $23.95 (1-4000-6486-4). General Fiction. In his spare time, Lehrer, PBS newsman and moderator extraordinaire, manages to be quite the prolific novelist. In his sixteenth novel, he...

Lowell, Elizabeth. The Wrong Hostage.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Lowell, Elizabeth. The Wrong Hostage. June 2006. 320p. Morrow, $24.95 (0-06-082981-8). Romance. When federal judge Grace Silva's teenage son Lane Franklin is taken hostage, Grace knows the only man who can help her is Joe Faroe, the very...

Murakami, Haruki. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Twenty-Five Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Murakami, Haruki. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Twenty-five Stories. Sept. 2006.352p. Knopf, $25 (1-4000-4461-8). General Fiction. This well-honored and avidly read Japanese writer, who is the author, most recently, of the novel Kafka on...

Steel, Danielle. Coming Out.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Steel, Danielle. Coming Out. June 2006.208p. Bantam, $20 (0-38533832-5). General Fiction. In her sixty-seventh novel, Steel sticks to what she knows best, the lifestyles of the rich and glamorous. Here "coming out" refers to an exclusive...

The year's best crime novels.(Mystery Showcase)(Black Fly Season)(Blood of Angels)(City of Tiny Lights)(Cripple Creek)(Dead Game)(Death without Company)(Field of Darkness)(Out of Range)(The Prop)(The Sacred Cut)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Eight of the authors of this year's Top 10 crime novels have not appeared on any of our previous best lists. This infusion of fresh blood is partially explained by our decision to offer a parallel list, Best New Installments in Long-Running...

A hard-boiled gazetteer to Italy.(Mystery Showcase)(Almost Blue)(Night Bus)(The Dante Game)(Property of Blood)(Ghirlandaio's Daughter)(Any Four Women Could Rob the Bank of Italy)(The Goodbye Kiss)(Cosi Ean Tutti)(The Sacred Cut)(The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders)(The Immaculate Deception)(The Snack Thief)(Blood Rain)(Blood from a Stone)(Deadly to the Sight)(Holt)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... What makes a perfect setting for hard-boiled and noir fiction? Most people might say city streets, but that isn't quite right (don't forget country noir). What city streets do in Raymond Chandler's novels, for example, or in classic film noir,...

Mystery travel.(Mystery Showcase)(Art/Shop/Eat: Venice)(Frommer's Rome Day by Day)(Italian Riviera)(Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria)(Walking the Alpine Parks of France and Northwest Italy)(Naples and Pompeii)(The Companion Guide to Sicily)(Time Out Milan: The Lakes and Lombardy)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Deciding what specific region in Italy to visit is as seemingly an insurmountable a problem as deciding what to read while you're there. To help with that delicious dilemma, what follows is a selection of particularly inviting travel guides for...

Otto Penzler.(The Booklist Interview)(Interview)
May 1, 2006... According to Robert B. Parker, "Otto Penzler knows more about crime fiction than most people know about anything." Anyone who talks with Penzler for an hour or two will see what Parker means. The proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in New...

Adams, Jane A. Killing a Stranger.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Adams, Jane A. Killing a Stranger. June 2006. 224p. Severn, $27.95 (0-7278-6357-6). Clara Beresford is horrified when her teenage son, Rob, comes home one night covered in blood and hysterically claiming he's killed a man. While she's...

Atkins, Ace. White Shadow.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Atkins, Ace. White Shadow. May 2006. 384p. Putnam, $24.95 (0-399-15355-1). Atkins, who wrote an award-winning series of Tampa Tribune articles on real-life gangster Charlie Wall, uses the Mob boss' 1955 murder as a launching point for an...

Baron, Aileen G. The Torch of Tangier.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Baron, Aileen G. The Torch of Tangier. May 2006. 204p. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (1-59058-221-7). Baron, a retired professor of archaeology who penned who her first novel at age 76 (A Fly Has a Hundred Eyes, 2002), returns with a second book...

