Publishers Weekly articles from April 2008

Publishers Weekly archives from April 2008

Chains, Internet ruled bookselling in 2007: two segments accounted for 54% of unit purchases.(Foreword)
April 7, 2008... Bookstore chains and online retailers accounted for more than half of all book units bought by adults 18 years old and older, according to figures compiled by PubTrack Consumer, a new service introduced by Bowker in 2007. Chain bookstores had...

Miller to head HC "studio".(Bob Miller, HarperCollins)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Bob Miller, longtime president of Hyperion, is leaving the company to join HarperCollins, where he will head a "publishing studio" that will do 25 titles a year in a variety of print and digital formats. Authors will be paid on a profit-sharing...

Archer named Hyperion president.(Ellen Archer)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... With Bob Miller's move to HC, Disney named Ellen Archer president of its Hyperion book unit. Archer joined Hyperion in 1999 and in 2005 was named to her most recent post, senior v-p and publisher. In addition to spearheading campaigns for some...

Don't get mad, get ahead.(Foreword)(print on demand)
April 7, 2008... Last summer, I got into a conversation about books with an acquaintance who, while a reader, is not even remotely connected to the publishing business. "Where do you get your books?" I asked him. He looked surprised. "Amazon," he said....

Weisbach leaving Weinstein.(Rob Weisbach of Weinstein Books)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... After more than two years overseeing the refigured Weinstein Books, Rob Weisbach is stepping down. According to a statement from the Weinstein Company, Weisbach is departing to "pursue other publishing interests."

Lightning teams with On Demand.(Lightning Source)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Lightning Source has signed with On Demand Books, proprietor of the Espresso Book Machine, in a deal that will give On Demand access to Lightning's scanning facilities, as well as access to copyrighted material through an opt-in/ opt-out clause...

Bloomsbury USA down.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Led by sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, revenue at Bloomsbury doubled in 2007, hitting 150.2 million [pounds sterling] ($300 million), and pretax profit jumped to 15.9 million [pounds sterling] from 5.2 million [pounds sterling]....

Industry sales post modest '07 gains.(Uptick)(Table)
April 7, 2008... Total industry sales rose 3.2% in 2007, to just under $25 billion, according to preliminary estimates released last week by the Association of American Publishers. The increase follows a year in which sales slipped 0.3%. The largest gain among...

Curtis Brown, ICM in joint venture.(International Creative Management Inc.)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Curtis Brown and ICM have signed a co-agenting agreement underwhich Curtis Brown's London office will work with ICM to handle the sales of U.K. and foreign rights for ICM clients. As part of the deal, four agents who work for ICM in London,...

Patriot Act revision urged.(National Security Letters Reform Act)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... In an open letter published last week in the Capitol Hill trade, Roll Call, the AAP, the ABA, ALA and PEN American Center have called on Congress to approve the National Security Letters Reform Act (S. 2088 and H.R. 3189), an alteration to the...

Recession fuels sales at Spring Book Show.(Bargains)
April 7, 2008... Despite a last-minute change of venue, the Spring Book Show, held in Atlanta this past weekend, suffered few negative consequences. Larry May, director of the show, scrambled to move the remainder fair from the World Congress Center after...

B&N's Quamut lures publishers, takes on About.com.(Digital Publishing)(Barnes & Noble Inc., Quamut.com)
April 7, 2008... Barnes & Noble Inc. took a significant step into the digital publishing sphere last month when it officially launched Quamut.com, a how-to Web site. The site offers free guides on more than 1,000 topics. Quamut publisher and managing director...

Calendar: April 13-19.(Calendar)
April 7, 2008... 4/13 For National Library Week (April 13-19), check out Quiet Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian (Da Capo) by Scott Douglas, a librarian and McSweeney's contributor. 4/14 Noah Webster published American Dictionary of the...

Industry stocks: March performances.(Market Watch)(Publishers Weekly Stock Index)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... The Publishers Weekly Stock Index fell for the third consecutive month in March, though its most recent decline, 2.1%, was well below the more than 7% drops in January and February. In March, the stock prices felt for eight companies, while...

Getting hard(er) stats on translations.(Mission)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Hoping to develop a more concrete figure on the number of translations published in the U.S. annually, Chad Post, director of the Open Letter press at the University of Rochester, has started his own running tally. According to a 2005 study by...

Daum to Knopf.(Deals)(Meghan Daum, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Knopfsenior editor Robin Desser preempted North American rights to a new nonfiction book by Meghan Daum, Give Me Shelter; Tina Bennett at Janklow & Nesbit made the sale. This chronicle of real estate obsession explores the relationship between...

