Publishers Weekly articles from December 2003

Publishers Weekly archives from December 2003

Harlequin is a publishing house where we do a lot of building.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... In 2003 we continued with our mission to build some of the most popular storytellers in women's fiction, including today's New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling authors, such as Debbie Macomber, Heather Graham and Alex Kava (to name a few)....

Retailers see signs of happy holidays: booksellers hope early momentum continues.
December 1, 2003... THIS YEAR'S HOLIDAY season could be the best one for book sales in several years, judging from recent remarks from both bookstore chain executives and independent booksellers. At Barnes & Noble, where bookstore sales rose 9.7% in the third...

In print post-NBA.(National Book Award)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... For Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire, the power of television in combination with (he National Book Award made for a big impact. The book's 46,000-copy first printing was batch' out before the Today show made its October pick, sending FSG back...

Hoynes to leave ABA.(News)(Michael Hoynes )(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... AFTER A LITTLE more than five years as the American Booksellers Association's marketing officer, Michael Hoynes will leave the organization at the end of the year. His vacated position will not be filled. Instead, there will be a restructuring...

Small gain in Hastings's book sales.(Third-Quarter Results)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... SALES OF BOOKS at stores open for at least one year rose 0.8% at Hastings Entertainment for the third quarter ended October 31. The slight gain in book sales in the most recent period followed a 1.4% improvement in comparable-store sales in the...

Author in dispute with Kensington over Jackson bio.(Whose Right?)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... AUTHOR J. RANDY TARABORRELLI, who has been a very busy man since the arrest of Michael Jackson, just published the biography Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness with Sidgwick & Jackson in the U.K. The book, at 700 pages, is an update of...

Remember this.(News)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Houghton Mifflin had an inhouse reception last month for Toni Morrison, to celebrate the publication of Remember: The Journey to School Integration (spring 2004) and to welcome her to Houghton Mifflin.

Online Spanish-language distributor closes.(Cash Crunch)(iLeon)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... IT'S BEEN THREE bumpy years for iLeon, the Web-based distributor of Spanish- and English-language books to institutional markets, culminating with the company closing on November 21. Despite iLeon's recent expansion, which included the opening...

B&N publishing beating targets.(Strategy)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio told analysts that the company's publishing program is "ahead of plan" and should easily hit the goal of generating 10% of B&N's total sales. Riggio maintained that B&N's publishing operation isn't...

WRC Media prepares for tough period.(Doings)
December 1, 2003... THE SUPPLEMENTARY educational publisher WRC Media has instituted a headcount freeze for the remainder of 2003 to cope with what company CEO Martin Kenny called a "challenging" funding environment. In addition to the freeze, WRC has consolidated...

Rowman & Littlefield closes Plymbridge deal.(Acquisition)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... THE OBSTACLES THAT briefly delayed Rowman & Littlefield's acquisition of the assets of bankrupt U.K. distributor Plymbridge have been removed, and the NBN parent company said late last month that the deal has been finalized. Rowman &...

Book sales rise 30% at Rodale.(Third-Quarter Results)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... BOOK SALES AT Rodale for the third quarter ended September 30 were up 30%, with retail sales jumping 194% and direct response sales up 10%, the privately held company reported last week. Retail gains were led by the phenomenal success of The...

Wenner Media forms new book imprint.(Synergy)(Wenner Books)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... LOOKING TO CAPITALIZE on the name recognition of Rolling Stone, Us and Men's Journal, magazine publisher Wenner Media has formed Wenner Books and named former St. Martin's editor-in-chief Bob Wallace to head the new unit. For the last year and...

Pajama party for big bucks.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Coast agent Jillian Manus's "pajama party" at Hyperion, with authors Karen Neuberger and Nadine Schiff pushing a book called The Gift of Comfort, ended in a high-six-figure world rights deal. Neuberger is a kind of anti-Martha Stewart, urging...

A lawyer's take on gay marriage.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Only a day after a Massachusetts state court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage within that state, Simon & Schuster editor-at-large Rob Weisbach signed noted civil rights attorney Evan Wolfson to write a book on the subject. It will be called...

