Publishers Weekly articles from February 2004

Publishers Weekly archives from February 2004

Rounding the corner.
February 23, 2004... Computer book publishers see opportunities opening up this spring in niche areas, driven by the growth of electronic technology and the popularity of electronic devices. While highly technical titles remain a staple, many technology...

Pearson, Wharton launch business book imprint: venture brings global reach, multiple formats, Wharton cachet to a crowded market.(news)
February 23, 2004... PEARSON EDUCATION is teaming up with the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to launch a new business education imprint to be known as Wharton School Publishing. The venture will bring together a variety of prominent business...

Biggest books to film.
February 23, 2004... An astonishing four out of five Best Picture nominees at this year's Academy Awards are based on books. With these nominations a boon to studio and publisher, we looked at the most commercially successful movies in the U.S. ever to come from...

BlueHen founders get funding for new venture.(News)
February 23, 2004... AFTER SEVERAL YEARS of change and uncertainly, the two original forces behind MacMurray & Beck have received investment money to start up their micropublisher again. Greg Michalson and Fred Ramey, who left M&B to found BlueHen, which was...

Earnings jump at Thomas Nelson.(Third-Quarter Results)
February 23, 2004... NET INCOME CONTINUED to soar at Thomas Nelson with the publisher reporting a 59% increase in earnings, to $3.9 million, for the third quarter ended December 31. Sales increased 4%, to $56 million. For the nine-month period, net income was up...

Study finds $1.5B supplemental ed market.(Numbers)
February 23, 2004... A study of the elhi supplemental publishing market found that sales grew 4.6% in 2002, to $1.53 billion. The study, sponsored by the Association of Educational Publishers and conducted by Education Market Research, recorded sates from 63...

Audible sales rise, loss falls.(Results 2003)
February 23, 2004... THE ADDITION OF NEW members and a growing number of digital devices that are Audible-compatible helped produce a record quarter for Audible Inc. in this year's fourth quarter. Sales in the quarter rose 52.8%, to $5.8 million, with all but...

Indigo reports a bit less black ink.(Canadian Retail)
February 23, 2004... IN THE THIRD QUARTER ended December 27, 2003, sales at Indigo Books & Music, Canada's largest book retailer, rose 0.7%, to C$279 million ($212 million), while net profits dropped 6.5%, to C$28.8 million ($21.9 million). Sales at superstores...

Doubleday gets large grant for new series.(Discovering Foundations)
February 23, 2004... IN A RARE INSTANCE of a for-profit publisher receiving a large sum of grant money, a foundation will pay more than $1 million to Doubleday to support a new line of books about inventors and discoveries. The grant, from the science-minded...

DH to buy manga packager.(Graphic Novels)
February 23, 2004... THE RUMORS HAVE been flying that Dark Horse Comics has been planning to purchase the manga packaging company Studio Proteus, and on February 5 Dark Horse confirmed that a deal is in the works, although it has not yet been finalized. Financial...

Your moment of Zen.(news)
February 23, 2004... Caption: Comedian Jon Stewart was joined by Susan Sarandon, John Lithgow, Janeane Garofalo and other celebrities who read from a variety of books to more than 1,000 New York City fourth graders at the fourth annual Lincoln's Library, an event...

1stbooks adds returns, color.(Print-on-Demand)
February 23, 2004... 1STBOOKS.COM, a print-on-demand subsidy book publisher, has announced plans to allow booksellers to return unsold rifles purchased from 1stbooks's distributor or directly front 1sthooks. The company also announced it will offer full-color...

Brodart buys Spanish-Language wholesaler.(Acquisition)
February 23, 2004... BRODART HAS ACCELERATED its expansion into the Spanish-language book market with the acquisition of the wholesaler Books on Wings. Based in San Francisco, Books on Wings was founded in 1980 by Nerissa Moran and stocks about 10,000...

And the winner is ...(screenings)
February 23, 2004... Film studios are not the only ones to benefit from the hoopla around the Oscar nominations; publishers get a bounce, too. Every year the Best Adapted Screenplay award focuses the public's attention on five films based on books that are...

