New Fiction Releases

November 2009

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General Fiction . Mystery & Detective . Romance . Science Fiction & Fantasy

General Fiction

A Blue and Gray Christmas
By Joan Medlicott
After being moved by the letters of two Civil War soldiers – one Union and the other Confederate – Grace, Hannah, and Amelia track down the soldiers’ descendants and invite them to a Christmas reunion in Covington, where the letters will serve as holiday gifts.

The Book of the Shepherd:  The Story of One Simple Prayer and How It Changed the World
By Joann Davis
A man has an old book translated, and upon reading it learns that the tome reveals the story of a shepherd who, upon seeing a boy beaten in accordance with the harsh laws of the land and having a subsequent prophetic dream, embarks on a journey to find “the new way” during which he meets several people, each of whom has a lesson to impart.

Breathless
By Dean Koontz
Isolating himself in the Colorado Rockies, craftsman Grady Adams encounters a pair of beautiful furred animals that challenge everything he and a local veterinarian understand about the natural world, a discovery for which they are targeted by government forces.

The Broken Jewel
By David L. Robbins
The best-selling author of War of the Rats tells a tale of war, love, and survival set against the backdrop of the U.S. 11th Airborne’s raid on the Japanese-run Los Banos prison in the Philippines – one of the most daring episodes of World War II.

A Christmas Blizzard
By Garrison Keillor
A wealthy and depressed man bound for Christmas in the tropics is abruptly summoned home to North Dakota to visit an ailing aunt, arriving just in time to be trapped there by a blizzard.

The Christmas Cookie Club
By Ann Pearlman
On a snowy December night, twelve women meet for a cookie exchange, where they tell stories of the cookies they baked, stories that are emblematic of the year that has just passed and which focus on sisterly love and conflict, yearning for grandchildren, and other passages of life.  By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Infidelity:  A Memoir.

Christmas Jars Reunion
By Jason F. Wright
The author of Christmas Jars is back with a sequel about the importance of selfless giving during the holiday season.

Cincinnatus:  The Secret Plot to Save America
By Rusty McClure and Dave Stern
Matthew Thurman is on the run, framed for a murder he didn’t commit, and soon uncovers a government conspiracy that stretches back to America’s founding and involves Lewis Crosley’s search for a miracle cure 70 years earlier.

The Crisis, No. 12 (Dan Lenson)
By David Poyer
Assigned to improve an undisciplined patrol craft squadron in the Red Sea, Naval Commander Dan Lenson and his Tactical Analysis Group find themselves at the head of a humanitarian mission in famine-stricken northern Africa, where a young jihadist coordinates a violent insurgency.

Family Album
By Penelope Lively
Having dedicated herself to molding her family in accordance with her ideals, mother of six Alison finds her illusions wavering in the face of her husband’s emotional distance, long-repressed secrets, and her children’s respective confrontations with painful truths.

Ford County
By John Grisham
The best-selling author returns to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his immensely popular first novel, A Time to Kill, in a surprising collection of stories.

A Friend of the Family
By Lauren Grodstein
After his best friend’s daughter, Laura, sets her sights on his son, Alec, Pete Dizinoff sees his plans for a perfect son not just unraveling but being destroyed completely.  He then sets out to derail the romance and rescue his son, not foreseeing what repercussions his actions will have.

The Gift
By Cecelia Ahern
Despite job stress and a crumbling home life, workaholic businessman Lou Suffern gives Gabe, a homeless man, a job in his company’s mail room; but not only does the mysterious Gabe seem to be in two places at once, he’s also meddling in Lou’s private affairs.

Haiku
By Andrew Vachss
Abandoning his duties as a sensei after his reckless arrogance causes the death of a protégé, the war-weary Ho slowly attracts a motley band of followers before launching a desperate blackmail scheme that is complicated by the planned destruction of a building.

The Humbling
By Philip Roth
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Pastoral offers the story of Simon Axler, an actor in his sixties who has lost his wife, his audience, and confidence in his talent – and whose risky and aberrant desire points toward a dark and shocking end.

I, Alex Cross
By James Patterson
Determined to capture the psychopath responsible for murdering his niece, Alex Cross discovers that the young woman was a member of a dangerous group of people and was not the only one to have disappeared, a case that draws Alex into the heart of an underworld fantasy club.

Kindred in Death
By J. D. Robb
Investigating the brutal murder of her new captain’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Lieutenant Eve Dallas believes she is closing in on the perpetrator only to encounter a series of teasing clues that suggest the identities of several possible suspects.

