1996 Books of the Week
Vol.1 #2
Young Adult/Coming of Age/Contemporary/Missing
Teen Syndrome
Caroline B. Cooney
The Voice on the Radio
Delacorte Press 0385322135
Surprisingly enough, Cooney has been able to write another good story in the saga of Janie Johnson who found out in The Face on the Milk Carton that she was actually Jenny Spring who had been kidnapped as a toddler. I usually do not like sequels to bestselling novels as they generally seem to be just tacked on, a greedy attempt to make more money, but The Voice on the Radio does break new ground in this story that had seemed so wrapped up and finished in Whatever Happened to Janie?
Janie discovers that sometimes even the best of friends and most admirable of young men can slip up to devastating effect. Reeve Shields has finally gotten his chance to djay on the college radio station but his mind goes blank. To fill in the time he starts to tell the story of Janie, the story that has been cried out onto his shoulder, the story told to him by his beloved and vulnerable Janie. He knows it is wrong to betray her trust and to send out her most intimate feelings and fears over the airwaves to all and sundry but he just can't help himself. The adulation of the listeners won't let him stop but what if Janie finds out? What will it do to her? Cooney touchingly examines the issues of betrayal and finding love and forgiveness.
Other books that deal with the topic of identity/missing teens for young adults are Who is Eddie Leonard? by Harry Mazer and Sharing Susan by Eve Bunting. More are included in the forthcoming book Teen Genreflecting to be released in February of 1997.
Horror/ghosts/paranormal
Tim Powers
Expiration Date
Tor 0312860862
Expiration Date by a World Fantasy award winner is a beautifully layered exquisitely rendered story set in Los Angeles. The many characters start off in several different places but through their adventures and mishaps they end up converging on the eve of what could be the end of the world.
Kootie Paraganas, in a rare display of eleven year old rebellion, breaks his parent's bust of Dante finding a vial that contains the ghostly essence of a powerful old man (don't read the dustjacket if you don't want to prematurely learn the identity of the ghost). This sets in motion a deadly string of events bringing together a woman psychiatrist whose life has been devastated by ghosts, an orphaned electrician whose twin has just committed suicide, and a number of ghost eaters and ghosts who have not realized their status as the dead and still wonder the earth corporeally.
Expiration Date is the winner of the Locus Award for Dark Fantasy
Crime/Police Detectives/Black
Detectives/Organized Crime
Chicago Blues
Hugh Holton
Forge Tor 0312859848
Chicago Police Department veteran Holton writes of crime and violence in the Windy City. Commander Larry Cole is on the periphery of a chain of events that bind a multi-cultural family of ninja-like assassins to and Italian organized crime boss, the police, and FBI. The dead body count compares with those in Swartzenegger or Stallone action movies. All the bad guys get theirs but so do a good number of the good guys and sometimes it is hard to tell which camp a character belongs in.
This is the third in a series and the first two should be read first as Cole is only minimally sketched in. Holton does seem to have a lot of fun with his female characters one of whom is named Martha Grimes! Judy Daniels who is the self proclaimed Mistress of Disguise and High Priestess of Mayhem fits her own description. The pacing is breakneck with converging plotlines that tie the diverse characters together.
Young Adult/Contemporary/Incest/
Graphic Novel/Fantasy/Bestiary
Tale of One Bad Rat
Bryan Talbot
Dark Horse Books 1569710775
Go buy this book. It is the best graphic novel with a social conscience since Maus. The art work evolves with the story of Helen, a young women who finds homelessness is preferable to life with a sexually abusive father. Set in England, Helen is introduced in a tube station where she is the prey of weirdoes and criminals. After being befriended by some other homeless teens she moves into a squat with them. Her one true friend is her pet rat. After a tragedy Helen ends up in the area where Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated her beloved children's stories and finds new friends, a new life, a job, and faces her problems. Grittily realistic, The Tale of One Bad Rat, conveys the inner damage inflicted on Helen in a concise and empathetic manner. The illustrations really expand our view of her inner landscape.
Young Adult/Fantasy
Enchanter's Glass
Susan Whitcher
Harcourt Brace.... 0152012451
Phoebe falls into a river while skipping school one day and finds a mysterious hunk of glass that distorts her vision when she looks through it. It seems to draw her into a fantasy world where the mean neighbor is an evil sorcerer who captures people and locks them into glass globes. Definitely for the youngest end of the YA spectrum.