Idea Group Inc. adds trade, reference units.(Expanding List)
February 23, 2004... AFTER 17 YEARS OF publishing academic and professional books and journals, Idea Group Inc., a privately held company in Hershey, Pa., is expanding its market to include the trade. Starting in March, IGI will kick off its CyberTech...

Aperture, T&H ink distribution pact.(International Sales)
February 23, 2004... APERTURE FOUNDATION, the nonprofit photography center and book publisher, has announced a new international book distribution agreement that will make Thames de Hudson the exclusive distributor of Aperture books worldwide. Aperture Books will...

Pathway to release Stemmer house titles.(New England Publishing)
February 23, 2004... STEMMER HOUSE, purchased in September by Pathway Book Service, a warehousing and fulfillment service in Gilsum, N.H., is releasing its first books since the acquisition: reprints of its highly regarded design titles (News, Sept. 15, 2003)....

B&N sales up 8% for 2003.(Looking Up)(Barnes & Noble Inc.)
February 23, 2004... SALES AT BARNES & NOBLE in the year ended January 31 rose 8%, to 53.9 billion, while sales in the fourth quarter rose 10%, to $1.3 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.2% for the year and 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Momentum...

WRC Media releases mixed year-end report.(Results 2003)
February 23, 2004... TOTAL SALES FELL 3%, to $202.8 million, in 2003, according to preliminary results released by supplementary educational publisher WRC Media. Operating income rose 24%, to $24.5 million. The company's net loss was $7.8 million in 2003,...

Monster Man.(news)
February 23, 2004... Caption: Neal Adams, the legendary comics artist for Batman and Green Lantern, signing copies of his new graphic novel, Neal Adams Monsters (Vanguard Publishing), at Forbidden Planet comics shop in New York City. Pictured: Vanguard publisher...

Worth betting on.(behind the bestsellers)
February 23, 2004... Sometimes you just have to put a book back in the drawer. That's what best-selling author Jennifer Crusie did with her first manuscript, Bet Me, back in 1992. She admits that it was awful and is not surprised that she couldn't sell it. About...

A good caper, Barr none.(behind the bestsellers)
February 23, 2004... Nevada Barr's 12th Anna Pigeon mystery, High Country, lands in the #12 spot on PWs chart. The author is spending most of February on a 13-city book signing and publicity tour that will end with a weekend event at Yosemite National Park...

All's fair with Queer.(behind the bestsellers)
February 23, 2004... In the #7 spot on the hardcover nonfiction list is the official tie-in book to one of the most popular new TV series, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy: The Fab 5's Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Dressing Better, and Living Better, by...

Physics for everyman.(behind the bestsellers)
February 23, 2004... "This is popular science writing of the highest order" was just one of the raves in PWs starred review of The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene. "Crisp, witty prose" was another...

Three trade trotters.(behind the bestsellers)
February 23, 2004... PW's trade paperback list welcomes three new titles this week in the top 10. First, in the #5 spot, is What Not to Wear by Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine. Riverhead's first printing for the book, published last July, was 100,000...

Julius Schwartz, 88.(Obituary)
February 23, 2004... JULIUS SCHWARTZ, editor emeritus of DC Comics and a pioneering figure in science fiction and the history of American comics, died February 8 in Winthrop Hospital in New York City of complications from pneumonia. He was 88. A legendary...

The battle for gay marriage: the timing couldn't be better for four new books about same-sex unions. How will they sell?(book news)
February 23, 2004... After simmering at the state and federal level for a full decade, same-sex marriage is now very nearly a reality. In a year when it's likely to become a wedge issue in the presidential election, at least four new books and two reissues stand...

Spring 2004 book festivals: celebrations of writing, reading and regional literary treasures continue with pride.(bookselling)
February 23, 2004... Book festivals will be busting out across the U.S. this spring, continuing an annual tradition that shows no sign of stopping. The desire to celebrate books and reading, to showcase local and national authors and to offer activities for the...

