Archive for the ‘Mystery & Detective’ Category

Loving the Unreliable Narrator

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Sarah Weinman is one of the few people writing thoughtfully about mysteries in the mainstream media these days (as well as on her own site, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind). This week, in the L.A. Times, she explores the appeal of the unreliable narrator, pointing out some classics (Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying, Dorothy Hughes’ In a Lonely Place and Patricia Highsmith’s books).

She also chooses two newly-published titles.  She describes Jesse Kellerman’s prose as a “silken sheen covering deep existential skeletons” in his new book The Executioner as well as his earlier works.

The Executor
Jesse Kellerman
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-04-01)
ISBN / EAN: 039915647X / 9780399156472

Audio; UNABR; Penguin Audio; 11 Hours | ISBN 9781101154779

The second book may have the best title and cover of the season, Hello Kitty Must Die, which refers to the main character’s efforts to escape the stereotype of the well-mannered Asian American girl. A first novel, it’s available in paperback and hardcover from indie crime fiction publisher Tyrus Books, in Madison Wisconsin. It’s been well-reviewed in both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Weinman is a fan, but admits that the book’s audience may be limited to those who,

…cackle and gasp at the book’s opening line — “It all started with my missing hymen” — and are compelled to move on. For those who recoil, well, that’s your loss, but Fiona Yu doesn’t really care what you think or if she’s offended anyone.

Hello Kitty Must Die
Angela S. Choi
Retail Price: $14.95 pbk/ $24.95 hdbk
Publisher: Tyrus Books – (2010-04-01)
ISBN: 9781935562023; pbk/ 9781935562030; hdbk

Next Week Big for Fiction

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Changes, the latest installment in Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files (Ed. Note: we originally called this the Dexter Files — thanks to the commenter for catching our mashup) urban fantasy series, is in high demand at libraries. But several we checked are behind the curve – either without copies, or catching up on their orders. In libraries that do have it, holds run from 3:1 to as high as 11:1.

Booklist‘s starred review says:

At more than 500 pages, this is one the longest books in the series, but it doesn’t move slowly; in fact, the entire novel takes place over only a few days as Harry races to rescue his daughter before she is sacrificed in a powerful black-magic rite. . . . A can’t-miss entry in one of the best urban-fantasy series currently being published.

Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12)
Jim Butcher
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Roc Hardcover – (2010-04-06)
ISBN / EAN: 045146317X / 9780451463173

Available from Penguin Audiobooks  on April 15, 2010

  • CD: $49.95; ISBN 9780143145349

——————–

Also set for release next week, Holly LeCraw‘s debut novel, The Swimming Pool, could be a sleeper. Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest copies.

PW says: “Strong writing keeps the reader sucked in to LeCraw’s painful family drama debut. . . . It is a story of deep and searing love, between siblings and lovers, but most powerfully, between parents and their children

Library Journal adds: “LeCraw’s thoughtful debut novel tells of two families whose lives are entwined by tragedy, secrecy, and scandal.…An insightful piece, not just for beach or airplane reading. An author to watch.”

One book blogger was less sanguine, however, observing that the plot is heavy and lacks momentum.

The Swimming Pool
Holly LeCraw
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-04-06)
ISBN / EAN: 0385531931 / 9780385531931

Also available as OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Elizabeth Berg‘s The Last Time I Saw You (Random House), a tale of women and men reconnecting at their 40th high school reunion, is well stocked in libraries we checked; the highest holds are 4:1 in one case.

Sue Miller‘s The Lake Shore Limited (Random House), about post-9/11 America, is “fascinating and perfectly balanced with [Miller’s] writerly meditations on the destructiveness of trauma and loss, and the creation and experience of art,” according to PW.

Elizabeth Peters‘s A River in the Sky (HarperCollins) elicits faint praise from Library Journal: “The plot is less riveting than many Peters mysteries, but series fans will enjoy [it]. Fans should note that this is out of chronological order from the rest of the saga.”

Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds (Riverhead) is the lead review in the new issue of People magazine (4/12), receiving 3 out of 4 stars. 

Jennifer Chiaverini‘s The Aloha Quilt (Simon & Schuster) is one that “series fans will enjoy,” according to PW, “and those new to the quilting bee should have no problem finding their groove.”

