Publishers Weekly articles from July 2006

Publishers Weekly archives from July 2006

Canadian dollar is up: who bears the burden? Dual cover prices raise consumer ire.(Foreword)
July 10, 2006... Canadian booksellers and publishers are at odds over who carries the fiscal responsibility for dealing with the effects of the rising Canadian dollar, which has gained more than 40% against the U.S. dollar since January 2002. The strengthening...

Robinson joins Scribner.(Scribner Book Companies Inc. appoints Colin Robinson )(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Former New Press publisher Colin Robinson joined Scribner July 5 as senior editor. Robinson reports to Scribner v-p and editor-in-chief Nan Graham and, according to Scribner, "will draw on his impressive set of contacts in both the U.S. and the...

Creative writers.(Random House creative writing competition winners)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Winners of this year's Random House Creative Writing Competition for high schoolers met in N.Y.C. last month to receive their awards. Here with RH's Melanie Fallon-Houska and Three Rivers author Megan McCafferty are Serge Morrell and Gizem...

Sara Nelson: booking New Orleans: the ALA did it. Others should follow.(Foreword)(American Library Association)
July 10, 2006... I had two simultaneous thoughts when, just months after the destruction that was Hurricane Katrina, I got a call inviting me to come to the American Library Association convention in New Orleans in June. The first was, "New Orleans? Will there...

B&T deal completed.(Castle Harlan Inc. acquires Baker and Taylor Retail from Willis Stein and Partners L.P.)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... The New York-based private equity firm Castle Harlan has completed its $455-million purchase of Baker & Taylor from Willis Stein & Partners. Gary Appel, Castle Harlan vice-chairman who led the transaction team, said he expects solid growth in...

New Springer e-books.(launches the Springer eBook Collection )(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Professional publisher Springer last month launched the Springer eBook Collection featuring more than 10,000 e-book titles. Included in the collection are electronic versions of textbooks, reference works, atlases and monographs. To...

'Vibe' inks Kensington deal.(Kensington Publishing Corp.)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Vibe, the urban music and culture magazine, has entered into a partnership with Kensington Publishing to copublish a line of books called Vibe Street Lit under the Vibe Books imprint. Rob Kenner, editorial director of Vibe Books, will acquire...

Targeting tweens at licensing 2006.(Big Market)(Licensing 2006 International )
July 10, 2006... The emphasis was on the tween market, mostly girls, at Licensing 2006 International as publishers and licensed property owners shopped for deals to help them reach that large and lucrative demographic. Warner Bros. Consumer Products was...

Lunch for 'Mary'.(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... MacAdam/Cage publisher David Poindexter posed with agent Amy Rennert, author Janis Cooke Newman and co-owner of Books Inc. Margie Scott Tucker at a pre-pub bookseller luncheon for Newman's Mary, a novel told from the point of view of Mary Todd...

Kiyosaki, PGW in deal.(Rich Press signs distribution agreement with Publishers Group West Inc., Robert Kiyosaki )(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump's forthcoming book from Kiyosaki's Rich Press imprint will be distributed by PGW. In addition to distributing Why We Want You to Be Rich: Two Men--One Message, PGW will distribute Rich Woman, another business...

Books Inc. to open 11th store.(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Books Inc., the independent bookstore chain with 10 California stores, will open its 11th store in the space being vacated by A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books in San Francisco's Opera Plaza. The new Books Inc. will be ready by...

PowerHouse sets up in Brooklyn.(powerHouse Books)
July 10, 2006... Forced out of its TriBeCa offices earlier this year, PowerHouse Books is moving from Manhattan into a giant new space in the fast-gentrifying waterfront neighborhood under the Brooklyn Bridge, and is using the move to expand its inventive mix...

Industry stocks: June performances.(Market Watch)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... With 11 winners and 10 losers, the Publishers Weekly Stock Index was virtually flat in June, rising less than one-tenth of a percentage point in the month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also had little movement, down only 0.2%. One trend...

Lyle Stuart dead at 83.(Obituary)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Lyle Stuart, who started his first publishing company in 1956 with the proceeds from a libel lawsuit he won against Walter Winchell, died June 24 of a heart attack. He was 83. During his career, Stuart published both bestsellers (Jackie Oh!)...

