Library Journal

Easterbrook, Gregg. The Leading Indicators. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250011732. $24.99; eISBN 9781250011749. POP FICTION
It’s the usual have-it-all situation: Margo and Tom Helot boast a gorgeous home, super-achieving kids, and satisfied goals. What upends them is not violence or a secret from the past, as in most fiction with that set-up, but the economy.  Tom’s company goes bankrupt, and as he flails about, landing repeatedly at companies going under, the family collapses into a financially unsettled heap. A prolific journalist and contributing editor (at the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Monthly, and the New Republic, no less), Easterbrook here writes a novel for the times.

Millet, Lydia. Magnificence. Norton. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780393081701. $25.95. LITERARY
Still mourning the death of her husband, Susan Findley is given a chance at reclamation when she inherits her grand-uncle’s rambly, enchanting Pasadena mansion. Symbolically, she immediately sets about to restore the mansion’s taxidermy collection to pristine perfection. Alas, a few less than pristine relations drop in to stay. More eerily incisive work from Pulitzer Prize finalist Millet.

Rain, David. The Heat of the Sun. Holt. Nov. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780805096705. $26; eISBN 9780805096712. HISTORICAL
Like Angela Davis-Gardner’s Butterfly’s Child, Australian-born, London-based author Rain imagines what happened to the child left behind when the heroine of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly kills herself after discovering Lt. Benjamin Pinkerton’s perfidy. Davis-Gardner’s Benji, passed off as an orphan, suffers intolerance; Rain’s Ben “Trouble” Pinkerton is a charismatic young man worshiped by his private-school classmates—especially narrator Woodley Sharpless, a crippled orphan—who eventually finds himself in the midst of world-defining events from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression to the bombing of Nagasaki. So, a dramatic rather than meditative work, billed as genre-bending and an in-house favorite.

Thúy, Kim. Ru. Bloomsbury USA dist. by Macmillan. Nov. 2012. 160p. ISBN 9781608198986. pap. $14. LITERARY
Thúy was ten in 1978 when her family fled lotus-scented Saigon for Quebec, trading a large house for flea-infested mattresses. She picked vegetables and sewed clothes to put herself through school, married, and worked variously as a lawyer, translator, and restaurateur. Then she got the urge to write. The result Is not a memoir, however, but this fictionalized account of Thúy’s immigrant experiences—and it won Canada’s Governor General Award. Good for discussion, especially as we are still not settled about the Vietnam War and its consequences; the early buzz campaign should draw in readers.

Trasandes, Monica. Broken Like This. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9781250006837. $24.99; eISBN 978125001833. POP FICTION
The fiery and inspiring beloved of both Louis Reed and Angela Agnelli for 15 years, Kate Harrington now lies broken, comatose after a car accident in Ibiza. Her two paramours having flown in to be by her side, one might expect a story of seesawing tight and tender emotions, but it gets really dramatic when Kate’s dark-force stepfather arrives. Director of Spanish-Language Media for GLAAD, Uruguayan-born Transandes offers a first novel that’s getting some push.

Brom. Krampus: The Yule Lord. Morrow. Nov. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9780062095657. $27.99. FANTASY
One Christmas Eve in Boone County, WV, a songwriter manqué named Jesse intervenes when he sees men in black attacking a white-bearded gent in a sleigh. Yes, it’s Santa, but he’s the bad guy here—and that’s Krampus’s bag left at the scene. According to Krampus, an age-old trickster demon who punishes wrongdoing, Santa locked him up and stole his magic 500 years ago. Now he’s free and wants his magic back—along with the holiday Santa so rudely usurped. Illustrator/author Brom’s big hit, The Child Thief, went through four printings; fans will be looking for this one. With a 40,000-copy first printing, plus 35 black-and-white illustrations and eight pages of color.

Carr, Caleb. The Legend of Broken. Random. Nov. 2012. 688p. ISBN 9781400062836. $27; eISBN 9780812994087. HISTORICAL
Back in 1994, Carr landed like a meteorite with The Alienist, which has sold over two million copies in all formats to date. Subsequent titles, also big sellers—though nowhere near as big as The Alienist—ricocheted from Victorian England to 2023. Here Carr goes way back in time to the medieval era, where a fortress may fall to the roiling invaders without or to undermining forces within. Evidently lots of juicy characters, e.g., a noble warrior and a scientist condemned for sorcery. Will this outsell The Alienist? We’ll see.

Chiaverini, Jennifer. The Giving Quilt: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel. Dutton. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780525953609. $25.95. POP FICTION
Post-Thanksgiving at Elm Creek Manor, aspiring quilters are enjoying a special winter session of quilt camp. Their aim? To create warm, colorful quilts for Project Linus, a real-life charity Chiaverini supports that gives handmade quilts and blankets to needy children. Not a dry eye after finishing this book; with a reading group guide and eight-city tour.

Engelmann, Karen. The Stockholm Octave. Ecco: HarperCollins. Nov. 2012. 432p. ISBN 9780061995347. $26.99. LITERARY HISTORICAL
Engelmann sets her debut novel in 1790s Stockholm—the city’s Golden Age, though with our spare knowledge of Swedish history, as Francine du Plessix Gray points out, we wouldn’t know much about it—and invents a card game called Octave that drives the action. When the fortune-telling Mrs. Sophia Sparrow foresees a golden future for smug bureaucrat Emil Larsson, she lays an Octave for him so that he can find the eight people who will help him realize that vision. Soon, however, Larsson realizes that his search is tied up with the fate of his country, which is verging on chaos. Historical fiction with heft—and some hefty buzz; there’s a 50,000-copy first printing, and rights have been sold to ten countries.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds. Pantheon. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780307907332. $24.95; eISBN 9780307907349. MYSTERY
Boasting more than one million copies in print, the Isabel Dalhousie series is right up there in popularity with McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. In this ninth entry, a Scottish landowner robbed of a Nicolas Poussin painting slated for the Scottish National Gallery asks Isabel’s help in dealing with the thieves, who have approached him privately. Just who are they, and does the hapless victim actually know them? With a reading group guide and a tour that will include Atlanta, Boston, Mobile, and New York, plus locales in Vermont and Canada.

