Publishers Weekly articles from March 2006

Publishers Weekly archives from March 2006

Coming to terms with trade publishing: Pearson willing to sacrifice top-line gains for higher profits.(Foreword)
March 6, 2006... In remarks made last week by Marjorie Scardino and Rona Fairhead, chief executive and CFO of Pearson, respectively, the two executives made clear that given the realities of sluggish growth in consumer publishing, they are willing to accept...

Cooper to lead CDS books.(Roger Cooper is publisher at Perseus Books Group)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Roger Cooper has been named publisher of Perseus's CDS Books imprint. Cooper will work to add commercial fiction and nonfiction authors to the imprint, which employs a different business model than most publishers, including other Perseus...

Audio sales up 4%.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Gross sales of audio-books increased by 4% in 2004, to approximately $832 million, according to survey findings of the Audio Publishers Association. The figure, which includes data from 21 APA members, also factors in non-APA members and...

Baron's estate.(Foreword)(Carole Baron)
March 6, 2006... The news that former Putnam president and current part-time Bookspan honcho Carole Baron would soon begin buying and editing books for Knopf elicited a common response among most publishing watchers: Huuuuuh? we articulated. How odd! ...

National geographic adds ESL.(Hampton-Brown Company)(National Geographic Society )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... The National Geographic Society has acquired ESL publisher Hampton-Brown Company. NGS is combining H-B with its existing supplementary education unit to form a new educational division. Sherry Long, founder of Hampton-Brown, will be chairman of...

HC launches web tool.(HarperCollins's HarperCollins Advantage. com )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... HarperCollins has launched a new Web site dedicated to simplifying the purchase of its books for booksellers. HarperCollins Advantage. com offers booksellers the ability to both search for titles (cross-referenced by subject, category or...

Book ad spending up.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Book publishers spent $231.9 million on advertising last year, a 15% increase over 2004, according to figures compiled by TNS Media Intelligence.

Mixed marvel results.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Revenue in Marvel's publishing segment rose 7.4% in 2005, to $92.4 million, but operating income dipped to $36.3 million from $37.3 million.

Big crowds at NYCC, big sales gains.(New York Comic-con )
March 6, 2006... It was a good weekend for comics. The New York Comic-con garnered a huge turnout while an industry report released during the convention reported that total graphic novel retail sales rose 18% in 2005, to $245 million. With an overflow...

Penguin's playing basketball.(Penguin Group's campaign)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... To celebrate the 60th anniversary of its Penguin Classics series, Penguin has teamed up with the NBA to produce a media-heavy campaign that publicizes their books and promotes literacy. In concert with the league's philanthropic NBA Cares...

RH Canada to distribute MacAdam/Cage.(Random House Inc.)(MacAdam/Cage Publishing)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... MacAdam/Cage Publishing has signed on with Random House Canada to act as the distributor for its list in Canada. RH Canada will take over sales, distribution and marketing of the MacAdams/Cage frontlist beginning in April. It is Random Canada's...

Two for twelve.(Deals)(Warner Twelve)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Warner Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp has added two new titles to his imprint's list, both via preempt. The first is NPR foreign correspondent Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss, which will combine foreign affairs reporting, humor and some...

Fatherhood at auction.(Putnam Publishing Group Inc. acquires rights for Wendell Jamieson book)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... The conclusion of a two-day, seven-publisher auction for New York Times city editor Wendell Jamieson's Father Knows Less saw Putnam's Dan Conaway and Perigee's John Duff emerge with North American rights, in a joint venture, via Jay Mandel at...

Billion dollar preempt.(Deals)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Fred Hill of Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell has accepted a preemptive offer for David Monagan's The Billion Dollar Balloon: Triumph and Tragedy in the Quest to Fix Human Hearts, with Gotham's William Shinker acquiring North American rights. The...

Debut buy.(Penguin USA. Viking Penguin Inc. acquires rights for Ron Currie Jr. 's book)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... In her first buy as Viking's editorial director for fiction, Molly Stern has acquired world rights to Ron Currie Jr.'s God Is Dead from Simon Lipskar at Writers House. A collection of linked stories, God Is Dead employs "near-future satire" to...

