Publishers Weekly articles from April 2010

Publishers Weekly archives from April 2010

LBF: up from the ashes: Americans reflect on the fair that, for the most part, wasn't.(Foreword)(London Book Fair)
April 26, 2010... Though it seemed like something out of a science fiction novel, the reality that an active volcano in Iceland kept most Americans--and legions of Europeans from attending this year's London Book Fair has started some thinking about the...

Amazon blowout quarter.(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Amazon reported total revenue for the company jumped 46% in the first quarter, to $7.13 billion. Net income rose 68%, to $299 mil lion. Gains were driven by the electronics and general merchandise segment, home to the Kindle, where sales jumped...

CEO panel at BEA.(BookExpo America)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... FSG president Jonathan Galassi will moderate a CEOs' panel discussion with Bob Miller, David Shanks, Esther Newberg, and other publishing executives at BEA on Tuesday, May 25. The panel is jointly sponsored by the ABA.

Amazon Sues North Carolina.(Department of Revenue)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Amazon has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Seattle against the North Carolina Department of Revenue charging that its demand that Amazon turn over the names and addresses of all state residents who bought anything from the etaller since 2003...

Court Overturns Video Case.(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... In an 8-1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a Virginia man sentenced to prison for creating videos that included scenes of dog-fighting. The ruling is being called a victory for free speech. The court said the law was...

Chin Promoted.(Denny Chin)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Denny Chin, the judge presiding over the Google Book Settlement case, was confirmed by the Senate for a seat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, 98-0. It is unclear how his promotion might affect the Google settlement.

Michael Johnson, Square Books, Oxford, Miss.(Galley Talk)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Shane Jones's debut novel, Light Boxes, began with a 500-copy print mn by Publishing Genius. Then Spike Jones called, wanting to buy the movie rights. Now Penguin has picked it up for a May release, and this exciting work will finally reach the...

Palmer lands at Harper.(Deals)(Liza Palmer)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Liza Palmer, whose 2005 debut Conversations with the Fat Girl (5 Spot) became a bestseller, is moving to Morrow/Avon. Carrie Feron pre-empted North American rights to two novels by Palmer--White Picket Fences and Crimes Against Humanity and The...

Coben kids around.(Deals)(Harlan Coben)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Harlan Coben, who's published by Dutton, has signed with his publisher's children's unit--Penguin Group for Young Readers--to do his first YA series. Coben's agent, Lisa Erbach Vance at Aaron Priest, closed the three-book deal with Brian Tart....

A Trifecta for Sherman.(Deals)(Wendy Sherman)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Kara Cesare at Gallery Books took world rights, at auction, to Dr. Anthony Youn's memoir, In Stitches. Youn, currently a world-renowned plastic surgeon, is writing with Alan Eisenstock and recounts his experiences growing up the sole...

Rodale goes KaBOOM!(Deals)(Rodale Press's Shannon Welch)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Rodale Press's Shannon Welch signed a currently untitled memoir by KaBOOM! cofounder Darell Hammond. Welch bought U.S. and Canadian rights at auction from Miriam Altshuler, who has her own eponymous agency. Hammond got KaBOOM!--a nonprofit that...

Kensington lands author-agents.(Deals)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Kensington has signed two projects from Artists and Artisans agency, both with agents attached to write. Alicia Condon took world rights to three books for the house's Aphrodisia line written by Artisan agent Jamie Brenner, in a deal brokered by...

B&N, salon team up.
April 26, 2010... Barnes & Noble, BN.com, and the B&N Review will partner with Salon.com to share selected articles and content with Salon.corn on a daily basis. Salon. com will include affiliate links to BN.com, offering Salon.com readers the opportunity...

S&S, M-W in bookshare deal.
April 26, 2010... S&S and Merriam-Webster are joining with Bookshare, a nonprofit, online library for people with print disabilities, to give Bookshare members access to an extensive selection of their titles. M-W has also given Bookshare worldwide rights to...