South Carolina Book Festival.
February 23, 2004... Columbia, February 28-29 www.schumanities.org/bookfestival.htm (803) 771-2477 What began in 1997 as a one-day event has now become the largest literary event in the state: readings and signings with more than 60 well-known authors,...

Lee County Reading Festival.
February 23, 2004... Ft. Myers, Fla., March 13 www.lee-county.com/library/ReadingFestivalHome.htm (239) 461-2924 This year the Lee County Reading Festival hosts its fifth annual "Celebration of Reading." Highlights of the festival will include author panels,...

Broward County Literary Feast.
February 23, 2004... Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Marcia 19-20 www.broward.org/library/literaryfeast.htm (954) 357-7469 Now in its 16th year, Literary Feast promotes reading and writing skills while generating substantial support for the Broward Public Library...

Plano Book Festival for Adult Literacy.
February 23, 2004... Piano, Tex., Marcia 20 www.mattfrick.com/ftpsub/pbf/index.html (972) 633-9603 The Plano Station and Plano City Hall will host 50 authors from Texas and beyond during this third annual festival to benefit the cause of adult literacy....

Virginia Festival of the Book.
February 23, 2004... Charlottesville, March 24-28 www.vabook.org (434) 924-6890 The 10th annual Virginia Festival of the Book--"VABook!"--will feature many award-winning authors. Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon...

The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival.
February 23, 2004... New Orleans, March 24-28 www.tennesseewilliams.net (504) 581-1144 Now in its 18th year, this festival showcases national and regional scholars, writers and performing artists through panel discussions, theatrical performances, a one-act...

Illinois Authors Book Fair.
February 23, 2004... Springfield, March 26-27 www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/whats_new/2004bookfair.html (217) 785-6925 A gala dinner honoring Illinois authors and benefiting the Illinois Center for the Book will kick off this eighth annual...

Small Press Book Fair.
February 23, 2004... New York City, March 27-28 www.smallpress.org/bookfair/bookfair.htm (212) 764-7021 Once again focusing on literary publishing, this 16th annual fair is one of the major events of Small Press Month, providing hundreds of independent...

Border Book Festival.
February 23, 2004... Mesilla, N.Mex., April 1-4 www.borderbookfestival.org/ (505) 524-1499 For 10 years, this festival has been celebrating the literature and authors of the border region between the southern U.S. and northern Mexico. Mesilla, now 42 miles...

The Latino Book & Family Festival.
February 23, 2004... San Diego, May 15-16 www.LBFF.us (760) 434-4484 This traveling festival is now in its eighth year of advancing the cause of Latino literacy. This year San Diego--which has been hosting the festival for five years--replaces Phoenix as the...

Arizona Book Festival.
February 23, 2004... Phoenix, April 3 www.azbookfestival.org/index.html (602) 257-0335 More than 200 local and national authors are expected at this festival, which is also the kick-off event for OneBookAZ, a statewide effort to bring readers together by...

Northern Arizona Book Festival.
February 23, 2004... Flagstaff, April 16-18 www.flagstaffcentral.com/bookfest/ (928) 774-9118 On February 16--two months before the festival date--the seventh annual Northern Arizona Book Festival began its year with a benefit performance featuring cowboy...

Southern Kentucky Festival of Books.
February 23, 2004... Bowling Green, April 16-17 www.sokybookfest.org (270) 745-5016 The sixth annual Southern Kentucky Book Festival--billed as the largest literary event in the state--will host over 200 authors in autographing and speaking sessions. New this...

Ann Arbor Book Festival.
February 23, 2004... Ann Arbor, Mich., April 22-25 www.aabookfestival.org (734) 662-7407 2004 marks the inaugural year for this festival, which will be held in the heart of University of Michigan land. The festival celebrates poetry, booksellers and...

