The Pretend Wife
by Bridget Asher
Published 2009 by Bantam

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780385341912

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Jacket Notes:

From the author of "My Husband's Sweethearts" comes this big-hearted, fiercely perceptive novel about a happily married woman and the little white lie that changes everything. What would life be like with the one who got away? From the author of My Husband's Sweethearts--hailed as "a laugh-and-cry novel"* that's "whip-smart, tender...an undiluted joy to read"**--comes this bighearted, funny, fiercely perceptive tale about a happily married woman and the little white lie that changed everything....

For Gwen Merchant, love has always been doled out in little packets--from her father, a marine biologist who buried himself in work after her mother's death; and from her husband, Peter, who's always been respectable and safe. But when an old college boyfriend, the irrepressible Elliot Hull, invites himself back into Gwen's life, she starts to remember a time when love was an ocean.

What does Elliot want? In fact, he has a rather surprising proposition: he wants Gwen to become his wife. His pretend wife. Just for a few days. To accompany him to his family's lake house for the weekend so that he can fulfill his dying mother's last wish. Reluctantly Gwen agrees to play along--with her husband Peter's full support. It's just one weekend--what harm could come of it?

But as Gwen is drawn into Elliot's quirky, wonderful family--his astonishingly wise and open mother, his warm and welcoming sister, and his adorable, precocious niece--she starts questioning everything she's ever expected from love. And as she begins to uncover a few secrets about her own family, it suddenly looks like a pretend relationship just might turn out to be the most real thing she's ever known.

Publishers Weekly 04/20/2009

With still more to say about marriage, fidelity and the importance of being wittily earnest, Asher ("My Husband's Sweethearts")Julianna Baggott's adult fiction pseudonymbrings an abundance of warmth and wisdom to this tale of lost-and-found love. Married woman Gwen Merchant agrees to pretend to be the newlywed of former beau Elliott Hull to appease his dying mom. Gwen, smothering in a marriage to Peter, jumps at the chance for a redo at an abruptly ended college romance, and it's a slippery slope that Gwen slides down with passion and verve, falling in love with Elliott and becoming attached to his sister and her precocious kids and the imperious and uncannily perceptive matriarch, Vivian. But while weaving one faux relationship, Gwen unthreads the very real sadness in her own tattered family, including a widowed dad and a marriage that hides more than it confides. It's more than a little disappointing, if not surprising, that Asher inserts an improbably happy ending to push the sweet and funny Gwen into a trite epiphany. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

The Glassblower of Murano
by Marina Fiorato
Published 2009 by St. Martin's Griffin

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780312386986

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Jacket Notes:

In this internationally bestselling debut, a heartbroken woman embarks on a grand exploration of life and love as a glassblower in the city of her ancestors, Venice, and learns that the past may not be as clear as blown glass. Venice, 1681. Glassblowing is the lifeblood of the Republic, and Venetian mirrors are more precious than gold. Jealously guarded by the murderous Council of Ten, the glassblowers of Murano are virtually imprisoned on their island in the lagoon. But the greatest of the artists, Corradino Manin, sells his methods and his soul to the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, to protect his secret daughter. In the present day his descendant, Leonora Manin, leaves an unhappy life in London to begin a new one as a glassblower in Venice. As she finds new life and love in her adoptive city, her fate becomes inextricably linked with that of her ancestor and the treacherous secrets of his life begin to come to light.

Publishers Weekly 04/27/2009

After the dissolution of her marriage, beautiful English artist Leonora Manin is hired as an apprentice glassblower in the Venetian suburb of Murano, in Fiorato's strong U.S. debut. Leonora's ancestor was master glassmaker Corradino Manin, and her new boss plans to exploit that connection. But centuries-old jealousies and treachery surface and the public relations campaign is suddenly canceled. A modern-day relative of Corradino's mentor resents Leonora, while a journalist who was once involved with Alessandro Bardolino, Leonora's new love, decides she wants him back. Complex connections, but nothing compared to those in Corradino's time, when draconian Venetian laws enslaved glassmakers on Murano to insure techniques would remain exclusive to Venice. The author's descriptive prose brings the beauty and danger of 17th-century Venice vividly to life, when Corradino became a traitor seeking freedom for himself and his secret daughter. Leonora's determined to investigate Corradino, but throughout, Alessandro's allegiance is suspect. Those who enjoy intrigue and European history will be easily drawn into this romantic story. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Trouble
by Kate Christensen
Published 2009 by Doubleday Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780385527309

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Jacket Notes:

A vibrant story of female friendship and midlife sexual awakening from the acclaimed author of "The Great Man, Trouble" is a funny, moving examination of the battle between the need for connection and the quest for freedom that every modern woman must fight. A vibrant story of female friendship and midlife sexual awakening from the acclaimed author of "The Great Man"

Josie is a Manhattan psychotherapist living a comfortable life with her husband and daughter--until, while suddenly flirting with a man at a party, she is struck with the sudden realization that she must leave her passionless marriage. A thrillingly sordid encounter with a stranger she meets at a bar immediately follows. At the same time, her college friend Raquel, a Los Angeles rock star, is being pilloried in the press for sleeping with a much younger man who happens to have a pregnant girlfriend. This proves to be red meat to the gossip hounds of the Internet. The two friends escape to Mexico City for a Christmas holiday of retreat and rediscovery of their essential selves. Sex has gotten these two bright, complicated women into interesting trouble, and the story of their struggles to get out of that trouble is totally gripping at every turn.

A tragicomedy of marriage and friendship, "Trouble "is a funny, piercing, and moving examination of the battle between the need for connection and the quest for freedom that every modern woman must fight.