Richard Paul EvansThe Walk (Simon & Schuster), about a man who goes on a soul-searching cross-country trek,” is “intriguing” according to Booklist, which adds that “the pages turn quickly.”

Martha Grimes‘s The Black Cat (Penguin) is the author’s “best book in years” according to PW‘s Galley Talk column.

Raymond E. Feist‘s At the Gates of Darkness (Demonwar Saga #2) (HarperCollins) doesn’t get highest marks from PW: “There’s an air of been there, done that to the familiar YAish fantasy plot, relegating it to the status of comfort reading for Feist’s longtime fans.”

E. O. Wilson‘s Anthill (Knopf) gets a mixed review from Library Journal: “Though his characters come off as one-dimensional, Wilson excels at describing the pungent smells and tranquil silence of the disappearing wetlands of Alabama.”

Christopher Rice‘s The Moonlit Earth (Scribner) also gets a mixed response from Booklist: “A bit contrived, but . . . the author pushes through those moments . . . sure to appeal to Rice’s fan base.”

In the Spotlight: Jo Nesbo

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

A current reviewers favorite is Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbo and his new book, The Devil’s Star. If you’re attending PLA this week, don’t miss the Mystery Panel, where he will be speaking along with:

Karin Slaughter, Broken (Delacorte Press/Random House Inc., June 2010)
Ted Dekker, The Bride Collector (Center Street/Hachette Book Group, April 2010)
Cara Black, Murder in the Palais Royal: An Aimée Leduc Investigation (Soho Press, March 2010)
Meg Gardiner, The Liar’s Lullaby (Dutton/Penguin, June 2010)
Dana Haynes, Crashers (Minotaur Books/Macmillan, July 2010)

Friday, March 26
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Oregon Convention Center
Portland Ballroom #253-254

Reviews have been stellar, including:

The book’s publication prompted the Economist to try to answer the ongoing question, “Why are Nordic detective novels so successful?” a question Slate also tried their hand at  last year.

Maybe it’s the weather. As the Economist puts it,

The cold, dark climate, where doors are bolted and curtains drawn, provides a perfect setting for crime writing. The nights are long, the liquor hard, the people, according to Mr Nesbo, “brought up to hide their feelings” and hold on to their secrets.
Last year, the Guardian included Nesbo in its roundup of Scandinavian authors to watch for.

The Devil’s Star
Jo Nesbo
Retail Price: $25.99
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Harper – (2010-03-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0061133973 / 9780061133978

Ebook available from OverDrive

Elmore Leonard is JUSTIFIED

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Premiering last night on FX was the new series, Justified, based on Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole” (which is also the title of the first episode). The main character, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens also appears in two Leonard novels, Pronto and Riding the Rap. Both are being released in mass market paperback this month, with bursts on the covers that read “Featuring RAYLAN GIVENS, from the new FX Series, JUSTIFIED.”

The story “Fire in the Hole” is in the collection, When the Women Come Out to Dance.

When the Women Come Out to Dance: Stories
Elmore Leonard
Retail Price: $13.95
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks – (2004-01-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0060586168 / 9780060586164

Leonard was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered last night (listen here) and the new series was reviewed on Fresh Air. It is also reviewed in the New York Times.

Leonard’s next book, Djibouti, (listen to the interview for the pronunciation), scheduled for a one-day laydown on 10/12/10 (not in November, as the interview indicates), is about “terrorism, piracy, and al-Qaida.” (see publisher’s description in the Morrow catalog).

Djibouti
Elmore Leonard
Retail Price: $26.99
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-10-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0061735175 / 9780061735172

The Religious Thriller

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Arriving at #28 on the 3/21 Extended NYT Fiction best seller list is Heresy by S.J. Parris, a pseudonym for Stephanie Merritt. It’s her first outing under this name, her first time writing an historical thriller, and her first time on the best seller list. The Washington Post recently pegged Heresy as part of a subgenre they call “the religious thriller”:

If proliferation is a sign of health, then the most vigorous member of the historical novel species must surely be the religious thriller. We know what to expect of these ecclesiastical romps: Sadistic clerics, heroic visionaries, ancient texts, torture chambers and a sprinkling of Latin are guaranteed whether the turmoil being depicted is the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Inquisition or some obscure schism.