Young Adult/Fantasy/Short Stories/Humorous
Fantasy/Fairy Tales
Book of Enchantments
Patricia C. Wrede
Harcourt Brace 0152012559
Ten enchanting stories and a recipe by a master of humorous fantasy showcase a variety of settings and types. Wrede, who has written over a dozen well loved fantasy novels, is probably best know for her "Enchanted Forest Chronicles" a series set in a familiar but slightly twisted fairy tale realm. My favorite story in this collection (even though I liked every single one) "Utensile Strength" is the only one that is set in that same world. What do you do when a stranger turns up with a mysterious magical weapon called the Frying Pan of Doom? It was so laugh out loud funny that I had to read selected passages to everyone who came through the door that day. I had read "The Sixty-two Curses of Caliph Arenschadd" when it appeared in Michael Stearn's anthology A Wizard's Dozen but I had to read it again since it is so good. "Roses by Moonlight" is a sensitive story with a contemporary setting and a powerful, though not in the least bit preachy, message.
As an aside who could fail to note the recent trend to include recipes in mystery novels? I loved that when cooking was a part of "Utensile Strength" the recipe for "Quick After-Battle Triple Chocolate Cake" was included.
Women's Fiction/Romance/Humorous
Isabel's Bed
Elinor Lipman
Pocket 0671881604
I have been a fan of Elinor Lipman's since I read the pre-pub copy of Then She Found Me. With her newest effort she continues to more than satisfy. While she writes of urban folks in the East, she has the ability of creating a rapport with the reader much like Barbara Kingsolver and Judith Freeman who write in Western settings. I enthusiastically recommend this book!
Harriet, an aspiring novelist has just been dumped (and evicted) by her boyfriend of a dozen years, when she reads and ad for a ghostwriter--room and board included. She goes to the small town of Truro on Cape Cod where she becomes part of an eccentric household in a gorgeous modernistic mansion. The characters are so richly drawn that I want to jump on a plane, then a bus, then into a rental car and go up to the door and ring the bell. Isabel Klug, a former personal shopper was in bed with her lover when he was shot by his upper middle class wife. She now has an agent and needs to write a book about the events. Also living in the house are two rather interesting men. Surprises abound and even the most far out events happen in a believable and enjoyable way.
Historical Fiction/Nineteenth century/War of
1812
1812: A Novel
David Nevin
Forge 0312855109
This well researched novel that brings the historical personages to vibrant life tells in great detail the events of an era in American history that most know little of. Nevin charmingly portrays the romances between some of the most well known couples of the era. Even though there is great detail of battles and political strategies, Nevin attempts to bring James Madison and Andrew Jackson to three dimensional life by also writing about the relationships and women who contributed to making those men who they were. It seems that the old adage of "behind every great man is a woman" was kept in mind throughout the writing of this book.
This is the kind of book that inspired me to minor in history as an undergraduate. Readers of 1812 will be rewarded by adding to their knowledge of America's adolescence while at the same time enjoying a well crafted novel.
Romance/Suspense
Guilty As Sin
Tami Hoag
Bantam 0553099590
This sequel to Night Sins takes up where the first book ended but switches to different characters as the protagonists. Assistant County Attorney Ellen North is stalked by an unknown person while she works to prosecute the suspect arrested at the end of the last book. He life is complicated by facts surrounding the crime that come to light after the arrest and also by the arrival of handsome true crime writer Jay Butler Brooks.
Abundant suspense and romance make this an enthralling read but the reader is cautioned that the two books must be read in order to make sense of the story.
Young Adult/Historical Fiction/Colonial North
America/African-Americans
Hang a Thousand Trees With Ribbons: The
Story of Phillis Wheatley
Ann Rinaldi
Harcourt Brace 0152008772
Look for this book in October when it will be released. Rinaldi is back in fine form with the fascinating story of a young girl who is brought to America through the "Middle Passage," the horrifying journey many Africans took when they were stolen into slavery. She is purchased by an affluent and kind family who educate her. She becomes our first female African-American poet while yearning to be free.