Mayle, Peter. The Marseille Caper. Knopf. Nov. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780307594198. $24. CD/downloadable: Random House Audio. MYSTERY
Mayle introduced charming, roguish sleuth Sam Levitt in The Vintage Caper, which has sold nearly 100,000 copies in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. (And he didn’t go on tour to plump for it, as the publisher hastens to point out; his tour for this second in the series is expected to push up the numbers.) Sam is happily ensconced in Los Angeles with charming Elena Morales when rich Francis Reboul calls him back to Marseille. Alas, helping out Francis puts Sam in the midst of a major real estate hustle, with the danger escalating as the battle over Marseille’s valuable waterfront heats up. Mayle’s tour will hit Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

Munro, Alice. Dear Life: Stories. Knopf. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780307596888. $26.95; eISBN 9780307961044. CD/downloadable: Random House Audio. SHORT STORIES
The highly admired Munro has won virtually every award imaginable (e.g., three Governor General’s Literary Awards and the Man Booker International Prize) and also sells books; her last title, Too Much Happiness, sold nearly 133,000 copies. The stories in her new collection, which revisits the towns and countryside around Lake Huron, highlight key moments when one’s life changes forever. Don’t miss.

Pullman, Philip. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version. Viking. Nov. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780670024971. $27.95. FAIRY TALES
Yes, it’s been 200 years since the publication of the first volume of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s Children’s and Household Tales, and we’ll be seeing celebrations. Norton is reissuing an update of Maria Tatar’s The Annotated Brothers Grimm, and now Pullman has jumped in with his own versions of 50 of the immortal tales, from perennials like “Cinderella” to less familiar gems like “Briar-Rose.” The dark edginess of Pullman’s own work (like the famed Dark Materials trilogy) seems a good match for the Grimm tone of these stories.

Schutt, Christine. Prosperous Friends. Grove. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780802120380. $24. LITERARY
National Book Award finalist, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and two-time O. Henry Prize winner, Schutt is a writer’s writer whose elegant prose seems chiseled out of diamonds. Here, golden boy Ned Bourne and his wife, Isabel, seek fulfillment of their artistic promise by traveling to London, New York, and Maine but are less successful in managing their emotional and sexual lives. Understanding comes when they meet older painter Clive Harris and his poet wife, Dinah. With a reading group guide; for discriminating folks.

Sussman, Paul. The Labyrinth of Osiris. Atlantic Monthly. Nov. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780802120410. $25. THRILLER
With Sussman’s The Last Secret of the Temple and The Lost Army of Cambyses having each sold over a million copies worldwide, you can bet that readers will be interested in this next work. Det. Arieh Ben-Roi is stumped by the murder of crusading Israeli journalist Rivka Kleinberg, found dead in a Jerusalem cathedral (of all places). So for help he turns to long-time buddy Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police. Kleinberg had been digging into the death of a British Egyptologist in the 1930s, which might provide some clues. Fun.

DeMille, Nelson. The Panther. Grand Central. Oct. 2012. 600p. ISBN 9780446580847. $27.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
The author’s most recent novel, The Lion, which featured his popular hero John Corey, debuted in a tie for the top spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list in 2010. So readers will rejoice that Corey is back, working in antiterrorist capacity with his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, in Sana’a, Yemen. Their assignment? To track down the al-Qaeda operative responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole. Alas, things are not quite as they appear. Roar.

Donoghue, Emma. Astray. Little, Brown. Oct. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780316206297. $24.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. SHORT STORIES
Emigrants, runaways, and lovers; counterfeiters and slaves. The characters in Donoghue’s new story collection have all wandered far from home, and they’ve pushed psychological boundaries as well. The author of the uniquely voiced Man Booker finalist Room, which has sold over a million copies, does something interesting here. Aside from writing eye-popping stories, she provides endnotes for each story detailing its historical background—especially intriguing when her writing ranges from the Puritans’ Massachusetts to antebellum Louisiana to 1960s Toronto. Can’t wait to read.

Dunmore, Helen. The Greatcoat.  Atlantic Monthly. Oct. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9780802120601. $24. HISTORICAL
Having moved to Yorkshire in winter 1952 with her doctor husband, who’s often absent, Isabel Carey is feeling isolated. One night she wakes up freezing and, finding an RAF greatcoat abandoned in a cupboard, huddles under it for warmth. Then she hears a knock on the window and discovers a young man wearing a greatcoat just like hers. What follows is an intense affair, but who is this mysterious stranger? Orange Prize winner Dunmore makes the past shimmer, but here she’s making it spooky, too.

Harrison, Kim. Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond. Morrow. Oct. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780061974328. $24.99; eISBN 9780062207906. SHORT STORIES
With this short fiction collection, Harrison offers a new view of the Hollows—haunt of bounty hunter and witch Rachel Morgan, the star of Harrison’s best-selling series—while spinning out a few new fantasy worlds. Included are three new novellas, e.g., “Million Dollar Baby,” featuring elven tycoon Trent Kalamack’s efforts to rescue his daughter with the help of a pixy named Jenks, plus all her previously published short fiction. Bonbons for fans of a series that just keeps ramping up.

Kiesbye, Stefan.Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone. Penguin: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9780143121466. $15. HORROR
I’ve been promised that this is a really spooky novel—chilling right down to the title, taken from the dark nursery rhyme; its billing as Shirley Jackson meets the X-Files just cements the feeling. The setting is Hemmersmoor, a place seemingly out of time where fear creeps around every corner; there’s a manor whose inhabitants despise the townsfolk, an old mill no one dares mention, and dark talk of revenants in the pub. Four village children are about to find out what’s going on. A  novel for the brave; from the author of There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby—clearly, Kiesbye has a macabre turn of mind.

Locke, Attica. The Cutting Season. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780061802058. $25.99; eISBN 9780062097743. lrg. prnt. THRILLER
Locke follows up her multiple-prize-nominated debut, Black Water Rising, with a story set in contemporary Louisiana but freighted with implications from the past. A young woman is found with her throat cut on the antebellum plantation Belle Vie, regarded nostalgically by some and reviled by others as a living reminder of slavery. Locals are angry about migrant labor and the corporate takeover of the area’s small family farms, but estate manager Caren Gray turns elsewhere for a solution. Fingers crossed for this sophomore effort.

