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 Publishers Weekly

The 2008 Republican convention serves as the backdrop for bestseller Sandford's amped-up, ultra-violent 19th thriller to feature Lucas Davenport of the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (after "Phantom Prey"). An assassination plot aimed at John McCain turns out to be just a sidebar to another criminal operation extremely slick thieves have come to the twin cities to rob Republican political operatives loaded down with millions of dollars of street money, illegal handouts for low-level campaign workers. Mastermind Rosie Cruz handles the gang's complicated planning, while gangster Brutus Cohn does the robbery and killing aided by a couple of lesser thugs. A subplot involving Davenport's teenage ward, Letty West, who's provided interesting complications in the series, establishes her as a brave and intrepid investigator. A slam-bang shootout climax proves that Davenport still has what it takes when it comes to guts and gunplay. Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. 

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 Publishers Weekly

Bestsellers Preston and Child kill off a regular supporting character at the outset of this suspenseful tale of urban terror, their ninth to feature FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast (after "The Wheel of Darkness"). William Smithback, a" New York Times" reporter, and his wife, Nora Kelly, an anthropologist with the New York Museum of Natural History, are celebrating their first anniversary when Smithback is fatally stabbed in their Manhattan apartment, apparently by a creepy neighbor, Colin Fearing, an out-of-work British actor. Given eyewitness descriptions of the killer, including one from Kelly herself, as well as surveillance footage showing a blood-stained Fearing emerging from the apartment building right after the crime, the case appears to be open and shutuntil Pendergast and his NYPD ally, Lt. Vincent DAgosta, learn that Fearing died almost two weeks earlier. This taut page-turner can only add to the authors growing fan base. Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. 

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Find this book in our catalog.

Publishers Weekly

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse braces herself for trouble when another group of supernatural beings goes public in her disjointed eighth adventure (after 2008's "From Dead to Worse"). Following the vampires' lead, the shape-shifters decide to step out of the woodwork and announce their existence to the world. While the initial reveal goes smoothly, the brutal crucifixion of a young werepanther behind the local bar makes Sookie wonder if the people of Bon Temps, La., are as tolerant as she thought. Meanwhile, the FBI is asking questions about Sookie's uncanny ability to locate survivors after an explosion, and trouble is brewing among the secretive fae. Harris tries to cram too much into a single story, and even die-hard fans of Sookie's adventures in print and on HBO's "True Blood" will complain about the plot gaps.  Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. 

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 Publishers Weekly

Briggs makes a well-deserved move into hardcover with the rousing fourth adventure for kick-ass were-coyote auto mechanic Mercedes Thompson. Healing in body and spirit after the events of 2008's "Iron Kissed", Mercy is preparing to marry alpha werewolf Adam Hauptman when an old friend asks her to help fend off a nasty ghost. It's a good time for Mercy to leave Portland, Ore.: vampire queen Marsilia is after her and her vampire friend Stefan for successfully hunting down a monster that should have killed them. Mercy leaves Adam to negotiate peace with Marsilia and heads to Spokane, Wash., to investigate the ghost, an unexpectedly complicated task. Though action supersedes characterization, the preternatural culture of vampire seethes and wolf pack politics is deeply intriguing. Briggs provides plenty of detail about Mercy's complex world without boring info-dumps, satisfying both new and longtime readers.  Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The collision of truth and fiction can result in romance or even redemptionor so say the writing exercises and life lessons that make up Breens debut novel. For years, Arabella Hickss love life, like her writing life, has felt flat and fruitless. Still, the 38-year-old copy editor and part-time teacher can summon neither the drive to date nor the wherewithal to finish her novel, "Courting Disaster", now seven years in the rewriting. Shes anxious about her mother, Vera, whom she visits in a nursing home every Wednesday after teaching her writing class. Worried about Veras Parkinsons diseaseand still grieving her fathers deathArabella discovers her personal fears seeping into classroom discussions of plot, point of view and dialogue. One student, the well-spoken, well-to-do Chuck, begins a relationship with Arabella and thus installs himself into the mother-daughter drama. Breen, a writing instructor, sometimes overplays her hand, but she does inject a dose of originality into an otherwise familiar setup. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.