Jeffrey Deaver’s next book, the stand-alone Edge is coming out tomorrow. The author is interviewed in USA Today, in an article that leads with his next book, coming out in May.

Called just Project X at this point, it’s the next James Bond novel, which will place a 29-year-old Bond in a post-9/11 world. In the accompanying video, Deaver says that Bond will be the main character, but he will inhabit a Jeffrey Deaver novel; “one that moves very quickly, has a lot of twists and turns, a big surprise ending (actually, in this book there are two surprise endings) and a lot of interesting, esoteric information.”

In the article, Otto Penzler tells USA Today that will be a good thing, “…he can bring is a greater sense of suspense…A lot of the books and movies are becoming basically chase plots, and Jeff really has the ability to create suspense better than almost any writer working today.”

.

Edge Jeffery Deaver Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2010-11-02) ISBN / EAN: 1439156352 / 9781439156353

Large Type; Thorndike; ISBN 9781410432759; price $35.99; release date 11/1/2010

Superman is back, with a hoodie and a cellphone, flashing a fresh smile for the Twilight generation, and the media is eating it up. The graphic novel relaunch by DC Comics, Superman : Earth One by J. Straczynski and Shane Davis (Illustrator) first gained traction at the New York Post, leading to news coverage and an excerpt in USA Today, an AP wire story, and blog mentions from CBS News anchor Katie Couric and NPR’s Monkey See pop culture blog, among others.

At libraries we checked, reserves are in line with modest orders – but more media is likely to be on the way when the book goes on sale next week.

Superman: Earth One J. Michael Straczynski Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 136 pages Publisher: DC Comics – (2010-11-02) ISBN / EAN: 1401224687 / 9781401224684

Usual Suspects on Sale Next Week

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane (Morrow) forces Boston PI Patrick Kenzie to face the mistakes he made in a 1998’s Gone, Baby, Gone. New York Times critic Janet Maslin gives the book an early review, saying it gives “Mr. Lehane many occasions to write acid-etched dialogue and show off his fine powers of description.”

Happy Ever After, (Bride Quartet #4) by Nora Roberts (Berkley) is the final title in the paperback series. Says PW, “Roberts’s delicious ode to weddings and happy endings, the charming conclusion of the Bride Quartet.”

Indulgence in Death by J.D. Robb (Putnam) is the 32nd future cop thriller with NYPD Lt. Eve Dallas.

Edge by Jeffery Deaver (Simon & Schuster) pits an interrogator against a government agent trying to protect his target. PW says, “Deaver unveils some nifty new tricks in this edge-of-your-seat thriller . . . Deaver’s first first-person narrator, Corte, is an exciting new weapon in the author’s arsenal of memorable characters.”

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor) is the second novel based on work left unfinished by Jordan before his death in 2007.

Mary Ann in Autumn: A Tales of the City Novel by Armistead Maupin (HarperCollins) stars Mary Ann Singleton, who returns to San Francisco at the ripe age of 57, twenty years after leaving the city. Kirkus calls it “agreeable entertainment until the ridiculous denouement.”

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Houghton Mifflin) re-imagines Henry James’s The Ambassadors. Kirkus raves, “This is superb, dazzling fiction. Ozick richly observes and lovingly crafts each character, and every sentence is a tribute to her masterful command of language.”

John Grisham is one of those authors that are considered “review-proof.” For what it’s worth, below are the first consumer reviews of his new book, The Confession, which arrives today.

USA Today, Carol Memmott, Grisham prosecutes the death penalty in The Confession

If Grisham’s dialogue and narrative sometimes cross the line between storytelling and proselytizing about the evils of the death penalty, he compensates through meaty character portrayals and an unpredictable end.

Washington Post, Maureen Corrigan

The Confession is the kind of grab-a-reader-by-the-shoulders suspense story that demands to be inhaled as quickly as possible. But it’s also a superb work of social criticism in the literary troublemaker tradition of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

Bloomberg News, Laurie Muchnick, Grisham’s Flat Death Row Parable

I agree with John Grisham on capital punishment, but reading The Confession, still felt like spending a week in solitary confinement.

Grisham was scheduled to do his regular day-of-book-launch sit-down with the Today Show this morning; we’ll add the video when it is available.

The book is currently #6 on Amazon sales rankings (Keith Richards’ memoir, Life is #1), making it the top-selling adult fiction title (the children’s titles, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Lost Hero are both higher).

