Publishers Weekly articles from April 2007

Publishers Weekly archives from April 2007

For better or worse, used book sales grow: trade publishers ambivalent; online businesses prosper.(Foreword)
April 2, 2007... Prompted in part by Amazon.com's decision to sell used trade books in 2004, the Book Industry Study Group commissioned a report in 2005 to determine the size and composition of the used book market. Those findings, released in fall 2005,...

Oprah picks 'The Road'.(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Cormac McCarthy's The Road was Oprah Winfrey's surprise choice as the latest selection for her book club. In another surprise, McCarthy, notoriously shy about publicity, will do an interview with Winfrey that will air on her show this spring....

Books flat at Hastings.(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Hastings Entertainment reported that same-store sales of books for the year ended January 31 were even with the previous year. Hastings attributed the flat results to weak sales of new hardcovers, which offset strong sales of mass market...

Let's review.(Foreword)(Cynthia Ozick)
April 2, 2007... In the current issue of Harper's, novelist Cynthia Ozick takes off on--what else?--the state of "serious" fiction in this country. Beginning with the now decade-old feud between the novelists Jonathan Franzen and Ben Marcus, Ozick goes on to...

Warner now Grand Central.(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Hachette Book Group USA has changed the name of its Warner Books imprint to Grand Central Publishing. The new name will begin appearing on the publisher's fail titles. HBG senior v-p Jamie Raab said the name was picked in part to reflect the...

'LAT Book Review' redesigned.(Los Angeles Times )(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... The Los Angeles Times will debut its new Sunday book coverage April 15 as part of a new section called Opinion that will combine the Book Review with the Currents section. Tim Rutten, an associate features editor at LAT, explained that the...

Novelist launches indie press.(Black Publishing)(Tina McElroy Ansa )(DownSouth Press)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... In response to what she perceives as a lack of interest by major trade publishers in serious black writing, novelist Tina McElroy Ansa has now become a publisher, launching DownSouth Press, an independent house committed to serious contemporary...

The final cover.(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Scholastic released the jacket artwork for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last week. The cover image is by Mary GrandPre, who also created the artwork for all previous U.S. editions of J.K. Rowling's books. For the first time, the jacket...

Court rules for Abate.(Richard Abate)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... A U.S. District Court judge last week denied ICM's request for a preliminary injunction that would have prevented its former employee, agent Richard Abate, from starting a literary division at rival Endeavor before his contract ran out at the...

Chooseco sues over ad.(Daimler Chrysler)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Chooseco LLC, the company behind the book series Choose Your Own Adventure, filed a trademark infringement lawsuit on Tuesday against Daimler Chrysler, charging that its brand was invoked without permission for an ad campaign for the Jeep...

Publishers back borders moves, with caveats.(Hopeful)
April 2, 2007... Publishers generally supported the ideas presented by Borders CEO George Jones to give the retailer a new strategic direction, although they were troubled by a few aspects. "There's much to like if Borders truly improves merchandising and...

Hudson Street gets Wright.(First Deal)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Luke Dempsey, who took over publishing duties at Hudson Street Press after founder Laureen Rowland's departure in January, has made his first acquisition for the Penguin imprint. Titled Learning to Breathe, it is a memoir by Alison Wright, a...

Kenyon goes graphic.(Sherilynn Kenyon)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... St. Martin's Press will publish graphic novel adaptations of two prose novels from bestselling fantasy novelist Sherilynn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, Night Pleasure and Night Embrace. This summer Marvel Comics will also serialize two works,...

J. Randall Williams dies at 94.(Obituary)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... J. Randall Williams III, longtime senior manager at Little, Brown, died at his home in Brewster, Mass., March 22. He was 94. Williams joined the Macmillan Company in 1937 as its New York sales rep, eventually rising to editor-in-chief. In 1955...

Third Spring Book Show blossoms.(Remaindering)
April 2, 2007... More aggressive advertising and a partnership with the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance helped boost bookseller attendance 18%, to approximately 650, at the third annual Spring Book Show, held March 23-25 in Atlanta. SBS director Larry...

Calendar: April 8-14.(Foreword)(Calendar)
April 2, 2007... 4/8 A great impulse buy: David Parfitt's Lawnscapes: Mowing Patterns to Make Your Yard a Work of Art (Quirk). The Astro-Turf cover demands to be picked up. 4/9 Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts's debut self-help book,...

Dunow double.(Deals)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Houghton's Amanda Cook bought world rights on an exclusive submission to Richard Panek's Let There Be Dark, a look at the search for dark matter and dark energy, via Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson and Lerner. Previewed in his recent article in...

