Table of Contents
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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.
Out and About. . .
I'm playing around at Shelfari, LibraryThing, and Good Reads. I've set up links to my pages on these sites. And, yes, I have a hard time keeping up-to-date on these sites...
I've set up "shelves" from these sites on Overbooked - here
Overbooked is spacing out: Myspace: Overbooked and Crime Space - and, facing out: Facebook profile.
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 of 2004: July - December
August 19, 2008
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.
A
indicates an Overbooked
Jump for Joy book.
December
- Access Denied
Author: Andrews, Donna
Publisher: Prime Crime $ 23.95 ISBN: 0425198383 Date: 2004
PW
When Turing Hopper, Artificial Intelligence Personality extraordinaire, learns a criminal's once-dormant credit card has been doing a lot of shopping lately, she does some sleuthing. But luring the guilty party out might very well get everyone "accidentally" deleted.
Suggested Reading: Artificial Intelligence Stars
Updated 11.29.04 - Road to Purgatory
Author: Collins, Max Allan
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060540273 Date: 2004PW
This powerful narrative follow-up to the acclaimed graphic novel Road to Perdition opens with Michael O'Sullivan returning to Chicago and his old war against the Capone mob. Interwoven is the parallel tale of his father, chief enforcer to Irish godfather John Looney.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 11.22.04 - Coroner's Lunch
Author: Cotterill, Colin
Publisher: Soho $ 23 ISBN: 1569473765 Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
When an elderly doctor takes over as state coroner of newly formed Communist Laos in the late 1970s, he unexpectedly stirs the bureaucratic pot and unravels three complicated and intertwined murder plots his superiors want to sweep under the carpet.
Suggested Reading: Laos
Updated 10.4.04 - Night Fall
Author: DeMille, Nelson
Publisher: Warner $ 26.95 ISBN: 0446576638 Date: 2004KirkusLJ
Five years after the crash of Flight 800 two members of the Elite Anti-terrorist Task Force suspect it was no accident and they set out to recover the one piece of evidence to prove it: a videotape that shows a couple making love on the beach as the airliner crashes.
Suggested Reading: Terrorism
Updated 10.7.04 - The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes
Author: Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, edited by Leslie S. Klinger
Publisher: Norton $ 75 (2 vols) ISBN: 0393059162 Date: 2004PW
Updated 9.6.04 - Blue Rose: An English Garden Mystery
Author: Eglin, Anthony
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312328702 Date: 2004PW
"The Blue Rose is a well-plotted story that should appeal to gardeners everywhere about what happens when amateurs tinker with the ever-favorite rose species and come up with a killer."--Ann Ripley, author of Death at the Spring Plant Sale.
Updated 11.2.04 - Bethlehem Road Murder: Michael Ohayon
Author: Gur, Batya
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060195738 Date: 2004PW
The body of a young woman whose face has been smashed is found in the attic of a house in the Arab quarter south of West Jerusalem, launching a complex and fascinating murder investigation set against the background of tensions between Jews and Arabs.
Updated 11.9.04 - Red Jungle
Author: Harrington, Kent
Publisher: Dennis McMillan $ 30 ISBN: 0939767503 Date: 2004Booklist
Red Jungle is set in a very near-future Guatemala, after coffee has tanked in the international markets, the 35-year long Civil War is "over," but most of the former communist insurgents have no jobs or prospects of getting any, the same situation as the now-unemployed coffee plantation workers. Into this sad milieu Russell Cruz-Price, half-Guatemalan (on his mother's side), half-American, returns to the country of his birth, as a journalist working for the Financial Times of London. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Hardboiled | Noir | Political
Updated 2.7.05 - Skeleton Man
Author: Hillerman, Tony
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060563443 Date: 2004BooklistPW
"New York Times" bestselling author Tony Hillerman is back with another blockbuster novel featuring the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Tony Hillerman . . . | Adult Books for Young Adults
Updated 10.19.04 - Fire Baby
Author: Kelly, Jim
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312321457 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Reporter Philip Dryson hopes to blow open a murder story with the help of a dying woman and his own comatose wife. This is the follow-up to Kelly's debut, The Water Clock, which was shortlisted for Britain's John Creasey Award.
Updated 10.25.04 - Life Expectancy
Author: Koontz, Dean
Publisher: Bantam $ 27 ISBN: 0553804146 Date: 2004PW
With his bestselling blend of nail-biting intensity, daring artistry, and storytelling magic, Koontz returns with an emotional rollercoaster tale of five days in the life of an ordinary man born to an extraordinary legacy--a story that will challenge the way readers perceive good and evil, life and death, and everything in between.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.15.04 - Ask A Dead Man
Author: Levinson, Robert S.
Publisher: Five Star $ 25.95 ISBN: 1594142556 Date: 2005PW
Updated 12.27.04 - Seven Types of Ambiguity
Author: Pearlman, Elliot
Publisher: Riverhead $ 27.95 ISBN: 157322281x Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
A psychological thriller and deeply romantic novel that speaks with unforgettable force about the redemptive power of love, this story is told in seven parts, by six different narrators whose lives are entangled in unexpected ways.
