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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Seeing Stars
Lists of (mostly) hardcover books which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ).
The review journal assigns the star.
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Stellar All Stars
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure
Judas Horse by April Smith
The Importance of Music to Girls by Lavinia Greenlaw
Bonk by Mary Roach
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Overbooked is the winner of the 2008 Louis Shores - Greenwood Publishing Award: to recognize excellence in book reviewing and other media for libraries. The award recipient is selected for significant achievement related to a reviewing process that helps librarians make selection decisions.
Starred Reviews
Crime Fiction Stars: 2003
August 19, 2008
January - June
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.
A 
indicates an Overbooked
Jump for Joy book.
June
- Hawke
Author: Bell, Ted
Publisher: Atria $ 25 ISBN: 0743466691 Date: 2003
LJ
"The best adventure in years, Hawke is a swashbuckling, spine-tingling, bloody good masterpiece of an adventure novel" (James Patterson)--and the debut of a bold new talent.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Pirate Stars | If You Like Clive Cussler
Updated 6.5.03 - Scaredy Cat
Author: Billingham, Mark
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0066213002 Date: 2003LJ
The second bone-chilling thriller from the author of the bestselling Sleepyhead--hailed by George P. Pelecanos as "one of the finest first novels that I've read in a long while. . . . An exceptional debut."
Updated 6.5.03 - Badlands: A Montana Mystery Featuring Gabriel Du Pre
Author: Bowen, Peter
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312262523 Date: 2003Booklist
From the critically acclaimed author of Ash Child comes the tenth installment in the popular series A Montana Mystery Featuring Gabriel Du Pre.
Updated 5.14.03 - The Delicate Storm
Author: Blunt, Giles
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399148655 Date: 2003PWBooklist
The author of Forty Words for Sorrow--winner of Britain's Silver Dagger Award--returns with a crime thriller challenging the most cherished belief: that, in fiction, there is no such thing as the perfect crime.
Updated 5.14.03 - Bangkok 8
Author: Burdett, John
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 1400040442 Date: 2003PWLJ
Burdett's thriller is razor-edged, darkly comic, crowded with astonishing characters, and thick with the authentic--hallucinogenic--atmosphere of Bangkok. Smart, skeptical, worldly and open-eyed, literary and wildly readable--Bangkok 8 is one of a kind.
Suggested Reading: Thai Stars
Updated 6.5.03 - The Bite: Luther Ewing
Author: Crow, Michael
Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670032220 Date: 2003PW
Updated 6.19.03 - Jackie Disaster
Author: Dezenhall, Eric
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312307691 Date: 2003Kirkus
Jackie "Disaster" DeSesto can make crisis management problems disappear. His own problems are another story. Suspenseful and hilarious, Jackie Disaster is a spin-til-you're-dizzy dance through the mysteries of media manipulation and South Jersey.
Updated 3.27.03 - Betrayed
Author: Dubois, Brendan
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312310188 Date: 2003PW
A new Vietnam MIA thriller from the author of Resurrection Day and Killer Waves. For nearly three decades, the fate of 2,000 American servicemen, missing in action in Vietnam, has remained a mystery. Now, with the ring of a doorbell, the mystery of some is about to be solved.
Updated 5.29.03 - December Heat
Author: Garcia-Roza, Luiz Alfredo
Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805068902 Date: 2003Booklist
When a retired policeman spends an alcohol-filled evening with his girlfriend, a prostitute, he wakes up the next morning to find her murdered. Inspector Espinosa is convinced there's more to it than meets the eye, and when other bodies turn up, he finds himself not only racing after a killer but falling in love.
Updated 5.14.03 - Spiral
Author: Geary, Joseph
Publisher: Pantheon $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375422234 Date: 2003PWBooklist
Somewhere along the road, writer Nick Greer lost himself in the life and rumored painting of his subject, artist Frank Spira. Moving briskly between London, New York, and Tangier, intricately plotted and deeply atmospheric, Spiral is relentlessly suspenseful from first to last.
Suggested Reading: Art Stars
Updated 5.14.03 - Blood is the Sky: Alex
McKnight
Author: Hamilton, Steve
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312301154 Date: 2003Kirkus
When a longtime friend asks Alex McKnight for help in finding his brother, a hunting guide to rich clients who has vanished in northern Ontario with a group of hunters, they begin the long drive north. Soon, Alex and his friend are stranded in the heart of the Canadian wilderness with no food, no weapons--and no way out.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 3.27.03 - Secret Justice
Author: Huston, James W.
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 SBN: 0060008377 Date: 2003Kirkus
In a supercharged thriller ripped from the front page, Lieutenant Kent "Rat" Ratham and his secret Navy counterterrorism team must put their mission on hold to defend themselves against political forces determined to shut them down.
Suggested Reading: Techo Thrillers
Updated 5.9.03 - The Business of Dying
Author: Kernick, Simon
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312314019 Date: 2003PWLJ
A remarkable first novel from an exciting new British talent-- "the crime debut of the year." (The Independent on Sunday, UK) Cynical and jaded, Detective Sergeant Dennis Milne earns money on the side by doing what he does best: punishing the bad guys. But this time he's been duped.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | British Police
Updated 6.5.03 - The Face
Author: Koontz, Dean R.
Publisher: Bantam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0553802488 Date: 2003Kirkus
His distinguished career has been punctuated by a succession of #1 New York Times bestsellers, most recently One Door Away from Heaven and From the Corner of His Eye. Now he takes readers on a journey into not only the heart of darkness but also the heart of goodness, at once chilling and wickedly funny--a brilliantly paced masterpiece that will take the summer by storm.
