The Killing Ground
by Jack Higgins
Published 2008 by Putnam Publishing Group

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780399153808

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly

Higgins (Without Mercy) knows how to fire up a thriller. In the first half-dozen pages, he establishes his London locale; reintroduces recurring lead Sean Dillon, the colorful former IRA man turned British intelligence antiterrorism op; has Sean shoot a smalltime hood's ear off; and intimates there are much bigger fish to fry beyond the hood's Russian employer. The real villain is a Muslim extremist of the al-Qaeda variety: Hussein Rashid, aka the Hammer of God, and one of the most successful assassins alive, with 27 certified kills of American and British soldiers and Iraqi politicians. Hussein has his sights set on Charles Ferguson, head of British intelligence. It's a longstanding grudge, complicated by the recent kidnapping of Hussein's promised bride, his 13-year-old cousin Sara, who was earlier kidnapped by Hussein himself. The proceedings are complicated; it helps if the reader is a veteran of this long-running series. But it's all pure Higgins: almost every shot hits square between the eyes, and all the characters are hard lads indeed.

The Death Dealer
by Heather Graham
Published 2008 by Mira Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780778325321

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly

A serial killer fixated on Edgar Allan Poe stalks New York City in this captivating paranormal romantic thriller from bestseller Graham (The Last Noel). When philanthropist Genevieve O'Brien hires PI Joe Connolly to investigate the murder of Thorne Bigelow, a member of the New York Poe Society, to which Gen's mother also belongs, Joe is initially reluctant to take the case. He's worried about his recently discovered knack for hearing dead people talk, though this psychic gift will come in handy when Joe starts checking out the surviving "Ravens," whose numbers are dwindling fast. The romance that develops between Joe and Gen simmers subtly in the background, never overshadowing the pursuit of the culprit. Some helpful ghosts enhance a sinister tale sure to appeal to fans across multiple genre lines.

The Forgery of Venus
by Michael Gruber
Published 2008 by William Morrow & Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780060874483

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly

Bestseller Gruber (The Book of Air and Shadows) probes the boundaries between sanity and madness in his outstanding sixth novel. Talented Chaz Wilmot, who makes a modest living as a commercial artist in New York City, can't say no when Mark Slade, his former Columbia roommate who now owns a downtown gallery, offers him $150,000 to fix a ruined Tiepolo ceiling in a Venetian palazzo ("the ceiling had essentially collapsed, so it wasn't a restoration job exactly but more like a reproducing job"). Once abroad, Wilmot gets sucked into an increasingly bizarre world where his own identity is confused and the art he produces may be a forgery but is genuinely magnificent. Is Wilmot crazy or is he being manipulated in a grandiose scheme linked to unrecovered art stolen by the Nazis?

Losing You
by Nicci French
Published 2008 by St. Martin's Minotaur

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312375386

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly

A mother fights to keep her composure as she hunts for her missing child in this nuanced, literate thriller from the husband-wife writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French (Killing Me Softly). Shortly before Christmas, Nina Landry, a divorced mother of two living on isolated Sandling Island somewhere in the south of England, is getting ready for a family vacation in Florida that will include her new marine biologist boyfriend. Blindsided by a surprise 40th birthday party, Nina is further disconcerted when her 15-year-old daughter, Charlie, who was supposed to help with the packing, fails to come home from a slumber party. Nina's seamless first-person account of the next 24 hours mines the frustration and feelings of helplessness that come with any investigation slowed by the rigmarole of police work. This engrossing read captures the importance of the often overlooked and underappreciated minutiae of everyday life while commanding a deeply personal reaction in readers.

Delusion
by Peter Abrahams
Published 2008 by William Morrow & Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780061137990

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly

Mistaken identity and a decades-old coverup collide in this underwhelming Southern thriller from Abrahams (Nerve Damage) set in the wake of a Katrina-like hurricane. Nell Jarreau's eyewitness testimony sent Alvin "Pirate" DuPree to prison for the murder of her then-boyfriend, Johnny Blanton. Twenty years later, Nell is shocked when a mysterious tape surfaces that exonerates DuPree. Warned by her husband, Clay--the lead detective on Johnny's case and now the chief of police of Belle Ville, a New Orleans-like city--to leave the case alone, Nell is haunted by her role in imprisoning an innocent man. When an old reporter friend resurfaces to research the DuPree story, and Nell's daughter, Norah, who is Johnny's biological child, starts behaving oddly, Nell realizes she must uncover Johnny's true killer before her life spins out of control.

Goodbye, Ms. Chips
by Dorothy Cannell
Published 2008 by St. Martin's Minotaur

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312343385

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly

At the start of Cannell's meandering 13th Ellie Haskell mystery (after 2007's Withering Heights), Ellie's dear friend Dorcas Critchley, the game's mistress at St. Roberta's boarding school, asks the amateur sleuth to investigate the theft of the Loverly Cup, a trophy awarded annually by "Lady Loverly of the Hall at Upper Swan-Upping to the winner of the area schools' lacrosse championship match." A former "inmate" of St. Roberta's, Ellie returns to campus, where she's forced to rub shoulders with old classmates she would rather avoid. The suspicious death of Marilyn Chips, a retired coach whose skills enabled the school to retain the trophy for many years, makes the loss of the Loverly Cup, if not irrelevant, certainly less important. Ellie and her housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy, enchant as always, though the student characters, in particular Ellie's precocious detecting pal, 14-year-old Ariel Hopkins, may strike some readers as too adult. Witty dialogue helps offset the slow pacing of this alternately funny and stodgy cozy.

Cheating at Solitaire
by Jane Haddam
Published 2008 by St. Martin's Minotaur

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780312343088

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly

At the start of Haddam's stellar 22nd Gregor Demarkian whodunit (after 2007's Glass Houses), Demarkian is finally about to marry his longtime significant other, Bennis Hannaford. When the extensive wedding preparations take their toll, the detective welcomes the chance to leave his native Philadelphia and investigate a high-profile crime on the Martha's Vineyard-like island of Margaret's Harbor, where Arrow Normand, a Britney Spears-like pop icon, and her current boyfriend, Mark Anderman, had been filming a movie. During a raging nor'easter, Anderman was shot to death and Normand later arrested as the prime suspect. Plunged into the world of superficial celebrities, the traditional Demarkian struggles to identify the motive behind the murder as well as solve the bizarre mutilation of a local photojournalist and yet another killing. Haddam provides a completely fair and logical solution, even if it's not her twistiest, and to her credit, she examines the shallow lives of Normand and her crowd with some sympathy.

Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
by James Lee Burke
Published 2008 by Simon & Schuster

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416548522

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly

Dave Robicheaux and his former partner, Clete Purcel, find trouble in western Montana in bestseller Burke's fine 17th novel to feature the New Iberia, La., sheriff's deputy (after Tin Roof Blowdown). When two security men for Texas oil millionaire Ridley Wellstone deliberately drive over Clete's fishing gear after Clete inadvertently fishes on Wellstone's private land, Clete recognizes one of them as a former associate of a mob boss who died in a plane crash years before. Soon afterward, a University of Montana coed and her boyfriend are murdered near the home where Dave and Clete are staying. Then an escaped convict from Texas turns up, pursued by a vengeful prison guard determined to return him to prison. Lyrical passages describing the Montana landscape contrast with the subtle but intense way Burke depicts the violence and perversity lurking in his characters' hearts.