Table of Contents
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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Seeing Stars
Lists of (mostly) hardcover books which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ).
The review journal assigns the star.
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Stellar All Stars
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure
Judas Horse by April Smith
The Importance of Music to Girls by Lavinia Greenlaw
Bonk by Mary Roach
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Overbooked is the winner of the 2008 Louis Shores - Greenwood Publishing Award: to recognize excellence in book reviewing and other media for libraries. The award recipient is selected for significant achievement related to a reviewing process that helps librarians make selection decisions.
Starred Reviews
Crime Fiction Stars of 2001
August 19, 2008
July - December
Titles are listed by approximate date of publication, then by alphabetically by author. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.
A
indicates an Overbooked
Jump
for Joy book.
December
- Agatha Raisin
and the Love from Hell
Author: Beaton, M.C.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312207662 Date: 2001
Booklist
Recently married to James Lacey, amateur sleuth Agatha Raisin quickly finds that marriage is not all it's cracked up to be. The newlyweds are living in separate cottages and each suspects the other of having an affair. When James turns up missing, a blood stain the only evidence, Agatha is determined to find her husband.
Suggested Reading: Amateur Sleuths | Traditional British
Updated 8/27/01 - The World's Finest Mystery
and Crime Stories
Author: Gorman, Ed and Martin H. Greenberg (ed)
Publisher: Forge $ 29.95 ISBN: 076530029x Date: 2001Publishers Weekly
Updated 10/25/01 - In and Out: Don Packham and Frank Mitchell
Author: Coward, Mat
Publisher: Five Star $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786230177 Date: 2001Booklist
When Arthur "Beans" Jones is found stabbed to death in his garden, Constable Frank Mitchell joins Inspector Don Packham to uncover the real dirt surrounding a killer.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 10/25/01 - The Slaying of the Shrew
Author: Hawke, Simon Publisher: Forge $ 23.95 ISBN: 031287894x Date: 2001Booklist
Shakespeare and Smythe join the ranks of Wolfe and Goodwin, Holmes and Watson, and, at times, Abbott and Costello, as this light-hearted pair of amateur detectives stumble in and out of danger and use their wits to survive both the conspiracies at hand and the cutthroat business of the Elizabethan theater.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars | Shakespearean Stars
Updated 11/21/01 - The Treatment
Author: Hayder, Mo
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385496958 Date: 2001Publishers Weekly
The troubled hero of Hayder's Birdman, which "gripped the mind even as it quickened the pulse" (The New York Times) returns in an expertly crafted chiller that brings him face to face with haunting memories and palpable fears.
Suggested Reading: Serial Killers
Updated 10/25/01 - The Richmond Diary
Author: Rawlinson, Peter
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312275536 Date: 2001Publishers Weekly
When Francis Richmond dies, he leaves behind a diary detailing the questionable involvement between a high-level government official and a millionaire industrialist. The resulting chain reaction leads to one man's suicide and a dirty court battle.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 11/29/01 - Eddie's World
Author: Stella, Charles P.
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 078670893x Date: 2001Kirkus
Eddie Senta has problems. Eddie finds himself not only implicated in a case of triple murder but also in a increasingly dangerous contest with the FBI, a ruthless killer, two New York City homicide detectives and a Russian mobster. Shrewdly plotted, hotly paced and often humorous, this high-voltage crime novel hurtles Eddie into a lot more excitement than he bargained for, as his crisis turns into a matter of midlife or death. - Adapted from the jacket copy.
Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled/Noir
Updated 10/23/01
November
- Rules of the Game
Author: Allbeury, Ted
Publisher: Severn $ 25.99 ISBN: 0727857363 Date: 2001Kirkus
Suggested Reading: Espionage
Updated 11/6/01 - The Last Man Standing
Author: Baldacci, David
Publisher: Warner $ 26.95 ISBN: 0446525804 Date: 2001Publishers Weekly
After a brief sojourn into historical fiction, Baldacci is back in the thriller mode. When his FBI Hostage Rescue Team is ambushed, sole survivor Web London has to prove his innocence.
Updated 11/6/01 - Whispers in the Dark: Marti
Macalister
Author: Bland, Eleanor Taylor
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312203799 Date: 2001BooklistPW
Homicide detective Marti MacAlister, and her partner, Matthew Jessenovik, are assigned a most unusual case--all they have of their victim is an arm. Meanwhile, Marti's troubled best friend Sharon is lured to the Bahamas by a man who makes Sharon's friends and family uneasy.