Glusman's first.(New Harmony acquires rights to publish John Buntin's book)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... New Harmony executive editor John Glusman has made his first buy for the imprint, John Buntin's L.A. Noir: the Epic Struggle for Control of Los Angeles, from agent Jill Kneerim. The book will be a history of Los Angeles, from Prohibition to the...

On the road.(Hal Leonard Publishing Corp. acquires rights to Tom Wright's works )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... John Cerullo at music publisher Hal Leonard has acquired world rights to photographer Tom Wright's Roadwork, a photo-rich memoir of his 30 years touring with the Who, the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, and Joe Walsh and the Eagles. Agent Jodie...

A graphic encounter.(New York comic convention)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Writers continue to migrate to graphic novels and a number of prose novelists turned graphic novelists were on hand at the recent New York Comic-con. Pictured at the NYCC are literary blogger Jessa Crispin from Bookslut.com chatting with...

Great writing in Harlem.(black writers honoured)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... QBR: The Black Book Review and a group of publishers and retailers specializing in African-American-oriented titles sponsored "A Celebration of Black Writing" at the Nubian Heritage Bookstore in Harlem. The event honored a group of book...

The briefing.(book rights acquired by publishing companies)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Touchstone's Cherise Grant preempted North American rights to Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant's sequel, 10 years later, to Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made, from agent Victoria Sanders; the novel will be published in early 2008.... Crown's...

Cyan books sets up U.S. shop.(Crossing Over)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Cyan Books, an independent publisher of nonfiction based in London that launched its first list in 2004, has established an American office. The company's North American "co-coordinator," Stephanie Staal--working from an office in...

Down East looks west.(Down East Books to revamp)
March 6, 2006... After a couple of challenging years in 2003 and 2004, Maine-based Down East Books began to see signs of a recovery last year, said owner Neale Sweet. He is hoping that a move to revamp the company's publishing program to reach beyond its Maine...

Calendar: March 12-18.(Foreword)
March 6, 2006... 3/12 Thirteen years after Stone Butch Blues won a Lambda Literary Award, transgender activist/novelist Leslie Feinberg has written a sequel, Drag King Dreams (Carroll & Graf). 3/13 J.D. Robb fans who can't wait for the next Eve Dallas...

Janet Bailey, owner, Barbara's Bookstore, with 10 stores in the Midwest and Northeast.(information on the book Slipstream)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... I picked up Slipstream (Crown/Shaye Areheart, May 16) because most of the action takes place at LAX and we have a number of airport stores. I raced through it in the midst of the holidays, and that's my first endorsement. There's an overarching...

A not-so-sure thing?(Andy Behren's novel YA Debut )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... In Andy Behrens's YA debut All the Way, due out from Dutton this May, high school senior Ian Lafferty convinces two pals to accompany him on a cross-country road trip so he can meet online pen pal Danielle. But unlike Nicollette Sheridan, John...

A film creeps in on little cat feet.(Jim Henson Co. acquires rights for SF Said's book)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... In a world filled with cat gangsters, vicious dogs and evil, mysterious beings called the Vanishings lives Varjak Paw, a martial arts--trained Mesopotamian Blue feline and the hero of SF Said's children's novel of the same name (Random/David...

His life as a house.(Frank Lloyd Wright's biography)(Brief Article)(Biography)
March 6, 2006... Given his stunning architectural career and scandalous personal life, it's a wonder Frank Lloyd Wright's life story hasn't been turned into a biopic yet. Though he was the brilliant mind behind both Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum and Tokyo's...

Second time's the charm for 'Specimen'?.(Specimen Days being marketed by Picador)
March 6, 2006... In a move that combines marketing ingenuity and literary inventiveness, Picador is trying to breathe new life into Specimen Days. After Michael Cunningham's ambitious and highly anticipated novel--which drew on the writing and iconography of...