Random wins debut.(Deals)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Random editor-at-large David Ebershoff won an auction for a first novel by Teju Cole titled Open City; Scott Moyers at Wylie sold North American rights. The book is about a young half-Nigerian psychiatrist in New York City searching for his...

Wiehl sells mystery series.(Deals)(Lis Wiehl's Faith and Consequences)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Fox News legal correspondent Lis Wiehl will team up with veteran mystery novel ist April Henry to write a new mystery series titled Faith and Consequences, about three women who investigate crimes while also struggling with issues of faith. The...

Holt, Chronicle get foreign bestsellers.(Deals)(Henry Holt and Company Inc.)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Holt editor Sarah Knight preempted North American rights to Christian Moerk's Darling Jim; Joakim Hansson of the Nordin Agency made the six-figure sale. A bestseller in the author's native Denmark (Moerk writes in English and does his own...

McEvoy to Skyhorse.(Deals)(Dermot McEvoy, Skyhorse Publishing)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... PW editor Dermot McEvoy has sold his second novel, Our Lady of Greenwich Village: A Novel of Church, State Politics, and Kindred Spirits, to Tony Lyons at Skyhorse. Set during the 2000 presidential election cycle, the semi-satirical story...

Morrison up at Penguin.(People)(Stephen Morrison, Penguin Books)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Stephen Morrison has been promoted from editorin-chief and associate publisher of Penguin Books to v-p of Penguin Books. Morrison joined the company in 2000 after six years as a senior scout at Maria Campbell Associates. In 2003 he left for a...

Adams to Langenscheidt.(People)(Melissa Adams, Langenscheidt Publishing Group)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Melissa Adams has been named national account manager, handling Barnes & Noble and Amazon, at Langenscheidt Publishing Group. Adams arrives at LPG from McGraw-Hill's professional book division.

Navigating parenthood.(Deals)(Lynn Koegel and Claire LaZebnik book)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Penguin's Rebecca Hunt acquired a new book by Overcoming Autism authors Lynn Koegel and Claire LaZebnik via Alexis Hurley at InkWell. This presently untitled guide will help parents and teachers navigate the teenage years and offer advice on...

Rene Martin, Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, N. C.(Galley Talk)(Interview)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... I don't normally read much poetry, but Frances Richey's The Warrior: A Mother's Story of a Son at War [Viking, Apr.], a memoir in verse, was riveting. Richey conveys in a strong and honest way the feelings that ring so tree to me and other...

Promos at Little, Brown.(People)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Michelle Aielli and Marlena Bittner have both been promoted in the Little, Brown publicity department. Aielli has moved up from assistant director of public ity to associate director of publicity, Bittner from senior publicist to publicity...

Fabiancic to Mosaico.(People)(Mosaico Book Club's Miriam Fabiancic)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Miriam Fabiancic has been named editor-in-chief of Mosaico Book Club, Bertelsmann Direct North America's Spanish-language club. Fabiancic was most recently regional director of the Partnerships Program for the Centers of Excellence for Teacher...

Schluep, Clayton up at Del Rey.(People)(Chris Schluep and Keith Clayton)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Chris Schluep has been promoted to senior editor at Del Rey; he's worked on a variety of titles including China Mieville's YA novel Un Lun Dun and the graphic novel series Flight. Keith Clayton, who joined Del Rey in 2003, has been promoted to...

Saying good-bye to Dutton's Brentwood Books.(Farewell)(Doug Dutton)
April 7, 2008... More than 300 people--among them Isabel Allende, Robert Crais, Matt Groening and former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan--gathered in the courtyard of Dutton's Brentwood Books on March 30 to pay tribute to owner Doug Dutton and to say good-bye...

Hanson to HDA.(People)(HDA Inc.'s Rick Hanson)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Rick Hanson has been hired to handle special projects at HDA Inc., a distributor of DIY home design and home improvement titles. Hanson was most recently at Namco Pool & Patio.

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Bestseller Kellerman serves up all the elements his fans have come to love in the 22nd entry in his Alex Delaware series, including an intriguing plot, likable regular characters supported by an interesting...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Simon & Schuster is crowing about its record-breaking NYT bestseller total: 26, from various imprints. One of them is the first national bestseller from Howard Books, an S&S imprint since 2006.The story told in...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
April 7, 2008... "As a writer, you can never 'turn off' your passion for the written word and love of a great story. So I watch life, listen intently, and basically drive everyone around me a bit crazy as I absorb every environment in which I find myself.......

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I'll tell you what's a big part of my life--curiosity and wonderment and, at this Joint, joy and gratitude. That's what I would consider my spiritual practice. For anything more than that, people should find a...