African America Children's Book Festival.
February 23, 2004... New York City, April 24 www.kidsculturalbooks.org (203) 359-6925 New York City's landmark Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is once again the venue for this annual festival. This year, the sixth, the event has been expanded to two...

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
February 23, 2004... Los Angeles, April 24-25 www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/ (800) LATIMES, ext. 7BOOK Filled with panel discussions, poetry readings, book signings and music for Southern Californians, this ninth annual festival will also host the...

The Ohio River Festival of Books.
February 23, 2004... Huntington, W.Va., April 30-May 1 www.ohioriverbooks.org (304) 528-5700 This second annual festival celebrates contributions to writing from West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. Held at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena Conference Center, the...

Politics not quite as usual: two spring titles introduce alternative presidential candidates.(children's book)
February 23, 2004... Those weary of hearing or reading about the same old 2004 presidential hopefuls can take heart. Soon to make headlines are two brand-new contenders who also aspire to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. One is known to young adult readers as...

Vintage Don Freeman book debuts.(children's book)
February 23, 2004... A quarter-century after his death, Don Freeman's name will grace the cover of a never-before published picture book from Viking. Due in March, Manuelo the Playing Mantis introduces a lonely praying mantis who listens longingly to an orchestra...

Criticas February bestsellers.
February 23, 2004... [Non-Fiction] 1 Vivir para contarla. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. (Living to Tell the Tale) U.S.: Vintage: Random House. 2003. ISBN 1-400-03453-1. pap. $12.95. Still selling strong in soft and hardcover, Gabo's memoir sets the author's life...

Going Up? The computer book industry is poised for growth.
February 23, 2004... FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE tHe tech slump began, sales of computers to vendors rose in the double digits last year, up by as much as 15%, to $12.5 billion, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. And the news from tire business front...

Spring computer books.
February 23, 2004... All titles are paperback unless otherwise noted. A K PETERS Audio Anecdotes: Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Digital Audio (Mar., $49t by Ken Greenbaum discusses how to process, create and record many forms of sound and music using...

Just in the niche of time: in this age of specialization, publishers are targeting ever-more-specific child-rearing issues.(Category closeup: parenting)
February 23, 2004... LIKE DOCTORS AND radio stations, parenting books have become more specialized, as the all-knowing authorities give way to experts who tackle one child-rearing challenge at a time. Today's parents, savvier and more time-pressured than those of...

A.E. Hotchner: from Papa to Paul.(interview)
February 23, 2004... If he were a character in a novel, A.E. Hotchner would be larger than life. Biographer; novelist; playwright; editor; journalist; author of memoirs, movie scripts and teleplays; celebrity confidant; entrepreneur; philanthropist: Hotchner has...

Prince Edward.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... Dennis McFarland. Holt, $25 (368p) ISBN 0-8050-6833-3 McFarland is a novelist of quiet eloquence (Singing Boy; The Music Room) whose powers of careful observation and refusal to venture into melodrama are particularly evident in his...

The Sea House.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... ESTHER FREUD. Ecco, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-056549-7 * Painter Lucian's daughter, Sigmund's great-granddaughter and an accomplished novelist herself (Hideous Kinky), Freud invokes her father's family history in this splendidly written,...

The Body of David Hayes.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... RIDLEY PEARSON. Hyperion, 523.95 (352p) ISBN 0-7868-6725-6 Lt. Lou Boldt is still top cop in the ninth installment of Pearson's Seattle Police Department series. (Undercurrents; No Witnesses; etc.). This time the case involves Boldt's...

Boomtown.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... GREG WILLIAMS. Overlook/Sewanee Writers' Series, $24.95; (304p) ISBN 1-58567-450-8 The author of Younger than Springtime offers a series of sharply clever and often comic character studies of New Yorkers riding the brief but intoxicating...

1906.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... JAMES DALESSANDRO. Chronicle, $24.95 (364p) ISBN 0-8118-4313-0 Screenwriter and novelist Dalessandro (Bohemian Heart) pens an imaginative and dense interplay between fact and fiction in this story of corruption, crime lords and the great...