Updated 5.9.03 - Dead Letters
Author: Lock, Joan
Publisher: Severn $ 26.99 ISBN: 0727859692 Date: 2003Booklist
Updated 5.14.03 - A Cruel Season for Dying
Author: Moore, Harker
Publisher: Penzler $ 24.94 ISBN: 0892967749 Date: 2003Booklist
In this chilling series debut, Japanese-American homicide detective James Sakura must hunt down a brutal killer stalking the streets of New York. When an eight-year-old girl becomes the next victim, Sakura must use all of his instincts to see into the heart of a monster who believes he is waging a war against God.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 5.29.03 - The Lake House
Author: Patterson, James
Publisher: Little Brown $ 27.95 ISBN: 0316603287 Date: 2003Booklist
The six children who escaped horrifying government experiments in James Patterson's When the Wind Blows are back at last--in a new thriller that tests the limits of the imagination. All they want is to return to the one place where they ever felt protected--the waterfront cabin known as the Lake House.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.14.03 - The House Sitter
Author: Lovesey, Peter
Publisher: Soho $ 25 ISBN: 1569473269 Date: 2003PWBooklist
When a a top psychological profiler for the National Crime Faculty is found strangled to death on a beach, Detective Peter Diamond is called in. He must coordinate his efforts with the original investigating officer, and the cocky young officer charged with investigating the bizarre murder that the victim had been working on.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 4.28.03 - Death Left Hanging
Author: Spencer, Sally
Publisher: Severn $ 25.99 SBN: 0727859307 Date: 2003Kirkus
Updated 5.9.03 - Everglades
Author: White, Randy Wayne
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399150587 Date: 2003Booklist
Doc Ford encounters old friends and new enemies in a stunningly evocative thriller from "one of the nation's most compelling and skillful writers, " (The Tampa Tribune). Now, Doc Ford returns to his stilt house on Dinkin's Bay to find an old friend and one-time lover waiting for him.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction
Updated 5.14.03
May
- Jane and the Ghosts of Netley
Author: Barron, Stephanie
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553802224 Date: 2003PW
The scintillating sleuth returns for another dazzling installment of murder-most-refined in the bestselling series hailed by Library Journal as "history mystery at its best!"
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Historical Crime Fiction | Jane Austen
Updated 5.12.03 - The Book of Light
Author: Blake, Michele
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399150463 Date: 2003PW
The thrilling new mystery in the critically acclaimed series featuring Lily Connor, an Episcopalian priest whose passion for the truth forces her to confront evil--even when it dwells within her own church.
Updated 4.14.03 - The Last Good Day
Author: Blauner, Peter
Publisher: Little, Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316098736 Date: 2003PW
Murder among the minivans: an electrifying thriller from the renowned author of The Intruder reveals the underworld of secrets and crimes hiding just beneath the surface in suburbia.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 3.27.03 - Winterkill
Author: Box, C.J.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399150455 Date: 2003Booklist
Award-winning writer Box returns with a vengeance in this thrilling new novel featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. Somewhere in the dense timber, a killer draws back his bowstring--with Joe as his prey.
Suggested Reading: Wildlife
Updated 5.14.03 - Persuader
Author: Child, Lee
Publisher: Delacorte $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385336667 Date: 2003PWKirkusBooklist
Introducing Persuader, Child's most electrifying suspense novel yet--featuring his utterly unique hero, ex-Army cop Jack Reacher. This time Reacher goes undercover to investigate the disappearance of a federal agent from a drug dealer's home.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Thrillers
Updated 3.31.03 - No Second Chance
Author: Coben, Harlan
Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525947299 Date: 2003Booklist
Both a white-knuckle thriller and a story about the loyalty of old friends and the love of a father, this is a masterpiece from a bestselling author (Tell No One, Gone for Good) who writes "suspense at it's finest."--Jeffrey Deaver.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 3.31.03 - Lime's Photograph
Author: Davidson, Leif
Publisher: Vintage $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 1860469884 Date: 2003Booklist
In this dramatic political thriller from one of Denmark's finest crime writers, Lime sets out to discover a motive when fire destroys his home, and finds himself drawn into the complex and terrifying web of international terrorism.
Suggested Reading: European Crime Fiction
Updated 10.8.03 - Repo
Author: Eidson, Bill
Publisher: Justin Charles $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932112111 Date: 2003KirkusPW
Ex-DEA agent Jack Merchant and "repo woman" Sarah Ballard court death on the high seas in a new mystery with enough kinks and twists to keep readers guessing to the last page.
Updated 5.19.03 - Land of the Living
Author: French, Nicci
Publisher: Warner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0446531510 Date: 2003Booklist
In the tradition of The Silence of the Lambs, French, bestselling author of Beneath the Skin and The Red Room, delivers what promises to be the psychological blockbuster of the season about a kidnap victim that no one will help.
Suggested Reading: Amnesia & Memory Stars | Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 3.31.03 - Marksman and Other Stories
Author: Gault, William Campbell
Publisher: Crippen & Landru $ 29/19 ISBN: 1885941927/1885941935 Date: 2003Booklist
Updated 5.14.03 - Alms for Oblivion
Author: Gooden, Philip
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 07786711426 Date: 2003Booklist
An actor is dead, and the cast of suspects grows, but the finger of the coroner is pointing at amateur detective Nick Revill. With as many twists to its plot as a Shakespearean play and betrayals compounded as often as in Troilus and Cressida, Gooden offers, as Library Journal notes, "authentic settings and a solid and intriguing plot Ythat? result in a fine historical mystery."