Young Adult/Coming of Age/Mental Illness
Heart & Soul
Liz Rosenberg
Harcourt Brace 0152012702
This first novel by an award winning poet is the coming of age/struggle against depression tale of Willie Steinberg, a talented 17 year-old musician. She has left an expensive private high school for music students in Philadelphia mid-year to mope around the new family home in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother waits for her father who is always out on the road selling pharmaceuticals. Friendless and lonely, Willie drifts through the spring and summer until an old acquaintance from school invites her and Malachi Gelb to her fancy debutante party where they have an awful time but are led into epiphanies of their own.
Horror/Medical
Science Fiction/Bioengineering
Mount Dragon
Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Forge 0312860420
Preston and Child, the authors of Relic my favorite horror novel, have written an other totally engrossing book. In a super-secure lab in the middle of a New Mexico desert, an unexpected side effect of the genetic engineering that will eradicate the flu but cause permanent changes in the genetic makeup of the human race leads to a virus more deadly than Ebola. Meanwhile a strange madness is affecting some of the scientists at the facility. They throw in a little mystery and romance along with the heartpounding suspense for a terrific read. They have also done some good research into the history of the Hispano peoples of New Mexico and Colorado.
Crime/Women Detectives/Journalists
Horse of a Different Killer
Jody Jaffe
Fawcett Columbine 0449909972
Jody Jaffe's debut novel is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The worlds of horse showing and journalism are fascinating and believably depicted. Nattie Gold, the horse crazy fashion writer for the Commercial Appeal is a multi-dimensional sleuth who I look forward to seeing again. The Carolina settings rang true and while quite unlike the affectionate depictions by native sons Clyde Edgerton and Michael Malone, those authors were brought to mind. I enjoyed the foreshadowing of a romance that may bloom in subsequent books and the light flavoring of second sight.
Other books featuring female journalist detectives are Jan Burke's Irene Kelly series and Barbara D'Amato's Cat Marsala series.
Sample chapter from the Ballantine Books web site.
Crime/Women Detectives/Cookery
Killer Pancake
Diane Mott Davidson
Bantam 0553095889
The one drawback to reading Davidson's delicious mysteries are the delectable but hard on the waistline treats described therein along with the recipes for producing them. Fortunately in this outing the recipes are low fat. In Killer Pancake Goldy once again becomes embroiled in a murder case when Claire, the gorgeous cosmetics representative that Julien has fallen in love with is murdered during a low fat buffet Goldy is catering for the glitzy cosmetics company.
One of the pleasures of this series is the interaction of a continuing cast of characters including friends, a love interest, and family. Other mystery series that offer a continuing cast of characters are Orania Papazoglous's Patience McKenna series, Joan Hess's Claire Malloy series, and Carole Nelson Douglas's Midnight Louis series.
Sample chapter from Bantam Books site
Science Fiction/Alternate and
Parallel Worlds/ Hard Science-Mathematics /Psionic Powers
Panda Ray
Michael Kandel
Saint Martin's 0312143877
Christopher Zimmerman and his family are not
quite normal but are they mutants or aliens? When the ten year
old's outrageously detailed stories are reported to his mother in
a parent-teacher conference, a chain of events starts that will
lead to cataclysmic changes. His older sister Kaelin warns him
that he will be scooped, his omicron and epsilon powers will be
taken away from him leaving an empty shell, making him just like
a normal human being. Escaping with his grandfather in an
elaborately tiled bathroom, Christopher makes a journey through
the Seas of Is, If, Was, and Will Be. Readers who like this one
may also enjoy Hexwood by Diana Wynn Jones.
Historical Fiction/ Nineteenth century
Raising Holy Hell
Bruce Olds
Henry Holt 0805038566
Raising Holy Hell provides far more than I ever wanted to know about John Brown, Bloody Kansas, and Harper's Ferry told in a unique style from a huge range of viewpoints. History provides the plot and the characters; rabid abolitionist John Brown who wants to start a civil war, his wife, children, parents, and just about everyone who ever crossed his path. The style is more of a collage than a narrative with quotes from our nation's founding fathers, lists, poems, and interviews with the living and the dead. The descriptions of carnage are graphic and it makes a very good attempt at getting into the mind of a fanatic while also presenting a case against the abomination of slavery that incited him to action.