The Confession John Grisham Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-10-26) ISBN / EAN: 0385528043 / 9780385528047

• CD: Random House Audio: $45; ISBN 9780739376195
• Large Print: Random House; $29; ISBN 9780739377895
• Playaway: $59.99; ISBN 9781616572488

A CBS Sunday Morning profile of mystery writer Lee Child brought him new fans, sending the paperback of his first book, Killing Floor up Amazon’s sales rankings to #79 (from #1,704), the second book, Die Trying to #152 and the third, Tripwire to #298. The newest hardcover, number 15 in the Jack Reacher series, Worth Dying For, (Delacorte, 10/19), rose to #12 from #24 yesterday.

John Grisham‘s new legal thriller, The Confession, is his first to be released in the fall instead of his usual February slot. Another tale of innocence on death row, The Confession involves a guilty man paroled because of an inoperable brain tumor, who decides to confess to a crime he committed for which another man is about to be executed. Libraries we checked have plenty of books on order to meet the voracious demand.

Few publishers are brave enough to put their major titles in direct competition with his – so otherwise it’s a sparse week for major fiction.

The Confession John Grisham Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-10-26) ISBN / EAN: 0385528043 / 9780385528047

• CD: Random House Audio: $45; ISBN 9780739376195
• Large Print: Random House; $29; ISBN 9780739377895
• Playaway: $59.99; ISBN 9781616572488

Other Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Roc) is a collection of short stories related to bestseling urban fantasy series featuring wizard/private investigator Harry Dresden. PW says fans will “probably want to skip ahead to the last of this collection’s 11 stories, “Aftermath,” set just hours after the end of [the 2010 book Changes]. . . .  The rest of the book is a mixed bag.”

Then, there is the HOT category of Amish fiction, combined with Christmas:

An Amish Christmas by Cynthia Keller (Ballantine)

And, simply, Christmas themed fiction:

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas (St. Martin’s) explores the sudden fatherhood of a bachelor after he becomes the guardian of his deceased sister’s daughter

A Christmas Odyssey by Anne Perry (Ballantine) is another Victorian mystery featuring the distinguished mathematician Henry Rathbone.

The Mischief of the Mistletoe: A Pink Carnation Christmas by Lauren Willig (Dutton) is the seventh installment in the Regency romantic suspense series, which moves away from espionage and toward Jane Austen, in a “refreshing” update on the series formula, according to Kirkus.

Young Adult
Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck (Dial Books)  is a young adult ghost story by the Newbery Medalist and Edgar Award-winning author. Horn Book says, “Peck’s message about the power of the peer group could easily have been more didactic, but wrapping the story in the shrouds of a ghost story was a stroke of genius, making it a creepy tale middle school girls will die for…if they put down their cell phones long enough to read it.”

Childrens

The 39 Clues: The Black Book of Buried Secrets Intro by Rick Riordan (Scholastic) is the latest entry in the series for young readers.

It’s not easy for a debut novel to pick up buzz amid the cacophony of the fall season, but Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has done a good job of marshalling its enthusiasm for The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart.

This tale about the antipathy between a father and his fourth son, whose birth in 1895 Texas precipitated his mother’s death, is an Indie Next pick for October.  The author was also a featured speaker at the Mountains and Plains trade show. And the Wall St. Journal recently ran an excerpt.

Library Journal says this “intense, fast-paced debut novel is hard to put down. Machart’s hard-hitting style is sure to capture fans of Cormac McCarthy and Jim Harrison.”

Kirkus is slightly less enthusiastic, however, declaring that “the novel splinters into a variety of episodes, all of them rendered with flair. Though he navigates erratically within it, Machart has created a dense, vibrant world.”

On Goodreads, 56 reviewers gave it an average of 3.57 out of 5 stars.

Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest orders, but this looks like one to watch.

It arrives with an atmospheric book trailer.

The Wake of Forgiveness Bruce Machart Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade – (2010-10-21) ISBN / EAN: 0151014434 / 9780151014439

Large Type; Thorndike; 2/16/2011; 9781410435248; $30.99
————————

Actor James Franco also makes his debut next week with a story collection, Palo Alto, about an interconnected group of teenagers in the same zip code. The media has been making a big deal of it — though not all reviews are positive.

The hoopla began last March, when a story was excerpted in Esquire. An interview and excerpt ran on NPR last week. And this week, Franco is interviewed in the book section of People magazine (not online).

