Table of Contents
Most Popular . . .
More . . .
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.
Out and About. . .
I'm playing around at Shelfari, LibraryThing, and Good Reads. I've set up links to my pages on these sites. And, yes, I have a hard time keeping up-to-date on these sites...
I've set up "shelves" from these sites on Overbooked - here
Overbooked is spacing out: Myspace: Overbooked and Crime Space - and, facing out: Facebook profile.
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: 2004
August 19, 2008
January - June
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless
otherwise noted.
A 
indicates an Overbooked
Jump
for Joy book.
June
- Bad Move
Author: Barclay, Linwood
Publisher: Bantam $ 22 ISBN: 0553803859 Date: 2004
PW
In one day, Zack Walter turns his model life into a model disaster--so, he's got to do some serious damage control before his wife gets home from work. Whoever said the 'burbs were boring will think again after laughing through this hilarious page-turner.
Updated 6.1.04 - Dead Lines
Author: Bear, Greg
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345448375 Date: 2004Kirkus
This gripping ghost story for fans of Dean Koontz and Stephen King is the most mainstream novel yet from an author who knows how to mix scientific ideas with gripping narrative.
Suggested Reading: Supernatural Stars | Ghost Stories
Updated 3.25.04 - Lazybones
Author: Billingham, Mark
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060560851 Date: 2004Booklist
Detective Inspector Thorne is on the trail of a serial killer who is preying upon serial rapists in the third in Billingham's chilling series.
Suggested Reading: Serial Killers
Updated 5.7.04 - Walking Money
Author: Born, James O.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399151699 Date: 2004Booklist
Filled with a rich array of characters, a constantly twisting plot, and an astonishing authenticity, this novel is indeed proof that "Jim Born is the real thing" (Elmore Leonard).
Suggested Reading: Debuts | If You Like Carl Hiaasen
Updated 5.7.04 - In the Moon of Red Ponies
Author: Burke, James Lee
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743245431 Date: 2004KirkusPW
New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke--"one of the best writers of our time" (The Denver Post)--returns with another tale of evil and redemption, featuring his beloved Texas lawyer, Billy Bob Holland.
Updated 5.24.04 - Cold Case Squad
Author: Buchanan, Edna
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 22.95 ISBN: 0743250532 Date: 2004Kirkus
Twelve years later after her husband's death in a freak explosion, a widow turns to Miami's Cold Case Squad to reopen the case and use new forensic techniques to investigate. Soon, they're faced with more questions than answers.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases | Florida Fiction
Updated 4.8.04 - Shakedown Beach
Author: Dezenhall, Eric
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24 ISBN: 0312307721 Date: 2004Kirkus
Jackie Disaster, an ex-boxer who runs the Jersey shore's most ruthless damage control firm, digs up the macabre truth about a New Jersey governor with White House fantasies.
Updated 5.10.04 - Ten Big Ones: Stephanie
Plum
Author: Evanovich, Janet
Publisher: St Martins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312289723 Date: 2004PW
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes the latest Stephanie Plum adventure. The fun shifts into fear when Plum is the lone witness to a gang-executed robbery and cop shooting. There's a contract issued for her head and a California-based killer looking to fill that contract.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Janet Evanovich
Updated 6.7.04 - Waking Raphael
Author: Forbes, Leslie
Publisher: Bantam $ 25 ISBN: 0553382810 Date: 2004LJPW
The restoration of an enigmatic painting unlocks unspeakable secrets and drives a mute woman to commit a shocking act of violence--which sparks an investigation into a nearly forgotten war crime and a series of events that will shatter the silence gripping this community.
Suggested Reading: Art Stars
Updated 6.7.04 - Full Dark House
Author: Fowler, Christopher
Publisher: Bantam $ 24 ISBN: 0553803875 Date: 2004Kirkus
When a bomb claims the life of his partner of over 50 years, Detective Arthur Bryant must revisit their first case to uncover the killer's identity. Fowler combines dark drama and black comedy in this deliciously sinister crime novel.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.25.04 - Secret Smile
Author: French, Nicci
Publisher: Warner $ 24 ISBN: 0446533475 Date: 2004PW
Miranda's sister has a new boyfriend who isn't the man he claims to be. Miranda should know because she broke off with him a few weeks previously. Like a virus, he starts spreading destruction throughout her life until Miranda realizes what no one else seems to--that behind Brendan's smile lurks a terrible secret.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 4.5.04 - The Tarnished Eye: A Novel of Suspense
Author: Guest, Judith
Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 0743257367 Date: 2004Booklist
The New York Times bestselling author of Ordinary People crafts a gripping, character-driven novel of suspense that explores the fragile dynamics of family in the aftermath of tragedy.
Updated 3.22.04 - Ice Run: Alex McKnight
Author: Hamilton, Steve
Publisher: Minotaur $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312301219 Date: 2004KirkusPW
P.I. Alex McKnight's romantic weekend with Natalie Reynaud turns into an investigation of a mysterious note and a terrible family secret.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 5.24.04 - Flesh and Blood
Author: Harvey, John
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 0786713593 Date: 2004Booklist
Retired Detective Inspector Elder is drawn back into the unsolved disappearance of a young girl when his prime suspects are released from prison and another girl dies. An increasingly desperate Elder battles his own demons as he and his family are drawn into the very heart of the crime.
Updated 7.13.04 - I
Dreamed I Married Perry Mason: A Cece Caruso Mystery
Author: Kandel, Susan
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060581050 Date: 2004Kirkus
Susan Kandel has written an adventurous, humorous debut novel that takes us on a well-researched romp through California's past and present, complete with turn-of-the-century robber barons and the haute couture of the '40s."--Barbara Seranella (Unpaid Dues and Unwilling Accomplice).
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Author, Author
Updated 3.25.04 - The Madman's Tale
Author: Katzenbach, John
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345464818 Date: 2004
PW
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of Just Cause and The Analyst comes a menacing depiction of long-dormant evil--a tale set in and around an asylum and told by a madman. Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars - The Hundredth Man
Author: Kerley, Jack
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 052594821x Date: 2004BooklistKirkusLJ
Recalling Michael Connelly's taut storytelling and James Patterson's searing narrative twists, Kerley creates a world where heroes can't succeed without madmen, and the dead are the most dangerous of all.