Publishers Weekly 03/02/2009

Christensen follows "The Great Man "with this slightly lesser work, a coming-of-middle-age novel that explores the sexual lives of three women in their 40s. Best friends since their college days, trust-funder Indrani, therapist Josie and L.A. rocker Raquel are like three very different but close sisters. After flirting with a man at a New York party, Josie realizes that she is sexually starving and decides to leave her husband, though Indrani thinks its a terrible move. Meanwhile, on the left coast, the nearly washed-up ex-junkie Raquel becomes embroiled in a scandal when shes smeared as the other woman to a young actor with a pregnant girlfriend. Raquel hightails it to Mexico City and begs a less than-reluctant Josie to join her. From here the novel takes a predictable route as the women drink their way across the city, Raquel spirals further out of control, and Josies inner vixen is awakened. The novel loses some of its mojo in the location changeMexico City seems just out of focusbut the characters are marvelously realized, and when Christensens on a roll, her wit is irresistible. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

The Four Corners of the Sky
by Michael Malone
Published 2009 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781570717444

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Jacket Notes:

From the masterful author of "Handling Sin" comes this riveting novel of love, secrets, and the mysterious bonds of family. "There's humor and action aplenty, but Four Corners is also a warm-hearted look at how we love and forgive. Five hundred and forty-four pages never seemed so short."

People Magazine 4-Star Review In small towns between the North Carolina Piedmont and the coast the best scenery is often in the sky. On flat sweeps of red clay and scrub pine the days move monotonously, safely, but above, in the blink of an eye, dangerous clouds can boil out of all four corners of the skyThe flat slow land starts to shiver and anything can happen. In such a storm, on Annie Peregrine's seventh birthday, her father gave her the airplane and minutes later drove out of her life. Twenty years is a long time to be without a father, and, for Navy pilot Annie Peregrine-Goode, the sky has become a home the earth has never been. So when her father calls out of the blue to ask for a dying wishone both absurd and mysteriousno is the easiest of answers. Until she hears that the reward is the one thing she always wanted Thus begins an enchanting novel that bursts with energy from the first pages, and sweeps you off on a journey of unforgettable characters, hilarious encounters, and haunting secrets. The Four Corners of the Sky is master storyteller Michael Malone's new novel of love, secrets, and the mysterious bonds of families. Malone brings characters to life as only he can, exploring the questions that defy easy answers: Is love a choice or a calling?

Why do the ties of family bind so tightly?

And is forgiveness a gift to othersor a gift we give ourselves? PRAISE FOR THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE SKY: "Devoted Michael Malone fans have been waiting more than 20 years for another Handling Sin, perhaps the greatest road novel since Tom Jones. The wait is over The cast of characters is as large as it is rich. Malone is an absolute master of Dickensian character buildingDon't miss it."

Bill Ott, editor-in-chief, Booklist "Fried Green Tomatoes with copious draughts of Shakespeare Malone (Theater Studies and English/Duke Univ.; The Last Noel, 2002, etc.) knows that the small-town South is a subject all unto itself, and no matter how eccentric the characters, they're wholly believable in that context Secrets and intrigues among the honeysuckle: a sun-washed yarn of the New South, affectionately told."

Kirkus starrred review "A father-daughter story that will have young adult readers (and you) laughing and crying and rooting for Annie, now 26 years old and still stinging from her father's abandonment of the family when she was just seven. Malone's titles have broad adult appeal, and Four Corners has the potential for being a gateway novel for maturing fiction readers."

School Library Journal "This book is so complex and so beautifully done, it sort of outclasses Dickens (and I may have just committed literary heresy here). The Four Corners of the Sky is the best thing I have read in years and you can imagine how much I read. Truly, I couldn't put it down. I loved it."

Kathy Ashton, The King's English Bookshop PRAISE FOR MICHAEL MALONE: "Malone... delights the reader with his witty eye for the kind of detail that proclaims with humor and confidence, 'This is true!'"

Los Angeles Times Book Review "Malone shows a knack for colorful characters, snappy dialogue and tragicomic human foibles."

Salt Lake Tribune "Brilliant and entertaining... Wonderfully shrewd... Mr. Malone's characters have dimension and scope."

New York Times Book Review "Michael Malone has a true narrative gift, the true eye for the character in action, and a fluent prose wrought carefully and well."

Robert Penn Warren (on Dingley Falls) "Terribly funny, emotionally engaging and almost impossible to set asidea heartwarming tour de force."

Newsweek (on Handling Sin) "Satisfying, deeply pleasurablebrilliant and entertaining. One remembers Mr. Malone's idiosyncratic creations the way one remembers those of another brilliant social caricaturist, Charles Dickens."

New York Times Book Review (on Foolscap) "[Malone] combines humor, compassion and literate writing with a storytelling ability that is rare in contemporary fiction."

The Houston Chronicle (on Uncivil Seasons) "A superbly stylish author whose books deserve the widest audience."

The New Yorker (on The Delectable Mountains) "Like Charles Dickensthe comparison isn't farfetchedthe author isn't afraid of stretching the truth to encompass it."

San Francisco Chronicle (on Time's Witness) "Malone creates a gallery of Southern portraits with compassion, humor and more than a little blood. Highly recommended."

Chicago Tribune (on First Lady) "Malone writes with such quiet authority and clear understanding of the world his characters inhabit that the story strikes deep emotional chords...."