Suggested Reading: Cops | African American Stars
Updated 10/2/01 - Queen of Ambition
Author: Buckley, Fiona
Publisher: Scribner $ 23 ISBN: 0743202643 Date: 2001Booklist
In the fifth Ursula Blanchard adventure, the resourceful and independent Elizabethan lady-in-waiting goes undercover in a Cambridge pie shop to investigate a possible assassination plot against the Queen.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction | Queen Elizabeth I
Updated 10.24.05 - Walking the Perfect
Square
Author: Coleman, Reed Farrel
Publisher: Permanent $ 24 ISBN:1579620396 Date: 2001PW
An ex-cop, whose family life imploded because of an unsolved case that has haunted him and his wife for 20 years, receives a call from a stranger that may lead to resolution, and also supply the glue to patch his family back together.
Updated 11/27/01 - A Romantic Way to Die: Dan
Rhodes
Author: Crider, Bill
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 031220907x Date: 2001Kirkus
Sheriff Dan Rhodes has his hands full when a romance writers' convention--and murder--comes to Blackin County.
Updated 9/7/01 - A Fine and Private Place
Author: Davies, Freda
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 078670909x Date: 2001Kirkus
Back in 1940s wartime Gloucestershire, a young Gl stationed at the village of Tolland disappears. Fifty years later a skeleton is unearthed, bearing the Gl's name on the dogtag buried beside it. In the search for his killer the fresh corpse of another victim is uncovered. It transpires that this was a blackmailer--but of whom, and for what reason? Keith Tyrell, the fast-track Detective Inspector sent to Tolland, tries to get under the skin of the village and it ways. The repercussions of the Gl's untimely death are still felt by some of the inhabitants and the identity and secrets of the blackmailer are destined to shake up the quiet village life. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases | British Police
Updated 9/7/01 - Chasing the Devil's Tail
Author: Fulmer, David
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1890208841 Date: 2001PW
1907 Storyville. Cultures, races, and religions more often blend than clash in a rich gumbo only New Orleans could serve up. But trouble brews. In this red light district, prostitutes ply their trade whether in cramped cribs or elegant houses of French ancestry, while music surges through its streets and helps harmonize the light and dark elements. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: New Orleans
Updated 10/11/01 - Kaleidoscope
Author: Janes, J. Robert
Publisher: Soho $ 22 ISBN: 156947253x Date: 2001Booklist
December 1942. Jean-Louis St-Cyr and Hermann Kohler have been dispatched to Provence to investigate a local murder. A woman lies dead on a hillside, an iron-tipped bolt through her heart. The Proventals are uncooperative, fearful of Nazi reprisals. Before the murder is solved, the inspectors will be drawn into a web of collusion as intricate and shifting as the patterns of a kaleidoscope. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
Updated 10/12/01 - Breaking and Entering: Inspector
Ghote
Author: Keating, H.R.F.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312269528 Date: 2001Booklist
Bombay is buzzing with the murder of a millionaire found stabbed to death in his tightly secure mansion. Every inspector in the branch hopes to be the one to nail the killer, including Inspector Ganesh Ghote. Unfortunately, he is the only officer not assigned to the case..
Updated 10/25/01 - Tucker Peak
Author: Mayor, Archer
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967242 Date: 2001PW
An overworked sheriff and a string of condo burglaries at a luxurious upstate ski resort have Lt. Joe Gunther and the newly-minted Vermont Bureau of Investigation digging deep for clues. But it doesn't take long for Joe to find the most likely thief missing--and his girlfriend dead.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 10/11/01 - The Falls
Author: Rankin, Ian
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312206100 Date: 2001KirkusBooklistPW
A student is missing, a coffin is found, and John Rebus must match wits with a fiendishly clever killer as ancient and modern evils are brought together in contemporary Scotland.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Scottish Crime Fiction | British Police
Updated 10/2/01 - Ghost of a Flea
Author: Sallis, James
Publisher: Walker $ 23.95 ISBN: 0802733697 Date: 2001Kirkus
James Sallis brings the saga of Lew Griffin--private detective, teacher, writer, poet and black man in a white man's world--to its stunning conclusion.
Suggested Reading: New Orleans | Private Investigators
Updated 9/21/01 - Firebreak
Author: Stark, Richard
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967110 Date: 2001Kirkus
When the telephone rang, Parker was out in the garage killing a man. Someone from his past had hired a soon-to-be-departed assassin--and Parker wasn't one to give a guy a second chance. Another fierce and electrifying thriller from Stark's acclaimed series.
Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled/Noir
Updated 8/23/01 - Strawman's Hammock
Author: Wimberley, Darryl
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312271875 Date: 2001BooklistPublishers Weekly
Set in Florida, where an ancient woman could really be a witch, Barrett faces a horrible crime with a solution that continually changes shape. Politics, illegal immigrants and the body of a young woman are part of the elusive puzzle. - adapted from the jacket copy.