Bebris, Carrie. North by Northanger; or, The Shades of Pemberley.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Bebris, Carrie. North by Northanger; or, The Shades of Pemberley. 2006. 320p. Forge, $22.95 (0-765-31410-X). The third novel in Bebris' charming Pride & Prejudice--based mystery series draws in characters from Northanger Abbey to join in...

Bloom, Elizabeth. The Mortician's Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Bloom, Elizabeth. The Mortician's Daughter. Aug. 2006. 320p. Mysterious, $24.95 (0-89296-786-2). Ginny Lavoie may be depressed over her suspension from the New York Police Department, but her woes pale in comparison to those of her...

Box, C. J.: In Plain Sight.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Box, C. J. In Plain Sight. May 2006. 336p. Putnam, $24.95 (0-399-15360-8). Keeping any series balanced between familiar and fresh is tricky. An excellent series is like a tightrope act. With the author pushing himself to daring new...

Braly, Malcolm. Shake Him Till He Rattles/ It's Cold Out There.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Braly, Malcolm. Shake Him Till He Rattles/ It's Cold Out There. May 2006. 280p. Stark House, $19.95 (1-933586-03-6). The late Braly literally wrote his way out of trouble, drafting three novels in San Quentin and then turning his life...

Bruen, Ken. Calibre.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Bruen, Ken. Calibre. Aug. 2006. 224p. St. Martin's/Minotaur, paper, $12 (0-31234144-X). Bruen is so prolific that there is mounting evidence he could supply his own book-of-the-month club. It doesn't seem to affect his quality, though: if...

Buckman, Michelle and Jackson, A. H. Pretty Maids All in a Row.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Buckman, Michelle and Jackson, A. H. Pretty Maids All in a Row. June 2006. 224p. Avalon, $21.95 (0-8034-9778-4). Tori Roache and J. B. Kale, partners in a publishing firm, are invited to a mystery weekend at the Priory Hotel in Oxfordshire,...

Burton, Milton T.: The Sweet and the Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Burton, Milton T. The Sweet and the Dead. July 2006. 304p. St. Martin's/Minotaur/Thomas Dunne. $23.95 (0-31-34310-8). It's 1970, and Hog Webern is a retired Dallas deputy sheriff still brooding over a case at the end of his tenure that,...

Burke, James Lee. Pegasus Descending.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Burke, James Lee. Pegasus Descending. July 2006. 368p. Simon & Schuster, $26 (0-7432-7772-4). In James Lee Burke's novels, the past in never farther away than the ripples on the bayou outside Dave Robicheaux's New Iberia, Louisiana, home....

Clement, Alison. Twenty Questions.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Clement, Alison. Twenty Questions. July 2006. 288p. Atria, $23 (0-7432-7266-8). Can someone's life really change in the blink of an eye? It could have been, maybe should have been, June lying in the county morgue. After all, the murderer...

Colt, Jennifer. The Mangler of Malibu Canyon.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Colt, Jennifer. The Mangler of Malibu Canyon. June 2006. 352p. Broadway, paper, $11.95 (0-7679-2012-0). The second installment of Colt's engaging series opens with the McAfee twins, Kerry and Terry, stopping an attempted terrorist takeover...

Cook, Gary J.: Blood Trail.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Cook, Gary J. Blood Trail. May 2006. 465p. Dennis McMillan, $35 (0-939767-53-8). This novel's outline--a haunted Vietnam vet returns to the Far East to work for a paramilitary, extragovernmental organization--sounds like standard thriller...

Bowen, Michael. Putting Lipstick on a Pig.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Bowen, Michael. Putting Lipstick on a Pig. July 2006. 254p. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (1-59058-287-X). Intellectual banter remains the key appeal in this third entry in the Rep and Melissa Pennyworth series. Having taken on Kansas City in...