Hot nonfiction.(Deals)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Harper's Claire Wachtel won an auction for historian Anne Bailey's The Weeping Time: Anatomy of a Slave Auction; Dan O'Connell at the Strothman Agency sold world rights. The Jamaica-born Bailey will describe the largest slave auction in...

Second novels.(Deals)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Alexis Gargagliano at Scribner won an auction for Matt Bondurant's second novel, tentatively titled The Wettest County in the World, via Trident's Alex Glass, who sold North American rights for six figures. The book is set in rural Virginia...

Lots more Roby.(Deals)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby has just signed a new deal for two novels and two novellas; Carolyn Marino at Morrow bought North American rights from agent Elaine Koster. The novels will feature philandering minister Curtis Black,...

Kitchen confidential.(Hollywood Reader)(Robert Alexander's The Kitchen Boy )(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Did a 14-year-old boy witness the gruesome slaying of the Russian royal family by the Bolsheviks? That's just one of many mysteries explored in The Kitchen Boy (Viking, 2003), Robert Alexander's New York T/ma bestseller about the bloody July...

Lost in space.(Hollywood Reader)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... The February 19 Hollywood Reader reported major interest in TV rights to Out There: The Inside Story of the Astronaut Love Triangle Case That Stunned America (St. Martin's), Diane Fanning's November book about pampered astronaut Lisa Nowak. No...

Tatum sparks deal.(Hollywood Reader)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... New Line won't be receiving a "Dear John" letter from Nicholas Sparks anytime soon. As reported in Variety, the studio has optioned Sparks's most recent bestseller, Dear John (Warner, Oct. 2006). New Line jumped after Temple Hill partners Marty...

Audrey Brockhaus, Schuler Books & Music, Okemos, Mich.(Galley Talk)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Happiness isn't a myth, but Jennifer Michael Hecht's The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong (Harper San Francisco, Apr.) makes a convincing case that in light of what has made people happy throughout history, we buy into some...

New publisher at CRP.(People)(Chicago Review Press Inc.)(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Chicago Review Press has hired a number of new employees and promoted two others. Cynthia Sherry has been promoted from associate publisher to publisher; she's been at CRP since 1989. She succeeds Linda Matthews, who has been named director of...

Small joins Tarcher.(People)(Shanta Small )(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Shanta Small has been named associate publicity director and marketing manager at Penguin/Tarcher. Small was most recently at Random House Children's Books, where she worked on campaigns for Marcus Zuzak's The Book Thief and Carl Hiaasen's...

Wilcutt to Booksource.(People)(Mark F. Wilcutt )(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... School trade book distributor Booksource has named Mark F. Wilcutt controller. Wilcutt, who will be working to improve the infrastructure of the company and overseeing accounting and financial operations, arrives from Indox Services in St....

Barron's gives new look to language line.(Refresher Course)
April 2, 2007... Bright yellow is a color that gets noticed. That's what market researchers told the team at Barron's Educational, when the publisher was trying to find the best new look for its line of foreign language reference titles. The information was...

Commission reps redux.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 2, 2007... Along with, I'm sure, the majority of my colleagues, I am gratified that PW decided to do a piece on our niche in the world of publishing ("Can Commission Reps Survive?"; Mar. 19). I think that our role in the selling of books has often been...

Edmison to PFD.(People)(Erin Edmison )(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Erin Edmison has been named foreign rights manager and associate agent at PFD New York. Edmison, who will start at PFD in May, has been a scout at Mary Anne Thompson Associates.

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
April 2, 2007... "I have forgotten so many things in my life, yet I can remember every moment of that time with my mother, the people we saw, the things we discussed. It was so ordinary in so many ways, but as she said, you can find something truly important in...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
April 2, 2007... In an interview in the April 2 issue of U.S. News & World Report, Dr. Groopman talks about the "18-second doctor." He says physicians often make errors in their diagnoses because "most interrupt a patient 18 seconds after they start talking."...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
April 2, 2007... "At a writing course at New York University {in the early 1950s}, I got this advice from a professor--'Write about what you know. Take a dramatic incident you are familiar with and go with it.' I thought of my experience on the last flight to...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
April 2, 2007... Nearly a year after The Memory Keeper's Daughter's paperback publication, there are 3,134,842 copies in print after 20 printings. Edwards was recently the featured speaker at the Friends of Ridgewood (N.J) Library's annual fundraiser; about 500...

Comics bestsellers.
April 2, 2007... Finally in paperback, Marvel's media sensation The Road to Civil War marks the beginning of the split in the Marvel Universe--Iron Man on one side; Captain America on the other. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A gang of villains uses Superman's...