Comics bestsellers.
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the #4 slot is vol. 17 of Ken Akamatsu's Negima. Much like Love Hina, another bestselling Akamatsu manga, Negima is a "harem manga"--a story featuring a nice but goofy guy surrounded by lots of really cute girls....

Books retain hold in Cambridge: despite challenges, Harvard Square remains a bookselling mecca.(Retailing)
April 7, 2008... During the Golden Age of bookselling in the early 1980s, Cambridge's Harvard Square boasted that it had more bookstores in a few short blocks than any other city in the country. Since then some have closed, like Paperback Booksmith and...

Zack Zook: determined to keep BookCourt a vibrant part of Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood.(50 UNDER 40)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Zack Zook took over as general manager of BookCourt three years ago, and while it was always expected he would one day run the family business, it was a bit of a surprise that Zook assumed the reins at the age of 20....

Creeping costs mean higher prices in Asia: in the year of the Rat, Chinese printers adjust to new economic realities.(International Publishing)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For publishers who have enjoyed low prices from printers in Hong Kong and China in the past decade or so, change is coming: price increases of 10%-15%. A host of factors has driven up printers' costs, which they are...

What if ...: alternate history in fiction has a long, proud history.(Viewpoint essay)
April 7, 2008... A review in the March 2 New York Times Book Review of Owen Sheers's novel Resistance, set in 1944 and 1945 after German troops have occupied southern Britain, suggests that alternate history is rare in fiction. The reviewer quoted Philip Roth...

The politics of military SF: space operas are one thing; idealizing real war another.(science fiction)(Cover story)
April 7, 2008... Betsy Mitchell, Del Rey's editor-in-chief, points to the current popularity of a subgenre that few outside the SF and fantasy genres know much about: "Whether or not the U.S. itself is involved in conflict at any given time, a solid core of...

The show goes on, spectacularly: Baen Books finds triumphant success in the midst of grief.(Cover story)
April 7, 2008... When a stroke felled publisher Jim Baen at age 62 and left Baen Books leaderless in June 2006, speculation ran wild about the future of the renowned independent science fiction and fantasy press. Fortunately for devoted authors and readers,...

Master of crisis and crime.(Author Profile)(Thomas H. Cook)(Interview)
April 7, 2008... Thomas H. Cook, the prolific crime writer, says that he's always believed that crime writing "can be meditative. It's all about resonance." Cook's work--from his breakthrough 13th novel, Edgar-winning The Chatham School Affair (Bantam, 1996),...

Daphne.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Daphne Justine Picardie. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-1-59691-341-7 Former British Vogue editor Picardie (My Mother's Wedding Dress) gives us a fictional life of Rebecca novelist Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989) that founders in...

One More Year.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... * One More Year Sana Krasikov. Spiegel & Grau, $21.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-385-52439-1 In her stunning short story debut, Krasikov hones in on the subtleties of hope and despair that writhe in the hearts of her protagonists, largely Russian...

Off Season.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Off Season Anne Rivers Siddons. Grand Central, $24.99 (350p) ISBN 978-0-446-52787-3 No one does coastal melodrama like veteran Siddons (Homeplace). Lilly Constable McCall, 53, has led an enviable life-marriage and children with a...

Tribute.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Tribute Nora Roberts. Putnam, $26.95 (464p) ISBN 978-0-399-15491-1 Roberts sets her underwhelming latest in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, where former child star Cilia McGowan rehabs her famous grandmother's long-neglected farm. Cilla's...

Tan Lines.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Tan Lines J.J. Salem. St. Martin's, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-312-37415-0 A Jacqueline Susann-style thriller by way of Candace Bushnell, Salem's scorching debut follows three young women on a wild Hamptons summer of reinventing themselves....

How Far Is the Ocean from Here.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... How Far Is the Ocean from Here Amy Shearn. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23 (320p) ISBN 978-0-307-40534-0 As Shearns's accomplished and sophisticated debut opens, "hugely pregnant" Susannah Prue hides out deep in the desolate Texas-New Mexico...

Ancient Highway.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Ancient Highway Bret Lott. Random, $25 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6374-1 Lott picks up the themes that dominated his 1999 Oprah Book Club Selection, Jewel, in this multigenerational saga. In 1927, 14-year-old Earl Holmes runs away from his...

Sister's Choice.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Sister's Choice Emilie Richards. Mira, $24.95 (544p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2565-9 In Richards's latest stand-alone Shenandoah Album saga, childless Kendra Taylor and husband Isaac accept an offer from Kendra's younger sister--single mom...