Link: The Hundredth Man web site
Suggested Reading: Psycho Killers | Serial Killers | Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 4.20.04 - Whiskey Sour
Author: Konrath, J.A.
Publisher: Hyperion $ 21.95 ISBN: 1401300871 Date: 2004PW
Between avoiding the FBI and its moronic profiling computer, joining a dating service, mixing it up with street thugs, and parrying the advances of an uncouth P.I., Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels must find a frightening killer who calls himself "The Gingerbread Man."
Suggested Reading: Debuts| Dating Stars | Rhyming Stars
Updated 2.1.05 - Country of
Origin
Author: Lee, Don
Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393058123PWBooklist
The mystery of an American woman's disappearance in Tokyo is intertwined with the mystery of her origins. Her best chance at being found may lie in the improbable hands of a neurotic Japanese cop ridiculed by his peers.
Suggested Reading: Asian American Stars | Debuts
Updated 5.7.04 - Darkness Falls
Author: Murphy, Margaret
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312328516 Date: 2004Booklist
A high-flying attorney and devoted mother is kidnapped and chained to the stone wall of a cold, dark cellar, but her assailant won't speak to her. As the police chase fruitless leads, Clara begins to suspect why her jailer has let her live so far.
Updated 6.10.04 - Queen of the South
Author: Perez-Reverte, Arturo
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399151850 Date: 2004BooklistPW
When Teresa Mendoza's drug smuggling boyfriend is killed, she must find inside herself a woman who is tough enough to inhabit a world as ugly and dangerous as that of the narcos--a woman she never before knew existed.
Suggested Reading: Drug Traffic
Updated 4.10.04 - Semiautomatic
Author: Reuland, Rob
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375505024 Date: 2004Kirkus
Antihero Andrew Giobberti, a prosecutor reckoning with his daughter's accidental death, has an opportunity for personal and professional rebirth: a murder trial. Soon the difficulty of playing things by the book become apparent.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 4.8.04 - Judgment
of Caesar: A Novel of Ancient Rome
Author: Saylor, Steven
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312271190 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistPW
In the late days of the Roman civil war, Gordianus the Finder is caught in Egypt in the midst of the last struggle between Pompeii and Julius Caesar, and between Ptolemy and Cleopatra while he searches for his missing wife.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Egyptian Stars | Adult Books for Teens | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 5.10.04 - She Smiled
Sweetly: Poppy Rice
Author: Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone
Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805072241 Date: 2004PW
When intrepid FBI agent Poppy Rice is asked to solve two cases--separated by thirty years, but connected by DNA--she finds herself snared in a web of political deceit, family intrigue, and out-and-out bad guys.
Updated 5.17.04 - Loaded Dice
Author: Swain, James
Publisher: Ballantine $ 22.95 ISBN: 0345463269 Date: 2004Kirkus
When his son goes missing in Las Vegas, ex-cop Tony Valentine jets after him and lands inside a treacherous game with higher stakes than he has ever encountered before.
Suggested Reading: Take a Gamble
Updated 4.8.04 - Wiley's Shuffle
Author: Waiwaiole, Lono
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 031230384x Date: 2004Kirkus
In Wiley's world, violence runs deep and loyalty runs even deeper. So when a prostitute named Miriam gets attached to the wrong guy, Wiley leaves the poker table, grabs his best friend Leon and starts looking for a way to shake her loose. Trouble is, the guy is a sociopathic pimp named Dookie who's on the lucky streak of a lifetime and who is starting to feel invincible.
Their quest takes Wiley and Leon to Vegas and L.A.-plus a few desolate, dangerous spots in-between-until they reach a brutal, vicious showdown back on the streets of the Portland they all call home. To Wiley, it's more clear than ever that the only things worth knowing are who's on your side and who's got your back. Wiley has emerged as one of the darkest yet most human characters in modern noir fiction, and Waiwaiole has hit his stride in" Wiley's Shuffle, a powerful second novel from a true talent. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 4.8.04 - Black
Author: Whitcomb, Christopher
Publisher: Little, Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316601012 Date: 2004PW
Special Agent Jeremy Waller is elated to chosen as a member of the FBI's most elite group: the Hostage Rescue Team. But Waller quickly finds that his missions are taking him off the map, off the grid, off the books, and into the world of black ops--where nobody is who they seem, and no rules apply.
Updated 4.12.04 - Birds of a Feather
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Publisher: Soho $ 25 ISBN: 1569473684 Date: 2004PW
Maisie Dobbs is back and this time she has been hired to find a wealthy grocery magnate's missing daughter. The case is complicated by the violent deaths of three of the heiress' friends. Maisie discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of The Great War.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 5.3.04 - While I Disappear: John Ray Horn
Author: Wright, Edward
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151982 Date: 2004PWBooklist
This stunning crime novel takes readers into Hollywood's underbelly during a time when the studio system was crumbling yet memories of the glory days were all too familiar.
Suggested Reading: Film Fiction
Updated 5.7.04
May
- Q
Author: Blissett, Luther
Publisher: Harcourt $ 26 ISBN: 0151010633 Date: 2004Booklist
Amidst the chaos of the Reformation Age, a young theology student adopts the cause of heretics and the disinherited and finds himself pursued by those keen to spill the blood of any would-be supporter of Martin Luther.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 2.5.04 - The Rule of Four
Author: Caldwell, Ian & Dustin Thomason
Publisher: Dial $ 24 ISBN: 0385337116 Date: 2004KirkusPW
When a long-lost diary surfaces, it seems Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris have found the key to a secret labyrinth. However, when a fellow researcher is murdered only hours after their find, the friends suddenly realize that they are caught in a web of great danger.
Links: Rule of Four web site | Overbooked Author Connections | If You Liked the Da Vinci Code | Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 3.15.04 - Fade to Clear: Allen Choice
Author: Chang, Leonard
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312308450 Date: 2004Kirkus
As Allen Choice investigates the abduction of his ex-lover's niece, he unearths links to drug smuggling and money laundering, and becomes the target of even deadlier forces.
Suggested Reading: Asian American Fiction Stars | Drug Traffic Stars
Updated 2.10.04 - The Enemy: A Jack Reacher Novel
Author: Child, Lee
Publisher: Delacorte $ 25 ISBN: 0385336675 Date: 2004LJKirkusPWBooklist
Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier's son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army's brightest stars. But in every soldier's life, there is a turning point. One case that can shatter a career or turn a lawman into a renegade. And make him question words like honor, valor, and duty. For Jack Reacher, this is that case....