But the Los Angeles Times calls it “the work of an ambitious young man who clearly loves to read, who has a good eye for detail but who has spent way too much time on style and virtually none on substance.”

Half the libraries we checked did not have the book on order, while the other half had modest orders in line with modest reserves.

Palo Alto: Stories James Franco Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 1439163146 / 9781439163146

Usual Suspects On Sale Next Week

Worth Dying For by Lee Child (Delacorte) is the 15th novel starring ex-military cop Jack Reacher, which his publisher working to bring to a new level of sales. Child will appear on CBS Sunday Morning on Oct. 24 or Oct. 31.

Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen (St. Martin’s) follows a forensic sculptor’s attempts to help a CIA agent find her missing daughter.

The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury (Dutton) chronicles the quest over the centuries for a controversial document from early Christianity. Booklist calls it a “well constructed blend of historical mystery and present-day thriller. [Khoury] doesn’t break any new ground, but theres no denying he’s got the storytelling chops and the imagination to spin an exciting yarn.”

In the Company of Others by Jan Karon is the second installment in her Father Tim series, in which a long-awaited Irish vacation turns into a busman’s holiday. Kirkus says, “long journal entries do little to advance the present story but are sometimes a welcome diversion from it. Readers who are not devoted followers of Karon may be impatient with the glacial pace of this installment.”

Young Adult

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick is the sequel to the author’s young adult breakout, Hush Hush.

Jennifer Donnelly, whose sophisticated young adult novel A Northern Light won a Printz honor back in 2002/2003, returns with Revolution, which has been getting good trade reviews. It’s a teen drama about a high school senior grieving over her younger brother’s murder and her mother’s subsequent breakdown, who becomes obsessed with a diary written by a young woman during the French Revolution while on Christmas break in Paris with her father and his pregnant 25 year-old wife.

Orders are in line with reserves at libraries we checked, but this one may get more media attention, and word among early readers is that it has crossover appeal to adults.

Booklist is enthusiastic:

The ambitious story, narrated in Andi’s grief-soaked, sardonic voice, will wholly capture patient readers with its sharply articulated, raw emotions and insights into science and art; ambition and love; history’s ever-present influence; and music’s immediate, astonishing power: It gets inside of you . . . and changes the beat of your heart.

And more than 75 reviewers on GoodReads give it 4.08 out of 5 stars.

Revolution Jennifer Donnelly Retail Price: $18.99 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers – (2010-10-12) ISBN / EAN: 0385737637 / 9780385737630

Other Notable Young Adult and Children’s Fiction

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (Hyperion) begins a new series set in the same universe as his bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Beautiful Darkness by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia is the followup to the bestselling young adult vampire novel Beautiful Creatures, which was one of Amazon’s Top 10 picks for 2009.

Fancy Nancy and the Fabulous Fashion Boutique by Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins) is a picture book for young readers.

Usual Adult Suspects:

Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre (Viking) gets the thumbs up from Kirkus: “Le Carre uses still another aspect of international relations in the new world order—the powerful, equivocal position of money launderers to the Russian mob—to put a new spin on a favorite theme: the betrayal that inevitably follows from sharply divided loyalties.”

American Assassin (Mitch Rapp Series #11) by Vince Flynn (S&S) introduces the young Mitch Rapp, as he takes on his first assignment.

Forbidden Places by Penny Vincenzi (Overlook) is a sprawling saga set in the WWII-era English countryside and revolves around the ordeals of three young women. Booklist says “Vincenzi does an admirable job of evoking the bustle and fears of wartime England, and providing plenty of juicy plot twists and turns to keep readers hooked.”

One of our favorite books of the season, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, by Tom Franklin, was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday (listen here). The book is described as “part crime drama, part coming-of-age story and part portrait of a small town largely left behind by the 21st century.”

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter Tom Franklin Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0060594667 / 9780060594664

We’re excited to see good press coming for a book we’ve fallen in love with, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin. Washington Post critic Ron Charles greets it with a rave review:

A smart, thoughtful novel that sinks deep into a Southern hamlet of the American psyche… I was reminded of another fine novel about the poisoned friendship between a white boy and a black boy called Prince Edward, by Dennis McFarland, but Franklin’s tale has those Southern Gothic shadows that make it darker and more unnerving.

It is also the #1 Indie Next Pick for October, and goes on sale next week. Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest orders, but other media is likely to take notice, so this is worth keeping an eye on – and reading!

