Publishers Weekly articles from June 2007

Publishers Weekly archives from June 2007

Sluggish start for chains: only B&N has positive comps.(Foreword)(Barnes & Noble)
June 4, 2007... First-quarter sales at the nation's three largest bookstore chains rose 2.4%, to $2.15 billion. Barnes & Noble had the strongest quarter with sales up 2.8%, while Borders Group and Books-A-Million both reported a sales gain of 2.1%. In addition...

S&S sues CIA.(Simon & Schuster)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... Simon & Schuster has joined with author Valerie Plame Wilson to file a lawsuit against the CIA, charging that the agency is interfering with Plame's efforts to write her memoir, Fair Game. The suit alleges that the executive branch of the...

Ambassador for literature created.(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... The new post of National Ambassador for Young People's Literature has been created by the Children's Book Council, in concert with the Library of Congress. The ambassador role is being created to honor someone who has contributed greatly to...

Pride of show.(Foreword)
June 4, 2007... How can you tell it's a book fair if there's no complaining? By that definition, last weekend's BEA was certainly a book fair. The Expo had not even officially started when the drum beat began: it's too hot, there are too many, too similar...

Bowen to start kids imprint at HC.(Brenda Bowen; HarperCollins Children's Books)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... Brenda Bowen, who just left her position at Disney as v-p, editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Global Books, will start a new imprint at HarperCollins Children's Books. She will begin her new position June 18 and report to Susan Katz,...

New World buys Inner Ocean.(New World Library; Inner Ocean Publishing)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... New World Library has acquired the assets of Maul, Hawaii-based Inner Ocean Publishing, a transaction that involved the purchase of 45 titles. Inner Ocean, like New World, had been distributed by Publishers Group West, but unlike New World,...

MQP sells assets; sets up in U.S.(Octopus Publishing Group acquired assets MQ Publications United Kingdom)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... U.K.-based Octopus Publishing Group has acquired selected assets of MQ Publications, an independent U.K. publisher. MQP founder and publisher Zaro Well retains ownership of the MQP name and logo and plans to shift her publishing operations to...

Book sales projected to increase 4% in 2007.(Forecast)
June 4, 2007... Book sales are expected to increase a total of 4.1% in 2007, to $39.65 billion, according to projections from Book Industry Study Group released at BookExpo America over the weekend. The biggest gains are expected to come in the juvenile...

Sourcebooks buys Champion assets.(Sourcebooks Inc. acquired assets of Champion Press)
June 4, 2007... Sourcebooks has acquired the publishing assets of Champion Press. The acquisition includes about 100 backlist titles, which will now fall under the auspices of Peter Lynch, editorial manager for trade books at Sourcebooks. Champion founder...

On 2008.(Deals)(book on 2008 presidential elections)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... Wendy Wolf at Viking has bought world rights to an untitled book on the 2008 presidential campaign by Haynes Johnson and Dan Balz via Flip Brophy at Sterling Lord. Veteran Washington Post reporter Balz and Pulitzer Prize-winner Johnson, who has...

Brenda Copeland at Hyperion has bought world English rights to the tentatively titled Taboo: A Manhattan Tutor Talks by Anna Taggart via agent Jeanne Forte Dube.(Fiction Wins)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Brenda Copeland at Hyperion has bought world English rights to the tentatively titled Taboo: A Manhattan Tutor Talks by Anna Taggart via agent Jeanne Forte Dube. This is a roman a clef that exposes the secrets of the Manhattan tutoring industry...

Allison McCabe at Crown bought North American rights to a new novel by Marek Halter titled Mary of Nazareth via agent Susanna Lea.(Fiction Wins)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Allison McCabe at Crown bought North American rights to a new novel by Marek Halter titled Mary of Nazareth via agent Susanna Lea. Halter, the author of the New Canaan trilogy, has written an account of the life of the mother of Jesus before...

David Patterson at Holt has preempted Forecast by Atlantic Monthly and Fortune journalist Stephan Faris via Trident's Elisabeth Weed, who sold world rights.(Nonfiction Preempts)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... David Patterson at Holt has preempted Forecast by Atlantic Monthly and Fortune journalist Stephan Faris via Trident's Elisabeth Weed, who sold world rights. This will be a surprising investigation into the varied ways--political, strategic and...