Carpenter up At HM.(Ken Carpenter)(Houghton Mifflin Co.)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Ken Carpenter has been promoted from v-p and director of trade sales at Houghton Mifflin to v-p and publisher of adult trade books. Carpenter's move to the editorial group will have him over seeing the Mariner Books and Houghton Mifflin...

Nice play, sourcebooks.(Sourcebooks will introduce two William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Othello )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Beginning this month, the Chicago-based Sourcebooks will expand its presence in the U.K. with an ambitious packaging of plays by one William Shakespeare. Romeo & Juliet and Othello will be first in the series of plays to be released over the...

A 'manly' book club grabs women, too.(Colgate Bookstore's Rob Stahl opens a book club)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Most book clubs not only appeal to women, but meet on a day and at a time that is more suited to soccer morns than dads. To remedy that, Rob Stahl, general books manager at Colgate Bookstore in Hamilton, N.Y., and the father of two young...

Crown gets Pinter.(Random House Inc. Crown Publishing Group)(Jason Pinter )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Crown's Three Rivers Press imprint has hired Jason Pinter as an editor. Pinter, who spent nearly three years at Warner Books, has acquired such titles as Allen Salkin's Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us and Jewtopia: The Chosen Books for...

Call for info.(People)
March 6, 2006... Feature: BEA Show Daily Dates: May 19, 20, 21 Deadline: Mar. 25 (see below) Needed: Story suggestions--covering both adult and children's books--for PW's BEA Show Daily newspaper. Ideas may include publishers' anniversaries or other special...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
March 6, 2006... In the London Courts these days, it's The Da Vinci Code vs. Holy Blood, Holy Grail, with the latter's authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, accusing Brown of plagiarizing ideas from their book. The case could go on till mid-March. An...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
March 6, 2006... A Side from the buzz and word of mouth that have kept Freakonomics on the list for 10 months, the authors are now ABC News contributors who regularly appear on Good Morning America and World News Tonight. Also, 20/20 is planning a one-hour...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
March 6, 2006... Steel's 66th book, The House, went on sale February 28 so expect it to land on the March 13 list. On her Web site, the author's biog notes that she is "the most popular author writing today." Backing up that claim are some impressive...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
March 6, 2006... "Of course, there's no perfect diet that works for everyone, but the enthusiasm of the conversational tone and the inviting manner make The South Beach Diet more appealing than many other diet tomes." FROM PW's REVIEW IN 2003. "APPEALING"...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.
March 6, 2006... King's latest horrorfest features a plot premise that is uniquely auditory: characters in the book hear "the Pulse" on their cellphones and are turned into something... "less than human." If you want to spook friends, log onto...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.
March 6, 2006... Fans posit that Tolle's popular recordings have staying power because they are filled with his introspective, inspirational messages for listeners, such as: "Enlightenment means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It...

She said, he said: sparks fly when a top romance novelist meets a thriving thriller writer.(Collaboration)
March 6, 2006... Author Jennifer Crusie has written 16 novels, including Bet Me, Faking It and Fast Woman; her body count in any given book is seldom more than one. Bob Mayer has written 32 techno-thrillers (his Area 51 books are consistent USA Today...

Making a name: while large publishers work to build brand authors whose names are recognized by consumers, smaller presses have found that a key to their success is to create a name for themselves that is trusted by retailers, authors and agents.(Cover story)
March 6, 2006... The Disinformation Company began publishing books in 2001, but it wasn't until the last couple of years that the company has been able to generate meaningful sales. "Five years ago, buyers were reluctant to place orders with us," cofounder Gary...

Indie surprises for summer.(summer reading programs)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Some of the freshest summer reading often comes from independent presses, where there's a willingness to experiment with emerging genres like "spook lit" for teens, or inventive fiction by young authors. On the nonfiction side, some of the...

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City.(Brief Article)(Book Review)(Children's review)
March 6, 2006... Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller Bloomsbury (Holtzbrinck, dist.), June $16.95 hardcover: 50,000 first printing Within the first 50 pages, associate publisher Victoria Wells Arms was hooked on this debut novel for 10- to...