Patterson, James. Free Alex Cross. Little, Brown. Oct. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780316097512. $28.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Alex Cross arrested hotshot plastic surgeon Elijah Creem for sleeping with underage girls, but Creem is now out of prison and has used his skills to change his face. Meanwhile, a young woman is found hanging, having just given birth, but the baby is missing. More young bodies pile up, and Alex hardly realizes that he is being watched. I think that we can guess where this is going. With 75 million copies of his books in print, Patterson is the king of crime.

Sharratt, Mary. Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780547567846. $25. HISTORICAL
A noted writer of historical fiction, Sharratt is also editor of the contrarian anthology Bitch Lit. So she should effectively capture the contrarian spirit of Hildegard von Bingen, who was tithed to the church at age eight and eventually broke out of servitude to a punishingly pious nun and system to become a powerful abbess, scholar, and composer who preached her own brighter vision of God. Not the biggest book on the list but with strong appeal for those interested in religious debate, strong female characters, and the High Middle Ages.

Barker, Pat. Toby’s Room. Doubleday. Oct. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780385524360. $25.95; eISBN 9780385535021. HISTORICAL
Booker Award winner Barker’s new World War I trilogy (following the wonderful “Regeneration” trilogy) concerns a group of friends who meet at London’s Slade School of Art and move on through life—straight into the war. In this second volume (after Life Class), Toby and sister Elinor share a dark secret, and when Toby is reported missing and believed killed, Elinor faces yet another secret: what really happened. Life Class seemed a weak start to this trilogy; perhaps as we move past backstory to the real tragedy of the fighting, Barker will show her spirit.

Cisneros, Sandra (text) & Esther Hernandez (illus.). Have You Seen Marie? Knopf. Oct. 2012. 112p. ISBN 9780307597946. $21; eISBN 9780307960863. INSPIRATIONAL FICTION
Bereft after the death of her mother (she felt like “a glove left behind at the bus station”), the award-wining author of The House on Mango Street found renewed meaning by helping friend Roz hunt for her missing cat, Marie. This for-all-ages illustrated volume shows how we heal by investing in others. With a 13-city tour to Albuquerque, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, San Antonio, San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Seattle.

Duffy, Stella. The Purple Shroud: A Novel of Empress Theodora. Penguin. Oct. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780143122258. pap. $15. HISTORICAL
Duffy made waves last year with Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore, which won not just a lot of enthusiastic readers but the Stonewall Writer of the Year Award. In this sequel, Theodora has snared Justinian, Byzantine emperor in the 500s, and is now learning what it means to rule. The two books have been jointly optioned for an HBO miniseries, so stay tuned.

Fforde, Jasper. The Woman Who Died a Lot: A Thursday Next Novel. Viking. Oct. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780670025022. $26.95. POP FICTION
In her next outing, seventh in Fforde’s outrageously inventive series, Bookworld enforcement officer Thursday Next returns home to Swindon to recuperate after an assassination attempt. But all is not well with her children: Friday’s career in the Chronoguard is floundering, Tuesday won’t be ready with the anti-Smote shield Swindon needs when an angry Deity comes calling, and then there’s Jenny, who’s just a memory. Wistfulness with the fun; the ten-city tour says it all.

Grisham, John. The Racketeer. Doubleday. Oct. 2012. NAp. ISBN 9780385535144. $28.95; eISBN 9780385536882. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. THRILLER
Evidently, only four active federal judges have been murdered in this country, surprising given our wild and wooly ways. Grisham imagines a fifth, Judge Raymond Fogletree, found murdered with his secretary in the lakeside cabin he built for himself. As the narrator says, “I did not know Judge Fogletree, but I know who killed him, and why. I am a lawyer, and I am in prison. It’s a long story.” And one you will likely want to read.

Homes, A.M. May We Be Forgiven. Viking. Oct. 2012. 496p. ISBN 9780670025480. $26.95. LITERARY
Harold’s younger brother George has it all—a fabulous job, wife and kids, and home. He also has fabulous temper, and one day when he really loses it, he manages to lose everything else, too. Suddenly, Harold has a new life running someone else’s family. The forthright Homes, excellent at fractured domesticity, is a writer that, I find, makes serious readers sigh. With a five-city tour.

Jio, Sarah. Blackberry Winter. Plume. Oct. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780452298385. pap. $15. POP FICTION
Last year, Jio triumphed with two paperback originals, The Violets of March and The Bungalow, which together have 100,000 copies in print. Here she returns with a story that leaps from 1930s Seattle, when single-mother Vera Ray comes off the night shift into a May Day snowstorm (a “blackberry winter” storm) and finds that her son and been abducted, to the present day, when Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge learns about the long-ago abduction and starts investigating. Sweet, absorbing women’s fiction, from what I know of her previous work.

Nesbø, Jo. Phantom. Knopf. Oct. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780307960474. $28.95; eISBN 9780307960481. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. THRILLER
Nesbø’s books have sold more than 14 million copies worldwide in 47 languages; The Snowman, published here in 2010, has sold 150,000 copies to date and was bought by Working Title Films, with Martin Scorsese attached to direct. In this latest adventure featuring Harry Hole, Harry has abandoned Oslo for Hong Kong. Then Oleg, the son of the woman he loved and left behind, is arrested for murder, and Harry returns to save him singlehandedly (he’s barred from rejoining the police force). Much followed; consider multiples.

Salter, James. All That Is. Knopf. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781400043132. $25.95; eISBN 9780307961099. LITERARY
PEN/Faulkner winner Salter publishes rarely—this is his first fiction in seven years—but when he does it’s choice. This novel features World War II veteran Philip Bowman, now a book editor, who enjoys the charged and intimate environment of the era’s publishing world yet suffers in his emotional life, enduring a failed marriage and relentless betrayal. A real in-house favorite; don’t miss.