Rob Kirkpatrick at Lyons has preempted Lou Sahadi's One Sunday in December: The 1958 NFL Championship and the Birth of Modern Football.(Nonfiction Preempts)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Rob Kirkpatrick at Lyons has preempted Lou Sahadi's One Sunday in December: The 1958 NFL Championship and the Birth of Modern Football. The contest between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts is often called the greatest game ever...

Jacque Murphy at Harvard Business School Press has preempted a new Forrester Research book, Groundswell, to be written by Forrester pros Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li.(Nonfiction Preempts)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... Jacque Murphy at Harvard Business School Press has preempted a new Forrester Research book, Groundswell, to be written by Forrester pros Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li. John Taylor "Ike" Williams at Kneerim & Williams sold world rights. The book...

Rick Russell at the Naval Institute Press has preempted The Sheriff of Ramadi by former SEAL and CIA officer Dick Couch; Bob Mecoy at Creative Book Services sold world rights.(Nonfiction Preempts)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Rick Russell at the Naval Institute Press has preempted The Sheriff of Ramadi by former SEAL and CIA officer Dick Couch; Bob Mecoy at Creative Book Services sold world rights. Couch will draw on his direct access to a navy SEAL unit in Iraq to...

Sarah Rainone at Doubleday/Currency has acquired North American rights to Newsweek correspondent Daniel McGinn's House Lust: America's Obsession with Our Homes via agent Andrew Blauner.(The Briefing)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Sarah Rainone at Doubleday/Currency has acquired North American rights to Newsweek correspondent Daniel McGinn's House Lust: America's Obsession with Our Homes via agent Andrew Blauner. The book, to pub December 2007, will explore the social...

Crown's Heather Jackson bought world rights to Taking Care of Your Girls, a comprehensive guide to breast health for girls, by mother and daughter team Marisa C. Weiss, M.D., and Isabel Friedman, via Linda Loewenthal at David Black.(The Briefing)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Crown's Heather Jackson bought world rights to Taking Care of Your Girls, a comprehensive guide to breast health for girls, by mother and daughter team Marisa C. Weiss, M.D., and Isabel Friedman, via Linda Loewenthal at David Black. Weiss is...

Calendar: June 10-15.(Foreword)(Brief article)(Calendar)
June 4, 2007... 6/10 PWs starred review of Armistead Maupin's Michael Tolliver Lives (HarperCollins) found "style and invention galore." It's his first Tales of the City novel since 1989's Sure of You. 6/11 Mere Anarchy (Random House) is Woody...

Aperture's space race.(Bookselling Events)
June 4, 2007... Two years after moving to a 17,500-square-foot loft in Manhattan's Chelsea arts district, Aperture, the nonprofit photography foundation and resource center, holds or sponsors more than 50 public programs each year from major exhibitions to...

In memoriam: Warren Sullivan.(People)(Obituary)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... The former John Wiley & Sons executive and onetime president of Barnes & Noble, Warren Sullivan Jr., died in Englewood, N.J., on May 23. Sullivan, who was instrumental in establishing overseas markets for American books, was 85. After joining...

Cool springs takes its gardening online.(Seeding the Web)
June 4, 2007... Gardening is one of those pastimes that are highly dependent on the vagaries of locale. Growing a tomato in Virginia is different from growing one in New York, and no one knows this better than Roger Waynick, president of the regional...

Hire, promos at Wilderness.(People)(promotions and hiring at Wilderness Press)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... The Berkeley, Calif.-based Wilderness Press has hired Emily White as marketing and publicity specialist. Laura Keresty has been promoted to copublisher, Eva Dienel to senior editor and Laura Shauger to editor.

Graf, Hoard to Skyhorse.(People)(Trish Hoard and Herman Graf joined Skyhorse Publishing)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... Herman Graf and Trish Hoard have both joined Skyhorse Publishing. Graf, cofounder of Carroll & Graf, has been named acquiring editor and consultant. Hoard, who was cofounder and associate publisher of Shoemaker & Hoard, has been named managing...