Updated 10/17/01
October
- The Best American
Mystery Stories 2001
Author: Block, Lawrence (ed)
Publisher: Houghton $ 27.50 (hard) $13 (trade paper) ISBN: 0618124926 (hard) 0618124918 (paper) Date: 2001PW
Updated 9/7/01 - The Final Country
Author: Crumley, James
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24.95 ISBN: 0892966661 Date: 2001Publishers Weekly
In his first case since the national best seller Bordersnakes, Milo Milodragovitch investigates the rape and murder of his new lady love's sister.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators | Hard-Boiled/Noir
Updated 9/21/01 - Flinch
Author: Ferrigno, Robert
Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375401253 Date: 2001Booklist
The author of the brilliant debut work The Horse Latitudes now pens an electrifying, darkly funny novel about the rivalry of two brothers and one's search for a serial killer.
Suggested Reading: Serial Killers
Updated 10/25/01 - The Cold Blue Blood: Berger &
Mitry
Author: Handler, David
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312280033 Date: 2001Kirkus
From Edgar Award-winning author Handler comes a fresh new mystery series starring a highly mismatched romantic duo who team up to solve the mystery of the dead man in the vegetable garden.
Suggested Reading: Amateur Sleuths
Updated 8/23/01 - Pale Horse Coming
Author: Hunter, Stephen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0684863618 Date: 2001Publishers Weekly
This thriller is set in the South like Hunter's recent bestseller, Hot Springs. When a friend disappears after heading off to Mississippi to investigate a secret prison for violent black convicts in 1951, Earl Swagger swaggers off and gets into trouble of his own.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
Updated 9/21/01 - Murder on the
Trans-Siberian Express
Author: Kaminsky, Stuart M.
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24.95 ISBN: 0892967471 Date: 2001Booklist
Back after the successful Fall of a Cosmonaut, Inspector Rostnikov of the Moscow Police Department finds himself chasing down an extortionist on the Trans-Siberian Express.
Updated 9/17/01 - The Good German
Author: Kanon, Joseph
Publisher: Holt $ 26 ISBN: 0805064222 Date: 2001Booklist
Set in Berlin in 1945, a brilliant thriller about the end of one war and the beginning of another is offered by the bestselling author of Los Alamos.
Sugggested Reading Lists: World War Fiction | Berlin Stars
Updated 8/1/01 - Lazarus Arise
Author: Kilmer, Nicholas
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1890208809 Date: 2001Booklist
Arriving from Paris in Boston's Logan airport, Fred Taylor, agent for eccentric art collector Clayton Reed, unwittingly grabs a smuggled treasure flung into the air by a dying passenger. Not until much too late does Fred understand that the treasure -- a medieval work of art whose subject is Lazarus -- is in his hands. And now he must undertake to discover the identity of the work, as well as of its smuggler and its rightful owner. At the same time (for word gets out, and fast) he must fend off the increasingly aggressive attentions of both institutional and private collectors--not least among them his own employer Clayton Reed. Fred's search leads to an encounter with the life work, and the sudden death, of the self-proclaimed subversive landscape artist Jacob Geist. During five days of golden autumn, the race to identify, and to account for the treasure, takes us back six hundred years, through the blood and torment of this century to the treasure's origin during the Hundred Years War. Throughout we are haunted by the seductive sweetness of the prevailing genius of Jacob Geist. As usual, Kilmer delights in skewering the pretensions of the art world while constructing a brain teaser. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 10/12/01 - Man and Wife
Author: Klaven, Andrew
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765302152 Date: 2001Booklist
Shrink Cal Bradley's life and marriage is the stuff of dreams. But when a troubled boy is sent to Bradley for treatment, it's the beginning of a journey into a world of fear, deception, and murder.
Updated 9/21/01 - Call Each River Jordan
Author: Parry, Owen
Publisher: Morrow $ 25 ISBN: 0060186380 Date: 2001Booklist
Confidential agent for the Lincoln administration, Abel Jones is dispatched to the South to uncover the truth behind the massacre of 40 runaway slaves. This new historical novel by the author of Shadows of Glory was chosen as one of the Best Books of 2000 by the Washington Post Book World and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars | Civil War Stars
Updated 10/12/01 - The Nautical Chart: A Novel of
Adventure
Author: Perez-Reverte, Arturo
Publisher: Harcourt $ 26 ISBN: 0151005346 Date: 2001KirkusBooklist
Love and betrayal on the high seas highlight this new work by the bestselling author of The Seville Communion. Coy is a suspended sailor with time on his hands, a mariner without a ship. While attending a maritime auction in Barcelona, he meets a beautiful woman on a search for lost treasure. As they follow the course of past sailors, their own journey becomes perilous as secrets await in the depths of the sea.