Sullivan, Mark. Rogue. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Oct. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780312378516. $24.95. THRILLER
Billed as part Bourne Identity, part Mission: Impossible, and part Hitchcock’s It Takes a Thief, this thriller stars Robin Monarch, a former topnotch CIA operative who abandoned his post mid-mission and vanished without explanation. Now he’s a thief, stealing from the very, very rich. But after a job goes wrong, he’s trapped into completing the mission he left behind. Sullivan writes international best sellers by himself and with James Patterson; keep an eye out for this one.

Wickersham, Joan. The News from Spain: Seven Variations on a Love Story. Knopf. Oct. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780307958884. $24.95; eISBN 9780307958891. SHORT STORIES
Astute readers will know Wickersham as the author of National book Award finalist The Suicide Index and will have seen her short fiction in Best American Short Stories. This theme-and-variation collection swirls across the globe over centuries, ranging from the collaboration between Mozart and librettist Da Ponte on several operas to a racecar driver’s widow, and nursing home resident, and a love triangle in 1940s America. My vote for book on this list I’m most curious to see; with a reading group guide.

Clark, Clare. Beautiful Lies. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780151014675. $26. HISTORICAL
In late Victorian London, presumed Chilean heiress Maribel Campbell Lowe enjoys a bohemian lifestyle, indulging her interest in poetry and photography even though she’s married to an MP, however dashing and daring. Then a newspaper editor starts sniffing around, and Maribel’s past returns to haunt her. The author of four respected novels, including Washington Post Best Book The Great Stink, Clark based her novel on the true story of the double life of an MP’s wife. With a reading group guide.

Cury, Augusto. The Dreamseller: The Revolution. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9781439196052. $15; eISBN 9781439196076. POP FICTION
As we learned in Cury’s The Dreamseller: The Calling, the Christlike Dreamseller, shabbily dressed and beatifically philosophizing, helps those who have lost their hopes and aspirations. Here the Dreamseller shows us that there are many like him, unsung heroes from teachers who fight for their students to cancer patients who fight for their lives. With more than 12 million copies in print, Brazilian psychiatrist Cury’s inspirational fiction would seem to have broad appeal.

Erickson, Carolly. The Unfaithful Queen: A Novel of Henry VIII’s Fifth Wife. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780312596910. $24.99; eISBN 9781250011022. HISTORICAL
Having given us the New York Times best-selling The Last Wife of Henry VIII (along with lots of other historical fiction and nonfiction titles), Erickson steps back to Henry’s penultimate bride, the vivacious Catherine Howard, who didn’t bother to inform Henry that she’d had three lovers before him. And thus, with his disillusionment and her failure to produce a son, even as the succession was threatened by Prince Edward’s serious illness, Catherine met the fate of her cousin Anne Boleyn. Yummy for Anglophiles.

Kenyon, Sherrilyn. Dance with the Devil. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781250009135. $25.99; eISBN 9781429976183. PARANORMAL
No, not a new entry in the Dark-Hunter series—just last month, I reported that Time Untime will appear in August. This is a hardcover release of the third in the series, so stock up if your copies are worn to shreds.

Kincaid, Jamaica. See Now Then. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 176p. ISBN 9780374180560. $23. CD: Macmillan Audio. LITERARY
Fans of Lannan Literary Award winner Kincaid’s Lucy and Mr. Potter have waited ten years for this novel, ostensibly a study of a Mother and a Father living with their two children in small-town New England. In fact, as the characters follow their proscribed routines, their minds work overtime to make sense of past, present, and future. An interior novel, then, that reflective readers will want.

Nicholas, Douglas. Something Red. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 374p. ISBN 9781451660074. $25; eISBN 9781451660234. HISTORICAL/FANTASY
An award-winning poet (e.g., Roberts Award), Nicholas decided to write a short story as a Christmas gift to his wife. It bloomed into this packed and spooky-sounding book, set in 1200s England during a particularly frost-bitten winter. Leader of a troupe that includes her lover, her granddaughter, and her apprentice, tough-minded Irishwoman Molly aims to cross the mountains before the snows descend, but something scary is following them in the woods. In the end, the story blends shape-shifters, Templars, Saracens, battling monks, Irish battle queens, frightening mastiffs, and more in a heightened tale reportedly written in resoundingly lyrical prose—after all, Nicholas is a poet. Sounds so promising.

Palma, Felix J. The Map of the Sky. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 576p. ISBN 9781451660319. $26; eISBN 9781451660333. FANTASY
In Spanish author Palma’s dazzling The Map of Time, his first book published here and a New York Times best seller, H.G. Wells is plunged headlong into the possibility of time travel. Wells figures in this follow-up, as New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore—if he’ll stage the extraterrestrial invasion that appears in Wells’s War of the Worlds. A multilayered plot and more time travel (we even meet Edgar Allen Poe); crossed fingers that it’s as good as the first one.

Russinovich, Mark. Trojan Horse. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250010483. $24.99; eISBN 9781250010490. THRILLER
What made the author’s feted debut thriller, Zero Day, so scary was how plausible it was—a Microsoft Technical Fellow, responsible for the Sysinternals tools, Russinovich obviously knows his tech stuff. Here’s another scarily plausible work. The Stuxnet virus, jointly created by the CIA and Mossad to disable Iran’s nuclear program, is getting a new iteration, and the anxious Chinese are preparing to retaliate with a nasty new virus of their own called the Trojan Horse. International relations hang in the balance, and so does the fate of cybersecurity analysts Jeff Aiken and Daryl Haugen, who have stumbled upon the virus. Really, old-fashioned shootouts were easier.

Weller, Lance. Wilderness. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781608199372. $25. HISTORICAL
Living in a driftwood shack on Washington’s beautiful rough-and-tumble coast 30 years after he was badly injured in the Civil War, elderly Abel Truman determines that he must hike across the snow-covered Olympic Mountains to confront personal issues left unresolved since before the war. During his journey, he recalls war’s horrors while fighting off two thugs who want to steal his beloved dog. Weller won Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers, and the Civil War backdrop seems especially fitting for these sesquicentennial times; watch.

