Book Newsletters & Bestseller Lists: Read books in your email: DPL New Fiction Two to the Fifth by Piers Anthony Published 2008 by Tor Books Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765319357 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: The future of Xanth is in frightful peril. A powerful magical bird named Ragna Roc has embarked on a campaign to become absolute ruler of that mystical realm. Those who swear loyalty to him are spared. The rest simply disappear, in Anthony's 32nd novel in the Xanth fantasy series. Divine Justice by David Baldacci Published 2008 by Grand Central Publishing Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780446195508 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Oliver Stone and the Camel Club return in Baldacci's most astonishing thriller yet when the assassinations Stone carries out prompt the highest levels of the government to unleash a massive manhunt. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/22/2008 Near the start of bestseller Baldacci's less than compelling fourth Camel Club thriller (after Stone Cold), former CIA assassin Oliver Stone (aka John Carr) boards a New Orleans-bound train at Washington's Union Station after shooting to death "a well-known U.S. senator and the nation's intelligence chief," the two men responsible for his wife's murder. Ever the Good Samaritan, Stone intervenes in a fight on the train, but when the Amtrak conductor asks to see his ID, he gets off at the next station, knowing his fake ID won't withstand scrutiny. So much for Stone's vaunted ability as a resourceful planner. This sudden detour takes Stone to Divine, Va., a mining town where he becomes enmeshed in corruption and intrigue-and falls, in just one of several clichéd situations, for an attractive if beleaguered widow. Series fans should be satisfied, but this effort lacks the imagination that distinguished Baldacci's debut, Absolute Power (1996). (Nov.) The Blessed: A Novel of the Gifted by Lisa Tawn Bergren Published 2008 by Berkley Publishing Group Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780425223420 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: In her breathtaking religious thriller "The Begotten," Bergren introduced a classic battle of good and evil ("Publishers Weekly") that culminates now in the provocative final chapter in the divine and powerful mission of the Gifted. And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by William S. Burroughs Published 2008 by Grove Press Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780802118769 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Alternating chapters and narrators, Burroughs and Kerouac piece together a tale of bohemian New York during World War II, full of drugs and obsession, art and violence. This legendary collaboration between two of the 20th century's most influential writers is set to be published for the first time. The School on Heart's Content Road by Carolyn Chute Published 2008 by Atlantic Monthly Press Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780871139870 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: The bestselling author of "The Beans of Egypt, Maine" returns with her first novel in 10 years, in this work that is a rousing, politically charged portrait of a group of lives on the margins of society. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/08/2008 Chute, author of the acclaimed The Beans of Egypt, Maine, returns to Egypt with an emotional but uneven novel portraying the St. Onge Settlement, a rural co-op community led by the mythic, flawed, Gordon St. Onge, hero of the downtrodden who people the Settlement along with Gordon's wives and children. Through her distinctive, muscular prose and vivid depictions of Maine's resilient residents, Chute revisits familiar themes: the government's injustices toward the poor, restrictive gun legislation, faults in the education system and the evils of corporations. The novel also defends and demystifies the militia movement (Chute is involved with the 2nd Maine Militia, a grassroots organization advocating for the working class). The narrative, fractured with a multitude of perspectives, jumps between Gordon, Richard "Rex" York, head of the local militia, and Settlement kids Mickey Gammon, 15, and precocious six-year-old Jane Meserve, whose mother is incarcerated on spurious drug charges. By turns inspiring, then preachy, Chute, who in the acknowledgments says there are five completed novels about the Settlement, which might explain the unresolved story lines, has an undeniable talent for depicting humanity at its most impassioned and impoverished. (Nov.) A Partisan's Daughter by Louis de Bernieres Published 2008 by Knopf Publishing Group Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780307268877 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: This new novel from the acclaimed author of "Corelli's Mandolin" is a love story at once raw and sweetly funny, wry and heartbreakingly sad. Narrated in the moment and in recollection, "A Partisan's Daughter" is also a commentary on the seductions and powers of storytelling. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/04/2008 De Bernières (Corelli's Mandolin) delivers an oddball love story of two spiritually displaced would-be lovers. During a dreary late 1970s London winter, stolid and discontented Chris is drawn to seedy and mysterious Roza, a Yugoslav émigrée he initially believes is a prostitute. She isn't (though she claims to have been), and soon the two embark on an awkward friendship (Chris would like to imagine it as a romance) in which Roza spins her life's stories for her nondescript, erstwhile suitor. Roza, whose father supported Tito, moved to London for opportunity but instead found a school of hard knocks, and she's all too happy to dole out the lessons she learned to the slavering Chris. The questions of whether Roza will fall for Chris and whether Chris will leave his wife (he calls her "the Great White Loaf") carry the reader along, as the reliability of Chris and Roza, who trade off narration duties, is called into question-sometimes to less than ideal effect. The conclusion is crushing, and Chris's scorching regret burns brightly to the last line. (Oct.) The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig Published 2008 by Harcourt Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780151012435 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Ten members of Montana's legendary 1941 football team are caught up in World War II. The 11th man, Ben Reinking, has been plucked from pilot training and asked to chronicle the adventures of his teammates. Ready for action, he chafes at the assignment, not knowing that it will bring him love. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/16/2008 In the solid latest from veteran novelist Doig (The Whistling Season), 11 starters of a close-knit Montana college championship football team enlist as the U.S. hits the thick of WWII and are capriciously flung around the globe in various branches of the service. Ben Reinking, initially slated for pilot training, is jerked from his plane and more or less forced to become a war correspondent for the semisecret Threshold Press War Project, a propaganda arm of the combined armed forces. His orders: to travel the world, visiting and writing profiles on each of his heroic teammates. The fetching Women's Airforce Service Pilot who flies him around, Cass Standish, is married to a soldier fighting in the South Pacific, which leads to anguish for them both (think Alan Ladd and Loretta Young). Meanwhile, Ben's former teammates are being killed one by one, often, it seems, being deliberately put into harm's way. Doig adroitly keeps Ben on track, offering an old-fashioned greatest generation story, well told. (Oct.) The January Dancer by Michael Flynn Published 2008 by Tor Books Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765318176 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: A Robert A. Heinlein Award-winning writer tells the fateful story of an ancient pre-human artifact of great power, and the people who find it, in a thrilling yarn of love, revolution, music, and mystery. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/04/2008 Acclaimed SF writer Flynn (Eifelheim)delivers an epic tale of adventure, intrigue, suspense and mystery. Forced to land for repairs on an unnamed, remote planet, Captain Amos January and crew discover a cache of artifacts left by a cryptic alien race "long before humans went to space." They soon retrieve the Dancer, a shape-changing stone that defies analysis. Possibly the scepter of a legendary prehuman king, certainly unique, the priceless trophy is desired by diverse governments, military powers, plutocrats and cabals throughout human-settled space. Flynn knits a richly detailed story of hunters, bandits and patriots that will keep even the most diligent readers on their toes. The plot evokes old-school space opera with its whirlwind pace, immense scope and twist ending, but cutting-edge extrapolation breathes vivid life into this universe of scoundrels, heroes and romantics. This multi-layered story demands much of the reader, but offers more than equivalent rewards. (Oct.) Leaving Whiskey Bend by Dorothy Garlock Published 2008 by Grand Central Publishing Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780446577939 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: The new novel from the Voice of America's Heartland, Dorothy Garlock. Two friends, middle-aged Pearl and pretty, young schoolteacher Hallie, have just about decided to leave the rough Western town of Whiskey Bend, where both are disillusioned with the way they have been treated. The final straw comes when they witness their friend Mary being assaulted in the street by her stepbrother Chester and no one steps forward to help her. They decide to leave and take Mary with them. They go out to the shack where Chester and Mary live to get her, but when Chester attacks them, Pearl shoots him in the leg. He screams after the three that he will follow them wherever they go. Desperately they drive away in an open wagon seeking a new life and safety. One night along the way they are caught in a violent storm and Mary nearly drowns in a roiling river. She is saved by a daring young rancher who brings them back to his home to stay until Mary recovers. The rancher has troubles of his own. He is condemned by his mother for having left his father to run the ranch alone years earlier. He is searching for the murderer of his younger brother. And someone now is trying to kill him. Attracted to him and grateful, Hallie vows to help him.. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/18/2008 Garlock's newest (after On Tall Pine Lake) feels old, and not just because it's set in 1890. Schoolteacher Hallie Wolcott flees Whiskey Bend, Colo., with her friends Pearl and Mary after Mary is beaten by Chester, one of the town's many brutes. Pearl, the eldest, has been through this before, and she won't rest until they find a place that feels safe. Fortunately, a powerful storm leaves them washed up at tumbledown ranch owned by Eli Morgan. Eli's cantankerous and cruel mother wants no part of the women, but she begrudgingly changes her mind when an accident lands her in bed. Meanwhile, Chester's been tracking the ladies; will he find them at the ranch, the place where each woman feels she can finally find true happiness? The answer to this and other "cliffhangers" are apparent to the reader long before the resolutions are played out on the page. The prose is lifeless, the dialogue wooden and the whole thing reads like a poorly strung-together mishmash of western romance tropes. (Nov.) Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh Published 2008 by Farrar Straus Giroux Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780374174224 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the "Ibis," whose destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, and whose purpose is to fight China's vicious 19th-century Opium Wars. This adventure spans landscapes from the lush poppy fields of the Ganges to the exotic backstreets of Canton. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/18/2008 Diaspora, myth and a fascinating language mashup propel the Rubik's cube of plots in Ghosh's picaresque epic of the voyage of the Ibis, a ship transporting Indian "girmitiyas" (coolies) to Mauritius in 1838. The first two-thirds of the book chronicles how the crew and the human cargo come to the vessel, now owned by rising opium merchant Benjamin Burnham. Mulatto second mate Zachary Reid, a 20-year-old of Lord Jim-like innocence, is passing for white and doesn't realize his secret is known to the "gomusta" (overseer) of the coolies, Baboo Nob Kissin, an educated Falstaffian figure who believes Zachary is the key to realizing his lifelong mission. Among the human cargo, there are three fugitives in disguise, two on the run from a vengeful family and one hoping to escape from Benjamin. Also on board is a formerly high caste raj who was brought down by Benjamin and is now on his way to a penal colony. The cast is marvelous and the plot majestically serpentine, but the real hero is the English language, which has rarely felt so alive and vibrant. (Oct.) Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn Published 2008 by Faithwords Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780446179461 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Miranda Carson can't wait to return to England for Christmas and to be with her boyfriend, Ian. Her high hopes for a jolly Christmas are toppled when Ian's father is hospitalized and the matriarch of the Whitcombe family withholds her blessing from Miranda. And yet, maybe Father Christmas has special gifts in store for her after all. Flesh House by Stuart MacBride Published 2008 by St. Martin's Minotaur Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312382636 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: When body parts show up in a container at Aberdeen's harbor, they kick off Scotland's largest manhunt in 20 years--since the last time they had pursued Kenneth Wiseman. A brutal killer, Wiseman had been acquitted on a technicality. But now police are certain he's at work again. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/04/2008 Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, MacBride's superbly unsettling fourth novel (after Bloodshot) sets Det. Sgt. Logan McRae on the trail of a serial killer in Aberdeen, Scotland. When human remains are discovered first in a shipping container and later in a local butcher shop, McRae's superiors send him to round up Kenneth Wiseman (aka "the Flesher"), who terrorized the city 20 years earlier but was released on a technicality. Det. Insp. David Insch, who was part of the original Wiseman investigation, is determined to see the man behind bars. But when tragedy strikes, leaving Insch teetering on the edge of throwing away his entire career, McRae realizes that the police have been looking in the wrong direction. As more body parts turn up, McRae must fit the grisly pieces together before time runs out. MacBride's dry wit turns what could have been a gratuitously gory slasher story into a crackling thriller. (Oct.) Dictator's Ransom by Richard Marcinko Published 2008 by Forge Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765317933 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: The #1 "New York Times" bestselling authors of the Rogue Warrior series return with an explosive tale of international intrigue. In "Echo Platoon, " Marcinko is called upon to undertake a critical mission: uncover the hidden motives and players behind the recent attempts at the destabilization of Azerbaijan, the former Soviet republic that holds the key to the oil-rich Caspian Sea. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/11/2008 Bestseller Marcinko and DeFelice (Rogue Warrior: Holy Terror) deliver another rousing adventure, the 12th to star former navy SEAL Marcinko's fictional alter ego. Dick Marcinko (aka the Rogue Warrior; aka Demo Dick) shows few signs of advancing age as he tangles with the world's sleaziest dictator, North Korea's Kim Jong Il. Kim, a Marcinko admirer who's read all the Rogue books, knows that Dick's the man to locate his missing illegitimate son, Yon Shin Jong. Dick turns down the offer with its $64 million reward until the CIA tells him that it would be a good idea to take the job. Meanwhile, longtime team member Trace Dahlgren finds that her lover, Polish helicopter pilot Ike Polorski, is in reality a Russian mobster involved in a plot to abduct Kim's kid and trade him for a nuke. Dick is as funny and dangerous as ever, making this one of the better entries in this techno-thriller series. (Oct.) The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Investigations of Socrates Fortlow by Walter Mosley Published 2008 by Basic Civitas Books Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780465005253 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Socrates Fortlow is a 60-year-old ex-convict, now freed after serving 27 years in prison. Disheartened by the chaos of the streets, he calls together local people of all races to conduct meetings of a Thinkers' Club, where all can discuss the unanswerable questions in life. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/11/2008 A history of terrible violence including rape and murder followed by 27 years of incarceration in a prison with its own codified violence have helped shape Socrates Fortlow, previously featured in two short story collections, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1997) and Walkin' the Dog (1999). The hardened ex-con living in South Central L.A. has been chiseled by his experiences into a hulking essence of wise humanity. An initial gathering of diverse characters (a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, a gambler, a singer, a lawyer, two killers, etc.) brought together by Socrates becomes an agent of change. The weekly "Thinkers' Meetings" grow despite internal dissension and attempts at suppression and subversion by authorities. The talks forge bonds, lead to actions, spread beyond L.A. and take on a life of their own. In the face of gangs, drugs, poverty and racism, Mosley poses the deceptively simple question-"What can I do?"-and provides a powerful and moving answer. (Oct.) Salvation in Death by J. D. Robb Published 2008 by Putnam Adult Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780399155222 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Ancient church rituals meet cutting-edge crime-solving in the latest novel in the #1 "New York Times"-bestselling series. In the year 2060, sophisticated investigative tools can help catch a killer. But there are some questions even the most advanced technologies cannot answer. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/29/2008 Holy communion spells death for Fr. Miguel Flores, a popular Catholic priest in New York City's Spanish Harlem, after he swallows wine laced with cyanide during a funeral in bestseller Robb's unusually introspective 27th crime thriller to feature Lt. Eve Dallas (after Strangers in Death). The ensuing homicide investigation suggests that Flores could actually be Lino Martinez, a former member of a disbanded gang, the Soldados, suspected of two bombings before he disappeared. The death by cyanide of another religious figure, Jimmy Jay Jenkins, founder of the Church of Eternal Light, complicates matters. Are the two murders connected? Sussing out the answer to that question involves some serious digging. Dallas's husband, Roarke, and fun sidekick, Det. Delia Peabody, lend support. Robb offers a multilayered solution to several crimes that serves as yet another reminder that wolves sometimes hide in sheep's (or priest's) clothing, but justice, like faith, has no expiration date. (Nov.) The Pirate King by R. A. Salvatore Published 2008 by Wizards of the Coast Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780786949649 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Drizzt is back in action again, and bringing more changes to the Forgotten Realms setting. This new adventure will keep Drizzt fans guessing the whole way, with edge-of-the-seat action and plot twists that even the most casual reader of the Forgotten Realms series can't afford to miss. Dancing with Demons: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland by Peter Tremayne Published 2008 by St. Martin's Minotaur Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312375645 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: In the winter of 669 C.E., the High King of Ireland is murdered and all evidence points to a particular clan chieftain. Now, it's up to Fidelma to uncover the motive for the murder. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/18/2008 Judicial advocate Sister Fidelma takes on her most sensitive assignment yet in Tremayne's excellent 16th mystery set in seventh-century Ireland (after 2007's A Prayer for the Damned). When Sechnussach, "High King of the five kingdoms of Éireann," is assassinated, the killer appears to be a kinsman, Dubh Duin, found in the king's bed chamber, dying by his own hand and still bearing the knife that apparently struck the fatal blow. Since the powers-that-be are concerned that Sechnussach's heir, Cenn Faelad, not fall under suspicion, they appoint Fidelma, as an outsider, to uncover the motive for the crime. She soon finds that a person, possibly someone close to the throne, had arranged for Duin to get past the king's guards and enter Sechnussach's chamber unchallenged. Tremayne does his usual masterful job of depicting the strain between Christianity and the Old Faith, and provides a logical, if surprising, twist toward the end. (Oct.) Murder Inside the Beltway by Margaret Truman Published 2008 by Ballantine Books Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780345498885 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: From "New York Times"-bestselling author Truman comes another political page-turner revealing the criminal side of the nation's capital. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/22/2008 In the workmanlike 24th and presumably last Capital Crimes novel (after Murder on K Street) from bestseller Truman (1924-2008), the murder of escort Rosalie Curzon, who was savagely beaten before being strangled, panics her many high-powered clients after the local police find she'd been videotaping her sessions. The detectives on the case-Walter Hatcher, a racist dinosaur mulling over retirement, and his two younger assistants, naïve Matt Jackson, who's shocked that some of his colleagues are on the take, and Mary Hall, who's secretly involved with Jackson-are walking clichés. The probe takes on national implications when rumors circulate that presidential challenger Robert Colgate, who's been dogged by allegations of infidelity, was one of Curzon's clients. Readers should be prepared for some clunky prose (e.g., a character's face is described as "a series of small, finely chiseled granite blocks covered by a coal-black membrane pulled tight"). (Nov.) By the Sword by F. Paul Wilson Published 2008 by Forge Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765317070 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: "By the Sword" takes up where "Bloodline" leaves off. Like its predecessor, this novel shows why Jack's saga has become the most entertaining and dependable modern horror-thriller series.--"Publishers Weekly." REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/01/2008 Wilson's 12th action-packed adventure of urban mercenary Repairman Jack picks up where Bloodlines (2007) abruptly ended, with Jack's ongoing efforts to thwart the sociopathic Kicker cult and its efforts to breed a malignant messiah. When a Japanese businessman offers him a new assignment tracking down a legendary katana with occult properties, Jack quickly finds himself struggling to keep the sword out of the hands of a cabal of yakuza gangsters, as well as the Kakureta Kao, a mystical order of monks who hope to channel its power to devastate New York City. Besides combining these disparate plot threads together with his usual dexterity, Wilson continues to lay the groundwork for Jack's long-awaited showdown with his supernatural nemesis, Rasolom. More violent and complex than its predecessors, this novel serves up the occult thrills fans of Wilson's series have come to expect and tantalizes with the promise of more surprises to come. (Nov.) The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs by Richard Yancey Published 2008 by St. Martin's Minotaur Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312347536 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: From the critically acclaimed author of "The Highly Effective Detective" comes a deliciously funny follow-up featuring the lovable but bumbling P.I. Teddy Ruzak. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/23/2008 In Yancey's delightful second mystery to feature lovably inept Teddy Ruzak (after 2006's The Highly Effective Detective), Teddy fails the Tennessee PI licensing exam for the second time and is served notice that he can no longer work as a PI. After shutting down the office, Teddy spots a homeless man on the street and, on impulse, gives him his hat. The next day Teddy finds the man beaten to death in an alley behind his office building. Determined to dig up the truth, Teddy, in his inimitable way, follows the trail. Along the way to a most surprising solution, he finds his life complicated by two unexpected new acquaintances from the dog pound, one four-legged and the other a young woman who finds Teddy very attractive. Yancey has given Teddy a distinctive voice-wry, rambling and self-reflective-that will endear this surprisingly effective bumbler to all kinds of mystery readers. (Aug.) Defiance Public Library · 320 Fort Street · Defiance, OH 43512 Phone: (419)782-1456 · Fax: (419)782-6235 1 Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster This page is best viewed at 800 by 600 with Internet Explorer 6.0