Memory of an Ax attack.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Twenty-six years ago, Terri Jentz and a college friend were attacked by a man with an ax on a lonely road in Oregon. They survived, though Jentz's friend was nearly blinded, and now Jentz has written a book, Dark Paradise, in which she...

NYT's Boyd doing a memoir.(hot deals)(Gerald Boyd)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Gerald Boyd, the managing editor of the New York Times until he resigned this summer in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, has signed with editorial director Dawn Davis at HarperCollins' Amistad imprint to write a memoir of his newspapering...

Short takes.(hot deals)(book publishing contracts)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Rodale's Ellen Phillips paid a "solid" six figures at auction for a book by TV interior decorating guru (at ABC's The Home Show) Kitty Bartholomew, and the company hopes it will be the beginning of a series. It's called Kitty Bartholomew's...

Survey planned for mass merchant bar codes.(Updating)
December 1, 2003... IN ANOTHER STEP in the process of doing away with the price-point UPC bar code printed on the back of mass market paperbacks, wholesalers and distributors that service mass merchandisers will soon distribute an online survey to these accounts...

Jordan named New Columbia Director.(People)(Jim Jordan hired by Columbia University Press)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... NINE MONTHS AFTER disappointing sales and disagreements with school trustees claimed its director, Columbia University Press has hired a new person for the spot, bringing over Jim Jordan from Johns Hopkins University Press. Before joining the...

Audible makes gains.(Third-Quarter Results)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... DOWNLOADABLE SPOKEN-word audio company Audible said savvier marketing, partnerships with technology companies and the right mix of content is enabling it to attract and retain new customers while cutting member acquisition costs. The cost of...

No news from AMS.(Delayed)(Advanced Marketing Services not able to file financial reports)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... In a November 21 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Advanced Marketing Services suggested that it may not file its financial reports for the quarters ended June 28 and September 27 before the end of the year. AMS has delayed...

Chairman makes bid for Integrity Media.(Opportunity)(P. Michael Coleman)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... P. MICHAEL COLEMAN, co-founder, chairman and largest shareholder of Integrity Media, has made an offer to lake the Christian music and book publishing company private. Coleman, who owns 58% of Integrity's stock, is offering $6.25, per...

Movies larger than life.(screenings)
December 1, 2003... Producing an epic has always been a huge risk for Hollywood studios. From Gone with the Wind to Titanic, the higher the budget, the more there is to win--and to lose. Despite the fact that huge budgets are often offset by foreign pre-sales,...

Franklin hopes for better finish.(Second-Quarter Results)(Franklin Electronic Publishers)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... STEEP DECLINES in sales of its reference and Rolodex electronics lines resulted in a 25.6% drop in sales at Franklin Electronic Publishers, to $15.7 million, for the second quarter ended September 30. Net income fell to $747,000 from $2.6...

Dip in sales at Von Hoffmann.(Third-Quarter Results)(Von Hoffmann Corp.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A 6% INCREASE in sales in the four-color educational market helped offset declines in other segments at Von Hoffmann Corp., resulting in a slight decline in total revenue in the third quarter, to $107.2 million from $108.1 million. The printer...

A close second.(behind the bestsellers)('The Big Bad Wolf' by James Patterson)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... James Patterson's ninth Alex Cross thriller, The Big Bad Wolf, lands in the #2 spot on PW's fiction bestseller list, very close behind the almost invincible chart topper, The Da Vinci Code. Little, Brown's first printing for the book is a hefty...

A presidential first.(behind the bestsellers)('The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War' by Jimmy Carter)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... There are many political pundits who will claim they have heard this country's presidents spout fiction in their public addresses, but until now, no first executive has actually published a book of fiction. Jimmy Carter leads the way with The...

Selling DK's cover story.(behind the bestsellers)('America 24/7')(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... America 24/7 is the collaborative work of an enterprising publisher (DK), the bestselling team that produced the Day in the Life... series (Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen) and the most massive photographic shoot ever (25,000 Americans...