Wilson, Antoine. Panorama City. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780547875125. $24. LITERARY Thinking he’s on his deathbed, energetic and big-hearted Oppen Porter ricochets around town, from fast-food joints and storefront churches to his crotchety guardian-angel aunt, recording his determined effort to rise for the benefit of his unborn son. Wilson drew attention with his unsettling debut, The Interloper, and this follow-up is getting some buzz. Check out his tour to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

Dean, Debra. The Mirrored World. Harper: HarperCollins. Sept. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780061231452. $25.99; lrg. prnt. HISTORICAL
Author of the affecting The Madonnas of Leningrad, an ALA Notable Book and a No. 1 BookSense Pick, Dean returns to her favorite city but in an earlier era. In 1700s St. Petersburg, fervent daydreamer Xenia is happily married to Andrei, but when tragedy strikes she withdraws from friends and family to dedicate herself to the poor, eventually vanishing—into a “mirrored world”? Sounds like a Russian novel indeed! With a 75,000-copy first printing and a reading group guide; good for book groups.

Follett, Ken. Winter of the World. Dutton. Sept. 2012. 1008p. ISBN 9780525952923. $36. HISTORICAL
In 2010, Follett launched “The Century Trilogy” with the No. 1 New York Times best seller, Fall of Giants, which traced the lives of five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—through the early years of the 20th century. Encompassing World War I and the Russian Revolution, that lusciously detailed 1000-pager did daunt a few readers. But most will be back for this follow-up (just as big), featuring the same families but moving them along to the rise of the Third Reich and World War II.

Harman, Patricia. The Midwife of Hope River. Morrow. Sept. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780062198891. pap. $14.99. HISTORICAL
A practicing midwife who has authored two memoirs, The Blue Cotton Gown and Arms Wide Open—both small-press publications that found an appreciative audience—Harman turns to fiction with a heroine appropriately named Patience Murphy. Patience, a midwife just getting started in 1930s Appalachia, willingly takes on hard-luck cases even as she carefully guards her own secrets. The 75,000-copy first printing, five-city tour (Atlanta, Birmingham, Charleston, WV, Knoxville, and Nashville), and reading group guide bespeak hope for this book; watch closely, especially in Appalachia.

Kadrey, Richard. Devil Said Bang. Harper Voyageur: HarperCollins. Sept. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780062094575. $24.99. FANTASY
If you’ve been following the Sandman Slim novels (Amazon Top Tenner Kill the Dead; Sandman Slim, among BN.com’s best paranormal fantasies of the decade; and Indie Next Pick Aloha from Hell), you’ll know that James Starker, aka Sandman Slim, managed to break out of hell to revenge his girlfriend’s murder and has since done time in a very unlovely Los Angeles. Aloha sent him back to Hell, where he’s now the new Lucifer, ready for another breakout and with everyone in Heaven and Hell lining up to take shots at him. When Cory Doctorow calls this movie-bound series “wryer-than-wry and violenter-than-violent,” you know the audience. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Black Dahlia & White Rose: Stories. Ecco: HarperCollins. Sept. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780062195692. $24.99.
SHORT STORIES
Deluxe author Oates offers a collection of 11 previously uncollected stories, whose borderland scenarios range from a well-off wife’s eloping with a spotted hyena to visitors surprised by what they discover at a maximum security prison. The title story is most significant, however, as it tracks the friendship between Elizabeth Short, famously known as the Black Dahlia, the victim of a markedly brutal murder in 1940s Los Angeles that remains unsolved, and her roommate, Norma Jeane Baker—who of course became Marilyn Monroe. The 25,000-copy first printing seems a bit low for this master; as Monroe fever hits, starting in August, this could be part of the mix.

Santo, Courtney Miller. The Roots of the Olive Tree. Morrow. Sept. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780062130518. $24.99; eISBN 9780062130532. lrg. prnt. POP FICTION
Multigenerational sagas featuring indomitable women are the stuff of contemporary fiction, but this debut is noteworthy because it represents a full five generations, still living together in a house surrounded by an olive grove in Sacramento Valley. Family matriarch Anna is in fact 112, and great-great-granddaughter Erin has just returned home pregnant after singing opera for two years; now a geneticist wants to study all the women to determine the secret of the family’s longevity. But as Anna worries, that might mean revealing secrets about the family’s origins that she’s hidden for over a century. One of those big-push debuts with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Thilliez, Franck. Syndrome E. Viking. Sept. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780670025787. $26.95. THRILLER
Subliminal images packed into a little-known film from the 1950s are so truly horrifying that a friend of Det. Lucie Hennebelle has gone blind after watching it. Meanwhile, Inspector Franck Sharko is investigating five murders that seem to be related to the film. As terror escalates worldwide, it appears that in its early stages neuroscience was used not for good but for evil. Trust the French to go for a thoughty thriller; this one was a big best seller in France, with rights sold to 11 countries.

Tropper, Jonathan. One Last Thing Before I Go. Dutton. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780525952367. $26.95; CD: Penguin Audio. POP FICTION
No wonder Silver is feeling slightly desperate; his ex-wife is about to marry a terrific guy, his Princeton-bound daughter announces that she’s pregnant, and if he doesn’t acquiesce to an operation, he will soon drop dead. Having broken out in 2009 with This Is Where I Leave You, a New York Times best seller, Tropper returns with another darkly funny, queasily heartwarming tale.

Boyle, T.C. San Miguel. Viking. Sept. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780670026241. $27.95. Downloadable: Penguin Audio. LITERARY
In 1888, ailing Marantha Waters moves to the desolate isle of San Miguel Island off Southern California’s coast with her Civil War veteran husband, who runs a sheep farm there and does everything he can to keep their aspiring-actress daughter from slipping her bonds and returning to the mainland. In 1930, New York City librarian Elise Lester and her gung-ho World War I veteran husband choose to settle on San Miguel and like the Waters family achieve only an uncertain peace. As always, Boyle gives us sharp moral conundrum in a distinctive setting; with an eight-city tour.