There once were two books from Nantucket.(A Summer Affair and Moon Shell Beach)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... You know summer's on the way when the beachy jacket art starts showing up. Here are two by Nantucket writers set on the island, where you can't throw a lobster roll without hitting a Claire or a Clare. A Summer Affair Bin Hilderbrand....

My Sister, My Love.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... * My Sister, My Love Joyce Carol Oates. Ecco, $25.95 (576p) ISBN 978-0-06-154748-5 Oates revisits in fantastic fashion the Jon-Benet Ramsay murder, replacing the famous family with the Rampikes--father Bix, a bully and compulsive...

Executive Privilege.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Executive Privilege Phillip Margolin. Harper, $25.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-123621-1 The U.S. president becomes a murder suspect in this over-the-top political thriller from bestseller Margolin (Proof Positive). Young Oregon attorney Brad...

Breath.(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Breath Tim Winton. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $23 (224p) ISBN 978-0-374-11634-7 This slender book packs an emotional wallop. Two thrill-seeking boys, Bruce and Loonie, are in young teenagers in smalltown Australia, circa the early 1970s....

Chasing Harry Winston.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Chasing Harry Winston Lauren Weisberger. Simon & Schuster, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4165-9019-4 The Devil Wears Prada author Weisberger delivers a hilarious, silly and entirely predictable chick lit romp. Book editor Leigh, chef Emmy and...

A Vengeful Longing.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * A Vengeful Longing R.N. Morris. Penguin Press, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59420-180-6 Set in St. Petersburg in 1868, Morris's superb second novel to feature Porfiry Petrovich (after The Gentle Axe) puts the...

The Book of Chameleons.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... The Book of Chameleons Jose Eduardo Agualusa, trans, from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn. Simon & Schuster, $12 paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-4165-7351-7 Lovers of stylish literary fiction will rejoice at this charming tale by Angolan writer...

Fidelity.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Fidelity Thomas Perry. Harcourt/Penzler, $25 (368p) ISBN 978-0-15-101292-3 Bestseller Perry (Silence) explores the psychology of identity through his characters' hidden lives in this solid crime thriller. After L.A. PI Phil Kramer is shot...

Intercourse: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... * Intercourse: Stories Robert Olen Butler. Chronicle, $22.95 (216p) ISBN 978-0-8118-6357-5 Butler moves from death monologues (Severance) to little death monologues in this provocative collection of brief pieces that imagine what goes on...

A Fatal Waltz.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... A Fatal Waltz Tasha Alexander. Morrow, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-117422-3 In Alexander's charming third novel of romantic suspense set in late Victorian England (after The Poisoned Season), Lady Emily Ashton is at a country house party...

Julien Parme.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Julien Parme Florian Zeller, trans, from the French by William Rodarmor. Other Press, $23.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-59051-280-7 Impetuous 14-year-old aspiring writer Julien Parme hasn't quite gotten over the death of his father from cancer five...

PW talks with Mohammed Hanif: the fun of making it up.(Q&A)(Publishers Weely)(Interview)
April 7, 2008... In his sardonic, satirical debut novel, a BBC World Service journalist fabricates several solutions--some plausible, some not--to the real-life mystery of who assassinated Pakistani dictator Mohammad Zia ul-Haq in 1988. Your novel has...

Walking Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Walking Dead Gerald Seymour. Overlook, $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-1-59020-005-6 This chillingly believable thriller from British author Seymour (Rat Run) charts the course of a shy young terrorist from Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim Hussein (known as a...

Black Out.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... * Black Out Lisa Unger. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23 (368p) ISBN 978-0-307-33848-8 Annie Powers leads the perfect life in Florida with her husband, Gray, and their four-year-old daughter in this stellar character-driven stand-alone from...

To the Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... To the Death Patrick Robinson. Perseus/Vanguard, $25.95 (356p) ISBN 978-1-59315-476-9 Even fans of bestseller Robinson's previous techno-thrillers featuring Adm. Arnold Morgan and his archenemy, SAS-major-turned-Hamas-general Ravi Rashood...

Unlucky Lucky Days.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Unlucky Lucky Days Daniel Grandbois. BOA (Consortium, dist.), $14 paper (120p) ISBN 978-1-934414-10-1 Brief, animist epiphanies-most shorter than a page--comprise Grandbois's folkloric debut. The frog of "Greener Pastures" dreams of...

Eight in the Box.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Eight in the Box Raffi Yessayan. Ballantine, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-345-50261-2 Defense attorney Yessayan's promising debut nicely juggles a large cast of attorneys and cops, though at times it comes close to sounding like a legal spinoff...

