New Fiction @ the Library July 2008 Careless in Red by Elizabeth George Publisher: Harper Collins Pub Date: May 6 2008 ISBN-10: 0061160873 ISBN-13: 978-0061160875 Mystery Check Availability After the senseless murder of his wife, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley retreated to Cornwall, where he has spent six solitary weeks hiking the bleak and rugged coastline. But no matter how far he walks, no matter how exhausting his days, the painful memories of Helen's death do not diminish. On the forty-third day of his walk, at the base of a cliff, Lynley discovers the body of a young man who appears to have fallen to his death. The closest town, better known for its tourists and its surfing than its intrigue, seems an unlikely place for murder. However, it soon becomes apparent that a clever killer is indeed at work, and this time Lynley is not a detective but a witness and possibly a suspect. The head of the vastly understaffed local police department needs Lynley's help, though, especially when it comes to the mysterious, secretive woman whose cottage lies not far from where the body was discovered. But can Lynley let go of the past long enough to solve a most devious and carefully planned crime? The Other  by David Guterson Publisher: Knopf Pub Date: Jun 3 2008 ISBN-10: 0307263150 ISBN-13: 978-0307263155 Literary Fiction Check Availability From the author of the best-selling Snow Falling on Cedars, a dazzling new novel about youth and idealism, adulthood and its compromises, and two powerfully different visions of what it means to live a good life. John William Barry has inherited the pedigree-and wealth-of two of Seattle's elite families; Neil Countryman is blue-collar Irish. Nevertheless, when the two boys meet in 1972 at age sixteen, they're brought together by what they have in common: a fierce intensity and a love of the outdoors that takes them, together and often, into Washington's remote backcountry, where they must rely on their wits-and each other-to survive. Soon after graduating from college, Neil sets out on a path that will lead him toward a life as a devoted schoolteacher and family man. But John William makes a radically different choice, dropping out of college and moving deep into the woods, convinced that it is the only way to live without hypocrisy. When John William enlists Neil to help him disappear completely, Neil finds himself drawn into a web of secrets and often agonizing responsibility, deceit, and tragedy-one that will finally break open with a wholly unexpected, life-altering revelation. Riveting, deeply humane, The Other is David Guterson's most brilliant and provocative novel to date. A Dangerous Age by Ellen Gilchrist Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub Date: April 15 2008 ISBN-10: 1565125428 ISBN-13: 978-1565125421 War Fiction Check Availability The women of the Hand family are no strangers to either controversy or sadness. Those traits seem, in fact, to be a part of a family heritage that stretches back several generations, through many decades and many wars. For Louise Hand, this legacy means coping with the possible loss of her lover, who has vowed revenge for the injuries his twin brother suffered in Iraq. For Winifred Hand, its the loss of her fiancé, who perished in the World Trade Center. And for Olivia Hand, a strong-willed and independent newspaper editor, it is a war that has been simply a subject for editorials until her own newlywed husband gets called up for service. With prose that is often wry and always direct and immediate, Ellen Gilchrist gives voice to three women on a collision course with a distant war that in truth is never more than a breath away. Thirty-five years later, the family is still shattered in ways that no one could ever have foretold. And now, as her mother lies dying, Natalie must return to the home she has spent most of her life running from, as the family's dark secrets and betrayals threaten to scar a new generation. Resolution by Robert B. Parker Publisher: GP Putnam And Sons Pub Date: Jun 3 2008 ISBN-10: 039915504X ISBN-13: 978-0399155048 Western/Mystery Check Availability After the bloody confrontation in Appaloosa, Everett Hitch heads into the afternoon sun and ends up in Resolution, an Old West town so new the dust has yet to settle. It's the kind of town that doesn't have much in the way of commerce, except for a handful of saloons and some houses of ill repute.  Hitch takes a job as a lookout at Amos Wolfson's Blackfoot Saloon and quickly establishes his position as protector of the ladies who work the back rooms-as well as a man unafraid to stand up to the enforcer sent down from the O'Malley copper mine. Though Hitch makes short work of hired gun Koy Wickman, tensions continue to mount, so that even the self-assured Hitch is relieved by the arrival in town of his friend Virgil Cole. When greedy mine owner Eamon O'Malley threatens the loose coalition of local ranchers and starts buying up Resolution's few businesses, Hitch and Cole find themselves in the middle of a makeshift war between O'Malley's men and the ranchers. In a place where law and order don't exist, Hitch and Cole must make their own, guided by their sense of duty, honor, and friendship The Moonpool by P.T. Deutermann Publisher: St. Martins Press Pub Date: May 27 2008 ISBN-10: 0312371594 ISBN-13: 978-0312371593 Suspense/Thriller Check Availability A private