Jacobi dies at 85.(Emilie Jacobson Jacobi)(Obituary)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Emilie Jacobson Jacobi, senior v-p, Curtis Brown Ltd. Literary Agency, died of complications from pneumonia, April 15. She was 85 years old and lived in Manhattan. Jacobi joined Curtis Brown in 1946. Among the writers she represented were...

Books down at books-a-million.(Inside the 10-K)
April 26, 2010... Sales of books and magazine fell 5.5% at Books-A-Million in the year ended January 30, to $411 million, according to the retailer's recently filed 10-K report. Earlier this year, BAM reported that total revenue for the bookstore chain fell 1.3%,...

New fiction tops lists.(Selling Abroad)(Table)
April 26, 2010... New fiction titles led bestseller lists in three major international markets in March. Eight out of 10 slots on Germany's Buchreport fiction list were brand new. Bumble Dumb, the fourth novel by German comedian Tommy Jaud, took the top spot....

Comics shops join the digital revolution.(Hooking Up)
April 26, 2010... As it had been at the comics retailer meeting, ComicsPRO, a few weeks earlier, the digital evolution was a hot topic of discussion at the Diamond Retailer Summit held April 14-16 in Chicago in conjunction with the C2E2 comics convention, but the...

U.S. graphic novel sales down 6%.(Boom Is Over)
April 26, 2010... Milton Griepp, publisher of the pop culture trade news site, ICv2.com, reported that 2009 graphic novel sales in the U.S. and Canada declined 6%, to $370 million. In his annual white paper on the comics and graphic novel marketplace, Griepp said...

McDonald to FSG.(People)(Sean McDonald as vice president, executive editor, and director of paperback publishing at Farrar, Straus and Giroux)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... Sean McDonald has been named v-p, executive editor, and director of paperback publishing at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. McDonald, who has spent the past seven years at Riverhead, will start at FSG on May 10.

De Pablos up at Vintage Espanol.(People)(Jaime de Pablos)(Brief article)
April 26, 2010... With the appointment of Vintage Espanol's publishing director, Milena Alberti, to v-p, mergers and acquisitions, for Random House, Vintage Espanol's urrent publishing manager, Jaime de Pablos, has been promoted to director of the...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
April 26, 2010... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mary Higgins Clark and Simon & Schuster--a felicitous union that's outlasted many marriages. S&S published Clark's first novel, Where Are the Children? in 1975, making this year the "couple's" 35th anniversary....

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
April 26, 2010... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nice to know some things don't change. Like each of Kelley's previous bestsellers, her take on Oprah has generated beaucoup controversy and chat. (No surprise: per Crown's press release, she's...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
April 26, 2010... "She turned just in time to see one of the players rushing toward her at full speed, his head craning to catch sight of the wayward ball. She didn't have time to react before he slammed into hen.... She felt her arm jerk on impact and watched...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
April 26, 2010... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When The Host was published in May 2008, Meyer had already become one of the most popular authors in the world, thanks to her wildly successful Twilight Saga YA novels. (A reputation that's now grown even larger, thanks...

Children's series and tie-ins bestsellers.
April 26, 2010... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fans whose hopes were dashed when Stephenie Meyer sidelined Midnight Sun, her planned fifth book in the Twilight Saga, after it was leaked online, have reason to get excited. On June 5 Little, Brown will publish The...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.
April 26, 2010... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Scott Brick takes his listeners on another global adventure with Clive Cussler and Jack DuBrul, and the crew of the Oregon, the privately owned freelance enterprise that goes where no government dares. This time Juan...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.
April 26, 2010... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Although Lewis is perhaps best known for his sports-related nonfiction (including The Blind Side), his roots are in finance, and his first book was the bestselling, Liar's Poker, a memoir of his days as a trader in the...

New head for a new Bea: Steve Rosato guides a reconfigured trade show into a new era.(BEA 2010)
April 26, 2010... Quality not quantity may be a cliche, but it is one Steve Rosato embraces as he gets ready for his first BookExpo America s event director. Rosato has been working with BEA parent company Reed Exhibitions since 1995 and has been associated with...

