Publishers Weekly articles from March 2005

Publishers Weekly archives from March 2005

'Reaching readers' job one for Baron: new Bookspan exec has no plans for publishing.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... CAROLE BARON intends to "find new ways to reach readers" in her new post as senior v-p and publishing director of Bookspan. Since her departure from Penguin last month, Baron said she had "lots of choices" about what to do next, but she...

Top-of-the-heap trends.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... THE TOP SELLERS in fiction and nonfiction at five-year intervals show a certain endurance in fiction--Jean Auel's The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage in '85 and '90, followed by John Grisham's The Rainmaker and The Brethren in '95...

Something about Mary: she's connected, conservative, and cunning. But can Mary Matalin publish books?(editorial)
March 28, 2005... THE ANNOUNCEMENT LAST WEEK that Mary Matalin, the Bush-supporting strategist and pundit, would launch a conservative imprint within Simon & Schuster inspired the usual mixed reaction among publishing folk. "It's a brilliant idea," many said...

Exiting book country: a New York fair's undoing.(News)
March 28, 2005... AMONG THE MANY notable photos taken of New York Is Book Country over its 26 years, one especially stands out. It's of founder and former head Linda Exman standing near board chairperson and New York Times marketing executive Alyse Myers....

Trade blooms for Scholastic.(Third-Quarter Results)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... GAINS IN BOTH backlist and frontlist helped boost sales in Scholastic's trade segment 62% for the third quarter ended February 28, to $41.3 million. Among the new titles that performed well in the quarter were The Dark Hills Divide, Dragon...

Wiley wins one.(Litigation)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... JOHN WILEY & SONS continues its battle against online sites that sell its books illegally. In its most recent action, Wiley, in conjunction with Pearson Education, won a contempt of court complaint against GaafooBooks, a company it had...

The Kingsolver diet.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Popular novelist Barbara Kingsolver has signed again with her regular editor and publisher, Terry Karten at HarperCollins, for a pair of books: a new novel and a book on how she and her family have embarked on a very special diet. Animal,...

'No Logo' Klein on Iraq.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Canadian journalist Naomi Klein's No Logo became a kind of bible of the antiglobalist movement, as well as an international bestseller, a couple of years ago, and now Holt's Metropolitan Books has signed Klein for a book in which she will...

From Times to Sox.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Seth Mnookin, whose last book, Hard News, scrutinized the woes at the New York times brought on by the depredations of Jayson Blair, has taken a happier theme for his next outing. He's going behind the scenes of the triumphant Boston Red Sox,...

Another Martha?(hot deals)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Pretenders to the throne of the recent detainee are legion, and what sounds like one of them has just been signed for a book at Stewart, Tabori & Chang. She's Brini Maxwell, whose bubbly half-hour TV show was recently transferred from public...

Those missing WMDs.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... The bipartisan presidential commission looking into what happened with U.S. intelligence regarding Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction will issue its unclassified report next week; and within days Public Affairs will have...

A version of Dante's Inferno in graphic novel format, illustrated by a group of leading artists, has been bought for Hyperion by Emily Gould.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... A version of Dante's Inferno in graphic novel format, illustrated by a group of leading artists, has been bought for Hyperion by Emily Gould. It's a creation of the Book Laboratory directed by Philip Dunn (which packaged Hawkings's Universe...

A lighthearted guide to college years by the editors of a popular Web site for that age group, CollegeHumor.com, was signed for Dutton by Brian Tart and NAL by Mark Chait.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... A lighthearted guide to college years by the editors of a popular Web site for that age group, CollegeHumor.com, was signed for Dutton by Brian Tart and NAL by Mark Chait. The deal was made by David Vigliano and Andrea Somberg at the former's...

For Holt, publisher John Sterling and editor-in-chief Jennifer Barth signed a book by Columbia professor David Damrosch called The Buried Book: An Archeological Adventure.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... For Holt, publisher John Sterling and editor-in-chief Jennifer Barth signed a book by Columbia professor David Damrosch called The Buried Book: An Archeological Adventure. It tells the story of how a group of ill-assorted archeologists,...