Maxson up at RH.(People)(Dana Maxson)(Brief article)
June 4, 2007... Dana Maxson has been named publicity manager in the Random House publicity department. After joining Random House in 2000 as event marketing manager for the Knopf and Random House Groups, he moved to Vintage Anchor in 2004.

Natasha Fleischman, Valley Booksellers, Stillwater, Minn.(Galley Talk)(Austenland)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Newbury Honor author Shannon Hale's young adult titles are a mainstay in children's literature, and I was quite excited when I got the ARC of her new adult title, Austenland (Bloomsbury, June). It was absolutely perfect! Jane Hayes has been...

Reader's Digest realigns book group.(Affinities)
June 4, 2007... About three months after it was acquired by Ripplewood Holdings, Reader's Digest has made a number of new appointments in its book operations to better align the book unit with the overall RD business. RD is now organized around four...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
June 4, 2007... Connelly published his first Harry Bosch novel, The Black Echo, 15 years ago; Harry's world has seen many changes. Then: Bosch had a pager and smoked; Harry's partner Jerry Edgar used a pay phone to return Harry's call. Now: Harry is never...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
June 4, 2007... "I criticize both parties and the system as a whole," Gore told The Early Show's Harry Smith on May 30. "I say in the book, very clearly, that it's too simple and too partisan to simply place the blame on President Bush, because we have a...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
June 4, 2007... Koontz's stats are Impressive. His books are published In 38 languages; worldwide sales are nearly 200 million copies, a figure that Increases by some 17 million copies per year. He frequently begins his bestselling tenure In the #1 spot, and...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
June 4, 2007... "Thin-slicing is not an exotic gift. It is a central part of what it means to be human. We thin-slice whenever we meet a new person or have to make sense of something quickly... We thin-slice because we have to, and we come to rely on that...

Comics bestsellers.
June 4, 2007... Marvel hit the jackpot with the release of multiple trade paperbacks from its hit crossover series Civil War, placing three of the books on this month's bestseller list. Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event collects the core narrative of the series...

Minnesota.(United States of Bookselling)(State overview)
June 4, 2007... With a healthy economy, excellent educational system and generous support for the arts from both residents and government funding, it's no surprise Minnesota always ranks first or second on research publisher Morgan Quitno's annual "Most...

A new Quills.(Quills Finalists)
June 4, 2007... We're at it again--but this year we're doing the Quills a little differently. The Quills gala will take place in the fall, but the selection process has been streamlined. Below you will find the finalists--five nominees in each of 18...

Believe it or not: the dominant role of religion in today's politics and culture has produced a backlash and a new publishing subcategory: the anti-religion books.(The New Doubt)(Cover story)
June 4, 2007... The popularity of the atheist position as reflected in some recent books may have people who follow bestseller lists scratching their heads in amazement--where, after all, are the brimstone screeds of O'Reilly and Coulter and novels about the...

Saving it up for the page.(Author Profile)(Biography)
June 4, 2007... "Every morning some Iranian housewife wakes up, eats breakfast and decides to write a memoir about it," Gina Nahai, 46, says without malice. She's only explaining why, when so much of her writing is based on true-life characters and their...

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... * The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox MAGGIE O'FARRELL. Harcourt, $23 (256p) ISBN 978-0-15-101411-8 O'Farrell (After You'd Gone) delivers an intricate, eloquent novel of family malice, longings and betrayal. Slim, stylish Iris Lockhart runs a...

Lost Paradise.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Lost Paradise CEES NOOTEBOOM, TRANS. FROM THE DUTCH BY SUSAN MASSOTTY. Grove, $23 (208p) ISBN 978-0-8021-1855-4 Eminent Dutch novelist Nooteboom (All Soul's Day) weaves an imaginative tale of redemption from the intersecting lives of...

Fourth Comings.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Fourth Comings MEGAN McCAFFERTY. Crown, $21 (320p) ISBN 978-0-307-34650-6 Acerbic heroine Jessica Darling is faced with the post-college conundrum--what now?--in McCafferty's fourth (following Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings and Charmed...

Selfish & Perverse.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Selfish & Perverse BOB SMITH. Carroll & Graf, $24.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-78672-040-8 Standup comedian and television writer Smith, who published the Lambda Award-winning memoir Openly Bob in 1997, throws his hat into the gay fiction ring...