Suggested Reading: Sea Stories | Pirate Stars
Updated 8/1/01 - Death in Paradise
Author: Parker, Robert B.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399147799 Date: 2001PW
Detective Jesse Stone's post-baseball game celebration in the idyllic New England hamlet of Paradise is interrupted when the body of a teenage girl is found shot and dumped in the lake. It soon becomes clear the girl had a taste for the wild life--her parents never report her missing and don't claim her body. All Jesse has to go on to find her killer is a school ring on a gold chain and a hunch.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 7/18/01 - Aftermath
Author: Robinson, Peter
Publisher: Morrow $ 25 ISBN: 0380978326 Date: 2001PW
Set in Yorkshire, this Inspector Banks novel of suspense is a haunting tale of secrets, deception and murder from the Anthony Award-winning author of Cold Is the Grave and In a Dry Season.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 8/24/01 - Critical Space
Author: Rucka, Greg
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801325 Date: 2001KirkusBooklist
High-voltage, high-tech covert action is offered in an intense psychosexual drama as Atticus Kodiak is hired to be the bodyguard for the most dangerous woman in the world.
Updated 8/27/01 - Samurai Boogie
Author: Tasker, Peter
Publisher: Orion $ 13 (trade paper) ISBN: 0752836765 Date: 2001PWBooklist
Updated 9/21/01 - Sharkman Six
Author: West, Owen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743205421 Date: 2001PW
A gripping debut novel of modern war written by a former marine captain who has experienced it all firsthand.
Suggested Reading: Techno Thrillers
Updated 9.26.05
September
- All the Dead Were Strangers
Author: Black, Ethan
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24 ISBN: 0345439007 Date: 2001PW
From the author of Irresistible and The Broken Hearts Club comes the third gripping thriller featuring NYPD detective Conrad Voort, who now must tackle his most challenging case--and the most terrifying killer--of his career.
Suggested Reading: Cops | Serial Killers
Updated 7/16/01 - The Veteran: Five Heart-Stopping Stories
Author: Forsyth, Frederick
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312286910 Date: 2001Booklist
Five heart-stopping stories from a master thriller writer with familiar and deadly themes of murder, mystery, intrigue, deception and revenge.
Updated 8/27/01 - Closing Time
Author: Fusilli, Jim
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399147934 Date: 2001PW
When his wife and son are murdered, Terry Orr is left to raise his 12-year-old daughter, Bella. The killer is still roaming the streets of New York. Now, the only way Terry can cope with his pain and grief is to learn the skills of the P.I. trade--and perhaps discover the truth about the event that shattered his family. But the more Terry obsesses about revenge, the more Bella needs him.
Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled/Noir | Private Investigators
Updated 8/4/01 - Carter Beats the Devil
Author: Gold, Glen David
Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786867345 Date: 2001BooklistPW
Filled with historical references that evoke the excesses and enthusiasm of postwar, pre-Depression America, Carter Beats the Devil is the complex and illuminating story of one man's journey through a magical, and sometimes dangerous world.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Carter Beats the Devil web site
Updated 8/30/01 - Blood Sinister: Bill Slider
Author: Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312274858 Date: 2001Booklist
While investigating the brutal murder of Phoebe Agnew, a journalist who criticized police, Detective Inspector Bill Slider must put aside his personal feelings as he struggles to untangle a web of lies and hidden relationships. Slider discovers that Agnew was concealing a secret--one that her killer is willing to protect by killing again.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 9/21/01 - Catskill
Author: Hayes, John R.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312281536 Date: 2001Kirkus
On the eve of World War II, a small Catskill mountain town is rocked by the death of a local woman when a dilapidated farmhouse packed with refugee Jews is fired upon by three young men with rifles. Former politician Martin Collins investigates, and finds violent tensions seething below the surface of the entire town.
Updated 8/14/01 - Too High
Author: Hirschfeld, Corson
Publisher: Forge $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765300117 Date: 2001Kirkus
From the bestselling author of Aloha, Mr. Lucky comes the story of Hawaiian archeologist Digger Fitz, who arrives in Golden Leaf, Kentucky, for a reunion with his niece. But he has barely unpacked his bags when he becomes the prime suspect in a cousin's gruesome murder.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Carl Hiaasen
Updated 8/14/01 - Long Time No See
Author: Isaacs, Susan
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26 ISBN: 0060195703 Date: 2001Kirkus
She's back! After more than two decades, Judith Singer, the heroine of Compromising Positions, returns in a rollicking new novel. Singer's life has changed and she finds herself surrounded by crime and chaos when a prominent Long Island housewife vanishes into thin air.