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Conspiracy Theory | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.22.04 - Death Match
Author: Child, Lincoln
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385506708 Date: 2004Kirkus
In Child's latest thriller, former FBI forensic psychologist Christopher Lash is asked to investigate when seemingly perfect young couples begin committing double-suicides. The case leads him to a high-tech matchmaking company and brings him face-to-face with his own demons.
Suggested Reading: Dating Stars | Thrillers
Updated 3.11.04 - The Narrows
Author: Connelly, Michael
Publisher: Little, Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316155306 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Investigating what appears to have been the natural death of the husband of an old friend, LAPD detective Harry Bosch decides to dig deeper, given the man's ties to the hunt for the infamous serial killer, The Poet. What Harry discovers leads him into the most terrifying situation he has ever encountered.
Updated 4.12.04 - Liars and Thieves: A Tommy Carmellini Novel
Author: Coonts, Stephen
Publisher: St Martins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312283628 Date: 2004PW
A beautiful woman is being blackmailed, an illegal break-in occurs, and a massacre at a government safe house puts CIA agent Tommy Carmellini on the trail of a dark conspiracy.
Suggested Reading: Espionage | Conspiracy Theory
Updated 3.11.04 - Broken Dishes
Author: Fowler, Earlene
Publisher: Berkeley $ 23.95 ISBN: 042519597x Date: 2004PW
In the latest installment of the "breezy and¨ humorous" (Chicago Sun-Times) series, Benni Harper uncovers the remains of a murdered man buried in a shallow grave at a friend's struggling dude ranch. Now, she must keep the guests safe and happy while unearthing the truth behind the terrible crime.
Updated 4.12.04 - Caught Stealing
Author: Huston, Charlie
Publisher: Ballantine $ 21.95 ISBN: 034546477x Date: 2004Booklist
Huston's debut novel is "Tarantino meets Hitchcock meets Westlake meets Bukowski in a wild, relentlessly entertaining ride." -- Wallace Strobe, author of The Barbed-Wire Kiss.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 4.6.04 - The Taking
Author: Koontz, Dean
Publisher: Bantam $ 27 ISBN: 055380250x Date: 2004Booklist
Epic in scope, searingly intimate and immediate in its perspective, The Taking delivers a novel of surpassing suspense and visceral terror, telling the story of a small town's encounter with doomsday.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.7.04 - The Hamilton Case
Author: De Kretser, Michelle
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316735485 Date: 2004BooklistPW
Lawyer Sam Obeysekere's involvement in murder case that shakes the upper echelons of an island society makes a name for him, but sets his life on course for disappointment.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars | Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 4.12.04 - Past Due
Author: Lashner, William
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060508175 Date: 2004Booklist
A maze of false identities, missing corpses and resurrections bedevils Philadelphia lawyer Victor Carl in Lashner's riveting new thriller which delivers colorful characters, witty dialogue and nonstop suspense.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 1/10/04 - The Dead Sit Round in a Ring
Author: Lawrence, David
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312327102 Date: 2004KirkusPWBooklist
"Four people sitting in a ring. Two men and two women. All of them dead." Thus begins a case that will take DS Stella Mooney from the fabulous flats of Notting Hill to the decidedly tougher side of town. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 5.7.04 - Sleeping Beauty
Author: Margolin, Phillip
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060083263 Date: 2004LJ
With a blend of dizzying plot twists and thrilling suspense, Margolin creates a terrifying suspense novel about a young woman on the run from her parents' killer.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 2.2.04 - Old Boys
Author: McCarry, Charles
Publisher: Overlook $ 25.95 ISBN: 1585675458 Date: 2004LJKirkusBooklist
When crack intelligence agent Paul Christopher disappears, his ex-agent cousin enlists the support of four other retired colleagues to find him. Harassed by American intelligence and hunted by terrorists, they travel the globe in search of the unspeakably dangerous truth.
Suggested Reading: Espionage | All Stars
Updated 5.7.04 - Death of an Effendi
Author: Pearce, Michael
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590580664 Date: 2004Booklist
The latest in Michael Pearce's charming, award-winning series set in Edwardian Egypt. Cairo, 1909.The murder capital of the world, where deaths are two a piastre. But the death of an effendi? That is something different. Because effendis - the Egyptian ilite - are important. Especially if - in a country ruled by foreigners - they happen to be foreign. When Tvardovsky, an effendi and a foreigner, is shot at a gathering of financiers, Gareth Owen - the Mamur Zapt, Chief of Cairo's Secret Police - is called in to investigate. But is he the right man for the job? In some countries, if someone goes for a walk, or a boat ride, with the Head of the Secret Police and doesn't come back, it's best not to ask any questions. And there are powerful people who might have preferred Tvardovsky dead. As the maverick financier said, before going on the fatal shooting party, there were still crocodiles in Egypt. Of all kinds. And perhaps the place to look for them was Crocodilopolis, the ancient City of the Crocodiles, where the financiers were to hold their meeting. It is when the crocodiles start cooperating, said Tvardovsky, that you really have to watch out. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Egyptian Stars
Updated 6.10.04 - Southtown: Tres Navarre
Author: Riordan, Rick
Publisher: Bantam $ 24 ISBN: 0553801848 Date: 2004PW
Will "the Ghost" Stirman has just staged a bloody escape from prison with a gang of violent cons, leaving behind him a trail of brutal, unforgiving violence that will end in an area of San Antonio known as Southtown--but may soon just as well be called hell on earth.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 4.5.04 -
Author: Sandford, John
Publisher: Putnam $ 26.95 ISBN: 039915180x Date: 2004Kirkus
Six months ago, Lucas Davenport tackled his first case as a statewide troubleshooter, and he thought that one was plenty strange enough. But that was before the Russian with government connections was killed.
Updated 3.25.04 - Unwilling Accomplice: Munch Mancini
Author: Seranella, Barbara
Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 074324558x Date: 2004PWBooklist
Bestselling author Seranella pits her charismatic heroine against a puzzling organized crime ring involving exploited children, burglary and murder in this seventh installment of the Munch Mancini series.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Nina Zero . . .
Updated 3.22.04 - Live Bait
Author: Tracy, P.J.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399151478 Date: 2004PW
From the author of Monkeewrench, Live Bait takes every ounce of the first book's quirky energy--and runs with it. Minneapolis detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are bored until the current crime draught ends with a series of killings.