Bowen, Rhys. Evanly Bodies.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Bowen, Rhys. Evanly Bodies. Aug. 2006. 256p. St. Martin's/Minotaur, $23.95 (0-312-34942-4). The tenth Evan Evans novel shakes things up a little. Evans, the police officer in the small Welsh town of Llanfair, is a married man now, and he's...

Fiffer, Sharon. Hollywood Stuff.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Fiffer, Sharon. Hollywood Stuff. June 2006. 304p. St. Martin'sMinotaur, $23.95 (0-312-34306-X). Leaving suburban Chicago behind for this fifth in the series, antiques picker and new PI Jane Wheel travels with her longtime pal Tim Lowry to...

Greenwood, Kerry. Flying Too High.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Greenwood, Kerry. Flying Too High. July 2006. 166p. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (1-59058-237-3). The dashing Phryne Fisher, Australian flapper, makes her sixteenth appearance, and she hasn't worn out her welcome. Phryne, a glamorous detective and...

Majerus, Janet. The Best Laid Plans.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Majerus, Janet. The Best Laid Plans. July 2006. 249p. Five Star, $25.95 (1-59414-425-7). Successful children's-book author Jessie Schroeder, devastated after a divorce, returns to the small town where she grew up and finds herself...

McFadyen, Cody. Shadow Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... McFadyen, Cody. Shadow Man. June 2006. 373p. Bantam, $24 (0-553-80465-0). A serial killer murdered FBI agent Smokey Barrett's husband and daughter. Smokey killed the fiend but was left deeply scarred. Now, after spending time contemplating...

Stewart, Mariah. Final Truth.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Stewart, Mariah. Final Truth. May 2006. 272p. Ballantine, $19.95 (0-345-48383-9). Lester Ray Barnes is released from death row after it is determined that false testimony was given at his trial. True-crime writer Regan Landryn thinks...

Cotterill, Colin. Disco for the Departed.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Cotterill, Colin. Disco for the Departed. Aug. 2006. 288p. Soho, $23 (1-56947-428-1). The third entry in the Dr. Sift Paiboun series finds the spry, wry national coroner of Laos picking up a few new dance moves courtesy of a Cuban relief...

Crider, Bill. A Mammoth Murder.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Crider, Bill. A Mammoth Murder. May 2006. 272p. St. Martin's/Minotaur/Thomas Dunne, $23.95 (0-312-32387-5). Sheriff Dan Rhodes of Blacklin County, Texas, is hoping to escape the rigors of wife Ivy's low-fat diet with a trip to the Dairy...

Crosby, Ellen. The Merlot Murders.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Crosby, Ellen. The Merlot Murders. Aug. 2006. 304p. Scribner, $24 (0-7432-8990-0). Lucie Montgomery is recuperating in France from an automobile accident that left her dependent on a cane. When her brother calls to tell her that their...

Davey, Janet. First Aid.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Davey, Janet. First Aid. Aug. 2006. 208p. Little, Brown/Back Bay, paper, $13.95 (0-316-05997-8). Jo is one of those vague people who let life flow over and around them without ever taking control. She was raised by her very conventional...

Deaver, Jeffery. The Cold Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Deaver, Jeffery. The Cold Moon. June 2006. 416p. Simon & Schuster, $26 (0-7432-6093-7). Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic criminalist, returns for a new round of crime busting. Rhyme, who has starred in a handful of very good novels, is one...

Fowler, Christopher. Ten Second Staircase.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Fowler, Christopher. Ten Second Staircase. June 2006. 368p. Bantam, $24 (0-553-80449-9). Old age can't stop cantankerous detectives Arthur Bryant and John May, the most senior members of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit. The quirky...

The Mark of Cain.(HE READS ... mysteries)(The Stranger)(Branches)(Crime and Punishment)(Brighton Rock)(Reason of Insanity)(The Killer Inside Me)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Every crime story has three main players: victim, victor, and perpetrator. In most suspense novels, the reader glances nervously over his shoulder in sympathy with the potential victim, while in mysteries we ride along with the cop or sleuth in...

