Publishers Weekly articles from November 2007

Publishers Weekly archives from November 2007

Christian Indies banding together to survive: with competition fierce, booksellers are turning to marketing groups, franchises.(Foreword)
November 5, 2007... With Christian books now sold in all kinds of general retail outlets, the past several years have been tough on independent Christian retailers. Hundreds of stores have sold out to one of the growing Christian chains. Outgoing CBA chairman...

S&S third quarter up.(Simon & Schuster Inc.)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Total revenue rose 9% in the third quarter at Simon & Schuster, to $214.2 million, and operating profit increased 6%, to $21.6 million. Renewed interest in the blockbuster The Secret and shipments of Become a Better You drove the gains. Sales...

Results mixed at Harlequin.(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Total revenue at Harlequin fell 2.7% in the third quarter ended September 30, to C$115.7 million ($122 million), although operating profits increased 12.5%, to C$16.2 million ($17.2 million). Excluding currency fluctuations, revenue was up...

Hearing other voices: literature from abroad: a trend?(Foreword)(translated books)
November 5, 2007... Quick: name two books originally published in a language other than English that have recently shown up on bestseller lists. Okay, maybe you can name one: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, recently picked by 0prah and...

Second-qtr. profits for Indigo.(Indigo Books & Music Inc.)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Indigo Books & Music Inc. reported that net earnings for the second quarter ended September 29 increased to C$3.3 million ($3.5 million), compared to a loss of C$1.0 million in the same quarter a year earlier, on revenues of C$209.2 million...

Audible cuts loss.(AudibleListener)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... An increase of 63,000 new AudibleListener members spurred a 38% sales gain at Audible in the third period ended September 30, to $27.6 million. The company reported a net loss of $192,000, compared to $2.5 million in last year's third quarter....

Audio Editions buys ABC license.(Audio Book Club)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Audio Editions has acquired the exclusive license for the use of the assets of the Audio Book Club, including ABC's customer list. ABC had been part of MediaBay, which went bankrupt this summer. Audio Editions acquired the license from OTRE, a...

Barricade in Chapter 11.(Barricade Books)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Faced with rising costs from three libel suits, Barricade Books filed for bankruptcy last month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Barricade said that the costs and distraction associated with fighting the separate...

Wertz leaves Abebooks.(Boris Wertz)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Boris Wertz, who joined Abebooks in 2002 following the acquisition of his company Just Books by the used book online retailer, has stepped down as COO to form a new venture capital firm. His responsibilities will be assumed by LauraLea Berna,...

Paolini adds to trilogy.(Christopher Paolini)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Knopf announced last week that Christopher Paolini will add a fourth book to what was to have been his Inheritance Trilogy. The first two volumes in the series, Eragon and Eldest, have sold 12.5 million copies worldwide. The third book, which...

RD in outsourcing deal.(Reader's Digest)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Reader's Digest is outsourcing its promotional print ing operations to Williams Lea, a worldwide print and information logistics company. Williams Lea will manage all aspects of producing RD's direct-mail packages, while all creative functions...

Where books still have a place at Time Warner.(TIHE)
November 5, 2007... Although Time Warner sold its trade book subsidiary to Hachette more than two years ago, there is still lots of book publishing activity at the media giant, taking advantage of TW's well-known brands. Books produced by Time Inc. Home...

Swarm intelligence.(Deals)(The Smart Swarm: How Ants, Bees, and Birds Teach Us to Cope with a Complex World)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Jeff Galas at Avery won an auction for National Geographic magazine editor Peter Miller's The Smart Swarm: How Ants, Bees, and Birds Teach Us to Cope with a Complex World via David McCormick at McCormick & Williams. McCormick turned down...

Shapiro's 'Devotion'.(Deals)(Dani Shapiro)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Jennifer Barth at Harper has preempted a new book by Dani Shapiro, Devotion. Jennifer Rudolph Walsh at William Morris sold North American rights. In the book, Shapiro will explore and understand the anxiety that has governed her life, in the...