Set in the 16th C. the book is about a real-life Italian monk who was excommunicated for believing that the earth revolves around the sun. Escaping to Oxford, he was recruited as a spy for Elizabeth I and become involved in trying to solve some grisly murders. Heresy was acquired as the first in a trilogy

Merritt/Parris recently wrote in the Guardian that she enjoyed writing this book more than any of her others,

The best crime and thriller novels, though they may work within certain parameters, can offer just as much scope for psychological depth, tenderness and a critical perspective on society as “serious” novels, and writers such as Robert Harris and Matthew Pearl prove that you don’t have to compromise on prose style to create a cracking plot.

Heresy
S.J. Parris
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-02-23)
ISBN / EAN: 0385531281 / 9780385531283

Random House audio; ABR; 9780307714299; $30
ebook available from OverDrive

Early Reviews for Shriver and Trussoni

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Two novels going on sale next week — one by Lionel Shriver and the other by Danielle Trussoni — are getting early media attention from major critics, though there is only moderate library demand so far.  On the other hand, Alan Brantley‘s second Flavia de Luce mystery doesn’t need media attention; customers are placing holds based on the success of the author’s debut last year, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Lionel Shriver‘s exploration of the plight of middle-class Americans squeezed by the current health care system, So Much for That, will hit the ground running with a very positive early review from the notoriously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times, who says,

The author’s understanding of her people is so intimate, so unsentimental that it lofts the novel over [some] bumpy passages, insinuating these characters permanently into the reader’s imagination.

In a gossipy aside, freelance critic Mark Athitakas digests the recent flap in the UK over the ethics of Shriver’s decision to set a portion of her novel in a resort on Pemba Island in the Indian Ocean, and to list the owners in her acknowledgements, after having gone on a travel-writing junket there.

So Much for That
Lionel Shriver
Retail Price: $25.99
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Harper – (2010-03-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0061458589 / 9780061458583

Available from Brilliance Corporation  03/09/2010

  • Compact Disc: $36.99; ISBN 9781423360995

Large Print from HarperLuxe

  • $25.99; ISBN 9780061946134

Overdrive WMA Audiobook: ISBN 9780061977510

Playaway: $74.99; SKU 11733

————————

Danielle Trussoni‘s debut thriller, Angelology, about a nun descended from elite angelologist who solves a puzzle reminiscent of the Da Vinci Code, is a People Pick in the 3/15 issue. The review bestows 3.5 of a possible 4 stars, but reads like a 4-star review:

…breathtakingly imaginative…[the] story is over the top. But aren’t all sweeping, thoroughly entertaining tales of the supernatural? In fact, once you’ve entered Angelology‘s enthralling world…you’ll be thinking, “Vampires? Who cares about vampires?”

It gets less favorable coverage from Janet Maslin in the New York Times:

Angelology is so prettily written that it takes a while for the clumsiness to show… Ms. Trussoni does not even tie up this book’s loose ends. She leaves her story in virtual midair, set up for a sequel and mightily confused as to angelology’s future.

Library demand is relatively light, but given the heated auction for this book and the positive early reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, there’s bound to be more coverage. There’s also a movie in the works from Sony.

Angelology
Danielle Trussoni
Retail Price: $27.95
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-03-09)
ISBN / EAN: 0670021474 / 9780670021475

Available from Penguin Audiobooks: 03/09/2010

  • Compact Disc: $39.95; ISBN 9780143145264

————————

In libraries, next week’s most anticipated new fiction title is Alan Bradley‘s The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, featuring the dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce.  This young English girl’s passion for chemistry and solving murders helped septagenarian Bradley win many fans for his debut, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009). Libraries we checked are largely on top of the demand, with up to 50 copies on hand.

Library Journal says that “while the plot at times stretches credulity, with some characters veering close to Agatha Christie stereotypes, Flavia is such an entertaining narrator that most readers will cheerfully go along for the ride.”

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery
Alan Bradley
Retail Price: $24.00
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2010-03-09)
ISBN / EAN: 0385342314 / 9780385342315

Available from Random House Audio:  03/09/2010

  • Compact Disc: $35; ISBN 978030757641535

Other Fiction with Buzz Coming Next Week:

Chang-Rae Lee’s The Surrendered (Riverhead), a story of war and survival that focuses on a Korean orphan and the American veteran and missionary who try to care for her, received a favorable review from Laura Miller in Salon and a glowing review in Elle,  and was also on O magazine’s list of Seven Books to Watch for in March.