A book about how author Noelle Oxenhandler experimented in making three wishes come true was bought for Random by Caroline Sutton.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... A book about how author Noelle Oxenhandler experimented in making three wisheS come true was bought for Random by Caroline Sutton. The title, Coming True: One Woman, One Year and Three Wishes, goes into the mechanics of wishing, from early...

Exports limp, while China roars in '04.(Balance of Power)
March 28, 2005... THE WEAK DOLLAR did little to help American book exports in 2004, but during the year China further cemented its lead as the largest offshore manufacturer for American books. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce, total...

Positively 12th Street.(news)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Bob Dylan was a no-show, but plenty of other NBCC nominees turned out for the organization's annual fete, held March a8 at the New School in Manhattan (on 12th Street in the Village). Penguin was the big winner, with two prizes, while...

Spider-Man climbs into B&N, 7-Eleven.(New Outlets)
March 28, 2005... MARVEL ENTERPRISES announced three new distribution initiatives that will involve Barnes & Noble, 7-Eleven convenience stores and free distribution of two million comics to public school kids. Taken together, the moves greatly expand the...

Pinkney steps down at HM.(Children's Publishing)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Andrea Davis Pinkney cited family reasons as the motivation for her decision to step down as publisher of the Houghton Mifflin children's book group. Pinkney, who is based in New York City, said, "Management of the company wants the publisher...

There's nothing scary about the box office.(Hollywood Reader)
March 28, 2005... THERE'S NOTHING SCARY ABOUT THE BOX OFFICE grosses for recent horror hits such as The Grudge and Hide and Seek (the reviews, however, are another matter). This week, the Gersh Agency's Sarah Self, a self-professed horror junkie, mixes...

In a fad-crazy town where even what you wear.(Hollywood Reader)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... IN A FAD-CRAZY TOWN WHERE EVEN WHAT YOU WEAR around your wrist can have serious career repercussions (you're not still wearing that red Kabbalah string bracelet, are you?), Hollywood's fascination with trend forecasters--those people paid...

After years of repping the film rights for Curtis Brown's stable of authors (such as Po Bronson, Wes Craven and Frances Mayes), agent Ed Wintle may soon get to see his own work on the big screen.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... BRIEFS... After years of repping the film rights for Curtis Brown's stable of authors (such as Po Bronson, Wes Craven and Frances Mayes), agent Ed Wintle may soon get to see his own work on the big screen. Hart Sharp Entertainment, the...

MediaBay pumps up.(Breathing Room)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... FLUSH WITH $35 MILLION in new financing from a group of institutional investors that includes Satellite Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and Coghill, MediaBay CEO Jeffrey Dittus said the company will push ahead with its plan to build a digital...

Multimedia dreams for new August House owner.(Big Plans)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... WITH HIS BACKGROUND in technology, Steve Floyd hopes to be able to develop August House Publishers' book and audio properties "into multiple formats and multiple channels." Floyd's company, Atlanta-based Marsh Cove Productions, acquired...

McMurtry's booked up may not close up.(Reverse)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry is reconsidering his widely reported decision to close Booked Up, his Archer City, Tex., bookstore which stocks 400,000 used and antiquarian titles in four buildings. "So much of the town is...

'GMA' book bake-off.(Publishing with a Platform)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... CALL IT AMERICAN IDOL meets the book publishing industry. This morning, ABC's Good Morning America announced that the first of three finalists in its months-long search for the great American memoir is Betty Ferguson, a mother who forgave her...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
March 28, 2005... In the news story "Outed: Manga Buyer's a Manga Author" (Mar. 21), Borders's Kurt Hassler was quoted incorrectly. Borders has not indicated how many copies of his new manga title, Sokora Refugees, it will order, and the chain emphasized it is...

Illuminated again.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Second novels have proven a challenge to many authors, particularly those whose debuts are major successes. Doesn't seem to be the case with Jonathan Safran Foer, whose first fiction, Everything Is Illuminated, sold close to 100,000 copies...

By George, she's done it.(behind the bestsellers)
March 28, 2005... Elizabeth George has been called "a master of the English mystery"--not bad for an American born in California. Her 13th mystery, With No One as Witness, again stars Scotland Yard detective Thomas Lynley and his sidekick, Barbara Havers, and...