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter Tom Franklin Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0060594667 / 9780060594664

Notable Titles On Sale Next Week

Other Indie Next Picks

A Lily of the Field by John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly), the fifth Inspector Troy novel, is an Indie Next Pick for October. Utah bookseller Betsy Burton calls it “Lawton’s latest (and perhaps best) thriller…The mystery that lies at the heart of this convoluted tale centers on the two musicians, Meret and Victor, both uprooted, and adrift in a world changed utterly by war and by science.”

The False Friend by Myla Goldberg (Doubleday) is the tale of a woman who tries the right her childhood misdemeanors. It gets a lukewarm review from PW: “Goldberg’s unremarkable latest [is] a neatly constructed if hollow story of memory and deception.” But it is also an Indie Next Pick for October, which Oregon bookseller Helen Sinoradzki praises for the way each character “pushes Celia to acknowledge truths she’d rather not know. The ending, in all its perfect brevity, will keep you awake, hoping that Celia can go back to her life.”

Great House by Nicole Krauss (Norton) comes with much anticipation. The author’s previous novel was the 2005 hit, The History of Love, which spent nearly a year on the IndieBound Top Ten list in paperback. Krauss was recently chosen as one of the New Yorker‘s 20 under 40 best young writers. Writing about it for Indie Next, Ridgefield, CT bookseller Ellen Burns says, “The best books haunt and sometimes confuse you. They will make you think, feel, wonder, go back to earlier chapters, and finally, fully experience the story being told. Nicole Krauss’s new book does just that.” Entertainment Weekly agrees that the book is confusing, but doesn’t find that such a good thing, giving it just a B-. Amazon also selects it as one of their Best Books for Oct.

Usual Suspects

Reversal by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown) features characters from two series: LAPD Detective Harry Bosch and maverick lawyer Mickey Haller. In a starred review, Booklist declared, “Reading this book is like watching a master craftsman, slowly and carefully, brick by brick, build something that holds together exquisitely, form and function in perfect alignment.”

Painted Ladies by Robert B. Parker (Putnam) is the 37th Spenser novel, posthumously published. Booklist says, “Spenser can still nail a person’s foibles on first meeting, still whip up a gourmet meal in a few minutes, still dispatch the thugs who haunt his office and his home, and do it all while maintaining a fierce love of Susan Silverman and English poetry (which he quotes frequently and always to good effect).”

Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans (S&S)  is a Christmas story that combines Evans’s usual holiday themes “with a bizarre twist lifted straight from science fiction,” says Booklist. “Readers will undoubtedly feel attached to Beth, even as they struggle to understand the bizarre relationship she finds herself entering into.”

Valcourt Heiress by Catherine Coulter (Putnam) is a historical romance set in medieval England.

Historical fiction has been very good to Ken Follett. After the success of Pillars of the Earth and its sequel, World Without End, both set in 12th C England, he now turns his eyes toward the 20th century, with a planned trilogy that will cover the entire 100 years (and is thus called The Century Trilogy).

The first book, Fall of Giants arrives next week and is widely expected to be the blockbuster of the season. Using the formula he developed in the earlier series, the author follows several families through WWI to the early 1920’s. Prepub reviews all note the book’s length (Kirkus called it “cat squashing”), but applaud its readability. The publisher has announced a million copy first printing and it is already at #10 on Amazon sales rankings.

Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy) Ken Follett Retail Price: $36.00 Hardcover: 985 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult – (2010-09-28) ISBN / EAN: 0525951652 / 9780525951650

Penguin Audio; UNABR; 9780142428276
Books on Tape Audio; UNABR; Narrator: John Lee; 9780307737380
Audio on OverDrive
Spanish-language edition; La caida de los gigantes; Random House; 9780307741189

Other Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris (Little, Brown) The illustrations are by Ian Falconer, but don’t expect these animals to be at all like Olivia. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly calls the book a “lurid beastiary…for the strong- stomached, these tales are toxic little treats, fun-size Snickers bars with a nougaty strychnine center.” If you’re having trouble grasping what that means, go here to Read an Excerpt. The book is already at #36 on Amazon sales rankings.

Don’t Blink by James Patterson and Howard Roughan (Little, Brown). About a mafia hit in a NYC steak house. Coauthor Roughan has worked with Patterson on several other titles, including Honeymoon, You’ve Been Warned and Sail.