The Gift of the Bambino.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... JERRY AMERNIC. St. Martin's/Dunne, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 0-312-31759-X In 1914 in Toronto, Lazaros Slackowicz, then a young boy, sees Babe Ruth, the "bambino" of Amernic's O. Henryesque debut, hit a monstrous home run in a minor league...

Herding cats.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... JOHN MCCABE. Black Swan (Trafalgar Square, dist.), $13 paper (362p) ISBN 0-552-77090-6 Taking its title from a British euphemism for "managing people," this rather disjointed new lampoon by the author of Big Spender was originally...

With.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... DONALD HARINGTON. Toby, $19.95 (491p) ISBN 1-59264-050-8 * Transforming a kidnapping plot into an epic rural fable and then a touchingly poignant love story, Harington crafts a wildly imaginative tour de force about a young Arkansas girl...

Unveiling.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... SUZANNE M. WOLFE. Paraclete, $19.95 (208p) ISBN 1-55725-354-4 This dark and lovely first novel from Wolfe, the executive editor of Image ("A Journal of the Arts and Religion"), uses themes of faith, brokenness and redemption to create a...

3rd Degree.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... JAMES PATTERSON AND ANDREW GROSS. Little, Brown, $26.95 (341p) ISBN 0-316-60357-0 From the start, Patterson's Women's Murder Club series (1st to Die; Second Chance) has felt like high-concept TV with a smart edge, featuring an appealing...

The Dew Breaker.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... EDWIDGE DANTICAT. Knopf, $22 (256p) ISBN 1-4000-4114-7 Haitian-born Danticat's third novel (after The Farming of Bones and Breath, Eyes, Memory) focuses on the lives affected by a "dew breaker," or torturer of Haitian dissidents under...

Ibid: a Life.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... MARK DUNN. MacAdam/Cage, $22 (280p) ISBN 1-931561-65-6 Chalk it up to a post-ironic age or a growing impatience with a certain precious experimentalism linked (possibly unfairly but permanently) to the McSweeney's crowd. The bloom is off...

The Anxiety of Everyday Objects.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... AURELIE SHEEHAN. Penguin, $14 paper (278p) ISBN 0-14-200370-0 The languors of office life and frustrated dreams are explored in this off-beat first novel by Sheehan (after the short story collection Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant). Winona...

Faithful.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... DAVITT SIGERSON. Doubleday/Talese, $23.95 (210p) ISBN 0-385-51050-0 Sigerson, a former record executive, whips up sexual tensions, extramarital affairs and even sexual-affair affairs in his racy debut. Nick Clifford, a he-man London...

Wickedly savage passions.(PW Talks with Melissa Pritchard)
February 23, 2004... PW: What inspired you in Late Bloomer[reviewed on p. 51] to connect the romance novel to the plight of the contemporary American Indian? Melissa Pritchard. I have been living with an American-Indian man and been involved in aspects of...

An Empty Room.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... TALITHA STEVENSON. Carroll & Graf, $23 (224p) ISBN 0-7867-1279-1 Stevenson sets up an evocative character study in her effective but occasionally turgid first novel, as she examines the plight of a beautiful, rudderless 19-year-old...

Late Bloomer.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... MELISSA PRITCHARD. Doubleday, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 0-385-50304-0 * Pritchard's brilliant mix of romance and satire may have a heart made of cactus, but it goes down like hot Indian fry bread dipped in honey. "Shouldn't one live one's...

Starting from Square Two.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... CAREN LISSNER. Red Dress Ink, $12.95 paper (320p) ISBN 0-373-25052-5 Everything comes easily to Gert Healy: dating, love, marriage. But when her husband, Marc, dies in a car accident, 29-year-old Gert must search for happily ever...

A Year and a Day.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... LESLIE PIETRZYK. Morrow, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 0-06-055465-7 In this heartfelt if familiar coming-of-age novel set in smalltown Shelby, Iowa, in 1975, Pietrzyk (Pears on a Willow Tree) chronicles a year in the life of 15-year-old Alice...