Indiana.(United States of Bookselling)
April 2, 2007... There's more to Indiana than the Indy 500 and NCAA basketball. Writers Kurt Vonnegut, Rex Stout and Booth Tarkington all hail from the Hoosier State. But despite this rich literary heritage, "The whole literary scene is practically...

Is the universe expanding or contracting?(Cover story)
April 2, 2007... Robert J. Sawyer knows a thing or two about the future. "It's here," says the Hugo Award-winning author of 18 science fiction books. And that's not necessarily good for the science fiction/fantasy category, in his view. "The genre is having a...

A Peculiar Grace.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... * A Peculiar Grace JEFFREY LENT. Atlantic Monthly, $25 (408p) ISBN 978-0-87113-965-8 Family-fracturing secrets are at the heart of Lent's luminous third novel, a transcendent story about the healing power of love and art. Two decades after...

Oystercatchers.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Oystercatchers SUSAN FLETCHER. Norton, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-393-06003-4 Regret and jealousy consume the overweening protagonist of this frustrating novel by the Whitbread-winning author of Eve Green. Moira is a 27-year-old scientist...

Crossing the Sierra de Gredos.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Crossing the Sierra de Gredos PETER HANDKE, TRANS. FROM THE GERMAN BY KRISHNA WINSTON. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26 (480p) ISBN 978-0-374-28154-0 In the atmospheric latest from Handke (The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, etc.), a...

Design Flaws of the Human Condition.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Design Flaws of the Human Condition PAUL SCHMIDTBERGER. Broadway, $12.95 paper (338p) ISBN 978-0-7679-2675-1 Former lawyer Schmidtberger delivers a promising debut about love, friendship and anger-management. Iris Steegers is with Jeremy...

Barefoot.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Barefoot ELIN HILDERBRAND. Little, Brown, $24.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-316-01858-6 Hilderbrand's sixth novel heaps on the trauma as a substitute for realistic connection in this heady mix of beach house, cancer, affair and mom lit. Connecticut...

Boombox.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Boombox GABRIEL COHEN. Academy Chicago, $15.95 paper (230p) ISBN 978-0-89733-558-4 Cohen's impressive second novel abandons the gritty waterfront of his Edgar-nominated debut, Red Hook, in favor of a rapidly gentrifying nook a few stops up...

PW talks to Danielle Ganek: the girl behind the wall: the heroine of Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him writes her way out from behind an art world desk.(Q&A)(Interview)
April 2, 2007... You participate in the art world as collector and as a philanthropist. How did you come up with the idea of writing about a fashionable young gallery concierge? I had this character whose voice I kept hearing, who was struggling with her...

Right Livelihoods: Three Novellas.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Right Livelihoods: Three Novellas RICK MOODY. Little, Brown, $23.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-316-16634-8 Heavily influenced by post-9/11 paranoia, Moody's mostly successful trio of novellas pits its wayward characters against conspiracies...

Hooked: A Thriller about Love and Other Addictions.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Hooked: A Thriller About Love and Other Addictions MATT RICHTEL. Hachette/Twelve, $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-446-58008-3 This oddly flat thriller from first-time novelist Richtel opens with a warning in a dead girlfriend's handwriting,...

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Betrayal.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Betrayal ERIC VAN LUSTBADER. Warner, $25.99 (496p) ISBN 978-0-446-58037-3 In Lustbader's workmanlike second novel to continue the saga of Robert Ludlum's amnesiac assassin and spy (after 2004's The Bourne...

A Day at the Beach.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... A Day at the Beach HELEN SCHULMAN. Houghton Mifflin, $24 (224p) ISBN 978-0-618-74654-5 Schulman (P.S.; The Revisionist) doesn't disappoint with this narrative spanning 24 terrible hours in the life of the Falktopf family on a certain...

Keeping the World Away.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Keeping the World Away MARGARET FORSTER. Ballantine, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-345-49633-1 An enigmatic painting by Gwen John created as the young English artist pined for her neglectful lover, Rodin, connects the disparate characters in...

Vivaldi's Virgins.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Vivaldi's Virgins BARBARA QUICK. HarperCollins, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-089052-0 Quick (Northern Edge) takes readers into the cloistered world of the Ospedale della Pieta, a convent orphanage and music school. Narrator Anna Maria dal...

Mademoiselle Victorine.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Mademoiselle Victorine DEBRA FINERMAN. Crown/Three Rivers, $13.95 paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-307-35283-5 Finerman's debut novel chronicles the life of Victorine Laurent, whose beauty and ambition to "conquer Paris" leads her to become the...