Washington Post Book World (on The Last Noel)

Publishers Weekly 03/16/2009

A daredevil pilot heads out on a wild goose chase and learns to slow down and enjoy life in Malone's ("The Last Noel") exuberant but ultimately unwieldy 10th novel. After years of accompanying her con artist father on his exploits, seven-year-old Annie is left on the family's North Carolina farm with her aunt Sam. Annie relishes the stability, but still craves excitement as she grows up, learning to fly the single-engine plane her father left her and becoming a navy fighter pilot. When her father calls years later, he claims that he's dying and needs her help with one last escapade. She agreesin exchange for the name of the mother she's never known. Annie travels to St. Louis, Mo.; Miami; and Cuba in the service of her elusive father, meeting quirky eccentrics along the way, including her one true love. Bizarre coincidences, caricatured criminals and characters who spurt groan-worthy puns, classic movie lines and Shakespeare quotes in place of meaningful dialogue keep the novel teetering toward the absurd. The novel's ambitious blend of humor, mystery, adventure and sentimentality can be as exhausting as Annie's fast-paced flights. "(May)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

The Cheater
by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
Published 2009 by Forge

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765319029

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Jacket Notes:

Lily Forrester, featured in Rosenberg's "New York Times" bestsellers "Mitigating Circumstances" and "Buried Evidence," finds herself in yet another mix of bizarre circumstances that leads her onto the trail of a vicious criminal mind. Nancy Taylor Rosenberg has constantly been praised for her intense, dramatic suspense, breathing real life and trouble into her action-packed thrillers. Her fourteen years in law enforcement have always given her novels great authenticity, often pulling inspiration from the very cases she has worked. Now comes The Cheater. Returning to her most beloved character, Lily Forrester, from the New York Times bestsellers Mitigating Circumstances and Buried Evidence, Rosenberg proves once again that she is a master of the suspense thriller, as Forrester finds herself in yet another mix of bizarre circumstances that lead her onto the trail of a vicious criminal mind. Along the way we meet: FBI Agent Mary Stevens--She is tracking a killer who murders husbands who are cheating on their wives, their mutilated bodies disposed of in ghastly ways and strange locations. Bryce Forrester--Lily's husband--calls her from a Las Vegas jail where he's been arrested for attempted rape...even though Las Vegas was not on his itinerary. Anne Bradley--Bryce's accuser, like Lily, is a woman with an eerie past...an enigmatic figure to whom Lily is strangely drawn. The trail leads back to a Web service that provides alibis for cheating spouses and into a thick web of deception that puts both Lily's and Mary's lives in jeopardy. Do you know where your husband is?

Publishers Weekly 04/06/2009

Lily Forrester, the edgy California crusader for justice who got away with killing the criminal she thought raped her daughter in "Mitigating Circumstances" (1993) and whose daughter took care of the real rapist in "Buried Evidence" (2000), tangles with a female serial killer in this unsettling thriller from bestseller Rosenberg. Now a Ventura County judge, Lily becomes friends with lawyer Anne Bradley, an attractive single woman new in town. Lily, whose marriage to her second husband, Bryce Donnelly, has been showing signs of strain, has no idea Bryce is a philanderer and a potential victim of Annes Alibi Connection, a referral club that helps Anne find and kill adulterers. Mary Stevens, the likable FBI profiler who gets on the trail of unsolved homicides leading to the mysterious Anne, provides relief from the angst-ridden Lily and the books villain, a man-hating sociopath whose portrait Rosenberg at times sketches with too heavy a hand. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

The Fixer Upper
by Mary Kay Andrews
Published 2009 by Harper

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780060837389

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Jacket Notes:

The delightful "New York Times" bestselling author returns with a hilarious novel about one woman's quest to redo an old house . . . and her life. After her boss in a high-powered Washington public relations firm is caught in a political scandal, fledgling lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left almost broke, unemployed, and homeless. Out of options, she reluctantly accepts her father's offer to help refurbish Birdsong, the old family place he recently inherited in Guthrie, Georgia. All it will take, he tells her, is a little paint and some TLC to turn the fading Victorian mansion into a real-estate cash cow. But, oh, is Dempsey in for a surprise when she arrives in Guthrie. "Bird Droppings" would more aptly describe the moldering Pepto Bismol-pink dump with duct-taped windows and a driveway full of junk. There's also a murderously grumpy old lady, one of Dempsey's distant relations, who has claimed squatter's rights and isn't moving out. Ever. Furthermore, everyone in Guthrie seems to know Dempsey's business, from a smooth-talking real-estate agent to a cute lawyer who owns the local newspaper. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the pesky FBI agents who show up on Dempsey's doorstep, hoping to pry information about her ex-boss from her. All Dempsey can do is roll up her sleeves and get to work. And before long, what started as a job of necessity somehow becomes a labor of love and, ultimately, a journey that takes her to a place she never expected--back home again.

Publishers Weekly 05/11/2009

Andrews's latest Southern charmer begins with junior lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew in the crosshairs of a political bribery investigation. Suddenly unemployed and the victim of a sleazy smear campaign by her former boss, Dempsey decides to take up her father's offer of flipping a recently inherited family home in Guthrie, Ga. As it turns out, the house needs much more than a fresh coat of paint, and Dempsey's ornery cousin and her dog are squatting there. So it is that the formerly glamorous Dempsey steps into her dead uncle's overalls and chips her manicured nails as she scrubs and sands her way through fixing up the house, quickly finding a renovation groove, fitting in with the locals and embarking on a romance. Meanwhile, the FBI and a pesky reporter come asking questions about the bribery accusations. This authentic tale of cleaning up life's messes and self-discovery is bright, engaging and thoughtful, enlivened by Andrews's quirky characters and lovely backwoods setting. "(July)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

No Warriors, No Glory
by Harold Coyle
Published 2009 by Forge

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765318978

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Jacket Notes:

The nine stories that make up Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot," written in the 1940s, not only foresaw a day when autonomous machines would assume the more mundane and dangerous chores performed by people, they also foreshadowed problems humans would encounter as they learned not only how to use and control their robots, but how to live with them as well. The world that Asimov envisioned is here. Today, new and more dynamic uses of robots are being explored and tested. Even the way we wage war is not immune as robotic devices of every shape and description are being tested and fielded by armed forces around the world. Remotely controlled and autonomous machines that perform reconnaissance, security, mine detection, logistical support and even combat are making their way into the Army's order of battle. It is changing the way Americans fight. It is a change that will not come easy. Nor will it come without a price. Nathan Dixon, a mid-career Army officer, discovers just how different the Army that he has dedicated his life to will look in the future when he is assigned the task of investigating a friendly fire incident involving a rogue unmanned ground combat vehicle, or UGV. This is no easy task for an officer that has yet to learn how to deal with the self interests that a project such as the UGV program is capable of creating. In addition to working with the commanding officer of the unit testing the UGVs, a man determined to save his career, and dealing with the civilian contractor charged with seeing that the UGVs his company is building succeeds no matter what, Dixon must not only find out what happened but who, if anyone, was responsible for the sequence of events that caused the incident.