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Shakespearean Stars
Updated 5.14.03 - Off the Chart
Author: Hall, James W.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312271786 Date: 2003Booklist
Passion and intrigue heat up the Florida Keys as Thorn and Alexandra Rafferty face down a brutal killer bent on destroying everything they hold dear.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction | Pirate Stars
Updated 5.14.03 - Haunted Ground: A Crime
Novel
Author: Hart, Erin
Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 0743235053 Date: 2003Library JournalBooklist
This dazzling crime novel debut--already an international sensation--is from a gifted author who combines rich atmosphere with archeology, history, and extraordinary forensic detail.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Crime Scene Investigations | Archaeology
Updated 5.14.03 - The Sinister Pig
Author: Hillerman, Tony
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 006019443x Date: 2003PWBooklist
The bestselling author of The Wailing Wind brings back Chee and Leaphorn, who investigate a motiveless murder with hazy federal connections. This leads a frightened Washington power broker to fly west and initiates the hunt for a pig that is sinister indeed.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | If You Like Tony Hillerman
Updated 5.14.03 - The Night of the Dance
Author: Hime, James
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312313225 Date: 2003PWBooklist
A retired Texas Ranger, a good ol' boy sheriff and a hotheaded deputy team up to solve a Texas county's most notorious missing persons case in this jaunty debut crime novel.
Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 5.14.03 - Brilliant
Author: Kellogg, Marne Davis
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312303475 Date: 2003LJ
Set in the art world of London and Provence, Brilliant is a novel of taut suspense, masterful revenge, and glittering secrets.
Suggested Reading: Art Stars
Updated 5.19.03 - Moon Over Manhattan
Author: King, Larry & Thomas Cook
Publisher: New Millennium $ 24.95 ISBN: 1893224570 Date: 2003PW
From the host of CNN's "Larry King Live" and an Edgar Award-winning mystery writer comes a madcap caper about the bright lights and dimwits of Manhattan. " A delightful farce . . ."--"Publishers Weekly."
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.31.03 - Hunting in Harlem
Author: Johnson, Mat
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 23.95 ISBN: 1582342725 Date: 2003Booklist
Johnson has created vividly memorable characters and a story that stands out as one of the most controversial and explosive in years. As sure to ignite debate as it is to entertain, Hunting in Harlem is an old-fashioned page-turner with a fresh and brave voice.
Updated 5.14.03 - Shutter Island
Author: Lehane, Dennis
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0688163173 Date: 2003KirkusPWBooklistLJ
The New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River and master of the new noir returns with a scorching psychological thriller set in 1954 at Ashcliffe Hospital--a federal institution for the criminally insane. As a storm threatens to strand U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner Chuck Aule, they stumble into an evil darker than any nightmare.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 4.29.03 - First Degree
Author: Rosenfelt, David
Publisher: Penzler $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967544 Date: 2003KirkusPW
In the exciting follow-up to Open and Shut, 30-something defense lawyer Andy Carpanter must solve the crime when his closest friend and the love of his life gets framed for the murder of a cop.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 3.13.03 - Cypress Grove
Author: Sallis, James
Publisher: Walker $ 24 ISBN: 0802733808 Date: 2003Kirkus
A former police detective and ex-con is drawn into the search for the killer of a local drifter in a Tennessee backwater. By the author of Chester Himes: A Life and the Lew Griffin series.
Updated 4.24.03 - Naked Prey
Author: Sandford, John
Publisher: Putnam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0399150439 Date: 2003KirkusPW
Lucas Davenport finds some changes--and some nasty surprises--in store, in the chilling new novel by the number one bestselling author. Filled with the rich characterization and exceptional drama that are his hallmarks, this is Sandford's most suspenseful novel yet.
Updated 4.14.03 - Unpaid Dues: Munch Mancini
Author: Seranella, Barbara
Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 0743245008 Date: 2003Kirkus
Hailed for her gritty style and memorable, realistic characters--outlaws, junkies, bikers, and other rebels who often operate on the shadowy periphery of society--Seranella lives up to her acclaimed reputation in this latest crime novel featuring Miranda "Munch" Mancini.
Updated 2.10.03 - The Middle of Nowhere:
Lenny Bliss
Author: Sloan, Bob
Publisher: Atlantic $ 23 ISBN: 0871138727 Date: 2003Kirkus
In its starred review, Publishers Weekly called Bliss Jumps the Gun "the book for the mystery reader who's looking for something fresh and strong." Now Sloan has once again created an intricate plot and characters that will keep readers on the edge on their seat.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 3.13.03 - Death in Precinct Puerto Rico:
Book Two
Author: Torres, Steven
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312289898 Date: 2003Kirkus
The murder of a new mother shocks a small Puerto Rican community in the second of this police procedural series featuring Sheriff Luis Gonzalo.
Updated 2.23.03
April
- Sleeping
With the Enemy
Author: Anthony, Evelyn
Publisher: Severn $ 25.99 ISBN: 0727859471 Date: 2003Booklist
Updated 4.16.03 - Smile Now, Die Later
Author: Armstrong, Vivien
Publisher: Severn $ 25.99 ISBN: 0727858963 Date: 2003PW
Believing that her boss did not committ suicide, Zoe Templeman decides to uncover the truth behind his death, as she also deals with mounting personal problems.
Suggested Reading: Nip/Tuck Plasic Surgery Stars
Updated 3.17.03 - Murder in the Bastille
Author: Black, Cara
Publisher: Soho Press $ 23.00 ISBN: 1569473242 Date: 2003Kirkus
April in Paris is a time for crime when Aime Leduc is attacked in an alley and knocked unconscious. When she awakes, she discovers she is blind. The police maintain she was the victim of a serial killer targeting showy blondes. Was he after another woman, or was Aime his intended victim?
