Publishers Weekly articles from August 2006

Publishers Weekly archives from August 2006

Consortium clients hope for the best: publishers supportive, but wary of company sale.(Perseus Books Group's acquisition of Consortium Book Sales and Distribution Inc.)
August 7, 2006... Publisher clients of Consortium are adopting a wait-and-see attitude regarding the acquisition of the independent distributor by the Perseus Book Group. While all have faith in the business judgment of Consortium owner Don Linn, some are...

Up close and personal.(J.K. Rowling )(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Bestselling author J.K. Rowling reads from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, along with Stephen King and John Irving, part of a two-day fund-raiser for Doctors Without Borders and the Haven...

RH buys Multnomah.(Random House Inc. acquired Multnomah Publishing)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Random House has acquired the Christian book publisher Multnomah Publishers. Random will integrate Multnomah's Oregon operations with that of its existing Christian division WaterBrook Press, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. WaterBrook...

Fall springs eternal.(Foreword)
August 7, 2006... If there's one thing that just about everybody in the book business can agree on these days, it's that fiction, especially so-called "serious" fiction, is either dead or dying, at least sales-wise. At lunch after lunch, at event after event...

RH buys out Korean partner.(Random House Inc. acquired JoonAng M&B Publishers)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Random House has also taken sole ownership of Random House JoongAng, the Korean joint venture operation formed in 2004 with JoonAng M&B Publishers. The company has been renamed Random House Korea and all current and backlist titles, as well as...

Sales up at Indigo.(Indigo Books Music and More Inc.)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Indigo Books & Music said sales increased across the board for its first quarter ending July 1, 2006. Comparable-store sales for both superstores and small-format stores increased 4.5 %, while online sales grew 7.2%, to C$16.3 million. Total...

Berean bought.(JMH Capital acquired Berean Christian Stores)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... JMH Capital, a Boston private equity firm, has acquired the 16-store Christian retailer Berean Christian Stores, in partnership with Berean management. Les Dietzman will continue to head the retailer.

Publishers cope with soft market.(Midway Point)
August 7, 2006... Executives from both Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster said they were satisfied with their sales performances in the first half of 2006, given the generally soft marketplace, particularly in the second quarter. The third major trade house to...

Lisa Dugan, children's book buyer, Koen-Levy Wholesalers.(The Green Glass Sea )(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... My Penguin sales rep recommended Ellen Klages's The Green Glass Sea (Viking, Oct.), saying the reps chose it as their favorite novel of the list. It's not one of the publisher-proclaimed blockbusters of the fall season, but it's such an...

Hit man.(Lawrence Block's 'Hit Parade')(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Edgar Award-winning crime novelist Lawrence Block joined Mystery Guild editor-in-chief Jane Dentinger at the Bookspan offices to promote his newest mystery, Hit Parade just out from Morrow:

Wicker joins Klopotek.(John Wicker)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... John Wicker, former executive v-p of sales and marketing for Vista International, has joined Klopotek as head of its North American operations. The German-based company, a provider of management software and other services, is looking to expand...

New HC browse option.(HarperCollins Publishers Inc.)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... HarperCollins has launched a browsing feature on its Web site that allows consumers to digitally search HC titles. The feature is currently available for a selected group of frontlist authors, but HC plans eventually to add all of its titles to...

CDS goes to bat for Mary Magdalene.(Beyond 'Da Vinci')(CDS Books)(Secrets of Mary Magdalene: The Untold Story of History's Most Misunderstood Woman)
August 7, 2006... Da Vinci Code mania may be dead, but that doesn't mean publishers have given up on theological conspiracy theories. Despite signs that the craze for Dan Brown's megaseller is finally cooling, at least one publisher is betting that interest in a...

Off broadway.(Robert Westfield)(Suspension )(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... White Way playwright Robert Westfield celebrated the launch of his debut novel Suspension (Harper Perennial), in New York City recently. Rubbing elbows with Broadway stars at the party were (l. to r.) Harper Perennial editorial director David...

