Prepub Alert, February 15, 2011
Feb 15, 2011FICTION
Abbott, Megan. The End of Everything. Reagan Arthur Bks: Little, Brown. Jul. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9780316097796. $23.99. Download: Hachette Audio.
Thirteen-year-old Lizzie’s best friend has disappeared, and as family and police hunt for her, Lizzie finds herself the center of attention. That’s scary—but also a little heady. Edgar Award winner Abbott should do well.
Billingham, Mark. Bloodline. Mulholland Bks: Little, Brown. Jul. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9780316126663. $24.99.
On his eighth outing, Det. Tom Thorne wants an easy case—his girlfriend would like to see him sometimes. But the routine murder he takes on turns out to be anything but, as a single detail—a bloodstained X-ray gripped by the victim—starts presenting itself at other crime scenes as well. Having switched U.S. publishers, award-winning British author Billingham has a chance to break out here. Watch.
Butler, Robert Olen. A Small Hotel. Grove. Jul. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9780802119872. $24.
On the day her divorce is to be finalized, Kelly skips her court appearance and instead drives from Florida to New Orleans, then checks into the hotel where she and husband Michael first fell in love. What she intends to do next apparently makes for some fast page turning. Pulitzer Prize winner Butler is always good for the literary set.
Dalton, John. The Inverted Forest. Scribner. Jul. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9781416596028. $25; eISBN 9781451627893.
Having fired all his counselors when he discovers them swimming naked together, the director of Kindermann Forest Camp is in a bind. Among the new counselors he hastily hires is Wyatt Huddy, sweet but disfigured, who is astonished to discover that the campers he will be attending are not children but developmentally disabled adults. Dalton’s debut, Heaven’s Lake, was a Discover Great New Writers pick and a Sue Kaufman Prize winner, which bodes well for this thoughtful-sounding work. With a reading group guide.
Doiron, Paul. Trespasser. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780312558475. $24.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Game warden Mike Bowditch receives word that a woman has struck a deer, but when he dashes to the scene, he finds the road empty. Later, though, he finds the woman, who’s been assaulted in a way that recalls a similar case—except the presumed perpetrator is now in jail. Doiron typically gets raves (and starred reviews from the likes of LJ), and he’s also getting a 15-city tour for this one. A definite investment for thriller fans.
Dolan, Harry. Very Bad Men. Amy Einhorn Bks: Putnam. Jul. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9780399157493. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
David Loogan is back, still working as editor of the mystery magazine Gray Streets. All’s well until he trips over a manuscript outside his door that opens with the sentence “I killed Henry Kormoran.” And it’s not fiction. Dolan’s 2009 debut, Bad Things Happen, met with success, so many thriller fans will be looking for this one.
Edgerton, Clyde. The Night Train. Little, Brown. Jul. 2011. 224p. ISBN 9780316117593. $23.99.
In 1963 North Carolina, white teenager Dwayne wants to play like James Brown, and his secret friend, black teenager Larry, wants to play like Thelonius Monk. Maybe music can help them break barriers and achieve their dreams. From beloved Southern novelist Edgerton (e.g., The Bible Salesman), who’s even a songwriter with a band; there’s a five-city tour and a reading group guide.
Golemon, David L. Legacy: An Event Group Thriller. Thomas Dunne Bk: St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780312580797. $25.99.
In the fifth novel in this hot series, NASA has just uncovered a skeleton on the moon that turns out to be a billion years old. Not only must Event Group try to figure out where it came from, but it must also calm down the folks on Planet Earth thrown into dangerous hysteria by the news. Then there’s the very real danger that the forces that left behind that skeleton are coming back. Buy wherever the series is popular.
Gómez-Jurado, Juan. The Traitor’s Emblem. Atria: S. & S. Jul. 2011. 608p. ISBN 9781439198780. $24.99.
Spanish journalist/novelist Gómez-Jurado is not yet a household name here, though he has received some good reviews and good sales. But his two thrillers, God’s Spy and The Moses Expedition, are international best sellers available in 40 countries, and the author has won the Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja. Here, the son of a Spanish captain who has rescued some German castaways in the Straits of Gibraltar in 1940 is asked for the diamond-studded emblem the captain received from the grateful castaways. It’s intimately connected to the life story of a German boy who discovers that his father didn’t die in World War I fighting but was murdered. Buy where international intrigue is popular; the publisher is making an effort here.