Clive Cussler and Jack De Brul’s The Silent Sea (Putnam) is the “winning seventh entry in the Oregon Files nautical adventure series… [in which] Juan Cabrillo, the heroic skipper of the ‘Oregon’, a state-of-the-art warship disguised as a tramp steamer, faces a multitude of difficulties and challenges,” according to Publishers Weekly.

Praise for Stabenow

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

In the Washington Post this week, Patrick Anderson gave a glowing review to A Night Too Dark, by Dana Stabenow, the author’s 17th mystery, set in the wilds of Alaska.

He says that Stabenow “… is one of those regional crime novelists who too often don’t achieve national attention, ” adding, “Once you’ve met the strange characters who inhabit [these] novels, Sarah Palin becomes easier to comprehend.”

It’s clear that Stabenow is not unrecognized in libraries in the lower 48. It might surprise Anderson to learn that holds in libraries we checked are as high as 155 on 40 copies, with and additional 40 on 7 copies of the audio.

A Night Too Dark: A Kate Shugak Novel
Dana Stabenow
Retail Price: $24.99
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2010-02-16)
ISBN / EAN: 0312559097 / 9780312559090

Macmillan Audio; UNABR CD; 9781427208880; $39.99
Audio available from OverDrive

THE INFORMATION OFFICER

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Two stellar reviews brought attention to Mark Mills’ third book, The Information Officer, propelling it to #79 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

The mystery is set in Malta during WWII. The L.A. Times calls it a “…novel so triumphantly old-fashioned, so double-upholstered with the stuff of classics, it reads like the story of Casablanca revisited, like a vanished Graham Greene.”

In the NYT BRMarilyn Stasio says, “…the sense of immediacy Mark Mills brings to The Information Officer is so intense that this breathtaking novel reads more like a memoir than a wartime thriller.”

And, in fact, the book has its origins in a memoir, as the author reveals,

———————————-

The Information Officer
Mark Mills
Retail Price: $25.00
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Random House – (2010-02-02)
ISBN / EAN: 1400068185 / 9781400068180

Blackstone Audio
Read by Robin Sachs; Unabridged

7 Tapes; 1441721259; $65.95
1 MP3CD; 1441721297; $29.95
8 CD; 1441721266; $100.00

Audio and ebook available from OverDrive

Dick Francis Dies at 89

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Dick Francis, a successful jockey who had an even more successful career as a writer, producing over 40 books, died at his home on Grand Cayman island on Sunday.

According to the The Guardian, Francis had an unusual arrangement with his British publisher; as long as he wrote a book a year, all of his books would remain in print. His final novel, Crossfire, written with his son Felix, will be released in August.

The New York Times obituary quotes critic John Leonard who said, “Not to read Dick Francis because you don’t like horses is like not reading Dostoyevsky because you don’t like God.”

Crossfire
Dick Francis, Felix Francis
Hardcover: $26.95
Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-08-24)
ISBN / EAN: 039915681X / 9780399156816

Mankell in Demand; Reviews Mixed

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Swedish noir fiction author Henning Mankell developed an American following well before Stieg Larsson topped U.S. bestseller lists, but Mankell’s new novel, The Man from Beijing, may be benefitting from the popularity of his countryman. At several libraries we checked, Mankell’s latest has holds as high as 4:1.

Departing from Mankell’s ten-book Inspector Wallander series,The Man from Beijing focuses on a woman who was Maoist in her student days, and is now a middle-aged, middle-of-the-road Swedish judge.

The Economist calls Mankell “a master portraitist of Sweden’s underside,” but observes that the trouble starts when The Man From Beijing turns to international social commentary. “The picture he paints of Africa—with a leopard calmly surveying the world from its grassy hillock—is clichéd enough, but his China is positively hackneyed.”

PW adds that “While each section, ranging in setting from the bleak frozen landscape of northern Sweden to modern-day China bursting onto the global playing field, compels, the parts don’t add up to a fully satisfying whole.”