Trying to make books fun again.(Reader's Digest Association Inc.)
August 7, 2006... The status of Books Are Fun was the main topic for Reader's Digest executives during a conference call with analysts discussing results for the fiscal year ended June 30. Investments and write-offs related to RD's efforts to turn around the...

Corrections.(Foreword)(Correction notice)
August 7, 2006... In last week's Foreword story "Publishers Start Selling the Green Lifestyle," we gave an incorrect pub date for Worldchanging (Abrams); the book will be out in November. Last week's "Books Out of Africa" story incorrectly described...

Climbing Everest.(Nick Heil's forthcoming book)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Holt's Jennifer Barth has preempted world rights to a presently untitled book by journalist and climber Nick Heil, to be a narrative account of the 2006 Mount Everest climbing season, the deadliest in a decade, from Sloan Harris at ICM. In his...

In Sicily.(Marlena de Blasi's 'Villa Donnafugata')(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Random's Signe Pike has signed up the next book on Italy by Marlena de Blasi for Ballantine Books; this one turns its attention to Sicily and is called Villa Donnafugata. The book will focus on the true story of the beautiful mistress of one of...

Deadly flowers.(St. Martin's Press Inc.'s deals)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Rosemary Harris, a master gardener in the state of Connecticut, has inked a two-book deal for a proposed series of horticultural mysteries with Marcia Markland at St. Martin's Press, via Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider. The books will...

Kids and sports.(Mark Hyman's 'Parents and Pennants: America's Love Affair with Youth Sports and How It Puts Our Children at Risk')(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Agent Andrew Blauner has just sold Mark Hyman's Parents and Pennants: America's Love Affair with Youth Sports and How It Puts Our Children at Risk to Helene Atwan at Beacon. The book will examine the overheated world of youth sports and attempt...

Wiley's Tom Miller has acquired a new book by Deborah Davis titled Gilded.(John Wiley & Sons Inc.)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Wiley's Tom Miller has acquired a new book by Deborah Davis titled Gilded: Riches, Romance and Reversals of Fortune in America's Most Exclusive Resort, a social history of Newport, from agent Harvey Klinger, who sold world English; Wiley...

Grove/Atlantic's Luba Ostashevsky has bought An Uncommon Divorce by Ilyon Wu.(Atlantic Monthly Press New York)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Grove/Atlantic's Luba Ostashevsky has bought An Uncommon Divorce by Ilyon Wu, about a 19th-century case in which a woman reclaimed her kidnapped children from the Shakers and in the process changed legislation on family law; agent Julie Barer...

Dominique Raccah at Sourcebooks has acquired Joan Collins's The Art of Living Well.(Joan Collins's 'The Art of Living Well')(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Dominique Raccah at Sourcebooks has acquired Joan Collins's The Art of Living Well, in which the actress will reveal her secrets to a glamorous life at any age; agent Alan Nevins sold North American rights, and an October pub date is planned.

Calendar Aug. 13-19.(Foreword)
August 7, 2006... 8/13 Anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's birth (1899-1980). Kees Moerbeek's amazing pop-up book, Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense (Little Simon) goes on sale October 1. 8/14 After printing more than 1.3 million copies of Bad Cat and...

At book passage, it's more than just a conference.(Bookselling)
August 7, 2006... Now in its 13th year, the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference, held annually in July at the Corte Madera, Calif., store, has not only earned a reputation for helping wannabe writers become published authors, but it is also a big part of the...

Patterson to Henry Holt.(David Patterson appointed)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... David Patterson has been named senior editor of the adult trade division at Henry Holt. Patterson, who will be acquiring nonfiction/narrative history, current events, politics and memoirs, arrives from Public Affairs, where he worked on The...

Locke up at Loyola.(Terry Locke joins Loyola Press)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Terry Locke has been named CO0 of the Chicago-based Loyola Press. Locke has been senior v-p and associate publisher since 2000.

Tanaka joins peoples.(Ginny Tanaka joins Peoples Education)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Ginny Tanaka has been named v-p of sales at the New Jersey-based publisher Peoples Education. Tanaka comes to Peoples from National Geographic School Publishing, where she was v-p and national sales manager.