Chabon, Michael. Telegraph Avenue. Harper: Harper Collins. Sept. 2012. 480p. ISBN 9780061493348. $27.99; eISBN 9780062124609. CD: HarperAudio. LITERARY
Race, corporatism, and last-stand idealism: core themes of contemporary American life, and who better to explore them than Pulitzer Prize winner Chabon, whose linguistic razzle-dazzle discloses acute observations about our shared culture—and, especially, its borders. It’s 2004, and longtime band mates Achy Stallings and Nat Jaffe still preside over Brokeland Records, a used-record emporium and de facto town center in a fictional space somewhere between Berkeley and Oakland. Their wives are the Berkeley Birth Partners, beloved local midwives. All’s well until a former NFL quarterback, one of the country’s richest African Americans, decides to build his latest Dogpile megastore on nearby Telegraph Avenue. Not only could this spell doom for the little shop and its cross-race, cross-class dream but it opens up past history regarding Archy’s untethered dad and a crime dating back to the Black Panther era. With a one-day laydown on September 11, a 300,000-copy first printing, and a 13-city Tour to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami (for the book fair) Nashville, New York, Raleigh/Durham, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Washington, DC. Get it!

Coplin, Amanda. The Orchardist. Harper: HarperCollins. Sept. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780062188502. $25.99. HISTORICAL
At the turn of the 20th century, when two dirty, pregnant girls steal from an orchard in the foothills of the Pacific Northwest’s Cascade Mountains that Talmadge has tended for 50 years, he lets them. Soon they return, tentatively befriending this sweet, solitary soul, as rooted as the trees in the land he loves. Then armed and angry men invade the orchard, and Talmadge steps up to protect his new charges, even as he’s reminded of the past’s sorrowful secrets. Exceptional in-house cheering for this debut, with rights sold to a half-dozen countries so far and a 75,000-copy first printing. Surely this is meant as an evocative understanding of the American West and its continued grip on our psyche, and I can’t wait to see how it works.

Ennis, Michael. The Malice of Fortune. Doubleday. Sept. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780385536318. $26.95; eISBN 9780385536325. Downloadable: Random Audio. THRILLER
When his son Juan is murdered in distant Imola, Pope Alexander asks the courtesan Damiata to discover what happened—and holds her young son hostage until she does. In Imola, Damiata is so undercut by the political intrigue originating with the pope’s other son, the Duke Valentino, that she turns to a little-known Florentine diplomat named Niccolo Machiavelli for help; the observational skills she needs to catch the killer are ultimately furnished by one Leonardo da Vinci. Now that sounds like fun reading; the publisher’s big fiction title of the month.

Smith, Zadie. NW: A Novel. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. NAp. ISBN 9781594203978. $25.95. LITERARY
It’s been seven years since Smith last published a novel, so we’re all really chaffing to read this one. NW stands for northwest, that is, northwest London, where a group of friends living on an estate make their way through school and on to adulthood, staying more or less true to their ideals. Smith, herself was born in London’s diverse northwest, will surely provide her usual gorgeous, almost scary understanding of that society and the world at large.

Toobin, Jeffrey. The Oath: The Obama White House vs. The Supreme Court. Doubleday. Sept. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9780385527200. $27.95; eISBN 9780385536301. Downloadable: Random Audio LAW/CURRENT EVENTS
Having laid bare the working of the Supreme Court in his prize-winning The Nine, Toobin returns to assess how the Court—and, specifically, Chief Justice John Roberts—stack up against President Obama. From the moment that Roberts blew administering the Oath of Office at Obama’s inauguration, he and the administration have been ideologically at odds. Toobin argues that the two men are both charismatic and ambitious, though Obama’s actually the conservative one; he aims for step-by-step change, building on the past, while Roberts wants to unstitch everything accomplished by the New Deal. Essential reading as we gear up for the election.

Kitamura, Katie. Gone to the Forest. Free Pr: S. & S. Aug. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9781451656640. pap. $15. LITERARY
Since his mother died, Tom and his father have dwelled together uneasily on their farm in an unnamed colonial country close to violence. Then a young woman named Carine enters their lives, forming a triangle and causing tensions to flare openly even as a volcanic eruption tips the country into revolution. A New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award finalist, Kitamura here follows up her highly regarded first novel, The Longshot, with something that sounds both smart and gripping for a wide range of readers. Note the reading group guide and the ebook/App promotion.

Stedman, ML. The Light Between Oceans. Scribner. Aug. 2012. NAp. ISBN 9781451681734. $25. HISTORICAL
After World War I, Tom Sherbourne takes a job as lighthouse keeper on isolated Janus Rock, off the coast of Australia, where the supply boat comes only four times a year. His spunky wife, Isabel, suffers two miscarriages and a still birth in three years, so it’s no surprise that when a boat washes up carrying a dead man and a live baby, Isabel persuades Tom not to report the incident and takes the baby as hers. That causes trouble, of course, when they eventually return to the mainland. Big in-house excitement for his first novel, which will be backed by NPR coverage and a reading group guide. Tops on my reading list. 

Grunwald, Michael. The New New Deal.  S. & S. Aug. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781451642322. $27. CURRENT EVENTS
Listen up, voters: though Democrats don’t get it and Republicans hate it, Obama’s stimulus bill truly has been transformative, a broader-reaching program than even the New Deal. It not only short-circuited a looming depression and saved millions of jobs but is helping restructure America’s energy program, bringing healthcare into the Digital age, and changing everything from unemployment insurance to the government’s approach to homelessness. So argues Time senior correspondent Grunwald, winner of a George Polk Award, in a book that will surely prompt lots of discussion. 

Marton, Kati. Paris: A Love Story. S. & S. Aug. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9781451691542. $24. MEMOIR
Paris is important to many of us, but it’s really important to journalist/author Marton (Enemies of the People). There she studied as a college student in the explosive year of 1968; researched her family’s escape to France from communist Hungary; served as ABC bureau chief in a career breakthrough; met her first husband, Peter Jennings; and then met her second husband, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, finally returning to Paris to mourn his death. A distinctive view of the City of Light.

Barnes, Steven & Tananarive Due. Devil’s Wake. Atria: S. & S. Aug. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781451617009. pap. $15. PARANORMAL
Plague is sweeping the country, brought on by odd, uncontrollable biting attacks by the victims. The victims don’t die or join the realm of the undead, however; they’re simply front runners for an alien life force intent on taking over Earth. First in a new series from a husband-and-wife team who jointly boast a stack of awards and best sellers, this nicely cultic apocalyptic title has a built-in audience. 