Enron is on.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Award-winning journalist Kurt Eichenwald has written the Enron book that everyone wants to read. Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story lands in the #6 spot on our nonfiction list and has 175,000 copies in print after five trips to press; first...

Wise gals indeed.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Dr. Christiane Northrup's last two books, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause, were major national bestsellers. Her latest, Mother-Daughter Wisdom: Creating a Legacy of Petsonal and Emotional Health, is embarking on the...

Kudos to chart toppers.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... This week, our feature is on the bestsellers of 2004 (beginning on p. 24), and you might be able to guess which two books sit at the top of the hardcover lists. Even more remarkable is that both The Da Vinci Code and The Purpose-Driven Life...

Rodale adds dose of kindness to diet.(Low Carbs to High Virtue)
March 28, 2005... WHEN YOU'VE PUBLISHED a blockbuster bestseller, what do you offer next? It's the kind of problem any publisher would love to have. In 2003, Rodale released a 50,000-copy first printing of Arthur Agatson's low-carb diet wonder book, The South...

The profits of poetry: one of only two all-poetry bookstores in the U.S., Open Books proves that you can make a buck (even two) from verse.
March 28, 2005... A decade ago, when independent bookstores across the country were folding under competition from chain superstores, Christine Deavel and her husband, John W. Marshall, did the unthinkable: they closed their general bookstore and reopened a...

The no. 1 most prolific author: less is more? Try telling that to Alexander McCall Smith.
March 28, 2005... SITTING IN A HOTEL room last fall on one of many book tours he undertook for his U.S. and U.K. publishers, bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith suffered a paralyzing panic attack. But ever the professional, and a courteous Scot, McCall...

No room at the top: it's hard to get on the charts; it's even tougher to get to the top.(Hardcover)
March 28, 2005... In real estate, it's location, location, location. For bestsellers, it's name, name, name. While debut novelists do get on the charts (six did so in 2004) and there are some formerly unknowns on the nonfiction side, these are the exceptions....

Publishers Weekly 2004 bestsellers.(Hardcover)
March 28, 2005... Publishers Weekly 2004 Bestsellers FICTION 1. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Doubleday (3/03) ** 4,290,000 2. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. Hyperion (9/03) 3,287,722 3. The Last...

Everything all over again: debut novels score big in trade; in mass market, it's mostly women's fiction and, of course, Dan Brown.(Paperback)
March 28, 2005... Let's talk about Dan Brown's phenomenal performance on the charts one more time, and then we'll move on to the rest of the top bestsellers of 2004. Brown is the first author ever to place all his backlist titles (Angels & Demons, Deception...

Hollywood comes calling: Lemony Snicket reigns in a year heavy with tie-ins.(Children's)
March 28, 2005... LAST YEAR WAS A STRONG ONE for children's books: in hardcover, 238 titles sold more than 75,000 copies; in paperback, 310 books sold in excess of 100,000 copies. Numbers-wise, however, the year belonged to Lemony Snicket. The Series of...

Counting the days: a multitude of calendar formats help keep people on track.(2006 calendars)(Buyers Guide)
March 28, 2005... ONCE UPON A TIME, calendars were simple pages that tracked the days and helped one remember appointments. Today calendars inform, amuse and even inspire with breathtaking images. In fact, one publisher is introducing the Calendar Frame to...

Appaloosa.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... APPALOOSA ROBERT B. PARKER. Putnam, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-399-15277-6 * This is only Parker's second western, after the Wyatt Earp story Gunman's Rhapsody (or third if you count the Spenser PI quasi-western Potshot), but he takes total...

36 Yalta Boulevard.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... 36 YALTA BOULEVARD OLEN STEINHAUER. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 0-312-33201-7 Did Brano Sev, an agent of an unnamed Eastern European country, kill Bertrand Richter in Vienna in the 1960s? Or was he set up by his superiors...

Devil's Corner.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... DEVIL'S CORNER LISA SCOTTOLINE. HarperCollins, $25.95 (400p) ISBN 0-06-074288-7 Scottoline's 12th novel was inspired by a real-life jury trial for crack-cocaine trafficking of members of one of the most violent gangs in Philadelphia...