Jim Baen, 63.(Obituary)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Jim Baen, a leading publisher of science fiction, died June 28 following a stroke. He was 63. Baen began his publishing career at Ace and worked at Galaxy magazine and Tor Books before founding Baen Books in 1984. In addition to publishing an...

Broadway's Golden Girl.(Broadway Books acquire rights to Rue McClahanan's 'My First Five Husbands ... and the Ones Who Got Away')(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Emmy and Golden Globe winner and The Golden Girls star Rue McClahanan will write a memoir, to be titled My First Five Husbands... and the Ones Who Got Away, which Broadway's Ann Campbell acquired in a North American rights deal with agent...

Your brain on exercise.(Little, Brown and Company Inc. acuire rigths to 'Exercise and the Brain' from Kneerim and Williams)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Little, Brown's Tracy Behar has preempted a new book by John J. Ratey, M.D., titled Exercise and the Brain; Jill Kneerim at Kneerim & Williams sold North American rights. Ratey, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, gathers details...

Evolutionary intellect.(Basic Books Inc. acquire rights to 'The New Human Past: The Promise of Evolutionary Genomics' from Brockman Inc.)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Jo Ann Miller at Basic has preempted North American rights to University of Utah scientists Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending's The New Human Past: The Promise of Evolutionary Genomics from John Brockman at Brockman Inc. The book will argue...

Polar world.(Harcourt General Inc. acquire rights to Jill Fredston's book on polar bears)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Harcourt's Rebecca Saletan has acquired North American rights to an untitled book on polar bears by Jill Fredston from agent Stuart Krichevsky. Fredston, an Anchorage-based avalanche expert, will explore how species adapt or fail to survive...

Debut fiction.(Deals)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Liza Dawson recently wrapped up a seven-house auction for Mary Ann Shaffer's debut novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; Susan Kamil at Dial won North American rights. Set on the island of Guernsey in 1946, the novel...

Calendar July 16-20.
July 10, 2006... 7/16 Out this week: Maryann Burk Carver's What It Used to Be Like (St. Martin's), chronicling her complicated, difficult and loving 27-year marriage to Raymond Carver (1938-1988). 7/17 Art Linkletter turns 94 and has just...

HC hits the bottle for promo.(HarperCollins Publishers Inc., marketing)
July 10, 2006... Extending the shelf life of a backlist title is no easy task, something Hope Innelli knew well when, roughly three months ago, she took the reins of HarperCollins's paperback division as v-p and associate publisher. One way Innelli's tried to...

DeJean to Kodansha.(Kodansha America Inc. appoints Hector DeJean)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Hector DeJean has joined Kodansha America as publicity manager for the Kodansha International, Japan Publications Trading and Kodansha America imprints. DeJean was most recently a senior publicist at Dutton and Gotham Books, where he worked...

Regan Gets DeCoste.(ReganBooks appoints Elena DeCoste )(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Elena DeCoste has been named v-p of television development for Regan Books, the L.A.-based HarperCollins imprint headed by Judith Regan. DeCoste, who will develop Regan properties into TV projects, was most recently an agent at CAA.

French connection.
July 10, 2006... Denise Epstein, daughter of Irene Nemirovsky, author of the international bestselling novel Suite Francaise, accompanied by the book's publisher Knopf chairman Sonny Mehta, was interviewed by filmmaker Pierre Delerive at a reception at the...

Russ Robertson, Partners/West Book Dist., Okemos, Mich.(Galley Talk)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... As a rule, I do not read a series until the set is complete because I am usually very frustrated when I have to wait for the next installment. Terry Brooks is the exception to my rule--I read his books as soon as they are available. I could not...

Three hires at Workman.(Workman Publishing Co. appoints Raquel Jaramillo, Jen Slattery and Kate Hanzalik )(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Raquel Jaramillo, Jen Slattery and Kate Hanzalik have all joined Workman Publishing. Jaramillo, who was v-p and creative director of Henry Holt, is coming on as director of the house's children's publishing program. Slattery, who was most...