Updated 11.2.04 - Nobody Runs Forever
Author: Stark, Richard
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967986 Date: 2004PW
Master criminal Parker is back and in deeper, darker trouble than ever before. The classic anti-hero is forced to use every trick in his dubious arsenal to avoid having to pay the ultimate price for his questionable line of work.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Hard Boiled
Updated 10.12.04
November
- The Burning of Rachel Hayes
Author: Allyn, Doug
Publisher: Five Star $ 1410402029 ISBN: Date: 2004KirkusPW
Updated 10.25.04 - The Siren Queen: Ursula Blanchard
Author: Buckley, Fiona
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743237528 Date: 2004PW
The latest richly evocative and impressively researched mystery in a series that seamlessly blends riveting authenticity and masterful storytelling reveals the inside story behind Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Queen Elizabeth I
Updated 10.4.04 - Hour Game
Author: Baldacci, David
Publisher: Warner $ 26.95 ISBN: 0446531081 Date: 2004PW
The unstoppable duo from the New York Times bestseller Split Second returns to track two diabolical killers, one of whom is copying the other--and stealing the "credit."
Updated 9.20.04 - Druperman Tapes
Author: Goodger, John
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312321996 Date: 2004Booklist
A fascinating guide to the underbelly of Las Vegas, The Druperman Tapes is a fast, twisty, fun thriller in the spirit of Ocean's Eleven.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Take a Gamble
Updated 10.23.04 - Hot On the Trail
Author: Isenbert, Jane
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0060577517 Date: 2004PW
In her seventh appearance, New Jersey college professor Bel Barrett investigates the mysterious death of one of her older students, a racing pigeon enthusiast whose daughter insists the old man's demise was not accidental.
Updated 9.20.04 - Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
Author: Mortimer, John
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033561 Date: 2004Booklist
The author tells the story of Rumpole's very first case which began to shape him into the eccentric and cantankerous defender of justice and reciter of poetry that readers know and love.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 10.23.04 - False Profits
Author: Smiley, Patricia
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967900 Date: 2004Booklist
Featuring a fresh new voice and cast of characters, False Profits will appeal to fans of the novels by Janet Evanovich.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Janet Evanovich | Debuts
Updated 9.7.04 - Wolves Eat Dogs
Author: Smith, Martin Cruz
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25.95 ISBN: 0684872544 Date: 2004PWBooklistLJ
With Arkady Renko, Smith created one of the iconic sleuths of contemporary fiction. Renko returns to investigate international plots that drive one of Russia's billionaire businessmen to jump to his death.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 10.19.04 - Chasing the Dragon
Author: Stansberry, Domenic
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312324677 Date: 2004PW
With Chasing the Dragon, this acclaimed writer of modern noir introduces a new hard-boiled series set in San Francisco. The first novel is in clear homage to the masters of the genre, yet with an original, breathtaking voice all his own.
Suggested Reading: Drug Traffic Stars |Hard Boiled | Noir
Updated 9.27.04 - Crisscross: A Repairman
Jack Novel
Author: Wilson, F. Paul
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765306913 Date: 2004Kirkus
An anonymous mercenary, with no last name and no social security number, Jack has thrilled a veritable army of readers ever since his bestselling debut in The Tomb. In his latest gripping adventure, he takes on two cases at once.
Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
Updated 8.9.04 - The Godfather Returns
Author: Winegardner, Mark
Publisher: Random $ 26.95 ISBN: 1400061016 Date: 2004PW
Winegardner--whose proposal for this novel was chosen in an international competition--brings new artistry and vision to Mario Puzo's mythic characters.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed Up
Updated 11.2.04
October
- The Murder Artist
Author: Case, John
Publisher: Ballantine $ 25.95 ISBN: 0345464710 Date: 2004KirkusPW
A TV reporter sets out on a coast-to-coast quest against time to save his twin sons in this novel by the Hammett Prize-nominated author of the Eighth Day.
Suggested Reading: Twins | Thrillers
Updated 9.20.04 - Double Shot
Author: Davidson, Diane Mott
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060527293 Date: 2004PW
"Today's foremost practitioner of the culinary whodunit" (Entertainment Weekly) whips up a rich souffle of murder and mischief as her trusty heroine Goldy Schultz gets caught up in a web of secrets and lies that could tear her family apart.
Suggested Reading: Cooked Books | Amateur Sleuths
Updated 9.18.04 - A Watery Grave
Author: Druett, Joan
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312334419 Date: 2004LJBooklist
"A vivid, immediate setting and an original hero highlight this first mystery by historian Joan Druett, who brings her knowledge of 19th-century sailing ships and Maori culture to this salty tale of murder at sea."--Dana Stabenow, author of A Grave Denied.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Sea Stories | Historical Crime Fiction
Updated 9.7.04 - Wife of Moon
Author: Coel, Margaret
Publisher: Prime Crime $ 22.95 ISBN: 0425198146 Date: 2004PW
Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden return in the bestselling series that is "considered the most accomplished heir to Tony Hillerman's legacy" (Scripps Howard News Service).
