Publishers Weekly articles from May 2006, page 9

Publishers Weekly archives from May 2006

Born to Rock.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 8, 2006... * Born to Rock GORDON KORMAN. Hyperion, $15.99 (272p) ISBN 0-7868-0920-5 Every book should be this entertaining. Korman (No More Dead Dogs) hooks readers with a prologue in which Young Republican Leo Caraway teasingly relates that he's...

Safety--at what cost? PW talks with Pete Hautman.(Q & A)(Interview)
May 8, 2006... Since winning the National Book Award in 2005 for Godless, this Minnesota native's life has changed, if not dramatically, then mostly for the good. Here he talks about his new YA novel, Rash (S&S), a black comedy set 70 years in the future....

All the Way.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 8, 2006... All the Way ANDY BEHRENS. Dutton, $16.99 (224p) ISBN 0-525-47761-6 Most readers will gladly take this road trip from first novelist Behrens, even if its destination is obvious. The only thing 17-year-old Ian Lafferty has enjoyed...

Step into my lab.('Dr. Art's Guide to Science: Connecting Atoms, Galaxies, and Everything in Between', 'Honey: A Gift from Nature', 'I'm a Pill Bug', 'The Monster Health Book: A Guide to Eating Healthy, Being Active', 'What Stinks?')(Book review)(Children's review)
May 8, 2006... Science gets cooler this spring, as books urge kids to take a closer look at the world around them. Dr. Art's Guide to Science: Connecting Atoms, Galaxies, and Everything in Between by Art Sussman explores topics ranging from the existence...

Pages to Play By.('How to Do a Belly Flop!: And Other Tricks, Tips and Skills No Adult Will Teach You', 'Like a Pro: 101 Simple Ways to Do Really Important Stuff')(Young Adult Review)(Book review)
May 8, 2006... Kids will be able to entertain themselves for hours thanks to two new "how-to" books. The paperback How to Do a Belly Flop! & Other Tricks, Tips & Skills No Adult Will Teach You by Marc Tyler Nobleman and Dave and Joe Borgenicht, illus, by...

Fiction reprints.('Buttermilk Hill', 'How I Found the Strong', 'How I Live Now', 'Peter and the Starcatchers', 'The Tail of Emily Windsnap')(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
May 8, 2006... How I Found the Strong MARGARET MCMULLAN. Random/Laurel-Leaf, $5.50 ISBN 0-553-49492-9. "This often gripping first novel set during the Civil War adopts the perspective of a 10-year-old boy who lives on a small farm in rural Mississippi," PW...

King Dork.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Audiobook review)
May 8, 2006... * King Dork FRANK PORTMAN, READ BY LINCOLN HOPPE, Listening Library, unabridged, 10 CDs, 12 hours, $48 ISBN 0-7393-3113-2 This witty, biting and wholly memorable debut novel by punk singer/musician Portman (the Mr. T. Experience or MTX)...

Born to Rock.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Audiobook review)
May 8, 2006... Born to Rock GORDON KORMAN, READ BY BILLY HAMMOND. Brilliance Audio, unabridged, five CDs, five hours, $26.95 ISBN 1-4233-1195-7 Though Hammond gets off to a slightly bumpy, halting start, he on catches the fun rhythm and youthful energy...

A Frog Thing.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Audiobook review)
May 8, 2006... A Frog Thing ERIC DRACHMAN, READ BY DRACHMAN AND A FULL CAST. Kidwick Books, hardcover book-and-CD, $18.95 ISBN 0-9703809-3-3 Framed as a story within a story, Drachman's narrator tells a tale to a pond full of young frogs eager to hear...

Meltdown.(Sound recording review)
May 8, 2006... * Meltdown! JUSTIN ROBERTS. Carpet Square Records, [Sony/Red Music, dist] (212-741-8861), CD, $15.98 Not many performers could capture the subtle and philosophical complexities of sidewalk chalk artistry in an effervescent pop-rock style...

Eat Every Bean and Pea on Your Plate.(Sound recording review)
May 8, 2006... Eat Every Bean and Pea on Your Plate DADDY A GO GO. (WWW.DADDYAGOGO.COM), CD, $12 Looking for kids' music with a true rock vibe? The fifth release from Daddy A Go Go (aka Atlanta Dad John Boydston) is the ticket. With tongue in cheek,...