Delany, Vicki. Burden of Memory.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Delany, Vicki. Burden of Memory. June 2006. 344p. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (1-59058-266-7). After a messy divorce, Elaine Benson thinks that a job helping wealthy Canadian matriarch Moira Madison with her memoirs might be just the thing to get...

The Detection Collection.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The Detection Collection. Ed. by Simon Brett. May 2006. 384p. St. Martin's/ Minotaur, $24.95 (0-312-35763-X). The UK's invitation-only Detection Club boasts the cream of British crime writers; its early members included Agatha Christie, G....

Drury, Tom. The Driftless Area.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Drury, Tom. The Driftless Area. Aug. 2006. 224p. Atlantic Monthly, $23 (0-87113-943-X). Pierre Hunter had a chance to escape his small Iowa hometown, but now he's back, working as a bartender. Reticent and watchful, he lives a spare,...

Dunning, John. The Bookwoman's Last Fling: A Cliff Janeway Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Dunning, John. The Bookwoman's Last Fling. May 2006. 352p. Scribner, $25 (0-7432-8945-5). Sure, Dunning's Cliff Janeway series, starring the Denver rare-book dealer and former homicide cop, appeals to bibliophiles, but don't pigeonhole...

Eisler, Barry. The Last Assassin.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Eisler, Barry. The Last Assassin. June 2006. 352p. Putnam, $24.95 (0-399-15359-4). The fifth John Rain novel is the first not to feature the Japanese American contract killer's name in the title. Is this a sign that Eisler is taking the...

Amateur plight.(SHE READS ... Mysteries)(Film Strip)(Miss Zukas Shelves the Evidence)(Blanche on the Lam)(Love Is Murder)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... To paraphrase Law and Order, in the crime-fiction world, there are two separate but equal forces empowered to solve murders--seasoned professionals and rank amateurs. Female crime solvers abound in both categories. Experienced detectives pack...

M.C. Beaton.(The Booklist Interview)(Interview)
May 1, 2006... Writing as M. C. Beaton, Marion Chesney is the author of two vastly popular and enduring series: one starring Hamish Macbeth, the gentle cop in the tiny village of Lochdubh in the Scottish Highlands; the other starring Agatha Raisin, retired...

Frost, Scott. Never Fear.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Frost, Scott. Never Fear. July 2006. 304p. Putnam, $24.95 (0-399-15340-3). Pasadena, California, homicide detective Alex Delillo knew little of her father, Thomas Manning, beyond the roles he played as a Hollywood character actor. The...

Elkins, Aaron. Unnatural Selection.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Elkins, Aaron. Unnatural Selection. June 2006. 288p. Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95 (0-425-21005-7). A conference on the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall is the picturesque setting for Edgar-winning Elkins' latest forensic caper. His...

Emery, Anne. Sign of the Cross.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Emery, Anne. Sign of the Cross. May 2006. 280p. ECW, $24.95 (1-55022-718-1). Defense attorney Monty Collins is handed the biggest case of his career: defending a priest accused of murder. But when the priest is reluctant to contribute to...

Fowler, Earlene. The Saddlemaker's Wife.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Fowler, Earlene. The Saddlemaker's Wife. May 2006. 320p. Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95 (0-425-20778-1). The last thing Ruby McGavin thought she would be doing after her husband, Cole, died was meeting his family. He had claimed his relatives...

Furst, Alan. The Foreign Correspondent.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Furst, Alan. The Foreign Correspondent. June 2006. 288p. Random, $24.95 (1-4000-6019-2). Paris, 1939. When we heard that dateline, we used to think of Rick, Ilsa, and Sam, tinkling "As Time Goes By" in the background. Now we think of...