Dead Connection.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Dead Connection by Charlie Price Roaring Brook Press/Deborah Brodie (Holtzbrinck, dist.), May $16.95 hardcover; 50,000 first printing Having found this debut mystery for ages 12 and up "a smart, funny, very clever page-turner," novelist Chris...

Water for Elephants: A Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, June 2 $23.95 hardcover; 25,000 first printing "I stay in this business because I keep falling in love," says executive editor Chuck Adams, whose latest object of...

Confessions of a Memory Eater.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Confessions of a Memory Eater by Pagan Kennedy Leapfrog (Consortium, dist.), June 2 $14.95 paperback original; 10,000 first printing Kennedy's most recent book, the biography Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the 19th-Century Congo...

Shooting Water: A Memoir of Second Chances, Family, and Filmmaking.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Shooting Water: A Memoir of Second Chances, Family, and Filmmaking by Devyani Saltzman, afterword by Deepa Mehta Newmarket Press (Norton, dist.), May $23.95 hardcover, 15,000 first printing Though based on the author's work as a still...

Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond by Rock Brynner Steerforth (Random House, dist.), Apr. 3 $29.95 hardcover, 10,000 first printing This unusual celebrity biography/family saga traces four generations of the Brynner...

Castle Waiting.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Castle Waiting by Linda Medley, intro, by Jane Yolen Fantagraphics (Norton, dist.), May 24 $29.95 hardcover; 7,000 first printing Medley's Castle Waiting comics series, which retells classic fairytales and received two prestigious Eisner...

Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die!(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die! by Mark Binelli Dalkey Archive Press, July 25 $14.95 paperback original; 10, 000 first printing This debut novel by Rolling Stone contributing editor Binelli is one of only a half dozen books that Dalkey has plucked...

Looking back: last fall's sleepers.(A Man without a Country)(Bag the Elephant!: How to Win and Keep Big Customers)(The Horses in My Life)(Fledgling)(The Summer of Ordinary Ways)(Michael Moore: A Biography)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Last August, PW began tracking six potential breakout fall 2005 hardcovers from independent presses. Six months after pub, our picks are looking pretty good (helped, we hope, by the exposure in our pages). No surprise that established authors...

Chance encounters.(Author Profile)(Interview)(Critical Essay)
March 6, 2006... Luck, to Joan Barfoot, is more than just the title of her latest novel. She sees the cruel play of chance everywhere: in an innocent woman in Toronto caught in the crossfire of a Mafia shooting, in famine in Niger, in genocide in Darfur. ...

The Brambles.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... The Brambles Eliza MINOT. Knopf, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 1-4000-4269-0 Minot's graceful, candid novel about the meaning of adulthood and the depth of family attachment follows the three siblings of the titular clan as they face the consequences...

Winkie.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... * Winkie CLIFFORD CHASE. Grove, $17.95 (256p) ISBN 0-8021-1830-5 This debut novel from memoirist Chase (The Hurry-up Song) begins with the capture and wounding by a SWAT team of the eponymous, sentient teddy bear in a backwoods cabin; the...

Telegraph Days.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Telegraph Days LARRY MCMURTRY. Simon & Schuster, $25 (304p) ISBN 0-7432-5078-8 McMurtry's latest skips through western lore with a wry smile. Marie Antoinette "Nellie" Courtright and her brother, Jackson, bereft of family after their...

Falling in Love with Natassia.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Falling in Love with Natassia ANNA MONARDO. Doubleday, $23.95 (400p) ISBN 0-385-51466-2 Monardo's sophomore effort is less about New York teenager Natassia and more about Natassia's beleaguered parents and grandparents and their circles of...

That Summer in Paris.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... That Summer in Paris ABHA DAWESAR. Doubleday/Talese, $31 (352p) ISBN 0-385-51749-1 Dawesar's keen, witty third novel opens on an author feeling defensive about the dirty bits of his oeuvre--not sorry they're dirty, but sorry they're not...