What a Way to Play!(Sound recording review)
May 8, 2006... What a Way to Play! DEBI DERRYBERRY. 4River Records (www.debiderryberry.com), $12 Attentive young listeners may hear something familiar in Derryberry's vocals: she's the voice of Jimmy on Nickelodeon's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and also...

Tweet, Tweet Music.(Sing, Nigthingale, Sing!: A Book and CD for Discovering the Birds of the World)(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
May 8, 2006... Globe-trotting field guide meets nature soundtrack in Sing, Nightingale, Sing!: A Book and CD for Discovering the Birds of the World. The book offers a fact-filled, illustrated introduction to 60 different birds in various habitats (e.g. "By...

Beethoven's Third; Secret Mountain's Second.('Beethoven's Wig 3: Many More Sing Along Symphonies', 'The Fabulous Song')(Sound recording review)(Book review)(Children's review)
May 8, 2006... Listeners ready for more classical silliness can sing an ode to joy over the release of Beethoven's Wig 3: Many More Sing Along Symphonies, a new collection of 16 orchestral pieces with fresh, humorous and informational lyrics added by...

Fun and a Frappuccino.(We Are ... The Laurie Berkner Band)(Video recording review)
May 8, 2006... Popular children's musician Laurie Berkner hit some high notes this spring with a series of firsts. She released her first original video collection and it happened to be the first children's title co-released by Razor & Tie Entertainment/Two...

Who am I? Not only am I identified with my characters, but my readers like to identify with them too--and by extension, with me.(Soapbox)
May 8, 2006... With my skin tone and Indian-sounding name, it was not surprising when my readers asked if the eponymous character in my second novel, Babyji--precocious, quantum-mechanics-obsessed, flagrantly bold--was me. To my chagrin, friends took to...

Of XML, PDF and E-deliverables: in India, technology-based competencies (and a push for export dollars) win the day.(Content Services & Printing in India)
May 8, 2006... It's a story worth retelling: the whole idea of developing editorial production efficiencies and managing content offshore caught fire in 1977--essentially the year Indian publishing BPO was born--when Macmillan (U.K.) started its editorial...

Content takes center stage: putting content into context has never been this complex or exciting.(Content Services in India)
May 8, 2006... In the publishing BPO world, everything is contentcentric. Using XML technologies and standards, you as the publisher can now create the content once and publish that same content--in different forms--over many channels, such as via your Web...

Printing is a-buzzin': riding high on the outsourcing wave, Indian printers are now hitting the global marketplace.
May 8, 2006... For the longest time, printing in India was mostly about plying the domestic market, where quality production was not the crucial factor for the low-income masses. But that has changed in the last 10 years. For one thing, Indian consumers...

Adapting the long tail to publishing: BISG seminar examines ways to sell less of more.(Book Industry Study Group)
May 1, 2006... The spread of the Internet has made more books available to more people than ever before. How to take advantage of that development was the theme of last week's BISG seminar, "How to Make Information Pay." "The Internet is the ultimate...

Courier buys creative homeowner.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Courier Corp. has acquired Creative Homeowner for $37 million. Creative had sales of $24 million in 2005. Courier entered the publishing market in 2000 with the purchase of Dover Publications and had publishing sales of $40 million last year.

Trump, Kiyosaki to self-pub.(Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump )(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, and Donald Trump are teaming up to write More Important Than Money, a book about investing that the duo will self-publish under Kiyosaki's Rich Press imprint. The new book is set for...

Avalon signs 'purple' title.(Avalon Publishing Group Inc., 'The Color Purple: A Memory Book')(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Avalon Publishing Group has acquired the rights to the companion book to the hit Broadway musical The Color Purple. With a foreword by Oprah Winfrey, The Color Purple: A Memory Book will be released in October with a 65,000-copy printing.

Kaavyat emptor?(Kaavya Viswanathan)
May 1, 2006... I don't know and, to tell you the truth, I don't particularly care if Kaavya Viswanathan did or did not plagiarize YA author Megan McCafferty in her now-controversial debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life. It...