Updated 3.22.04 - Down Here: Burke
Author: Vachss, Andrew
Publisher: Knopf $ 19.95 ISBN: 1400041732 Date: 2004Booklist
When a former sex crimes prosecutor is arrested for attempted murder, Burke knows something is double-wrong and deals himself in.
Updated 4.6.04 - Tampa Burn
Author: White, Randy Wayne
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151818 Date: 2004Booklist
Marion "Doc" Ford hoped he'd left his violent past behind him long ago, but he knows he has no choice but to return when his son is kidnapped by a thuggish politico set on revenge.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction Stars | If You Like Carl Hiaasen
Updated 6.1.04
April
- Murder on the Leviathan: An Erast Fandorin Mystery
Author: Akunin, Boris
Publisher: Random $ 21.95 ISBN: 1400060516 Date: 2004Kirkus
Paris, March, 1878: When Lord Littleby is discovered in his rue Grenelle residence with his head bashed in, surrounded by the bodies of seven servants and two children who appear to have died from overdoses of morphine, the distinguished Paris police commissioner Gauche is determined to solve the case.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 2.23.04 - The Tumbler: Gabriel Du Pre
Author: Bowen, Peter
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312277334 Date: 2004Booklist
Gabriel Du Pre, the protagonist of Bowen's atmospheric, engrossing series set in the dirty, dusty Montana prairie lands, is besieged by a rumor about a parcel containing the lost journals of Lewis and Clark.
Updated 2.23.04 - Just One Look
Author: Coben, Harlan
Publisher: Dutton $ 25.95 ISBN: 0525947914 Date: 2004Booklist
From the manicured lawns of suburbia to a maximum security penitentiary where a killer has an extraordinary secret to tell, one tragic mistake from years ago will not be forgotten in this powerful thrill ride of a novel unlike any other.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 3.11.04 - The Accusers
Author: Davis, Lindsey
Publisher: Mysterious $ 25 ISBN: 0892968117 Date: 2004PW
The 15th novel in the popular series finds the "Sam Spade in a toga" confronting forces that threaten him and his family's financial safety.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 2.16.04 - The Holmes Inheritance
Author: Freemantle, Brian
Publisher: Severn House $ 28.95 ISBN: 0727860569 Date: 2004PW
Updated 4.19.04 - Summer of the Big Bachi
Author: Hirahara, Naomi
Publisher: Delta $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 0385337590 Date: 2004PW
In a stunning debut novel set against the lush and dangerous backdrop of modern-day Los Angeles, a Hiroshima survivor must come face-to-face with the past he thought he had buried at war's end.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 3.29.04 - Shadow Men: Max Freeman
Author: King, Jonathon
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525948074 Date: 2004BooklistPW
It begins with an 80-year-old mystery. Three men--a father and his two sons--vanished while working as laborers on a dangerous project to build the first road through the Florida Everglades. Now, years later, a series of letters are unexpectedly discovered by a descendant of these men.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases | Priviate Investigators | Florida Fiction
Updated 2.23.04 - Earthquake Weather
Author: Lankford, Terrill Lee
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345467779 Date: 2004Kirkus
Mark Hayes goes from aspiring movie producer to murder suspect in the blink of an eye in veteran filmmaker Lankford's sizzling Hollywood noir.
Suggested Reading: Film Fiction | Noir
Updated 3.11.04 - The Full Cupboard of Life: More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375422188 Date: 2004PW
Here is the fifth novel in the internationally bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency hit series. Once again we are transported to Gaborone, capital city of Botswana, and into the world of Mma Ramotswe and her friends. - Book Jacket.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.29.04 - Beautiful Ghosts
Author: Pattison, Eliot
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312277598 Date: 2004Booklist
Disgraced former Beijing Inspector Shan Tao Yun has been living in the remote mountains of Tibet since his unofficial release from a work camp. But now there's apparently been a murder in a ruined monastery and the very officials who exiled Shan are after his help.
Updated 3.22.04 - Five for Silver
Author: Reed, Mary and Eric Mayer
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590581121 Date: 2004PW
The year is 542. While plague stalks Constantinople, an angel sets John the Eunuch on the trail of a human killer. Peter, John's elderly servant, claims a heavenly visitor revealed a murder to him. It transpires Peter's old army friend has indeed been stabbed, but then John discovers that Gregory was not what he appeared to be. Is the solution to the mystery to be found in a hidden identity, in the will made by a dying ship owner with a wayward son, or perhaps even amid the oracles in the merchant's garden? John's quest leads him to churchmen and whores, lawyers and bear trainers. Suspects include a dealer in dubious antiquities, a resourceful bookseller, a court poet fixated on bereavement, and a holy fool who outrages the city by dancing with the dead and invading the empress' private bath. Only a man of unbending principle could hope to find justice in a terrified city where the good and the bad are struck down indiscriminately, where disorder rules, and where witnesses may die before they can be questioned. A city, in short, where death is the murderer's accomplice. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 3.22.04 - Out of the Deep I Cry: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery
Author: Spencer-Fleming, Julia
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312312628 Date: 2004PW
Julia Spencer-Fleming does it again in this third mystery series featuring Episcopal priest (and retired Army chopper pilot) Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ van Alstyne in the quiet town of Millers Kill, New York.
Updated 3.11.04 - Thieves' Dozen: The Dortmunder Stories
Author: Westlake, Donald
Publisher: Mysterious Press $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0446693022 Date: 2004Booklist
Featuring Westlake's hapless hero John Dortmunder, this original compilation of short stories ties in to the author's latest Dortmunder hardcover, The Road to Ruin.
Suggested Reading: Capers
Updated 3.11.04 - Shadow of the Wind
Author: Zafon, Carlos Ruiz
Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 1594200106 Date: 2004Kirkus
The international literary sensation--a runaway bestseller in Spain--is about a boy's quest through the secrets and shadows of postwar Barcelona for a mysterious author whose book has proved as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget.