A.M. Homes's L.A. stories: transformation, the suburban sublime and the L-Word--West Coast-style.(This Book Will Save Your Life )(Interview)
March 6, 2006... Your fiction is known for being ambitious, thorny and even willfully perverse. Yet your new novel, This Book Will Save Your Life (Reviews, Jan. 23), follows a man from a state of social disconnection to something pretty close to redemption....

The name game: don't confuse the author of Fever with the author of Nowhere Is a Place.(Bernice McFadden )(Interview)
March 6, 2006... You're releasing two novels within two months of one another, under different names. Why not stagger them instead of using the pseudonym? There is a stark difference between Geneva Holliday (Fever; Reviews, Feb. 27) and Bernice McFadden...

Inside and Other Short Fiction: Japanese Women by Japanese Women.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Inside and Other Short Fiction: Japanese Women by Japanese Women FOREWORD BY RUTH OZEKI, COMPILED BY CATHY LANE. Kodansha International, $22.95 (250p) ISBN 4-77003006-1 This collection of eight stories offers a provocative introduction...

A Sounding Brass.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... A Sounding Brass SHELLEY BATES. Warner Faith, $12.99 paper (304p) ISBN 0-446-69492-4 Bates (Pocketful of Pearls) sets this inspirational chick lit mystery in a small Washington town, in the middle of a sort of Christian cult. Amid myriad...

A Student of Living Things.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... A Student of Living Things SUSAN RICHARDS SHREVE. Viking, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 0-670-03758-3 One April morning in a near-future Washington, D.C., Claire Frayn and her brother, Steven, leave for George Washington University, where she is...

City of Shadows.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... City of Shadows ARIANA FRANKLIN. Morrow, $24.95 (432p) ISBN 0-06-081726-7 British author Franklin (the pseudonym of a veteran historical fiction writer) makes the most of an original premise in this engrossing thriller that opens in...

The Iliad.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... * An Iliad ALESSANDRO BARICCO, TRANS. FROM THE ITALIAN BY ANN GOLDSTEIN. Knopf, $21 (176p) ISBN 0-307-26355-X Baricco made his name internationally with his debut, Silk (1997), and has since released three more well-received...

Anybody Out There?(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Anybody Out There? MARIAN KEYES. Morrow, $24.95 (464p) ISBN 0-06-089829-1 International bestseller Keyes is back with another 'quirky, heartwarming story of the Walsh sisters (Angels, etc.). Anna Walsh has returned to the bosom of her...

Love in the Present Tense.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Love in the Present Tense CATHERINE RYAN HYDE. Doubleday/Flying Dolphin, $21.95 (240p) ISBN 0-385-51800-5 Uniting vivid, needy characters in unlikely relationships is Hyde's specialty (Pay It Forward), evidenced in her emotional sixth...

Hello, I Must Be Going.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Hello, I Must Be Going CHRISTIE HODGEN. Norton, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 0-393-06139-6 When Randall Hawthorne, a downing but depressed Vietnam War veteran living in a central Massachusetts city in the early 1980s, commits suicide, he leaves behind a...

Moonlight Hotel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Moonlight Hotel SCOTT ANDERSON. Doubleday, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-385-51556-1 This fascinating satire of American imperialism and hypocrisy unfolds in the fictional Arab kingdom of Kutar, circa 1983. Anderson, a veteran foreign...

The Collected Stories.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... * The Collected Stories AMY HEMPEL. Scribner, $26 (432p) ISBN 0-7432-8946-3 Hempel's four collections of short fiction are all masterful; while readers await the follow-up to last year's acclaimed The Dog of the Marriage, this compendium...

Water for Elephants.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Water for Elephants SARA GRUEN. Algonquin, $23.95 (352p) ISBN 1-56512-499-5 With its spotlight on elephants, Gruen's romantic page-turner hinges on the human-animal bonds that drove her debut and its sequel (Riding Lessons and Flying...