Archaia nabs Martin.(Archaia Studios Press appoints Joe Martin)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Archaia Studios Press, an independent graphic novel publisher based in Fort Lee, N.J., has hired Joe Martin to edit a new line of books based on the role-playing game Artesia: Adventures in the Known World. Martin, who's worked as a writer for...

Pappenheimer up at HC.(HarperCollins Children's Books promotes Andrea Pappenheimer )(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Andrea Pappenheimer has been promoted to senior v-p of sales and associate publisher of HarperCollins Children's Books. Pappenheimer has been with HC for 13 years.

Hot-Blooded.(Jim Henson Co. acquire rights to D.M. Cornish's 'Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling')(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Children's fantasy series are popping up faster than you can say "Narnia," but one standout title generating heat in Hollywood is Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling (Putnam, May), including serious interest from the Jim Henson Company, according...

A gothic reborn.(Good News Holdings acquire rights to Anne Rice's 'Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt')(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Elton John's musical adaptation of Anne Rice's Lestat may have fizzled, but the gothic-turned-spiritual novelist hasn't lost faith in Hollywood. Good News Holdings, a tyro multimedia studio that specializes in developing and distributing...

Deporter on tour.(Jean Naggar Literary Agency's Jennifer Weltz acquire Ames Holbrook's 'The Deporter')(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... With stories about Guantanamo Bay and U.S. treatment of suspected terrorist detainees flooding the news, producers looking for a nonfiction political thriller may find Ames Holbrook's The Deporter (Penguin, 2008)--not to be confused with Martin...

Correction.(Correction notice)
July 10, 2006... In "Sean Penn Goes Wild" (Mar. 20), the film deal for Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild was negotiated by Martin Shapiro at the Shapiro-Lichtman Talent Agency on behalf of John Ware at the John A. Ware Literary Agency. e-mail:...

Hood, Howard to Nelson.(Thomas Nelson Inc. appoints Beth Hood and Mackenzie Howard)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Beth Hood and Mackenzie Howard have joined the marketing department at Thomas Nelson. Howard comes on as a marketing specialist for the specialty publishing division while Hood joins as a publicist for the divisions Tommy Nelson and J....

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
July 10, 2006... Steel's 67th bestselling novel, Coming Out, had a 525,000-copy announced first printing that contributes to her impressive in-print total: more than 550 million copies worldwide. Her books are published in 47 countries and 28 languages. ...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
July 10, 2006... Maddox's signings during his 13-city tour attracted large crowds, often 400 to 500 fans. Right before the Fourth of July, at Borders in Bridgewater, N.J., two of them even had him sign their prostheses--perhaps a first for the bestselling...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
July 10, 2006... In just a few years, since 1999, Feehan has often been called the "queen of paranormal romance." Her latest bestseller, Dangerous Tides, continues the saga of the Drake sisters (Oceans of Fire) and has 525,000 copies in print. Jove reports that...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
July 10, 2006... Kim Edwards's debut novel is moving up the charts fast, landing in the #2 spot after two weeks in the top 15. Penguin has booked three additional weeks of touring, including an appearance in Manhattan at the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.
July 10, 2006... Koontz's Web site (www. randomhouse.com/bantamdell/koontz/index.html) is a paradise for audio fans. Listeners can access the author's eight-episode podcast (running this summer) about his writings, his take on Hollywood and featuring The...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.
July 10, 2006... Many kids must have bought dear old dad a copy of Russert's wisdom for Father's Day. Good thing the Meet the Press moderator and dad knows what he's talking about. According to Russert's bio from NBC, "In 1995, the National Father's Day...

How the salaries stack up.(Cover story)
July 10, 2006... Recent reports by Bowker and the Book Industry Study Group have found solid growth in recent years in independent publishing, both in terms of the number of companies and the revenue generated by those houses. So maybe it shouldn't come as a...

Hart's desire.(Christopher Hart)(Biography)
July 10, 2006... Every kid likes cartoons, but Christopher Hart, from an early age, loved cartooning. He was 11 years old when his family relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. It was there that his cartooning "barometer," as he describes it, set itself as he...