Suggested Reading: Paris Stars | European Crime Fiction
Updated 1.26.03 - Jakarta Shadows
Author: Brayne, Alan
Publisher: Tindal $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 0953589587 Date: 2003Booklist
Updated 5.14.03 - Lost Light
Author: Connelly, Michael
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316154601 Date: 2003KirkusBooklistPWLJ
The bestselling author of City of Bones and Chasing the Dime brings lone wolf Harry Bosch out of retirement and on a wild excursion into evil, seeking the truth about a cold case that still haunts the LAPD, movie studios--and Bosch himself.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Cold Cases | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.31.03 - Sensei
Author: Donohue, John
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312288123 Date: 2003PWBooklist
When many of America's great martial artists are murdered, college professor and martial artist Connor Burke is dragged into the investigation by the NYPD. With the help of master warrior Yamashita Sensei, Burke follows a trail of clues that leads him to confront his own fear--and the ruthless killer.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.27.03 - Lost in a Good Book
Author: Fforde, Jasper
Publisher: Viking Books $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670031909 Date: 2003KirkusLJ
Literary detective heroine Thursday Next returns in this follow-up to the acclaimed The Eyre Affair. To rescue the love of her life, Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe's "The Raven." Soon, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.13.03 - Cerulean Sins
Author: Hamilton, Laurell K.
Publisher: Berkley $ 22.95 ISBN: 0425188361 Date: 2003PW
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, learns what it's like to be at the new end of a centuries-old bloodline--and just how far she'll let herself get pushed around by one of the oldest vampires alive . . . or should one say "dead"?
Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
Updated 3.27.03 - A Visible Darkness
Author: King, Jonathan
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525947140 Date: 2003Booklist
Following up his acclaimed debut that introduced former Philadelphia cop Max Freeman, King delivers another gripping story. When attorney Billy Manchester calls Max about a string of suspicious deaths among elderly women, Max reluctantly pries where he's not wanted to find an unseen killer.
Updated 2.20.03
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction | Private Investigators - Murder Off Mike: A Talk
Radio Mystery
Author: Krieg, Joyce
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312310269 Date: 2003PWBooklist
The winner of the 2002 St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Contest for Best First Traditional Mystery introduces Shauna J. Bogart, a smart, sassy radio talk show host at Sacramento's top-rated local station who launches her own investigation into the "suicide" of a fellow shock jock.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Amateur Sleuths
Updated 3.27.03 - The Dogs of Riga: Kurt Wallendar
Author: Mankell, Henning
Publisher: New Press $ 24.95 ISBN: 1565847873 Date: 2003KirkusPW
Bringing the acclaimed series to a close, The Dogs of Riga takes Inspector Kurt Wallander to Riga, Latvia, to investigate the murder of two Eastern European criminals.
Suggested Reading: European Mysteries
Updated 3.31.03 - Lamplighter
Author: O'Neill, Anthony
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743243498 Date: 2003PW
Elegantly written and ingeniously executed, The Lamplighter inhabits the pre-Freudian era and explores the dangers of the suppressed imagination. Set in 19th-century Edinburgh, it features a professor of philosophy and his assistant as they unravel a series of gruesome murders and their connection to a troubled young woman.
Suggested Reading: Supernatural Stars | Scottish Crime Fiction
Updated 3.13.03 - Cold Pursuit
Author: Parker, T. Jefferson
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 0786868058 Date: 2003BooklistKirkus
From the Edgar Award-winning author of Silent Joe comes a new hard-hitting thriller of murder, vengeance, and secret passions that will keep readers spellbound.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 1.26.03 - Cold Springs
Author: Riordan, Rick
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553802364 Date: 2003Booklist
The "king of Texas crime-writing" showcases the talent that has earned him the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony Awards, in a blistering stand-alone thriller that hits with all the force of a Texas tornado.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 3.31.03 - Point of Honour
Author: Robins, Madeleine E.
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 031287202x Date: 2003BooklistLJ
In the first title of a brand-new series, danger, intrigue, and romance are rampant on the mean streets of Regency London, where Sarah Tolerance, the "fallen" daughter of a noble, has invented a new role for herself: Agent of Inquiry.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 5.29.03 - King Bongo: A Novel of Havana
Author: Sanchez, Thomas
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0679406964 Date: 2003Booklist
The author of the epic Key West novel Mile Zero, returns to the tropics with King Bongo--a stunning story of desire and political danger set against the glamour, intrigue, and corruption of 1950s Havana.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Cuba
Updated 3.31.03 - City of Strangers
Author: Shannon, John
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 0786711639 Date: 2003BooklistPW
In the sixth novel of the series that the Philadelphia Inquirer calls "lean and literate" PI Jack Liffey probes the complex ethnic mix of the Persian communities in Los Angeles in a gripping tale that confronts youthful idealism with perfervid fundamentalism.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 4.7.03 - Good Morning,
Killer
Author: Smith, April
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375412409 Date: 2003Library Journal
An electrifying new thriller that brings back Ana Grey--the complex, strong-willed, often-maverick FBI agent whom we first met in the author's stunning debut novel, North of Montana. This time Special Agent Grey is working on the Santa Monica Kidnapping--a 15-year-old named Juliana has disappeared--with Police Detective Andrew Berringer.