A glimpse at show highlights: two days, many partners.(BEA 2010)
April 26, 2010... BookExpo America is a bellwether for trade book publishing. Simple numbers, of attendees and exhibitors, measure commitment to the value of old-fashioned community as part of what makes an industry an industry--even if the majority of the talk...

Making it in New York, New York: despite high costs and lots of competition, indies still give it a go throughout the Big Apple.(BEA 2010)
April 26, 2010... Despite some high-profile closings in recent years--Coliseum Books, Gotham Book Mart, Libreria Lectorum, and the Oscar Wilde Bookshop--bookselling in New York remains vibrant, if challenging. A new generation of booksellers and bookstores is...

Deep travel on the high line: a must-see for out-of-towners and New Yorkers alike. It seems improbable, but it's one of the new glories of New York that all any of us has to do to radically reshape our thoughts about the city is to climb up a wide flight of steps. Or, even easier, take a quick elevator ride.(BEA 2010)
April 26, 2010... The steps and elevators are the entrances to the High Line, New York's first great 21st-century park, a lushly planted, all-upstairs affair that--unlike any other park in the city--follows the course of an abandoned elevated freight train line a...

A librarian walks into ... working the BEA.(BEA 2010)
April 26, 2010... If Rodney Dangerfield were a librarian at BEA, he might say: "we don't get any respect." (Dangerfield, M.L.S., has excellent grammar.) Librarians are considered the dowdy, poor relations at the BEA publishing family reunions. We pay less to...

Bookseller of the year: City Lights.(BEA 2010)
April 26, 2010... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On a clear spring San Francisco evening about 100 people cram every free space on the main floor of City Lights Bookstore and spill out onto Columbus Avenue to hear Homero Aridjis, the Mexican...

Ronald Koltnow: rep of the year: random rep lauded for love of books and making connections.(BEA 2010)
April 26, 2010... Hilary Emerson Lay, manager of the Spirit of '76 Bookstore & Card Shop in Marblehead, Mass., would have recommended Ronald Koltnow for Rep of the Year much sooner, she says, but she assumed he had already earned that distinction. After all,...

Around the booths: PW's select guide to exhibitors at BookExpo America.(Exhibitors Guide)
April 26, 2010... 1 to 1 Publishers This first-time exhibitor offers book, audio, and DVD combos on various subjects developed by a team of authors, educators, and therapists. Featured: Sensual Yoga for Couples; Sexual Secrets & Erotic Encounters...

The Last Talk with Lola Faye.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * The Last Talk with Lola Faye Thomas H. Cook. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Penzler, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-15-101407-1 In this tightly coiled, intellectual drama, Cook (The Chatham School Affair) unwinds a marvelously tense story of belated...

Unexpectedly, Milo.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Unexpectedly, Milo Matthew Dicks. Broadway, $14.99 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-307-59230-9 Dicks offers another neurotic romp (after Something Missing), this one about a Connecticut home nurse and closet OCD sufferer who, recently separated...

The Doctor and the Diva.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... The Doctor and the Diva Adrienne McDonnell. Viking/Pamela Dorman, $26.95 (432p) ISBN 978-0-670-02188-8 In her book-club friendly debut, McDonnell weaves the intriguing tale of an early 20th-century opera singer torn between her career and...

Sea Escape.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Sea Escape Lynne Griffin. Simon & Schuster, $25 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4391-8060-0 Griffin follows up Life Without Summer with a drearily similar novel that alternates between the present of Laura, a nurse and mother, and the past of...

Blood Harvest.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * Blood Harvest S.J. Bolton. Minotaur, $25.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-312-60051-8 In Bolton's superb third thriller, the Fletchers--mother Alice, father Gareth, 10-year-old Tom, six-year-old Joe, and two-year-old Millie--receive an icy welcome...