Updated 1.29.05
March
- The Last Goodbye
Author: Arvin, Reed
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060555513 Date: 2004PWBooklist
When a down-on-his-luck attorney gets mixed up with a gorgeous singer with a secret past, it results in an absorbing tale of love, betrayal, and murder.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 1.10.04 - Deep Pockets
Author: Barnes, Linda
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312282710 Date: 2004Kirkus
Barnes, one of today's most popular crime fiction writers, returns with another engaging novel featuring Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle. Carlotta's curiosity gets the better of her in this complicated, surprising mystery infused with the personality and suspense that have become the trademarks of one of mystery fiction's most beloved authors.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 1.15.04 - The Burgler on the Prowl
Author: Block, Lawrence
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060198303 Date: 2004PW
In this long-awaited new installment of the popular series, burglar extraordinaire Bernie Rhodenbarr, "one of the slickest characters in crime" (the Houston Post), steals with style but never simplicity.
Updated 3.1.04 - Blacksad Book 2: Arctic Nation
Author: Canales, Juan Diaz and Juanjo Guarnido
Publisher: Ibooks $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0743479351 Date: 2004PW
The acclaimed team of Canales and Guarnido have turned the cliche of the private eye upside down by casting the entire world into anthropomorphized characters.
Updated 6.14.04 - Hot Plastic
Author: Craig, Peter
Publisher: Hyperion $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 1401300448 Date: 2004PW
In this cleverly conceived suspense novel about family and criminal intent, a female con artist comes between father and son grifters.
Suggested Reading: Grift Sense
Updated 1.21.04 - Jury of One
Author: Ellis, David
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151494 Date: 2004Kirkus
Life Sentence, David Ellis's follow-up to his Edgar-winning debut, Line of Vision, inspired great admiration from lovers of courtroom suspense. In Jury of One, Shelly Trotter, the daughter of the state's governor and a children's-rights advocate, is thrust into a world in which she's completely unschooled--the criminal court.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 1.26.04 - Don't Look Back: Inspector
Sejer
Author: Fossum, Karin
Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 0151010323 Date: 2004Kirkus
Meet Inspector Sejer: smart and enigmatic, tough but fair. Critically acclaimed across Europe, Fossum's Inspector Sejer novels are masterfully constructed, psychologically convincing, and compulsively readable. They evoke a world that is at once profoundly disturbing and terrifyingly familiar.
Suggested Reading: European Crime Fiction
Updated 12.29.03 - Southwesterly
Wind: Inspector Espinosa
Author: Garcia-Roza, Luiz Alfredo
Publisher: Holt $ 22 ISBN: 08050688910 Date: 2004LJ
A young man predicts a murder and identifies the perpetrator--himself--in this third entry in the critically acclaimed Brazilian crime series. Garcia-Roza once again "breathes fresh air into the crime novel genre" (Los Angeles Times).
Updated 2.2.04 - The Devil You Know
Author: Johnson, Wayne
Publisher: Crown $ 23 ISBN: 0609609645 Date: 2004Booklist
The Devil You Know combines the breathtaking intensity of a first-rate literary thriller with the complexity and heart of a classic coming-of-age novel as a 15-year-old boy struggles to protect his family on a wilderness trip.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 2.23.04 - The Game
Author: King, Laurie R.
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801945 Date: 2004BooklistPW
From the award-winning author of Justice Hall and Folly comes a new novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.
Suggested Reading: Sherlockian Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 1.26.04 - Sunset and Sawdust
Author: Lansdale, Joe R.
Publisher: Knopf $ 22 ISBN: 0375414533 Date: 2004Booklist
A fast-moving, steamy murder mystery set in depression-era East Texas, this new story is from a writer the Washington Post has praised as "a terrifically gifted storyteller with a sharp country-boy wit."
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 3.22.04 - The
Spectacle of Corruption
Author: Liss, David
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508554 Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
Benjamin Weaver, the quick-witted pugilist-turned-private-investigator, returns in Liss's sequel to the Edgar Award-winning novel, A Conspiracy of Paper.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 3.22.04 - Cat Fear No Evil
Author: Murphy, Shirley Rousseau
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0066209498 Date: 2004PW
Following several trails, Joe and Dulcie claw out the truth in this delightful ninth Joe Grey Mystery from an award-winning author.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 2.2.04 - 3rd Degree
Author: Patterson, James and Andrew Gross
Publisher: Little Brown $ 26.95 ISBN: 0316603570 Date: 2004PW
Delivering the breakneck pace and never-saw-it-coming plot twists that have made Patterson the most addictive writer at work today, 3rd Degree is another searing and unforgettable thriller from the nation's #1 bestselling suspense writer.
Updated 2.23.04 - Hard Revolution
Author: Pelecanos, George P.
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316608971 Date: 2004BooklistPW
In this epic showdown from "one of the best crime novelists alive" (Dennis Lehane), police officer Derek Strange hunts his brother's killer through a city erupting with rage.
Suggested Reading: Drug Traffic Stars
Updated 1.5.04 - Scarecrow
Author: Reilly, Matthew
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312289588 Date: 2004Kirkus
The newest action thriller from the author of the bestselling Ice Station and Area 7 marks the return of Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield in his fastest, most nail-biting challenge yet. "Matt Reilly, the pedal-to-the-metal action novelist . . . can inspire awe. Speed demons, take note."--Publishers Weekly.
Suggested Reading: Action & Adventure | If You Like Clive Cussler. . .
Updated 12.29.03 - A Death in Vienna
Author: Silva, Daniel
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399151435 Date: 2004PW
The sins of the past reverberate into the present, in an extraordinary novel by the new master of international suspense. Art restorer and sometime spy Gabriel Allon is sent to Vienna to authenticate a painting, but the real object of his search becomes something else entirely: to find out the truth about a photograph that has turned his world upside down.