Holiday treats in store: a preview of quirky gift books that have snagged booksellers' fancies this year.(book news)
December 1, 2003... With the gift-buying season off to a brisk start even before the last Halloween candy corn disappeared, booksellers have begun band-selling books that light up the eves, or tickle the funny bone. While some books are picking up steam again...

Sears's grand idea: in its new nonmall stores, the retailer adds books to the mix.(bookselling)
December 1, 2003... Better late than never. In an attempt to compete against "one-stop" big-box general retailers ranging from Wal-Mart and Home Depot to Best Buy and Kohl's--that have eroded shopping mall sales for the past decade, Sears, the nation's number five...

Book Passage on the water.(bookselling)(opening of Book Passage store, San Francisco, California)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: On October 18, friends and staff turned out to celebrate the opening of Book Passage's second store, in the renovated landmark Ferry Building on the bay in San Francisco. Pictured (l. to r.): events...

Soup to nuts.(distribution daybook)(BookMasters Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Family-owned BookMasters Inc. in Mansfield, Ohio, began as a book printing and binding company, but has since added order fulfillment and distribution to its menu of services. "We currently represent 800 publishers, from independents to...

Howdy, partners.(distribution daybook)(Partners Book Distributors )(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... As a wholesaler, Partners Book Distributors in Holt, Mich., and Renton, Wash., is also an anomaly, or was until Baker & Taylor's recent announcement that it, too, had added a distribution division (Bookselling, July 28). "We try and keep our...

New additions.(distribution daybook)(Red Wheel/Weiser to handle distribution for Skinner House Books)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Red Wheel/Weiser announced that it will handle distribution for neighboring Boston publisher Skinner House Books, a 27-year-old imprint of the Unitarian Universalist Association, starting with its spring list. Of the 15 books a year that...

Time Warner turns 10: AudioBooks division celebrates with discounts and an overseas launch.(audio)
December 1, 2003... It's now been a decade since Time Warner AudioBooks, publisher of the audiobooks based on titles from Warner Books and Little, Brown (as well as Hyperion, under the Hyperion Audiobooks line), arrived in the marketplace. Its first list consisted...

Audiobooks at auction on eBay.(New Markets)
December 1, 2003... To a great extent, mega-successful online auction site eBay has built its reputation on being a destination for consumers who can't find what they're looking for via traditional retail outlets. Be it a Partridge Family lunchbox, a baseball...

Shepherds Abiding.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
December 1, 2003... JAN KARON, READ BY JOHN McDONOUGH. Penguin Audiobooks, unabridged, six CDs, 6.5hrs., $34.95 ISBN 0-14-280033-3 Esther Bolick, mayor of Karon's beloved make-believe Milford, bakes a marmalade cake for Christmas that is as sweet as her...

The Five People You Meet in Heaven.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
December 1, 2003... MITCH ALBOM, READ BY ERIK SINGER. Hyperion Audiobooks, unabridged, four cassettes, 5 hrs., $25.98 ISBN 1-4013-9751-4 This life-affirming fable ironically opens at the end of the life of a seemingly ordinary man. Known as "Eddie Maintenance"...

The Time Traveler's Wife.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
December 1, 2003... AUDREY NIFFENEGGER, READ BY MAGGIMEG REED AND CHRISTOPHER BURNS. HighBridge, abridged, 10 CDs, 12 hrs., $36.95 ISBN 1-56511-827-8 This clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic...

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
December 1, 2003... GREGORY MAGUIRE, READ BY JOHN McDONOUGH. Harper Audio, unabridged, 14 cassettes, 20 hrs., $39.95 ISBN 0-06-057376-7 With a husky voice and a gentle, dramatic manner that will call to mind the image of a patient grandfather reading to an...

Diary: A Novel.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
December 1, 2003... CHUCK PALAHNIUK, READ BY MARTHA PLIMPTON. Random House Audio, unabridged, seven CDs, 7 hrs., $34.95 ISBN 0-7393-0284-1 Although this work is a departure from Palahniuk's previous novels Fight Club, Lullaby and Choke, it contains many of the...

The Funny Thing Is....(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Ellen Degeneres, read by the author. Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, three cassettes, 3.75 hrs., $25 ISBN 0-7435-3361-5 * Degeneres continues her year-long domination of all media (following a cross-country stand-up tour, an HBO...