The radical terrorism of John Brown made its mark well over a century ago but perhaps his case can give us insight to the Unibomber, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Freemen of Montana.
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Young Adult/Fantasy/Psionic Powers/Ecology
The Walking Stones
Mollie Hunter
Harcourt Brace & Company 0152009957
This reissue of a 1970 book shares some themes in common with The China Garden and Walking the Labyrinth. It is the story of Donald who has been growing up in a lovely glen in the Scottish highlands. The Bodach, a wise old neighbor, foretells the coming of three men all named Rory who will bring great changes to the glen. The damming of the river through the glen will not only destroy their homes but may also interfere in an ancient ritual important to those with special talents.
Reminiscent of Tom Barron's The Ancient One in it's reverence for the ecology of an old and revered area, it is for the younger end of the Young Adult spectrum.
Romance/Historical/Regency/Short Stories
Lords and Ladies
Dorothea Donley
Jean R. Ewing
Paula Tanner Girard
Jenna Jones
Meg-Lynn Roberts
Marcy Stewart
Zebra 0821753231
Six tales of love in regency England showcasing the talents of six diverse and skilled writers. In Ewing's "Notorious Lord" a handsome and noble rake takes the identity of a gentleman and falls in love with the woman he set out to discourage, but she has surprises of her own. In Girard's "A Matter of Honor" a nobleman is secretly married to an Irish queen, so secretly that he doesn't even know!
Lords and Ladies is a pleasant way to sample the joys of regency romance.
Romance/Historical/Georgian/Erotic
Sinful
Susan Johnson
Bantam 0553293125
A virile hero with the redundant name Sinjin St. John finds life becoming very interesting when Chelsea Fergusson pleads with him to remove her virginity and save her from a marriage worse than death. Forced into a "shotgun" wedding, Sinjin and Chelsea find passion in London, Scotland, Italy, and a harem in North Africa along with a mutual love of horses and racing.
A delight for those who like their romances on the sizzling side of spicy.
Crime/Cop-Thriller
Sudden Prey
John Sandford
Putnam 0399141383
Tough, crazy white-trash escaped convict goes on a murderous rampage that can only be stopped by and equally tough and crazy but intelligent and intuitive cop. This sounds a lot like Dirty White Boys by Stephen Hunter but Sandford is more skilled at writing characters who are on the edge but that still have a little bit of humanity in them for the reader to connect with.
If you like gritty, gory, heartpounding, dramatic thrillers you will enjoy Sudden Prey. Two deadly women bank robbers are gunned down outside a credit union where one has just savagely killed a customer after a robbery. Dick LaChaise, brother of one and husband of the other, escapes from the funeral, and sets out on an eye-for-an-eye vendetta against the cops who were involved in the shoot-out at the credit union leaving terror and destruction in his wake.
Horror/Cosmic Paranoia/Monsters
Winter Moon
Dean Koontz
Ballantine 0345386108
Dean Koontz's books don't need any booktalking to be picked up and read. He is an accomplished storyteller, hooking the reader early on, giving her just enough play to invoke the imagination, and then reeling her in. There is a definite reason that his books are bestsellers and it is not attributable to marketing but to his talent. His novels are enjoyable by people who "hate" horror books.
Winter Moon is a seamless updating and "fix-up" of his short novel Invasion that was published in 1974 under the pseudonym Aaron Wolfe. LAPD cop Jack McGarvey is critically wounded in a senseless shoot-out. After months of struggle, as his family is about to succumb to debt and the crime ridden society of LA they find out they have an inheritance that will solve their problems but thrust them into danger greater than any they had ever imagined. Meanwhile, crusty old Eduardo Fernandez, discovers a strange phenomenon on his isolated Montana ranch. Could a malevolent entity be reaching through a breech in the time-space continuum or something else afoot?
Romance/Contemporary/Adventure
Waiting for You
Margot Early
Harlequin Superromance 0373706944
Margot Early has done it again. She has written a thrilling exciting romance with characters who are flawed and all too human at the same time as being fantastically better than life. As a teenager I looked for books that would elicit tears and then leave me with a good feeling afterwards. Waiting for You does that and more. If you enjoyed the movie Romancing the Stone you will enjoy this romance with lofty settings in Western Colorado and Andean Bolivia.