Knit the Season (No. 3):  Friday Night Knitting Club
By Kate Jacobs
Dakota Walker – along with her father, grandparents, and her mother’s best friend, Catherine – visits her Gran for the Christmas holidays in Scotland, where the family members reminisce about Dakota’s mother, Georgia, recalling episodes that span from Georgia’s childhood to her blissful time as a doting new mom.  The story takes place a year after the events of Knit Two.

The Lacuna
By Barbara Kingsolver
Harrison William Shepherd, a highly observant writer, is caught between two worlds – in Mexico, working for communists Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky; and later in America, where he is caught up in the patriotism of World War II.  A gripping story about identity and the power of words by the author of the best-selling The Poisonwood Bible.

Larry Bond’s Red Dragon Rising:  Shadows of War
By Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice
A first installment of a new series is set in the year 2014 and imagines a world torn by climate change and economic and geopolitical chaos, where a new Communist premier invades a riot-marked China while the United States desperately struggles to prevent a nuclear war.

Liver:  A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes
By Will Self
A volume of interconnected satirical works is set in locations ranging from a London drinking club to an orderly Swiss city, and considers the impact of disease on the body’s largest internal organ, in an anthology that includes the stories, “Fois Humane,” “Leberknodel,” “Prometheus,” and “Birdy Num Num.”

New York
By Edward Rutherfurd
A tale set against a backdrop of New York City’s history from its founding through the September 11 attacks traces the experiences of characters from all walks of life who witness such periods as the Revolutionary War, the city’s emergence as a financial giant, and the Gilded Age.

No Less Than Victory:  A Novel of World War II
By Jeff Shaara
A conclusion to the trilogy that includes The Rising Tide and The Steel Wave imagines the Battle of the Bulge from the perspectives of Eisenhower, Patton, Churchill, and Hitler, as well as from an assortment of young soldiers.

The Original of Laura (Dying is Fun):  A Novel in Fragments
By Vladimir Nabokov
A landmark publication of the literary master’s unfinished final work is shown as a fragmented draft hand-written on 138 index cards that were originally requested for destruction and have been released by Nabokov’s son, in a volume that features removable facsimile reproductions.

Other Men’s Horses
By Elmer Kelton
Setting out to arrest a trader accused of killing a horse thief, young Texas Ranger Andy Pickard finds the case complicated by the trader’s honor-bound nature, a situation that makes Andy wonder if he is fighting on the right side.

Paying Back Jack:  A Vincent Calvino Novel
By Christopher G. Moore
Agreeing to follow a Thai politician’s “minor wife” to document her activities, private investigator Vincent Calvino wonders at his shady client’s tragic past and is unwittingly swept up in a vengeance plot for which he narrowly avoids being framed for murder.

Pirate Latitudes
By Michael Crichton
In a swashbuckling tale set in the 17th-century that was found among the late author’s files after his death, Crichton conjures the danger and adventure that confront English Captain Charles Hunter and his crew of ruffians as they set sail from colonial Jamaica to infiltrate the Spanish-controlled island, commandeering the galleon El Trinidad and its fortune in gold after a bloody battle.

The Pursuit of Other Interests
By Jim Kokoris
Cast adrift after being abruptly fired, workaholic CEO Charlie Baker is astonished to find his finances in shambles, his marriage on life support, and his son growing up too fast, a situation he initially denies while spending his days in an outplacement firm filled with quirky characters.

A Quilter’s Holiday:  An Elm Creek Quilts Novel
By Jennifer Chiaverini
The Elm Creek Quilters are home for the holidays, during which days spent hand-stitching heartfelt gifts for loved ones bring forth the true spirit of generosity and kindness, especially when Gwen gifts a quilt project to her mentor’s bone-marrow donor.

Rainwater
By Sandra Brown
A romantic historical novel from the best-selling author of Smash Cut centers on an independent woman who runs a boarding house in Dust Bowl Texas.

To Try Men’s Souls:  A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom
By Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen
The former House speaker and his coauthor in the best-selling Civil War and World War II series present a story inspired by the services of George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Jonathan Van Dorn during the Revolutionary War.

Too Much Happiness:  Stories
By Alice Munro
Nine new short works by the National Book Critics Circle-winning author of Love of a Good Woman include the stories of a grieving mother who is aided by a surprising source; a woman’s response to a humiliating seduction; and a nineteenth-century Russian émigré’s winter journey to the Riviera.

Under the Dome
By Stephen King
After an invisible force field seals off Chester Mills, Maine, from the rest of the world, it is up to Dale Barbara, an Iraq war veteran, and a select group of citizens to save the town, if they can get past murderous politician Big Jim Rennie  and his son, who hides a horrible secret in his dark pantry.