A publishing 'Do'.(Glamour magazine's 'Big Book of Dos and Don'ts')
August 7, 2006... Glamour magazine is poised to benefit from a double branding opportunity with the September release of Glamour's Big Book of Dos and Don'ts. The magazine is one of the biggest brands in women's fashion; published by Conde Nast, it boasts 12.5...

Industry stocks: July performances.(Market Watch)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... The Publishers Weekly Stock Index fell 6.2% in July as the stock price of three companies plunged following weaker than expected earnings reports. The biggest loser was Amazon, as investors punished the e-taller for delivering earnings that...

Thomas to Warner books.(Karen Thomas appointed)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Karen Thomas will join Hachette's Warner Books as executive editor in September. Most recently at Kensington, where she was editorial director of Dafina Books (which she also founded in 2000), Thomas is credited with launching the careers of...

Hires at S&S Children's.(Laura DiSiena, Lisa Cheng and Carolyn Pohmer joins Simon & Schuster Inc.)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Laura DiSiena, Lisa Cheng and Carolyn Pohmer have all joined Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. DiSiena has been named designer at Simon Spotlight; she was previously at Modern Publishing. Cheng, who's been named associate editor for...

Ferber rises at OUP.(Susan Ferber promoted at Oxford University Press)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Susan Ferber has been promoted from senior editor of history to executive editor of history in the trade and academic division at Oxford University Press.

Taschen, ESPN set Ali book.(Benedikt Taschen)(Muhammad Ali)
August 7, 2006... When famed adman and designer George Lois decided he was going to create a visual biography using Muhammad Ali's own words to proclaim Ali not only as the Greatest of All Time, but also the world's first rap artist, he knew exactly which...

Hancock to Rodale.(Nancy Hancock appointed)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Nancy Hancock has joined Rodale as executive editor of health and wellness books. Hancock, who will be developing and overseeing branded health and weight-loss titles at Rodale, was most recently at Simon & Schuster's Touchstone/Fireside...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.(Bibliography)
August 7, 2006... "The fact that Gabriel Allon is an art restorer and a reluctant assassin allowed me to plumb the two distinct sides of his character that are constantly at war within him: He's a healer, but he's also a destroyer. He's also attractive to me...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
August 7, 2006... Fiasco, a full-embargo book, was launched July 25 with a national media lineup that included Meet the Press, NPR's Fresh Air, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight and Charlie Rose, plus two front-page first serial excerpts in the Washington Post, and a...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.(Bibliography)
August 7, 2006... Born to Be Wild, Coulter's latest, is an original novel of contemporary romance and suspense set against the world of soap operas; Jove reports 1.2 million copies in print. The author has written more than 40 historical and contemporary...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.(Bibliography)
August 7, 2006... Al Gore has been signing up to 1,000 books at each of his recent events; pictured above is an appearance at Davis Kidd in Memphis on July 31--about 750 people showed and the store sold more than 800 copies. People bring old campaign signs and...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.(Bibliography)
August 7, 2006... With box office approaching $100 million, the 20th Century Fox film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep of Weisberger's book has given the tie-in audio edition a leg up. The recording's bargain price has likely been a boon as...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.(Bibliography)
August 7, 2006... After 13 printings, Marley, the dearly beloved (now dearly departed) pet of newspaper columnist and author Grogan has surely earned the title of booksellers' best friend. His owner isn't so bad, either. According to producer Rick Harris,...

A flying start for Pegasus: making it in New York.(Pegasus Books' Claiborne Hancock)
August 7, 2006... It's not everyday that an individual starts a general interest publishing company in New York City to compete with the big houses, but that's exactly what Claiborne Hancock, the 32-year-old publisher and editor-in-chief of Pegasus Books, did...

Books go Pop at San Diego.(Cover story)
August 7, 2006... Comic-con International: San Diego 2006 proved that this gathering is becoming a must-attend event for more people every year. Convention veterans expect that official attendance figures will show this year's crowd surpassed last year's...

