Publishers Weekly articles from December 2006

Publishers Weekly archives from December 2006

Planning the rightsizing of Waldenbooks: borders goal: smaller, more profitable unit.(Foreword)(includes "Waldenbooks by the Numbers" statistical table)(Company overview)(Financial report)
December 4, 2006... At one point in its history, Waldenbooks ruled bookselling, with more than 1,200 stores generating revenue of more than $1.1 billion. By the end of 2005, those numbers had fallen: a store count of 678 and sales of $744.8 million--and, in the...

Turner headed to Sterling.(Philip Turner appointed Sterling Publishing as head of Union Square Press)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Philip Turner, editor-in-chief of the Carroll & Graf, Thunder's Mouth Press and Philip Turner Books imprints at Avalon, will join Sterling Publishing January 15 as head of Union Square Press. The new imprint marks a new direction for Sterling,...

New HC large-print unit.(HarperCollins launches HarperLuxe imprint)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... HarperCollins has relaunched its line of large-print titles under the new HarperLuxe imprint. The books have been redesigned in an attempt to broaden the appeal of large-print works, particularly to baby boomers. Michael Crichton's Next,...

Holiday traffic control.(Foreword)(Industry overview)
December 4, 2006... Nobody said it publicly, but one of the many upsides, for HarperCollins, of canceling the O.J. Simpson "confession" was that the house could now concentrate its considerable energies upon another of its major projects, scheduled, as usual, for...

Hastings sales up.(Hastings Entertainment)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Comparable-store sales of books rose 2.1% in the third quarter at Hastings Entertainment. Total revenue for the multimedia chain increased 4.3% in the period, to $119.6 million, and the company's net loss was cut to $2.2 million from $2.7...

New S&S kids imprint.(Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Little Simon Inspirations, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, is teaming up with Howard Books to create Howard Kids/LSI. The imprint will be headed by Valerie Garfield, v-p and publisher of Little Simon, Simon Spotlight,...

ODMC appeal rejected.(United States Supreme Court)(Bruce Baebler, On Demand Machine Corp. vs. Lightning Source)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request by Bruce Baebler, president of the On Demand Machine Corp., to hear an appeal in ODMC's lawsuit against Lightning Source, charging that the company's print-on-demand operations infringed patents held...

HM will keep trade unit.(Acquisition Speculation)(Riverdeep Interactive Learning Ltd. to acquire Houghton Mifflin Co.)(includes Revenue statistical table)
December 4, 2006... The announcement that the Irish-based educational software publisher Riverdeep has reached an agreement to acquire Houghton Mifflin set off the usual round of industry speculation about the fate of the trade and reference division in a company...

Sturrock exits Continuum.(Philip Sturrock, Continuum International Publishing Group)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Philip Sturrock, chairman of the Continuum International Publishing Group, has stepped down after seven years of leading the company he founded in 1999. A statement from Continuum cited "a clear difference of strategy" between Sturrock and Nova...

New AMS directors.(Robert Robotti and Gary Rautenstrauch, Advanced Marketing Services Inc.)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Robert Robotti, who has a 7% stake in Advanced Marketing Services, has been named to the company board along with CEO Gary Rautenstrauch. Robotti's appointment heads off a possible proxy battle; Robotti had threatened to nominate alternate...

Schiff to Little, Brown.(Deals)(book publishing news)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Pulitzer Prize-winner Stacy Schiff is moving to Little, Brown for her next book, Cleopatra; Michael Pietsch bought world rights from Eric Simonoff at Janklow & Nesbit. Cleopatra will examine the life of the woman whose brains, not beauty,...

Viking keeps Philbrick.(Deals)("The Last Stand: The Battle of the Little Big Horn" by Nathaniel Philbrick)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Wendy Wolf has acquired Nathaniel Philbrick's next book, The Last Stand: The Battle of the Little Big Horn; Stuart Krichevsky sold North American rights. This is Philbrick's fourth book with Viking and follows his bestseller Mayflower. Last...