Updated 4.29.03 - All Hat
Author: Smith, Brad
Publisher: Holt $ 24 ISBN: 0805072179 Date: 2003Booklist
Surprisingly poignant yet laugh-out-loud funny, All Hat tells a classic story of little guys fighting big guys and reaffirming the meaning of honesty and friendship--and second chances--in the process.
Updated 3.31.03 - Fountain Filled With Blood
Author: Spencer-Fleming, Julia
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312304102 Date: 2003PW
In a small Adirondack town, the violent attack on a doctor triggers a series of gay-bashing episodes. Episcopalian priest Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne enter a reluctant partnership. As their investigation continues, closeness becomes inevitable.
Updated 2.24.03 - Tracking Bear
Author: Thurlo, Aimee & David
Publisher: Forge $24.95 ISBN: 0765304767 Date: 2003Booklist
A group of businessmen is working to open a uranium mine and nuclear power plant on the Navajo Reservation. Investigating the murder of a Navajo cop during a break-in and robbery, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah learns that clues seem to lead to a major supporter of the nuclear project, but the man insists he's being framed--or is he?
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.14.03 - Monkeewrench
Author: Tracy, P.J.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399149783 Date: 2003PW
Haunted by their pasts, Grace McBride and the crew of her software company, Monkeewrench, create a computer game where the killer is always caught and the good guys always win. But their game becomes a nightmare when someone begins duplicating the fictional murders in real life, down to the last detail.
Suggested Reading: Thrillers
Updated 3.3.03 - Sims
Author: Wilson, F. Paul
Publisher: Forge $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765305518 Date: 2003Kirkus
A new science thriller, Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated, and manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims", genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Cross Genres
Updated 2.23.03 - Dirty Work: Stone Barrington
Author: Woods, Stuart
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399149821 Date: 2003Booklist
Back in New York City from London, Stone Barrington is hired by an heiress to find proof of her husband's infidelity. When the undercover work Stone sets up turns dirty, leaving the errant husband dead and a mystery woman gone without a trace, Stone must clear his own name and find a killer among New York's high society.
Updated 2.28.03
March
- The Discrete Charm of Charlie
Monk
Author: Ambrose, David
Publisher: Warner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0446527963 Date: 2003KirkusBooklist
Charlie Monk is the ultimate spy. He has no conscience, no fear--and no memory. Dr. Susan Flemyng, thinks she may have found a way to give him his memory back. As the two of them embark on a series of experiments to recover Charlie's long-lost memory, they find something terrifying in the deepest recesses of his mind.
Suggested Reading: Amnesia Stars | Cross Genres
Updated 3.13.03 - The Da Vinci Code
Author: Brown, Dan
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385504209 Date: 2003Library Journal
In an exhilarating blend of scholarly intelligence, relentless adventure, and cutting wit, Robert Langdon (first introduced in Angels Demons) and his new adventure combines the punch of Robert Ludlum, the intriguing historical touch of Umberto Eco, and the nonstop suspense of Michael Crichton.
Link: www.davincicode.com
Suggested Reading: If You Liked The Da Vinci Code | Reading Group Stars
Updated 1.29.03 - The Tail of the Tip-Off
Author: Brown, Rita Mae & Sneaky Pie Brown
Publisher: Bantam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553801589 Date: 2003PW
Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen and her sleuthing pets are back for their 11th Mrs. Murphy mystery in this New York Times bestselling series.
Updated 1.15.03 - The White Road
Author: Connolly, John
Publisher: Atria $ 25 ISBN: 0743456386 Date: 2003PW
In South Carolina, a young black man faces the death penalty for the rape and murder of Marianne Larousse, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the state. It's a case that nobody in his right mind wants to touch...a case deeply rooted in ancient evil...a case that will catapult Detective Charlie Parker into a living nightmare.
Updated 3.17.03 - The Vanished Man
Author: Deaver, Jeffrey
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25.95 ISBN: 0743222008 Date: 2003PW
The bestselling author of The Stone Monkey is back with a brilliant thriller that pits forensic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs against an unstoppable killer with one final, horrific trick up his sleeve.
Suggested Reading: Crime Scene Investigations
Updated 1.20.03 - With a Vengeance
Author: Dreyer, Eileen
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312265778 Date: 2003KirkusPW
Dreyer evokes the edgy, sketchy world of crisis and trauma medical operations in this smart, provocative, page-turning thriller. She combines cutting edge suspense with characters as sharp as knives.
Suggested Reading: Medical Thrillers
Updated 3.3.03 - Tropic of Night
Author: Gruber, Michael
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060509546 Date: 2003KirkusPW
One of the most frightening and imaginative novels of suspense to arrive in decades, Tropic of Night pits an anthropologist against a powerful shaman who becomes Miami's most feared serial killer.
Suggested Reading: Supernatural Stars
Updated 1.29.03 - Sugar Skull: Eve Diamond
Author: Hamilton, Denise
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743245393 Date: 2003Library Journal
Intrepid L.A. crime reporter Eve Diamond is back on the scene in a stylish, urban mystery from the acclaimed author of the bestselling The Jasmine Trade.
Updated 1.16.03 - The Spinning Man
Author: Harrar, George
Publisher: Blue Hen $ 24.95 ISBN:039914983x Date: 2003PW
Evan Birch is charming and affable, handsome, and gentle. So when the police bring him in for questioning in the disappearance of a high school cheerleader, everyone is sure of Evan's innocence. But then the evidence builds, and Evan begins to strain the will to believe in him in this brilliantly told and suspenseful novel.