Summer House
by Nancy Thayer
Published 2009 by Ballantine Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780345498205

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Jacket Notes:

From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Moon Shell Beach" comes a moving new novel about an unexpectedly magical summer for three generations of women. After years of wandering from whim to whim, thirty-year-old Charlotte Wheelwright seems to have at last found her niche. The free spirit enjoys running an organic gardening business on the island of Nantucket, thanks in large part to her spry grandmother Nona, who donated a portion of land on the family's seaside compound to get Charlotte started. Though Charlotte's skill with plants is bringing her success, cultivating something deeper with people-particularly her handsome neighbor Coop-might be more of a challenge.

Nona's generosity to Charlotte, secretly her favorite grandchild, doesn't sit well with the rest of the Wheelwright clan, however, as they worry that Charlotte may be positioning herself to inherit the entire estate. With summer upon them, everyone is making their annual pilgrimage to the homestead-some with hopes of thwarting Charlotte's dreams, others in anticipation of Nona's latest pronouncements at the annual family meeting, and still others with surprising news of their own. Charlotte's mother, Helen, a Wheelwright by marriage, brings a heavy heart. She once set aside her own ambitions to fit in with the Wheelwrights, but now she must confront a betrayal that threatens both her sense of place and her sense of self.

As summer progresses, these three women-Charlotte, Nona, and Helen-come to terms with the decisions they have made. Revisiting the lives and loves that have crossed their paths and the possibilities of the roads not taken, they may just discover that what they've always sought was right in front of them all along.

Publishers Weekly 04/13/2009

Thayer ("Shell Moon Beach") explores the tarnished interior of a family of Boston bankers as well as the more polished exterior they display in public in this tepid melodrama. Charlotte Wheelwright has a guilty conscience, so she flees Boston for Nantucket to start an organic farm on her grandmother's land. Nona is nearly 90, and the family is happy to have someone on the island with her year-round. A few years into her project, Charlotte begins making a small profit, and some members of the extended family have a problem with that. The clan gathers at the seaside mansion for the annual family meeting where the fate of Charlotte's garden will be decided. Much of the group, including Charlotte's addict brother, stay at the house all summer, to share in more festive occasions like Nona's birthday celebration, a wedding and the birth of a child. Charlotte, meanwhile, suddenly finds herself attracted to two men, but which will she choose? The clichéd family's clichéd squabblingand the narrative as a wholeends up being much ado about nothing. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

The Memory Collector
by Meg Gardiner
Published 2009 by Dutton Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780525950752

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Jacket Notes:

The second pulse-pounding thriller in Meg Gardineras Jo Beckett series, whose athrilling, a1 acrackerjack, a2 aadrenaline-filleda3 debut was an Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestseller.

Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckettas specialty is the psychological autopsya an investigation into a personas life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. She calls herself a deadshrinker instead of a head-shrinker: The silence of her apatientsa is a key part of the jobas attraction. When Jo is asked to do a psychological autopsy on a living personaone with a suspect memory who canat be trusted to participate in his own medical careashe knows all her skills will be put to the test.

Jo is called to the scene of an aircraft inbound from London to help deal with a passenger who is behaving erratically. She figures out that heas got anterograde amnesia, and canat form new memories. Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk and yet canat help Jo figure out just what happened to him. For every cryptic clue he is able to drag up from his memory, Jo has to sift through a dozen nonsensical statements. Suddenly a string of clues arises, something to do with a superdeadly biological agent code-named aSlick, a a missing wife and son, and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realizes her patientas addled mind may hold the key to preventing something terrible from happening in her beloved San Francisco. In order to prevent it, she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her cityaand herself.

Publishers Weekly 04/27/2009

Near the start of Edgar-finalist Gardiner's solid follow-up to "The Dirty Secrets Club", San Francisco forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett examines Ian Kanan, a distressed airline passenger who turns out to be suffering from anterograde amnesia, which makes it impossible for him to form new memories. Kanan, who's sure that his family has been kidnapped and he's been poisoned, disappears from the hospital before Beckett can learn more. When she starts digging into his background, Beckett discovers not only that Kanan was a security consultant for Chira-Sayf, a nanotechnology company, but that he may have been exposed to Slick, an experimental bioweapon. Along with her SFPD contact, Lt. Amy Tang, and para-jumper boyfriend, Gabe Quintana, Beckett races to find Kanan before the people he's pursuing unleash Slick on San Francisco. Gardiner more than compensates for the sometimes implausible plot with her effective use of Kanan's amnesia and her heroine's resourcefulness. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Publisher's Marketing Text:

The second pulse-pounding thriller in Meg Gardineras Jo Beckett series, whose athrilling, a1 acrackerjack, a2 aadrenaline-filleda3 debut was an Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestseller.
Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckettas specialty is the psychological autopsya an investigation into a personas life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. She calls herself a deadshrinker instead of a head-shrinker: The silence of her apatientsa is a key part of the jobas attraction. When Jo is asked to do a psychological autopsy on a living personaone with a suspect memory who canat be trusted to participate in his own medical careashe knows all her skills will be put to the test.
Jo is called to the scene of an aircraft inbound from London to help deal with a passenger who is behaving erratically. She figures out that heas got anterograde amnesia, and canat form new memories. Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk and yet canat help Jo figure out just what happened to him. For every cryptic clue he is able to drag up from his memory, Jo has to sift through a dozen nonsensical statements. Suddenly a string of clues arises, something to do with a superdeadly biological agent code-named aSlick, a a missing wife and son, and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realizes her patientas addled mind may hold the key to preventing something terrible from happening in her beloved San Francisco. In order to prevent it, she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her cityaand herself.