Suggested Reading: Espionage
Updated 1.5.04 - The Confession
Author: Steinhauer, Olen
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312303289 Date: 2004KirkusPWLJBooklist
Eastern Europe 1956: Comrade Inpector Ferenc Kolyeszar, homicide detective and aspiring writer, is watching his life unravel. Estranged from his wife, frustrated by writer's block and tracking a murderer through the shadowy capital. By the author of Bridge of Sighs.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | European Crime Fiction | Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 1.10.04 - Telling
Lies to Alice
Author: Wilson, Laura
Publisher: Delta $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385335806 Date: 2004Kirkus
Hailed as "a subtle mind reader" by The New York Times, Wilson is a master at combining psychological suspense with mesmerizing story lines. Now she explores the haunting world of a woman whose psyche has been shaken by fate.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 12.29.03
February
- High Country
Author: Barr, Nevada
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151443 Date: 2004Booklist
It's fall in the Sierra Mountains, and Anna Pigeon is investigating the disappearance of four seasonal park employees in Yosemite National Park. She follows the scent of evil, taking a solo hike up a snowy trail to the high country, seeking answers. What waits for her is a nightmare of death and greed--and perhaps her final adventure.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Wild Life
Updated 11.25.03 - Pride and Prescience:
Or, a Truth Universally Acknowledged; a Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mystery
Author: Bebris, Carrie
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 076530589 Date: 2004LJ
Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, the joyous newlyweds from Pride and Prejudice, have not even left for their honeymoon when they find themselves embroiled in a mystery involving one of their wedding guests.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Jane Austen Stars
Updated 1.10.04 - Relative Danger
Author: Benoit, Charles
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590580915 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Picture a hotel room in 1948 Singapore. Picture a dispute between black marketer and thief Russell Pearce and an associate-an associate who opens fire and murders Russell Pearce. Fast forward to present-day Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Young Doug Pearce, just fired from his steady job in the brewery, has never strayed far from home. But he's always found stories of his Uncle Russ, the family black sheep, fascinating. In comes a letter from an old friend of his dead uncle inviting him up to Toronto. Doug, at loose ends and bored with killing time, accepts. On arrival, he learns that wealthy and glamorous Edna has an agenda: she has assembled enough clues to solve the murder of Russell Pearce and to recover a legendary red diamond he was thought to be smuggling. Doug, nervous but game, agrees to play detective. How bad can it be to jet off to a glamour spot or two and have an adventure? Whoa! By the end of his first day in Casablanca, Doug knows he's made a mistake. And while he meets people eager to help-a retired museum curator, a beautiful and self-absorbed heiress, and her elderly father, a colleague of Russell Pearce-it becomes clear that someone else is interested in Doug, someone who is also looking for the diamond. From Morocco to Egypt to Bahrain to Singapore, Doug stumbles on. And whether he's escaping across Cairo rooftops, ducking bullets in a high-speed desert chase, or killing time in a crowded Egyptian jail cell, Doug is sure of one thing: He has no clue what he's doing. But surely he'll think of something as he's propelled full circle back to Singapore and the famed Raffles Hotel. He's definitely not 007...but will he prove to be a zero? - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 2.5.04 - Shades of Black:
Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Authors
Author: Bland, Eleanor Taylor (ed)
Publisher: Berkley $ 23.95 ISBN: 0425194027 Date: 2004PW
Updated 1.21.04 - The Cloud Atlas
Author: Callahan, Liam
Publisher: Delacorte $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385336942 Date: 2004KirkusLJ
In a richly inspired debut reminiscent of Snow Falling on Cedars and The English Patient, this stirring novel, set against a magnificent Alaskan backdrop, reveals one of the most closely guarded secrets of World War II in a tale that is both a heart-quickening mystery and a unique love story.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Historical Crime Fiction Stars | World War Stars
Updated 3.1.04 - Goofy Foot: Alex Rasmussen
Author: Daniel, David
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312323492 Date: 2004PW
In Goofy Foot, private investigator Alex Rasmussen, embarking on a rather routine search for a missing teenager, finds himself in cold water that couldn't be hotter, as the simple task balloons into murderous surfers and a heart-stopping search for a killer.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 1.5.04 - Kiss It Away
Author: Davis, Carol Anne
Publisher: Do Not $ 32.95/16.95 ISBN: 1904316085/1904316093 Date: 2004Booklist
Updated 2.5.04 - Medusa: Aurelio Zen
Author: Dibdin, Michael
Publisher: Dutton $ 23 ISBN: 0375422692 Date: 2004LJ
Michael Dibdin's veteran Italian police officer is back. The newest addition to this remarkable series is a novel of long-held secrets set against a sweeping background of political and passionate intrigue.
Suggested Reading: European Crime Fiction | Conspiracy Theory
Updated 2.2.04 - Mask of Night
Author: Gooden, Philip
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 0786713127 Date: 2004Booklist
Elizabeth I approaches the end of her illustrious reign, the plague is raging in London, and the Privy Council has ordered the theaters closed. Still, author Philip Gooden's fifth novel in the popular Shakespearean series brings us a great mystery as actor-sleuth Nick Revill and the Chamberlain's Men travel to Oxford, where a local physician, Dr. Hugh Fern, has commissioned a private performance of Romeo and Juliet. While Fern's motive is obscure-an attempt to reconcile two feuding families to the prospect of a marriage, perhaps; or maybe simply a ploy to get himself a role in the production-his fate is not. Indeed, he is decidedly dead, when his body is discovered during a performance at the Golden Cross Inn. No matter that the deceased lies inside a locked room or that the pestilence has followed the Chamberlain troupe from London, Revill is convinced Fern has not succumbed to natural causes. Nor is Fern's death the only one that rouses Revill's suspicions. The mysteries multiply as a strange band of men in cowls patrols the town at night, a simple carter meets a baffling end, and a corpse changes its shoes. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Shakespearean Stars
Updated 2.23.04 - An Antic Disposition:
A Medieval Mystery
Author: Gordon, Alan
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312300964 Date: 2004PW
In 1204 A.D., The Fool's Guild, on the run from an enraged Innocent III and the Papal troops, has established a secret guildhall in the Black Forest. While laying low, one of the great stories of the Guild's history is revealed--how in 1157 A.D., the Guild intervened in a complicated, soon to be bloody dispute over the crown of Denmark.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Shakespearean Stars | Legendary Characters
Updated 12.29.03 - The Last Juror
Author: Grisham, John
Publisher: Doubleday $ 27.95 ISBN: 0385510438 Date: 2004PW
Mississippi, 1970: Only nine years after being sentenced to life in prison for the brutal rape and murder of a young mother, Danny Padgitt is paroled and returns to Ford County to seek revenge against the members of the jury that convicted him.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 2.2.04 - Muletrain
to Maggody: An Arly Hanks Mystery
Author: Hess, Joan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23 ISBN: 0743226380 Date: 2004Booklist
In the newest entry in the madcap Maggody series--starring mystery fans' favorite offbeat sleuth, Arly Hanks--a disgruntled ghost is the prime murder suspect when a band of Civil War reenactors descends on the town.