Updated 3.3.03 - Engaged to Die: A Death on Demand Mystery
Author: Hart, Carolyn
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 006000469x Date: 2003PW
"The reigning monarch of the amateur sleuth mystery" (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and the multiple winner of the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards serves up a deadly and delightful new tale.
Suggested Reading: Amateur Sleuths
Updated 2.20.03 - Keeping Watch
Author: King, Laurie R.
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801910 Date: 2003KirkusLJBooklistPW
After years of rescuing children and on the brink of retirement, Alan Carmichael decides to rescue one last teenager from an abusive parent. But, once the boy is safely hidden, Carmichael begins to doubt his decision to intervene: Has he turned a killer free to kill again?
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 2.4.03 - The Coffee Trader
Author: Liss, David
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508546 Date: 2003PW
With wit, imagination, and mystery, Liss depicts a world of subterfuge, danger, and repressed longing, where religious and cultural traditions clash with the demands of a new and exciting way of doing business. Readers of historical suspense and lovers of coffee will be up all night with this intriguing novel.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Drink Up
Updated 1.28.03 - Circles
& Squares: Tim Simpson
Author: Malcolm, John
Publisher: Alsion & Busby $ 24.95 ISBN: 074900584x Date: 2003Booklist
What is the connection between abstract painter Ben Nicolson and an obscure piece of film? - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Art Stars
Updated 5.14.03 - Back Story: Spenser
Author: Parker, Robert B.
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399149775 Date: 2003Booklist
Spenser tries to solve a 30-year-old murder as a favor to an old friend in this brilliant new mystery from the Grand Master. The lack of clues and a missing FBI intelligence report force Spenser to reach out in every direction, testing his resourcefulness and his courage.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases | Private Investigators
Updated 1.25.03 - Resurrection Men: Inspector Rebus
Author: Rankin, Ian
Publisher: Little Brown $ 19.95 ISBN: 0316766844 Date: 2003KirkusLJ
Inspector John Rebus has messed up badly this time, so badly that he's been sent to a kind of reform school for damaged cops. While there among the last-chancers known as "resurrection men, " he joins a covert mission to gain evidence of a drug heist orchestrated by three of his classmates.
Suggested Reading: Scottish Crime Fiction | British Police
Updated 1.16.03 - Portrait In Death
Author: Robb, J. D.
Publisher: Berkley $ 7.99 ISBN: 0425189031 Date: 2003PW
The New York Times #1 bestselling police thriller series featuring futuristic cop Eve Dallas continues in this brand-new, first-time-in-print novel.
Updated 2.24.03 - A Presumption of Death
Author: Walsh, Jill Paton & Dorothy L. Sayers
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312291000 Date: 2003PW
Drawing on The Wimsey Papers, in which Sayers showed the Wimsey's coping with wartime conditions, Walsh has devised an irresistible story set in 1940 at the start of the Blitz of London.
Suggested Reading: Traditional British
Updated 1.20.03
February
- Flashback
Author: Barr, Nevada
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399149759 Date: 2003PW
Running from a proposal of marriage, Anna Pigeon takes a post as a temporary supervisory ranger on remote Garden Key in Key West. When a mysterious boat explosion--and the discovery of unidentifiable body parts--keeps her anchored to the present, Anna finds crimes of past and present closing in on her.
Suggested Readiing List: Wildlife
Updated 12.23.02 - Under the Skin
Author: Blake, James Carlos
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0380977516 Date: 2003Library Journal
Blake's latest tough-skinned novel is a 1930s crime saga with roots on both sides of the Rio Grande. Under the Skin is the tale of Jimmy Youngblood, bodyguard to gangster brothers. As the story ranges from steamy Galveston to the brutal Mexican desert, Jimmy's life takes its most fearsome turn yet when he fails for the wife of a powerful and vengeful Mexican warlord.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 1.16.03 - The Last Detective: Elvis Crais
Author: Crais, Robert
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385504268 Date: 2003BooklistPW
The New York Times bestselling author of Hostage and L.A. Requiem spotlights his signature character Elvis Cole, whose cocky exterior holds a troubled soul. When the son of his longtime girlfriend, Lucy Chenier, goes missing, Cole's demons threaten to destroy the world he's built.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 1.28.03 - The King of Torts
Author: Grisham, John
Publisher: Doubleday $ 27.95 ISBN: 0385508042 Date: 2003PW
America's #1 bestselling author delivers this tale of a young public defender who finds himself in the middle of a complex case against one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. The case could result in an enormous settlement--and make him the legal profession's newest king of torts.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 2.4.03 - Flashouse
Author: Liu, Aimee
Publisher: Warner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0446530972 Date: 2003PW
With its phenomenal characterizations and exotic setting, Flash House won raves in publications, including the "Los Angeles Times, Booklist, and a starred review in "Publishers Weekly, among others.
Updated 3.3.03 - The Republic of Night
Author: Martell, Dominic
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 078671123x Date: 2003Booklist
Pascual Rose, elite counterterrorist turned deep-cover informant, is back in this turbulent new international thriller. The pace is compelling and suspense breathtaking in this masterly neo-noir sequel to Lying Crying Dying. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 2.20.03 - Death in the Family
Author: McGowan, Jill
Publisher: Ballantine $ 22.95 ISBN: 0345458486PW Date: 2003
In the midst of her maternity leave from the Stansfield police force, Detective Chief Inspector Judy Hill inadvertently becomes involved in the case of a baby kidnapping. At the same time DCI Lloyd, Judy's professional partner and fianc is immersed in a puzzling homicide investigation.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 1.3.03 - Clean Cut
Author: Monsour, Theresa
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399149686 Date: 2003Booklist
In this stunning first novel, Paris Murphy--a smart, intuitive and reckless police detective--sets out to trap a serial killer using herself as a snare.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 1.25.03 - Death of a
Nationalist
Author: Pawel, Rebecca C.