Ford, Clyde W. Deuce's Wild.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Ford, Clyde W. Deuce's Wild. July 2006. 384p. Midnight Ink, paper, $13.95 (0-7387-0809-7). Yousef al-Salaam, the hip-hop artist formerly known as Deuce F and a recent convert to a Sufi Islamist sect, is gunned down outside a New York City...

Fox, Kathryn. Malicious Intent.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Fox, Kathryn. Malicious Intent. May 2006. 352p. HarperCollins, paper, $13.95 (0-06-085795-1). Australian Anya Chrichton, a relative newcomer to the ranks of forensic detectives, has a three-year-old son, Ben, who is the light of her life....

Grabenstein, Chris. Mad Mouse.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Grabenstein, Chris. Mad Mouse. July 2006. 320p. Carroll & Graf, $23.95 (0-7867-1760-1). Set on a colorful Jersey Shore boardwalk, graced with a Bruce Springsteen soundtrack, and starring an aw-shucks charming pair of cop buddies,...

Hamilton, Lyn. The Orkney Scroll.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Hamilton, Lyn. The Orkney Scroll. 2006. 272p. Berkley Prime Crime, $22.95 (0-425-20800-1). The tenth in Hamilton's witty Archeological Mystery series has Toronto antique-store owner Lara McClintoch chasing an art nouveau writing cabinet...

Harvey, John. Darkness & Light.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Harvey, John. Darkness & Light. July 2006. 368p. Harcourt, $25 (0-15-101133-8). The third Frank Elder finds the retired Nottingham copper once again called back from his solitary life in remote Cornwall to help investigate a murder. This...

James, Bill. Wolves of Memory.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * James, Bill. Wolves of Memory. July 2006. 240p. Norton, $23.95 (0-393-06188-4). James is a grand-master crime writer and deserves high kudos for his Harpur & lies series, which stands, with Ian Rankin's Rebus series and John Harvey's...

Hardboiled Brooklyn.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Hardboiled Brooklyn. Ed. by Reed Farrel Coleman. May 2006. 224p. illus. Bleak House, paper, $15.95 (1-932557-17-2). In a collection as uneven as the borough's mean-but-gentrifying streets, 17 crime writers present freshly commissioned...

Hosp, David. The Betrayed.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Hosp, David. The Betrayed. July 2006. 432p. Warner, $24.95 (0-446-57695-6). When her sister is found brutally murdered, Sydney Chapin is drawn back into the vortex of her wealthy family. She's worried sick about her shy niece, Amanda, who...

Hunsicker, Harry. The Next Time You Die.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Hunsicker, Harry. The Next Time You Die. July 2006. 304p. St. Martin's/Minotaur/ Thomas Dunne, $23.95 (0-312-34850-9). When he isn't fending off wisecracks about his name, hard-bitten Dallas PI Lee Henry Oswald is fending off baseball...

Irby, Lee. The Up and Up.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Irby, Lee. The Up and Up. June 2006. 352p. Doubleday, $19.95 (0-385-51500-6). This Roaring Twenties tale of a wide-open Miami as crooked as the state it calls home finds ex-bootlegger Frank Hearn about to marry Irene Sneddon, the sweet...

On the crime beat.(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Kent, Bill. Street Legal. June 2006. 304p. St. Martin's/Minotaur, $24.95 (0-312-32885-0). King, Jonathon. Eye of Vengeance. May 2006. 304p. Dutton, $24.95 (0-525-94953-4). Journalists, whose jobs involve finding out who did what to...

Ison, Graham. Hardcastle's Airmen.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Ison, Graham. Hardcastle's Airmen. July 2006. 224p. Severn, $27.95 (0-7278-6368-1). It's 1915, and the Great War is commencing in earnest. But war is the furthest thing from the mind of DDI Ernest Hardcastle, who has a more immediate...