detective working in Wilmington, North Carolina, is found dead in a gas-station restroom, apparently poisoned. But when her body sets off radiation alarms in the pathologist's office, suspicion falls on the nearby Helios nuclear power plant, a heavily guarded facility with supposedly failsafe procedures. As the FBI, local police, and the power plant's own security team investigate, ex-cop Cam Richter, head of the agency that employed the dead woman, begins his own inquiries. What was his detective investigating? And how could one person be poisoned by radiation without others being exposed? Cam soon finds himself up against powerful forces that will stop at nothing to keep the plant's problems secret. The most vulnerable part of Helios is its "moonpool"-the radioactive storage pond that cools spent but volatile reactor fuel and must be kept completely full. Racing against time, Cam discovers an inside threat, which will use the plant's own systems to begin an unstoppable, disastrous sequence of events. Death and Honor by W.E.B. Griffin Publisher: GP Putnam And Sons Pub Date: Jun 3 2008 ISBN-10: 0399154981 ISBN-13: 978-0399154980 Suspense/Thriller Check Availability The year is 1943, and Argentina is officially neutral, but crawling with every kind of spy, sympathizer, and military official imaginable. The hero is Cletus Frade, a Marine pilot recruited by the OSS, with strong family ties to Argentina, and in Death and Honor - Griffin's fourth book in the series and the first since 1999 - he's got a lot on his hands. OSS chief Wild Bill Donovan has asked him to set up his own official-but-really-OSS airline in Argentina, using 'loaned'� Lockheed Lodestars and Constellations. Of even more concern are two interwoven German operations. The first is a government scheme for Jews outside the Fatherland to purchase the freedom of their relatives in concentration camps, who will then be transported to Argentina and Uruguay. The second has to do with where that money is going: a plan called Operation Phoenix, which will establish safe havens for senior Nazi officials in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Needless to say, the OSS is very interested in both of them, and if Frade can somehow find out a little more . . . without getting killed, that is. Which, as Frade is about to find out, is easier said than done. Nothing to Lose by Lee Child Publisher: Delacorte Press Pub Date: Jun 3 2008 ISBN-10: 0385340567 ISBN-13: 978-0385340564 Suspense/Thriller Check Availability   Two lonely towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher never turns back. It's not in his nature. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets is big trouble. So in Lee Child's electrifying new novel, Reacher-a man with no fear, no illusions, and nothing to lose-goes to war against a town that not only wants him gone, it wants him dead. It wasn't the welcome Reacher expected. He was just passing through, minding his own business. But within minutes of his arrival a deputy is in the hospital and Reacher is back in Hope, setting up a base of operations against Despair, where a huge, seething walled-off industrial site does something nobody is supposed to see . . . where a small plane takes off every night and returns seven hours later . . . where a garrison of well-trained and well-armed military cops-the kind of soldiers Reacher once commanded-waits and watches . . . where above all two young men have disappeared and two frightened young women wait and hope for their return. Joining forces with a beautiful cop who runs Hope with a cool hand, Reacher goes up against Despair-against the deputies who try to break him and the rich man who tries to scare him-and starts to crack open the secrets, starts to expose the terrifying connection to a distant war that's killing Americans by the thousand. Now, between a town and the man who owns it, between Reacher and his conscience, something has to give. And Reacher never gives an inch. The Dante Trap by Arnaud Delalande Publisher: Penguin Canada Pub Date: Jun 3 2008 ISBN-10: 0143053477 ISBN-13: 978-0143053477 Mystery Check Availability In Venice, 1756, the city is at the height of its prodigious power. But as the madness of Carnival descends, a dark force stalks the gothic shadows. The body of one of Venice's brightest actors has been discovered: crucified, lines of verse carved into his chest. And it is not an isolated killing. For the murderer, known only as Chimera, is determined to people the nine circles of Dante's Inferno with the traitorous, the depraved, and the gluttonous. Only by releasing the Black Orchid--childhood friend of Casanova, rake, gambler, lover, spy, and soon-to-be detective--a man condemned to death for adultery, can the doge of Venice hope to put an end to the grotesque killings. The Black Orchid soon finds himself ensnared in a terrible game of cat and mouse. As the streets of Venice fill with masked Carnivalgoers, and as the Orchid's old enemies--and old lovers--return to haunt him, he is drawn further into the Inferno, to the heart of a secret sect and a plot to bring about the downfall of Venice. Summer Blowout by Claire Cook Publisher: HarperCollins Canada Pub Date: May 26 2008 ISBN-10: 1401322417 ISBN-13: 978-1401322410 Chick Lit Check Availability Cook updates the themes of love and disenchantment that drove Life's a Beach and Must Love Dogs in her latest beacher. Bella