The Pythons.(Sound Recording Review)
December 1, 2003... Narrated by Bob McCabe with Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin and featuring Eric Idle, John Cleese and Terry Jones. Audio Renaissance, two CDs, 2 hrs., $16.95 ISBN 1-59397-400-0 This production gives listeners a backstage pass to the...

I Think There's a Terrorist in My Soup: How to Survive Personal and World Problems with Laughter - Seriously.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... David Brenner, read by the author. HighBridge, unabridged, five CDs, 6 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 1-56511-795-6 After 9/11, veteran comedian Brenner set off on a "Laughter to the People" tour to spread his message that when we stop laughing, the...

David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
December 1, 2003... David Sedaris, read by the author. Time Warner AudioBooks, one CD, 70 mins., $17.98 ISBN 1-58621-564-7 Bestselling humorist Sedaris likes to test out new material on twice-a-year reading tours to get the rhythm and phrasing perfected...

Boogers are My Beat: More Lies but Some Actual Journalism.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
December 1, 2003... Dave Barry, read by Dick Hill. Brilliance Audio, unabridged, four cassettes, 6 hrs., $24.95 ISBN 1-59086-930-3 Oftentimes, the best way to experience a work of humor is to hear it delivered by the author himself, but regrettably, Barry does...

Audio bestsellers.(Illustration)
December 1, 2003... Audio Bestsellers PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Available online the Friday before issue date at: www.publishersweekly.com Audio Bestsellers Fiction [1] The Da Vinci Code (abr. CD). Dan Brown. Read by Colin Stinton. ...

Out of the closet: now more than ever, gay and lesbian characters are prominently featured in YA fiction.(children's books)
December 1, 2003... When Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind was released back in 1982, the story of two lesbian teenagers who fall in love had an unlikely ending. While Garden's main character, Liza, loses friends and faces a disciplinary hearing at school when her...

Toujours l'amour: publishers are seeking to increase readership by diversifying subgenres and adding new category niches.(category closeup Romance)
December 1, 2003... THEY'RE NO LONGER YOUR grandmother's romance novels--in most cases, they're not even your mother's. In the ongoing quest to broaden their audience and to attract new readers, romance publishers" categories seem to be going through a major...

Our Kind: A Novel in Stories.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... KATE WALBERT. Scribner, $23 (208p) ISBN 0-7432-4559-8 * Mannered yet curiously moving, this novel in stories by Walbert (The Gardens of Kyoto) tells the collective tale of a group of wealthy suburban women who came of age in the 1950s and...

Best Enemies.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... JANE HELLER. St. Martin's, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-28849-2 Amy Sherman is pretty; Tara Messer is a beauty. Amy has a nice Manhattan apartment; Tara's suburban Tudor castle boasts an actual turret. Amy was engaged to Stuart Lasher, who took...

The Book of Joe.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... JONATHAN TROPPER. Delacorte, $19.95 (338p) ISBN 0-385-73741-8 After Joe Goffman's Bush Falls becomes a runaway bestseller, he never expects to go back to his small Connecticut hometown and face the outrage generated by the dark secrets his...

The Confession.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... OLEN STEINHAUER. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 0-312-30328-9 * Steinhauer's original and mesmerizing first mystery 2002's The Bridge of Sighs, was set in 1949, in an unnamed East European country. Now it's 1956, and the...

Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... LAURIE LYNN DRUMMOND. HarperCollins, $23.95 (272p) ISBN 0-06-056162-9 Combining Southern grace and urban brutality, ex-cop Drummond debuts with 10 short stories grouped into five blistering fictional portraits of Baton Rouge policewomen....

Havana World Series.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... JOSE LATOUR. Grove, $27 (336p) ISBN 0-8021-1754-6 Cuban-born Latour's eighth book, the third novel he's written in English, pits Cuban crooks against an American crime boss in bustling, pre-Communist Havana. It's 1958, and Meyer Lansky is...