Debut auctioned.(Deals)(Much to Your Chagrin: A Memoir of Embarrassment)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Sarah Branham at Atria won a best-bids auction for Suzanne Guillette's first book, Much to Your Chagrin: A Memoir of Embarrassment; agent Laura Dail sold world English rights. The memoir begins as the author, a 29-year-old grad student, is...

Paperback deals.(Deals)
November 5, 2007... Tina Pohlman at Harcourt preempted North American paperback rights to Elizabeth Little's first book, Biting the Wax Tadpole, via Becky Kraemer on behalf of Melville House. In this exploration of the oddities of the world's languages, Little...

The briefing.(Deals)(book rights)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Liz Gorinsky at Tor bought North American rights to A. J. Hartley's first two fantasy novels, Act of Will and Will Power, via Stacey Glick at Dystel & Goderich. The first book will introduce a medieval actor and playwright who flees one set of...

Calendar: Nov. 11-17.(Calendar)
November 5, 2007... 11/11 Ray Morton's Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Spielberg's Classic Film (Applause Books) arrives in time for the film's 30th anniversary. 11/13 Alex Cross rejoins the D.C. police force and has two...

CIROBE #17 delivers for exhibitors, buyers.(The Bargain Book Biz)(Chicago International Remainder and Overstock Book Exposition)
November 5, 2007... "We've left our adolescence and are entering our grownup years," said Anne Jonas, daughter of CIROBE (Chicago International Remainder and Overstock Book Exposition) cofounder Brad Jonas, as she delivered the trade show's closing announcement on...

Docx to 'Granta'.(People)(Adelaide Docx)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Adelaide Docx has been named U.S. associate editor at Granta magazine. Docx has worked for a number of houses, including Picador U.K., Random House U.S. and Carroll & Graf.

Moore up at Sourcebooks.(People)(Heather Moore)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Heather Moore has been promoted to senior publicity manager at Sourcebooks. She was hired in 2002 as assistant publicist. Also at Sourcebooks, Whitney Lehman has been promoted to assistant publicity manager and named the publicist for...

Carol Schneck, Schuler Books, Okemos, Mich.(Galley Talk)(Friend of the Devil)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Peter Robinson's Banks and Cabbot mysteries are some of the best in the genre; he's one of a handful of top-ranking writers of British mysteries, along with Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, Ian Rankin and Elizabeth George--I must simply drop...

Loomis up at Graphic World.(People)(Michael J. Loomis, Graphic Word Inc.)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Michael J. Loomis has been named executive v-p of operations at Graphic World Inc., a provider of integrated publishing solutions based in St. Louis. Loomis joined the company's composition group in 1985 and was named v-p of publishing services...

Serial sellers.(Marketing)
November 5, 2007... Debut author C.L. Wilson owes a debt to Nora Roberts, even if she doesn't know it. Wilson's initial 1,000-page manuscript was broken into two standalone novels: Lord of the Fading Lands came out from Dorchester in October and Wilson's second...

Industry stocks: October performances.(Market Watch)(Publishers Weekly Stock Index)(Table)
November 5, 2007... Industry Stocks: The Publishers Weekly Stock Index ended a two-month skid in October, rising 2.4% in the month with stock prices increasing at 10 companies and falling at seven. Borders was the biggest winner in the month due in part to a...

Levine up at Grand Central.(People)(Jaime Levine; Grand Central Publishing)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Jaime Levine has been promoted to executive editor at Grand Central Publishing. Levine, who's been at the publisher for 10 years, has worked on the books of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and has brought authors like Jacqueline Carey and...

Franco to Osprey.(People)(Jay Franco; Osprey Publishing)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Jay Franco has been named head of business development and special projects at the New York-based military history house, Osprey Publishing. Franco arrives from Doubleday Entertainment, where he spent 10 years as the Military Book Club buyer....