Thrillers to Harper.(Deals)("It Takes a Lot of Heart to Play this Game" by Peter de Jonge)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Lane Zachary and Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth just closed a two-book deal at auction for a proposed series of novels by Peter de Jonge; Harper's Claire Wachtel won world rights. The books will follow a young NYPD detective; in the...

The briefing.(Deals)("Fighting Words: Saving Oratory and Debate in America" by Mark Oppenheimer)(Michael Crider)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Betsy Lerner at Dunow Carlson Lerner has sold Thirteen and a Day author Mark Oppenheimer's new book, Fighting Words: Saving Oratory and Debate in America; Norton's Amy Cherry bought North American rights. A former debate champion, Oppenheimer...

Stowe reexamined.(Foreword)(Harriet Beecher Stowe)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... W.W. Norton in collaboration with the New York Public Library and the Studio Museum in Harlem sponsored a conversation on The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin, a reevaluation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic novel. The program featured the book's...

Editor's note.(Foreword)(Editorial)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Our article last week about S&S's cancellation of Pumpkins stirred up some controversy. See our Web site (www.publishersweekly.com/richter) for a response by S&S Children's Publishing president Rick Richter.

Reorg at Agate Publishing.(Growth Spurt)(Company overview)
December 4, 2006... After a year of internal growth and acquisitions, Doug Seibold, publisher of the Chicago independent Agate Publishing, is revamping the house. The reorganization follows Agate's acquisition of indie food and lifestyle publisher Surrey Books;...

Calendar: Dec. 11-16.(Calendar)
December 4, 2006... 12/11 Oscar-nominated actress Teri Garr (Young Frankenstein) celebrates her 57th birthday and the paperback release of her memoir, Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood (Plume). 12/12 Greg Iles's 11th novel, True Evil (Scribner), lands...

Is 'Heroes' headed to print?(Book-TV Continuum)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... It's hard to talk about NBC's biggest new hit of the season, Heroes, without getting into a discussion about comic books. The show, which feels like X-Men via Lost, is steeped in comic book homages; one of its characters quotes Spider-Man and...

Industry stocks: November performances.(Market Watch)(includes "Winners" statistical table)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Acquisitions had a major impact on this month's Publishers Weekly Stock Index. Ripplewood's offer to acquire Reader's Digest for $17 per share drove RD's stock price up 16.5% in November, the biggest gain in the month. The market also endorsed...

Hire, promo at McGraw-Hill.(People)(The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Ron Martirano has been named editor for sports books in McGraw-Hill's consumer group. Martirano arrives from Penguin, where he worked for the Chamberlain Brothers imprint. Deborah Brody has been promoted from senior editor to executive editor...

Richardson to HM.(People)(Julia Richardson appointed Houghton Mifflin Children's Book Group)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Julia Richardson has joined Houghton Mifflin Children's Book Group as paperback director. Most recently editorial director of Aladdin Paperbacks at Simon & Schuster, Richardson has worked with authors Ellen Hopkins, Hilari Bell, Anne Ursu and...

O'Donnell to OUP.(People)(Andrew O'Donnell appointed Oxford University Press)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Andrew O'Donnell has joined Oxford University Press as director of direct response marketing and sales. O'Donnell was deputy director of marketing for an executive conference firm and, before that, worked for Aspen Publishing, Harcourt Brace...

Profitable "Stealing".(Hollywood Reader)("Stealing the General" by Russell S. Bonds)(Hotchkiss & Associates)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... If you had any doubts that reading PW could be both fun and profitable, the story behind Russell S. Bonds's Stealing the General (Westholme, Oct.) should erase them. Film agent Jody Hotchkiss of Hotchkiss & Associates first stumbled across...

Foer & Grisham.(Hollywood Reader)("Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer/"The Innocent Man" by John Grisham)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Two titles from columns past clinched high-profile film deals this month. Paramount has optioned Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein for Mike White's Rip Cord Productions (Hollywood Reader, Nov. 6) and they are already targeting a shortlist...

Clarification.(Hollywood Reader)(Correction notice)
December 4, 2006... Our November 16 coverage of Alex Williams's The Talent Thief omitted 21 Laps Entertainment president Tom McNulty's role in assembling the creative elements involved in the project. McNulty will produce the project with director and 29 Palms...