Dulcinea Choqueneira, pregnant and destitute turns up at her brother-in-law's medical clinic in a small Rocky Mountain town to tell him that his brother is dead and to beg him to end the curse that had plagued the Choqueneira family for two centuries causing the death of mother or baby in childbirth. Christopher Choqueneira, M.D., twin of her late husband and wealthy heir of a mining family whose flowing blond locks make him the Son-With-Hair-Like- who has been foretold as the only one who can break the ancient curse on his Kallawaya side of the family. A history and passion exists between Dulcinea and Chris creating massive tension. The details of Peruvian Paso Horses and herbal remedies of the Kallawaya offer an interesting background for the action packed trek through jungles, betrayals, and into love and healing.
Crime/Women Detectives/Amateur
Detectives/Human-and-Animal Teams/Genre Conventions
Romance/Suspense/
Cat in a Diamond Dazzle
Carole Nelson Douglas
Tor 0312860854
It is a mystery to me, of the size eleven feet and with a strong affinity for dogs, that I can fail to resist the allure of another mystery featuring that studly feline Midnight Louis and his sidekick, Miss Temple Barr, she of the size five tootsies and proclivity for high heels. Why, my Birkenstocks quake in disapproval. In this fifth outing, Temple decides to attend the G.R.O.W.L. convention with Electra Lark to escape the presence of both Matt Devine and Max Kinsella, the men who make her life interesting. The convention is for people involved in all aspects of the romance fiction industry, writers, fans, editors, and the cover hunks. The first morning of the conference Temple witnesses the on stage murder of Cheyenne, a gorgeous cover model hunk and Detective Molina asks her to help with the investigation. Temple's secondary case involves trying to find a hidden pair of crystal encrusted pumps complete with a picture of Midnight Louis on each.
Once again Nelson has written a thoroughly enthralling tale involving romance, cats, and people who make their living performing. Her stories are humorous but never silly even though the glitzy Las Vegas settings are ripe for parody. The development of the characters grows with each book as do the relationships between them. This is personally one of my favorite mystery series.
Science Fiction/Hard science
Higher Education
Charles Sheffield & Jerry Pournelle
Tor 0312861745
Once again, as in Firestar
, the sorry state of
educating youth in our country is the starting point for a near
future hard SF novel. In Higher Education sixteen
year old Rick Luban is kicked out of school after a prank played
on a new teacher goes awry. A kindly teacher who actually taught
him something talks to him after his expulsion and gives him a
card to take to Vanguard Mining in quest of a job. Surprisingly
he is hired and given a big bonus for his parents who would have
been angry at him losing them the additional welfare money for
having a student in school. He is whisked off to New Mexico for
strenuous testing and then into space for a trip to an asteroid
mining station for more training. Along the way he makes friends
and enemies, finds a lover, and discovers that he does have the
ability to solve problems as well as learning math and reading.
Higher Education is a simplistic but satisfying old fashioned space adventure.
Science Fiction/Bioengineering/Adventure
The Nature of Smoke
Anne Harris
Tor 031285286X
This interesting first effort is long on plot and short on characterization. Magnolia starts off as a potentially interesting person, growing up as poor white trash in an urban wasteland and suddenly ends up alone in an apartment having sex with a stranger who tries to kill her in a snuff telecast. She meets the incredibly wealthy Rahul who hires her as a personality template for his vat grown bio-robots in Tunis but she is diverted to Siberia by Kelira who saw in her in the telecast a resemblance to his long lost sister who was sold into prostitution to save his life when he was a child. In Siberia, on an estate owned by Rahul she falls in love with Cid, a woman who is working on chaos theory and viruses. Other residents of the house in Siberia include a female bio-robot and a genetic experiment gone wrong that is a deadly combination of man and sea monster. All in all, a debut worth reading. Harris has some interesting ideas and is a writer to watch.
Young Adult/Short Stories
Mothers and Other Strangers
Budge Wilson
Harcourt Brace 0152003126
A curious collection of stories dealing with characters of many different ages and stages in life. Most have an air of discovery and find the underpinnings of relationships. The Canadian settings and time periods cover a broad range in this century. Several of the stories deal with love but not in a romanticized way. Wilson is a terrific writer and the stories depict subtle nuances in mundane existence that transform the lives of the characters.