Greanias, Thomas. Dominus Dei. Atria: S. & S. Aug. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9781451612431. $24. THRILLER
At the time of the Emperor Domitian, himself a bossy sort who insists that all must bow down before him or be killed, a subversive group called Dominus Dei (“Rule of God”) has a nasty plan to extend Rome’s rule forever. The Greek playwright Athanasius, accused of being its leader, manages to escape execution at the Games and teams up with a mysterious woman and a prophet locked up in an island prison to beat Dominus Dei at its own game. Thus Greanias discloses the origins of the conspiracy that has driven his best-selling Atlantis novels and the trilogy that began with The Promised War. Fans will understand.     

Krueger, William Kent. Trickster’s Point. Atria: S. & S. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781451645675. $24.99. THRILLER
Cork O’Connor has gone bow hunting with Jubal Little, Minnesota’s first Native American governor-elect, when an arrow out of nowhere slices through Little’s heart. Alas, the arrow belongs to Connor, and he must find out who framed him for this murder, even as he ponders his past relationship with Little, an ambitious young man who grew up to be a perhaps too wily politician. With a nine-city tour to Minneapolis, Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City, Houston, Phoenix, and San Diego.

Lennon, F.J. Devil’s Gate. Atria: S. & S. Aug. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9781439186602. pap. $15. PARANORMAL
Actually, what’s causing trouble here is not a gate but Pasadena’s notorious Suicide Bridge: some force there is drawing defenseless victims to their death and then snaring their souls. First seen in last year’s popular Soul Trapper, Kane Pryce investigates the bridge’s supernatural powers even as he finds himself sucked into the dark world of Hollywood’s underground music scene (Kane’s a guitarist), the minds of the suicide victims, and his own ill-advised romances. Note the paperback original after Soul Trapper’s hardcover premier, which suggests the author’s audience.   

Reichs, Kathy. Bones Are Forever. Scribner. Aug. 2012. NAp. ISBN 9781439102435. $26.99. CD: S. & S. Audio. THRILLER
Temperance Brennan is examining the corpses of three babies in Montreal when their mother, a putative prostitute under investigation by Brennan’s beloved, Detective Ryan, flees to Canada’s distant diamond-mining country. They follow, joined by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant with whom our heroine once had a not-so-smart affair. With a seven-city tour to Charlotte, Denver, Houston, New York, Phoenix, Portland (OR), and Seattle; get multiples.

Rendell, Ruth. The St. Zita Society. Scribner. Aug. 2012. NAp. ISBN 9781451666687. $26. SUSPENSE
All the homes along London’s Hexam Place look imperturbably classy, but of course they aren’t. The valet to Lord Studley is sleeping with both the lord’s wife and his daughter, the au pair for Mrs. Still is earning extra money by covering for her affair, a housekeeper wants to form a “society” of disgruntled servants, and Dex the gardener is getting ghostly instructions on his cellphone that could lead to violence. More thrills from the ever-juicy Rendell, a three-time Edgar Award winner still going strong after more than 40 years.

Shomer, Enid. The Twelve Rooms of the Nile. S. & S. Aug. 2012. 544p. ISBN 9781451642964. $26. HISTORICAL
As it happens, Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert sailed up the Nile at the same time. No, they didn’t meet, but in this first novel Iowa Fiction Prize winner Shomer imagines that they did. Radical thinker Nightingale was not much familiar with men, especially true roués like Flaubert. But both were at turning points— Flaubert would soon write Madame Bovary and Nightingale would launch her famous career—so the idea of a friendship between them seems rich and fertile.

Sohn, Amy. Motherland. S. & S. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781439158494. $25. POP FICTION
Upscale urban life, tellingly satirized by the author of Prospect Park West: as Labor Day looms, parents in Brooklyn’s chic Park Slope and Manhattan’s Greenwich Village or returning from Cape Cod face personal crisis. Among them are ubermommy Karen, deserted by her husband, who hopes to regain traction by launching an affair with a sexy single dad, and Marco, stuck with the kids when husband Todd goes on a business trip. How a certain set lives; it’s not all glamor.                                

Thor, Brad. Black List. Atria: S. & S. Aug. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9781439192986. $27.99. CD/downloadable: S. & S. Audio. THRILLER
The list? Comprising enemies of the nation, it’s known to very few in the government,  and once your name has been placed there by the President, it won’t be erased until you are. Former Navy SEAL–turned–counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath discovers that his name is on the list, and he spends the novel evading assassins so that he can figure out why someone wanted him out of the way. From a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author gearing up for a ten-city tour.

Cohen, Joshua. Four New Messages. Graywolf. Aug. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9781555976187. pap. $14. STORIES
Not for everyone, but please let the cognoscenti know that the brilliant Cohen, author of the shape-shifting Witz, is back with four expectedly weird and imaginative stories. In one, a writing teacher won’t read his students’ stories but asks them to build replicas of the Flatiron Building; elsewhere, an aspiring journalist stumbles upon a village (in Russia?) inhabited by women who have starred in the Internet porn he’s watched.

Cumming, Charles. A Foreign Country. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9780312591335. $24.99. CD: Macmillan Audio. THRILLER
Even as an elderly French couple is murdered in Egypt and a young French accountant is snatched from the streets of Paris, Amelie Levene—about to become the first female chief of M16—vanishes in the south of France. Former M16 officer Thomas Kell, now in bad odor with the service, appears to be the only person capable of finding Levene and figuring out what links the three events. One of the publisher’s biggest books of the month and a juicy-sounding follow-up to the best-selling The Trinity Six.

Dabbagh, Selma. Out of It. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781608198764. pap. $14. LITERARY
As bombs drop on Gaza, unemployed 27-year-old Rashid restlessly awaits word of a scholarship that will take him to London, his wheelchair-bound older brother writes a history of their country, and his twin sister becomes seriously involved in politics. A first novel from PEN and Pushcart prize nominee Dabbagh, likely an important new voice on Palestine (Dabbagh currently lives in London).