Updated 1.15.04 - Hunter's Dance
Author: Hills, Kathleen
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 159058094x Date: 2004PW
Autumn in Michigan's Upper Peninsula means hunting season, and the fall of 1950 finds most everyone in St. Adele township hunting for something--deer, grouse, uranium; love, redemption, escape; a story, a husband, a murderer. When the son of summer residents at the exclusive Shawanok Club is found dead after an uproarious dance at the town hall, the sheriff is flummoxed, and everyone is appalled: Bambi was found in the loft over the tool shed, bound, gagged, and inexpertly scalped. Who better to search for the killer than St. Adele's reluctant constable, John McIntire? The trail he must follow branches off like the spokes of a wheel, in multiple directions, leading to multiple dead ends. The only common link seems to be the boy's parents: a father who is mysteriously unavailable, a mother, on a mission to see her son's killer dead, who remains sequestered in her rented mansion, baking cream pies and playing the piano. Her imported private eye seems more interested in dallying with McIntire's exotic Aunt Siobhan, who's just turned up on his doorstep some 25 years after she ran off with a carnival worker as a teen. And Bambi's mentor on a summer's search for uranium, a hot prospect in Flambeau County, is more conversant with archaeological artifacts than Geiger counters. McIntire's investigation takes him from the haunts of the affluent visitors, to the backwoods camp of a Rube Goldberg hermit, and finally to an abandoned gold mine where he learns what really happened that summer's night.... - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 12.29.03 - Cutting Room
Author: Klavan, Laurence
Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345462742 Date: 2004PW
This tale of the long-lost complete version of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons launches a mystery series about cinemaniacs--people who literally would kill to see, or own, a movie.
Suggested Reading: Film Fiction
Updated 12.29.03 - In the Miso Soup
Author: Murakami, Ryu
Publisher: Kodansha $ 22.95 ISBN: 4770029578 Date: 2004Kirkus
Tokyo tour guide Kenji takes on Frank--a great white whale of an American tourist--and soon begins to suspect that he might be the serial killer that is terrorizing the city. Full of dark humor and suspense, this book takes readers on a wild ride through the underbelly of Tokyo compliments of the legendary Ryu Murakami.
Updated 11.12.03 - Stone Cribs
Author: Nelscott, Kris
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312287844 Date: 2004KirkusPW
Edgar-finalist Nelscott once again delivers a heart-stopping novel that is part thriller and part chronicle of one of the country's most turbulent times. It's 1969 in Chicago. Smokey Dalton saves the life of a young woman after a botched illegal abortion, and this act of charity blooms into a more complicated situation when Smokey learns that the woman had been raped.
Updated 12.15.03 - The Bone Parade
Author: Nykanen, Mark
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401300189 Date: 2004Kirkus
The Bone Parade is a terrifying page-turner that penetrates the psyche of a killer. Ashley Stassler has been wildly praised for a series of bronze sculptures that depict people in moments of excruciating physical and emotional pain--but the art world has no clue as to how he creates such authentic, gruesome, representations.
Updated 11.12.03 - A Question of
Blood: Inspector Rebus
Author: Rankin, Ian
Publisher: Little Brown $ 22.95 ISBN: 0316095648 Date: 2004PW
When a former soldier and recluse murders two 17-year-old students at a posh Edinburgh boarding school, Rebus immediately suspects there is more to the case than meets the eye.
Suggested Reading: Scottish Crime Fiction
Updated 1.5.04 - Weeping: A Fritillary Quilter Mystery
Author: Reuben, Shelly
Publisher: Justin Charles $ 13.99 (paper) ISBN: 1932112200 Date: 2004Booklist
Tilly Quilter, a sassy, opinionated New York fire investigator, knows that something's amiss when a victim's family doesn't seem at all interested in helping get to the bottom of a fatal fire.
Suggested Reading: On Fire
Updated 2.23.04 - Playing With
Fire
Author: Robinson, Peter
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 006019877x Date: 2004Booklist
Multiple-prize-winning and international bestselling author Robinson returns with a new novel of burning suspense, as a deadly case of arson leads Inspector Banks into his most dangerous case yet.
Suggested Reading: On Fire | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.25.03 - Cottonwood
Author: Phillips, Scott
Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345461002 Date: 2004Kirkus
The author of The Ice Harvest and The Walkaway returns with a novel set in 1870s and 1880s Kansas and California.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 11.24.03
January
- Hostage
Author: Allebeury, Ted
Publisher: Severn $ 25.99 ISBN: 077860372 Date: 2004Booklist
Updated 2.23.04 - Aphrodite
Author: Andrews, Russell
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967846 Date: 2004BooklistPW
Bestselling author Russell Andrews returns with a new thriller about a small-town cop who must get to the bottom of one of the greatest conspiracies of his time.
Updated 11.17.03 - The
Killing of the Tinkers
Author: Bruen, Ken
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312304110 Date: 2004PW
When Jack Taylor blew town at the end of Bruen's dazzling novel The Guards, his alcoholism was a distant memory and his sober dreams of a new life in London were shining in his eyes. Now Jack's back in Galway a year later with a new leather jacket on his back and a pint of Guinness on his mind. So much for new beginnings.
Updated 12.29.03 - 18
Author: Burke, Jan
Publisher: Pocket $ 7.50 (paper) ISBN: 0743480511 Date: 2004PW
From the USA Today bestselling author comes a first-ever collection of 18 of her early short stories, including her first published work, "The Loveseat" and her first Irene Kelly story, "A Fine Set of Teeth."
Updated 12.29.03 - Vertical Coffin:
Shane Scully
Author: Cannell, Stephen J.
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312304250 Date: 2004Kirkus
The Edgar and Emmy Award-winning writer and producer delivers a high-concept thriller of inter-bureau conspiracy and betrayal. "Scully has ample opportunity to prove how 'Hollywood tough' he is . . . veteran writer/TV producer Cannell has concocted his special brand of reader candy." --Kirkus Reviews.
