Publishers Weekly articles from August 2006

Publishers Weekly archives from August 2006

From flat to worse at chains: the three big box retailers show sales drops in Q2.(Barnes & Noble Inc., Books-A-Million Inc., Borders Inc.)
August 28, 2006... Borders was the last of the three bookselling chains to weigh in with its second quarter results, and its numbers managed to deepen the malaise already established. While sales at Barnes & Noble dipped 1.2% in the quarter, and Books-A-Million...

It's Quills time again.(National Broadcasting Company Inc. announces Quill award)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... NBC's Al Roker announced the 2006 Quill Award nominations at an event streamed live over MSNBC.com from Borders Books in New York. Pictured (l. to r.) are Quills chairman Gerry Byrne, Roker and PW publisher William G. McGorry.

Borders revamps at top.(Cedric J. Vanzura appointed)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... In one of his first moves, new Borders CEO George Jones has reorganized his executive management team. Cedric J. Vanzura, president of Borders Group International, has been named president of emerging business, strategy and technology....

A graphic reminder.(The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation)
August 28, 2006... Before Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, authors of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, could say a word on their Today Show appearance last week, the criticisms were already flying. A setup to their interview showed a relative of a WTC victim...

Tower files Chapter 11.(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Once again Tower Records has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The music and video chain launched an online bookstore this past March, and is hoping to find a buyer. The company has assets and debts of over $100 million; Baker &...

Fisketjon wins prize.(Gary Fisketjon )(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Knopf v-p and editor-at-large Gary Fisketjon has won the 2006 Maxwell E. Perkins Award for "excellence in the field of fiction.

Cheetahs meet manga ferret.(Cheetah Girls introduces Peach Fuzz )(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... The Cheetah Girls (l. to r.), Kiely Williams, Adrienne Bailon and Sabrina Bryan, show off copies of Tokyopop's original manga Peach Fuzz (about a girl and her ferret) backstage at the Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles. [ILLUSTRATION...

Amber shines.(Tony Rose manages Amber Communications)(Company overview)
August 28, 2006... Eight years after founding Amber Communications, Tony Rose and his wife, Yvonne, have used an opportunistic publishing philosophy to build an independent publishing house specializing in a mix of African-American self-help and celebrity bios....

Bookstore revival.(Elm Street Bookstore )(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... The Elm Street Bookstore in New Canaan, Conn., which closed in March, has reopened in a better location. The new 1,700-sq.-ft.-store is now in the middle of a crowded business district.

Correction.(Correction notice)
August 28, 2006... In a chart accompanying the story "Marginal Profit Improvement in '05," in last week's issue, the revenue and income for both Penguin and Pearson Education should have been indicated in pounds, not euros.

IPG/PMA distribution program at 10.(Publishers Marketing Association, Independent Publishers Group)
August 28, 2006... When Irene Singletary, publisher of year-old Morgana Press, got a call last week telling her that her very first book had been selected for PMA's Trade Distribution Acceptance program with Independent Publishers Group, she was, she said,...

Blanche Richardson, manager, Marcus Bookstore, Oakland, Calif.(Walter Mosley's Fear of the Dark)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Reading Walter Mosley mysteries does for me what truffles do for chocolate lovers. It is always a rich, satisfying, sensual treat that is over far too soon. Fear of the Dark (Little, Brown, Sept.), Mosley's latest mystery, is no exception. I...

Calendar: Sept. 3-9.(Brief article)(Calendar)
August 28, 2006... 9/3 Little, Brown welcomes back Fearless Jones and Paris Minton (after Fearless Jones and Fear Itself) in Walter Mosley's Fear of the Dark with an initial printing of 100,000. Mosley's tour dates are listed on www. waltermosley.com....

Debut novels.(Anjali Singh acquires rights to Rudolph Delson's Maynard & Jennica )(Jennifer Barth acquires rights to Toby Barlow's Sharp Teeth)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Houghton's Anjali Singh has acquired North American rights to Rudolph Delson's Maynard & Jennica from Jay Mandel at William Morris. This comic novel uses a Wildly diverse cast and dozens of narrators (35 in all) to paint a multifaceted...