John the Baptizer
by Brooks Hansen
Published 2009 by W. W. Norton & Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780393069471

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Jacket Notes:

As gripping as literary historical fiction, and as fascinating as a diligent exploration of ancient and modern sources, this saga of John the Baptist brings to life the richly textured world into which both John and Jesus are born. Traditionally, John the Baptist is seen as little more than an opening act-"the voice crying in the wilderness"-in the great Christian drama. In presenting the epic of John's life, novelist Brooks Hansen draws on an extraordinary array of inspirations, from the works of Caravaggio, Bach, and Oscar Wilde to the histories of Josephus, the canonical gospels, the Gnostic gospels, and the sacred texts of those followers of John who never accepted Jesus as Messiah: the Mandeans. Gripping as literary historical fiction, and fascinating as a diligent exploration of ancient and modern sources, this book brings to eye-opening life the richly textured world-populated by the magnificently sordid, calculating, and reckless Herods, their families, and their courts-into which both John and Jesus were born. John the Baptizer is a captivating tapestry of power and dissent, ambition and self-sacrifice, worldly and otherworldly desire, faith, and doubt.

Publishers Weekly 04/06/2009

In fictionalizing the life of John the Baptist, Hansen ("The Brotherhood of Joseph") reveals the messy humanity behind the saint. Even readers with a passing knowledge of Christianity will find Johns fate laid out on the first pagehis head is brought to King Herod upon a platter. Hansens meticulously researched narrative sets Johns life in a wide context, omitting little, for better or for worse: from Johns childhood lessons to his emergence as a prophet and his capture and execution, readers find themselves immersed in the biblical world. The visceral descriptions of suffering, such as the death of Herods father or the cistern in which John is held captive, bring religious figures into the gritty realm of the grotesque. Yet Hansen still retains a sense of wonder in his subjects: when Johns mother gives birth after a lifetime of barrenness, or when John baptizes his Messiah-cousin, the flesh-and-blood characters step back into their familiar stained-glass poses and become larger than life. The juxtaposition of stark realism and religious loftiness has its perplexing moments, but its precisely what will keep the pages turning. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
by David Eagleman
Published 2009 by Pantheon Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780307377340

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Jacket Notes:

A dazzling work of fiction, these brief vignettes present a stunning array ofpossible worlds awaiting each person in the afterlife. "SUM" is a dazzling exploration of funny and unexpected afterlives that have never been considered-each presented as a vignette that offers us a stunning lens through which to see ourselves here and now.

In one afterlife you may find that God is the size of a microbe and is unaware of your existence. In another, your creators are a species of dim-witted creatures who built us to figure out what they could not. In a different version of the afterlife you work as a background character in other people's dreams. Or you may find that God is a married couple struggling with discontent, or that the afterlife contains only those people whom you remember, or that the hereafter includes the thousands of previous gods who no longer attract followers. In some afterlives you are split into your different ages; in some you are forced to live with annoying versions of yourself that represent what you could have been; in others you are re-created from your credit card records and Internet history. David Eagleman proposes many versions of our purpose here; we are mobile robots for cosmic mapmakers, we are reunions for a scattered confederacy of atoms, we are experimental subjects for gods trying to understand what makes couples stick together.

These wonderfully imagined tale-at once funny, wistful, and unsettling-are rooted in science and romance and awe at our mysterious existence: a mixture of death, hope, computers, immortality, love, biology, and desire that exposes radiant new facets of our humanity.

Publishers Weekly 11/03/2008

A clever little book by a neuroscientist translates lofty concepts of infinity and death into accessible human terms. What happens after we die? Eagleman wonders in each of these brief, evocative segments. Are we consigned to replay a lifetime's worth of accumulated acts, as he suggests in Sum, spending six days clipping your nails or six weeks waiting for a green light? Is heaven a bureaucracy, as in Reins, where God has lost control of the workload? Will we download our consciousnesses into a computer to live in a virtual world, as suggested in Great Expectations, where God exists after all and has gone through great trouble and expense to construct an afterlife for us? Or is God actually the size of a bacterium, battling good and evil on the battlefield of surface proteins, and thus unaware of humans, who are merely the nutritional substrate? Mostly, the author underscores in Will-'o-the-Wisp, humans desperately want to matter, and in afterlife search out the ripples left in our wake. Eagleman's turned out a well-executed and thought-provoking book. "(Feb.)" Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Dead Men's Dust
by Matt Hilton
Published 2009 by William Morrow & Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780061717147

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Jacket Notes:

This electrifying debut in a new series featuring ex-military officer Joe Hunter is a dose of pure rocket fuel. Starts fast, gets faster, and doesn't quit right through to the slam bang finale (Christopher Reich, author of "Rules of Deception"). The electrifying debut of ex-military officer and all-around tough guy Joe Hunter, who is on the trail of his missing and estranged brother . . . and the madman who may have taken him Joe Hunter solves problems. Or, as he likes to put it, he's "the weapon sent in when all the planning is done and all that's left is the ass kicking." And as a former military operative and ex-CIA agent, he's good at what he does. But when he's told that his brother--with whom he hasn't been on the best of terms--has disappeared, he learns that everything he's faced before is child's play compared to what's coming. Tubal Cain is a killer--smart, stealthy, and arrogant--but he's also sentimental. His most precious possession is the set of knives he uses, and when one of them (his favorite Bowie) is stolen along a deserted stretch of highway, Cain will stop at nothing to get it back. Unfortunately for Hunter, the thief is his brother, a man who has been on the run from his own mis-takes but is now in the crosshairs of a seriously deranged man. To find his brother, Hunter must find Cain, and the chase takes all three men on a hair-raising journey across the country to a barren spot in the American Southwest, where bones have become nothing more than dead men's dust. With its cinematic pacing, nonstop thrills, and strong, charismatic hero, "Dead Men's Dust" introduces Matt Hilton as a powerful and irresistible new voice in thriller fiction.