PW talks with Daniel Silva: a terrorist threat: in Daniel Silva's seventh Gabriel Allon thriller, The Secret Servant (Reviews, May 21), the Israeli spymaster takes on Islamic extremists based in Europe.(Q&A)(Interview)
June 4, 2007... You're obviously deeply concerned about the threat of Islamic terrorism. I've been peeling away at it in layers. The last book, The Messenger, dealt with Saudi Arabia and its financial links to the global jihadist movement. The Secret...

Gifted.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Gifted NIKITA LALWANI. Random, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6648-3 In this penetrating coming-of-age debut from London-based Lalwani, 14-year-old Rumika Vasi struggles to fulfill her mathematical gifts and her family's demands on them,...

Minimal Damage: Stories of Veterans.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Minimal Damage: Stories of Veterans H. LEE BARNES. Univ. of Nevada, $24.95 (200p) ISBN 978-0-87417-721-3 War shows its human face in former Green Beret Barnes's mostly successful collection about veterans of Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama,...

Earthquake.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Earthquake SUSAN BARNES. Turtle Point Press, $10 paper (88p) ISBN 978-1-933527-11-6 Three bright, punchy snapshots from poet and painter Barnes, first published in a limited edition in 1990, track a family's unconventional approach to...

The Pawn: A Patrick Bowers Thriller.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Pawn: A Patrick Bowers Thriller STEVEN JAMES. Revell, $19.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-8007-1896-1 In this riveting thriller, the first of a planned trilogy, James (Story) introduces FBI agent Patrick Bowers. His professional specialty is...

Adulteries, Hot Tubs & Such Like Matters.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Adulteries, Hot Tubs & Such Like Matters. WILLIAM McCAULEY. Permanent, $26 (152p) ISBN 978-1-57962-154-4 McCauley, author of two works of fiction set in Sierra Leone, turns to domestic matters in this disappointing collection of stories...

Biting the Apple.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... * Biting the Apple LUCY JANE BLEDSOE. Carroll & Graf, $14.99 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-78671927-3 Bledsoe's fourth novel delves deep into what happens when the construction of an image overtakes the living of a life. In high school in the...

Agnes and the Hitman.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Agnes and the Hitman JENNIFER CRUSIE AND BOB MAYER. St. Martin's, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0312-36304-8 Crusie and Mayer (Don't Look Down) reunite to pen this mostly successful romantic comedy with a hint of action-adventure. Agnes Crandall...

Duck Duck Wally.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Duck Duck Wally GABE ROTTER. Simon & Schuster, $24 (320p) ISBN 978-1-4165-3786-1 Rotter relies heavily on black street slang for comic effect in his zany debut, starting with "chizapter 1." Wally Moscowitz, a self-described "frumpy, kinda...

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict LAURIE VIERA RIGLER. Dutton, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-525-95040-0 A clever time-travel setup functions as the prime attraction for this breezy debut novel. Courtney Stone, a single Los Angeles woman...

The Intruders.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... * The Intruders MICHAEL MARSHALL. Morrow, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-123502-3 Bestseller Marshall (The Straw Men) outdoes his own high standards with this potent blend of suspense, paranoia and just plain creepiness. Jack Whalen, a former...

Waking with Enemies.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... ERIC JEROME DICKEY. Dutton, $24.95 (430p) ISBN 978-0-525-95038-7 Picking up where Sleeping with Strangers left off, Dickey's latest novel finds hit man Gideon in London, where another assassin, a mysterious man with a broken nose, is hot on...

The First Commandment.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The First Commandment BRAD THOR. Atria, $25 (416p) ISBN 978-1-4165-4379-4 Bestseller Thor's latest thrill-ride begins in anguish. Scot Harvath, navy SEAL turned Homeland Security superagent, sits at the bedside of girlfriend Tracy...

Evil, Inc.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Evil, Inc. GLENN KAPLAN. Forge, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-765-31618-9 Kaplan (All for Money) takes kill-or-be-killed business ideologies to psychopathic new levels in this deftly plotted corporate thriller. When hard-charging executive Ken...