Shaughnessy, a makeup artist whose solace in times of hardship is finding just the right lipstick to match her mood, gets a divorce and quits men after discovering that her husband of 10 years has been seeing her younger half-sister, Sophia. During a wedding job, she gets stuck with dog-sitting Precious (who looked kind of like a flying squirrel) and quickly gets so attached that she takes drastic measures to keep the dog. Can other kinds of attachment be far behind, as cute and easygoing Sean Ryan enters the picture? Sufficient comedy and romance keep readers entertained until the last page. Whacked by Jules Asner Publisher: Weinstein Books Pub Date: Jun 3 2008 ISBN-10: 1602860173 ISBN-13: 978-1602860179 Thriller / Chick Lit Check Availability Asner-ex-model, wife of director Steven Soderbergh and E! Entertainment Television personality-debuts with a dishy mix of Tinseltown hackdom, chick lit and, surprisingly, a chilling plot. Dani Hale is an L.A. TV writer for crime show Flesh and Bone who has an inordinate interest in all things forensic-one shared by technical adviser Rich Pisani, a retired LAPD cop. None of this stuff bothered me, Dani boasts about crime scene analysis. But what does bother her is slow-to-commit boyfriend and director Dave; the pretty actress he's directing, Chloe Johnson (whom Asner slyly credits as having worked with Soderbergh); her Crate and Barrel saleswoman mom; and work rival Evil Janet. But where other chick lit heroines fret about their fears, Dani hacks into e-mails and cellphones to alleviate hers. After discovering Dave has been cheating on her, Dani plots revenge on him, freckled harlot-starlet Chloe and office boor Evil Janet, but things quickly spiral out of control. Asner juggles horror and giggles and wraps it up with a subtle kicker, and though Rich's role is underwritten, the novel is still tons of fun. Final Theory by Mark Alpert Publisher: Touchstone Pub Date: Jun 3 2008 ISBN-10: 1416590013 ISBN-13: 978-1416590019 Mystery / Thriller Check Availability   David Swift, a professor at Columbia University, is called to the hospital to comfort his mentor, a physicist who's been brutally tortured. Before dying, the old man wheezes "Einheitliche Feldtheorie." The Theory of Everything. The Destroyer of Worlds. Could this be Einstein's proposed Unified Theory--a set of equations that combines the physics of galaxies with the laws of atoms? Einstein died without discovering it. Or did he? Within hours of hearing his mentor's last words, David is running for his life. The FBI and a ruthless mercenary are vying to get their hands on the long-hidden theory. Teaming up with his old girlfriend, a brilliant Princeton scientist, David frantically works out Einstein's final theory to reveal the staggering scope of its consequences. The Poisoner of Ptah by P.C. Doherty Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Pub Date: February 2008 ISBN-10: 0312359624 ISBN-13: 978-0312359621 Mystery Check Availability At a peace treaty signing between Egypt and Libya in Thebes, three of Egypt`s leading scribes die violently on the Temple forecourt, the victims of a vile poisoning. To add to the mounting unease, a prosperous merchant and his young wife are found drowned. Rumors soon sweep the imperial city. The Poisoner of Ptah has returned. It falls to Amerotke, Chief Judge of the Halls of Two Truths, to investigate these hideous crimes - his hunt for the Poisoner leads him to discover yet more suspicion and potential danger. This story sees the Judge pit his wits against a cunning opponent who seems intent on spreading his death-dealing powders. Amerotke enters the twilight world of glorious Thebes where life can be so rich and yet death so swift and brutal. The Roar of the Butterflies by Reginald Hill Publisher: Doubleday Canada Pub Date: Jun 3 2008 ISBN-10: 0385666411 ISBN-13: 978-0385666411 Mystery Check Availability Luton in the grip of a sweltering summer is a pretty sedentary place-which is bad for the private detective business. Thieves, fraudsters and philanderers take the month off and the only swingers in town are the ones to be found on the 19th hole of the Royal Hoo Golf Course. The civilized reputation of the "Hoo" is in trouble, however. Shocking allegations of cheating have been directed at one of its leading members, Chris Porphyry. When Chris turns to Joe Sixsmith, PI, he's more than willing to help. . .well, he hasn't got any other clients---only Joe hadn't counted on being charmed, kissed and then dangled out of a window all in the same day! Before long, though, Joe is on the trail of a conspiracy that starts with missing balls, and ends with murder. Plague Ship by Clive Cussler Publisher: GP Putnam And Sons (Jun 3 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0399154973 ISBN-13: 978-0399154973 Suspense / Thriller Check Availability In the dependably entertaining fifth Oregon Files thriller from bestseller Cussler and Du Brul (after Skeleton Crew), Capt. Juan Cabrillo, who heads the Corporation, a covert military company for hire, and the multifaceted crew of the Oregon, a high-tech ship disguised to look like a tramp steamer, take on a group known as the Responsivists. The Responsivists publicly espouse a program of global population control, but are secretly planning a devastating attack on the human race utilizing a virulent virus found aboard an ancient ship that may be Noah's Ark.