Promos, hire at DBD.(People)(Josh Hayes promoted at Diamond Book Distributors)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... At Diamond Book Distributors, Josh Hayes has been bumped up to associate director of sales and marketing, and Donnie Lewis has been named customer service manager after being assistant manager of data processing at Diamond Comic Distributors,...

Barney to Putnam.(People)(Stacey Barney appointed Putnam Books for Young Readers)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Stacey Barney has been named editor at Putnam Books for Young Readers. Barney, who's worked as a teacher, launched a YA African-American imprint at Kensington Books.

Clarification.(People)(Correction notice)
December 4, 2006... Sandra Dear, recently promoted to v-p of group company, custom and proprietary sales at Penguin Group (PW, Nov. 27), was formerly v-p of merchandising warehouse clubs for AMS.

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.(includes listings and book publishing news)(Bibliography)
December 4, 2006... On his Web site, Hillerman talks about the extreme importance of women in Native American cultures, especially Navajo: "It is a matrilineal society, you are part of your mother's clan. Elderly women tend to be the ultimate 'gurus' of many...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.(listings)(Bibliography)
December 4, 2006... "As a businessman, I often didn't say what I wanted to say because I was afraid of hurting someone's feelings, or of having my feelings hurt. Instead of being forthright, I would be polite. Because of my association with Donald, I took back...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.(includes listings with book publishing and movie news)(Bibliography)
December 4, 2006... Dimension Films, the Weinstein brothers' production company, will be making a film of Cell to follow their adaptation of King's short story "1408" (from Everything's Eventual), due in May 2007. Cell will star John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson....

Paperback bestsellers/trade.(includes listings and book publishing news)(Bibliography)
December 4, 2006... This is the first time Ballantine published Amy Tan in trade paper first; in the past, the publisher did her books initially in mass market, then in trade. It worked--there are 290,000 copies in print after eight printings. Tan wrapped up a...

Comic bestsellers.(includes listings and publishing news)(Bibliography)
December 4, 2006... Tsugumi Ohba's supernatural crime thriller takes over the top spot on the list. It's the story of Light Yagami, a high school student who finds the Death Note, a notebook belonging to a bored Shinigami, a Japanese death god making mischief...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.(includes listings and publishing news)(Bibliography)
December 4, 2006... King has long been an audiobook aficionado and a champion of the medium. He praised the genre (and acknowledged some of its shortcomings) in his October 31 pop culture column in Entertainment Weekly. In that piece, King listed his all-time...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.(includes listings and publishing news)(Bibliography)
December 4, 2006... "Listeners will rejoice that {Obama} does not turn this reading opportunity into a six-hour speech. Instead, his cadence, speed and tone work to bring the listener from point to point, building inspiration through provocative thought rather...

Dutch bookseller touts benefits of tagging books: using RFID cuts costs, boosts sales.(Retailing)(Selexyz)(includes "Cross is King - best sellers" related article)
December 4, 2006... When U.S. publishers talk about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), they're discussing a technology that can track books from a printer to arrival at a bookstore. But now a bookstore chain in the Netherlands has just installed RFID in a...

Little house under renovation.(Children's Books)("Little House on the Prarie" series gets makeover)
December 4, 2006... The prairie landscape of Laura Ingalls Wilder will soon be changing. HarperCollins, in an effort to keep the classic Little House on the Prairie series relevant to a new generation, is repackaging the paperback editions, and will replace the...

'Puff' comes to life.(Children's Books)("Puff the Magic Dragon")(Sterling Publishing Co. Inc.)
December 4, 2006... When singer-songwriter Peter Yarrow finally decided to make "Puff, the Magic Dragon" into a children's book, how did he pitch it to publishers? By strapping on his guitar, of course. Earlier this year Yarrow and his agent, Paula Allen of...

Trinity hits pay dirt with Home Ground.(Independent Publishing)(Trinity University Press)("Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape")
December 4, 2006... The first book contracted by Trinity University Press publisher Barbara Ras, who took over in 2002, has just become a bestseller. Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, a nature reference edited by Barry Lopez, has landed at #10 on...