The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War by Bernard Cornwell (Harper). The author’s first standalone set in America, about the Penobscot Expedition, a Revolutionary war battle considered the worst US naval disaster until Pearl Harbor.

Bury Your Dead: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (Three Pines Mysteries) by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books). “Gamache’s excruciating grief over a wrong decision, Beauvoir’s softening toward the unconventional, a plot twist so unexpected it’s chilling, and a description of Quebec intriguing enough to make you book your next vacation there, all add up to a superior read. Bring on the awards.” (Kirkus)

To Fetch a Thief: A Chet and Bernie Mystery, Spencer Quinn (Atria). “Tender-hearted Chet and literal-minded Bernie are the coolest human/pooch duo this side of Wallace and Gromit.” (Kirkus)

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham (FSG)

Entertainment Weekly loves the writing (“There are sentences here so powerfully precise and beautiful that they almost hover above the page”), but found the plot thin with a main character not worth caring about, resulting in a B. It’s an Indie Next Pick for Oct.

The cover proves how striking sepia can be.

Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund (Morrow). Also an Indie Next Pick for Oct, Booklist says this “… outlandish stew of biblical analogy, political thriller, futuristic speculation, and old-fashioned adventure story by the best-selling author of Ahabs Wife (1999) teases and frustrates the reader.”

Bound by Antonya Nelson, (Bloomsbury) Featured in O Magazine’s “Six Books to Watch for in October,” Booklist calls Nelson ” A short story writer of exhilarating wit and empathy, [who] returns to the novel after a decade with heightened authority” and describes the book as “Tightly coiled, edgy, and funny, this complex tale of transcendent friendship begins with a spectacular death.” Audio from Tantor.

Safe from the Sea, Peter Geye, (Unbridled). We’re part of the fan club for Unbridled Books, an independent press that manages to publish astonishingly high level fiction. This first novel is an Indie Next Pick for Oct,

Classic themes of redemption,reconciliation, and family ties are set against the awesome power and beauty of the north shore of Lake Superior. In the final weeks of his life, Olaf relives the story of his survival in an ore boat wreck decades earlier, and acknowledges his feelings of guilt and regret, while his estranged son Noah discovers that things are not always as they seem.

Booklist suggests, “Give this book to readers of David Guterson and Robert Olmstead, who will be captured by the themes of approaching death and the pain and solace provided by nature.”

How to Read the Air, Dinaw Mengestu, (Penguin). Both an Indie Next Pick for October and the lead in O Magazine‘s “Six Books to Watch for in October,” which describes this story of a first generation Ethiopian American as a “quiet and beautiful new novel [that]…transcends heartbreak and offers up the hope that despite all obstacles, love can survive.”

Childrens

Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion by Mo Willems (Balzer & Bray). Say it isn’t so! This is the final book in the series.

Plenty of fiction will be competing for readers’ attention next week, including a debut story collection from Riverhead Books that’s getting some buzz: Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans.

Entertainment Weekly gives the book a B+, saying that it “offers rich slices of African-American life . . . and carries a strong scent of freshness and promise.” But trade reviews are more mixed: while Booklist hails author Danielle Evans an “important new voice in literary fiction,”PW observes, “Evans has some great chops that would really shine with a little more narrative breadth.”

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self Danielle Evans Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2010-09-23) ISBN / EAN: 1594487693 / 9781594487699

Other Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (Dial Press) is “chock-full of the kind of sitcom shenanigans Kinsella’s fans expect,” says Kirkus.” This latest in the series (Shopaholic & Baby, 2007, etc.) keeps the silly plot moving along. A little more growth from her iconic heroine, though, might have won over new readers as well.”

The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel by Diana Gabaldon and Hoang Nguyen (Del Rey) recasts Gabaldon’s bestselling time-travel romance from her 18th-century Scottish hero’s point of view. PW wasn’t impressed: “Scenes that ought to be exciting, such as sword fights and escapes from the law are breezed over in a page or two. Approximately four out of five panels are simply talking heads, and despite Nguyen’s most valiant efforts, it simply isn’t visually interesting.”

Don’t Blink by James Patterson and James Roughan (Little, Brown) finds reporter Nick Daniels interviewing one of baseball’s legendary bad-boys when he accidentally captures a piece of evidence that lands him in the middle of a mafia war.