S&S starts strong.(Simon & Schuster Inc.'s net profit increases)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Revenue rose 14% at Simon & Schuster in this year's first quarter, to an estimated $185 million. Sales in the adult division increased 17%, while a rebound in the U.K. con tributed to a 21% increase in international sales. Children's group...

BAF overhaul.(Books Are Fun )(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... In order to turn around the fortunes of its struggling Books Are Fun division, Reader's Digest is looking for a new president and marketing v-p and will exit noncore areas. The goal, RD executives said, is to return the display marketing...

Feiwel & friends debut title.(Jean Feiwel will lauch children's imprint unit this fall)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Jean Feiwel is calling her new children's imprint at Holtzbrinck Feiwel & Friends and will launch the unit this fall, a year ahead of schedule. The early launch is the result of Feiwel's acquisition of the self-published On the Night You Were...

Amazon sales rise.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Sales in Amazon. com's North America media segment rose 17% in the first quarter, to $815 million. Company CFO Tom Szkurak said Amazon is "pleased" with the performance of all categories in its North America media group, which includes books,...

'Star Wars' POD fan fiction flap.('Star Wars: A New Hope', print-on-demand )
May 1, 2006... A copyright-infringing "fan fiction" novel set in the world of Star Wars that found its way to Amazon has created a storm in the science fiction community and led to questions about how print-on-demand books are listed on Amazon. Another...

Hastings by the numbers.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... $118 minion: Book sales in 2005 $119 million: Book sales in 2004 $117 million: Book sales in 2003 $134 million: Music sales in 2005 $135 million: Music sales in 2004 $132 million: Music sales in 2003 153: Total number of Hastings...

Basic restructures.(Basic Books Group )(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Perseus's Basic Books Group has realigned some of its staff following the death of Liz Maguire. Jo Ann Miller, v-p and editorial director, will now share publisher duties with John Sherer, who's been promoted to associate publisher and...

Tokyopop Launches Teen Prose Line.(BookReporter.com )
May 1, 2006... This fall, manga publisher Tokyopop is introducing Pop Fiction, a line of original and licensed prose titles from around the world that the company hopes will expand its reach beyond the realm of manga and comics and into the YA fiction...

Bill Cusumano, buyer, Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor, Mich.(GALLEY TALK)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... If John Updike is not the finest living author in America, then he certainly ranks in the top three. Though some would confine him to a niche, he has consistently left suburbia in works such as The Coup, Brazil and Gertrude & Claudius, and he...

It's no mystery.(mystery writers awards)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... It's no mystery: Four of the top Edgar Award winners at the Mystery Writers of America's annual event, which celebrated its 60th anniversary April 27 at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel. From left:Jeffrey Ford (Best Paperback Original, Girl in...

From JFK to Watergate.(Deals)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Paul Golob at Times Books has acquired North American rights to an untitled book by L. Patrick Gray III, who succeeded J. Edgar Hoover as FBI head in 1972, and who was forced to resign when he became ensnared in the Watergate coverup, Based...

Education solution.(Deals)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Sarah Crichton has preempted Dr. Rudy Crew's You'll Be Called On: How We Can Demand the Best from Our Schools, Our Kids, and Ourselves for her imprint at FSG; David Kuhn at Kuhn Projects sold North American rights. Dr. Crew, the Miami-Dade...

St. Martin's Kitchen.(Deals)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... John Parsley at Thomas Dunne Books has acquired North American rights to NPR contributor Gillian Clark's From My Kitchen Window from Michael Psaltis and Peter Steinberg at the Culinary Cooperative, a division of Regal Literary. This memoir...

Franklin lands in U.S.(Ariana Franklin)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Toronto agent Helen Heller has negotiated a seven-figure U.S. rights deal for Ariana Franklin's The Mistress of the Art of Death and its sequel, The Serpent in the Garden, with Putnam's Rachel Kahan. Sold in 11 territories at Frankfurt last...