Updated 7/2/01 - Pay Days
Author: James, Bill
Publisher: Norton $ 24 ISBN: 0393042146 Date: 2001Booklist
Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and his amoral superior ACC Desmond Iles face a political and personal dilemma when they suspect a police officer of taking bribes from underworld criminals Panicking Ralph Ember and Top Banana Mansel Shale. Is Nivette doing some unauthorized undercover work (as Harpur himself often does), or is he really bent? It's a question of intense interest to Ember and Shale as well.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 8/1/01 - The Earthquake Bird
Author: Jones, Susanna
Publisher: Mysterious $ 22.95 ISBN: 0892967420 Date: 2001KirkusLibrary Journal
A haunting first novel set in Tokyo, The Earthquake Bird reveals a murder on its first page and takes its readers into the mind of the chief suspect, Lucy Fly, a young vulnerable English girl living and working in Tokyo as a translator.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars | Debuts
Updated 9/17/01 - In a Strange City
Author: Lippman, Laura
Publisher: Morrow $ 24 ISBN: 0380978180 Date: 2001PW
Lippman's Tess Monaghan novel is an homage to the city of Baltimore. The plot hinges on literary history involving an anonymous figure who places brandy and a rose on Edgar Allan Poe's grave every January on the writer's birthday--until one year the mystery man is murdered.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 8/23/01 - Property of Blood
Author: Nabb, Magdalen
Publisher: Soho $ 23 ISBN: 1569472513 Date: 2001PW
The kidnapping for ransom of a beautiful American-born contessa poses Marshal Guarnaccia's gravest challenge. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: European Crime Fiction
Updated 8/10/01 - First Lady
Author: Malone, Michael
Publisher: Sourcebooks $ 24 ISBN: 1570717435 Date: 2001Kirkus
A woman's body has been found--murdered, mutilated, tagged, and addressed to Lt. Justin Saville V and Police Chief Cuddy R. Magnum. Now Hillston, North Carolina, has a serial killer on its hands.
Updated 8/14/01 - Billy Strobe
Author: Martel, John
Publisher: Dutton $ 25.95 ISBN: 0525946187 Date: 2001Booklist
Billy Strobe is a lawyer and an ex-con, a man who believes in the law but always seems to be on the wrong side of it. Working to clear the names of the two men he respects most in life, his quest for justice will ultimately force him to choose between loyalty and the safety of himself and a woman he has come to love.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 8/29/01 - Total Recall
Author: Paretsky, Sara
Publisher: Delacorte $ 25.95 ISBN: 0385313667 Date: 2001PW
In Paretsky's most mesmerizing novel yet, V.I. Warshawski probes a world of personal crisis, recovered memory, and international fraud with the hallmark grit and moral passion that have made her one of the most admired private investigators in contemporary fiction.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 7/16/01 - Cold
Author: Smolens, John
Publisher: Random $ 22 ISBN: 0609607944 Date: 2001LJ
Cold is unstoppable, unforgettable, and elegantly crafted fiction from acclaimed writer Smolens, whom Andre Dubus called "a wise and seasoned voice". In a style reminiscent of Jack London, it is the tale of an escaped prisoner in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Updated 8/24/01 - Lost Soldiers
Author: Webb, James H.
Publisher: Bantam $ 25 ISBN: 0553802143 Date: 2001LJ
Webb's new novel paints a portrait of a modern Vietnam charged with hopes for the future but haunted by the ghosts of its war-torn past. A novel of revenge and redemption that tells where Vietnam is headed and where it has been.
Updated 8/24/01
August
- Death on the Downs
Author: Brett, Simon
Publisher: Berkley $ 21.95 ISBN: 0425179532 Date: 2001Booklist
From Simon Brett comes a second mystery featuring the practical Carole Seddon and her bohemian neighbor Jude. While out exploring the South Downs of a wealthy town, Carole discovers the bones of a human skeleton, and soon she and Jude have two mysteries to be solved.
Suggested Reading: Traditional British
Updated 8/1/01 - About the Author
Author: Colapinto, John
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25 ISBN: 0060194170 Date: 2001Booklist
Cal Cunningham dreams of writing an autobiographical novel until his roommate beats him to the punch and pens a page-turning work based on Cal's life. When an accident removes the roommate from the scene, Cal appropriates the book and is propelled to success--until he discovers that someone knows his secret.
