Publishers have been searching for him all over Scandinavia, but maybe the next Stieg Larsson actually resides on this continent, in Dallas, Texas. And, maybe he’s a she.

USA Today thinks so. Reviewer Carol Memmot (who, back in January, called Three Seconds by Scandinavians Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom a worthy Larsson successor. It then hit the NYT Hardcover Fiction list) says that the main character in American Taylor Stevens’ debut thriller The Informationist, “evokes the spirit and intelligence of th gutsy, damaged Salander, but she’s far from derivative.”

She adds, “Thank goodness a sequel to this fiery novel is in the works.”

The Informationist: A Thriller Taylor Stevens Retail Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Crown – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 0307717097 / 9780307717092

Large Type: Thorndike; 9781410438027; June 2011; $31.99

The #1 Indie Pick for February, West of Here by Jonathan Evison, arrives next week. Also a popular choice on EarlyWord‘s Galley Chat, the novel follows the past and present residents of a fictional town on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. Reader ratings are also high on GoodReads.com.

Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B+”: “Characters occasionally blur together, and some of the more interesting ones don’t get the attention they warrant, as the large scope hinders any close-ups. Still, if you take a step back, the big picture is pretty impressive.”

More media is bound to pay attention, since the book was highlighted on the BEA Editor’s Buzz Panel. And as we’ve mentioned before, this titles earned a rare triumvirate of starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. LJ sums up, “Fans of Jess Walter and Jim Lynch will be thrilled to find another author whose love for the Pacific Northwest and its people shines through with humor and clarity.”

At libraries we checked, there are modest holds on modest orders.

West of Here Jonathan Evison Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2011-02-15) ISBN / EAN: 1565129520 / 9781565129528

Audio: Highbridge; 9781615731169; $39.95

Usual Suspects On Sale Next Week

A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer (St. Martin’s) is medical thriller with a 200,000 copy printing, in which terrorists release a virus in the Capitol during the State of the Union address. Booklist says, “Palmer’s track record (15 medical thrillers, 15 international best-sellers) assures a full-court press on the promotional front, and his latest, though disappointing, will get it, from national print and radio ads to an electronic avalanche.”

The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision by James Redfield (Grand Central) is the fourth entry in the Celestine series.

Red Wolf by Liza Marklund (Atria) is the fifth novel featuring journalist Annika Bengtzon by the co-author of The Postcard Killers with James Patterson. Library Journal says, “Marklund blends the sociology and politics of contemporary Sweden with a taut mystery, capturing the Scandinavian chill as she builds suspense to an eminently satisfying conclusion.”

Dirtier Than Ever by Vickie Stringer (Atria) takes readers on another bumpy ride in this urban fiction outing with Red, Bacon, and Q–the love-hate triangle from Dirty Red and Still Dirty.

Lucky Stiff by Deborah Coonts (Forge) is the sequel to the chick-lit-gone-wild debut Wanna Get Lucky?, featuring Las Vegas casino troubleshooter Lucky O’Toole. Library Journal says, “watching Lucky navigate the dangerous shoals of the male-dominated world of gambling is a delight. Las Vegas is the perfect setting for this witty tale of misdirection and larger-than-life characters. Fans of J.A. Konrath’s Jack Daniels series will love this.”

Young Adult

Angel by James Patterson (Little Brown) is the seventh Maximum Ride novel, in which evil scientists are still trying to convince Max that she needs to save the world, this time by providing the genetic link in speeding up the pace of evolution.

Worth Watching

Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson (Pamela Dorman/Viking) was an October Sneak Peak on BookReporter.com, which compared this historical novel about a British commander’s wife who trades life at sea for the English countryside to Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith.

Fondly remembered by critics and booksellers for her 2003 debut hit I Don’t Know How She Does It, Allison Pearson returns next week with I Think I Love You, a wistful novel about a grown woman who looks back on her dream of becoming Mrs. David Cassidy in 1970s Wales, and winds up heading to Las Vegas to meet him in mid-life.

People gives it four stars and designates it a People Pick. Even the New York Times‘ Michiko Kakutani is wooed:

[Pearson] shows how Petra’s crush on David Cassidy is really a kind of rehearsal for the love and passion she wants to one day lavish on a real boy in real life, and how those youthful emotions both endure — and are transformed — as the years and decades tick by. . . . [A] groovy little novel whose charms easily erase any objections the reader might have to the prepackaged and heavily borrowed plot.