Updated 12.10.03 - 37th Hour
Author: Compton, Jodi
Publisher: Delacorte $ 21.95 ISBN: 0385337132 Date: 2004Kirkus
With a bold assurance that is especially striking in a debut novel, Compton introduces Detective Sarah Pribek, a successful missing persons specialist facing the most disturbing case of her career when her husband, another officer, simply vanishes into thin air.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 10.8.03 - Partners
Author: Cray, David
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 0786712929 Date: 2004LJ
In this gripping, new police procedural, the enthusiastically reviewed Cray again lays bare the ambitions and betrayals among New York City's police detectives at the same time that he explores the darker side of the criminal mind.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 2.2.04 - Paranoia
Author: Finder, Joseph
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312319142 Date: 2004LJPW
From the critically acclaimed author of The Zero Hour and High Crimes comes an electrifying, original new novel. Adam Cassidy is a low level employee at a high-tech corporation who hates his job. When he manipulates the system to do something nice for a friend, he finds himself charged with a crime.
Suggested Reading: Financial Thrillers
Updated 12.15.03 - The Ten Word Game
Author: Gash, Jonathan
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312323476 Date: 2004Booklist
Lovejoy cannot be said to have clean hands and a pure heart. In The Ten Word Game, Lovejoy is hiding out from the law in a port city far from London. By a ruse, he is shanghaied aboard a cruise ship on its way to Russia. There a group of schemers feed him well, but hold him prisoner because they need his talents for their daring plan.
Suggested Reading: Antique Mysteries
Updated 1.6.04 - The Grenadillo Box
Author: Gleeson, Janet
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0743246861 Date: 2004Booklist
The debut novel from the bestselling author of The Arcanum transports readers to 18th century Georgian England for an intricate, romantic tale of murder and intrigue.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Antique Mysteries | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 11.25.03 - Havana Room
Author: Harrison, Colin
Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374299862 Date: 2004KirkusPW
In his gripping new thriller, Harrison tells the story of a man who falls from the heights of power and wealth in New York, and finds himself in a dangerous and potentially lethal state of affairs.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars | Drink Up
Updated 10.7.03 - Retribution
Author: Hoffman, Jiliane P.
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151273 Date: 2004LJ
An elite prosecutor faces the most lethal predator she's ever encountered, in this debut novel inspired by the author's own experiences as an Assistant State Attorney in Florida.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Legal Stars
Updated 3.15.04 - Dating Dead Men
Author: Kozak, Harley Jane
Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385510187 Date: 2004LJKirkusPW
Kozak's debut novel is a smart, funny, fast-paced mystery in the tradition of Janet Evanovich featuring greeting card artist and small business owner Wollie Shelley, a woman who's looking for love--and job satisfaction--in all the wrong places when she literally stumbles across a murder that irrevocably changes her life (in some ways, for the better).
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | All Stars | If You Like Janet Evanovich | Dating
Updated 12.8.03 - Havana World
Series
Author: Latour, Jose
Publisher: Grove $ 23 ISBN: 0802117546 Date: 2004Kirkus
Alive with vibrant detail and a fantastic cast of misfit characters, Havana World Series is first-rate crime fiction and a brilliant portrait of a torn country hungry for revolution even as it lives gloriously, sometimes violently in the moment. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Cuba
Updated 10.8.03 - Bluffing
Mr. Churchill
Author: Lawton, John
Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871139073 Date: 2004PW
With his Inspector Troy series, Lawton has been compared to top historical espionage writers such as John le Carr and Len Deighton. Now Lawton offers "one of the most entertaining thrillers . . . in years" (Sunday Telegraph).
Suggested Reading: Espionage
Updated 12.8.03 - Absolute Friends
Author: Le Carre, John
Publisher: Little, Brown $ 26.95 ISBN: 0316000647 Date: 2004PWBooklist
This epic tale of loyalty and betrayal spans the lives of two friends from the riot-torn West Berlin of the 1960s to the grimy looking-glass of Cold War Europe to the present day of terrorism and new alliances. This is the novel le Carr fans have been waiting for, a brilliant, ferocious, heartbreaking work for the ages.
Updated 12.15.03 - Mr. Paradise
Author: Leonard, Elmore
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060083956 Date: 2004PW
Is one of the best-known popular, contemporary authors writing today. Leonard's latest, Mr. Paradise, is his first Detroit homicide book in 20 years, and has a whole new cast of characters of the kind that only he can create.
Updated 11.24.03 - Dead Line
Author: McGrory, Brian
Publisher: Atria $ 25 ISBN: 0743463668 Date: 2004PW
For his entire career, Jack Flynn has been like a heat-seeking missile in pursuit of news, with the sole goal of splashing his revelations on the pages of his beloved Boston Record. But now, he comes across a story that might be the hardest--and maybe the last--of his life.
Updated 12.8.03 - The Zero Game
Author: Meltzer, Brad
Publisher: Warner $ 25.95 ISBN: 0446530980 Date: 2004LJ
The New York Times bestselling author of The Millionaires and The First Counsel returns to Washington, D.C., with the story of an insider's game that turns deadly.
Updated 12.29.03 - Island of Bones
Author: Parrish, P.J.
Publisher: Pinnacle $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0786016051 Date: 2004PW
The New York Times bestselling author brings back detective Louis Kincaid for a fast-paced, fascinating thriller about a mysterious private island which harbors a dark--and deadly--family secret.
Updated 12.1.03
Hotlists
African American Fiction | Christian Fiction
2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
Crime Fiction | Fiction | African American Fiction | Christian Fiction | Nonfiction Notables
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
2009 Hotlists
Fiction - excel file more coming soon...
Crime Fiction - excel file more coming soon...
Overbooked is a volunteer project undertaken by Ann Chambers Theis: Collection Management Administrator, Chesterfield County (VA) Public Library. 9501 Lori Rd. or P.O. Box 297, Chesterfield, VA, 23832. Phone: 804.748.1760.
Overbooked is not an official Chesterfield County Public Library service. Overbooked.org is a nonprofit web site hosted by CVCO - Central Virginia's Community Online. Overbooked.com is a nonprofit web site in experimental mode. Overbooked does not endorse any commercial providers (or their products and services) linked to from this web site.
Please join the conversation(s) at Overbookers - a rather quiet social space for the chronically overbooked.
Join the Overbooked List - A quiet list for readers to share recent reads, keep up to date with details about new books, discuss favorite authors/titles, etc.
Comments, suggestions, corrections: Ann Chambers Theis (AKA Ann/ACT):
overbooked1@verizon.net
or
ann@overbooked.com
I really appreciate all the e-mail I receive from avid readers and writers and regret that I am not able to respond to all correspondents. Special thanks to those folks who regularly help keep me on track - you know who you are....