Discerning displacement: a sense of dislocation and exile is central to Claire Messud's fiction; most of her characters are emotionally and culturally alienated.(Author Profile)
August 7, 2006... In her first novel, When the World Was Steady, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award, published in 1994 when she was 28, an American woman is adrift in Bali. Another novel, The Last Life, has a French protagonist who is lonely in America; the...

The Boleyn Inheritance.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... * The Boleyn Inheritance PHILIPPA GREGORY. S&S/Touchstone, $29.95 (416p) ISBN 0-7432-7250-6 Returning to the scene of The Other Boleyn Girl, historical powerhouse Gregory again brings the women of Henry VIII's court vividly to life. Among...

Unconfessed.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Unconfessed YVETTE CHRISTIANSE. Other Press, $25.95 (360p) ISBN 1-59051-240-5 Poet Christianse (Castaway), born in apartheid-era South Africa and now living in New York City, channels the torturous history of South African slavery in her...

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Rising Tide: A Novel of the Second World War JEFF SHAARA. Ballantine, $27.95 (672p) ISBN 978-0345-46141-4 Shaara (To the Last Man; Gone for Soldiers), who has written bestselling and critically acclaimed historical novels covering the...

Tell Me Everything.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Tell Me Everything SARAH SALWAY. Ballantine, $12.95 paper (272p) ISBN 0-345-48100-3 In Salway's second novel (after The ABCs of Love), much of Molly Drayton's past is held until the end of the narrative. A scandal involving untoward...

My Husband's Girlfriend.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... My Husband's Girlfriend CYDNEY RAX. Three Rivers, $13.95 paper (304p) ISBN 1-4000-8313-3 The author of My Daughter's Boyfriend re-sifts and comes up with an irresistible title based on a cool-headed premise. Anya Meadows suffers from...

Farewell Summer.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Farewell Summer RAY BRADBURY. Morrow, $24.95 (224p) ISBN 0-061-13154-7 This poignant, wise but slight "extension" of the indefatigable Bradbury's semiautobiographical Dandelion Wine picks up the story of 12-year-old Douglas Spaulding in...

A Dangerous Love.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... A Dangerous Love BERTRICE SMALL. NAL, $14 paper (416p) ISBN 0-451-21978-3 The prolific Small (Forbidden Pleasures; The Last Heiress) launches a stylish new historical romance with this action-packed erotic tale set in the English and...

PW talks with Tess Gerritsen: I'm no angel.(Interview)
August 7, 2006... Medical examiner Maura Isles and detective Jane Rizzoli confront a series of satanic murders in Boston in Gerritsen's lastest thriller, The Mephisto Club (Reviews, July 24). Once a family physician in Honolulu, Gerritsen now lives in a village...

American Genius: A Comedy.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... American Genius, a Comedy LYNNE TILLMAN. Soft Skull, $15 paper (320p) ISBN 1-933368-44-6 An often dazzling, totally disorienting interior rift, Tillman's fifth novel (after 1995's Haunted Houses) presents an unnamed woman of a certain age,...

The Stories of Mary Gordon.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Stories of Mary Gordon MARY GORDON. Pantheon, $26 (480p) ISBN 0-375-42316-8 This book collects 41 tough-minded explorations into human hope, loss and failings by the award-winning author of six novels (including 1978's Final Payments),...

The Blue Taxi.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Blue Taxi N.S. KOENINGS. Little, Brown, $23.99 (384p) ISBN 0-316-01061-8 When a young boy loses a leg after being hit by a drunk V Y driver in his East African town of Vunjamguu, the shockwaves that run through his small community...

Death's Dark Abyss.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Death's Dark Abyss MASSIMO CARLOTTO, TRANS. FROM THE ITALIAN BY LAWRENCE VENUTI. Europa (Consortium dist.), $14.95 paper (160p) ISBN 1-933372-18-4 Carlotto (The Goodbye Kiss), who served time for a murder he didn't commit before becoming a...

