Publishers Weekly articles from January 2012, page 9

Publishers Weekly archives from January 2012

Quality & diversity among the self-published: the 193 titles submitted for our fifth quarterly PW Select.(SELECT: SELF- PUBLISHED LISTINGS)(Publishers Weekly)(List)
January 2, 2012... Highlights from the offerings to be found here, our fifth PW Select, include: (trumpet please!) our first title to receive a starred review, Audrey Lynn's novel about a Russian soldier returning from Afghanistan; an exciting medical thriller...

A Better Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... * A Better Man Audrey Lynn. Audrey Lynn, $17.95 trade paper (404p) ISBN 978-0-615-44968-5 Lynn's debut proves an intense, emotional, and stunning exploration into the psychological horrors of war. After the decade-long Soviet war with...

The Arranger.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Arranger L.J. Sellers. Spellbinder Press (www.ljsellers.com), $13.99 trade paper (264p) ISBN 978-0-9832138-5-7 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Set in 2023, this middling stand-alone futuristic thriller from Sellers (Dying for Justice) paints...

The Case of the Missing Cobras.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Case of the Missing Cobras Kathy Kaye. CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), $16.50 trade paper (452p) ISBN 978-1-4537-2506-1 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A former managing editor at the American Medical Association, Kaye does a superior job...

The Color of Heaven.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Color of Heaven Julianne MacLean as E.V. Mitchell. Blue Ocean (www.blueoceanpublishing.biz), $13.99 trade paper (314p) ISBN 978-09868422-2-1 Sophie Duncan leads a charmed existence: loving husband Michael, great career, and...

Destined: A Novel of the Tarot.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Destined: A Novel of the Tarot Gail Cleare. CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), $12 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-4610-0776-0 Each chapter of this unassuming novel is illustrated with a card from the tarot, and the contents of each section...

Fire in the Henhouse.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Fire in the Henhouse Frances Grote. Rule Bender Press (www.rulebenderpress.com), $19.95 trade paper (474p) ISBN 978-0-9833341-0-1 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Grote's debut, widowed New Yorker Maggie--with her teen son in tow--relocates...

The Grand Mirage.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Grand Mirage Darrell Delamaide. BarnabyWoods Books (www.barnabywoodsbooks.com), $13.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-9839958-0-7 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the early 1900s, scholar and Orientalist Lord Richard Leighton is enlisted by...

Hunt of the Sea Wolves.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Hunt of the Sea Wolves John E. Chadwell. CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), $10.99 trade paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-4637-6687-0 When terrorists commandeer a vessel shipping spent nuclear material, four brothers launch separate attacks...

Jane of the Jungle.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Jane of the Jungle Jane Baskin. iUniverse (www.iuniverse.com), $16.95 trade paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-4620-0292-4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Baskin's comic debut, Jane, a 60-year-old widow and former nurse, is offered $30,000 to fly a...

Jokers Club.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Jokers Club Gregory Bastianelli. JournalStone (www.journalstone.com), $11.95 trade paper (202p) ISBN 978-1-93656440-9 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A failed writer reunites with a group of former childhood miscreants in order to clear his...

Meeting the Business: Journal I.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Meeting the Business: Journal I Hollie Delaney. AuthorHouse (www.authorhouse.com), $25.99 (308p) ISBN 978-1-4567-4511-0 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Victoria Hamilton is satisfied with her life. She owns a successful real estate company, and...

Memoirs of a Eurasian.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Memoirs of a Eurasian Vivian Yang. CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), $15.95 trade paper (220p) ISBN 978-1-4610-1341-9 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 1944, a young Chinese teenager falls in love with a Russian exile in Shanghai. She dies in...

Murder in Vienna.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Murder in Vienna Irene Wittig. LuLu (www.lulu.com), $19.50 trade paper (214p) ISBN 978-1-105-09426-2 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The author's ambitious scope--the book spans five decades--isn't matched by her execution in this unwieldy...