Publisher: Soho $ 24 ISBN: 1569473048 Date: 2003PW
Madrid 1939. Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon is a Sergeant in the Guardia Civil, a rank rare for a man not yet thirty, but Tejada is an unusual recruit. The bitter civil war between the Nationalists and the Republicans has interrupted his legal studies in Salamanca. Second son of a conservative Southern family of landowners, he is an enthusiast for the Catholic Franquista cause, a dedicated, and now triumphant, Nationalist. This war has drawn international attention. In a dress rehearsal for World War II, fascists support the Nationalists, while communists have come to the aid of the Republicans. Atrocities have devastated both sides. It is at this moment, when the Republicans have surrendered, and the Guardia Civil has begun to impose order in the ruins of Madrid, that Tejada finds the body of his best friend, a hero of the siege of Toledo, shot to death on a street named Amor de Dios. Naturally, a Red is suspected. And it is easy for Tejada to assume that the woman caught kneeling over the body is the killer. But when his doubts are aroused, he cannot help seeking justice. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 12.02.02 - The Dante Club
Author: Pearl, Matthew
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375505296 Date: 2003KirkusBooklist
When a series of gruesome murders erupts in 1865, only Boston's literary elite realize that the style and form of the killings are derived from Dante's Inferno. Twenty-six-year-old Pearl brilliantly blends fact and fiction in this debut mystery starring Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 12.02.02 - Soul Circus
Author: Pelecanos, George P.
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316608432 Date: 2003BooklistPW
A Washington, D.C., crime overlord is fighting for his life in court. Two younger dealers are fighting for his territory, prestige, and millions of dollars in future profits. It takes only one slip--a kid going out of control with a rented pistol--to push friction closer to wholesale slaughter.
Suggested Reading: Drug Traffic Stars
Updated 2.4.03 - The Pieces from
Berlin
Author: Pye, Michael
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375414363 Date: 2003Kirkus
From the author of Taking Lives comes a riveting new novel, inspired by an actual historical figure, about a woman who made a fortune trafficking stolen art in wartime Berlin, and the terrible emotional consequences of her crimes.
Suggested Reading: Art Stars | Berlin Stars
Updated 12.02.02 - Four for a Boy: A John the Eunuch Mystery
Author: Reed, Mary & Eric Mayer
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590580311 Date: 2003PWBooklist
John the Eunuch, on his first assignment, investigates a murder involving the imperial heir... Travel back in time from 540 AD to the winter of 525. In Constantinople's Great Church, a crowd has gathered around a recently donated statute of Christ. Suddenly a riot erupts. Three Blues, members of the racing faction favored by heir-to-the-throne Justinian and his intended bride, Theodora, flee. At the base of the marble Christ a wealthy philanthropist lies dead. John, a slave accompanying his pupil, Lady Anna, witnesses the scene and her grief. The dead man was a friend of Anna's father, Senator Opimius. Later that day John is arrested for brawling among his fellow eunuch and thrown into the dungeons. He expects to be executed. Instead, he is led into the presence of the gravely ill Justinian and given a mystifying commission - together with the excubitor, Felix, John is to discover whether the murder was staged in order to discredit the imperial heir. In a city where no one can be trusted, John begins to piece together a mosaic of murder, and in doing so takes the first steps along the path that will lead him to high office. Booklist, in a starred review for Three for a Letter, following its starred review for Two for Joy, says it ..".continues the authors' record of creating near-perfect historical mysteries. These novels are charming mixtures of humor, intrigue, and period detail." See where it all began... - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 3.13.03 - Derailed
Author: Siegel, James
Publisher: Warner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0446531588 Date: 2003PW
When an English teacher at Attica State Prison asks his incarcerated students to write about why they're in prison, he is astounded by the story of Charles Schine, a white, upper middle-class ad exec. Charles reveals what brought him to Attica from a world of deceit, murder, and betrayal.
Updated 12.16.02 - The Confessor
Author: Silva, Daniel
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399149724 Date: 2003Booklist
The writer Benjamin Stern entered his flat to see a man standing there, leafing through his research, and said, "Who the hell are you?" In response, the man shot him. Filled with rich characters, remarkable prose, and a multilayered plot of uncommon intensity, this is the finest work yet by a new master of the art.
Updated 1.25.03 - Bridge of Sighs
Author: Steinhauer, Olen
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312302452 Date: 2003Kirkus
In this auspicious debut, an inexperienced homicide detective struggles amid the lawlessness of a post-World War II eastern European city.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | European Crime Fiction
Updated 10.31.02 - The Barbed-Wire Kiss
Author: Stroby, Wallace
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312300344 Date: 2003PW
In this brooding, blistering debut set against the spare, atmospheric background of working-class New Jersey, retired police officer Harry Rane gets caught between his past and his future, between justice and vengeance.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Hardboiled | Noir
Updated 1.3.03 - Cuba Strait
Author: Stroud, Carsten
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0743243897 Date: 2003Booklist
When Rick Broca comes to the rescue of a downed seaplane during a storm off the Florida Keys, the mysterious pilot, Charles Green, is thankful. When they are intercepted by a fishing boat carrying artillery, Broca knows enough to shoot now, ask questions later. This tale of political intrigue, international espionage--and even a trace of Santerian voodoo--is based on an actual international incident.