Gould, Steven. 7th Sigma. Tor. Jul. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780312877156. $24.99.
You can’t go to the Southwest anymore, because it’s been taken over by enormous, metal-eating bugs. Kimble Monroe was born there, though, and he’s one of the few to remain. Good sf wherever this Nebula and Hugo Award nominee is popular.
Grant, Helen. The Glass Demon. Delacorte. Jul. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780385344197. $24; eISBN 9780345527585.
Grant’s debut novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, burned darkly, unsettling yet enthralling the reader from the first page. I loved it. So I’m eager to see this second novel about a girl whose father moves the family to Germany so that he can continue searching for a mythic glass artifact. Someone or something (real? supernatural?) keeps throwing stones in their way.
Harbison, Beth. Always Something There To Remind Me. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 382p. ISBN 9780312599102. $24.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Two decades ago, Erin blew it with the love of her life by making a mistake he simply could not forgive. Now that her longtime boyfriend has just proposed, Erin finds herself thinking back to Nate and wondering what could have been. Okay, standard plot, but Harbison is very popular, and this book should get a boost from the summer 2011 release of the movie based on her second book, Shoe Addicts Anonymous.
Harrington, Laura. Alice Bliss. Pamela Dorman: Viking. Jun. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780670022786. $25.95.
Alice Bliss is heartbroken but hopeful when her dad is sent to Iraq; she wears his favorite shirt daily. Then comes that terrifying moment when two uniformed officers arrive at the door. Playwright Harrington’s debut novel should touch a nerve for many readers.
Hooper, Tobe. Midnight Movie. Three Rivers: Crown Pub. Group. Jul. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780307717016. pap. $14; eISBN 9780307717023.
Don’t recognize Hooper’s name? He’s the legendary director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . His debut novel, presented as fact, concerns a film he made as a teenager that after decades has just had a festival screening. A strange and lethal contagion befalls anyone who saw it that night, and as it starts spreading to others, Hooper himself must revisit his past to save the day. The well-connected Hooper will promote, and given Chain Saw ’s cult following, this clearly has an audience.
Hurwitz, Gregg. You’re Next. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 416p. ISBN 9780312534912. $24.99.
Mike Wingate is a happy guy, with a wife, a child, and a booming business in “green” housing development. Then suspicious characters start trailing him, and his past returns with a vengeance. Seems that the father who abandoned him as a child was a bad guy indeed. This next from the popular Hurwitz should satisfy thriller fans.
Johansen, Iris. Quinn. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 416p. ISBN 9780312651213. $27.99.
Navy SEAL–turned–cop Joe Quinn is set on helping lover Eve Duncan find her missing daughter, which means going up against Eve’s shady first love. This is the second of a trilogy begun with Eve; expect Bonnie in October. With a one-day laydown on July 12; buy multiples.
Kelman, Stephen. Pigeon English. Houghton Harcourt. Jul. 2011. 272p. ISBN 9780547500607. $24; eISBN 9780547501680.
Though new in London, having moved from Ghana with his family, 11-year-old Harrison Opuku knows what to do when he sees a classmate lying dead. He and friend Dean start gathering evidence. They really don’t know what trouble will soon come their way. Not so much a thriller, I think, but a clash-of-cultures tale and a debut novel the publisher is betting on.
Lewis, Pam. A Young Wife. S. & S. Jun. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9781451612721. $25.
Lewis’s books have always been well received if a little under the radar; our reviewer saw The Perfect Family as a “deftly woven tale of family secrets” (LJ 11/15/05). The heroine here, based on Lewis’s own grandmother, is a young Dutch woman who travels with her husband from Amsterdam to Argentina, where her son is abducted; she ends in New York, where she is left by her husband. Track for readers who want absorbing family drama with a little style.
Malmont, Paul. The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown. S. & S. Jul. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9781439168936. $26.