The End of the Alphabet.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The End of the Alphabet CS RICHARDSON. Doubleday, $16.95 (128p) ISBN 978-0-385-52255-7 An abrupt death sentence given to a 50-year-old London ad exec forces an uneasy deliverance in Richardson's smartly setup, poignant tale. Given less...

Crooked Little Vein.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Crooked Little Vein WARREN ELLIS. Morrow, $21.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-072393-4 At the start of this dark, demented fiction debut from Ellis, the creator of DC Comics' Transmetropolitan and The Authority, the U.S. president's...

Dangerous Admissions: Secrets of a Closet Sleuth.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... * Dangerous Admissions: Secrets of a Closet Sleuth JANE O'CONNOR. Avon A, $13.95 paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-124086-7 Wielding "her weapon of choice, a lethally sharpened Cole-erase blue pencil," Miranda "Rannie" Bookman makes a dynamic...

Lottery.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Lottery PATRICIA WOOD. Putnam, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-399-15449-2 Perry Crandall has an IQ of 76, but is not retarded, as he'll have you know: his IQ would need to be less than 75 for that, and he knows the difference even if others may...

The Cleft.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Cleft DORIS LESSING. HarperCollins, $25.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-06-083486-9 Eminent novelist Lessing offers an alternative origin story for the human race, indirectly recalling the alternate world speculations of her Canopus in Argos SF...

The Follower.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Follower JASON STARR. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-35974-4 Murder stalks a love triangle in New York City in Starr's low-key thriller, his most crowd-pleasing novel to date. Katie Porter believes her encounter at...

Bones to Ashes.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Bones to Ashes KATHY REICHS. Scribner, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9437-9 In bestseller Reichs's entertaining 10th Temperance Brennan forensic thriller (after Break No Bones), Brennan, her relationship with Det. Andrew Ryan on the rocks,...

Hedyphagetica.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Hedyphagetica AUSTRYN WAINHOUSE. Dalkey Archive, $12.95 paper (216p) ISBN 978-1-56478-467-4 In a 1960 essay on American ex-pats in Paris, Gay Talese mentions Austryn Wainhouse and his "strong, esoteric novel, Hedyphagetica," in which a...

The Way Life Should Be.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Way Life Should Be CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE. Morrow, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-079891-8 Thirty-three-year-old New Yorker Angela Russo, dissatisfied with a career that amounts to "gliding across a smooth plateau of predictability" and...

The Other Mother.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Other Mother GWENDOLEN GROSS. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23 (288p) ISBN 978-0-307-35292-7 Gross's third novel (following Getting Out) documents the front lines of the "Mommy Wars," but its real strength lies in exposing the complex inner...

The Devil's Labyrinth.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Devil's Labyrinth JOHN SAUL. Ballantine, $25.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-345-48703-2 Bestseller Saul (Suffer the Children) links an exorcism of the devil with a plot to kill the pope in this over-the-top religious thriller. When thugs at a...

Hocus POTUS.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Hocus POTUS MALCOLM MACPHERSON. Melville (Consortium, dist.), $24.95 (375p) ISBN 978-1-933633-28-2 This rollicking political farce from former Time and Newsweek correspondent MacPherson is set between the fall of Baghdad and the capture of...

The Judas Strain.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Judas Strain JAMES ROLLINS. HarperCollins, $25.95 (448p) ISBN 978-0-06-076389-3 The special-ops trained scientists of Sigma Force battle the criminals of the shadowy Guild in bestseller Rollins's lively third Sigma Force thriller...

The Bloody Tower: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Bloody Tower: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery CAROLA DUNN. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-312-36306-2 In Dunn's cunning 16th Daisy Dalrymple mystery (after 2007's Gunpowder Plot), the charming Daisy stumbles over the corpse...

Dead Ex.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... * Dead Ex HARLEY JANE KOZAK. Doubleday, $21.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-385-51802-4 Holy Hollywood! In actor-turned-author Kozak's witty third crime caper (after 2005's Dating Is Murder), wild Wollie Shelley must solve the cold-blooded murder of...

The Dead Don't Lie: An Abe Lieberman Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Dead Don't Lie: An Abe Lieberman Mystery STUART M. KAMINSKY. Forge, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-765-31602-8 MWA Grand Master Kaminsky's 10th Abe Lieberman mystery (after 2006's Terror Town) will mostly appeal to longtime fans. Lieberman,...