Spielman to SharedBook.(People)(Mark Spielman)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Mark Spielman has been named v-p of business development at SharedBook, a New York-based tech company that offers on-demand publishing services. Spielman has worked for entertainment and wireless companies like BrainMedia and txtunes.

Harlequin gets serious about nonfiction.(Diversifying)
November 5, 2007... Harlequin's plans to enter the nonfiction market have begun to take shape in recent weeks. Last month the company signed radio talk-show host Delilah to a three-book contract (Deals, Oct. 8), with her first book likely to be the lead nonfiction...

Obituary: Jane Pasanen.(People)(Obituary)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Veteran publishing exec Jane Pasanen died October 22. Pasanen worked for a number of houses--Macmillan, Dutton and Henry Holt among them--from the early 1970s through the '80s, handling campaigns for profile authors like John Irving and Joyce...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
November 5, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Putnam launched Book of the Dead, Cornwell's 15th novel featuring forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta, with a 1.5-million first printing and a national marketing campaign that includes print, broadcast and online ads....

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
November 5, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I'm Valerie Plame Wilson and I'm excited to be here and blog about my book Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.... I've written honestly about my life: why I went to work for the CIA, my...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
November 5, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There is a brand-new site, www. writersare readers. com, where writers review books by other writers. Here's a sample from bestselling author Lisa Kleypas's review of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray Love: "Gilbert...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
November 5, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "You can imagine my astonishment at the reception this book has received worldwide.... It amazes me to get letters from India, South Africa, Tel Aviv, Sydney, London, Arkansas; from readers who express their passions...

Comics bestsellers.
November 5, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the face of a dog food commercial gone horribly wrong, Satchel, the clueless shar pei of Conley's popular comic strip, asserts his rights as a dog consumer; meanwhile, his snarky feline petmate, Bucky Katt, moves...

Utah.(United States of Bookselling)
November 5, 2007... Salt Lake City's the King's English, one of the best-known independent bookstores in the country, celebrated its 30th birthday in September, one indication of the health of Utah's book scene. Owner Betsy Burton noted that Salt Lake has a...

From prose to manga.
November 5, 2007... From John Wiley's manga adaptations of Shakespeare to the Tokyopop/HarperCollins transformation of Erin Hunter's Warriors series, American publishers are looking to Japanese comics--manga--in hopes of attracting a young, hip readership. This...

PW's best books of the year.(Publishers Weekly)(List)
November 5, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] It's the end of the year--almost. A time for reflection, before the resolutions of 2008 send us all scrambling once again. So what did we read this year that kept us up at night, broke our hearts, opened our minds,...

The End of the Jews.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The End of the Jews ADAM MANSBACH. Spiegel & Grau, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-385-52044-7 The lives of a young Jewish man in the 1930s and a young Czech woman in the 1980s echo across generations in Mansbach's (Angry Black White Boy)...

The Philosopher's Apprentice.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Philosopher's Apprentice JAMES MORROW. Morrow, $25.95 (464p) ISBN 978-0-06-135144-0 With a talking iguana, a tree with a heart and an army of clones created from aborted fetuses, Morrow's latest is a treat for readers willing to take...

The Post-War Dream.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Post-War Dream MITCH CULLIN. Doubleday/Talese, $24 (304p) ISBN 978-0-385-51329-6 Cullins's sterile eighth novel is the bleak dirge of Korean War vet Hollis Adams as he revisits the nightmarish past he has spent his life avoiding. The...

The Cure for Modern Life.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... * The Cure for Modern Life LISA TUCKER. Atria, $24.95 (321p) ISBN 978-0-7434-9279-9 Tucker offers a cure for modern readers seeking an enjoyable literary page-turner that also explores serious social issues such as addiction, ethics and...

Dreamers of the Day.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Dreamers of the Day MARY DORIA RUSSELL. Random, $25.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6471-7 Russell's enjoyable latest historical is told in the exuberant, posthumous voice (yes, it's narrated from the afterlife) of Agnes Shanklin, a 38-year-old...