Sante Fe Edge by Stuart Woods (Putnam) gets a decent review from Booklist: “while some plotlines are a bit repetitive, particularly regarding Teddy, who has been on the run for many novels, and [his ex-wife] Barbara, who is also always one step ahead of her pursuers, theres plenty of fun here for those who enjoy losing themselves in Woods entertaining escapist fare.”

Bad Blood by John Sandford (Putnam) is the fourth novel featuring Virgil Flowers, agent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Kirkus calls it “lurid and overscaled. . . The mystery, which is resolved early on, leads to an extended series of cat-and-mouse games between Virgil and the people he knows are guilty of some truly heinous crimes.”

Heaven’s Fury by Stephen W. Frey (Atria) follows a sheriff trying to solve a murder before a blizzard isolates his town. PW was not impressed: “The plot of this stand-alone crime thriller from Frey (Hell’s Gate) fails to generate much excitement, despite a gruesome murder that may be the work of a satanic cult and scenes set during a crippling snowstorm.”

And, One We Had to Mention..

Presenting…Tallulah by Tori Spelling and Vanessa Brantley Newton (Aladdin) is a picture book for very young readers by reality show star and bestselling author Spelling. PW and Kirkus both panned it, finding the poor little rich girl unbelievable and unsympathetic. Several libraries we checked haven’t ordered it – but given the success of Spelling’s previous books, you’re likely to be hearing about it.

William H. Macy has signed to star in Freaky Deaky, a film based on Elmore Leonard’s 1988 novel, according to Deadline. Production is planned to begin next year.

Previous books by Leonard that have been made into films include Get Shorty (1995), Jackie Brown (1997, based on Rum Punch), and Killshot (2008).

Leonard’s next book, Djibouti, is coming out in October.

Djibouti: A Novel Elmore Leonard Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061735175 / 9780061735172

In addition to the three Oprah fiction contenders we just mentioned, Emma Donoghue’s much anticipated novel Room arrives next week, with the highest sales rank of all the Booker shortlist titles on Amazon. The novel is told in the voice of a five-year-old who’s spent his entire life in a single room, held captive there (unknowingly) with his mother. It’s a People magazine pick in the current issue and was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition today. Holds are 5:1 or higher at libraries we checked.

Other Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s) begins a new series in a genre that Kirkus dubs “paranormal farce,” with the hunt for ancient artifacts corresponding to the seven deadly sins.

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central) follows a mysterious new woman’s slow integration into a small town. The hardcover will be promoted not just by the publisher, but by the movie company that plans to produce a film version of the book, even though the screenplay has not yet been finalized, according to a Wall St. Journal story.

Reckless by Cornelia Funke (Little, Brown) draws on the spooky side of traditional fairy tales to launch a major new dark fantasy series for young readers. Despite making her mark as a master creator of richly imagined worlds with the Inkheart series, Funke’s latest effort gets mixed early reviews. Kirkus praises the “fluid, fast-paced narrative,” but PW finds “the writing is beautiful on one page, clunky on another…. Planned sequels will give Funke a chance to fill in the missing back-story that makes this a frustrating read.”

Franzen’s isn’t the only novel to be aware of next week:

Fiction Watch List

The Gendarme by Mark Mustain (Putnam) is a first novel about a 92-year-old Turkish American who suddenly comes face-to-face with his part in the Armenian genocide. It comes from the Amy Einhorn imprint at Putnam/Penguin – and as one bookseller put it, “Our staff has come to expect at least one blockbuster every season from Amy Einhorn Books.” Her first list, Winter 2009 included The Help, followed by The Postmistress this year.

This one may be the breakout for Putnam’s Fall list. Einhorn presented it at BEA during LJ‘s Day of Dialog and said it’s a Penguin sale rep’s pick. Prepub reviews, however, are mixed.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Farrar Straus & Giroux), a novel set in a Catholic boy’s boarding school in Dublin that made the Booker long list and is being made into a movie directed by Neil Jordan, gets a flat-out “A” from Entertainment Weekly: Murray’s humor and inventiveness never flag. And despite a serious theme — what happens to boys and men when they realize the world isn’t the sparkly planetarium they had hoped for — Skippy Dies leaves you feeling hopeful and hungry for life.”