Triumph of the Thriller.(book trends)(Cover story)(Column)
December 4, 2006... Excerpted and adapted from the introduction to Anderson's The Triumph of the Thriller (Reviews, Nov. 13), in which the author, who reviews thrillers for the Washington Post, argues that the modern crime thriller is the new mainstream of...

Upping the body count.(Ballantine and Random House to launch mystery book imprint Mortalis)(Llewellyn Publications first anniversary of Midnight Ink)
December 4, 2006... Crooks and criminologists alike will soon have additional opportunities to ply their respective trades, as two publishing houses prepare to launch new mystery imprints. The trade paperback divisions of Ballantine and Random House have joined...

Family resemblance: what happens when you're a first-time novelist determined to make it on your own--but your father is a superstar?("Heart-shaped Box" by Joe Hill)(Interview)(Cover story)
December 4, 2006... Pop quiz: A man is in crisis. A dark force enters his life. He battles that force to save himself and those dearest to him. The protagonist described is: A. Arnie Cunningham and his Plymouth Fury in Christine by Stephen King; B....

Noir reissue revival.(book trends)
December 4, 2006... Mostly they are remembered from the movies. It's cool Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon, smarmy Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity, and tough Dick Powell in Murk. My Sweet. Those 1940s pictures came out of the writings of the likes of...

Indie suprises for spring.(Sleepers)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... No press, large or small, can afford to ignore marquee authors with solid platforms in today's frenetic marketplace. Rowman & Littlefield is taking substantial orders for a memoir by former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and Janet...

Looking back: summer sleepers.(Sleepers)
December 4, 2006... Last March, PW previewed a handful of independent press books with outsize potential, including Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, which emerged as one of the biggest novels of the year. Here's a look at how they peformed. Water for...

East meets west.(Author Profile)("The Bastard of Istanbul" by Elif Shafak)
December 4, 2006... Istanbul, January 2006. I'm at dinner with Turkish novelist Elif Shafak in Sultanhamet, the old part of the city that figures so prominently in her fiction. The table is covered with meze, and Shafak and her husband, journalist Eyup Can, have...

The Sea Lady.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Sea Lady MARGARET DRABBLE. Harcourt, $24 (352p) ISBN 978-0-15-101263-3 The bold latest from by the ever-inventive Drabble (The Red Queen, etc.) tells the tale of two aging academics--Ailsa Kelman, flamboyant feminist activist and TV...

A Miracle of Catfish.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... A Miracle of Catfish LARRY BROWN. Algonquin, $26.95 (464p) ISBN 978-1-56512-536-0 This sprawling novel was unfinished when Mississippi writer Brown (Dirty Work, etc.) died at 53 in 2004. (It remains so, according to a note from editor...

The Entitled.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Entitled FRANK DEFORD. Sourcebooks, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4022-0896-6 Sportswriter, screenwriter and author Deford (Alex: The Life of a Child; Everybody's All-American) scores another hit with this novel of athletes behaving badly....

Hood Rat.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Hood Rat K'WAN. St. Martin's Griffin, $14.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-36008-5 K'wan's latest (after Eve) is a meandering trip across Harlem with plenty of pit stops for vice and violence. Yoshi is a stripper who prostitutes herself for...

The Visible World.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Visible World MARK SLOUKA. Houghton Mifflin; $24 (256p) ISBN 978-0-618-75643-8 Slouka's urgent second novel (following God's Fool) comes in three parts. The first relates the nameless narrator's growing up in postwar New York and...

American Youth.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... * American Youth PHIL LAMARCHE. Random, $21.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6605-6 In telling the story of New England ninth grader Ted LeClare, LaMarche takes Mitch Albom-like sincerity, holds it arm's length from George Saunders-like deadpan...

Knots.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... * Knots NURUDDIN FARAH. Riverhead, $25.95 (432p) ISBN 978-1-59448-924-2 Somalia-born Farah's ninth novel (after Links, first in a trilogy of which this is the second book) tells the spellbinding story of Cambara, a Somalian emigre to...