Fantasy/Magic/Magical Realism
Walking the Labyrinth
Lisa Goldstein
Tor 0312861753
Goldstein, who won the American Book Award for The Red Magician creates a world so real and inviting that the reader is compelled to keep going non-stop until the book is finished. A reviewer in The New Yorker wrote "She has given us the kind of magic and adventure that once upon a time made us look for secret panels in the walls of wardrobes, or brush our teeth with a book held in front of our eyes, because we couldn't bear to put it down." While that was written about Tourists, it is also true for Walking the Labyrinth. Goldstein has a rare and powerful gift for conveying truth through fantasy.
The world is our own and Molly Travers is an ordinary contemporary woman. That is until a private detective turns up with questions about her family. Molly, orphaned at age two was raised by her now elderly aunt Fentrice believing she is her only family. Discovering that she is descended from a family of Vaudeville magicians who may have come from England, she goes to investigate and finds a mystical labyrinth in the basement of the estate of a friend of her great-great grandmother's. Amongst murder, betrayal, new friendships, and discovery of long lost secret diaries and family members, Molly finds real magic and herself.
Readers of Walking the Labyrinth
may also enjoy The
China Garden by Liz Berry
which also deals with magic,
mazes, and unknown lost relatives.
Crime/Amateur Detectives/Women Detectives
77th Street Requiem
Wendy Hornsby
Dutton 0525939989
People involved with a documentary about the 20 year old unsolved murder of a cop start to die as independent filmmaker Maggie MacGowen delves into the mystery. Roy Frady had been, along with Maggie's lover Mike Flint, one of the bad boy hot-shot cops of the early 70s. Was his murder tied into his drinking and whoring or was it related in any way to 70s radicals who were hiding out in the precinct at the time?
This third entry in the Maggie MacGowen series stands well alone. Readers need not to have read the first two books in order to enjoy this one.
Crime/Private Detectives
Dead Folks' Blues
Steven Womack
Ballantine 0345376749
Journalist turned P.I. Harry James Denton is introduced in this Edgar Award winning mystery set in Nashville. His first client is Rachel Fletcher, a face from his past who hires him to in an attempt to extricate Conrad, her surgeon husband from the problems he has brought on with his excessive gambling. Conrad has already been murdered but is not quite dead when Harry is clobbered and falls onto his cooling body. Harry bumbles his way through the case with help from contacts he had made as a reporter.
This enjoyable read may appeal to readers who enjoy Robert B. Parker's Spencer series and R. R. Irvine's Moroni Traveler series. More than 150 private investigator detectives are listed in Genreflecting.
Crime/Women Detectives/Amateur Detectives
Busy Bodies
Joan Hess
Dutton 0525939105
Bookseller and busybody Claire Malloy is once again annoying her police detective lover by involving herself in solving a murder or two. Avant garde artist Zeno has moved into the house next door to Claire's elderly friend Miss Parchester disrupting the neighborhood and inspiring hate and discontent in his neighbors. The night of a big performance art spectacle, a neighbor is severely injured in an accident, Claire's teenage daughter is impounded at the animal shelter, and Zeno's house is torched and his wife murdered. Claire just can't keep herself from becoming involved.
Hess has a rare talent for writing witty page turners.
Romance/Contemporary
The Keeper
Margot Early
Harlequin 0373706685
When Grace left her life as a New York chef to return to Moab, Utah to see her ailing father she had no idea that her blissful marriage to Zac, the younger son of a British peer, would fall on rocky shoals. With Zac's insensitive query as to what her departure would do to his green card status, Grace felt she could do nothing but remain in Utah and run the family river rafting business after her father died on the operating table. The raging currents of tumultuous emotion roar to the front when Zac turns up more than a year later to perform in a movie being filmed on the river.
It is no surprise that The Keeper is a finalist for the Janet Daily Award. Early deals sensitively with a delicate social issue while skillfully depicting the West of today.
Crime/Underworld/Women
Requiem for a Glass Heart
David Lindsey
Doubleday 0385423128
Cate Cuevas, a widowed FBI agent goes undercover to become involved in plots within plots within counter plots in the murky but glamorous world of the highest echelons of international organized crime. Irena Ismaylova is one of the most accomplished assassins in that world but what great love is it that motivates her to kill? The convoluted twists and turns exposing deception upon deception keep the reader turning the pages. While neither one of the main characters is as captivating as Carmen de Palma in Lindsey's Mercy , they are both interesting women whose depths are gradually revealed.