My Sweet Saga.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... My Sweet Saga Brett Sills. Admiral J Press (www.admiraljpress.com), $16 trade paper (462p) ISBN 978-0-615-53213-4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Sills's novel, 30-year-old Brandon is unfulfilled and stuck in both a dead-end job and a...

Out, Out.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Out, Out Kim MacQueen. Jungo (www.jungobooks. wordpress.com), $15 trade paper (214p) ISBN 978-0-615-48182-1 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The narrator of MacQueen's burbling, unorthodox love stow, new mother Deb Soloman, is overwhelmed with...

Photo Shoot: A Will Porter Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Photo Shoot: A Will Porter Mystery Louis Barth. Vantage (www.vantagepress.com), $14.95 trade paperback (264p) ISBN 978-0-533-16397-7 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When ex-crime scene photographer Will Porter is asked to shoot a wedding, he's...

The Prospect of My Arrival.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Prospect of My Arrival Dwight Okita. CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), $14.95 trade paper (277p) ISBN 978-14609-5989-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Prospect, so named, he tells us, because "people have high hopes for me," has a lot on...

Public Information.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Public Information Roll Margenau. Frogworks (www.frogworks.com), $25 trade paper (378p) ISBN 978-14581-7478-9 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Wylie Cypher is a young man who joins the army during the Korean War, intent on becoming a Russian...

Rain.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Rain Leigh K. Cunningham. Vivante Publishing (www.leighkcunningham.com), $12.95 trade paper (316p) ISBN 978-981-08-8280-8 The Wallins are a wealthy and influential family in the small Australian town of Maine. After eldest daughter Helena...

Red Right Return: A Buck Reilly Adventure.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Red Right Return: A Buck Reilly Adventure John H. Cunningham. Wheatmark (www. wheatmark.com), $15,95 trade paper (316p) ISBN 978-1-60494-704-5 Cunningham's winning debut, a modern-day thriller with a Key West hero, will make readers...

Safely Buried.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Safely Buried John Pesta. CreateSpace (www.create space.com), $15.95 trade paper (388p) ISBN 978-14563-4447-4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Smalltown newspaper editor Phil Larrison picks up a hitchhiker and agrees to drive to her friends'...

Search.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Search Jan Widgery. Mystery Bay Press (www.mysterybaypress.com), $19.50 trade paper (260p) ISBN 978-1-257-93970-1 After the death of her foster mother, Chris McMann--known as Judy Viereck in her childhood--begins to search for the...

The Shadow of the Staff: A Wizard's Revenge.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Shadow of the Staff: A Wizard's Revenge M.A. Haddad. Vantage (www.vantagepress.com), $13.95 trade paper (280p) ISBN 978-0533-16111-9 A grammatical catastrophe, Haddad's underdeveloped and monotonous debut borrows heavily from Tolkien,...

Tree Soldier.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Tree Soldier J.L. Oakley. CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), $15 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-14538-9647-1 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This vigorously researched historical novel set during the Great Depression tracks the life of the...

You Don't Die of Love: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... You Don't Die of Love: Stories Thomas Thonson. Exterminating Angel (www.createspace.com), $11.99 trade paper (254p) ISBN 978-1-4609-2874-5 Ten loosely interconnected shorts by screenwriter Thonson reveal the insular, sordid, and...

Baghdad ER: Fifteen Minutes.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Baghdad ER: Fifteen Minutes Todd Baker. Gray Fox Publishing (www.baghdader.squarespace.com), $15 trade paper (376p) ISBN 978-0-578-06992-0 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Between 2007 and 2009, Baker spent 15 months in Iraq as part of the...

Bowls Out Goes In: Every Man for Himself.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Bowls Out Goes In: Every Man for Himself Gil Trott, Vantage (www.vantagepress.com), $10.95 (158p) ISBN 978-0-533-16002-0 First-time author Troll announces in the prologue that "this is a book of memories" detailing his life growing up in...