Whiplash.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Whiplash Catherine Coulter. Putnam, $26.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-399-15653-3 In Coulter's lab 14th FBI paranormal romantic thriller (after KnockOut), FBI special agents Dillon Savich and his wife, Lacey Sherlock, look into the possible...

Insignificant Others.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Insignificant Others Stephen McCauley. Simon & Schuster, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7432-2475-8 Narrator Richard and his partner, Conrad, are a well-adjusted gay couple living in Boston at "the end of the American Century" in McCauley's...

Blending two genres: Det. Sgt. Charlotte "Charlie" Zailer and Det. Constable Simon Waterhouse investigate another bizarre crime in British author Sophie Hannah's The Dead Lie Down (Reviews, Apr. 12).(Q&A: PW talks with Sophie Hannah)(Interview)
April 26, 2010... How do you balance Charlie and Simon's police work and the inner lives of the other characters? I wanted to blend two genres that I love: the police procedural, with recurring detective characters, and the first-person-narrated woman-in-peril...

Lowcountry Summer.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * Lowcountry Summer Dorothea Benton Frank. Morrow, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06196117-5 Here's one for the Southern gals as well as Yankees who appreciate Frank's signature mix of sass, sex, and gargantuan personalities. In this...

Perfect Reader.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Perfect Reader Maggie Pouncey, Pantheon, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-307-37874-3 This imaginative debut takes a profound look at the connection between words on the page and the infinite interpretations for a reader. For heroine Flora...

Death Echo.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Death Echo Elizabeth Lowell. Morrow, $24.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-162975-4 In Lowell's ,well-crafted fifth St. Kilda Consulting thriller (after Blue Smoke and Murder), Manhattan operative Emma Cross travels to Seattle, Wash., where...

Slow Horses.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Slow Horses Mick Herron. Soho Constable, $25 (336p) ISBN 978-1-56947-643-7 Banished to London's Slough House-the junkyard for disgraced MI5 agents-for botching a high-profile training exercise, River Cartwright spends his days sifting...

A Bad Day for Pretty.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * A Bad Day for Pretty Sophie Littlefield. Minotaur, $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-55975-5 Littlefield's rollicking second novel featuring tough-talking Stella Hardesty, who manages a sewing shop and doles out her own brand of justice to...

Hidden Wives.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Hidden Wives Claire Avery. Forge, $14.99 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2689-8 This undistinguished debut by the pseudonymous Avery (two sisters who were raised in a fundamentalist Catholic community) focuses on a horrifically oppressive...

The Outer Banks House.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... The Outer Banks House Diann Ducharme. Crown, $25 (304p) ISBN 978-0-307-46223-7 In Ducharme's strong debut, 17-year-old Abigail Sinclair arrives at the Outer Banks with her family, whose fortunes are on the wane after the defeat of the...

Go, Mutants!(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Go, Mutants! Larry Doyle. Ecco, $23.99 (368p) ISBN 978-006-168655-9 Humor writer Doyle (I Love You, Beth Cooper) walks a razor's edge between dumb and clever and falls onto both sides repeatedly in this parody that imagines a world in...

Strong Justice: A Caitlin Strong Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * Strong Justice: A Caitlin Strong Novel Jon Land. Forge, $24.99 (352p) ISBN 978-07653-2336-1 In Land's intense, skillfully plotted second thriller to feature formidable female Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong (after Strong Enough to Die),...

Promises to Keep.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Promises to Keep Jane Green. Viking, $25.95 (343p) ISBN 978-0670-02179-6 In Green's 12th novel, Callie Perry is a happily married photographer with two wonderful kids, a lovable sister, Steffi, and a best friend, Lila. Problems are minor:...

Stories: All New Tales (Short fiction collection)
April 26, 2010... Stories: All-New Tales Edited by Nell Gaiman and AI Sarrantonio. Morrow, $2 7.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-06-123092-9 This collection of 27 never-before published stories from an impressive cast--Roddy Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, and Stuart...