The Closed Circle.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE CLOSED CIRCLE JONATHAN COE. Knopf, $26 (400p) ISBN 0-375-41415-0 * The Rotters' Club (2002), Coe's witty novel of teenage schoolmates growing up in 1970s Birmingham, England, introduced an expansive cast of characters. With echoes of...

The River.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE RIVER TRICIA WASTVEDT. Grove/Black Cat, $14 paper (352p) ISBN 0-8021-7007-2 This eerie first novel plumbs the dark undercurrents of the sleepy English town of Cameldip, where two children drown in 1958, and the grief of their death...

The Bright Forever.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE BRIGHT FOREVER LEE MARTIN. Shaye Areheart, $23 (288p) ISBN 1-4000-9791-6 The halting, harrowing narrative of Matin's second novel (after 2001's Quakertown) draws upon multiple voices to piece together a tragedy with its own slippery...

The Wild Girl: the Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE WILD GIRL: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932 JIM FERGUS. Hyperion, $23.95 (368p) ISBN 1-4013-0054-5 * Depicting the dusty Depression-era West this grandly, cinematically imagined sweat- and bloodstained saga, inspired by events that...

Wild, Wild West.(PW Talks with Jim Fergus)(Interview)
March 28, 2005... PW: It's been seven years since your regional bestselling debut, One Thousand White Women. Did that novel's success put you under pressure to "measure up" when you were writing The Wild Girl [reviewed above]? Jim Fergus: First of all,...

Music of the Mill.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... MUSIC OF THE MILL LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ. HarperCollins/Rayo, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-056076-2 Rodriguez chronicled his youthful days in an L.A. gang in his 1993 memoir, Always Running, and while his latest novel ends with a cautionary...

Glad News of the Natural World.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... GLAD NEWS OF THE NATURAL WORLD T.R. PEARSON. Simon & Schuster, $24 (320p) ISBN 0-7432-6463-0 Louis Benfield is back and grown up (more or less) in this hilarious if meandering tale of a modern-day Southern slacker, the sequel to A Short...

The Hot Kid.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE HOT KID ELMORE LEONARD. Morrow, $25.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-072422-6 * Leonard's 40th novel, set in the world of 1930s gangsters and gun molls, features characterizations so deft and true you can smell the hair oil on the dudes and the...

Margarettown.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... MARGARETTOWN GABRIELLE ZEVIN. Hyperion, $25 (304p) ISBN 1-4013-5242-1 An unusual telling of boy-meets-girl, Zevin's debut reiterates female complexity through a husband and daughter's experiences with one surprising woman. N., the...

Mounting Desire.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... MOUNTING DESIRE NINA KILLHAM. Bloomsbury, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 1-58234-501-5 Killham's rollicking second novel (after How To Cook a Tart) cleverly sends up the romance genre while standing as a funny, romantic novel in its own right. Jack...

The Bad Mother's Handbook.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE BAD MOTHER'S HANDBOOK KATE LONG. Ballantine, $21.95 (368p) ISBN 0-345-47965-3 Three independent, prickly women living together in ex-Council housing sort out life and love in this funny, touching and utterly winning debut, a U.K....

The Other Woman.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE OTHER WOMAN JANE GREEN. Viking, $23.95 (400p) ISBN 0-670-03404-5 Ellie's found her Mr. Right--too bad his mom's got him all wrapped up in her apron strings. Bestseller Green (Bookends; Jemima J; etc.) saddles her heroine with the...

No Place Like Home.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... NO PLACE LIKE HOME MARY HIGGINS CLARK. Simon & Schuster, $25.95 (38419) ISBN 0-7432-6489-4 Clark's clever use of a bit of New Jersey real estate code fits perfectly into her usual formula for minting bestsellers in a novel about past...

In the Face of Jinn.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... IN THE FACE OF JINN CHERYL HOWARD CREW. St. Martin's, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0312-32648-3 A California exotic goods importer embarks on a perilous rescue mission through India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in this vibrant, adventure-filled debut...

Superstition.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... SUPERSTITION KAREN ROBARDS. Putnam, $24.95 (432p) ISBN 0399-15280-6 Combining elements of a Southern gothic, a cozy comedy, a sexy romance and a serial killer thriller, this new offering from Robards (Bait, etc.) tries to be too many...