Living Life Dying Death: A Guide to Healthy Conversations About Death and Dying to Inspire Life and Living.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Living Life Dying Death: A Guide to Healthy Conversations About Death and Dying to Inspire Life and Living. Jennifer Collins Taylor. MyRehab (www.livinglifedyingdeath.com), $19.99 (64p)ISBN 978-0-9679887-9-5 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Lone Holdout: A Memoir.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Lone Holdout: A Memoir Linda Cox. Charles Street (charlesstreetpress.com), $15 trade paper (266p) ISBN 978-09843733-0-7 In this compelling debut memoir, Cox, a former Boston bookseller, recounts her controversial role as the holdout jury...

Looking Up: A Memoir of Sisters, Survivors and Skokie.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Looking Up: A Memoir of Sisters, Survivors and Skokie Linda Pressman. CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), $15 trade paper (348p) ISBN 978-1-45644068-5 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In this flawed but intriguing family memoir, Pressman describes...

Respecting Autism: The Rebecca School DIR Casebook for Parents and Professionals.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Respecting Autism: The Rebecca School DIR Casebook for Parents and Professionals Stanley I. Greenspan and Gil Tippy. Vantage (www.vantagepress.com), $19.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-0-533-16454-7 In this useful volume,...

Turning It Around: Redirectional Therapy .(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Turning It Around: Redirectional Therapy Sidney M. Rosen and Deborah L.K. SpencerChun. Vantage (www.vantagepress.com), $18.95 trade paper (230p) ISBN 978-0- 53316490-5 Initially created in 1985 by a federal grant to the University of Hawaii...

Martin Mixed-Up at the Beach.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Martin Mixed-Up at the Beach Jess Golden Linehan. Salty Pond (www.jessgoldenlinehan.com), $15.95 (32p) ISBN 9780-615-45705-5 Linehan's understated yet expressive pictures make the most of a straightforward story of sibling interactions in...

What Do You Suppose?(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... What Do You Suppose? Nora Leone, illus, by Kara Leone. Higher Ground (www.highergroundpress.com/index.html), $13.99 paper (32p) ISBN 978- 09766062-6-0 This debut from a mother-daughter team jubilantly imagines what kinds of clothes different...

Kusikiy: A Child from Taquile, Peru.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Kusikiy: A Child from Taquile, Peru Mercedes Cecilia. Keepers of Wisdom and Peace Books (www.KeepersofiNisdomand Peace.com), $24.99 (48p) ISBN 978- 09844079-0-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Peruvian island in Lake Titicaca is the setting for...

Hotey.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Hotey Josephine Bailey, illus, by Zach Franzen. AuthorHouse (www.authorhouse.com), $22.50 (152p) ISBN 978-1-4634-2390-2; $15.99 trade paper ISBN 978-1-4634-2391-9 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This peripatetic first novel from audiobook...

Vickie Van Helsing.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Vickie Van Helsing Solomon J. Inkwell. Oakberry & Inkwell (www.createspace.com), $14.95 trade paper (270p) ISBN 978-0-615-44840-4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This farcical vampire novel from Inkwell (a pen name for writer James...

A self-publishing veteran: Vivian Yang.(AUTHOR PROFILE)(Interview)(Biography)
January 2, 2012... A decade before self-publishing her second novel, Memoirs of a Eurasian, with Amazon's CreateSpace a chapter of which won an award in the 2007 WNYC Leonard Lopate Essay Contest--Vivian Yang released her debut, Shanghai Girl, with Xlibris. And...

The 2011 Listen-Up awards.(Listen-Up Awards)(List)
January 2, 2012... It was another great year for audiobooks. In 2011, we saw close to a 10% increase in unit sales (per the Audio Publishers Association 2011 Sales Survey) and many outstanding performances that are likely to remain with us well into the New Year....