Jakeman, Jane. In the City of Dark Waters.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Jakeman, Jane. In the City of Dark Waters. May 2006. 320p. Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95 (0-425-20981-4). In the Venice of 1908, nobility live in crumbling palazzi, and expatriates sample Italian culture. Revel Callendar, a British lawyer...

Johansen, Iris. Killer Dreams.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Johansen, Iris. Killer Dreams. June 2006. 352p. Bantam, $26 (0-553-80344-1). In her latest thriller, the prolific, best-selling Johansen, dubbed the queen of suspense, introduces a new heroine, Sophie Dunston, a top-notch sleep researcher...

Judson, Daniel. The Darkest Place.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Judson, Daniel. The Darkest Place. June 2006. 352p. St. Martin's/Minotaur, $23.95 (0-312-35253-0). Deacon Kane has been in a downward spiral since the accidental drowning of his son several years ago. He's hitting the bottle, having an...

Kellerman, Faye. The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Kellerman, Faye. The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights. Aug. 2006. 320p. Warner, $24.99 (0-446-53039-5). Kellerman may be best known for her Rina Lazarus--Peter Decker mysteries, but she's also written numerous short stories, 18 of...

Koontz, I. Michael. Under Cloak of Darkness.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Koontz, I. Michael. Under Cloak of Darkness. July 2006. 347p. Five Star, $25.95 (1-59414-431-1). Here's a curious debut novel. Set in the 1950s, it's the story of an FBI agent who is recruited into a top-secret "Superagent" program run by...

Kerley, Jack. A Garden of Vipers.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Kerley, Jack. A Garden of Vipers. June 2006. 320p. Dutton, $24.95 (0-525-94952-6). A young female reporter is tortured then murdered. A blind woman is kidnapped and brutalized but survives, and a high-priced call girl is burned alive....

Lippman, Laura. No Good Deeds.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Lippman, Laura. No Good Deeds. June 2006. 352p. Morrow, $24.95 (0-06057072-9). In Tess Monaghan's ninth outing, an impulse to do good leads to murder. When Crow Ransome, Tess' live-in boyfriend, catches 16-year-old Lloyd Jupiter running a...

Long, Dustin. Icelander.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Long, Dustin. Icelander. June 2006. 256p. McSweeney's, $22 (1-932416-51-X). Long aspires to the linguistic acrobatics of Nabokov and Pynchon in this clever but somewhat tedious mystery debut. The tale revolves around the daughter of Emily...

Lucarelli, Carlo. Carte Blanche.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Lucarelli, Carlo. Carte Blanche. Tr. by Michael Reynolds. July 2006. 120p. Europa, paper, $14.95 (1-933372-15-X). Author of the Grazia Negro series set in contemporary Bologna (see "The Hard-Boiled Gazetteer to Italy," p.10), Lucarelli also...

Lynn, Jackie. Down by the Riverside.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Lynn, Jackie. Down by the Riverside. June 2006. 368p. St. Martin's/Minotaur, $24.95 (0-312-35230-1). Having divorced her philandering husband, Rose Franklin packs up the one possession she wants from her marriage--the travel camper her...

Margolin, Phillip. Proof Positive.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Margolin, Phillip. Proof Positive. July 2006. 320p. HarperCollins, $25.95 (0-06073505-0). Amanda Jaffe, the Oregon defense attorney, is defending a homeless man accused of murder, while her father, Frank, is representing a mobster on a...

Maron, Margaret. Winter's Child.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Maron, Margaret. Winter's Child. Aug. 2006. 336p. Mysterious, $24.95 (0-89296810-9). The twelfth entry in Maron's Deborah Knott series finds the family-oriented judge blissfully content in her brand-new marriage to her childhood friend...

King, Laurie R. The Art of Detection.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * King, Laurie R. The Art of Detection. June 2006. 368p. Bantam, $24 (0-553-80453-7). Sometimes a mystery takes one's breath away with its impeccable, inexorable logic. King makes two such tales here, whose wheels interlock with a perfect,...