Suggested Reading: If You Like Tony Hillerman . . . | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 8.9.04 - Metro Girl
Author: Evanovich, Janet
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060584009 Date: 2004Booklist
Evanovich's spectacular new novel about a woman in search of her missing brother comes complete with high stakes, hot nights, murder, and graft--not to mention car chases, car races, car explosions, and much more.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction | If You Like Janet Evanovich . . . | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.2.04 - Good Morning, Darkness
Author: Francisco, Ruth
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892968079 Date: 2004PW
Francisco follows Confessions of a Deathmaiden, her acclaimed debut, with a thrilling new mystery about a young woman's unexplained disappearance.
Updated 8.30.04 - Good Morning, Midnight
Author: Hill, Reginald
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060528079 Date: 2004KirkusPWLJ
The "sorcerer of style" (New York Times Book Review) is at the top of his form in this suspenseful story of a mysterious death that echoes one in the past.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - Now You See It: Toby Peters
Author: Kaminsky, Stuart M.
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 0786714239 Date: 2004Booklist
Illusion gets more deadly than reality on Toby Peter's 24th outing.
Suggested Reading: Magic & Magicians | Historical Crime Fiction
Updated 10.4.04 - Double Homicide
Author: Kellerman, Jonathan and Faye
Publisher: Warner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0446532967 Date: 2004KirkusLJ
For the first time ever, bestselling novelists Jonathan and Faye Kellermen team up to deliver the launch book in a thrilling new series of short crime novels. This book--printed as a reversible volume with two different covers--contains two stories featuring different detectives solving crimes in different cities.
Updated 9.20.04 - Shotgun Alley
Author: Klaven, Andrew
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765307863 Date: 2004PW
Klavan's private eye team from Dynamite Road, Scott Weiss and Jim Bishop, return for a showdown with a politician's sexy daughter and the leader of a band of motorcycle gang outcasts.
Suggested Reading: P.I. Stars
Updated 9.27.04 - The Surrogate Thief
Author: Mayor, Archer
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24.95 ISBN: 089296815x Date: 2004KirkusPW
The latest installment in the classic Joe Gunther series finds the Vermont detective on his most personal and dangerous case yet.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 9.18.04 - Choke Point
Author: Mitchell, James C.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312315325 Date: 2004Booklist
Crossing the checkpoint--known as a "choke point" to smugglers and Border Patrol officers alike--P.I. Brinker enters a treacherous underworld in Mexico while investigating the rape and murder of an idealistic reporter.
Updated 10.4.04 - Bahamarama
Author: Morris, Bob
Publisher: Minotaur $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312328893 Date: 2004LJ
As unpredictable as island trade winds, Bahamarama twists and turns its way to a stunning conclusion and announces the arrival of a writer who is sure to surprise and delight mystery fans for years to come.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 9.20.04 - California Girl
Author: Parker, T. Jefferson
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060562366 Date: 2004KirkusLJ
A different world then, a different world now . . . California in the 1960s. For the Becker brothers, the past is always present and it comes crashing back when the body of the lovely and mysterious Janelle Vonn is discovered in an abandoned orange packing house.
Updated 10.19.04 - Shantaram
Author: Roberts, Gregory
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312330529 Date: 2004KirkusPW
Based directly upon the experiences of its author, Shantaram is the story of a man who escapes from a maximum security in Australia to arrive in Bombay, the crossroads of the underworld, where he works in a first-aid station and smuggles drugs and guns.
Updated 8.23.04 - Absent Friends
Author: Rozan, S.J.
Publisher: Delacorte $ 24 ISBN: 0385338031 Date: 2004PWBooklistLJ
The secrets of a group of childhood friends unravel in this haunting thriller by Edgar Award winner S.J. Rozan. Set in New York in the unforgettable aftermath of September 11, Absent Friends brilliantly captures a time and place unlike any other.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | 911 Stars | Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 9.22.04 - Night Game:A John Marquez Crime Novel
Author: Russell, Kirk
Publisher: Chronicle $ 23.95 ISBN: 081184112x Date: 2004Kirkus
Former DEA agent John Marquez brings gritty investigative techniques and a clouded past to his role as head of a special operations unit of the California Department of Fish and Game. In the second thrilling case of this masterful series, Marquez and his team's cover is blown, leaving him caught between a ruthless band of bear poachers, a corrupt local game warden, and a county detective obsessed with a murderer-at-large. Meanwhile, Marquez's own fragile family is left wide open to mortal danger. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Wildlife
Updated 8.9.04 - The Mongol Reply
Author: Schutz, Benjamin M.