Updated 12.16.02 - Dead Clever
Author: Thomas, Scarlett
Publisher: Justin Charles $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932112014 Date: 2003Library Journal
Lily Pascale is the hippest new heroine to come from London since Bridget Jones. In her first mystery, she finds herself smack in the middle of a real life crime--Stephanie Duncan's decapitated corpse has just turned up on campus!
Suggested Reading: Amateur Sleuths
Updated 1.16.03
January
- Islands of Silence
Author: Booth, Martin
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312268041 Date: 2003Kirkus
From the author of the Booker shortlisted Industry of Souls comes a gripping novel of a World War I veteran who shuts himself off from the world.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 10.31.02 - The Guards
Author: Bruen, Ken
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312303556 Date: 2003KirkusPWLJ
In this mesmerizing work of crime fiction, an ex-member of The Guards--Ireland's police force--is approached in a Galway bar by a dazzling woman with a strange request and a rumor about his talent for finding things.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Hardboiled | Noir
Updated 12.23.02 - Scavenger Hunt
Author: Ferrigno, Robert
Publisher: Pantheon $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375421734 Date: 2003Booklist
Fast-paced, darkly funny, unexpected, and crowded with unforgettable characters--both high and low Hollywood, both pretty good and very bad--Scavenger Hunt is Ferrigno at his bristling best as he explores Hollywood movies, moguls, and murder.
Suggested Reading: Film Stars
Updated 1.06.03 - Pattern Recognition
Author: Gibson, William
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399149864 Date: 2003KirkusPW
Numb at the loss of her ex-security expert father at the World Trade Center, Cayce Pollard refuses to give up on a secret assignment which will take her to Tokyo and on to Russia to investigate Internet videos that are attracting a cult following. With help and betrayal from equally unlikely quarters, Cayce will follow the trail of the mysterious film, and in the process will learn something about her father's life and death.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 1.20.03 - Death in Dublin
Author: Gill, Bartholomew
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060008490 Date: 2003KirkusBooklist
In Bartholomew Gill's last and most dramatic novel, Irish police chief Peter McGarr is plunged into the ratified atmosphere of Dublin's Trinity College as he investigates the cold-blooded murder of a library night watchman and the baffling disappearance of an Irish cultural icon--the Book of Kells.
Updated 1.6.03 - The Seduction of Water
Author: Goodman, Carol
Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345450906 Date: 2003Library Journal
On the heels of her mesmerizing bestseller The Lake of Dead Languages, Goodman has written an absorbing, richly layered novel that skillfully weaves dark fairy tale themes into a modern web of intrigue.
Updated 12.23.02 - By the Light
of the Moon
Author: Koontz, Dean
Publisher: Bantam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0553801430 Date: 2003PW
Like his most recent #1 New York Times bestsellers, One Door Away from Heaven and From the Corner of His Eye, Koontz's new book goes to the heart of what it means to be truly good in a time more than ever beset by malice.
Updated 12.02.02 - Old Flames
Author: Lawton, John
Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871138646 Date: 2003KirkusPW
Old Flames is a riveting spy novel sparked by historical events, with a twisting, turning plot that The Sunday Times (London) declares "a strange, thoughtful, quiet, intelligent spellbinder of a book, penetrating the very heart of betrayal."
Suggested Reading: Espionage
Updated 12.16.02 - Dead Man Riding: Nell Bray
Author: Linscott, Gillian
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312308248 Date: 2003PW
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 12.23.02 - Six Easy Pieces: Easy Rawlins Stories
Author: Mosley, Walter
Publisher: Atria $ 24 ISBN: 0743442520 Date: 2003Library Journal
Suggested Reading: African American Stars | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 1.16.03 - Spook
Author: Pronzini, Bill
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 0786710861 Date: 2003Kirkus
Nameless is back, and Pronzini's much-praised Bleeders did not conclude a series that Booklist calls a stunning and unique achievement in crime fiction and one of the greatest-ever detective series. Instead Spook, takes his seasoned private-eye hero to a new phase of a still-evolving 30-year career.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 10.31.02 - Hollow Crown: Lord Edward Corinth and Verity
Brown
Author: Roberts, David
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 0786710527 Date: 2003PW
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 12.16.02 - Man Eater
Author: Shannon, Ray
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399149767 Date: 2003KirkusPW
An Elmore Leonard-style L.A. noir is set in the movie business, featuring the most eclectic cast of dynamic, dangerous characters since Pulp Fiction.
Suggested Reading: Film Stars | Hardboiled | Noir
Updated 12.02.02 - Final Witness
Author: Tolkien, Simon
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508821 Date: 2003 Date: 2003Booklist
The grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien makes a thrilling debut as a novelist in this suspenseful family drama about a teenage boy who accuses his stepmother of murdering his mother, Lady Anne Robinson. Thomas's father, Sir Peter Robinson, is the British minister of defense and refuses to believe his son. Instead, he will be the trial's final witness.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Legal Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 10.24.02 - The Pepperdogs
Author: West, Francis J. (Bing)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25 ISBN: 0743235894 Date: 2003Kirkus
On the eve of leaving his Reservist unit in Kosovo, a marine is kidnapped by renegade Serbs. Known as a razor-sharp storyteller and elite Pentagon insider, West unleashes this blistering technothriller about honor, duty, and patriotic sacrifice.
Suggested Reading: Former Yugoslavia | Techothrillers | Marines
Updated 11.12.02
Hotlists
African American Fiction | Christian Fiction
2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
Crime Fiction | Fiction | African American Fiction | Christian Fiction | Nonfiction Notables
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
2009 Hotlists
Fiction - excel file more coming soon...
Crime Fiction - excel file more coming soon...
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