New in religion: anti-religion: fall books bring evidence of a backlash against faith.(Fall Religion Listings)(Recommended readings)
July 10, 2006... It was probably inevitable. After the super-soaking of American politics and culture with religion in recent years, a new subcategory rises up--anti-religion book. Fall brings a striking number of impassioned critiques of religion--any...

The End as I Know It.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The End as I Know It KEVIN SHAY. Doubleday, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 0-385-51821-8 Former McSweeney's online editor Shay travels in his debut novel to the now-stale heart of late-'90s political hysteria and pre-millennial angst. The "end" of the...

The Echo Maker.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... * The Echo Maker RICHARD POWERS. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25 (464p) ISBN 0-374-14635-7 A truck jackknifes off an "arrow straight country road" near Kearney, Nebr., in Powers's ninth novel, becoming the catalyst for a painstakingly...

Oasis.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Oasis LAUREEN VONNEGUT. Counterpoint, $24 (224p) ISBN 1-58243-360-7 An impoverished Russian sold into sexual slavery at 15, Lili, now 22, finds herself at the mercy of a band of Sahara oasis dwellers after abandoning her Moroccan "husband,"...

Not Enough Indians.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Not Enough Indians HARRY SHEARES. Justin, Charles & Co., $19.95 (240p) ISBN 1-932112-46-4 Shearer, probably best known for his work on The Simpsons and This Is Spinal Tap, sets his farcical first novel in the world of Native American-owned...

The Uses of Enchantment.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... * The Uses of Enchantment HEIDI JULAVITS. Doubleday, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-385-51323-2 On November 7, 1985, Mary Veal, 16, a not especially distinguished upper-middle-class girl, disappears from New England's Semmering Academy. A month...

Spring and Fall.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Spring and Fall NICHOLAS DELBANCO. Warner, $24.99 (286p) ISBN 0-446-57871-1 A story of love interrupted by the mundane realities, bittersweet victories and disappointments of life, Delbanco's 24th book juxtaposes young infatuation with...

The Dissident.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The Dissident NELL FREUDENBERGER. Ecco, $25.95 (448p) ISBN 0-06-075871-6 Freudenberger fulfills the promise of her 2003 collection of short stories, Lucky Girls, in her expansive first novel. Yuan Zhao, a Chinese performance artist...

The Interpretation of Murder.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The Interpretation of Murder JED RUBENFELD. Holt, $26 (384p) ISBN 0-8050-8098-8 The search for a serial killer during Sigmund Freud's 1909 visit to New York City, his one trip to the U.S., propels the plot of Yale law professor Rubenfeld's...

Hunger.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Hunger ERICA SIMONE TURNIPSEED. Amistad, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-079730-4 Turnipseed's well-received 2003 debut, A Love Noire, traced the unlikely relationship between Noire, a socially conscious doctoral candidate, and Innocent, a wealthy...

The Devil's Backbone.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... * The Devil's Backbone KIM WOZENCRAFT. St. Martin's, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-29063-2 In Wozencraft's brilliant third psychological thriller (after 2004's Wanted), Katherine "Kit" Metcalf must contend with post-traumatic stress (she was...

Bedlam.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Bedlam GREG HOLLINGSHEAD. St. Martin's/ Dunne, $24.95 (320p)ISBN 0-312-35474-6 Canadian Hollingshead (The Roaring Girl) offers a sprawling story based on a contentious historical episode. In 1797, James Tilly Matthews was committed to...

Turning the Tables.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Turning the Tables RITA RUDNER. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23 (224p) ISBN 0-307-33912-2 The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad and the Thai prostitutes might be men in comedienne Rudner's Vegas-based mystery romance. Allie Bowen is newly...

Angel's Rest.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... * Angel's Rest CHARLES DAVIS. Mira, $21.95 (320p) ISBN 0-7783-2304-8 At the start of Davis's beautifully written debut, 11-year-old Charlie York leads an idyllic life in the shadow of Angel's Rest, a mountain in the Virginia Alleghenies...