Publisher: Five Star $ 25.95 ISBN: 1410402002 Date: 2004PWBooklist
"The Mongol Reply isn't just a solid thriller, it's also a fascinating insider's account of how the wheels of divorce court "justice" can grind an innocent party into dust . . . his hero, child psychologist Morgan Reece, is the reader's perfect searchlight into this dark and heart-rending world." - Jeremiah Healey, author of Turnabout and Spiral
Updated 10.4.04 - Moth and Flame: Benjamin Justice
Author: Wilson, John Morgan
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312309848 Date: 2004Booklist
The latest in the Lambda Literary Award-winning mystery series finds disgraced journalist Benjamin Justice discovering a link between a writer's death and a controversial condo development.
Updated 2.7.05
September
- The Witch's Tongue:
Charlie Moon
Author: Doss, James D.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312317425 Date: 2004KirkusPW
Ute tribal investigator Charlie Moon tries to make sense of a string of seemingly unconnected incidents beginning with a museum burglary and ending with the murder of a police officer.
Updated 8.23.04 - The Warlord's Son
Author: Fesperman, Dan
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414738 Date: 2004PW
In this electrifying thriller set in present-day Afghanistan, the fates of an American journalist and his Pakistani translator become dangerously intertwined with the fortunes of warlords, spies, and dubious corporate interests.
Suggested Reading: Afghanistan | Adult Books for Teens | Thrillers
Updated 8.16.04 - Tonight I Said Goodbye
Author: Koryta, Michael
Publisher: Minotaur $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312332459 Date: 2004LJ
A remarkable crime novel from the winner of the 2003 SMP/PWA Prize for Best First PI Novel, this debut finds two private investigators searching for a young girl and her mother after the child's father is found dead of an apparent suicide.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | P.I. Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - The Sunday Philosophy Club: Isabel Dalhousie
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375422986 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Filled with endearingly thorny characters and a Scottish atmosphere as dense and savory as oatmeal, The Sunday Philosophy Club is irresistible, and Isabel Dalhousie is the most delightful literary sleuth since Precious Ramotswe.
Suggested Reading: Scottish Crime Fiction
Updated 8.13.04 - Boyos
Author: Marinick, Richard
Publisher: Justin Charles $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932112324 Date: 2004Kirkus
Marinick grew up running with the Southie gangs during the Whitey Bulger era, and learned to write during a ten-year prison stretch. He writes what he knows, and his shattering, utterly authentic first novel, Boyos is the result.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Hardboiled | Noir
Updated 7.26.04 - Chaucer and the House of Fame
Author: Morgan, Phillipa
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 0786714662 Date: 2004PWBooklist
The famed Medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer must turn sleuth in this surprising and imaginative first novel.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Chaucer
Updated 9.7.04 - Shoulder the Sky
Author: Perry, Anne
Publisher: Ballantine $ 25.95 ISBN: 0345456548 Date: 2004PW
The taut, inspiring sequel to No Graves As Yet continues Perry's acclaimed World War I series, which follows the lives of the Reavley family amid the horrors of war.
Suggested Reading: World War Stars | Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 7.26.04 - Flat Crazy: A Blanco County, Texas Mystery
Author: Rehder, Ben
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 031232135x Date: 2004Kirkus
Things get out of hand in Blanco County when the local population deals with a mythical beast called the chupacabra. Of course, it doesn't help game warden John Marlin's cause when a dead body turns up with a suspicious fang-like wound in its neck.
Suggested Reading: Wild Life
Updated 7.26.04 - The Prayer of the Night Shepherd: Revd Merrily Watkins
Author: Rickman, Phil
Publisher: Pan $ 24.95 ISBN: 0333908066 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 8.25.04 - The First Cut: A Novel of Suspense
Author: Robinson, Peter
Publisher: Dark Alley $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 006073535x Date: 2004LJ
The First Cut is a vivid and compelling psychological thriller, from the author of the critically acclaimed Inspector Banks series. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 7.13.04 - Skin River
Author: Sidor, Steven
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312329490 Date: 2004Kirkus
In this incredible debut, Buddy Bayes, a man with a past, finds his life shattered when he finds the severed hand of a missing young woman. "Steven Sidor must have sold his soul to the devil to write this well."--Steve Hamilton, author of Ice Run.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 7.8.04 - Fire Point
Author: Smolens, John
Publisher: Crown $ 22 ISBN: 0609611046 Date: 2004PW
From the author of Cold comes a suspenseful, atmospheric story of love, revenge, and redemption set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Updated 7.26.04 - Citizen Vince
Author: Walter, Jess
Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060394412 Date: 2004Kirkus
From a highly acclaimed young novelist comes a story of witness protection, petty thievery, local politics and murder set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1980 presidential election.