Serve the People!(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Serve the People! YAN LIANKE, TRANS. FROM THE MANDARIN BY JULIA LOVELL. Black Cat, $14 paper (240p) ISBN 978-0-80217044-6 This spare, enigmatic novella of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution tells the story of the brief love affair between Wu...

Mudbound.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Mudbound HILLARY JORDAN. Algonquin, $21.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-56512-569-8 Jordan's beautiful debut (winner of the 2006 Bellwether Prize for literature of social responsibility) carries echoes of As I Lay Dying, complete with shifts in...

The Soul Thief.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Soul Thief CHARLES BAXTER. Pantheon, $20 (224p) ISBN 978-0-375-42252-2 The author of the National Book Award-nominated The Feast of Love, Baxter returns with this ninth book, an assay into the limits of character, fictional and...

Light of the Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Light of the Moon LUANNE RICE. Bantam, $25 (400p) ISBN 978-0-553-80511-6 Rice continues to explore mother-daughter dynamics and themes of religion and destiny in her serviceable latest (after What Matters Most). Anthropologist Susannah...

A Person of Interest.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... * A Person of Interest SUSAN CHOI. Viking, $24.95 (364p) ISBN 978-0-670-01846-8 After fictionalizing elements of the Patty Hearst kidnapping for her second novel (the 2004 Pulitzer finalist American Woman), Choi combines elements of the...

Stalked.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Stalked BRIAN FREEMAN. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0312-36327-7 In Freeman's chilling, atmospheric latest, Jonathan Stride returns from a Las Vegas stint (in Stripped) to head the major crimes detective bureau of his...

The Little Lady Agency and the Prince.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Little Lady Agency and the Prince HESTER BROWNE. Pocket, $24 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4165-3906-3 Melissa Romney-Jones, recently returned from New York, where she got engaged in the last installment (Little Lady, Big Apple) to handsome...

The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square ROSINA LIPPI. Putnam, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-399-15466-9 Southern hospitality and sweetly loose-lipped neighbors ooze from the pages of the sparkling latest from Lippi (Homestead). John Dodge is a...

The Potential Hazards of Hester Day.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Potential Hazards of Hester Day MERCEDES HELNWEIN. Simon & Schuster, $13 paper (256p) ISBN 978-14165-7466-8 A wisecracking misfit finds herself--along with a motley assortment of outcasts--on an impromptu road trip across a bleak...

Unknown Means.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Unknown Means ELIZABETH BECKA. Hyperion, $22.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4013-0175-0 Forensic scientist Evelyn James of the Cleveland Medical Examiner's office returns for this welcome second novel, following Becka's debut, Trace Evidence. Single...

Orange Mint and Honey.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Orange Mint and Honey CARLEEN BRICE. Ballantine/One World, $13.95 paper (336p) ISBN 9780-345-49906-6 In Brice's accomplished debut, African-American Shay Dixon, a burnt-out grad student, has a "visitation/fantasy/fever dream" featuring...

Talk of the Town.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Talk of the Town LISA WINGATE. Bethany House, $13.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-76429156-2 When Hollywood producer Mandalay Florentino comes to the tiny hamlet of Daily, Tex., she's not at all sure what she will find. She's trying to do...

Blood on the Rimrock.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Blood on the Rimrock PHIL DUNLAP. Avalon, $21.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-834986-80-8 In this solid western from veteran Dunlap, Deputy U.S. Marshal Piedmont Kelly is suspicious when drifter George Alvord shows up at his Arizona desert campsite;...

Water: Nine Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Water: Nine Stories ALYCE MILLER. Sarabande, $15.95 paper (216p) ISBN 978-1-932511-56-7 The latest collection from Miller (The Nature of Longing) skillfully explores the tension in Midwestern race and class relations. "Getting to Know the...

Chances.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Chances PAMELA NOWAK. Five Star, $25.95 (327p) ISBN 978-1-59414-637-4 A Pretty pioneering suffragette meets a stodgy undertaker in Nowak's charming historical romance debut. Thirtyish spinster and women's rights activist Sarah Donovan...