Suggested Reading: Author Author | Pyschological Suspense Stars
Updated 5/17/01 - America
Author: Coonts, Stephen
Publisher: St Martins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312253419 Date: 2001PW
The New York Times bestselling author of military suspense takes danger to democracy's doorstep. When an experimental nuclear submarine is hijacked in broad daylight, only Admiral Jake Grafton stands between the deadly cargo and its intended target--Washington, D.C.
Suggested Reading: Techno Thrillers
Updated 7/18/01 - Hard Road
Author: D'Amato, Barbara
Publisher: Scribner $ 23 ISBN: 0743200950 Date: 2001Booklist
Cat Marsala knows she's not in Kansas any more when she attends Chicago's centennial Oz festival and witnesses a harrowing scuffle that yields, once the confusion clears, the brutally stabbed corpse of the chief security guard.
Updated 8/1/01 - The Red Room
Author: French, Nicci
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24.95 ISBN: 0892967307 Date: 2001Kirkus
At the request of London police, psychologist Kit Quinn agrees to evaluate Michael Doll, a sexual predator who slashes her face. As she recovers, Kit has horrible dreams of a red room. Months later, Doll is arrested for murder. As Doll's obsession with Kit escalates, Kit is gripped with a paralyzing fear that the killer isn't Doll--but someone close to her heart.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 6/20/01 - The Surgeon
Author: Gerritsen, Tess
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345447832 Date: 2001Kirkus
Murdering women in the most obscene way imaginable, a sadistic killer--called "The Surgeon"--terrorizes Boston. A victim of a similar crime, Dr. Catherine Cordell, has created a careful facade that is about to crack as the unknown killer cuts ever closer. "Deep, dark, and very disturbing".--Tami Hoag.
Suggested Reading: Serial Killers | Medical Fiction | Medical Thrillers
Updated 7/16/01 - Cons, Scams & Grifts: A DKA
File Novel
Author: Gores, Joe
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24.95 ISBN: 0892965940 Date: 2001Kirkus
From the award-winning author of 32 Cadillacs comes a picaresque, action-packed mystery novel of modern-day gypsies featuring the author's most popular characters: the DKA private eyes.
Suggested Reading: Grift Sense
Updated 6/20/01 - Dead North
Author: Henry, Sue
Publisher: Morrow $ 24 ISBN: 03800978814 Date: 2001PW
A woman driving across the perilous backwoods of Alaska picks up a young hitchhiker, not knowing the boy carries with him a murderous and deadly secret.
Updated 6/8/01 - Maggody and the Moonbeams
Author: Hess, Joan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23 ISBN: 0743202295 Date: 2001Booklist
Arly Hanks--the wiliest chief of police in the Ozarks--is back on the case in Joan Hess's latest comedy-filled whodunit. And this time around, the intrepid sleuth just may have met her match: to her horror, she's been pressed into service as camp chaperone for the church youth group.
Suggested Reading: Summer Camps
Updated 5/17/01 - Selected Stories
Author: Highsmith, Patricia
Publisher: Norton $ 27.95 ISBN: 0393020312 Date: 2001LJ
A literary event--five noir masterpieces are offered in this landmark collection by the renowned author of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars | Hard-Boiled/Noir
Updated 7/5/01 - Dead Sleep
Author: Iles, Greg
Publisher: Putnam $ 19.95 ISBN: 0399147357 Date: 2001PW
A woman is drawn into the hunt for her twin sister's killer in this electrifying new thriller from the bestselling author of The Quiet Game. Jordan Glass, a photojournalist on a well-earned vacation in Hong Kong, stumbles upon a picture of her sister in repose--a painting which depicts her not in sleep, but in death.
Suggested Reading: Twins
Updated 6/8/01 - The Great Game: A Professor Moriarty
Novel
Author: Kurland, Michael
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 031220891x Date: 2001PW
A conspiracy of high-level assassinations threatens to destabilize all of Europe in 1891, and only Professor Moriarty stands in the way. Using his agents around the world, Moriarty must outwit his most cunning opponent ever while the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Suggested Reading: Elementary Stars
Updated 7/27/01 - The Grand Complication
Author: Kurzweil, Allen
Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786866039 Date: 2001KirkusPWBooklist
The anticipated new novel from the author of A Case of Curiosities, Kurzweil returns with another work narrated by Alexander Short, a reference librarian who takes on an unusual research assignment when he feels his passions--both professional and personal--waning.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Librarians
Updated 8/1/01 - The Chalon Heads
Author: Maitland, Barry
Publisher: Arcade $ 24.95 ISBN: 1559705701 Date: 2001Kirkus
When Scotland Yard detectives David Brock and Kathy Kolla are summoned to a venerable dealer of rare stamps, they expect a simple case of theft. Instead, they find themselves on the trail of an extortionist when they learn that the wife of Sammy China, an unsavory figure from Brock's past, has been kidnapped.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 7/27/01 - Smoke-Filled Rooms
Author: Nelscott, Kris
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312262655 Date: 2001KirkusBooklist
Leaving behind Memphis and the aftermath of Dr. King's murder, Nelscott's complicated hero, Smokey Dalton, has resurfaced a few months later in Chicago as he protects a young boy who knows the assassins' true identities.