A Wish for Christmas
By Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer
Cape Light residents reflect on their past and future during the Christmas holiday, including David, recently returned home after serving in Afghanistan to find his widowed father remarried; and Lillian, who comes to the aid of a friend in need.

Wishin’ and Hopin’:  A Christmas Story
By Wally Lamb
The author of I Know This Much Is True shares a holiday novella that opens by focusing on a feisty parochial school fifth grader named Felix Funicello just as Christmas approaches in 1964, and then propels readers from the past to the present so that they might measure what America has gained and what it has lost in the interim.

The Wrecker
By Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
Investigating a series of attacks on the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Cascades express line, Detective Bell learns of the existence of an elusive saboteur who recruits and murders his own accomplices while engineering schemes of maximum havoc.

Mystery & Detective
(some titles may also be found in General Fiction)

Bryant & May on the Loose:  A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery
By Christopher Fowler
Drawn together again by a series of bizarre murders involving beheaded victims, the members of London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit search for clues beneath the medieval buildings of St. Pancras Church, where they unearth a disturbing history of Christian rites and pagan rituals.

The Cloud Pavilion, No. 14 (Sano Ichiro)
By Laura Joh Rowland
In the aftermath of a woman’s brutal attack in 1701 Japan, samurai detective turned chamberlain, Sano Ichiro suspects the true motives of a formerly exiled rival who has been oddly cooperative, a situation that is further complicated by a relative’s disappearance.

Council of the Cursed:  A Mystery of Ancient Ireland
By Peter Tremayne
Counseling a hostile Irish delegation to the Celtic church of 670 A.D., Fidelma of Cashel is embroiled in a politically tenacious investigation when one of the delegates is found murdered, a case that is complicated by the theft of a priceless reliquary and rumors of slave trade.

The Double-Jack Murders, No. 3 (Sheriff Bo Tully)
By Patrick McManus
After an escaped murderer sets his sights on Sheriff Bo Tully, the man who put him behind bars, Bo heads north to investigate the disappearance of two gold miners in hopes of flushing out the escapee as well.

The End of the Road
By Sue Henry
The award-winning author of The Refuge places Maxie McNabb and her miniature dachshund, Stretch, in their fourth adventure, where they must investigate a murder that shatters the quiet in their home town of Homer, Alaska.

Grave Secret, No. 4 (Harper Connelly Mysteries)
By Charlaine Harris
Sleuth Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver take a break from looking for the dead to travel to Texas where horrible childhood memories resurface, and Harper discovers what happened to her missing sister.

Holiday Grind:  A Coffee House Mystery
By Cleo Coyle
Coffee house manager and head barista Clare Cosi and her NYPD detective boyfriend discover the snow-covered body of a man dressed up in a Santa suit, and become convinced the death was more than a mugging gone awry.

The Long Division
By Derek Nikitas
Fleeing her unpromising life as a housecleaner to reunite with the son she gave up for adoption, an Atlanta woman embarks on an unlawful road trip with the teenage youth that is complicated by a drug-related double homicide.

Midnight Fugue:  A Dalziel and Pascoe Mystery
By Reginald Hill
In a novel set during a single October day, Andy Dalziel investigates the seven-year disappearance of Gina Wolfe’s husband, a former detective who may either be in a fugue state of amnesia or purposely fleeing suspicion over leaks in a case he was working.  The mystery is further complicated by loan shark Goldie Gidman and two henchmen from his past who are shadowing Gina.

Mirror and the Mask:  A Jane Lawless Mystery
By Ellen Hart
Taking a seemingly easy job in her first case as a fledgling private investigator, Jane Lawless attempts to track down the missing father of client Annie Andrews, a successful effort with unanticipated consequences.

The Morning Show Murders
By Al Roker and Dick Lochte
A debut mystery by the Emmy Award-winning television host finds celebrity chef Billy Blessing struggling to clear his name by solving the murder of his producer, who has been poisoned while eating a dish from Billy’s four-star restaurant.

Mrs. Jeffries & the Yuletide Weddings:  A Victorian Mystery
By Emily Brightwell
Inspector Witherspoon and his staff find their preparations disrupted for the Yuletide wedding of Betsy and Smythe when they discover the murder of a middle-aged spinster by someone hoping to make it look like a random crime.

A Rumpole Christmas
By John Mortimer
Five holiday tales by the late screenwriter and best-selling author feature the curmudgeon barrister and include “Rumpole and Father Christmas,” “Rumpole’s Slimmed Down Christmas,” and “Rumpole and the Christmas Break.”

Ticket to Ride, No. 8 (Sam McCain)
By Ed Gorman
Struggling with his father’s illness, his boss’s rehab, and the end of a relationship, small-town Iowa lawyer Sam McCain witnesses the return of his community’s first Vietnam casualty while reuniting with old friends at a Labor Day party that is shattered by a double murder.