The Man from Beijing
Henning Mankell
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Knopf – (2010-02-16)
ISBN / EAN: 0307271862 / 9780307271860

Audio Available from Random House: 2/16/10

  • CD: $45; ISBN 9780307712356

E-book and audio available from OverDrive

———————————

Other Major Fiction Titles On Sale Next Week

  • Michael Palmer‘s The Last Surgeon (St. Martin’s), about a trauma surgeon back in Baltimore after a stint in Afghanistan, gets mixed reviews: Booklist says it’s his “best novel in years” while PW calls it “an anemic medical thriller.” Holds are as high as 4:1 at several libraries we checked.
  • Tim LeHaye’s Matthew’s Story (Penguin) is the new novel in the Jesus series, by the authors of the bestselling Left Behind series. Library holds are 2:1 or higher.

Heigl Gets PLUM Role

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

It can be a very long time between a book being signed for the movies and it actually appearing on the screen.

This is proved once again with Janet Evanovich’s One for the Money, which was signed in 1994, before the book was published. For a while, it was rumored that Reese Witherspoon would star as lingerie-buyer-turned-bounty-hunter Stephanie Plum.

According to Variety, Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy) has just signed for that role and the movie is “back on the fast track.”

The 16th book in the series, Sizzling Sixteen, is coming in June.

Sizzling Sixteen
Janet Evanovich
Retail Price: $27.99
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-06-22)
ISBN / EAN: 0312383304 / 9780312383305

———–

Evanovich is also releasing a graphic novel in July, written with her daughter. It’s the third in a series, after Metro Girl and Motor Mouth, neither of which are in graphic format. The NYT wrote about it today as well as the forthcoming manga version of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (see our earlier story).

Troublemaker: A Barnaby Adventure
Alex Evanovich, Janet Evanovich
Retail Price: $17.99
Hardcover:
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics – (2010-07)
ISBN / EAN: 159582488X / 9781595824882

Heavy Holds on Two Debut Novels

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Among next week’s releases are two much-buzzed-about debuts. Library demand is highest for The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, with holds of  6:1 or higher on modest orders.

The tale of an American radio reporter in WWII London, the novel is winning comparisons to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society from booksellers, one of whom touted The Postmistress in PW‘s Galley Talk column, and also in a USA Today story on breakthrough winter titles. The book also carries a blurb from Kathryn Stockett, author of the runaway bestseller, The Help.

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- in the new issue, saying “There’s both exquisite pain and pleasure to be found in these pages, which jump from the mass devastation in Europe to the intimate heartaches of an American small town.”

The Postmistress
Sarah Blake
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam – (2010-02-09)
ISBN / EAN: 0399156194 / 9780399156199

Available from Blackstone Audiobooks

  • CD: $100; ISBN 9781441725714
  • MP3 CD: $29.95; ISBN 9781441725745
  • Cassette: $65.95; ISBN 9781441725707

Audio and e-book available from OverDrive

——————————–

Union Atlantic, the first novel by Adam Hazlett, author of the bestselling story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here, is also attracting 2:1 hold ratios in libraries we checked. The novel explores the gilded age of the last decade, centering on a land dispute between a young banker and a retired schoolteacher, and was chosen as a #1 Indie Next Pick for February.

New York magazine profiles Hazlett this week, as did PWearlier, both noting that the book, which Hazlett began writing ten years ago, foretells the recent financial crisis and even the bailout. He tells New York that when he began writing it, he feared readers might not know, or even care, what the Fed is.

Libraries have ordered it in similar quantities to The Postmistress, with one-fifth the number of holds.

Union Atlantic
Adam Haslett
Retail Price: $26.00
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2010-02-09)
ISBN / EAN: 0385524471 / 9780385524476

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Adriana Trigiani‘s Brava Valentine (HarperCollins), the second in her Valentine trilogy about a loving but fiery Italian American family, is showing reserves of 6:1 at one library we checked, making it the most-anticipated fiction title of the week.

Alex Berenson‘s The Midnight House(Penguin), the fourth in a series featuring superspy John Wells,  is also much in demand, though not available at all libraries we checked.

Peter Straub‘s A Dark Matter (Knopf Doubleday) “ranks as one of the finest tales of modern horror,” according to PW.

Chuck Hogan‘s Devils in Exile(Simon & Schuster) is “a compelling portrait of a good man who makes bad choices and in the end must battle his way out of a destructive and deadly life,” PW said.