Calendar: May 7-13.
May 1, 2006... 5/8 Penguin reissued Paul Gallico's Poseidon Adventure in time for the release of the 1972 film on DVD today and Wolfgang Petersen's $140million remake, Poseidon, on Friday. 5/9 John Sandford takes a break from his Lucas...

When two voices are better than one.(He Said, She Said)
May 1, 2006... Upon first glance it might seem that Jennifer Crusie, a prolific romance novelist whose credits include such titles as Faking It (2002) and Man Hunting (2001), would have little in common with former Green Beret and thriller writer Bob Mayer....

Van Dusen at Candlewick.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Hilary Breed Van Dusen has been named acquisitions editor at Candlewick Press. Van Dusen, who joined the company in October as a freelancer, will be working on many of the titles coming out of sister company Walker Books in the U.K.

Monti to Houghton.(People)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Joe Monti has joined Houghton Mifflin as national accounts manager of the Children's Book Group. In the newly created role, Monti will sell the house's titles to Barnes & Noble and Baker & Taylor. Mostly recently, Monti was a children's book...

Next chapter for Chapter 11.(Retailing)(Chapter 11 Discount Book Stores)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Six months after regional Georgia bookstore chain Chapter 11 filed for Chapter 11 protection, the company is still slugging, said chief bookseller Perry Tanner, whose family purchased the stores in 2002. Since seeking bankruptcy protection...

Royal rumble.(Hollywood Reader)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... High school comedies are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, but a tale involving "dead people, naked people, fake people, teen sex, weird sex, drugs, ESP, Satanism, books, blood, bubble gum, guitars, monks, faith, love" and more? Bring it on! After...

My mom, the hero.(Hollywood Reader)(Confessions of Super Mom)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Birdie Lee, the single mother heroine of Melanie Lynne Hauser's Confessions of Super Morn (Dutton, 2005), can't scale walls or leap over skyscrapers, but she can sure wield a mean Brillo pad. After a "Horrible Swifter Accident" involving a...

Wachtel moving within HC.(People)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Claire Wachtel is moving imprints at HarperCollins, from William Morrow to Harper. Wachtel will take on the title senior v-p, executive editor, at the house's flagship imprint.

Chittenden to Morrow.(William Morrow and Company Inc. appoints Laurie Chittenden)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Laurie Chittenden is joining William Morrow as executive editor, beginning May 15. Decamping from her role as senior editor at Penguin's Dutton imprint, Chittenden has also worked at Simon & Schuster, Hyperion and Rizzoli Books.

Tor gets Garcia.(Tor Books appoints Patty Garcia)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Patty Garcia has been named senior publicist at Tor Books. Garcia was most recently at Routledge and NYU Press.

Promo, hire at Del Rey.(Del Rey Books promotes Dallas Middaugh and appoints Mutsumi Miyazaki )(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Dallas Middaugh has been promoted from director of manga for Del Rey to associate publisher of Del Rey Manga. Middaugh, who was director of sales and marketing at Viz before joining Del Rey, will be relocating from Los Angeles to New York....

Literature in translation from the iPod generation.(International)
May 1, 2006... Novels in translation aren't typically published with high commercial hopes, but two recent European bestsellers with striking parallels may have a shot at hitting American lists this summer. Both are autobiographical novels written by women...

Potter to Cornell.(Cornell University Press appoints Peter J. Potter)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Peter J. Potter has joined Cornell University Press as editor-in-chief. A 20year veteran of scholarly publishing, Potter was most recently associate director and editor-in-chief at Penn State University Press.

Cook gets Dunham.(Cook Communications Ministries appoints Ryan Dunham)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Colorado-based Cook Communications Ministries has hired Ryan Dunham as senior v-p of sales. Dunham takes over the newly created position after more than 14 years in the sales department at Zondervan.

Lossius to Vista.(Vista International promotes George Lossius)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... George Lossius has been promoted to group chief executive officer at Vista International, a company that provides software solutions to the publishing industry. Lossius was previously managing director of applications & technology group.

Triad launches.(Triad Books launches its first imprint)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Not long after leaving Orion Pictures in the early '90s, where he was the marketing manager on such films as Babette's Feast and Wings of Desire, Laurie Lane-Zucker cofounded the Orion Society, publisher of Orion magazine, a publication...