Elizabeth Hand: Two of a Kind.(Author Profile)(Interview)(Biography)
January 2, 2012... Elizabeth Hand says of Cass Neary, the narrator of Available Dark, her novel of psychological suspense that Minotaur will publish in February: "She's an outsider having to go through the motions of interacting with others. She's essentially a...

The Boiling Season.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Boiling Season Christopher Hebert. Harper, $25.89 (416p) ISSN 978-0-06-208851-2 On an unnamed Caribbean island, where lighter skin affords greater economioc stability, Alexandre, a boy from the slums, is hired as a servant to Senator...

Schmidt Steps Back.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Schmidt Steps Back Louis Begleyo Knopf, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-307-70065-0 Begley, PEN Faulkner Award--winner for Wartime Lies, adds a third book to his Schmidt series. This accomplished, acerbic tale finds the 78-year-old millionaire...

The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. Carole DeSanti. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26 (432p) ISBN 978-0-547-55309-2 Penguin Group v-p and editor-at-large DeSanti presents an eclectic mix of ideas and social history in her debut novel. At 17,...

A Common Loss.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... A Common Loss Kirsten Tranter. Atria, $15 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-4391-7722-8 A group of five male college friends meeting every year in Las Vegas to reconnect and reaffirm ties hasn't kept them from growing apart. When, 10 years...

The O'Briens.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... * The O'Briens Peter Behrens. Pantheon, $25.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-307-37993-1 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A family saga spans the 20th century, from Pontiac County, Quebec, to Venice Beach, Calif., and beyond, through two world wars and...

How to Eat a Cupcake.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... How to Eat a Cupcake Meg Donohue. Harper, $13.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-206928-3 Donohue's sweet debut is a clever exploration Of how a West Coast mean girl grows up and gives in to friendship, love, and dozens of delicious...

Another Piece of My Heart.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Another Piece of My Heart Jane Green. St. Martin's, $25.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-312-59182-3 In New York Times bestseller Green's latest (after Promises to Keep), Andi faces the difficult decision of remaining in a marriage that is being...

Blood Storm: A John Henry Cole Story.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Blood Storm: A John Henry Cole Story Bill Brooks. Five Star, $25.95 (344p) ISBN 978-1-59414-911-5 Brooks adds another action-packed saddle yarn to his more than 20 westerns and historicals. Set in 1876 in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, and...

Half-Blood Blues.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... * Half-Blood Blues Esi Edugyan. Picador, $15 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-01270-8 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Edugyan's second novel, shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, pays a mournful tribute to the HotTime Swingers, a...

Gone to Ground.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Gone to Ground Brandilyn Collins. B&H Fiction, $14.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-4336-7163-0 Three women conquer their worst fears and overcome obstacles in a chauvinistic Southern town where a serial killer has "gone to...

The Dog That Talked to God.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Dog That Talked to God Jim Kraus. Abingdon, $14.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-4267-4256-9 Stuck in her grief, 43-year-old widowed writer Mary Fassler adopts a miniature schnauzer for diversion and company. The novelist, who...

The Midwife of Venice.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Midwife of Venice Roberta Rich. S&S/Gallery, $15 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-4516-5747-0 In her U.S. debut, Rich successfully captures the seedy side of 16th-century Venice--the Jewish ghetto, the plague, the confluence of...

PW talks with Meg Donohue: sweet somethings.(Q&A)(Interview)
January 2, 2012... Meg Donohue writes like a baker in her sweet debut about friendship and trust between a spoiled, sophisticated young woman and her family's cook's free-spirited daughter, in How to Eat a Cupcake (Reviews, p. 55) You write about the...

All That I Am.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... All That I Am Anne Funder. Harper, $25.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-207756-1 Funder follows the success of Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall with a debut novel "reconstructed from fossil fragments, much as you might draw skin and...