More Parker Novels in the Vault

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

As we noted yesterday, Robert Parker, whose recent death is being widely mourned by the reading community, has several more books coming. In addition to the two scheduled for release this year, his agent tells Entertainment Weekly that “a couple more” are in the pipeline and he was “30-40 pages into” a new Spenser novel when he died.

Below are the titles scheduled for this year:

Split Image (Jesse Stone)
Robert B. Parker
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-02-23)
ISBN / EAN: 0399156232 / 9780399156236

Random House Audio; UNABR; 2/23/10; 9780739357484; $32
Thorndike Large Print; 2/1/10; 9781410421876; hdbk; $35.95
Audio available from OverDrive

Coming in May is the fourth in Parker’s Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch western series, following Appoloosa, Resolution and Brimstone.

Blue-Eyed Devil
Robert B. Parker
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-05-04)
ISBN / EAN: 0399156488 / 9780399156489

Random House Audio; UNABR; 5/4/10; 9780307735478; $32

Dorsey Thriller High in Demand

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Thriller fans are driving strong library demand for two titles coming next week, from Tom Dorsey and Kay Hooper – and early reviews favor Dorsey.

Gator A-Go-Go by Tim Dorsey is the most-requested title to be released next week, with strong holds of 6:1 or more in libraries we checked. It features homicidal yet discerning anti-hero Serge Storms and his drug-addicted sidekick as they seek rough justice amid the revelry of spring break. Booklist says: “All of Dorsey’s books offer belly laughs, but this one seems a cut above.”

Gator A-Go-Go
Tim Dorsey
Retail Price: $24.99
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-02-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0061432717 / 9780061432712

Large Print available from HarperLuxe on 02/01/2010

  • $24.99; ISBN: 9780061945670

Blood Ties by Kay Hooper has holds of at least 1:1, and as high as 7:1 at one library. Publishers Weekly was not very impressed:

Too many interchangeable doll-like victims and a by-the-numbers plot mar bestseller Hooper’s conclusion to her paranormal thriller trilogy that began with Blood Dreams and Blood Sins.

Blood Ties: A Bishop/Special Crimes Unit Novel
Kay Hooper
Retail Price: $26.00
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Bantam – (2010-01-26)
ISBN / EAN: 0553804863 / 9780553804867

Audio available from Brilliance

  • CD (9 discs): $87.97; ISBN 9781423333142
  • MP3: $39.97; ISBN: 9781423333166

Large Print from Random House

  • $26; ISBN 9780739377567

More Major Fiction Releases Next Week:

The Dragon Keeper: Volume One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb (Eos/Harper), the first in a two-volume fantasy “mini-series” by veteran fantasist Hobb that Booklist calls as “good as it is massive.”

The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd (Morrow) is the first in a new thriller series by debut author Boyd. Publisher Morrow is backing its high hopes for the book with a 150,000 first printing.

Three Days Before the Shooting . . . by Ralph Ellison; only half the ibraries we checked have ordered this novel that Ellison left unfinished after his death, his second after Invisible Man.

RIP Spenser

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

I vividly remember Robert Parker from hearing him speak at an ALA. Very likely, it was an ALA held in Boston, a city I know more through his books than from personal experience. At that event, Parker made gentle but uproarious fun of a bit of library pomposity that went on before he spoke; he was totally charming and had the audience eating out of his hand.

And, now, upon returning from an ALA in Boston, I learn that Parker has died. He was 77 and, according to reports, he died at his desk in his home in Cambridge.

Below are links to some of the first tributes:

The most recent Spenser novel, The Professional, came out in October, 2009. His next novel, in the Jesse Stone series, is coming next month.

Split Image (Jesse Stone)
Robert B. Parker
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-02-23)
ISBN / EAN: 0399156232 / 9780399156236

Random House Audio; UNABR; 2/23/10; 9780739357484; $32
Thorndike Large Print; 2/1/10; 9781410421876; hdbk; $35.95
Audio available from OverDrive

Coming in May is the fourth in his Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch western series, following Appoloosa, Resolution and Brimstone.

Blue-Eyed Devil
Robert B. Parker
Retail Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-05-04)
ISBN / EAN: 0399156488 / 9780399156489

Random House Audio; UNABR; 5/4/10; 9780307735478; $32