Inamorata.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... JOSEPH CANGEMI. Viking, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 0-670-07279-4 Set in the Roaring '20s and steeped in period detail, this energetic debut is narrated by one Martin Finch, a psychology graduate student at Harvard. Possessed of a wry sense of...

Bet Me.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... JENNIFER CRUSIE. St. Martin's, $22.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-30246-7 Minerva Dobbs's mother named her daughter after the Greek goddess. Yet Min, who's grown up to be a curvy woman who adores carbs, isn't quite a knockout beauty and, at 33, she...

Uncle Rudolf.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... PAUL BAILEY. St. Martin's, $21.95 (192p) ISBN 0-312-31834-0 Part exile's lament and part psychological study, this brief novel by Bailey (Kitty & Virgil, etc.) explores the complicated, intense relationship between a Romanian lyric tenor...

Ship Sooner.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... MARY SULLIVAN. Morrow. $23.95 (240p) ISBN 0-06-056240-4 Sheila "Ship" Sooner, a 13-year-old girl born with "exceptional hearing," can hear conversations whispered behind closed doors, the flutter of other people's eyelids and even the...

The Swallows Of Kabul.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... YASMINA KHADRA, TRANS. FROM THE FRENCH BY JOHN CULLER. Doubleday/ Talese, $18.95 (192p) ISBN 0-385-51001-2 * Khadra is the nom de plume for Algerian army officer Mohamed Moulessehoul (In the Name of God; Wolf Dreams), who illustrates the...

The Pistol Poets.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... VICTOR GISCHLER. Delacorte, $22.95 (325p) ISBN 0-785-33724-8 With this madcap sophomore outing, after 2001's Edgar-nominated Gun Monkeys, Gischler challenges Kinky Friedman for top slot in the zany noir subgenre of mystery fiction--and for...

The Fountain at the Center Of the World.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... ROBERT NEWMAN. Soft Skull, $14.95 paper (320p) ISBN 1-932360-11-5 In this intense but flawed global drama, a British PR flack tries to find his long-lost brother after being diagnosed with a fatal form of leukemia. Evan Hatch works long...

The Cello Player.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... MICHAEL KRUGER, TRANS. FROM THE GERMAN BY ANDREW SHIELDS. Harcourt, $26 (208p) ISBN 0-15-100591-5 A crotchety German composer's comfortable world is turned upside down by a young woman who may or may not be his daughter in Kruger's lively,...

The Woman Who Knew Gandhi.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... KEITH HELLER. Mariner, $12 paper (224p) ISBN 0-618-33545-5 Inspired by a line in Gandhi's autobiography, this "what if" story recreates a half-century-long friendship between the celebrated Indian pacifist and an ordinary English housewife....

The Turtle Warrior.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... MARY RELINDES ELLIS. Viking, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 0-670-03265-4 This sensitive, melancholic first novel by Midwestern short story writer Ellis probes the troubled heart of a Wisconsin farm family. John Lucas is a subsistence farmer and an...

He's Got to Go.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... SHEILA O'FLANAGAN. S&S/Downtown, $13 paper (400p) ISBN 0-7434-7042-7 In her first novel to be published in the U.S., O'Flanagan puts her initially stereotypical characters through so much good conversation--both sharp repartee and...

But Come Ye Back.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... BETH LORDAN. Morrow, $23.95 (224p) ISBN 0-06-053036-7 In this gentle, understated novel in stories, Lordan (And Both Shall Row; August Heat) follows an American couple who retire to Galway after a workaday existence in Ohio. Irish-born Mary...

Going to Bend.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... DIANE HAMMOND. Doubleday, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 0-385-50943-X Lifelong friends Petie Coolbaugh and Rose Bundy laugh, love and try to make ends meet in the "no-account" Oregon coastal fishing town of Hubbard in Hammond's shining first novel....

Twisted.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... JEFFERY DEAVER. S&S, $24.95 (363p) ISBN 0-7432-6095-3 The title applies in several ways to this wicked collection of crime short stories by bestselling author Deaver (The Vanished Man, etc.): to many of the stories' characters and...