Everlasting love.(Fireside Books/Simon and Schuster Consumer Group acquires rights for Project Everlasting in North America)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Fireside's Amanda Patten has acquired North American rights to Project Everlasting by Jason Miller and Mat Boggs, in an auction conducted by Lisa Grubka at William Morris. The book will relate the adventures of these two 20-something...

On mathematics.( Stephen Morrow of Dutton's Brentwood Books acquires rights for George Szpiro's Poincare's Conjecture )(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Dutton's Stephen Morrow has acquired world rights to George Szpiro's Poincare's Conjecture from agent Ed Knappman. The book will tell the story behind the breaking news of Grigori Perelman's historic proof of a conjecture that has challenged...

Black to Riverhead.(Lewis Black )(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Comedian Lewis Black will publish his second, as-yet-untitled book, which will take a look at religion in America, with Riverhead; Jake Morrissey bought world rights from Steve Fisher at Agency for the Performing Arts. Black's memoir...

Life of Shatner.(William Shatner to write his biography)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... William Shatner will write his autobiography, tentatively titled William Shatner: Me, So Far; Thomas Dunne bought world rights for his imprint at St. Martin's from Peter Sawyer and Carmen La Via at the Fifi Oscard Agency. Best known for his...

Marley and She.(dogs role in Rex and the City, Walking in Circles Before Lying Down)
August 28, 2006... Dogs have invaded chick lit, pawing their way onto the list of requisite accessories for chick lit heroines, right up there next to stiletto heels and the little black dress. So much for diamonds, being a girl's best friend. ...

Hires, promo at FSG.(Laurel Cook appointed at Farrar, Straus and Giroux)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Laurel Cook has been named assistant director of publicity at FSG. Cook was previously a bookseller. Brian Gittis, also with a background in bookselling, has joined the company as publicity assistant. And Audrey Harris has been promoted from...

Schwartzman moves to RH.(Random House Inc. appoints Jill Schwartzman )(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Jill Schwartzman has been named senior editor of trade paperbacks at Random House's flagship imprint. Currently an editor at HarperCollins, Schwartzman will be acquiring nonfiction and fiction at Random House for both the hardcover and...

Rosner to Three Rivers.(Annsley Rosner joins)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Annsley Rosner has joined Three Rivers Press' Harmony Books imprint as director of publicity. Arriving from Dutton and Gotham, where she was associate director of publicity, Rosner has worked with authors Eric Jerome Dickey, Lynne Truss and...

Return to Camelot.(Meg Cabot's Avalon High bought by Walt Disney Studios )(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Between the scheming, jealous spats and love triangles, Arthurian England shares much in common with a modern high school--that's the concept behind Meg Cabot's Avalon High (HarperCollins, 2005). Transfer student Elaine "Ellie" Harrison...

Body of influence.(An Unfinished Canvas: The Mysterious Disappearance of Artist Janet March )(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Can a murder case be built without the body or any other physical evidence? That's the question at the heart of Michael Glasgow and Phyllis Gobbell's An Unfinished Canvas: The Mysterious Disappearance of Artist Janet March, on submission to...

Keusch rises at HC.(Lyssa Keusch being promoted at HarperCollins Publishers Inc.)(Brief article)
August 28, 2006... Lyssa Keusch has been promoted to executive editor at HarperCollins's Avon Books imprint. Keusch, who's been at Avon for her entire 16-year career in publishing, has worked with a wide range of authors including Julia Quinn (Splendid), James...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.(Statistical table)
August 28, 2006... "My husband and I sailed on Queen Mary 2 in April from New York to Southampton, England. It was fabulous! I met fans onboard, and the library had a respectable collection of Sandra Brown books. I was surreptitiously checking this out when a...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.(Statistical table)
August 28, 2006... "Reading is one of the main things I do.... Reading is grist. Reading is bliss. But my ability to pick something up and read it--which has gone unchecked all my life up until now--is now entirely dependent on the whereabouts of my reading...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.(Statistical table)
August 28, 2006... The Devil can afford Prada. The updated in-print figures for the various paperback editions of The Devil wears Prada are Impressive. The Broadway trade edition has 1,251,550 copies In-print, 26 printings; the Broadway movie tie-in has 517,275...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.(Statistical table)
August 28, 2006... A runaway bestseller, launched this past April with a 50,000 initial printing, The Fat Smash Diet currently has 300,000 copies in print after 11 additional printings. Dr. Smith has been publicizing his books on numerous national and local...