PW talks with Nell Freudenberger: an expat in the House: in The Dissident, Nell Freudenberger revisits the themes of expatriate isolation that ran through her much-lauded 2003 debut, Lucky Girls.(Q&A)(Publishers Weekly)(Interview)
July 10, 2006... How did it feel to write your first novel? People kept telling me' the stories in Lucky Girls were novelistic. I thought that meant they were too long. Spending three years with the same set of characters really felt right to me. What...

Clouds and Eclipses: The Collected Short Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Clouds and Eclipses: The Collected Short Stories GORE VIDAL. Carroll & Graf, $13.95 paper (176p) ISBN 0-7867-1810-2 The rediscovery of the previously unpublished title work is the occasion for collecting Vidal's short stories--all eight of...

The Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa: Stories GONZALO BARR. Houghton Mifflin/ Mariner, $12 (208p) ISBN 0-618-65886-6 A lightly sparring debut collection of nine stories by Floridian Barr delves into the Hispanic community of Miami. "Braulio...

Breadfruit.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Breadfruit CELESTINE VAITE. Little, Brown/Back Bay, $12.99 paper (352p) ISBN 0-316-01658-6 Native Tahitian Vaite returns to the charming world of Materena Mahi, the "professional cleaner" and mother of three introduced in early 2006's...

The First Cut.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The First Cut DIANNE EMLEY. Ballantine, $23.95 (352p) ISBN 0-345-48617-X A Year after surviving a brutal attack, Pasadena, Calif., police officer Nan Vining returns to duty in Emley's sizzling debut, a hard-edged police procedural with a...

Girl in a Box.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Girl in a Box SUJATA MASSEY. HarperCollins, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 0-06-076514-3 In Massey's winning ninth crime novel (after 2005's The Typhoon Lover), brassy U.S. Rei Shimura, now working for an elite U.S. spy agency, infiltrates a Tokyo...

All for Love.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... All for Love DAN JACOBSON. Metropolitan, $24 (288p) ISBN 0-8050-8103-8 A chance encounter in 1895 between a princess and a debonair military man leads to a scandalous relationship in British writer Jacobson's woefully stilted 10th novel....

A Trout in the Sea of Cortez.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... A Trout in the Sea of Cortez JOHN SALTER. Counterpoint, $24 (304p) ISBN 1-58243-342-9 Dennis Pratt works part-time at a North Dakota toxic waste recycling plant; approaching 40, he has no friends and no career plan, but is a devoted father...

The Angel's Promise.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The Angel's Promise FREDERIC LENOIR AND VIOLETTE CABESOS, TRANS. FROM THE FRENCH BY LAUREN YODER. Pegasus (Consortium, dist.), $25.95 (496p) ISBN 1-933648-06-6 Art history, architecture, ghosts, two romances separated by a thousand years,...

L.A. Rex.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... L.A. Rex WILL BEALL Riverhead, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 1-59448-926-2 Beall's hard-edged debut explores the familiar territory of drugs and corruption on the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles. In scenes that alternate between the past and...

Dark Celebration: A Carpathian Reunion.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Dark Celebration: A Carpathian Reunion CHRISTINE FEEHAN. Berkley, $23.95 (384p) ISBN 0-425-21167-3 The blood-drinking, mind-reading, shape-shifting Carpathian clan and their human friends gather for Christmas--and to stave off encroaching...

When the Stars Come Out.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... When the Stars Come Out ROB BYRNES. Kensington, $23 (336p) ISBN 0-7582-1324-7 Byrnes (Trust Fund Boys) plumbs the depths of variously closeted men in this sly charmer that's less niche than the goofy cover art suggests. Though Noah Abraham...

Beautiful Dreamer.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... * Beautiful Dreamer CHRISTOPHER BIGSBY. St. Martin's/Dunne, $21.95 (192p) ISBN 0-312-35583-1 English author Bigsby unflinchingly explores a mushrooming tragedy that begins when a black man walks through the front door of a white-owned...

Soul Kitchen.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Soul Kitchen POPPY Z. BRITE. Three Rivers, $13.95 paper (288p) ISBN 0-307-23765-6 Chefs (and lovers) John Rickey and Gary "G-man" Stubbs (first appearing in Liquor and Prime) are once again involved in drama and suspense at their trendy...