Sepharad.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... ANTONIO MUNOZ MOLINA, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY MARGARET SAYERS PEDEN. Harcourt, $27 (384p) ISBN 0-15-100901-5 Award-winning Spanish author Munoz Molina explores themes of memory and exile in this dense, ardent volume, his second to be...

Warrior Woman: the Exceptional Life Story of Nonhelema, Shawnee Indian Woman Chief.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... JAMES ALEXANDER THOM AND DARK RAIN THOM. Ballantine, $25.95 (464p) ISBN 0-345-44554-6 In 1774, on the eve of the American Revolution, a female Shawnee warrior chief preached peace to her angry tribe, whose homeland on the banks of the Ohio...

Colere Noire.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... PHILIPPE MARCELE AND THIERRY SMOLDEREN. Humanoids Publishing, $17.95 paper (144p) ISBN 1-930652-75-5 This European Thelma & Louise begins with a supermarket robbery in which Marielle's son and Stella's husband are killed. Afterwards,...

The Courageous Princess.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... ROD ESPINOSA. Antarctic Press (www.antarctic-press.com), $24.95 (240p) ISBN 0-9728978-6-0 This unexpected tale of a young princess who rescues herself from an evil dragon is seemingly for young readers vet should bewitch all fantasy fans....

Death of a Poison Pen.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... M.C. BEATON. Mysterious, $27.95 (256p) ISBN 0-89296-788-9 British author Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series remains reliable on several fronts: her Scots police officer Hamish will solve the crimes in an appropriately heroic and entertaining...

The Cat Who Talked Turkey.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN. Putnam, $23.95 (192p) ISBN 0-399-15107-9 Like other recent books in Braun's bestselling series that began with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (1966), this loosely plotted novel, the 26th to feature Siamese cats Koko...

Murder on the Marmora.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... CONRAD ALLEN. St. Martin's Minotaur, $27.95 (288p) ISBN 0-312-30791-8 The Marmora, a small luxury ocean liner en route from England to Australia via Cairo in 1908, serves as the venue for Allen's fifth lighthearted historical (after 2003's...

Get Out or Die.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... JANE FINNIS. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (362p) ISBN 1-59058-075-3 In Finnis's lively debut, a Roman historical set in northern Britain in 91 A.D., ill-fated legionnaires contend with a ruthless band of guerrillas seeking to rid their homeland of...

Highlights to Heaven.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... NANCY J. COHEN. Kensington, $20 (240p) ISBN 0-7582-0070-6 With its many loose ends, Cohen's fifth cozy whodunit starring hairstylist-sleuth Marla Shore (after 2002's Body Wave) lives up to its billing as a "Bad Hair Day" mystery in more...

The Merchant of Vengeance.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... SIMON HAWKE. Forge, $27.95 (256p) ISBN 0-765-30426-0 In Hawke's solid fourth entry in his somewhat discursive series about ostler Tuck Smythe and young Will Shakespeare (after 2002's Much Ado About Murder), Will wants to write a better play...

White Devils.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... PAUL MCAULEY. Tor, $25.95 (448p) ISBN 0-765-70761-8 Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner McAuley (Whole Wide World) delivers a grim and gruesome near-future thriller, in which a series of devastating plagues, some natural, some marinade, have...

The Awakening: a Vampire Huntress Legend.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... L.A. BANKS. St. Martin's Griffin $12.95 paper (272p) ISBN 0-312-31683-6 In this follow-up to Minion (2003), Banks proves that vampire novels, like their vampire characters, often spawn progeny all too much in their own image. Events begin...

The Knight: Book One of the Wizard Knight.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... GENE WOLFE. Tor, $25.95 (432p) ISBN 0-765-30989-0 * Nebula and World Fantasy awards-winner Wolfe's new novel--the first half of a massive epic--is a reminder that no one gets called a great writer without being first of all a great...

The Grand Crusade: Book Three of the DragonCrown War Cycle.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... MICHAEL A. STACKPOLE. Bantam Spectra, $14.95 paper (480p) ISBN 0-553-37921-6 The last volume in Stackpole's DragonCrown trilogy (after 2002's When Dragons Rage) should please his many fans with its large helpings of violence, intrigue and...