I Think I Love You Allison Pearson Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2011-02-08) ISBN / EAN: 1400042356 / 9781400042357

CD: Random House Audio, $40, ISBN 9780307747525

Check Your Holds

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel by Deborah E. Harkness (Viking), a debut is the first in a planned trilogy, about witches and vampires that is rising fast on Amazon (now at #3), with growing holds in libraries. Part of the story is based on real events; like her main character, Harkness discovered a manuscript, missing since the 1600’s, that was once owned by Queen Elizabeth’s astrologer.  Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+, complaining of some bloat, but summing up, “as the mysteries started to unravel, the pages turned faster, almost as if on their own.”  Parade Magazine was unequivocal on Sunday, making it a Pick of the Week and calling it “580 pages of sheer pleasure.” Harkness spoke at the AAP Trade Libraries Breakfast at ALA MidWinter. It will be available in large type from Thorndike in March (9781410436337).

Usual Suspects

The Secret Soldier by Alex Berenson (Putnam) is the fifth thriller featuring ex-CIA man John Wells, by the winner of the 2007 first novel Edgar for The Faithful Spy. Kirkus says, “the plot unfolds along predictable lines in a story arc that Tom Clancy readers or viewers of TV’s 24 will find old hat.” 

A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Bradley Alan (Delacorte) is Ms. Flavia de Luce’s third outing, after her bestselling debut in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and return in The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag. Here, she demonstrates a firm knowledge of poisons while saving a gypsy from accusations of child abduction. PW calls it, “a splendid romp through 1950s England led by the world’s smartest and most incorrigible preteen.” 

The Matchmaker of Kenmare by Frank Delaney (Random) is the sequel to Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show, in which matchmaker Kate Begley plies her profession in neutral WWII Ireland. Booklist says, it “combines the charm of an Irish yarn with the excitement of a political thriller and the romance of a 1940s war movie.”

Heartwood: A Novel by Belva Plain (Delacorte) explores the inevitable endings of romantic relationships through the experiences of a mother and daughter. 

Also worth watching:

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French (Doubleday) is the tale of a once unwitting subject of an experiment in radioactivity, who sets out to avenge the dire consequences of that same study. It follows the author’s much praised 2002 debut novel, Mermaid on the Moon. LJ says, “mixing the suburban angst of Tom Perrotta with the snarky humor of Carl Hiaasen, Stuckey-French has written a page-turner that is thoughtful, amusing, and nearly impossible to put down.”

Kids:

No Passengers Beyond This Point by Gennifer Choldenko (Dial) is a children’s fantasy about three siblings whose plane lands in a mysterious world, by an author best known for her Newbery Award-winning historical fiction. Kirkus calls it, “convoluted” with “a confusing host of secondary characters. Fascinating, if not entirely successful.”

Among the new fiction arriving next week, the trade paperback original novel Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt looks like one worth watching. The story about the aftermath of a car collision between two women fleeing their marriages, which ends fatally for one of them, is an Oprah magazine pick for January, and a special pick of Costco buyer Pennie Ianniciello, a well-known market mover.

It’s often said that publishing original trade paperbacks is a risky business because reviewers tend to overlook them. This is clearly not the case for Pictures of You, which has already received admiring attention from the San Francisco Chronicle and from Carolyn See in today’s Washington Post.

Most libraries we checked had solid orders, with reserves of 3:1 or more. Take advantage of the less expensive format and buy extra copies for your readers advisors.

Pictures of You Caroline Leavitt Retail Price: $13.95 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2011-01-25) ISBN / EAN: 1565126319 / 9781565126312

OverDrive; Adobe EPUB eBook
Highbridge Audio; UNABR; 9781615736553; Library Edition, 9781611741025;

Also on Sale Next Week

O: A Presidential Novel by Anonymous (Simon & Schuster), a fictional vision of the 2012 presidential election written by an unnamed insider on the Obama team (how big of an insider is no defined; the person claims to have been “in the room” with him. Is that like being able to see Russia from your house?), has been getting the strong press coverage in the days leading up to publication. Reviews, however, have been tepid to disparaging. In its syndicated review, the Associated Press calls O “an enjoyable read for political junkies who can’t wait for the next campaign to start. But for readers not consumed with the granular detail of focus groups and ad buys, O falls short — especially in its portrayal of Obama, who remains as opaque in this book as he does real life.” Entertainment Weekly is even less charitable: “Short on character, short on plot — a hapless, poorly executed attempt at satire that’s missing literally everything that Primary Colors had going for it: the detail, the zing, the insidery knowledge, the humor. Let’s give S&S an A for marketing O so well. But let’s give the book itself a D.”