Publishers Weekly 04/20/2009

Hilton's energetic but disjointed debut introduces British ex-soldier Joe Hunter, who after 14 years in counterterrorism now spends his time protecting those who need his help, as part hired muscle and part vigilante. Joe reluctantly agrees to track down his wayward half-brother, John Telfer, after his sister-in-law explains that her husband skipped out on the family and headed for America. As Joe and his friend Jared Rink Rington follow John's trail from Arkansas to the Mojave Desert, they come to realize that John's troubles run deeper than just unpaid debts. Interspersed are the musings of Tubal Cain, a man who claims to be the most prolific undetected serial murderer in America. When Cain's path overlaps with John's, it's up to Joe to bring his brother home alive and put a stop to Cain's spree. Hilton has an eye for action and gore, but can't quite wrangle his unwieldy plot. Hopefully, some of the many unanswered questions left at the end will be answered in the sequel. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Fifty Grand: A Novel of Suspense
by Adrian McKinty
Published 2009 by Henry Holt & Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780805089004

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This knockout thriller from a critically acclaimed author follows a young Cuban detective's quest for vengeance against her father's killer in a Colorado mountain town. This knockout punch of a thriller from a critically acclaimed author follows a young Cuban detective's quest for vengeance against her father's killer in a Colorado mountain town A man is killed in a hit-and-run on a frozen mountain road in the town of Fairview, Colorado. He is an illegal immigrant in a rich Hollywood resort community not unlike Telluride. No one is prosecuted for his death and his case is quietly forgotten. Six months later another illegal makes a treacherous run across the border. Barely escaping with her life and sanity intact, she finds work as a maid with one of the employment agencies in Fairview. Secretly, she begins to investigate the shadowy collision that left her father dead. The maid isn't a maid. And she's not Mexican, either. She's Detective Mercado, a police officer from Havana, and she's looking for answers: Who killed her father? Was it one of the smooth- talking Hollywood types? Was it a minion of the terrifying county sheriff? And why was her father, a celebrated defector to the United States, hiding in Colorado as the town ratcatcher? Adrian McKinty's live-wire prose crackles with intensity as we follow Mercado through the swells of emotion and violence that lead up to a final shocking confrontation.

Publishers Weekly 03/23/2009

Irish crime writer McKinty ("The Bloomsday Dead") delivers an intelligent novel of suspense about cultural identity. After a hit-and-run driver kills Alberto Suarez, a Cuban defector whos been working as a rodent exterminator in Fairview, Colo., his daughter, Mercado, a talented young Havana cop, feels duty bound to avenge his death. She obtains a visa to Mexico City under a false pretext and later slips across the U.S. border to get to Fairview, which has become the happening place for the Hollywood cognoscenti. Since someone has to clean up after the wild parties, drugs and general debauchery that keep the towns underground economy bustling, Mercado joins the silent community of illegal workers living on Wetback Mountain. As she investigates her fathers death, she discovers that his secrets, like those of Fairview itself, were far more extensive than she could have realized. In trademark fashion, McKinty winds up his provocative tale with a violent and memorable final act. "(May)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Little Lamb Lost
by Margaret Fenton
Published 2009 by Oceanview Publishing

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781933515519

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Social worker Claire Conover honestly believed she could make a difference in the world until she gets the phone call shes dreaded her entire career. One of her young clients, Michael, has been found dead and his mother, Ashley, has been arrested for his

Publishers Weekly 04/06/2009

Fenton puts her experiences as a social worker to good use in her promising debut. After toddler Michael Hennessy dies of a drug overdose, Claire Conover, of the Birmingham, Ala., Department of Human Services, doesnt believe the boys mother, Ashley, spiked his sippy cup. Ashley, who has a history of hardcore drugs and booze, had been working too hard to get clean in order to regain custody of Michael. Determined to find the real killer, Claire sets out on a course that could cost her career or even her life. Fenton paces her straightforward plot well, but her real strength is in the way she develops her characters relationships. A number of secondary playersan investigative reporter and a guy who knows his way around a computerpave the way for a sequel. With her fine ear for regional speech, Fenton may do for Birmingham what Margaret Maron has done for rural North Carolina. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Trust No One
by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz
Published 2009 by St. Martin's Press

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312534899

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The plotting is masterful. The story moves like a bullet as Hurwitz deftly interweaves his hero's soul-searching with his race to untangle a conspiracy reaching to the highest levels of government.--Andrew Klavan. Over the past two decades, Nick Horrigan has built a quiet, safe life for himself, living as much under the radar as possible. But all of that shatters when, in the middle of the night, a SWAT team bursts into his apartment, grabs him and drags him to a waiting helicopter. A terrorist-- someone Nick has never heard of--has seized control of a nuclear reactor, threatening to blow it up. And the only person he'll talk to is Nick, promising to tell Nick the truth behind the events that shattered his life twenty years ago. At seventeen years old, Nick Horrigan made a deadly mistake--one that cost his stepfather his life, endangered his mother, and sent him into hiding for years. Now, what Nick discovers in that nuclear plant leaves him with only two choices--to start running again, or to fight and finally uncover the secrets that have held him hostage all these years. As Nick peels back layer after layer of lies and deception, buffeted between the buried horrors of the past and the deadly intrigues of the present, he finds his own life--and the lives of nearly everyone he loves--at risk. And the only thing guiding him through this deadly labyrinth are his stepfather's dying words: TRUST NO ONE. Acclaimed for years by both critics and his peers as one of the finest thriller writers today, Gregg Hurwitz has lived up to all the accolades and expectations with "Trust No One," an electrifying and compelling novel that will be remembered for years to come.