Delirium.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Delirium LAURA RESTREPO, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY NATASHA WIMMER. Doubleday/Talese, $23.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-385-51990-8 Aguilar, a former literature professor who now "delivers dog food in order to survive" returns from a trip to find...

The Friend of Women and Other Stories.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Friend of Women and Other Stories LOUIS AUCHINCLOSS. Houghton Mifflin, $24 (224p) ISBN 978-0-618-71866-5 It's easy to understand why the prolific Auchincloss (East Side Story) has been hailed as a "Living Landmark," writing as he does...

The God of Spring.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The God of Spring ARABELLA EDGE. Simon & Schuster, $24 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9484-3 Edge's second historical (after The Company) takes as its subject the French artist Theodore Gericault and the genesis of one of his best-known paintings,...

The Moonlit Cage.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Moonlit Cage LINDA HOLEMAN. Three Rivers, $14.95 paper (496p) ISBN 978-0-307-34649-0 Holeman (The Linnet Bird) explores the fate of a willful Muslim girl in this exotic and expansive coming-of-age historical romance. Growing up in...

The Dowry.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Dowry WALTER KEADY. St. Martin's/ Dunne, $23.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-312-36191-4 The young people of Coshlawn Crann in rural Ireland simply aren't marrying and properly propagating in the hardscrabble postwar 1946. It's all about the...

Karma and Other Stories.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Karma and Other Stories RISHI REDDI. Ecco, $23.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-06-089878-6 Set primarily in Boston and its suburbs, Reddi's debut focuses on individuals and families struggling to reconcile their Indian diaspora backgrounds with...

Queen of Miami.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Queen of Miami META SMITH. Warner, $13.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-446-69853-5 Maddeningly cliched, yet as entertaining as daytime talk show brawls, Smith's second novel treads on the same turf as her street lit debut, Rolexxx Club: the...

Ten Days in the Hills.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... * Ten Days in the Hills JANE SMILEY. Knopf, $26 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4000-4061-2 Smiley (A Thousand Acres) goes Hollywood in this scintillating tale of an extended Decameron-esque L.A. house party. Gathering at the home of washed-up director...

High Profile.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... High Profile ROBERT B. PARKER. Putnam, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-399-15404-1 The murder of Walton Weeks, a Rush Limbaugh-like political commentator in sleepy Paradise, Mass., drives the action of bestseller Parker's competent whodunit, a...

Napoleon's Pyramids.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... * Napoleon's Pyramids WILLIAM DIETRICH. HarperCollins, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-084832-3 At the start of Dietrich's superb historical thriller, his swashbuckling hero, American Ethan Gage, who's living in Paris during the waning days of...

Mistress of the Art of Death.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Mistress of the Art of Death ARIANA FRANKLIN. Putnam, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-399-15414-0 Had Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael been born a few decades later, he might have found a worthy associate and friend in Dr. Vesuvia Adelia Rachel...

The Echelon Vendetta.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Echelon Vendetta DAVID STONE. Putnam, $25.95 (432p) ISBN 978-0-399-15408-9 Somebody is killing the former CIA agents who took part in a brilliant but highly illegal top secret operation known as Echelon. A couple of ghosts may also be...

Falling.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Falling CHRISTOPHER PIKE. Forge, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-765-31718-6 Bestseller Pike's gripping thriller pays homage to Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter novels, particularly in the character of FBI agent Kelly Feinman, who fills the...

Lost Echoes.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... * Lost Echoes JOE R. LANSDALE. Vintage/ Black Lizard, $13.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-307-27544-8 In this superior East Texas crime thriller from Stoker-winner Lansdale (Sunset and Sawdust), Harry Wilkes discovers after a severe childhood ear...

The Next Victim.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Next Victim JONNIE JACOBS. Kensington, $19.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7582-0801-9 In Jacob's smart seventh Kali O'Brien legal thriller (after Intent to Harm), the San Francisco DA faces two horrifying possibilities: Did her brother, John,...

An Irish Country Doctor.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... An Irish Country Doctor PATRICK TAYLOR. Forge, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-765-31623-3 Astraitlaced novice doctor gets initiated into the unorthodox world of a crafty rural sawbones in Taylor's American debut. Barry Laverty is fresh out of...