Thanksgiving Night.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Thanksgiving Night RICHARD BAUSCH. HarperCollins, $24.95 (416p) ISBN 0-06-009443-5 A house in Point Royal, Va., serves to entangle two families in clannish chaos. When local handyman Oliver Ward is summoned for a job at the house of Holly...

City of God.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... City of God PAULO LINS, TRANS. FROM THE PORTUGUESE BY ALISON ENTREKIN. Black Cat, $14 (448p) ISBN 0-8021-7010-2 Lins's 1997 fiction debut--the source of the 2002 film published in English for the first time--chronicles two generations over...

She Ain't the One.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... She Ain't the One CARL WEBER AND MARY B. MORRISON. Dafina, $24 (224p) ISBN 0-75820721-2 Bestselling authors Weber and Morrison team up in an experiment that brings together "two of their favorite characters." Texas psycho-hottie Ashlee...

A Pagan's Nightmare.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... A Pagan's Nightmare RAY BLACKSTON. Warner Faith, $22.99 (240p) ISBN 0-446-57959-9 After penning several humorous novels about Christian singles (Flabbergasted), Blackston swaps publishers from Revell to Warner Faith and tries his hand at a...

Morning Spy, Evening Spy.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Morning Spy, Evening Spy COLIN MACKINNON. St. Martin's, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 0-312-35576-9 Mixing fact and faction effectively, poignant personal story of a senior CIA agent, Paul Patterson, in the months before 9/11. Patterson has been...

The Last Van Gogh.( )(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Last Van Gogh ALYSON RICHMAN. Berkley, $14 (320p) ISBN 0-425-21267-X Richman (The Mask Carver's Son; Tango) speculates in her third novel that Vincent Van Gogh found his muse in the 21-year-old daughter of his last doctor. Marguerite...

A Fine Crack of Light.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... A Fine Crack of Light PAM JENOFF. Mira, $21.95 (384p)ISBN 0-7783-2342-0 With luminous simplicity, Jenoff's breathtaking debut chronicles the life of a young Jewish bride during the Nazi occupation of Krakow, Poland, in WWII. Emma Bau, a...

Blame it on Paris.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Blame It on Paris LAURA FLORAND. Forge, $12.95 paper (384p) ISBN 0-765-31508-4 Florand's debut novel is the semiautobiographical story of the intercontinental courtship of Laura Hand Sebastien Florand. Laura, in Paris for a year on a...

The Collectors.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Collectors DAVID BALDACCI. Warner, $26.99 (448p) ISBN 0-446-53109-X In bestseller Baldacci's entertaining if overly long sequel to The Camel Club (2005), renegade CIA agent Roger Seagraves has set himself up in the business of...

Vince and Joy.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Vince and Joy LISA JEWELL. Harper, $14.95 paper (512p) ISBN 0-06-113746-4 Vince Mellon and Joy Downer meet as late-blooming teenagers on a beach vacation, and lose their virginity to one another, then reunite as adults kept apart by bad...

Stripped.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Stripped BRIAN FREEMAN. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-34044-3 At the start of Freeman's solid second thriller (after 2005's Immoral), detective Jonathan Stride has left his job in Duluth, Minn., for Las Vegas, Nev. The...

What Came Before He Shot Her.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... What Came Before He Shot Her ELIZABETH GEORGE. HarperCollins, $26.95 (544p) ISBN 0-06-054562-3 Bestseller George (With No One as Witness) departs from the usual investigative nuts and bolts of her Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers mystery...

Lullabies for Little Criminals.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Lullabies for Little Criminals HEATHER O'NEILL. Harper Perennial, $13.95 (352p) ISBN 0-06-087507-0 In her debut novel, This American Life contributor O'Neill offers a narrator, Baby, coming of age in Montreal just before her 12th birthday....

She Still Lives: A Novel of Tibet.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... She Still Lives: A Novel of Tibet BILL MAGEE. Snow Lion, $14.95 paper (168p) ISBN 1-55939-247-9 For those who want a break from serious books about Buddhism (and virtually all books on the subject are fairly solemn), Tibetan teacher and...