Ravel.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Ravel JEAN ECHENOZ, TRANS. FROM THE FRENCH BY LINDA COVERDALE. New Press, $19.95 (128p) ISBN 978-1-59558-115-0 Prix Goncourt-winner Echenoz's fifth novel to be translated into English covers the last 10 years in the life of French composer...

Lost Son.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Lost Son M. ALLEN CUNNINGHAM. Unbridled, $25.95 (480p) ISBN 978-1-932961-34-8 Cunningham follows The Green Age of Asher Witherow (2004) with a dense novelization of the life of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. An account of Rilke's baptism...

Stalin's Ghost.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... * Stalin's Ghost MARTIN CRUZ SMITH. Simon & Schuster, $26.93 (332p) ISBN 978-0-7432-7672-6 Moscow-based Senior Investigator Arkady Renko, in his outstanding sixth outing (after Wolves Eat Dogs), investigates a murder-for-hire scheme that...

The Collected Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... The Collected Stories LEONARD MICHAELS. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.50 (592p) ISBN 978-0-374-12654-4 Though Michaels, who died in 2003 at the age of 70, is probably best AL known for his novel The Men's Club (1981), these 38 stories...

Mere Anarchy.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Mere Anarchy WOODY ALLEN. Random, $21.95 (176p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6641-4 This collection of 18 sketches, 10 of which appeared in the New Yorker, is Allen's first in 25 years. The animating comedy is part S.J. Perelman and part borscht belt:...

There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble LAURIE NOTARO. Villard, $19.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6501-1 Humorist Notaro (The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club, etc.)...

Lost Men.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Lost Men BRIAN LEUNG. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23 (304p) ISBN 978-0-307-35164-7 Leung gingerly reacquaints an estranged father and son who travel through China in this sagacious and lyrical debut novel. When Westen Chan's American mother...

The Last Summer (of You & Me).(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... The Last Summer (of You & Me) ANN BRASHARES. Riverhead, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-59448-917-4 The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants author delivers her first novel for adults, a treacly tale about the tribulations a trio of longtime friends...

The Broken Shore.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... * The Broken Shore PETER TEMPLE. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25 (368p) ISBN 978-0-374-11693-4 In Temple's beautifully written eighth crime novel, Joe Cashin, a city homicide cop recovering from an injury, returns to the quiet coastal area of...

Dedication.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Dedication EMMA MCLAUGHLIN AND NICOLA KRAUS. Atria, $24.95 (280p) ISBN 978-1-4165-4013-7 The team behind The Nanny Diaries and Citizen Girl returns with another breezy chick lit portrayal of a woman wronged and, eventually, empowered. When...

Throw Like a Girl: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Throw Like a Girl: Stories JEAN THOMPSON. Simon & Schuster, $13 paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-4165-4182-0 The women protagonists of Thompson's hard-hitting latest collection of stories (The Gasoline Wars; 1999 NBA finalist Who Do You Love) have,...

Volk's Game.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Volk's Game BRENT GHELFI. Holt, $23 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8254-8 Former attorney Ghelfi's impressive debut introduces a compelling antihero, Alekei "Volk" Volkovoy. A brutal killer maimed in Russia's war against Chechnya, Volk leads two...

Salty.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Salty MARK HASKELL SMITH. Black Cat, $14 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-8021-7034-7 Staking out uncomfortable territory between gonzo humor and something far more serious, this thrill-packed romp from novelist (Moist; Delicious) and screenwriter...

The Sleeping Doll.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... The Sleeping Doll JEFFERY DEAVER. Simon & Schuster, $26.95 (448p) ISBN 978-0-7432-6094-7 Kathryn Dance, an investigator with the California Bureau of Investigation, returns from Deaver's The Cold Moon (where she was a secondary) in this...

Straits of Fortune.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Straits of Fortune ANTHONY GAGLIANO. Morrow, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-087809-2 Gagliano's debut crackles with the same energy that characterized Robert Crais's early Elvis Cole novels. Jack Vaughn, a disgraced New York City cop, has...

Vibrator.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Vibrator MARI AKASAKA, TRANS. FROM THE JAPANESE BY MICHAEL EMMERICH. Soft Skull, $12.95 paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-933368-61-0 A 31-year old Japanese journalist finds refuge from her self-destructive impulses with a long-distance trucker in...

Open Me.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Open Me SUNSHINE O'DONNELL. MacAdam/ Cage, $23 (225p) ISBN 978-1-59692-204-4; $13 paper ISBN 978-1-59692236-5 A trudging fascination with ancient rites hampers this disappointing debut novel about Mem, a professional girl mourner in...