Villa Mirabella.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Villa Mirabella Peter Pezzelli. Kensington, $15 paper (285p) ISBN 978-0-7582-2051-6 Much like his previous four novels, Pezzelli's latest is a pleasurable, effortless read. Jason Mirabella was a young hotshot marketing genius for a...

Double Happiness: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * Double Happiness: Stories Mary-Beth Hughes. Grove/Black Cat, $15 paper (176p) ISBN 978-0-8021-7074-3 The reader eagerly waits for the hammer to fall in these 11 wickedly drawn stories by the author of Wavemaker II. Hughes's characters...

Roadside Bodhisattva.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Roadside Bodhisattva Paul Di Filippo. PS Publishing (www.pspublishing.co.uk), $24 (192p) ISBN 978-1-90630175-0 A few months after 16-year-old Kid A runs away from home, fed up with his Buddhist slacker parents' lifestyle, he teams with...

The Devil Amongst the Lawyers.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... The Devil Amongst the Lawyers Sharyn McCrumb. St. Martin's, $24.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-312-55816-1 In 1935, the case of an Appalachian schoolteacher arrested for murdering her father becomes a national news stow, seized on by the press...

First Thrills: High-Octane Stories from the Hottest Thriller Authors.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... First Thrills: High-Octane Stories from the Hottest Thriller Authors Edited by Lee Child. Forge, $25.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2648-5 Child, the creator of the Jack Reacher series (Gone Tomorrow, etc.), offers a mixed bag in this...

The Road Home.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... The Road Home Michael Thomas Ford. Kensington, $24 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7582-1853-7 In this gentle coming-of-middle-age tale, Ford (Last Summer) follows a gay Boston photographer recuperating at his father's smalltown Vermont home, where...

Beachcombers.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Beachcombers Nancy Thayer. Ballantine, $25 (384p) ISBN 978-0-345-51828-6 After her husband leaves her for one of her best friends, middle-aged Marina Warren takes a friend's advice and retreats to Nantucket, the stomping grounds of her...

Summer Shift.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Summer Shift Lynn Kiele Bonasia. Touchstone, $15 paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-4391-2897-8 After her debut, Some Assembly Required, Bonasia once again mines her Cape Cod upbringing with a cast of coastal smalltown characters. Mary Hopkins is...

The House on Oyster Creek.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... The House on Oyster Creek Heidi Jon Schmidt. NAL Accent, $15 paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-451-22992-2 Locals and summer people face off on Cape Cod in Schmidt's atmospheric romance. As soon as New Yorkers Henry and Charlotte Tradescome...

The More You Ignore Me.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... The More You Ignore Me Jo Brand. Harper, $13.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-197358-1 Brand's (it's Different for Girls) latest lacks focus as she alternates between the voices of a devoted husband, Keith, his schizophrenic wife, Gina, and...

Time Among the Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Time Among the Dead Thomas Rayfiel. Permanent, $26 (158p) ISBN 978-1-57962-201-5 Rayfiel's solid latest is the tale of the elderly, dying William, Lord Upton. The cantankerous old man is urged by his grandson, Seabold, to write a journal,...

The Three Fates.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... The Three Fates Linda Le, trans, from the French by Mark Polizzotti. New Directions, $15.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-8112-1610-4 French-Vietnamese-born Le (Slander) weaves a dense, lush tale exploring the chasm between West and East,...

Carbine: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * Carbine: Stories Greg Mulcahy. Univ. of Massachusetts, $22.95 paper (196p) ISBN 978-1-55849-818-1 In these 41 brief, surprising stories, Mulcahy (Constellation) mines everyman's deep sense of failure and spiritual alienation. "Hat" sets...

Dangerous.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Dangerous Diana Palmer. HQN, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 9780-373-77459-3 For years, Palmer's long, tall Texans have donned white hats and rescued ladies in distress. FBI Special Agent Mac Kilraven, the hunky hero of her bangup latest, is no...