The Detour.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Detour Andromeda Romano-Lax. Soho, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-1-61695-049-1 The Third Reich's Sonderprojekt, to collect the world's great art, is underway when Romano-Lax's second novel begins, as 24-year-old curator Ernst Vogler, whose...

The Forest Laird: A Tale of William Wallace.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Forest Laird: A Tale of William Wallace Jack Whyte. Tor, $25.99 (512p) ISBN 978-0-7653-3156-4 In this new take on the legend of Scottish rebel William Wallace, author Whyte (Order in Chaos) begins at the very beginning. The narrator,...

By the King's Design.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... By the King's Design Christine Trent. Kensington, $15 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-7582-6590-6 Annabelle Stirling is a cloth merchant in Leeds in Regency Britain who, in her enthusiasm for the industrial revolution, runs afoul of a group...

Men in Space.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Men in Space Tom McCarthy. Vintage, $15 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-307-38822-3 Recalling Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, but with a stolen painting substituting for sex, McCarthy's early novel, set in 1990s Prague, follows a purloined...

Blood on the Mink.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Blood on the Mink Robert Silverberg. Hard Case Crime, $9.95 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-85768-768-5 Crisp, straightforward prose propels this tough-guy novella from multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner Silverberg (To Open the Sky),...

The Expats.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... * The Expats Chris Pavone. Crown, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-0-307-95635-4 Fans of John le Carre and Robert Ludlum will welcome former book editor Pavone's first novel, a meticulously plotted, psychologically complex spy thriller. When Dexter...

The Blind Spy.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Blind Spy Alex Dryden. Ecco, $24.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-06-208808-6 The pseudonymous Dryden's personal knowledge and experience of both the British security services and Russia's intelligence apparatus informs his fine third entry (after...

Another Time, Another Life: The Story of a Crime.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Another Time, Another Life: The Story of a Crime Leif GW Persson, trans, from the Swedish by Paul Norlen. Pantheon, $26.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-307-37746-3 The real-life 1975 siege of the West German embassy in Stockholm by six young...

Sail of Stone.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Sail of Stone Ake Edwardson, trans, from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles. Simon & Schuster, $15 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-4516-0850-2 Two amorphous mysteries slowly take shape in Edwardson's fifth novel featuring Chief...

The Man from Primrose Lane.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... * The Man from Primrose Lane James Renner. Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Sarah Crichton, $26 (384p) ISBN 978-0-374-20095-4 Set in the near future, this ambitious, genre-bending debut novel from investigative reporter Renner (Amy: My Search for...

Rizzo's Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Rizzo's Daughter Lou Manfredo. Minotaur, $24.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-53807-1 As the title suggests, Manfredo's uneven third novel featuring NYPD Det. Sgt. Joe Rizzo (after 2011's Rizzo's Fire) passes the generational torch to Joe's...

The Last Good Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Last Good Man A.J. Kazinski, trans, from the Danish by Tiina Nunnally. Scribner, $26 (480p) ISBN 978-1-4516-4075-5 The Jewish legend that the world is kept from destruction by 36 just people, who are unaware of their status,...

Play Nice.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Play Nice Gemma Halliday. Minotaur, $24.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-312-65607-2 Known for cozier romantic suspense, Halliday (Hollywood Confessions) shifts gears with this exciting first in a thriller series replete with hit men, high-speed...

Plunder: A Faye Longchamp Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Plunder: A Faye Longchamp Mystery MaryAnna Evans, Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (306p) ISBN 978-1-59058-929-8; $14.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-59058-931-1 The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico provides the backdrop for...

Blue Monday.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... * Blue Monday Nicci French. Viking/Pamela Dorman, $26.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-670-02336-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This superb psychological thriller from the pseudonymous French (The Other Side of the Door) stars a cerebral and...

An American Spy.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... * An American Spy Olen Steinhauer. Minotaur, $25.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-312-62289-3 Set in 2008, bestseller Steinhauer's excellent if initially convoluted third thriller featuring Milo Weaver (after 2010's The Nearest Exit) finds Weaver no...