Happiness Sold Separately.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Happiness Sold Separately LOLLY WINSTON. Warner, $21.99 (296p) ISBN 0-446-53306-8 The marriage of Ted and Elinor Mackey, a yuppie podiatrist-lawyer couple in their early-40s living in Northern California, is pushed to the brink when Elinor...

A Tale of Two Sisters.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... A Tale of Two Sisters ANNA MAXTED. Dutton, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 0-525-94973-9 Lizbet and Cassie Montgomery, Jewish sisters in London, seem to like their lives: Lizbet, cute but schlumpy, has a mid-level job at Ladz Mag and a smart, sweet...

The Cleansing.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The Cleansing GEORGE RABASA. Permanent, $26 (245p) ISBN 1-57962-130-9 When Victor Aruna's liver tissue sample shows up under the microscope of San Diego pathologist Dr. Paul Leander, the two men have not seen one another for 20 years....

Thug-A-Licious.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Thug-A-Licious NOIRE. Ballantine/One World, $13.95 paper (352p) ISBN 0-345-48691-9 Following street lit sensation Candy Licker, Noire returns to gangsta Harlem to tell the tale of Andre "Thug-a-Licious" Williams, a "Dawg-4-Lyfe" whose...

The River Killings.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The River Killings MERRY JONES. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (336p) ISBN 0-312-33041-3 Single mom Zoe Hayes has a knack for being in the wrong place at the worst time--like in the Schuylkill River late at night, clinging to a...

The Dark Water.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... * The Dark Water DAVID PIRIE. Pegasus (Consortium, dist.), $25 (368p) ISBN 1-933648-112 Pirie's third novel, like its predecessors, The Patient's Eyes and The Night Calls, evokes the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes...

PW talks with David Pirie: the real Sherlock Holmes: David Pirie is the author of three mysteries in which a young Arthur Conan Doyle plays Watson to his real-life mentor, Joseph Bell, the model for Sherlock Holmes.(Q&A)(Publishers Weekly)(Interview)
July 10, 2006... Why did you decide to write mysteries about the creator of Sherlock Holmes as a young man rather than straight pastiches? When I read the Holmes stories as a child, I was told that Doyle treated writing them as a game, he never took them...

Still as Death: a Sweeney St. George Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Still as Death: A Sweeney St. George Mystery SARAH STEWART TAYLOR. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-33742-6 The fourth mystery to feature art historian Sweeney St. George (after 2005's Judgment of the Grave) is every bit as...

The Uncomfortable Dead (What's Missing Is Missing): A Novel by Four Hands.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... The Uncomfortable Dead (What's Missing Is Missing): A Novel by Four Hands PACO IGNACIO TAIBO II AND SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY CARLOS LOPEZ. Akashic, $15.95 (268p) ISBN 1-933354-07-0 Mexican crime writer Taibo and a...

A Stolen Season (Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... A Stolen Season: An Alex McKnight Novel STEVE HAMILTON. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $22.95 (304p) ISBN 0-312-35360-X The chill of Michigan's Upper Peninsula doesn't cool the action in Edgar-winner Hamilton's expertly paced seventh Alex...

South Beach Shakedown.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... South Beach Shakedown DON BRUNS. Oceanview (www.oceanviewpub.com), $24.95 (288p) ISBN 1-933515-02-3 Bruns substitutes exotic locale for suspense in his lukewarm third beach-based mystery (after 2003's Barbados Heat) featuring music...

Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason KRISTINE ATKINSON AND JOYCE ATKINSON. Simon & Schuster, $23 (160p) ISBN 0-7432-9038-0 This tantalizing "found" journal of a troubled young wife and mother combines the diary of...

Correction.(Correction notice)
July 10, 2006... Correction: The title of Jacqueline Winspear's new Maisie Dobbs novel (Reviews, June 19) is Messenger of Truth, not Messenger of Death.

Mappa Mundi.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 10, 2006... * Mappa Mundi JUSTINA ROBSON. Pyr, $15 paper (514p) ISBN 1-59102-491-9 British author Robson's third novel to appear in the U.S. (after Natural History and Silver Screen) maintains throat-tightening suspense from its teasingly enigmatic...