Suggested Reading: Political Fiction | Political Thrillers
Updated 8.25.04
August
- The Librarian
Author: Beinhart, Larry
Publisher: Thunder's Mouth $ 15.95 (paper) ISBN: 1560256362 Date: 2004Kirkus
The acclaimed Edgar-winning mystery writer returns with this timely election novel that is to the present administration what his American Hero (filmed as Wag the Dog) was to Bush senior.
Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
Updated 8.9.04 - I Love My Smith and Wesson
Author: Bowker, David
Publisher: Griffin $ 19.95 ISBN: 0312328257 Date: 2004Kirkus
Manchester, England. Death stalks these streets in the form of a hired killer named Rawhead--a shadowy yet powerful figure desperate to control a ruthless mob family called The Priesthood. He will stop at nothing to invade their inner sanctum.
Suggested Reading: Hitmen | Hardboiled | Noir
Updated 6.10.04 - The Hanging in the Hotel: Fethering
Author: Brett, Simon
Publisher: Prime Crime $ 23.95 ISBN: 0425196518 Date: 2004Booklist
A group of local businessmen has descended upon the hotel where Jude is waitressing as a favor to a friend. In this installment of the Fethering mystery series, Jude suspects foul play as a new member tries to join the group.
Suggested Reading: Amateur Sleuths
Updated 7.6.04 - The Damascended Blade: The Third Novel Featuring Detective Joe Sandilands
Author: Cleverly, Barbara
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 078671333x Date: 2004PW
The deadly edge of the final days of the Raj is the backdrop for this third engrossing novel in the popular Joe Sandilands series.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 6.14.04 - Fall
Author: Dymmoch, Michael Allen
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312321937 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 6.30.04 - Pyro
Author: Emerson, Earl
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345462882 Date: 2004Kirkus
From the bestselling author of Vertical Burn and Into the Inferno comes a pulse-racing thriller based on startling true events involving arson and murder.
Suggested Reading: On Fire | Thrillers
Updated 6.30.04 - Dying For You
Author: Evans, Geraldine
Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 0727860887 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 8.9.04 - Dark Voyage
Author: Furst, Alan
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400060184 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistPW
Tangier, April 1941. In the tradition of The Polish Officer and Blood of Victory, Dark Voyage is Alan Furst at his best - a superb adventure of historical espionage at sea and in the waterfront alleys of port cities, as a decent, good-hearted man becomes a fighting hero in an increasingly threatening world. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: All Stars| Espionage | World War Stars | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 7.19.04 - Body Double
Author: Gerritsen, Tess
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345458931 Date: 2004KirkusPW
Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli confront one of their most chilling cases--the murder of Maura's doppelgnger who is in fact her twin sister. Now an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing excursion into a past full of dark secrets in this "New York Times" bestseller.
Suggested Reading: Twins | Medical Thrillers
Updated 6.21.04 - A Ghost in the Machine: Chief Inspector Barnaby
Author: Graham, Caroline
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312324219 Date: 2004Booklist
A gruesome murder in a small British village gets the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby in this seventh book in Graham's delightful village mystery series.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 8.13.04 - Plains Crazy: A Mad Dog & Englishman Mystery
Author: Hayes, J.M.
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590581326 Date: 2004Booklist
Spring bursts into bloom-and a whole lot more-as murder-by-arrow rattles Benteen County, Kansas. Nothing ever happens in Benteen County, Kansas. Then, on a perfect spring morning, a member of the reality TV program filming in a local pasture dies with a Cheyenne arrow in his back. Sheriff English's brother, Mad Dog, the county oddball whose Amerind heritage has produced a born-again Cheyenne, is a prime suspect. Murder is a bad way to start the day. Explosive action follows. Notes left for authorities hint at a terrorist assault on the heartland. If the sheriff, known as Englishman, doesn't have enough to worry about, his wife has begun acting strangely. She insists he fly off on a Paris holiday with her before sunset - or else. As Mad Dog swings between suspect and target, he encounters his long-lost high school sweetheart, and a secret that just may explain the unlikely mix of arrows and bombs. It's Murphy's Law squared, as Mad Dog and his pet wolf, Hailey, test a shaman's powers, and Englishman struggles to balance his duties to family and community-enough to drive anyone Plains Crazy. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 9.22.04 - First Do No Harm
Author: Karp, Larry
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 159058130x Date: 2004Booklist
The past comes rearing up to bite the next generation when a son digs too deep into his family's past.... Martin Firestone can't figure why his father, the eccentric painter Leo Firestone, is throwing a fit. All Martin did was tell his dad he'd been accepted to medical school. Then, Leo tells Martin a story about his own father, Dr. Samuel Firestone, an extraordinarily gifted doctor and a living legend in the small city of Hobart, NJ, but a man with a serious character flaw. During the summer of 1943, while Leo worked as Samuel's extern, he witnessed some highly questionable behavior. Illegal abortions, supplying heroin to an addict, black-market pharmaceuticals, babies sold to adoptive parents-all in a day's work for Samuel Purdue, M.D. When Leo decided his father was covering up a murder, he and his girlfriend, stage-struck Harmony, followed a trail of clues into the Fleischmann Scrapyard. There, they ran afoul of old Oscar Fleischmann, Samuel's longtime nemesis. By the time Leo realized he and Harmony were in far over their sixteen-year-old heads, it was too late to call off the investigation. But there are loose threads in Leo's story. Martin picks them up, and sixty years after the fact, goes snooping in Hobart. And like his father, he comes away with a whole lot more junk than he'd bargained for. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 9.22.04 - Force Protection
Author: Kent, Gordon
Publisher: Delacorte $ 25 ISBN: 0385336292 Date: 2004Kirkus
From Rules of Engagement to Hostile Contact, Gordon Kent has captivated readers with novels that combine authentic portrayals of global secret operations with the passions that go with them: the yearning for family and peace, the deceptions of agents in the field, and the extraordinary risks the bravest and best will take for a cause. His new suspense novel is vintage Kent: a heart-stopping tale of a terrorist strike, its explosive aftermath, and the struggle of special agents in a battle that is reshaping the globe.
- Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Terrorism
Updated 7.26.04 - Dead Water
Author: Hambly, Barbara
Publisher: Bantam $ 25 ISBN: 0553109642 Date: 2004PW
The stunning, much-beloved January mystery series continues with a suspenseful installment that sets a free man of color on a perilous steamboat ride that becomes an inescapable passage to death and murder.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 7.6.04 - Lucifer's Shadow
Author: Hewson, David
Publisher: Delacorte $ 21.95 ISBN: 0385337949 Date: 2004Booklist
When Daniel Forster, a young Englishman, arrives in Venice, he is soon drawn into a treacherous game of deception spanning three centuries, from the Venice of Vivaldi and Rousseau to the violence of the present day.
Suggested Reading: Venice | Music and Fiction | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 5.7.04 - Rift Zone
Author: Hillhouse, Raelynn
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765310139 Date: 2004LJ
Raelynn J. Hillhouse has constructed an engrossing novel of espionage, action, and heart-pounding danger. Told with knowledge and authenticity, Rift Zone takes you inside the workings of communist East Germany and the Soviet Union. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Espionage | Spy Girls
Updated 7.13.04 - Prince of Thieves
Author: Hogan, Chuck
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 074326455x Date: 2004Booklist
Recently optioned by Law & Order producer Dick Wolf, Prince of Thieves is the story of a branch manager who survives a bank robbery that nearly ends in disaster only to fall for a man who, unbeknownst to her, is a criminal mastermind.
Updated 6.10.04 - Bagman
Author: MacLarty, Jay
Publisher: Pocket $ 6.99 ISBN: 0743464907 Date: 2004PW
Updated 7.26.04 - High Country Fall
Author: Maron, Margaret
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24 ISBN: 0892968087 Date: 2004BooklistPW
With friends and family overreacting to her announcement that she plans to marry Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, Judge Deborah Knott gratefully seizes the opportunity to work a week on the bench at Cedar Gap. But Deborah's peaceful break is interrupted by murder.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 6.21.04 - Hark!: A Novel of the 87th Precinct
Author: McBain, Ed
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743250354 Date: 2004BooklistPW
With the same electric style that continues to garner raves, McBain again fuses gritty crime narrative, dead-on comic timing, and rich characterization to deliver one of his most satisfying capers to date. The detectives of the 87th Precinct must scramble to foil the Deaf Man's ingeniously meticulous scheme and stop him from committing the perfect crime.
Suggested Reading: Cops
Updated 7.19.04 - Blind Switch
Author: McEvoy, John
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590580958 Date: 2004PW
One-time amateur boxer Jack Doyle, an irreverent and rebellious advertising account representative, goes to work one fine Chicago day and finds his desk -- and his job -- both gone. A two-time loser at the marriage game as well, Doyle, usually ultra-confident, fishes himself out of a bottle to take stock, realizing, "with a thumping finality, that Life sure as hell did have his number and was crunching it." At loose ends, Doyle accepts a most unusual offer from an acquaintance, Moe Kellman, "furrier to the Mob," to fix a horse race. The context of making the deal, a Cubs game at storied Wrigley Field, sets the tone for the drama that follows. Thus begins a chain of events that will lead the FBI to Doyle's door where they "coopt" him into a quest after people who are maiming or killing thoroughbred horses for their insurance values. Their number one target is a loathsome media mogul who can't bear to loseat anything. Built upon recent factual events, spiced with satire and peppered throughout with engaging loonies, Blind Switch is a noteworthy first novel with a hero forced to ask in its ultimate line, "Where have I gone right?" - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 7.12.04 - Deception
Author: Mina, Denise
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316735922 Date: 2004KirkusPW
Scotland's most exciting up-and-coming mystery novelist offers the story of a man's desperate search for evidence to overturn his wife's murder conviction. As Lachlan searches the forbidden sanctuary of Susie's home office for proof of her innocence, he uncovers evidence of her secret life.