Delta blues & books.(Indie News)(Turnrow Book Co)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Jamie Kornegay's commendable job as events coordinator and frontlist buyer at Square Books in Oxford, Miss., caught the attention of the right person, and late last year he was invited to open a bookstore in the Delta town of Greenwood. ...

Correction.(Correction notice)
May 1, 2006... In last week's issue we incorrectly noted that David Falk will be working out of Houghton Mifflin's Boston office; he will be based in New York. John Mendelson will be in Boston.

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
May 1, 2006... "I have always been fascinated that even separated at birth and raised in totally different environments, there were still remarkable similarities in the way twins dressed, the colors they used in their homes. In some cases they even married...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
May 1, 2006... "Marley was growing at a furious pace. Like one of those amazing jungle vines that can cover a house in hours, he was growing exponentially in all directions. His cute little puppy head that I so easily cradled in one hand that first night...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
May 1, 2006... "Occasionally, it's simply a matter of finding the proper printed resource. For example, the detailed description in Angels & Demons depicting the intimate ritual of a Vatican conclave... much Of that was from a book published by Harvard...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
May 1, 2006... A Reuters news story last week reported that "a secret code embedded in the text of a court ruling in the case of Dan Brown's bestseller The Da Vinci Code has been cracked, but far from revealing an ancient conspiracy, it is simply an obscure...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.
May 1, 2006... Scads of people will flock to see Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon in the May 19 Warner Bros. feature flick. For a take-home media experience, the unabridged movie tie-in edition (not the top performer this month, but picking up steam) contains...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.
May 1, 2006... Teacher Man McCourt wraps up another month of publicity (which fittingly comes as the academic year winds down) with appearances on CBS-TV's The Late Late Show (May 1) and at the New York Public Library (May 11). Psychic Browne is on the...

Alan Moore's 'literary' pornography: already a star in the world of graphic novels for wildly successful and critically acclaimed books like Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, British writer Alan Moore reached a new level of mainstream fame this spring with the success of the movie V for Vendetta. So what's he doing for his next act? Pornography.(Cover story)
May 1, 2006... For nearly 16 years, he's been working on Lost Girls with American cartoonist Melinda Gebbie. It is, everyone involved with it declares, beautiful, literary and moving. It's also bluntly pornographic, with explicit sex scenes on almost every...

Old-fashioned innovation.(Unbridled Success)
May 1, 2006... "Serializing a novel is a very old process. People trace it back to Dickens," Fred Ramey, Unbridled Books' copublisher, explains, while discussing the 18-month-old literary press's latest venture: the serialization of Golem Song, the fall...

Finding his inner caveman.(Author Profile)(Biography)
May 1, 2006... Steven Raichlen scans the menu, takes a breath and places our order: "Rib tips, we oughta have some of those. We'll have some baby backs, we'll have some short ends. And some deep frieds, because why not? We need some brisket, we need some...

Golden Country.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Golden Country JENNIFER GILMORE. Scribner, $25 (336p) ISBN 0-7432-8863-7 In a powerfully moving and ambitious debut, Gilmore follows the lives of three immigrant families, the Brodskys, the Verdoniks and the Blooms, who all begin their...

Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe DOREEN BAINGANA. Broadway/ Harlem Moon, $9.95 paper (208p) ISBN 0-7679-2510-6 Ugandan-born Baingana chronicles in her debut collection of linked stories the lives of three sisters growing up in Entebbe...

All the Numbers.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... All the Numbers JUDY MERRILL LARSEN. Ballantine, $13.95 paper (304p) ISBN 0-345-48536-X Larsen's maudlin debut traces a year in the life of Ellen Banks, a divorced mother of two whose 11-year-old son, James, gets mowed down by a Jet Ski...

Paying a horrible price: PW talks with Barry Eisler: PW caught up with thriller writer Eisler, a former CIA operative, by phone in Paris, where he was on the last leg of a European promotional tour.(Q&A)(Interview)
May 1, 2006... Are you becoming as much of a globetrotter as your series hero, Japanese-American assassin John Rain? You know it's funny, but I'll always be one step ahead of him on the globe-trotting because I always research places before I write...

Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill SUSAN HOLLOWAY SCOTT. New American Library, $14 (384p) ISBN 0-451-21855-8 Sarah Jennings's ascent from poverty as a 13-year-old to the highest echelons of late 17th-and early 18th-century English...

Suspension.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Suspension ROBERT WESTFIELD. HarperPerennial, $13.95 (304p) ISBN 0-06-074137-6 Had it been set anywhere but New York City, Westfield's raucous debut would be viewed as an absurdist tale, but in the shadow of 9/11 and bolstered by...

Point Clear.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Point Clear JENNIFER PADDOCK. Touchstone, $13 (240p) ISBN 0-7432-8782-7 Paddock follows up her well-received debut, A Secret Word, with a subtle novel about an introspective young woman's search for selfhood. In elegiac prose, Paddock...

In the Wake.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... In the Wake PER PETTERSON, TRANS. FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY ANNE BORN. St. Martin's/Dunne, $22.95 (192p) ISBN 0-312-34383-3 In his impressive American debut, veteran Norwegian novelist Petterson chronicles Arvid Jansen's breakdown in the six...

Against a Crimson Sky.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Against a Crimson Sky JAMES CONROYD MARTIN. St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 0-312-32682-3 Martin (Push Not the River) continues his fictionalized account of the life of Polish countess Anna Maria Berezowska in this entertaining...

Magic Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Magic Man RON BASE. St. Martin's/Dunne, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 0-312-32809-5 Screenwriter (The Last Sign) and former film critic Base entertains with this inventive and evocative novel of 1928 Hollywood, which follows Brae Orrack, a "magic...

The Prisoner of Guantanamo.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The Prisoner of Guantanamo DAN FESPERMAN. Knopf, $24 (336p) ISBN 1-4000-4466-9 Veteran foreign correspondent Fesperman taps another timely issue in his fourth topical thriller, zeroing in on the secretive U.S.-operated prison camp for...

Black Order: A Sigma Force Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Black Order: A Sigma Force Novel JAMBS ROLLINS. Morrow, $24.95 (448p) ISBN 0-06-076388-4 What would thriller writers do without the Nazis? At the start of Rollins's inventive eighth Sigma Force novel, a secret experiment is smuggled out...

Never Fear.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... * Never Fear SCOTT FROST. Putnam, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 0-399-15340-3 Screenwriter Frost (Twin Peaks; The X-Files) brings back Lt. Alex Delillo, Pasadena supervisor of homicide, from his impressive debut, Run the Risk, for another...

Hit Parade.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Hit Parade LAWRENCE BLOCK. Morrow, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 0-06-084088-9 Block's assassin, John Keller (Hit Man; Hit List), returns in these loosely linked, well-crafted vignettes of the protagonist on assignment, blithely but expertly...

Sleeping with Fear.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Sleeping with Fear KAY HOOVER. Bantam, $25 (292p) ISBN 0-553-80318-2 Psychic FBI agent Riley Crane wakes up one afternoon covered in blood (not her own), with a pounding headache and no memory of the last three weeks--or her clairvoyant...

Proof Positive.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Proof Positive PHILIP MARGOLIN. HarperCollins, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-073505-8 In bestseller Margolin's third legal thriller featuring feisty defense lawyer Amanda Jaffe (after 2003's Wild Justice), respected forensic expert Bernard...

The Betrayed.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The Betrayed DAVID HOSP. Warner, $24.95 (432p) ISBN 0-446-57695-6 In Hosp's lackluster second novel (after 2005's Dark Harbor), Darius Train and Jack Cassian, a mismatched pair of D.C. detectives, investigate the throat-slashing murder of...

The Banquet Bug.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The Banquet Bug GELING YAN. Hyperion, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 1-4013-6665-1 Yan, whose short fiction was the basis for the movie Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl, offers a pointed critique of capitalism's rise in her native China. A multifaceted...

The Burning.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The Burning THOMAS LEGENDRE. Little, Brown, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 0-316-15380-X Writing about gambling, chance and fate, Legendre takes a bold risk, wagering an enjoyable if predictable bloke-lit debut against the egghead novel of ideas...