Death's Witness.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Death's Witness PAUL A. BATISTA. Sourcebooks, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 1-4022-0665-8 The verdict on Batista's debut legal thriller: guilty of delivering not only sharp courtroom drama but steamy romantic escapism as well. Vincent Sorrentino, a...

The Tailor's Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Tailor's Daughter JANICE GRAHAM. St. Martin's, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 0- 312-34913-0 Mow much can one middle-class Victorian-era woman endure? Plenty, as evidenced by this engrossing second novel from Graham (Firebird). A tailor's daughter...

Spit Baths.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Spit Baths GREG DOWNS. Univ. of Georgia, $24.95 (174p) ISBN 0-8203-2846-6 Examining the nooks and crannies of contemporary backwater life in the South and Midwest, Downs's debut collection opens with a kaleidoscopic description of an...

Back to Madeline Island.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Back to Madeline Island JAY GILBERTSON. Kensington, $14 paper (308p) ISBN 0-7582-1144-9 The sunny sequel to Gilbertson's debut, Moon Over Madeline Island, finds gal pals Eve Moss and Ruby Prevost, and their crew of apron-making employees,...

Doggy Style.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Doggy Style JANE MAY. Kensington, $14 paper (288p) ISBN 0-7582-1360-3 A narrative gimmick isn't enough to overcome the tired plotting, undeveloped characters and cliched dialogue that dog this pooch's-eye-view of one couple's romantic...

The Guy Not Taken: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Guy Not Taken: Stories JENNIFER WEINER. Atria, $24.95 (292p) ISBN 1-4165-3520-9 This collection of 11 stories written over the past 15 years reads like a series of studies for Weiner's larger chick lit portraits. As in the novels...

Pictures.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Pictures ROBERT DALEY. Harcourt/Penzler, $24 (368p) ISBN 978-0-15-101229-9 The 17th novel from former NYPD deputy commissioner Daley falls short of his previous work (Year of the Dragon and the excellent nonfiction account Prince of the...

All Mortal Flesh.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... All Mortal Flesh JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $22.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-312-31264-0 Clare Fergusson, a helicopter pilot turned Episcopal priest, and Russ Van Alstyne, police chief of Millers Kills, N.Y., are suffering...

The Best American Mystery Stories 2006.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Best American Mystery Stories 2006 EDITED BY SCOTT TUROW. Houghton Mifflin, $28 (384p) ISBN 978-0-61851746-6; $14 paper ISBN 978-0-618-51747-3 Quality writing from some of the biggest names in the genre marks the 10th collection in...

The Burry Man's Day.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Burry Man's Day CATRIONA MCPHERSON. Carroll & Graf, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-78671-740-8 Set in 1920s Scotland, McPherson's cunning second mystery to feature well-heeled, ballsy and very funny Dandy Gilver, who debuted in After the...

Out Cold: A Brady Coyne Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Out Cold: A Brady Coyne Novel WILLIAM G. TAPPLY. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-33746-9 At the start of Tapply's entertaining 22nd Brady Coyne novel (after 2005's Nervous Water), the Boston lawyer's dog uncovers a...

The Hard Way: A Rachel Alexander Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... The Hard Way: A Rachel Alexander Mystery CAROL LEA BENJAMIN. Morrow, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-053903-0 When a retired businessman is pushed to his death on Manhattan's subway tracks, his daughter retains the services of PI Rachel...

A Roman Ransom.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... A Roman Ransom ROSEMARY ROWE. Headline (Trafalgar Sq. dist.), $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7553-2741-6 Fight books into British author Rowe's acclaimed series mystery set in second-century Roman Britain (Enemies of the Empire, etc.), her...

Magic Study.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 7, 2006... Magic Study MARIA V. SNYDER. Luna, $21.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-373-80249-4 Family betrayal, a power-mad serial killer and a potential diplomatic crisis threaten the independent-minded heroine of Snyder's fine sequel to Poison Study (2005)....