In his debut thriller, The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, Malmont had William Gibson, creator of the Shadow, investigate rumors of H.P. Lovecraft’s murder even as Doc Savage creator Lester Dent tracks a second murder through New York’s Chinatown. Now, in another fun and pulpy teaming, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein go up against a Nazi threat. Sort of like a mashup, and you know how popular those can be.
Meidav, Edie. Lola, California. Farrar. Jul. 2011. 448p. ISBN 9780374109264. $27.
Meidav is not the biggest name on this list. But her two novels, Far Field and Crawl Space, have won her many honors (Bard Fiction Prize, Kafka Prize), and the premise caught my attention. Even as Seventies cult figure Vic Mahler awaits execution for murder, his daughter, Lana, remains in hiding. Now her friend Rose, also a lawyer, is trying to bring parent and child together—one last time.
Moyes, Jojo. The Last Letter from Your Lover. Pamela Dorman: Viking. Jul. 2011. 416p. ISBN 9780670022809. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
S.J. Watson’s Before I Got To Sleep. Alice LaPlante’s Turn of Mind. Protagonists with failed or fading memories are all the rage. In this latest from British novelist/journalist Moyes, Jennifer Stirling awakens with no memory from a terrible accident. Then she finds a letter fervently begging her to abandon her husband and run away with the writer, identified only as “B.” Decades later, a journalist named Ellie discovers the letter in her newspaper’s file and determines to solve the mystery and bring together the long-lost lovers—all while landing a front-page story. The word unputdownable figures prominently in the British raves.
Pilgrim, Kitty. The Explorer’s Code. Scribner. Jul. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9781439197196. $26; eISBN 9781439197271.
Everyone wants to get in on the thriller-writing act, including CNN correspondent Pilgrim. At least her experiences abroad (among other honors, she’s won the Overseas Press Award) should give the routine ’round-the-world settings here some authenticity. When oceanographer Cordelia Stapleton receives a posthumous award for her great-great-grandfather, a famed polar explorer, she also discovers that she is heir to a missing land deed—which is being sought by a bunch of underground criminals as well. With rich and dashing archaeologist John Sinclair, she travels from Monaco (where the award was presented) to London, Paris, Ephesus, and Norway’s Arctic isles to track down the deed. Could be fun; watch.
Rutherford, Alex. A Kingdom Divided: Empire of the Moghul. Thomas Dunne Bk: St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 448p. ISBN 9780312597016. $25.99.
Writing pseudonymously, British science authors Diana and Michael Preston (Diana won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology for Before the Fallout) have crafted a thriller that reconstructs the life of Emperor Humayun, second emperor of the Mughals. Is his empire not yet solidified? Do his brothers threaten treason? But of course. This international best seller should appeal to those who like historical thrillers—or just plain historicals.
Simmons, Dan. Flashback. Reagan Arthur Bks: Little, Brown. Jul. 2011. 576p. ISBN 9780316006965. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio.
Flashback: it’s a drug that lets you relive your most blissful moments. Most Americans are addicted to it (to hell with society, which is collapsing all ’round), and because of it Det. Nick Bottoms has lost his job and his son. Unfortunately, he’s been wallowing in flashback since the death of his wife. Then he’s hired to investigate the murder of a political bigwig’s son, and he could just get the country back on track. A nicely different approach to the apocalyptic novel from the author of The Terror; try it.
Spiotta, Dana. Stone Arabia. Scribner. Jul. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9781451617962. $24; eISBN 978145167986.
A National Book Award finalist for Eat the Document, an account of the 1970s underground movement, Spiotta here tells a tale of two siblings who started out as kids in the Seventies and are still close—so close, in fact, that fragile artist Nic now shows his work only to protective sister Denise. And it’s only getting worse. Spiotta’s previous novel, Lightning Field, was challenging and edgy in a postmodernist sort of way. Can’t know how the next one will read, though I’d say it’s one to watch for your literary types.
Stevens, Chevy. Never Knowing. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9780312595685. $24.99.