Holy Thief by William Ryan (Minotaur) is a debut mystery set in Stalinist 1936 Moscow. This one got starred reviews in Library Journal and PW, and several mentions in a recent EarlyWord Galley Chat. Talia Sherer, of Macmillan LibraryMarketing, calls it a “book to read in one sitting without taking a single breath.”  LJ said, “In his solitude and resolve, Ryan’s Korolev evokes Martin Cruz Smith’s fierce Arkady Renko, while the period detail and gore call to mind Tom Rob Smith. Ryan’s first novel will be released with a tsunami of marketing, so readers in public libraries will be lengthening the reserve lists for this remarkable thriller.” However, Kirkus says “the pacing is at times a bit slow, and the mystery holds few surprises.” Orders and reserves are light at this point in the libraries we checked.

Sure Bets

Body Work by Sara Paretsky (Putnam) is the 14th mystery starring private investigator V.I. Warshawski, and is set in Chicago’s avant garde scene. PW calls it “superb” and declares: “This strong outing shows why the tough, fiercely independent, dog-loving private detective continues to survive.”

Lost Empire by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood (Putnam) is the second adventure with married treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo. PW isn’t impressed, calling it “a standard chase thriller” with “uninspired dialogue.”

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie (St. Martin’s) is a romantic comedy about a woman trying to fix the problems of a family in a haunted house. PW says, “Crusie’s created a sharp cast of lonely souls, wacky weirdos, ghosts both good and bad, and unlikely heroes who are brave enough to give life and love one more try. You don’t have to believe in the afterlife to relish this fun, bright romp.”

Dark Peril by Christine Feehan (Berkley) is a new entry in the Carpathian fantasy series.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Tor) is the first volume of a planned 10-part fantasy series by the author best known for his efforts to complete the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.  PW is optimistic: “Sanderson’s fondness for misleading the reader and his talent for feeding out revelations and action scenes at just the right pace will keep epic fantasy fans intrigued and hoping for redemptive future installments.”

Will Ballantine’s major push for Anne Fortier‘s debut novel Juliet pay off? The tale of an American woman who travels to Italy and discovers her ties to the Giulietta who inspired Shakespeare was first touted on the BEA Editors’ Buzz panel and at ALA’s Shout and Share. Rights have been sold in 29 territories around the world.

Earlier this summer it was chosen as a summer reading pick by the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

But now, Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B-“, finding that it falls short of its aim to be,

…a distaff version of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, with a dash of A.S. Byatt’s Possession tossed in. . . . Fortier’s writing is on firm ground in the book’s historical passages. The modern section, by contrast, feels contrived, and the author resorts to more telling than showing to keep her plot zipping along.

Still, holds are edging up at libraries we checked.

Juliet Anne Fortier Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-08-24) ISBN / EAN: 0345516109 / 9780345516107

Notable Young Adult Fiction On Sale Next Week

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic), the doorstopper final entry in the Hunger Games trilogy, is embargoed until 12:01 am next Tuesday, August 23, when bookstores will break into midnight party mode, says USA Today. It’s also been signed for a movie that’s drawn casting speculation from New York magazine’s Vulture blog.

Three Black Swans by Caroline B. Cooney (Delacorte Books for Young Readers) is the suspenseful tale of twins seemingly separated at birth – or are they more than twins? This was one of LisaVon Drasek’s Picks for August, for ages 12 and up.

Other Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs (Scribner) is the 13th novel starring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Publishers Weekly says, “Reichs, who once again uses her own scientific knowledge to enhance a complex plot and continually developing characters, delivers a whopper of a final twist.”

The Town by Chuck Hogan is the mass market movie tie-in edition of the author’s third novel, Prince of Thieves (2004), about four friends and rivals who rob a bank in Charlestown. The movie, directed by Ben Afleck, opens in theaters on September 17.

The Sonderberg Case by Elie Wiesel, translated by Catherine Temerson (Knopf), is a novel about a New York theater critic whose parents are Holocaust survivors and whose children are Americans living in Israel. PW says, “Wiesel returns to the moral questions that characterize the post-WWII generation in this slim novel that is both overstuffed with plot and skimpy on motive. . . . The ambitious scope of the story, spanning generations, is compelling, but limited by the novel’s length.”

The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard (Morrow) follows the lives of two girls born on the same day in the same hospital in New Hampshire. Entertainment Weekly gives it a C,

The author, whose last novel, Labor Day, was more satisfying and sure-footed, seems to think she’s weaving a knotty tale of family secrets, told in the alternating voices of her likable main characters. And yet all her twists are clumsily telegraphed.