Updated 8/1/01 - My Name is Red
Author: Pamuk, Orhan
Publisher: Knopf $ 25.95 ISBN: 0375406956 Date: 2001PWKirkus
In Istanbul, in the 1590s, the Sultan secretly commissions a great book, but any work of art--an affront to Islam--is dangerous. My Name is Red is a murder mystery played amidst the perils of religious repression.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
Updated 8/14/01 - Fatal Voyage
Author: Reichs, Kathy
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0684859726 Date: 2001LJ
World-class forensic anthropologist and bestselling author of Deja Dead and Deadly Decisions, Kathy Reichs goes behind the scenes of a devastating plane crash in an electrifying new thriller starring Dr. Temperance Brennan.
Suggested Reading: Crime Scene Investigations
Updated 7/5/01 - Black Water Transit
Author: Stroud, Carsten
Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385335784 Date: 2001KirkusPW
Acclaimed nationally bestselling author Stroud pens a novel of suspense that draws on the NYPD and that city's meanest streets. A tough, gritty look at what happens when a pretty good guy takes on the really bad ones.
Suggested Reading: Hard-Boiled/Noir | Cops
Updated 6/21/01
Wave and Die - Cardiff Dead
Author: Williams, John
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 14.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 1582341451 Date: 2001Booklist
A page-turning mystery as funny as it is darkly atmospheric. It's 1999 and Charlie Unger is dead. Once a champion boxer, then the heart and soul of a band called The Wurriyas, his death draws together the other members of the band, long since broken up after their one hit faded. Mazz makes his way up from England, nervous about facing Charlie's daughter Tyra since things ended badly between them years before. As Mazz tries to reconcile with her, the two of them dig into the suspicions that surround her father's death, unraveling a mystery that is connected to the very city itself. A brilliant portrait of a city poised on the brink of change, a story about the possibilities of righting past wrongs -- Cardiff Dead is a gritty, thrilling tale written straight from the heart. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 8/29/01
Author: Whitelaw, Stella
Publisher: Severn $ 25.99 ISBN: 0727857223 Date: 2001
Kirkus Classy and zany private investigator Jordan Lacey finds herself framed by her own investigations in this new sleepy seaside story of stolen waterlilies, vandalism, arson and another errant husband.
Suggested Reading: P.I. Stars
Updated 12/13/01
July
- Open Season
Author: Box, C.J.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399147489 Date: 2001KirkusBooklist
Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden -- especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way---is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. - Publisher marketing.
Suggested Reading: Wildlife
Updated 5/17/01 - Echo Burning
Author: Child, Lee
Publisher: Putnam $ 18.95 ISBN: 0399147268 Date: 2001
Kirkus
PW
Loner Jack Reacher returns in this follow-up to Running Blind, thumbing his way through the west Texas desert. He's picked up by Carmen Greer, a troubled beauty with a story to tell. She tells him about her husband, her family secrets, and a hometown that is pure gothic. Carmen also has a plan, and Reacher soon becomes a part of it.
Updated 4/19/01 - Tell No One
Author: Coban, Harlan
Publisher: Dell $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385335555 Date: 2001LJ
She was his great love, the woman he'd adored since they were children. But a few months into their marriage, Elizabeth Beck was abducted, then found dead, the brutalized victim of a serial killer. Now, eight years later, Beck receives a mysterious e-mail suggesting that Elizabeth may still be alive.
Updated 5/11/01 - Company: the Story of a Murderer
Author: Edge, Arabella
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23 ISBN: 0743213424 Date: 2001Kirkus
A crazed apothecary turns murderous when the ship he is traveling on sinks, leaving the survivors stranded at his mercy.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
Updated 6/20/01 - Seven Up
Author: Evanovich, Janet
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312265840 Date: 2001Booklist
In this seventh Stephanie Plum adventure, the bounty hunter is dropped into a smorgasbord of murder, kidnapping, and extortion--a magnificent buffet of fast cars, fast men, and fast food. Stephanie's mind is on other matters, however, because she has two proposals to consider: vice cop Joe Morelli is proposing marriage and fellow bounty hunter Ranger is proposing a single perfect night.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Janet Evanovich
Updated 5/17/01 - Ice Lake
Author: Farrow, John
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 037550141x Date: 2001Booklist
A thriller by the author of City of Ice features the brilliant, unorthodox Montreal detective Emile Cinq-Mars as he investigates an icy murder with ominous links to the international pharmaceutical industry.