The Chardonnay Charade: A Wine Country Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Chardonnay Charade: A Wine Country Mystery ELLEN CROSBY. Scribner, $24 (272p) ISBN 978-0-7432-8992-4 A bizarre May frost threatens Lucie Montgomery's Virginia winery operation in this highly enjoyable sequel to Crosby's The Merlot...

The Penguin Who Knew Too Much: A Meg Langslow Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... * The Penguin Who Knew Too Much: A Meg Langslow Mystery DONNA ANDREWS. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0312-32942-6 In Agatha-winner Andrews's deliciously daffy eighth Meg Langslow mystery (after 2006's No Nest for the...

Kilt Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Kilt Dead KAITLYN DUNNETT. Kensington, $22 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7582-1639-7 This promising first in a new series from the pseudonymous Dunnett, aka Kathy Lynn Emerson (Face Down Beside St. Anne's Well), introduces spunky Liss MacCrimmon, a...

The Day Will Come.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Day Will Come JUDY CLEMENS. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (244p) ISBN 978-1-59058-299-2 It may be hard to believe that Pennsylvania dairy farmer Stella Crown can make a habit of stumbling into murder cases, but her intense fourth adventure...

Madeline Mann: The First Madeline Mann Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Madeline Mann: The First Madeline Mann Mystery JULIA BUCKLEY. Midnight Ink (www. midnightinkbooks.com), $12.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-7387-0906-2 Buckley's awkward second novel launches a new contemporary mystery series that reads...

Monster Planet.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Monster Planet DAVID WELLINGTON. Thunder's Mouth, $13.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-56025-867-4 Half horror, half fantasy and totally preposterous, Wellington's conclusion to his apocalyptic zombie trilogy (after Monster Island and Monster...

Ilario: The Lion's Eye: A Story of the First History, Book One.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... * Ilario: The Lion's Eye: A Story of the First History, Book One MARY GENTLE. EOS, $14.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-082183-8 Set in an alternative medieval world in which Carthage has survived to become a mighty empire, this impressive first in...

Settling Accounts: In at the Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Settling Accounts: In at the Death HARRY TURTLEDOVE. Del Rey, $26.95 (624p) ISBN 978-0-345-49247-0 Alternate history master Turtledove brings his 10-book saga of a Confederate Civil War victory to a satisfying if predictable conclusion....

The Mirror of Worlds: The Second Volume of the Crown of the Isles.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... The Mirror of Worlds: The Second Volume of the Crown of the Isles DAVID DRAKE. Tor, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1260-0 Three strong women on separate missions dominate this slow-moving middle volume (after 2006's The Fortress of Glass) in...

Valentine's Resolve: A Novel of the Vampire Earth.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Valentine's Resolve: A Novel of the Vampire Earth E.E. KNIGHT. Roc, $23.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-451-46146-9 Knight flavors action with humor in this sixth Vampire Earth book (after 2006's Valentine's Exile). Some 50 years after the 2022...

KOP.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... KOP WARREN HAMMOND. Tor, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-765-31272-3 A corrupt policeman, an overgrown jungle city that gets only five hours of sun between 17-hour nights, and battling crime gangs set the extremely noir scene for Hammond's solidly...

The Devil You Know.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... * The Devil You Know MIKE CAREY. Warner, $24.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-446-58030-4 A violent ghost in a world where spirits are rarely mean-spirited is a clue to a deeper mystery in this engrossing dark fantasy debut from comics-writer Carey....

A Deeper Blue.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... A Deeper Blue JOHN RINGO. Baen, $26 (368p) ISBN 978-1-4165-2128-0 At the start of Ringo's darkly violent fifth Kildar novel (after 2006's Unto the Breach), Mike Jenkins, who's no longer a navy SEAL but still the Kildar, or feudal warlord,...

Butcher Bird.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 4, 2007... Butcher Bird RICHARD KADREY, Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $14.95 paper (258p) ISBN 978-1-59780-086-0 Buffy and Angel fans are likely to enjoy Kadrey's offbeat supernatural romp, which blends demonic evil and quirky humor. The...