Suggested Reading: Scottish Crime Fiction | Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 7.26.04 - Tijuana Straits
Author: Nunn, Kem
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0684843056 Date: 2004PW
From the National Book Award-nominated author of Tapping the Source comes a potent suspense novel that pits a beautiful young Mexican woman and an aging American surfer against three vicious killers out for revenge.
Suggested Reading: Surfer Stars
Updated 6.21.04 - Noble Blood
Author: O'Brien, Charles
Publisher: Severn $ 28.95 ISBN: 0727861042 Date: 2004PW
Updated 10.12.04 - Brimstone
Author: Preston, Douglas & Lincoln Child
Publisher: Warner $ 25.95 ISBN: 044653143x Date: 2004KirkusPW
Teaming with Police Officer Vincent D'Agosta (The Relic), Agent Pendergast is determined to solve a case that appears to defy everything except supernatural logic. Has the Devil, in fact, come to collect his due?
Suggested Reading: If You Like Michael Crichton | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 7.6.04 - Visions in Death
Author: Robb, J.D.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399151710 Date: 2004Kirkus
The 19th book in the #1 New York Times bestselling in Death series, featuring New York City police Lieutenant Eve Dallas, finds Eve investigating a rash of horrific killings with the help of her billionaire husband Roarke, and her raw partner, Peabody.
Updated 6.30.04 - Petty Treason: A Sarah Tolerance Mystery
Author: Robins, Madeleine E.
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765304007 Date: 2004LJ
Miss Sarah Tolerance refuses to follow the path of the Fallen Women who have gone before her. She's a straight shooter, with her pistol as well as her wit, and her mind is as sharp as the blade of her sword. Miss Tolerance is an Agent of Inquiry, a private investigator of sorts--the sole one of her kind in London, in this year of 1810 with mad King George III on the throne and Queen Charlotte acting as his Regent. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - Falling Off Air
Author: Sampson, Catherine
Publisher: Mysterious $ 22.95 ISBN: 0892968133 Date: 2004Booklist
Sampson's debut thriller is about a young mother who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation when her neighbor's body falls past her window.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Thrillers
Updated 5.7.04
July
- City of Glass
Author: Auster, Paul, Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli
Publisher: Picador $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 0312423608 Date: 2004PW
In Auster's groundbreaking, Edgar Award-nominated masterwork, an unknown voice on the telephone is begging a mystery writer for help, drawing him into a world far stranger than any he has ever created in print.
Updated 5.17.04 - Trophy Hunt: Joe Pickett
Author: Box, C.J.
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399152008 Date: 2004PW
Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett finds he has a modern day Jack the Ripper on his hands when a vicious killer's sights switch from beast to man--and his rampage is just beginning.
Suggested Reading: Wild Life
Updated 6.21.04 - Bait and Switch
Author: Brooks, Larry
Publisher: Signet $ 7.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451212479 Date: 2004PW
From the bestselling "master of terror and suspense" (Publishers Weekly) comes another erotically charged thriller in which a former male model gets more than he bargained for when a billionaire offers him millions to seduce his wife.
Updated 6.14.04 - Garden of Beasts:
A Novel of Berlin 1936
Author: Deaver, Jeffrey
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743222016 Date: 2004PWLibrary
Journal
Called the reigning "master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People), Deaver has written a gripping international thriller--with a range of real political figures and Olympic athletes--that introduces his most psychologically complex hero to date.
Suggested Reading: World War Stars | Adult Books for Teens | Historical Crime Fiction Stars | Berlin Stars
Updated 5.20.04 - Alone at Night
Author: Erickson, K.J.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN:031231471x Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
Minneapolis Special Detective Mars Bahr tackles his first "cold case" investigation, the unsolved 15-year-old disappearance of a teenage girl.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases
Updated 7.6.04 - Rain Storm
Author: Eisler, Barry
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151923 Date: 2004PW
In Eisler's third novel, his romantic, conscientious Japanese-American assassin, John Rain, has fled to Brazil to escape the killing business, but he becomes a reluctant player in an international game far deadlier and more insidious.
Updated 7.6.04
Suggested Reading: Hit Men - Red Tide
Author: Ford, G.M.
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060554800 Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
Ford's latest action-packed, highly suspenseful mystery finds Frank Corso on a case where an investigation into a gruesome murder unravels a massive terrorist conspiracy--but in an unexpected way.