The Senator's Wife.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Senator's Wife SUE MILLER. Knopf, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-307-26420-6 Bestselling author Miller (The Good Mother; When I Was Gone) returns with a rich, emotionally urgent novel of two women at opposite stages of life who face parallel...

Beverly Hills Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Beverly Hills Dead STUART WOODS. Putnam, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-399-15469-0 In this tepid sequel to 2004's The Prince of Beverly Hills, bestseller Woods revisits the late 1940s but fails to realistically evoke the era of the HUAC...

The Jewish Messiah.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Jewish Messiah ARNON GRUNBERG, TRANS. FROM THE DUTCH BY SAM GARRETT. Penguin Press, $26.95 (480p) ISBN 978-159420-149-3 Mockingly irreverent and verging on the fantastical, Grunberg's satirical comedy featuring a contemporary messiah...

KIA: A Dr. Kel McKelvey Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... KIA: A Dr. Kel McKelvey Novel THOMAS HOLLAND. Simon & Schuster, $25 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7432-8001-3 As the scientific director of the Department of Defense's central identification laboratory, Holland is responsible for identifying unknown...

Gas City.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... * Gas City LOREN D. ESTLEMAN. Forge, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1956-2 Shamus-winner Estleman, best known for his hard-boiled Amos Walker series (American Detective, etc.), creates a new, morally complex world in this razor-sharp tale...

Night Train to Lisbon.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Night Train to Lisbon PASCAL MERCIER, TRANS. FROM THE GERMAN BY BARBARA HARSHAV. Grove, $25 (496p) ISBN 978-0-8021-1858-5 In Swiss novelist Mercier's U.S. debut, Raimund Gregorius is a gifted but dull 57-year-old high school classical...

Go with Me.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Go with Me CASTLE FREEMAN JR. Steerforth, $21.95 (176p) ISBN 978-1-58642-139-7 Like its young heroine, Lillian, Freeman's trim powerhouse is "a pistol." The novelist and Old Farmer's Almanac essayist sets this story of grim purpose in a...

The Jewel Trader of Pegu.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Jewel Trader of Pegu JEFFREY HANTOVER. Morrow, $21.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-06-125270-9 Jewish jewel trader Abraham, a widower at 28, leaves Venice in 1598 for Pegu, a Burmese kingdom halfway around the world, where he is to settle and...

The Opposite of Love.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Opposite of Love JULIE BUXBAUM. Dial, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-0-385-34122-6 Harvard law grad Buxbaum makes an appealing debut with this tale of Yale law graduate Emily Haxby, eager to break through the emotional and professional ties that...

The Killing Ground.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Killing Ground JACK HIGGINS. Putnam, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-399-15380-8 After almost two score books, of many them bestsellers, Higgins (Without Mercy) knows how to fire up a thriller. In the first half-dozen pages, he establishes...

Final Winter.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Final Winter BRENDAN DUBOIS. Five Star, $25.95 (522p) ISBN 978-1-59414-616-9 DuBois, known primarily for his Lewis Cole detective series, offers up a stand-alone thriller built around the threat of a massive anthrax terrorist attack. While...

The Image, the Icon, and the Covenant.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Image, the Icon, and the Covenant SAHAR KHALIFEH, TRANS. FROM THE ARABIC BY AIDA BAMIA. InterLink, $15 paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-56656-699-5 In the mid-1960s, Ibrahim, a Palestinian-Muslim school teacher with literary ambitions, takes a...

The Shell Game.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Shell Game STEVE ALTEN. Cedar Fort/Sweetwater (www.cedarfort.com), $26.95 (512p) ISBN 978-1-59955-094-7 Even die-hard conspiracy theorists will be dubious about the sinister government-led plots that form the shaky foundation of this...