Valentines: Stories.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Valentines: Stories OLAF OLAFSSON. Pantheon, $23 (224p) ISBN 978-0-375-42468-7 Icelandic emigre novelist Olafsson (Absolution) offers a grim look at chilled middle-aged marriage in 12 stories titled after the months of the year. Olafsson...

Baby Remember My Name.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Baby Remember My Name EDITED BY MICHELLE TEA. Carroll & Graf, $14.95 paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-78671-792-7 A Passel of largely young West Coast women writers offer queer coming-out and coming-on stories in this bright, muscular collection put...

Ask Again Later.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Ask Again Later JILL A. DAVIS. Ecco, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-087596-1 When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, New Yorker Emily Rhode ditches her too-perfect boyfriend and far from perfect legal career to become her mother's primary...

The Blonde Theory.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Blonde Theory KRISTIN HARMEL. Warner/5 Spot, $13.99 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-446-69759-0 In her follow-up to How to Sleep with a Movie Star, Harmel, a chick lit reviewer for morning television show The Daily Buzz, nails the formula:...

The Water Devil: A Margaret of Ashbury Novel.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Water Devil: A Margaret of Ashbury Novel JUDITH MERKLE RILEY. Three Rivers, $13.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-307-23789-7 Set in England in 1362, Riley's charming conclusion to her trilogy that began with A Vision of Light finds Margaret...

Chocolate Beach.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Chocolate Beach JULIE CAROBINI. Baker/Bethany House, $12.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0261-2 Brianna Stone has an idyllic life. She lives in a comfortable beach home in Ventura, Calif., with her handsome, loving husband, Douglas, and...

Flies on the Butter: A Novel.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Flies on the Butter: A Novel DENISE HILDRETH. WestBow, $14.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-59554-208-3 Hildreth, author of the popular Savannah series (Savannah from Savannah, etc.), sets her disappointing new stand-alone in a car. When...

Shell Game: A Professor Simon Shaw Mystery.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Shell Game: A Professor Simon Shaw Mystery SARAH R. SHABER. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-312-35602-6 Shaber's brisk fifth Simon Shaw cozy (after 2004's The Bug Funeral) obliges the Raleigh, N.C., history professor...

The Commission.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... * The Commission MICHAEL NORMAN. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (246p) ISBN 978-1-59058-358-6 This impressive debut from a criminal justice professor and former lawman exudes verisimilitude from start to finish. When Levi Vogue, chairman of the Utah...

Fever Moon.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Fever Moon CAROLYN HAINES. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-35161-8 Haines acknowledges her debt to James Lee Burke in this atmospheric historical (after 2005's Penumbra), set in New Iberia Parish, La., at the close of WWII....

A decent and honorable detective: PW talks with Matt Benyon Rees: British journalist Matt Benyon Rees, the author of Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East, provides a view of Palestinian society few Westerners are privileged to see in his first novel, The Collaborator of Bethlehem (Reviews, Nov. 27).(Q&A)(Publishers Weekly)(Interview)
December 4, 2006... You write intimately about the West Bank and the Palestinians. Where does your knowledge come from? I've been in Jerusalem over 10 years; from 2000 until 2006 I was bureau chief for Time. I've spent a great deal of time in the Palestinian...

Death on the Nevskii Prospekt.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... Death on the Nevskii Prospekt DAVID DICKINSON. Carroll & Graf, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-78671-897-9 Dickinson's solid sixth Lord Francis Powerscourt turn-of-the-20th-century mystery doesn't quite rise to the level of some of the better...

The Picasso Flop.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Picasso Flop VINCE VAN PATTEN AND ROBERT J. RANDISI. Mysterious, $24.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-89296-070-5 Van Patten, a host of TV's World Poker Tour, has teamed with veteran mystery writer Randisi to create what may be the first novel...

The Star: A Tarot Card Mystery.(book)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 4, 2006... The Star: A Tarot Card Mystery DAVID SKIBBINS. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-312-36193-8 Warren Ritter, ex-'60s radical and sidewalk tarot-card reader in Berkeley, Calif., works to clear his daughter's name in...