Children's series and tie-ins bestsellers.
August 28, 2006... Since Dav Pilkey wasn't available to tour for Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People (which pubbed this month with a million copies), Scholastic came up the next best thing. They're sending a potty on tour...

Finding a technology ally: like publishing houses, software solutions come in a variety of sizes.
August 28, 2006... While information technology has exploded over the past decade, getting the most business value out of these investments has become increasingly complicated. Because of the adhoc way in which elements of systems have been acquired and...

A writer grows in Louisville.( Sena Jeter Naslund )(Biography)
August 28, 2006... "I call this the house that Ahab's Wife built," Sena Jeter Naslund says with a laugh, walking into the kitchen of her 1901 Victorian home in Old Louisville to prepare a pot of tea. Naslund's comment is pretty accurate. Before writing...

The end of the yarn.(knitting books in demand after World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks, 2001)(Cover story)
August 28, 2006... Trends, fads and fashions come and go, and many are the businesses that try to keep up with them, including publishing. Whether chick-lit, anime, sudoku or survivor memoir, book publishers run the risk of committing to projects only to see...

The Book of Lost Things.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Book of Lost Things JOHN CONNOLLY. Atria, $22 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9885-8 Thriller writer Connolly (Every Dead Thing) turns from criminal fears to primal fears in this enchanting novel about a 12-year-old English boy, David, who is...

Margherita Dolce Vita.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Margherita Dolce Vita STEFANO BENNI, TRANS. FROM THE ITALIAN BY ANTONY SHUGAAR. Europa (Consortium, dist.), $14.95 paper (228p) ISBN 978-1-933372-20-4 Margherita Dolce Vita, the eccentric 14-year-old heroine of Benni's Italian...

Lady of the Light.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Lady of the Light DONNA GILLESPIE. Berkley, $14 (448p) ISBN 0-425-21268-8 Gillespie (The Light Bearer) continues the adventures of her larger-than-life Germanic heroine, Auriane. In the first installment, Auriane, the daughter of a great...

The Deaf-Mute Boy.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Deaf-Mute Boy JOSEPH GERACI. Univ. of Wisconsin/Terrace, $21.95 (196p) ISBN 0-299-21894-5 West meets East and rich meets poor in this thin story of the ill-fated friendship between a gay Columbia University professor and a teenage...

PW talks with Stephen King: how Lisey Found Her Story: in Lisey's Story, Stephen King serves up love, suspense and the supernatural in rural Maine.(Interview)
August 28, 2006... You've called Lisey's Story a special book. Why? I think of it as a special book. I first thought it was going to be a funny book, about a guy who is going to be a big-shot writer. I wanted to show that his wife got completely ignored,...

Reality: The Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Reality: The Novel JEW HAVENS. Academy Chicago (www.academychicago.com), $17.95 paper (270p) ISBN 978-0-89733-548-5 In this satirical first novel by standup comic Havens, a reality television consultant lives a life as absurd as the shows...

The Albanian Affairs.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Albanian Affairs SUSANA FORTES, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY LELAND H. CHAMBERS. McPherson & Co., $22 (180p) ISBN 978-0-929-70179-0 Fortes's taut fifth novel (published in Spain to great acclaim in 2003, and also her first to be...

Lisey's Story.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... * Lisey's Story STEPHEN KING. Scribner, $28 (528p) ISBN 978-0-7432 -8941-2 Following King's triumphant return to the world of gory horror in Cell, the bestselling author proves he's still the master of supernatural suspense in this...