Sometimes you must be really, really careful what you wish for. Sarah Gallagher wanted to find her birth parents—and discovered that her father was a serial killer who’s never been caught. Stevens’s debut, Still Missing , was a smash hit and especially popular with librarians. This next one has a one-day laydown on July 5, a reading group guide, and an extensive promotional campaign; definitely buy and consider multiples.
Towles, Amor. Rules of Civility. Viking. Jul. 2011 352p. ISBN 9780670022694. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Consider 1930s New York: the era fascinates, and this debut novel likely will, too. Starting on New Year’s Eve in Greenwich Village, smart, cool, and ambitious Katey Kontent makes a mad dash from the secretarial pool to New York high society and starts learning that it is her choices that matter. Less fairy tale than the sort of dry-eyed look at American social structure that James or Wharton might provide, this book seems set to recall a glamorous time and place just out of reach.
Tripp, Dawn. Game of Secrets. Random. Jul. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9781400061884. $25; eISBN 9780679604952.
The Scrabble game between Jane Weld and Ada Varick is no simple thing. Fifty years ago, Jane’s father disappeared, and his skull was subsequently discovered with a bullet hole in it. Rumor had it that he was murdered by the husband of his mistress—yes, Ada Varick. Now Jane wants the truth. With book club pitches, an NPR interview, and a New England tour; Tripp is not huge but is building nicely, so this is worth watching.
Verdon, John. Shut Your Eyes Tight. Crown. Jul. 2011. 240p. ISBN 9780307717894. $23; eISBN 9780307717917. Download: Random Audio.
Having made good on his first outing, Think of a Number (a USA Today best seller sold to 20 countries), Dave Guerney returns to fight crime again. He wanted to retire, but not a chance: a bride has been gruesomely murdered at her own wedding. Now things are getting murderous with his wife, too. Mystery readers should definitely consider.
Weiner, Jennifer. Then Came You. Atria: S. & S. Jul. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9781451617726. $26.99.
Certainly a hot topic: Princeton senior Jules Wildgren needs money to help her father clean up his addiction, working-class mom Annie Barrow needs money just to live, and India Bishop needs Jules’s eggs and Annie’s womb because she can’t conceive. Then India’s much older husband dies, leaving his daughter as guardian of the unborn babe. So what does it really mean to be a mom? A ten-city tour and book club materials; bound to do well.
Wickham, Madeleine. Forty Love. Thomas Dunne Bk: St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780312562755. $25.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
As their children entertain themselves, four couples settle on a sunlit terrace and score off one another in veiled but clearly competitive exchanges, each couple reaching for the top spot. Wickham does this sort of thing well, and as Shopaholic author Sophie Kinsella she does very well indeed. Definitely keep it in mind.
NONFICTION
Adams, Mark. Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time. Dutton. Jul. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780525952244. $26.95.
On July 24, 1911, Yale professor Hiram Bingham famously stumbled upon Machu Picchu while scaling the Andes. Later he was accused of stealing artifacts and, ultimately, of stealing credit for the find. To get to the truth of the matter, Adams, a travel magazine editor who had never actually slept in a tent, decided on an adventure of his own: he would reconstruct Bingham’s trip and reassess what Machu Picchu means today. Sounds like fun with some significant insight; for travel and history fans.
Arnold, Jennifer. In a Dog’s Heart. Spiegel & Grau. Jul. 2011. 240p. ISBN 9780679643715. $26. CD: Random Audio.
Stricken with multiple sclerosis at age 16, Arnold became involved with training service dogs and went on to found Canine Assistants, now acting as its executive director. In last summer’s Through a Dog’s Eyes, she explained her positive-reinforcement methods and profiled several heroic service dogs. Here she continues her story. Serious instruction with feel-good overtones.
Beasley, Sandra. Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. Crown. Jul. 2011. 240p. ISBN 9780307588111. $23; eISBN 9780307588135.
Kiss the birthday girl? Never! Beasley has had such severe allergies her whole life that the mere crumbs clinging to her friends’ sticky lips would have sent her to the hospital. Hence her mother’s warning, as seen in the title. Yet another poet trying out the memoir form, award winner Beasley (e.g., Barnard Women Poets) offers a cultural study of living the “allergic life” that could appeal to anyone with food allergies (up to 12 million Americans). With a readers’ guide.