Hiller, Mischa. Shake Off. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Aug. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780316204200. $24.99. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Having escaped from the exploding Middle East, where his family was killed by extremists, Michel Khoury has become an intelligence operative with a desire for peace, a stash of passports and unmarked bills in the bathroom of his London apartment, and a new girlfriend who doesn’t know his true identity. Soon, the truth wills out and turns deadly, forcing the couple on the run from London to Berlin to the Scottish countryside. Hiller, who’s half-Palestinian and half-British, should give texture to his first thriller (and second novel after the award-winning Sabra Zoo). Great quotes from not just the UK but the Jordan Times and Israel’s Haaretz.

Hurwitz, Gregg. The Survivor. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780312625511. $25.99; eISBN 9781250009722. THRILLER
Some set-up: divorced, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and dying of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, former soldier Nate Overbay stands 11 stories up on the ledge of a bank building, ready to end it all. But when robbers break into the bank and start shooting, Nate rushes down and handily saves the day, only to be kidnapped by the Russian mobster who masterminded the initial break-in. Nate is told that he must return to the bank and snatch what the mobster was after—or watch his ex-wife and daughter suffer the consequences. Great expectations: Hurwitz’s You’re Next was an LJ Best Thriller of 2011.

Jones, Howard Andrew. The Bones of the Old Ones. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780312646752. $25.99; eISBN 9781250015136. FANTASY
Emerging fantasy author Jones follows up The Desert of Souls, a sword-and-sorcery debut set in eighth-century Baghdad, with the continued adventures of scholar Dabir and soldier Assim. Here, the dazzling duo find themselves living comfortably in Mosul—until a young woman approaches them, insisting that she has escaped from a sorcerous cabal and that her memory has been altered by magic. The tools of the cabal? The Bones of the Old Ones. Looking up.

Kenyon, Sherrilyn. Time Untime. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780312546618. $25.99; eISBN 9781466801981. CD: Macmillan Audio. PARANORMAL
Bad news for the warrior Ren Waya, just back from the dead: to keep a prophecy from coming true and an ancient evil from reemerging to destroy the world, he must kill Kateri Avani, the one person he has always cherished. Meanwhile, Kateri has been plagued by visions of places she hasn’t visited and a man she hasn’t met and has headed to Las Vegas (Las Vegas?) to calm herself. Next in the Dark-Hunter series; note that Kenyon has been No. 1 on the New York Times best sellers list an eye-opening 15 times in the last two years. Multiples, of course.

MacMahon, Kathleen. This Is How It Ends. Grand Central. Aug. 2012. 356p. ISBN 9781455511310. $24.99. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. POP FICTION
You’ll have to read the book to find out how it ends, but it begins in fall 2008 when Bruno travels from America to Ireland in search of his roots and meets unemployed architect Addie, who’s nursing both a broken heart and her ailing dad. Lots of excitement at the London Book Fair for this debut by MacMahon, a journalist RTÉ News, Ireland’s National Public Service Broadcaster; rights have sold to 20 territories so far.

Read, Cornelia. Valley of Ashes. Grand Central. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780446511360. $24.99. lrg. prnt. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Read’s a rising author in the scary-reading realm; her debut, A Field of Darkness, was nominated for all the biggies—the Edgar, Barry, Anthony, Gumshoe, RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice, and Audie awards—and her subsequent titles have won stars, best books honors, and regional bestsellerdom. In her latest, Madeline Dare is bored with life as a stay-at-home mom in Boulder, CO, where the family has just moved, so she takes on a freelance newspaper assignment. Unfortunately, a serial arsonist is making her job a whole lot more trouble than she had imagined.

Rich, Simon. What in God’s Name. Reagan Arthur Bks: Little, Brown. Aug. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780316133739. $23.99. POP FICTION
Founder and CEO of Heaven, Inc., a bored God is about to ditch Earth when Craig and Eliza, two starry-eyed angels from the Department of Miracles, intervene. If they can convince Earth’s two most socially maladjusted souls to fall in love, then the planet will be saved. Former president of the Harvard Lampoon, a four-time Emmy nominee for his writing on Saturday Night Live, and author of the novel Elliot Allagash (the film rights have just been sold), Rich has credentials in the Department of Laughs. Let’s see how this works.

Schneider, Michel. Marilyn’s Last Sessions: A Novel. Little, Brown. Aug. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780316212991. $25.99. POP FICTION
Dropped into the schedule in time for the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, this translation from the French reimagines the star’s last visits with Dr Ralph Greenson, her psychoanalyst and at the time probably the most important person in her candle-in-the-wind life. In a revealing review when the translation appeared in the UK, John Banville calls this a fascinating if puzzling hybrid, even quoting the author’s observation that “like Marilyn’s hair, this novel is a phony of the bona-fide kind.” Take a look if Marilyn rage is hitting your community.

Tan, Sandi. The Black Isle. Grand Central. Aug. 2012. 464p. ISBN 9780446563925. $24.99. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. HISTORICAL
Cassandra has fled Shanghai with her father and twin brother for the Black Isle, a steamy, teemy British colony in the Indonesian archipelago. It’s crammed not only with immigrants like herself but with ghosts, which only she can see and whose blandishments she studiously resists. Meanwhile, there’s trouble in the world of the living: even as Cassandra wrestles with impossible love and her increasingly important role in the booming colony, war is looming—the book opens in the 1920s and takes us through World War II. An intriguing-sounding debut from filmmaker Tan.

Tsukiyama, Gail. A Hundred Flowers. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780312274818. $24.99. CD: Macmillan Audio. HISTORICAL
In 1957, Mao may have proclaimed, “Let a hundred flowers bloom,” but not long thereafter the Cultural Revolution began. Tsukiyama here portrays the family of Kai Ying, whose teacher husband is sent to the countryside for reeducation after writing a letter critical of the regime and whose young son, desperate for a view of his father, climbs a tree and breaks his leg badly after falling. Winner of the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award and author of best sellers like Women of the Silk, Tsukiyama can be relied on to deliver a powerful sense of the political through the delicately polished lens of the domestic.