Nina, the Bandit Queen.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Nina, the Bandit Queen Joey Slinger. Dundurn (www.dundurn.com), $21.99 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-1-4597-0138-0 Concerned mother Nina Dolgoy, who lives on welfare in a rundown area of an unnamed Canadian city, aspires to small goals at...

Midnight Guardians: A Max Freeman Thriller.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Midnight Guardians: A Max Freeman Thriller Jonathon King. Severn, $28.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8105-2 In Edgar-wirmer King's captivating sixth Max Freeman thriller (after 2007's Acts of Nature), the Florida PI, formerly a Philadelphia...

Murder of the Bride: A Rex Graves Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Murder of the Bride: A Rex Graves Mystery C.S. Challinor. Midnight Ink (www.midnightinkbooks.com), $14.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-0-7387-2335-8 Challinor's disappointing fifth Rex Graves mystery (after 2011's Murder on the Moor)...

Before the Poison.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Before the Poison Peter Robinson. Morrow, $25.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-200479-6 At the outset of this haunting standalone from Arthur Ellis Award-winner RobinSon (No Cure for Love), British film composer Chris Lowndes, a recent widower,...

Death in Budapest.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Death in Budapest James L. Ross. Perfect Crime (www.perfectcrimebooks.com), $9.95 trade paper (182p) ISBN 978-1-935797-17-3 Fans of hard-edged spy novels will hope that this outing for disgraced Wall Street banker Patrick McCarry is but...

Death of a Kingfisher.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Death of a Kingfisher M.C. Beaton. Grand Central, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-446-54736-9 Sgt. Hamish Macbeth prefers the peace and quiet of village life, relative solitude, and his own low rank, but is unable to enjoy any of them in...

Murder Unscripted: A Hollywood Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Murder Unscripted: A Hollywood Mystery Clive Rosengren. Perfect Crime (www.perfectcrimebooks.com), $8 trade paper (122p) ISBN 978-1-935797-19-7 Despite Rosengren's experience as a TV and film actor, his first novel fails to impress...

The Diamonds of Ghost Bayou: A Tony Boudreaux Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Diamonds of Ghost Bayou: A Tony Boudreaux Mystery Kent Conwell. Avalon, $23.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-8034-7618-9 Conwell's slight 12th Tony Boudreaux mystery (after 2009's An Unmarked Grave) takes the Austin, Tex., PI to Priouxville, La.,...

Dead and Not So Buried: A Gideon Kincaid Hollywood Thriller.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Dead and Not So Buried: A Gideon Kincaid Hollywood Thriller James L. Conway. Camel (www.camelpress.com), $15.95 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-60381-866-7 The glamorous Hollywood backdrop doesn't help Conway's uneven debut, in which a...

The Thirteen.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... The Thirteen Susie Moloney. Morrow, $14.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-211766-3 Canadian author Moloney (The Dwelling) examines the price women will pay for their desires in this creepy visit to a contemporary suburbia inhabited by...

Wicked City.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Wicked City Alaya Johnson. St. Martin's/Dunne, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-56548-0 Johnson follows 2010's Moonshine with another light urban fantasy set in an alternate 1920s New York City. Mayor Jimmy Walker is looking to legalize an...

Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... * Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors Molly Harper. Pocket, $7.99 mass market (368p) ISBN 978-1-4516-4181-3 Harper serves up a terrific fourth dose of vamp camp from Half-Moon Hollow (after Nice Girls Don't Live Forever). Jane Jameson's...

Time and Robbery.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 2, 2012... Time and Robbery Rebecca Ore. Aqueduct, $16 trade paper (178p) ISBN 978-1-933500-87-4 The saga of accidental immortal Velius continues in this skimpy sequel to Centuries Ago and Very Fast. Tech geek and reluctant spook Joseph Tavistock is...