A Long Stay in a Distant Land.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... A LONG STAY IN A DISTANT LAND CHIEH CHIENG. Bloomsbury, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 1-58234-533-3 Chieng chronicles three generations of the comically ill-fated Chinese-American Lure family in his whimsical debut. Ever since Grandpa Melvin defied...

How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... HOW EVAN BROKE HIS HEAD AND OTHER SECRETS GARTH STEIN. Soho, $25 (368p) ISBN 1-56947-390-0 Stein (Raven Stole the Moon) builds an engrossing family drama around a Seattle rock musician. Evan's the odd man out in the Wallace family: his...

The Dark Queen.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE DARK QUEEN SUSAN CARROLL. Ballantine, $13.95 paper (544fo) ISBN 0-345-43796-9 When a wounded captain of the Navarre army arrives on Faire Isle in 1572 and calls for an audience with Daughter of the Earth (aka healer, or witch) Ariane...

The Painted Kiss.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE PAINTED KISS ELIZABETH HICKEY. Atria, $24 (256p) ISBN 0-7434-9260-9 Hickey imagines the bonds between Gustav Klimt and his younger lover--whose name he pronounced with his dying breath--in her expressively written debut. Before...

Table For Five.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... TABLE FOR FIVE SUSAN WIGGS. Mira, $19.95 (400p) ISBN 0-7783-2167-3 Two unlikely guardians and three orphaned children cobble together a family in this tragicomic novel, in which hardship offers everyone an opportunity for positive growth....

The Bowl is Already Broken.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE BOWL IS ALREADY BROKEN MARY KAY ZURAVLEFF. Farrar, Straus Giroux, $25 (432p) ISBN 0-374-11571-0 Former Smithsonian editor Zuravleff's logy second novel (after The Frequency of Souls) tracks the mishaps and hard-won triumphs of the...

Sails on the Horizon.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... SAILS ON THE HORIZON JAY WORRALL. Random, $24.95 (28@) ISBN 1-4000-6305-1 Intrepid hero Charles Edgemont does battle with the French and their allies during the Napoleonic Wars in Worrell's competent debut. A lowly lieutenant for a few...

Monster.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... MONSTER FRANK PERETTI. WestBow, $24.99 (464p) ISBN 0-8499-1180-X In this long-awaited novel, Peretti (This Present Darkness; The Visitation) tells the story of a young woman who disappears in the Idaho wilderness and the ensuing search...

The Journeys of Socrates.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE JOURNEYS OF SOCRATES DAN MILLMAN. Harper San Francisco, $23.95 (336p) ISBN 0-06-075023-5 In his landmark 1980 novel, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Millman blended fact and fiction to tell the story of a young man whose life is...

Beautiful Blemish.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... BEAUTIFUL BLEMISH KEVIN SAMPSELL. Word Riot (www.wordriot.org), $9 paper (100p) ISBN 0-9728200-8-6 Sampsell, editor of The Insomniac Reader and publisher of fringe fiction at "micropress" Future Tense Books, concocts a diverse,...

A Dream in Polar Fog.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... A DREAM IN POLAR FOG YURI RYTKHEU, TRANS. FROM THE RUSSIAN BY ILONA YAZHBIN CHAVASSE. Archipelago (www.archipelagobooks.org), $24 (230p) ISBN 0-9749680-7-2 Siberian-born author Rytkheu chronicles a Canadian sailor's life among the...

W.I.T.C.H.: the Power of Friendship.(Children's Review)(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... W.I.T.C.H.: The Power of Friendship Hyperion/Volo, $4.99 paper (128p) ISBN 0-7868-3674-1 Will is new in town, but luckily for her, she runs into Taranee on the first day of junior high, and just like that, a friendship is formed. Shortly...

Dan Dare: Marooned on Mercury.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... DAN DARE: Marooned on Mercury FRANK HAMPSON. Titan, $19.95 (96p) ISBN 1-84023-847-X While not well known in the U.S., Dan Dare was the most important comic for a generation of British kids, having run through the 1950s and '60s in...