Chasing Fireflies: A Novel of Discovery.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Chasing Fireflies: A Novel of Discovery CHARLES MARTIN. Thomas Nelson, $22.99 (356p) ISBN 978-1-59554-056-0 In his fifth novel, Martin (Maggie; When Crickets Cry) offers the same brand of sentimental Southern storytelling that has endeared...

The Overlook.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... * The Overlook MICHAEL CONNELLY. Little, Brown, $21.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-316-01895-1 Bestseller Connelly's dazzling 13th Harry Bosch novel (after 2006's Echo Park) reunites Bosch with his former flame, FBI agent Rachel Walling. Bosch must...

Up in Honey's Room.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Up in Honey's Room ELMORE LEONARD. Morrow, $25.95 ISBN 978-0-06-072424-5 Set in the waning days of WWII, bestseller Leonard's disappointing 40th novel finds gunslinging U.S. marshal Carl Webster, introduced in 2005's The Hot Kid, on the...

Pepperfish Keys: A Detective Barrett Raines Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Pepperfish Keys: A Detective Barrett Raines Mystery DARRYL WIMBERLY. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-36139-6 Special agent Barrett "Bear" Raines has some slippery fish to fry in Wimberly's cleverly constructed...

The Secret Hangman.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... * The Secret Hangman PETER LOVESEY. Soho Crime, $23 (320p) ISBN 978-1-56947-457-0 British author Lovesey deftly blends suspense and humor in his excellent ninth whodunit to feature Peter Diamond (after 2004's The House Sitter). Diamond, a...

Hollywood and Crime: Original Crime Stories Set during the History of Hollywood.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Hollywood and Crime: An Anthology of Hollywood Crime Stories EDITED BY ROBERT J. RANDISI. Pegasus (Consortium, dist.), $25 (336p) ISBN 978-1-933648-28-6 The 14 stories in this entertaining anthology from Shamus Award-founder Randisi span...

Only the Cat Knows.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Only the Cat Knows MARIAN BABSON. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-312-33238-9 The diverting new feline-themed Cozy from British author Babson (Please Do Feed the Cat) takes readers to a remote castle where a wealthy...

Havana Blue.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Havana Blue LEONARDO PADURA, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY PETER BUSH. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 (244p) 978-1-904738-22-0 Blending noirish police procedural with vivid images of life in contemporary Cuba, Padura has produced another gem in the...

Lethally Blond.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Lethally Blond KATE WHITE. Warner, $24.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-446-57795-3 In this stylish, funny fifth caper (after 2005's Over Her Dead Body) from Cosmopolitan magazine editor-in-chief White, Buzz gossip mag reporter Bailey Weggins takes a...

Shooting Star: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Shooting Star: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery CYNTHIA RIGGS. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-312-37027-5 Riggs's pleasing seventh Martha's Vineyard mystery (after 2006's Indian Pipes) finds her 92-year-old heroine,...

Tango for a Torturer.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... * Tango for a Torturer DANIEL CHARVARRIA, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY PETER BUSH. Akashic, $15.95 paper (390p) ISBN 978-1-933354-19-4 A one-time Argentine revolutionary exacts an inventive revenge on the ex-military man who once did him a...

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate TED CHIANG. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $20 (83p) ISBN 978-1-59606-100-2 This curious time-travel novella from Hugo-winner Chiang (Stories of Your Life and Others) is a gracefully told...

Acacia.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... * Acacia DAVID ANTHONY DURHAM. Doubleday, $26.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-385-50606-9 In this sprawling and vividly imagined fantasy, historical novelist Durham (Pride of Carthage) chronicles the downfall and reinvention of the Akaran Dynasty,...

Mistress of Winter.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... Mistress of Winter GILES CARWYN AND TODD FAHNESTOCK. Eos, $25.95 (496p) ISBN 978-0-06-082977-3 The sequel to 2006's Heir of Autumn is another tangle of convoluted plots, age-old grudges and old-fashioned empire building seasoned with...

The Kip Brothers.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... The Kip Brothers JULES VERNE, TRANS. FROM THE FRENCH BY STANFORD L. LUCE, EDITED BY ARTHUR B. EVANS. Wesleyan Univ., $29.95 (508p) ISBN 978-0-8195-6704-8 This first English translation of Verne's awkward hybrid of travelogue and coded...

The Serpent Bride: DarkGlass Mountain: Book One.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 2, 2007... The Serpent Bride: DarkGlass Mountain: Book One SARA DOUGLASS. Eos, $26.95 (672p) ISBN 978-0-06-088213-6 Fans of feminist fantasy will welcome the first in a new series from Australian author Douglass, set in the same world as her Axis and...