The Red Scarf.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... The Red Scarf Kate Furnivall. Berkley, $15 paper (496p) ISBN 978-0-425-22164-8 Sophia Morozova's relationship with fragile Anna Fedorina begins through a small act of kindness at a 1930s Siberian labor camp. As the two inmates struggle...

The Water's Edge.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... The Water's Edge Daniel Judson. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-312-35254-7 At the start of this intense crime novel from Shamus-winner Judson (The Darkest Place), the brutal murder of two drug couriers on a Southampton,...

Sweet Love.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Sweet Love Sarah Strohmeyer. Dutton, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-525-95064-6 A second chance at love for 40-something Boston TV reporter Julie Mueller, a single mom to a teenaged daughter, means disrupting life living above her parents in...

Zubaida's Window.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Zubaida's Window Iqbal al-Qazwini, trans, from the Arabic by Azza El Kholy and Amira Nowaira. Feminist Press, $19.95 (144p) ISBN 978-1-55861-572-4 In 1978, when in her early 20s, Iraqi journalist al-Qazwini was sent as a delegate to the...

Many a River.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Many a River Elmer Kelton. Forge, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 9780-7653-2050-6 In 1855, young Jeffrey and Todd Barfield are orphaned in West Texas when their parents are killed by Comanches: Todd is carried off as a Comanche captive; Jeffrey is...

The Good Physician.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... * The Good Physician Kent Harrington. Dennis McMillan (www.dennismcmillan.com), $35 (270p) ISBN 978-0-939767-60-1 All the moral incongruities and conundrums that complicate the war on terror are on almost palpable display in this searing...

A Mile in My Flip-Flops.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... A Mile in My Flip-Flops Melody Carlson. WaterBrook, $13.99 paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-4000-7314-6 Gretchen Hanover has been jilted--not quite at the altar, but close enough. Her cramped studio apartment becomes the catalyst for this lonely...

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... All We Ever Wanted Was Everything Janelle Brown. Spiegel & Grau, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-385-52401-8 In Brown's withering Silicon Valley satire, a family wakes up on a June day to realize that patriarch Paul's company has hit the big time...

The Winter of Her Discontent.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... The Winter of Her Discontent Kathryn Miller Haines. Harper, $13.95 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-113980-2 Haines serves up hefty portions of medium-rare WWll home-front nostalgia, wartime slang and theater lore in her second Rosie Winter...

Blackman's Coffin.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... * Blackman's Coffin Mark de Castrique. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (264p) ISBN 978-1-59058-517-7 At the start of this outstanding first in a new series from de Castrique (Final Undertaking), Sam Blackman, a feisty army vet who lost part of a leg...

The Blood Detective.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... The Blood Detective Dan Waddell. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-37890-5 In British journalist Waddell's solid fiction debut, a police procedural, Scotland Yard recruits genealogist Nigel Barnes to assist in solving a...

Vineyard Chill: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Vineyard Chill: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery Philip R. Craig. Scribner, $24 (256p) ISBN 9781-4165-3558-4 Craig's final Martha's Vineyard mystery (after 2007's Vineyard Stalker), completed just before his death last spring, offers all the...

The Actress.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... The Actress Elizabeth Sims. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-312-37727-4 Fans of Sims's Lambda Award-winning Lillian Byrd series (Easy Street, etc.) will recognize the bright, sassy tone of this first entry in a new series....

Buried Too Deep.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Buried Too Deep Jane Finnis. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (356p) ISBN 978-1-59058-399-9 In Finnis's spirited if at times overly complicated third Roman historical to feature inn-keeper Aurelia Marcella, who runs the Oak Tree mansio in the wilds of...

Killing Bridezilla: A Jaine Austen Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Killing Bridezilla: A Jaine Austen Mystery Laura Levine. Kensington, $22 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7582-2043-1 Jaine Austen, indefatigable L.A. crime-solver and pen-for-hire, finds herself rewriting Shakespeare for a bitchy bride in Levine's...

The Green Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... The Green Man Kate Sedley. Severn, $28.95 (256p) ISBN 9780-7278-6617-2 At the outset of Sedley's rewarding 17th mystery to feature Roger the Chapman (after 2007's The Three Kings of Cologne), Roger joins an English army set to invade...

Unwillingly to School.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... Unwillingly to School Peter Conway. Hale (IPG, dist.), $35.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7090-8325-4 In this pedestrian whodunit from British author Conway (Locked In), Janet Creswell, a retired doctor who'd been the undermatron at Brantwood, a...

Madman on a Drum: A McKenzie Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... * Madman on a Drum: A McKenzie Novel David Housewrigbt. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-37081-7 Hate, revenge and old-fashioned greed propel Edgar-winner Housewright's stellar fifth mystery to feature former St. Paul,...