Stairway to Hell.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Stairway to Hell Charlie Williams. Serpent's Tail, $14.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-84668-689-4 Williams's fourth novel (Deadfolk) is a funny, absurd, and deeply nerdy channeling of his inner record store clerk. Richard Sutton, aka Rik...

Gone Too Far.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Gone Too Far Angela Winters. Kensington Dafina, $14 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-7582-2957-1 Putting the "diss" into dysfunctional, this fifth update in the Winters' View Park series (A Price to Pay, etc.) about the Chases, a black dynasty in...

Life After Yes.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Life After Yes Aidan Donnelley Rowley. Avon, $14.99 paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-189447-3 Lawyer turned author and blogger Rowley spins a heartfelt, earnest, if uneven, tale of post-9/11 New York City. It's January 2002, and corporate lawyer...

Beyond 2012: The Omega Point.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Beyond 2012: The Omega Point Whitley Strieber. Tor, $24.99 (320p) ISBN 9780-7653-2334-7 The solar system's entry in 2020 into a supernova's atmosphere threatens the future of life on Earth in Strieber's over-the-top sequel to 2012: The War...

Among Thieves.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Among Thieves Mez Packer. Tindal Street (IPG, dist.), $13.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-955647-62-8 British author Packer juggles various narrative threads in her intriguing debut, mostly set in the 1980s. The strongest plot line concerns...

Wraith.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Wraith James R. Hannibal. TotalRecall (totalrecallpress.com), $27.99 (322p) ISBN 978-1-59095721-9 Hannibal, a former air force officer, offers an insider's view into some of the U.S. Air Force's most intriguing weapons systems in his...

Gasoline.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Gasoline Quim Monzo, trans, from the Catalan by Mary Ann Newman. Open Letter (Univ. of Nebraska, dist.), $14.95 paper (141p) ISBN 978-1934824-18-4 A creative block has ramped up the paranoia of artist Heribert Julia and weakened his...

A Tailor-Made Bride.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... A Tailor-Made Bride Karen Witemeyer. Bethany House, $24.99 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0755-6 Witemeyer's debut will grab fans in the historical romance crowd. She blends lively writing, storytelling prowess, and enough romance to keep...

Chasing Lilacs.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * Chasing Lilacs Carla Stewart. FaithWords, $13.99 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-446-55655-2 Stewart's fiction debut is a classic coming-of-age story set in tiny Graham Camp, Tex., in 1958. Sammie Tucker, soon to be 13, has a mother with "nerve...

Caper.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Caper Parnell Hall. Pegasus (Norton, dist.), $25 (256p) ISBN 978-1-60598-104-8 Stanley Hastings, an endearingly inept New York City PI whose usual fare is interviewing prospective slip-and-fall clients for a negligence lawyer, gets...

No Going Back.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... * No Going Back Lyndon Stacey. Severn, $27.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-6883-1 This stellar first in a new series from British author Stacey (Cut Throat) introduces Daniel Whelan, a 28-year-old former police officer, and his retired police...

Murder on Lexington Avenue: A Gaslight Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Murder on Lexington Avenue: A Gaslight Mystery Victoria Thompson. Berkley Prime Crime, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-425-23437-2 In Thompson's fine 12th mystery set in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City (after 2009's Murder on Waverly...

Silver Guilt.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... Silver Guilt Judith Cutler. Severn, $27.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-7278-6852-7 American readers will learn a lot about the British antiques world from Cutler's clever second Lina Townend mystery (after 2005's Drawing the Line). Lina, the...

A Night of Long Knives.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... A Night of Long Knives Rebecca Cantrell. Forge, $24.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2045-2 Cantrell's sequel to her acclaimed debut, A Trace of Smoke (2009), will disappoint those expecting a realistic portrayal of 1934 Nazi Germany. When the...

The Ring of Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 26, 2010... The Ring of Death Sally Spencer. Severn, $28.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7278-6868-8 Fans of The Dead Hand of History (2009) will welcome Spencer's second mystery featuring Det. Chief Insp. Monika Paniatowski set in 1970s Lancashire. Early one...