Tick Tock by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown) is the newest mystery featuring New York detective Michael Bennett.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman (Crown) chronicles the history of a Massachusetts town from pilgrim settlers through the modern day in a series of 14 stories. PW says, “Hoffman’s deft magical realism ties one woman’s story to the next even when they themselves are not aware of the connection. The prose is beautiful, the characters drawn sparsely but with great compassion.” Entertainment Weekly gives it a solid “A”.

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern (Harper) is the tale of a 16 year-old girl whose gilded life shatters with her father’s suicide, and has a 150,000-copy first printing. LJ says, “Ahern has made a definite change in her writing with her recent fiction, going from chick lit to modern fairy tales. The supernatural element doesn’t work well in this novel, however, with a buildup that falls slightly flat…. Still, Ahern has fans from her P.S. I Love You days, so purchase accordingly.”

A Cup of Friendship: A Novel by Deborah Rodriguez (Ballantine) follows a group of women who meet in a Kabul coffee shop owned by an American, by the author of The Kabul Beauty School. Kirkus says, “Rodriguez paints a vivid picture of Afghan culture and understands the uncomfortable role Americans play in political upheavals. But ultimately her cozy sentimentality undercuts the elements of harsh realism, as if Maeve Binchy had written The Kite Runner.”

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard (Ecco) is the story of the lasting effects of the disappearance of a teenage girl on the boys in her town, reminiscent of The Virgin Suicides. PW says “Though the truth about Nora remains tantalizingly elusive… the many possibilities are so captivating, and Pittard’s prose so eloquent, that there’s a far richer experience to be had in the chain of maybes and what-ifs than in nailing down the truth.”

In USA Today, Carol Memmott says the “moody atmospherics” of Erin Kelly’s debut psychological thriller, The Poison Tree will appeal to fans of fans of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

The Poison Tree: A Novel Erin Kelly Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books – (2011-01-06) ISBN / EAN: 0670022403 / 9780670022403

Thorndike; Large Print; April; ISBN 9781410436313; $30.99

Patrick Anderson, mystery and thriller reviewer for the Washington Post, enthuses,

Peter James’s novels about Detective Superintendent Roy Grace have been bestsellers in England but have had little impact in this country. That could change with the publication here of the sixth in the series, Dead Like You. It’s a remarkably inventive story of sexual obsession, possibly the most engrossing thriller since Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs.

Anderson is right about James being big in the UK — Dead Like You went right to #1 on London’s Sunday Times best seller list in its first week of publication and enjoyed extensive review coverage there.

Dead Like You (Detective Superintendent Roy Grace) Peter James Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 560 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2010-11-23) ISBN / EAN: 0312642822 / 9780312642822

Based on the legal thriller by Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer, starring Matthew McConaughey, is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 18. Below is the first trailer.

Director: Brad Furman
Starring:

Matthew McConaughey … Mickey Haller
Ryan Phillippe … Louis Roulet
John Leguizamo
Marisa Tomei
Michaela Conlin … Heidi Sobel
William H. Macy

Official Web site: TheLincolnLawyerMovie.com

Tie-in:

Sterling’s Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man, the fictional memoir of Roger Sterling, a character from the TV series Mad Men, is the unlikely media darling of next week’s fiction lineup. It compiles Sterling’s best one-liners from the show, such as: “When God closes a door, he opens a dress.”

It has already attracted a swarm of media attention along the lines of this mention on New York Magazine‘s pop culture site, Vulture and on the Los Angeles Times Show Tracker blog – with more reviews undoubtedly to follow next week.

Libraries we checked have placed minimal order, but this gold, although a great holiday gifts for series lovers, may just be a flash in the pan.

Sterling’s Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man Roger Sterling Retail Price: $16.95 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Grove Press – (2010-11-16) ISBN / EAN: 0802119891 / 9780802119896

Usual Suspects on Sale Next Week

Crescent Dawn (Dirk Pitt Series #21) by Clive Cussler (Putnam) didn’t entirely win over PW: “Fans of the indefatigable Pitt will enjoy watching their hero as he joins the battle on land, in the air, and at sea, but others might wish the Cusslers had picked less familiar terrorist targets.”

Night Star by Alyson Noel (St. Martin’s) is the newest entry in the bestselling paranormal romance Immortals series for teens.

Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie (Random House) is a surreal adventure in which a boy must journey through the “World of Magic,” a land with strangle creatures and video game logic, which Rushdie wrote for his 13-year-old son Luka. PW says, “the author’s entertaining wordplay and lighter-than-air fantasies don’t amount to more than a clever pastiche…. This is essentially a fun tale for younger readers, not the novel Rushdie’s adult fans have been waiting for.” The Washington Post delves in to the inspiration for the story.

Kathleen Kent returns to the territory of her standout 2008 debut, The Heretic’s Daughter, with a prequel set in 17th century Massachusetts, in The Wolves of Andover.  Based on the life of a woman from whom Kent is descended, the novel takes place before she became a victim of the Salem Witch trials, during her relationship with an Englishman involved in the beheading of Charles I, who is pursued by assassins.

Early reviews are good:

PW: “Kent doesn’t disappoint….[she] brings colonial America to life by poking into its dark corners and finding its emotional and personal underpinnings.”

Booklist: “Part historical fiction, part romance, and part suspense…. Skillfully meshing these various elements, the authors latest effort is bound to please fans of each.”

Kirkus: “Kent has more fun with the Londoners—Johnny Depp could play almost any of the baddies—than her somewhat morose ancestors, but she lovingly captures their daily grind and brings looming dangers, whether man or beast, to harrowing life.

Modest holds on modest orders in libraries we checked.

The Wolves of Andover: A Novel Kathleen Kent Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books – (2010-11-08) ISBN / EAN: 0316068624 / 9780316068628

Usual Suspects On Sale Next Week

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books) continues the popular children’s book series.

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (Scribner) is a collection of four new horror tales. In a starred review, Booklist says, “King begins his afterword by stating, ‘The stories in this book are harsh.’ The man ain’t whistlin Dixie…. King provides four raw looks at the limits of greed, revenge, and self-deception.” It’s also an Amazon Editor’s pick this month.

Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci (Grand Central) is the fifth Camel Club political thriller. PW is not impressed: “Those who prefer intelligence in their political thrillers will have to look elsewhere.”

Cross Fire (Alex Cross Series #17) by James Patterson (Grand Central) finds detective Alex Cross’s wedding plans on hold while he investigates the assasination of Washington D.C.’s most corrupt congressman and lobbyist.

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley (Riverhead) follows an old man who undergoes a procedure to cure his dementia at the cost of longevity. PW says, “Though the details of the experimental procedure are less than convincing, Mosley’s depiction of the indignities of old age is heartbreaking, and Ptolemy’s grace and decency make for a wonderful character and a moving novel.”

I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg (Random House) is about a former beauty queen and realtor in Birmingham, Alabama planning a graceful exit from her burdensome life as the housing bubble implodes. Kirkus was disappointed: “What could have been an edgy excursion into the individual toll of the Recession on real women devolves into fluff.”

Sunset Park by Paul Auster (Holt) is the veteran author’s 16th novel, set in a house full of 20-something squatters in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood. It gets a starred review from Booklist: “In a time of daunting crises and change, Auster reminds us of lasting things, of love, art, and the miraculous strangeness of being alive.”

Life Times by Nadine Gordimer (FSG) is a collection of stories set in the Nobelist’s native South Africa. Kirkus calls it “a welcome collection by a master of English prose—lucid and precisely written, if often bringing news only of disappointment, fear and loss.”

The Box: Tales from the Darkroom by Gunter Grass and Krishna Winston (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is a fictionalized exploration of the childhood memories of his eight children, from whose lives he was mostly absent.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, the Australian author of The House of Riverton and The Forgotten Garden, hinges on a 1941 letter that finally reaches its destination in 1992 with powerful repercussions for a London book editor. PW calls it “an enthralling romantic thriller.”

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

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.

Debut novelist Nicolle Wallace sets her thriller, Eighteen Acres, in Washington, D.C. She knows the territory; she was the White House Communications Director for George W. Bush.

USA Today says this first-hand experience stands her well. Patrick Anderson concurs in the Washington Post,

To say that Nicolle Wallace’s Eighteen Acres is one of the best novels I’ve read about life in the White House may be faint praise — there haven’t been many good ones — but her book is both an enjoyable read and a serious look at what high-level political pressures do to people.

The title of the book comes from D.C. insiders’ slang for the White House. One important aspect of the story is not based on real life; it features a female president.

Eighteen Acres Nicolle Wallace Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Atria – (2010-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 1439194823 / 9781439194829

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.”

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.