H.R.H.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... H.R.H. DANIELLE STEEL. Delacorte, $27 (336p) ISBN 0-385-33829-5 Poor Christianna, princess of Liechtenstein. Fettered by duty and tradition, her existence is an "achingly boring" slog of ribbon cuttings and state dinners, further...

The Half Life of Stars.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Half Life of Stars Louise WENER. Harper, $14.95 paper (320p) ISBN 0-06-084173-7 The search for Daniel Ronson, a British lawyer who disappears soon after the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, fuels Wener's third novel...

The Curse of Caste, or, The Slave Bride: A Rediscovered African American Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... * The Curse of Caste; or The Slave Bride: A Rediscovered African-American Novel JULIA C. COLLINS, EDITED BY WILLIAM L. ANDREWS AND MITCH KACHUN. Oxford Univ., $25 (144p) ISBN 978-0-19-530159-5; $11.95 paper ISBN 978-0-19-530160-1 First...

Offspring.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Offspring LIAM JACKSON. St. Martin's/Dunne, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-35570-8 Readers who believe in angels and enjoy splatter films will best appreciate Jackson's muddled debut thriller, which centers on the never-ending struggle...

The Open Curtain.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Open Curtain BRIAN EVENSON. Coffee House, $14.95 paper (218p) ISBN 978-1-56689-188-2 Evenson (Altmann's Tongue) explores some controversial Mormon history in this thoughtful thriller rooted in an actual century-old murder case. When...

The Initials of the Earth: A Novel of the Cuban Revolution.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Initials of the Earth: A Novel of the Cuban Revolution JESUS DIAZ, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY KATHLEEN ROSS, FOREWORD BY FREDRIC JAMESON. Duke Univ., $24.95 paper (448p) ISBN 978-0-8223-3844-4 Cuban writer and filmmaker Diaz...

Labors of the Heart: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Labors of the Heart: Stories CLAIRE DAVIS. St. Martin's, $24.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-312-33284-6 The ranch and logging towns of Montana and Idaho frame 10 heartfelt studies by novelist Davis (Winter Range), in which she explores the work...

Testing Kate.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Testing Kate WHITNEY GASKELL. Bantam, $12 paper (336p) ISBN 0-553-38314-0 Kate Bennett, 29, is ready to chuck her staid life in Ithaca for law school at pre-Katrina Tulane, but a moving van mishap leaves her unprepared for the first day...

My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up STEPHEN ELLIOTT. Cleis, $13.95 paper (144p) ISBN 1-57344-255-0 Elliott's previous episodic novel, Happy Baby, was about a masochistic man, Theo, who was coming to terms with being an abused...

Things Kept, Things Left Behind.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Things Kept, Things Left Behind JIM TOMLINSON. Univ. of Iowa, $13.93 (170p) ISBN 0-87745-991-6 A rural Kentucky where pride and familial honor are sacrosanct, old flames don't extinguish quietly and secrets are hard to keep centers...

PW talks to Jennifer Weiner: more than boys and shopping: a chick-lit master on voice, the big questions and the sausage grinder.(Q&A)(Interview)
August 28, 2006... After four successful novels, why a short story collection [The Guy Not Taken, Reviews, Aug. 7]? First and foremost, my publisher asked for it. The title story ran in Glamour and was optioned for the movies. I wrote a bunch more, which...

Death Angel.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Death Angel MARTHA POWERS. Oceanview (www.oceanviewpub.com), $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-933515-03-8 Powers's third thriller (after Sunflower and Bleeding Heart), a gripping mix of a smalltown police procedural with a snazzy...

Lethal Justice.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Lethal Justice FERN MICHAELS. Severn, $27.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-7278-6428-4 Myra Rutledge and the fun-loving members of her vigilante group, which operates out of Myra's estate near Washington, D.C., deliver more creative punishment to...

For One More Day.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... For One More Day MITCH ALBOM. Hyperion, $21.95 (208p) ISBN 1-4013-0327-7 In this first novel from Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven author Albom, grief-stricken Charles "Chick" Benetto goes into an alcoholic...