The Vows of Silence, No. 4 (Simon Serrailler)
By Susan Hill
Chief Inspector Serrailler investigates a seemingly random series of murders targeting young women in the cathedral town of Lafferton, cases he is certain are related in spite of their varying methods of execution.

What Remains of Heaven: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery
By C. S. Harris
The latest novel featuring Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin focuses on a mystery surrounding the identity of two corpses found in an ancient crypt with possible ties to William Franklin, the embittered son of American statesman Benjamin Franklin.

The Widow’s Revenge, No. 14 (Charlie Moon)
By James D. Doss
When a local widow complains she is being tormented by witches, rancher and Ute tribal investigator Charlie Moon initially disregards the claims until the woman defends herself at the cost of her life, a situation that compels Charlie to look into covert activities on an adjoining oil company field.

Romance

The Christmas Clock
By Kat Martin
Reluctant to return to the hometown where she has found a new job and an apartment, Sylvia Winters remembers the fateful decision that culminated in a deadly accident, and must deal with feelings that resurface as well as a young boy’s determined efforts to buy a Christmas gift for his grandmother.

Home in Time for Christmas
By Heather Graham
When she rescues a man claiming to be a patriot soldier, sentenced to death by British authorities, Melody Tarleton takes the stranger to her parents’ house, where a little Christmas magic, some enchanted petals, and ancient potions take them on an unimaginable adventure.

Ice
By Linda Howard
The latest work by the award-winning author of such titles as Death Angel and Up Close and Dangerous finds a passionate love affair challenged by the holiday season and a series of unanticipated adventures.

Midnight Rainbow
By Linda Howard
Grant Sullivan, tough, masculine, and handsome, is a retired military expert entrusted with a mission in the Costa Rican jungle to find hostage and socialite Jane Hamilton Greer.  When Grant rescues her in a rather cavalier and physical fashion, no love is lost between them, but gradually their mutual attraction and passion becomes apparent and the jungle smolders in more ways than one.

Science Fiction & Fantasy
(some titles may also be found in General Fiction)

The Atlantis Code
By Charles Brokaw
When the ancient ruins of Atlantis are discovered along the Spanish coast, linguist and archaeologist Thomas Lourds joins a violent competition to be the first of its explorers, an effort marked by a series of puzzles that must be solved in order to gain entry into the lost civilization.

Burn Me Deadly:  An Eddie LaCrosse Novel
By Alex Bledsoe
Left for dead by unknown assailants who have murdered a woman he was protecting, swordsman-for-hire Eddie LaCrosse sets out to avenge the attack and finds himself entangled in a mystery involving a notorious crime lord, a backwoods dragon cult, and royal scandals.

By the Mountain Bound
By Elizabeth Bear
Bear’s latest follows the prequel story of the Sea-born Children of the Light who guard their human charges from three old-world adversaries until the appearance of a sinister woman threatens their power.

Death Masks, No. 5 (The Dresden Files)
By Jim Butcher
Professional wizard Harry Dresden finds himself dueling a lethal champion of the Red Court being used for target practice by hit men, and identifying a handless and headless corpse, while his girlfriend struggles with her semi-vampiric nature.

Destroyer of Worlds
By Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
A tale set ten years after the events in Juggler of Worlds traces the reluctant efforts of the Puppeteers to counter onrushing alien refugees who are ransacking the planets they pass on their way toward the Fleet of Worlds.

The Gathering Storm, No. 12 (The Wheel of Time)
By Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
A first installment in a new arc in The Wheel of Time series follows the efforts of Dragon Reborn Rand Al’Thor to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in order to prepare for battle against The Shadow.

Heart’s Blood
By Juliet Marillier
When young scribe Caitrin is retained to sort through family documents at Whistling Tor, she discovers, and begins to unravel, a web of ancestral sorcery that has crippled Aniuan since childhood.

Makers
By Cory Doctorow
Applying their unique inventing talents to the creations of highly technological economic systems, Perry and Lester transform the country only to suffer a bust from which they recover by inventing interactive rides throughout the nation’s Wal-Marts, a comeback that is threatened by a jealous Disney executive.

Time Travelers Never Die
By Jack McDevitt
Shel and his friend Dave journey through history and time in search of Shel’s missing physicist father, but make a devastating discovery that changes their lives forever when Shel violates their agreement not to visit the future.

Torch of Freedom (Honorverse)
David Weber & Eric Flint
As the slave masters of Mesa plot against the Star Empire of Manticore and the newly liberated slave planet of Torch, secret agent Anton Zilwicki investigates a wave of mysterious assassinations.

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10/09