Fidelity.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... MICHAEL REDHILL. Little, Brown, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 0-316-734-99-3 Heartbreak and betrayal run through Redhill's slim collection of muted but well-wrought stories examining the damage people inflict on themselves and others when their...

Tempest Down.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... JEFF ROVIN. St. Martin's Griffin, $14.95 paper (368p) ISBN 0-312-30761-6 Rovin, author of Tom Clancy's popular Op-Center series, takes the reader on a bone-chilling ride to Antarctica in his first stand-alone military thriller (after two...

The Devil You Know.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... WAYNE JOHNSON. Shaye Areheart, $23 (304p) ISBN 0-609-60964-5 In Johnson's slow-to-start but ultimately satisfying literary thriller set in the early 1970s, 15-year-old David Geist is a sensitive high school student and cross-country...

The Wrong Doyle.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... ROBERT GIRARDI. Justin, Charles, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 1-932112-18-9 Set on the pirate-haunted Atlantic coast just south of the Maryland-Virginia border, Girardi's delightfully improbable and loosely plotted fourth novel (after Vaporetto 13)...

The Uncollected Henry James: Newly Discovered Stories.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... EDITED BY FLOYD HOROWITZ. Carroll & Graf, $26 (336p) ISBN 0-7867-1272-4 After subjecting thousands of anonymous stories from mid-19th-century publications to elaborate scrutiny, former English professor Horowitz has selected 25 tales for...

Emperor: The Death of Kings.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... CONN IGGULDEN. Delacorte, $24.95 (480p) ISBN 0-385-33662-4 After what was in effect a preamble--Emperor: The Gates of Rome (2003)--Julius Caesar takes center stage in this second fast-moving, action-oriented installment in Iggulden's...

Wolverine Vol. 1: the Brotherhood.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... GREG RUCKA, DARICK ROBERTSON AND TOM PALMER. Marvel, $12.99 paper (144p) ISBN 0-7851-1136-0 Wolverine, a brutish, surly loner, is the most interesting X-Man. Lucy, the teenaged waitress in the diner he frequents, nicknames him "Mean...

Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... WARREN ELLIS, GARRY LEACH, GLENN FABRY ET AL. Wildstorm/DC Comics, $14.95 paper (144p) ISBN 1-4012-0274-8 Acclaimed comics writer Ellis (The Authority; Transmetropolitan) here creates a Mission: Impossible-style force for the 21st...

Megatokyo 2.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... FRED GALLACHER WITH RODNEY GASTON. Dark Horse, $9.95 paper (192p) ISBN 1-59307-118-3 * Following the success of Iris serialized Web comic and the first volume of the print manga, Gallagher continues the story of two computer game--and...

JLA: Liberty and Justice.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... PAUL DINI AND ALEX ROSS. DC Comics, $9.95 paper (96p) ISBN 1-56389-911-6 Artist Ross (Mythology) and longtime collaborating writer Dini (Barman: The Animated Series) render DC Comics' larger-than-life heroes in an oversized edition...

Oh My Goddess!: Traveler.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... KOSUKE FUJISHIMA. Dark Horse, $17.95 paper (256p) ISBN 1-56971-986-1 Love and friendship conquer all in these two stories from the long-running, perennially popular manga series about Keiichi, a young man who winds up dating a goddess...

21 Down: the Conduit.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... JIMMY PALMIOTTI, JUSTIN GRAY AND JESOS SAIZ. Wildstorm/DC Comics, $19.95 paper (176p) ISBN 1-4012-0120-2 On his 20th birthday, Preston Kills receives a birthday card telling him he will die when he turns 21; his world then goes haywire...

Doctored Evidence.(Book Review)
February 23, 2004... DONNA LEON. Atlantic Monthly, $22 (256p) ISBN 0-87113-918-9 While a bit too slow to rank among her best, Leon's 13th atmospheric Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery (after 2003's Uniform Justice) still offers many pleasures, including a...