Thirteen Moons.(Book review)
August 28, 2006... * Thirteen Moons CHARLES FRAZIER. Random, $26.95 (432p) ISBN 978-0-375-50932-2 When Frazier's debut Cold Mountain blossomed into a National Book Award-winning bestseller with four million copies in print, expectations for the follow-up...

Only Revolutions.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... * Only Revolutions MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI. Pantheon, $26 (360p) ISBN 0-375-42176-9 A pastiche of Joyce and Beckett, with heapings of Derrida's Glas and Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 thrown in for good measure, Danielewski's...

The Right Attitude to Rain.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Right Attitude to Rain ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH. Pantheon, $21.95 (288p) ISBN 0-375-42300-1 The third novel featuring well-to-do and somewhat-nosy philosopher Isabel Dalhousie continues McCall Smith's exploration of the rights and...

Black Box.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Black Box ERIN BELIEU. Copper Canyon (Consortium, dist.), $15 paper (80p) ISBN 1-55659-251-5 Titled after the flight-data recording devices analyzed in plane-crash investigations, Belieu's forceful third collection examines the wreckage...

Selected Poems.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... * Selected Poems ROBERT LOWELL, EDITED BY FRANK BIDART. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $17 (432p) ISBN 0-374-53006-8 With Collected Poems (2003) and last year's Letters, this selection--a much-expanded version by Bidart of Lowell's own...

The Crooked Inheritance.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Crooked Inheritance MARGE PIERCY. Knopf, $24 (160p) ISBN 0-307-26507-2 Piercy's 16 books of accessible, sometimes outspokenly feminist poetry, along with her many novels and nonfiction books, have gained a wide and loyal following....

Ooga-Booga.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Ooga-Booga FREDERICK SEIDEL. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $20 (112p) ISBN 978-0-374-22655-8 Seidel's 14th book finds his caustic vigor undiminished, his high-volume confidence as entertaining--or disturbing--as ever: gleeful antiwar protests...

The Burning of Troy.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... RICHARD FOERSTER. BOA (Consortium, dist.), $15.50 paper (96p) ISBN 1-929918-83-6 Perhaps best known as the longtime editor for the literary journal Chelsea, Foerster (Double Going, 2002) has also proven himself as an author of vivid,...

Thirst.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Thirst MARY OLIVER. Beacon, $22 (88p) ISBN 978-0-8070-6896-0 Consoling, and intense, interaction with the natural world abounds in the 43 poems of Pulitzer Prize--winner Oliver's new collection, as her many readers might expect. The trees...

Complete Poems and Selected Letters.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... * Complete Poems and Selected Letters HART CRANE, EDITED BY LANGDON HAMMER. Library of America, $40 (864p) ISBN 1-931082-99-5 Crane's strenuous optimism about America, his barely coded celebrations of homoerotic desire and his bejeweled,...

The Architecture of Language.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Architecture of Language QUINCY TROUPE. Coffee House, $24.95 (110p) ISBN 978-1-56689-189-9; paper $15 ISBN 978-1-56689-190-5 In the best poems in Troupe's latest collection--following 2002's Transcircularities--which is organized into...

Earthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Earthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems ROBERT WRIGLEY. Penguin, $20 (178p) ISBN 0-14-303779-6 Wrigley (Lives of the Animals, 2003) has been offering up well-crafted, articulate and largely autobiographical free verse since the...

The Executive Director of the Fallen World.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Executive Director of the Fallen World LIAM RECTOR. Univ. of Chicago, $22.50 (120p) ISBN 0-226-70604-4 Rector (American Prodigal, 1994) is the founding director of the graduate Writing Seminars at Bennington College and has also...

Everything Else in the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Everything Else in the World STEPHEN DUNN. Norton, $23.95 (112p) ISBN 978-0-393-06239-7 Despite the sweeping title, Dunn's 14th collection stays close to home and true to form, engaging his personal history and ideas with straightforward...

Girly Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Girly Man CHARLES BERNSTEIN. Univ. of Chicago, $24 (160p) ISBN 0-226-04406-8 Cofounder of the journal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, from which language poetry takes its name, as well as the online poetics list and the audio poetry archive PENNsound,...