Hoover, Margaret. Revamping the Right: American Individualism for a New Generation. Crown Forum. Jul. 2011. 272p. ISBN 9780307718150. $24.99; eISBN 9780307718174.
You’ll know Hoover as a Fox News analyst and Bill O’Reilly cultural warrior. So you won’t be surprised by her goal here: to introduce the Republican Party to the younger generation by rebranding it as a movement of individualism. Buy wherever Fox News burns up the airwaves.
Manso, Peter. Reasonable Doubt: The Fashion Writer, Cape Cod, and the Trial of Chris McCowen. Atria: S. & S. Jul. 2011. 416p. ISBN 9780743296663. $25.
It was big news when Christa Worthington was found murdered in her Cape Cod cottage in January 2002, her toddler clinging to her body. A fashion writer from a high-profile local family, she had returned home for the simpler life, only to have an affair with a local married fisherman. Several locals were suspects in the murder, and African American sanitation worker Chris McCowen was finally convicted in a questionable trial. Journalist Manso’s probing of the case so enraged the local DA that he indicted Manso. Good for all true-crime collections.
Reitman, Janet. Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion. Houghton Harcourt. Jul. 2011. 464p. ISBN 9780618883028. $28; eISBN 9780547549231.
A contributing editor to Rolling Stone, Reitman spent five years writing what she intends as a fair and balanced picture of Scientology. A single excerpt suggests that her tone is indeed evenhanded. There should be demand.
Trynka, Paul. David Bowie: Starman. Little, Brown. Jul. 2011. 480p. ISBN 9780316032254. $25.95.
Music journalist Trynka has already done Iggy Pop, so why not the Starman himself? He uses more than 300 fresh interviews to enliven the text. Buy wherever rock star bios glitter.
Weber, Katharine. The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family’s Legacy of Infidelities. Crown. Jul. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780307395887. $24; eISBN 9780307888594.
Weber isn’t just a novelist (e.g., Objects in the Mirror Are Closer); she’s an interesting receptacle of American history. Her grandmother was Kay Swift, the first woman to compose music for a Broadway hit and George Gershwin’s longtime lover, and her great-grandfather was Paul M. Warburg, creator of the Federal Reserve System and the model for Daddy Warbucks. Maybe not as huge as, say, Trynka’s David Bowie, but it sounds fascinating, and Weber certainly can write.
MY PICKS
Hart, John. Iron House. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Jul. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9780312380342. $25.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
I was to have introduced John Hartat a FOLUSA panel at the 2006 American Library Association conference in New Orleans. Alas, his flight was canceled, but I was glad to have read The King of Lies, which he would have introduced; it made a powerful impression. That book was an Edgar nominee for best first novel. Hart’s second novel, Down River, won an Edgar for best novel—as did his third, The Last Child, which became a New York Times best seller. So I think I am on safe ground when I say that this fourth work will be very, very good. The story features two orphaned brothers, one of whom escapes the orphanage after being accused of killing another boy. He doesn’t see his brother for 20 years, when he’s on the run from the crime world he initially embraced. With a one-day laydown on July 12, a national tour, and a reading group guide; consider multiples.
Roberts, David. Finding Everett Ruess: The Remarkable Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer. Broadway. Jul. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780307591760. $25; eISBN 9780307591784.
In 1930, 16-year-old Everett Ruess set out from California and traveled by horse and burro through Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado, maintaining a journal and bartering the exquisite artworks he created for goods. Then, in 1934, he disappeared. A contributing editor to National Geographic with 20 books to his credit, Roberts first probed the enduring mystery of Ruess’s disappearance in a 1999 story for the magazine, then again in 2009 when it appeared that Reuss’s remains had been found. (False alarm.) Ruess is such an enduring legend in the Southwest that annual “Everett Ruess Days” are held in Escalante, UT; there is even a species of dinosaur, Seitaad ruessi, named after him. Ruess is frequently compared to Christopher McCandless, whose story Jon Krakauer told in Into the Wild; Krakauer wrote the introduction here. An intriguing tale with lots of regional promotion; could break out into something big.
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