Troubled Waters.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Troubled Waters DEWEY LAMBDIN. St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-34805-2 During the Napoleonic Wars, Royal Navy Capt. Alan Lewrie (Sea of Grey) finds that he has been sentenced to death in absentia by a Jamaican kangaroo...

PW Talks with Eliot Pattison: transporting readers to a new place: after five Inspector Shan mysteries set in contemporary Tibet, Edgar Award-winner Eliot Pattison places the action of Bone Rattler (Reviews, Oct. 29) in 18th-century North America.(Q&A)(Interview)
November 5, 2007... Since you already have a successful series, why did you decide to start a new one? I didn't want to be the writer who just did Tibetan mysteries, as much as I love that series. I have broader interests and wanted to reach a broader...

The Black Dove: A Holmes on the Range Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Black Dove: A Holmes on the Range Mystery STEVE HOCKENSMITH. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-312-34782-6 In Edgar-finalist Hockensmith's rollicking third mystery to feature Old Red and Big Red Amlingmeyer (after 2007's...

Salt River.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... * Salt River JAMES SALLIS. Walker, $21.95 (160p) ISBN 978-0-8027-1617-0 At the start of Sallis's sublime third novel to feature the philosophical John Turner (after 2006's Cripple Creek), Turner, now the sheriff of a nameless rural...

The Blue Door.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Blue Door DAVID FULMER. Harcourt, $25 (336p) ISBN 978-0-15-101181-0 Shamus-winner Fulmer (The Dying Crapshooter's Blues) delivers another compelling tale of music and murder. In 1962 Philadelphia, a struggling young boxer's life is...

Blood of the Wicked.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Blood of the Wicked LEIGHTON GAGE. Soho Crime, $24 (336p) ISBN 978-1-56947-470-9 At the start of Gage's bloody debut, Chief Insp. Marie Silva is asked by his boss, the director of the Brazilian Federal Police, to solve the murder of Bishop...

The Chinaman.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... The Chinaman FRIEDRICH GLAUSER, TRANS. FROM THE GERMAN BY MIKE MITCHELL. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 paper (186p) ISBN 978-1-904738-21-3 First published in 1938, Swiss author Glauser's fourth Jakob Studer novel to be made available in English...

Death Before Wicket: A Phryne Fisher Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Death Before Wicket: A Phryne Fisher Mystery KERRY GREENWOOD. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (244p) ISBN 978-1-59058-170-4 In one of Greenwood's stronger entries in her acclaimed series set in 1920s Australia (Ruddy Gore, etc.), her elegant,...

A Particular Circumstance.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... A Particular Circumstance SHIRLEY SMITH. Hale (Trafalgar Sq., dist.), $37.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7090-8279-8 Family secrets and English country life in the early 1800s intertwine in this stately Austen-inspired tale of etiquette and thwarted...

After the War: Two Tales of Noreela.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... After the War: Two Tales of Noreela TIM LEBBON. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $35 (150p)ISBN 978-1-59606-139-2 Noreela, the postapocalyptic world that serves as the setting for Lebbon's fantasy-horror hybrids Dusk and Dawn, is...

Hunter's Run.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... * Hunter's Run GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, GARDNER DOZOIS AND DANIEL ABRAHAM. EOS, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-137329-9 Martin (Song of Ice and Fire series), Dozois (Strange Days) and Abraham (A Shadow in Summer) revisit classic themes of...

Queen of Dragons.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... Queen of Dragons SHANA ABE. Bantam, $18 (304p) ISBN 978-0-553-80528-4 At the start of Abe's inventive third novel (after 2006's The Dream Thief) to feature the drakon (creatures who appear to be extraordinarily beautiful humans but can...

A Dark Sacrifice: Book Two of the Rune of Unmaking.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 5, 2007... A Dark Sacrifice: Book Two of the Rune of Unmaking MADELEINE HOWARD. EOS, $14.95 paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-06-057592-2 In Howard's gripping second volume in her Rune of Unmaking high fantasy series (after The Hidden Stars), Ouriana, the queen...