Designated Heartbeat.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Designated Heartbeat BRUCE ANDREWS. Salt, $16.95 paper (148p) ISBN 1-844710-68-8 With Charles Bernstein, Andrews cofounded the seminal journal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. His book I Don't Have Any Paper, So Shut Up (or, Social Romanticism), some of...

Ruin.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... * Ruin CYNTHIA CRUZ. Alice James (Consortium, dist.), $14.95 (72p) ISBN 1-882295-58-7 The 35-poem sequence composing Cruz's chillingly powerful debut traces the coming-of-age of a girl whose family is haunted by the death of a brother,...

Red Chrysanthemum.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Red Chrysanthemum LAURA JOH ROWLAND. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-35532-6 Rowland's 11th 17th-century Japanese historical (after 2005's The Assassin's Touch) is even more of a page-turner than its predecessors....

Glass Tiger.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Glass Tiger JOE GORES. Harcourt, $24 (304p) ISBN 978-0-15-101121-6 Edgar-winner Gores (Cases) will satisfy action junkies with this fast-paced, suspenseful stand-alone, though not everyone will find suspending disbelief an easy matter....

Missing in Precinct Puerto Rico, vol. 4.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Missing in Precinct Puerto Rico: Book Four STEVEN TORRES. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-312-32111-6 Torres's flat-footed fourth installment in his Luis Gonzalo series (after 2004's Burning Precinct Puerto Rico) takes a...

A Walk in the Dark.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... A Walk in the Dark GIANRICO CAROFIGLIO, TRANS. FROM THE ITALIAN BY HOWARD CURTIS. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 (220p) ISBN 978-1904-738-17-6 Carofiglio is an anti-Mafia prosecutor in the southern Italian city of Bari, and maybe someday he'll...

Cruel Sister: A Haunted Ballad.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Cruel Sister: A Haunted Ballad DEBORAH GRABIEN. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-312-35757-3 In Grabien's mesmerizing fourth mystery of ghostly suspense (after 2005's Matty Groves), actress Penny Wintercraft-Hawkes...

Cattery Row.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Cattery Row CLEA SIMON. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-59058-306-7 In Simon's satisfying second kitty cozy (after 2005's Mew Is for Murder), spunky Boston journalist Theda Krakow and her feline friend, Musetta, are plunged into a...

A Final Judgment: A Ron Shade Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... A Final Judgment: A Ron Shade Novel MICHAEL A. BLACK. Five Star, $25.95 (340p) ISBN 978-1-59414-426-4 Despite a less than credible plot, Black's third novel (after 2004's Windy City Knights) to feature Chicago kickboxer Ron Shade, has...

The Fourth Perspective: A C.J. Floyd Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Fourth Perspective: A CJ Floyd Mystery ROBERT GREER. Frog (PGW, dist.), $24.95 (392p) ISBN 978-1-583-94162-1 Last seen in 2005's Resurrecting Langston Blue, CJ Floyd has retired from bail bonding and bounty hunting, and opened a...

Fortress of Ice.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... Fortress of Ice C.J. CHERRYH. Los, $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-380-97904-2 Religious and ancient magical conflicts threaten the fragile peace of the divided kingdom of Ylesuin in Cherryh's fifth Fortress fantasy (after 2000'S Fortress of...

Blindsight.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... * Blindsight PETER WATTS. Tor, $25.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-765-31218-1 Canadian author Watts (Starfish) explores the nature of consciousness in this stimulating hard SF novel, which combines riveting action with a fascinating alien...

Beguilement.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... The Sharing Knife: Beguilement: Volume One LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD. Eos, $25.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-113758-7 Compelling characters lift this first of a two-book romantic fantasy from Hugo-winner Bujold (The Hallowed Heart), set in a...

1635: The Cannon Law.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 28, 2006... 1635: The Cannon Law ERIC FLINT AND ANDREW DENNIS. Baen, $26 (400p) ISBN 978-1-4165-0938-7 Flint and Dennis's solid follow-up to 1634: The Galileo Affair (2004), also set in Renaissance Italy, offers a deliciously Machiavellian plot. The...