Dark Tort.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Dark Tort DIANE MOTT DAVIDSON. Morrow, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-052731-5 At the start of bestseller Davidson's delicious 13th culinary adventure featuring caterer Goldy Schulz (after 2004's Double Shot), Goldy stumbles over the body of...

White Shadow.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... White Shadow AGE ATKINS. Putnam, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-399-15351-1 Reminiscent of James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential, Atkins's fictionalized account of the unsolved murder of real-life Tampa crime boss Charlie Wall in 1955 admirably recreates...

After Life.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... After Life TOBIAS HECHT. Duke Univ., $18.95 (200p) ISBN 0-8223-3788-6 Anthropologist Hecht won a Margaret Mead award for At Home in the Street: Street Children of Northeast Brazil; his fiction debut, billed as an "ethnographic novel,"...

The Hidden.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... The Hidden KATHRYN MACKEL. WestBow, $13.99 paper (320p) ISBN 1-5955-4037-7 Novelist (The Surrogate; The Departed) and Hollywood writer Mackel shows her screenwriting prowess in her latest suspense offering, for better and for worse. When...

Promise Me.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Promise Me HARLEN COBEN. Dutton, $26.95 (384p) ISBN 0-525-94949-6 Last seen in bestseller Coben's Darkest Fear (2000), Myron Bolitar, former basketball star (Boston Celtics) turned sports and entertainment agent and occasional knight in...

Sex as a Second Language.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Sex as a Second Language ALISA KWITNEY. Atria, $22 (320p) ISBN 0-7432-6890-3 Despite the appearance of stilettos and a martini within the first two pages, Kwitney's latest novel (after On the Couch) veers into less glamorous, but still...

Seven Days to the Sea.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Seven Days to the Sea REBECCA KOHN. Rugged Land, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 1-59071-049-5 Continuing her examination of biblical women, the sophomore effort from Kohn (The Gilded Chamber: A Novel of Queen Esther) is a scrupulously researched but...

Cold Kill: A Detective Stella Mooney Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Cold Kill: A Detective Stella Mooney Novel DAVID LAWRENCE. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (448p) ISBN 0312-34741-3 British author Lawrence's third police procedural to feature Det. Stella Mooney (after 2005's Nothing Like the Night)...

Night Bus.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... * Night Bus GIAMPIERO RIGOSI, TRANS. FROM THE ITALIAN BY ANN GOLDSTEIN. Bitter Lemon (www.bitterlemonpress.com), $14.95 paper (348p) ISBN 1-90473811-7 Literary critic Rigosi has set his first crime novel in Bologna; it's a fast-moving...

Pretty Girl Gone.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Pretty Girl Gone DAVID HOUSEWRIGHT. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-31234829-0 In Edgar-winner Housewright's engaging third mystery to feature Twin Cities sleuth Mac McKenzie (after 2005's Tin City), an old girlfriend who's now...

Murder Unleashed: A Dead-End Job Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Murder Unleashed: A Dead-End Job Mystery ELAINE VIETS. NAL, $19.95 (272p) ISBN 0-451-21840-X Full of wry social commentary, Viets's fifth Dead-End Job mystery (after 2005's Just Murdered) finds series heroine Helen Hawthorne, former St....

SPQR X: A Point in Law.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... SPQR X: A Point in Law JOHN MADDOX ROBERTS. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 0-31233725-6 The political turmoil that precedes Julius Caesar's return to Rome serves as the compelling backdrop for Roberts's 10th historical to...

Baltimore Noir.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Baltimore Noir EDITED BY LAURA LIPPMAN. Akashic, $14.95 paper (294p) ISBN 1-88845196-2 Mystery fans should relish this taste of Baltimore's seamier side, the eighth volume in Akashic's series showcasing dark tales of crime and place...

Indian Pipes: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 6, 2006... Indian Pipes: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery CYNTHIA RIGGS. St. Martin's Minotaur, $22.95 (256p) ISBN 0-312-35476-2 At the start of Riggs's warm and witty sixth Martha's Vineyard mystery to feature Victoria Trumbull (after 2005's The...