Updated 5/17/01 - American Gods
Author: Gaiman, Neil
Publisher: Avon $ 26 ISBN: 0380973650 Date: 2001Kirkus
A master of inventive fiction pens the story of an ex-con who is offered a job as a bodyguard for Mr. Wednesday, a trickster and a rogue. Shadow soon learns that his role in the man's schemes are far more dangerous and dark than he could have ever imagined.
Suggested Reading: Cross Genre Stars
Updated 5/17/01 - A Traitor ot Memory
Author: George, Elizabeth
Publisher: Bantam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0553801279 Date: 2001PW
When Gideon Davies, a 28-year-old virtuoso violinist, finds himself center stage, unable to play, his tortured search for his music--and for the truth behind the appalling event that shaped his life--will lead him to the very heart of love's darkest manifestations.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 6/4/01 - Pipe Dream
Author: Jones, Solomon
Publisher: Villard $ 13.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0375756604 Date: 2001BooklistKirkus
Debut novelist Jones plumbs the depths of the drug world as four addicts are pursued for a murder they didn't commit. The story winds through the streets of Philadelphia as the four struggle to escape not only from the police but from the hungers that have all but swallowed them whole.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars | Debuts
Updated 5/17/01 - Under
the Color of
Law: Kevin Kerney
Author: McGarrity, Michael
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525946047 Date: 2001Kirkus
When Kevin Kerney is installed as Santa Fe's new police chief, he's welcomed with the brutal stabbing of the wife of a U.S. ambassador. Before Kerney can investigate, an FBI antiterrorism team takes over the case--forcing Kerney to watch from the sidelines as the case is closed with trumped-up evidence. Refusing to accept the FBI's whitewash, Kerney's hunt for the truth becomes more sinister.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 5/17/01 - Point Deception
Author: Muller, Marcia
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892966904 Date: 2001Booklist
Muller makes a major departure from her Sharon McCone series in this thrilling tale chronicling the investigation of murder in a cozy California town.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases
Updated 5/17/01 - Parallel Lies
Author: Pearson, Ridley
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 0786865644 Date: 2001LJ
Pearson's latest novel brings together all his incomparable talents and more in a riveting story about a grieving man's mission to bring down the railroad company he blames for his wife and children's deaths--no matter who else dies in the process. Tyler, the ex-cop who is looking to redeem himself after being suspended from the force, will stop at nothing to catch the perpetrator.
Updated 5/10/01 - The Music of the Spheres
Author: Redfern, Elizabeth
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399147632 Date: 2001Kirkus
In 1795 London, agent Jonathan Absey from the Home Office seeks the French spies that infiltrate England, but is haunted by the unsolved murder of his 15-year-old daughter. As he pursues both investigations, Absey stumbles across a strange society of astronomers looking for a long-lost star. Soon, their quest begins to merge with his own, and Absey finds himself discovering more than he had ever imagined.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
Updated 5/17/01 - Diamond Eye
Author: Rosenfeld, Arthur
Publisher: Forge $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312878710 Date: 2001Booklist
From the author of A Cure for Gravity comes a quirky new novel of a search by U.S. Postal Inspector Max Diamond for snuff films, exploited children, drug cartels, and Grandma's cabbage rolls.
Updated 6/20/01 - Hardcase
Author: Simmons, Dan
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312274971 Date: 2001LJ
With a wonderful, hardboiled cast of characters, Hardcase follows ex-P.I. Joe Kurtz's efforts to track down the Family's missing accountant--a man with too much knowledge to have on the loose.
Updated 6/25/01 - Concrete Desert
Author: Talton, Jon
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312269536 Date: 2001Booklist
Summer in Phoenix gets a lot hotter when unemployed history professor David Mapstone returns home to discover a world of danger and corruption.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases
Updated 6/20/01 - Shape of Snakes
Author: Walters, Minette
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399147330 Date: 2001KirkusLJPW
This New York Times Notable Book begins on a rainy winter night. It takes hours for a black woman known as "Mad Annie" to die in the gutter. It will take 20 years for the woman who found her to shape her neighbors' racism, the indifference of the police, and her own rage into the truth.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Psychological Stars
Updated 6/13/01
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