Suggested Reading: Terrorism
Updated 6.15.04 - Waldo Chicken Wakes the Dead: A Murder Mystery of Uncommon Proportions
Author: Goldsmith, Alan
Publisher: Windriver $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 1886249148 Date: 2004LJ
Alan Goldsmith combines the excitement and savvy comedy of the pulp-fiction writers from the 50's and 60's and the sophisticated mystery writers of today. His eclectic cast of characters and his good sense for comedic timing promise hours of entertainment while the subtle twists of the mystery will keep you guessing to the satisfying ending. - Publisher Marketing Updated 10.7.04 - Murder in Montparnasse: A Phryne Fisher Mystery
Author: Greenwood, Kerry
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590580427 Date: 2004LJ
Seven Australian soldiers carousing in Paris in 1918 unknowingly witness a murder and their presence has devastating consequences. Ten years later, two are dead under very suspicious circumstances. Phryne Fisher's friends, Bert and Cec--part of this group of soldiers--appeal to her for help.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 6.1.04 - Ghost Writer
Author: Harwood, John
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151010749 Date: 2004Kirkus
Harwood's tantalizing tale of suspense and family secrets weaves Victorian ghost stories into the present where they start to come true. This astonishing, assured debut shows just how dangerous family skeletons--and stories--can be.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Ghosts | Psychological Suspense Stars
Updated 4.26.04 - Skinny Dip
Author: Hiaasen, Carl
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375411089 Date: 2004Booklist
A shady marine scientist suspects that his wife knows that he has been doctoring water samples so that a ruthless tycoon can continue polluting the Everglades, so he pushes her overboard from a cruise liner. But she's saved by former cop Mick Stranahan--and that's when the real adventure begins.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction | If You Like Carl Hiaasen
Updated 5.7.04 - Day of the Dead:
Brandon Walker
Author: Jance, J.A.
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0688138233PW
Updated 4.12.04 - The Madman's Tale
Author: Katzenbach, John
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345464818 Date: 2004PW
From the New York Times bestselling author of Just Cause and The Analyst comes a menacing depiction of long-dormant evil--a tale set in and around an asylum and told by a madman.
Updated 5.3.04 - The Murder Exchange
Author: Kernick, Simon
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312314035 Date: 2004Kirkus
Next from critically acclaimed author Kernick, ex-mercenary Max Iversson accompanies a nightclub owner to an ill-fated rendezvous in a deserted North London industrial estate.
Updated 6.10.04 - Royal Heist
Author: La Plante, Lynda
Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400060257 Date: 2004Kirkus
After a dot-com crash and in danger of losing his thoroughbred stable and the lifestyle he worked so hard to create, Edward de Jersey resurrects his criminal past to attempt the most audacious robbery in history.
Suggested Reading: Capers
Updated 6.30.04 - Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Author: Lindsey, Jeff
Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 038551123xPWBooklistLJ
Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a new kind of mystery novel starring a lovable serial killer, one Dexter Morgan, who only kills bad people and who cringes at the sight of blood.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Serial Killers | All Stars
Updated 6.17.04 - Now You See It
Author: Lynn, Allison
Publisher: Touchstone $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0743250265 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 5.10.04 - Heart of the Hunter
Author: Meyer, Deon
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316935492 Date: 2004LJKirkusBooklist
In his stunning American debut, the South African thriller writer delivers the story of a kidnapping and of a man refusing to reclaim the ruthless methods he mastered in the darkest days of South Africa's battle for survival.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | South Africa | Thrillers
Updated 7.6.04 - Amagansett
Author: Mills, Mark
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151842 Date: 2004LJBooklist
Amagansett is a novel as sweeping and haunting as the landscape of sky and sea it evokes. Beautifully and powerfully told, it announces the arrival of a gifted writer who skillfully weaves together a delicate love story, a brutal murder, an unforgettable evocation of a place and time, and characters shaped by the epic forces of nature, class, war, and memory. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 8.12.04 - Little Scarlet: Easy Rawlins
Author: Mosley, Walter
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.95 ISBN:0316073032 Date: 2004BooklistPWKirkusLJ
An irresistible story of love and death, this latest Easy Rawlins mystery takes place during the devastating 1965 Watts riots. Easy's hunt for a killer reveals a new city emerging from the ashes--and a new life for Easy and his friends.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | African American Stars | Historical Crime Fiction Stars
Updated 6.1.04 - Shark Tank
Author: O'Neil, Tom
Publisher: Justin Charles $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932112316 Date: 2004 (publication cancelled?)Booklist
Shark Tank is a roller coaster crime novel where cops, criminals and high priced lawyers all feed off each other, and the biggest fish usually get away.
Updated 7.6.04 - When Red is Black
Author: Qiu, Xiaolong
Publisher: Soho $ 25 ISBN: 1569473692 Date: 2004Booklist
Qiu has moved from the poetic, exotic milieu of his first book (although plenty of elements remain) into a tougher, wider, probably more commercial and modern version of China as seen by America."--Chicago Tribune.
Updated 5.7.04 - DB
Author: Reid, Elwood
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN:0385497385 Date: 2004LJ
This stunning fictional imagining of legendary American folk hero D.B. Cooper's daring hijacking and its aftermath is penned by one of the toughest, most distinctive voices in American fiction.
Updated 6.1.04
Stars
Hotlists
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2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
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Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
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2009 Hotlists
Fiction - excel file more coming soon...
Crime Fiction - excel file more coming soon...
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