Publishers Weekly 04/20/2009

Hurwitz ("Last Shot") blasts new life into a well-worn themethe prominent politician trying to hide a dark incident from his pastin this intelligent thriller. Late one night, the Secret Service snatches 36-year-old Nick Horrigan, who's led a quiet life since making a fatal mistake in his teens, and whisks him to the San Onofre, Calif., nuclear plant. There a terrorist threatens to set off a bomb unless he can talk to Nick, who hasn't got the slightest idea why he's been summoned. After the terrorist gets his head blown off, Nick realizes this and subsequent events are connected to the death years earlier of his Secret Service agent stepfather. Working with his homeless pal, Homer, and his computer whiz ex-girlfriend, Induma, Nick pieces together a string of clues that point to a paternity case against either the U.S. president, Andrew Bilton, or Sen. Jasper Caruthers, Bilton's opponent in an upcoming election. While more astute readers may intuit the bad guy, Nick's ethical dilemmas, girlfriend dramas and sleuthing provide plenty of excitement. "Author tour. (June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

06/01/2009 School Library Journal

Adult/High SchoolThis stand-alone political thriller starts out with a bang. Nick is kidnapped from his Los Angeles apartment by government agents and airlifted to a nuclear facility where a terrorist is threatening massive destruction unless he talks to Nick. Alone. It all leads back to the murder of Nick's stepfather, Frank, years before. Frank was his role model, part of the Secret Service detail guarding then-Vice President Caruthers. He was that rare government agent who couldn't be bought. Nick was framed for the crime by the government. At 17, he was told he could either disappear or go to prison. After years of running, he is back in LA determined to solve the murder. There are too many twists and turns to number, but suffice it to say that Caruthers is now running for president, and the stakes are high. This is a thriller with heart, anchored by a realistic father-son relationship. Teens will identify with Nick's struggle to find his place in the world. While he always believed in Frank's code of conduct, until now he walked away when the going got tough and never trusted anyone enough to ask for help. Now Nick refuses to give up his investigation even in the face of threats and violence. And he learns to be honest with his mother and with an intriguing ex-girlfriend. Nick's personal journey will hook genre fans as surely as the fast pace, cutting-edge technology, and political machinations."Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Home Repair
by Liz Rosenberg
Published 2009 by Avon a

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780061734564

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Prize-winning poet Rosenberg's debut novel is a bittersweet and moving story of a woman whose husband takes off while she is in the middle of a garage sale, leaving her to deal with loss--and maybe a chance at a whole new life. Can lighting really strike twice? Just ask Eve, whose husband walks out on her in the middle of a garage sale. Eve's beloved Ivan died thirteen years ago in an automobile accident. Her charming, boyish Chuck has taken a different exit out of her life: hopping into his car in the middle of a garage sale with no forewarning and departing their formerly happy upstate New York home for points unknown. Now Eve's a boat adrift, subsisting on a heartbreak diet of rue, disappointment, and woe-left alone to care for Ivan's brilliant teenaged son, Marcus, and Chuck's precocious, pragmatic nine-year-old daughter, Noni, while contending with Charlotte, Eve's acerbic mother, who's come north to "help" but hinders instead. But life ultimately must go on, with its highs and lows, its traumas and holidays, and well-meaning, if eccentric, friends. A house and a heart in disrepair are painful burdens for a passionate woman who's still in her prime. And while learning to cope with the large and small tragedies that each passing day brings, Eve might end up discovering that she's gained much more than she's lost. A poignant, lovely, funny, and ultimately uplifting story of love, family, and survival, Liz Rosenberg's "Home Repair" is an unforgettable introduction to a lyrical, wise, and wonderfully vibrant new literary voice.

Publishers Weekly 01/05/2009

Rosenberg, a poet and childrens book author, makes a clean break into adult fiction with the story of a middle-aged woman whose journey to independence begins at a garage sale. Forty-six-year-old Eves garage sale takes an unexpected turn when her husband, Chuck, goes on an errand and never comes back, leaving Eve to raise teenage son Marcus and nine-year-old daughter Noni. Drawing support from her sometimes helpful mother, old friends at the university where she works and new friendssuch as the man she meets in the park and a Korean graduate student and his nonEnglish-speaking wifeEve discovers the locals offer all she needs in her life. Rosenberg achieves remarkable emotional rangecomic to tragic, dysfunction to triumph, irony to wisdomfor an engaging, often touching story of survival on a heartbreak diet. "(May)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

House Secrets
by Mike Lawson
Published 2009 by Atlantic Monthly Press

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780802118851

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Dirty secrets, beltway politics, and divided loyalties threaten as Joe DeMarco's investigation spirals dangerously out of control. Filled with surprising twists, a captivating plot, and excellent characters both old and new, "House Secrets" is Lawson's best book yet.

Publishers Weekly 05/11/2009

In Lawson's excellent fourth Washington thriller to feature Joe DeMarco (after "House Rules"), the government investigator looks into the drowning death of a "Washington Post "reporter working a story involving Paul Morelli, a charismatic U.S. senator from New York. Morelli, the man most likely to be the Democratic candidate for president in the next election, stands for all that is liberal and good, but, unfortunately, after a couple of drinks, he morphs into a sexual predator bent on molestation and rape. To cover up this behavior, Morelli turns to a mysterious benefactor who persuades the women involved to deny the incidents; anyone who doesn't go along gets killed. After DeMarco's boss, Speaker of the House John Mahoney, tells him to get the goods on Morelli, DeMarco sets up an elaborate sting. The sting succeeds, but those who helped with the operation begin to turn up dead. The action builds to a stunning final twist. "(July)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Tails of Love
by Lori Foster
Published 2009 by Berkley Publishing Group

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780425227688

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Jacket Notes:

In this collection of 10 new stories, bestselling writers celebrate their animal friends and explore the many mysterious ways pets bring love into their humans' lives. Ten all-new stories that celebrate our animal friends, by bestselling and award-winning authors.