Stray Bullets: Innocence of Nihilism.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... STRAY BULLETS: Innocence of Nihilism DAVID LAPHAM. El Capitan (P.O. Box 351508, Los Angeles, Calif. 90035), $19.95 paper (240p) ISBN 0-9727145-6-1 * This unforgettable epic of lowlife criminals in Baltimore in the 1980s pulls no punches....

SOS.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... SOS HINAKO ASHIHARA. Viz, $9.99 paper (192p) ISBN 1-59116-735-3 This collection offers up three love stories about sweet girls and the hot guys they fall for. Ashihara, creator of the popular Forbidden Dance series, distinguishes each of...

Sanctum.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... SANCTUM XAVIER DORISON AND CHRISTOPHE BEC. Humanoids/DC Comics, $19.95 paper (192p) ISBN 1-4012-0633-6 Like the movie Alien, this graphic novel, originally published in France, pits a crew against a marauding monster, but here, the...

The Circle.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE CIRCLE PETER LOVESEY. Soho, $24 (368p) ISBN 1-56947-392-7 * Inspector Henrietta "Hen" Mallin, an ingenious and acerbic sleuth who played a supporting role in Lovesey's Peter Diamond novel The House Sitter (2003), proves herself fully...

Graveyard Shift.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... GRAVEYARD SHIFT KELLY LANGE. Mysterious, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 0-89296-757-9 Lange's third mystery to feature gutsy anchor-reporter Maxi Poole (after 2004's Dead File) smartly mixes crime and romantic suspense while the fast-moving plot...

The Alpine Quilt: an Emma Lord Mystery.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)
March 28, 2005... THE ALPINE QUILT: An Emma Lord Mystery MARY DAHEIM. Ballantine, $22.95 (314p) ISBN 0-345-47720-0 Quilters will especially enjoy Daheim's 17th cozy (after 2004's Alpine Pursuit) to feature Emma Lord, publisher of the Alpine Advocate, the...

An up-to-date Victorian.(PW Talks with Peter Lovesey)(Interview)
March 28, 2005... PW: You've had a great deal of success with your Peter Diamond series. What made you decide to feature a new detective in The Circle [see review p. 59]? Peter Lovesey: Hen Mallin isn't totally new. She first appeared in the previous...

Little Black Dress: a Peter Macklin Mystery.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... LITTLE BLACK DRESS: A Peter Macklin Mystery LOREN ESTLEMAN. Forge, $23.95 (240p) ISBN 0-705-30894-0 The conflict at the heart of this intense, powerfully told story is almost Shakespearean: to protect the woman he loves, retired killer...

Highway 61 Resurfaced.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... HIGHWAY 61 RESURFACED BILL FITZHUGH. Morrow, $23.95 (368p) ISBN 0-06-059761-5 Some fine characterization helps offset an overly complicated plot in Fitzhugh's second mystery to star veteran disc jockey and rookie PI Rick Shannon (after...

The Fourth Wall.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE FOURTH WALL BETH SAULNIER. Severn, $28.95 (432p) ISBN 0-7278-6197-2 In Saulnier's entertaining sixth Alex Bernier adventure (after 2003's Ecstasy), the stubborn, brassy reporter for the Gabriel, N.Y., Monitor gets mixed up in the...

The Crown Rose.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE CROWN ROSE FIONA AVERY. Pyr (www.pyrsf.com), $25 (460p) ISBN 1-59102-312-2 Strong religious beliefs (orthodox and alternative) propel the action of Avery's first novel, a dazzling blend of French history and the fantastic. As a...

The Well of Stars.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... THE WELL OF STARS ROBERT REED. Tor, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 0-765-30860-6 * As it sails the galaxy, the Great Ship (introduced in 2000's Marrow) meets an opponent worthy of its Jupiter-like size in Reed's taut sequel. Pitted against an entity...

Alternate Generals III.(Book Review)
March 28, 2005... ALTERNATE GENERALS III EDITED BY HARRY TURTLEDOVE. Baen, $24 (320p) ISBN 0-7434-9897-6 With its dual portrait of generals Grant and Lee on opposing sides of the Roman Civil War, the jacket of editor Turtledove's solid third alternative...