From Seeing Eye dogs to the cat who cuddles in your lap, animals are there for us in more ways than we can count. Helping us get through the day with a wag of the tail and a tilt of the head, they let us know that someone is on our sideano matter what. They also have an amazing ability to break down barriers between people; bringing families and loved ones closer, and giving strangers an excuse to strike up a conversation. In "Tails of Love," each writer draws from her own unique perspective on our loyal friendsaexploring the many mysterious ways they bring love into our lives.

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People
by Farahad Zama
Published 2009 by Putnam Adult

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780399155581

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Zama's thoroughly entertaining debut novel captivates and delights. In marrying a uniquely Indian tale of culture and tradition to a universal story of family bonds . . . Zama has arranged a perfect match.--Jennifer Chiaverini, author of the Elm Creek Quilts novels. Alexander McCall Smith meets Jane Austen in this delightfully charming Indian novel about finding love.

What does an Indian man with a wealth of common sense do when his retirement becomes too monotonous for him to stand? Open a marriage bureau of course!

With a steady stream of clients to keep him busy, Mr. Ali sees his new business flourish as the indomitable Mrs. Ali and his careful assistant, Aruna, look on with vigilant eyes. Thereas the man who wants a tall son-in-law because his daughter is short; the divorced woman who ends up back with her ex-husband; a salesman who canat seem to sell himself; and a wealthy, young doctor for whom no match is ever perfect. But although his clients go away happy, little does Mr. Ali know that his esteemed Aruna hides a tragedy in her pastaa misfortune that the bureau, as luck would have it, serendipitously undoes.

Bursting with the color and allure of India, and with a cast of endearing characters, "The Marriage Bureau for Rich People" has shades of Jane Austen and Alexander McCall Smith but with a resonance and originality entirely its own. Farahadas effortless style reveals a country still grappling with the politics of caste, religion, and civil unrest, all the while delivering a shamefully delightful read.

Publishers Weekly 04/13/2009

A thriving arranged-marriage bureau in contemporary India resides at the heart of Zama's charming debut. The customers who visit Mr. Ali's bureaua project he began in retirement to pass the timeare mostly pragmatists: they look for mates based on height, complexion, caste, economic status and religion. As business picks up, Mr. Ali, a Muslim, takes on a young assistant, Aruna, a poor Hindu girl, who helps him formulate happy unions. While the bureau prospers, Mr. Ali and his wife contend with their headstrong son, a human rights advocate who worries them constantly, and Aruna faces her dismal home life and a handsome young client who may want more from her than lists of potential matches. Zama's strength is in showing the love that makes the matchmaking system possible, looking at the reciprocity, trust and devotion that underlie marriage. Though the dialogue can tend toward the wooden and some problems work out too tidily, Zama's delightful world of mid-morning tea breaks, afternoon siestas, picnics in mango groves and meddlesome aunties is a pleasant place to hang out. "(June)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Whispers of the Dead
by Simon Beckett
Published 2009 by Delacorte Press

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780385340069

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The #1 internationally bestselling author of "Written in Bone" and "The Chemistry of Death" thrusts forensic anthropologist David Hunter into his first murder investigation on U.S. soil. A field of corpses, laid out in a macabre display...A serial killer who confounds even the most seasoned profilers...A doctor whose life has been shattered by crime--plunged into the heart of a shocking investigation... In this masterful new novel by Simon Beckett, #1 internationally bestselling author of" "Written in Bone and The Chemistry of Death," "forensic anthropologist David Hunter is thrust into his first murder investigation on U.S. soil--and his most devastating case yet.

In the heat of a Tennessee summer, Dr. Hunter has come to Knoxville's legendary "Body Farm"--the infamous field laboratory where law enforcement personnel study real corpses--to escape London and the violence that nearly destroyed his life. He's also here to find out if he's still up to the job of sorting through death in all its strange and terrible forms.... Hunter will soon find his answer when he's called to a crime scene in a remote Smoky Mountain cabin--a scene as grisly as it is bizarre.

The body is taped to a table. Everything about the crime scene--the wounds, the decomposition, the microscopic evidence--quickly short-circuits the tools and methods of forensic experts. Within days, Hunter knows he's dealing with a serial killer, someone intimately familiar with the intricacies of forensics. All around him, egos and hierarchies clash--from the boasts of a renowned criminal profiler to the dogged work of a young female investigator--but fate keeps pushing Hunter further into the heart of the manhunt. And the killer keeps coming up with surprises: booby-trapping corpses, faking times of death, swapping bodies--finally turning his sights on after Hunter himself....

An electrifying race against time, a fascinating journey into the world of forensic science, and a terrifying portrait of a killer in love with death itself," " Whispers of the Dead is a thriller of the highest order.

Publishers Weekly 03/23/2009

Becketts third thriller to feature Dr. David Hunter, who was almost stabbed to death in 2007s "Written in Bone", takes Hunter from his familiar British surroundings to Tennessees legendary Body Farm, where researchers study how corpses decompose. When evidence surfaces that a serial killer is at large, Hunters mentor and Body Farm director, Tom Lieberman, enlists his help in tracking down the culprit. After the killer abducts profiler Alex Irving, fears escalate that future victims will include other members of the investigating team.Still traumatized by his brush with death and unsure of the validity of his instincts, Hunter takes a while to hit his stride. As in "Written in Bone", Beckett ratchets up the suspense by inserting short sections from the murderers perspective, and keeps the tension taut to the end with a late twist. While the final revelation wont surprise everyone, this entry reinforces the authors place in the front rank of forensic crime novelists. "(May)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.