Lindsey's books are not for the squeamish. They do have graphic violence and sex but the scenes are integral to the story and done well.
Crime/Women Detectives/Police Detectives
Bird in a Cage
Lee Martin
St. Martin's Press 0312130287
Deb Ralston of the Fort Worth Major Case Squad is out for a nice anniversary dinner with husband Harry when the acrobat, the "Bird in a Cage," who is the entertainment at the fancy restaurant where they are dining is murdered right before their eyes. The victim, Julia Sarana Gluck, is beloved by all who know her. Finding the motive is the central mystery which takes Deb into the world of circus performers and the extended families of flyers that have intermarried through the centuries.
Deb continues to delight in her eleventh outing even though, like a dear friend who has recently undergone a religious conversion, she tends to proselytize which makes me want to rush right out and read another Moroni Traveler (written by R.R. Irvine) mystery as an antidote. There are many women police detective sleuths including Eleanor Taylor Bland's Marti Macalister, Joan Hess's Arly Hanks, Lillian O'Donnell's Norah Mulcahaney, Dell Shannon's Delia Reardon, Julie Smith's Skip Langdon, and Charlene Weir's Susan Wren. Many more police detectives and women detectives are listed in Genreflecting.
Crime/Sleuthing Couples/Journalist
Detectives
Until the End of Time
Polly Whitney
0312131992 Television news show director Abby Abagnarro is mugged by Tex, a perfumed homeless man who knows him by name on the one night he doesn't roller blade to work. He and his ex-wife, producer Ike Tygart, become embroiled in a case involving a series of homeless men who are found dead with their faces painted yellow when a guest from their show is found dead shortly after leaving the studio in what looks like a copycat crime. Whitney puts all the clues out there giving the reader a fair chance of solving the mystery along with the sleuths who are a delightful pair depicted with affectionate humor. This is the second Ike and Abby mystery following Until Death.
Crime/Women Detectives/Journalist Detectives
Dear Irene,
Jan Burke (Interview)
Simon & Schuster 0671782169
In her third mystery, newspaper reporter Irene Kelly is designated as Cassandra by a serial killer who bills himself as Thanatos. He writes her letters foretelling his crimes with analogies to ancient mythology. Even living with fiancé Las Piernas Police Detective Frank Harriman cannot keep her safe. The Irene Kelly series never disappoints blending just the right measure of humor and romance with riveting suspense and richly textured descriptions of the character's relationships. This series provides the same type of enjoyment as Orania Papzoglou's Patience McKenna series.
Romance/Suspense
Crime/Women Detectives/Police Detectives
Night Sins
Tami Hoag
Bantam 055356451x
Tough as nails, Minnesota BCA Agent, Megan O'Malley arrives in Deer Lake as the first female ever sent out as a regional officer only to find that she has arrived at the same time an eight year old boy was kidnapped. The diabolical abductor taunts and teases the law enforcement officers as Megan succumbs to the charms of damaged hero, Police Chief Mitch Holt. The second book of the duology, Guilty As Sin, is also set in Deer Lake and deals with the aftermath of the crime.
Other authors who write hard to put down suspenseful thrillers with strong romantic themes are Karen Robards and Eileen Dreyer.
Science Fiction/Social Criticism/Hard
Science
Firestar
Michael Flynn
Tor 0312855257
This entertaining near future epic is compared by Harry Turtledove in a cover blurb to Robert A. Heinlein's tales of the near future. Like Heinlein, Flynn uses his story to decry some of the wrongs he sees in the world and to present possible cures including reaching out to space travel to insure a future. The main character is the incredibly wealthy business woman Mariesa van Huyten whose fear of meteors drives her to develop technologies and training plans to take humanity from elementary school to space. A large supporting cast of characters includes everyone from a high school poet to a daredevil test pilot and even to a butler!
Crime/Women Detectives/Ecclesiastical
Detectives
A Vow of Obedience
Veronica Black
Saint Martin's Press 0312105738
After spending time at her order's retreat in Scotland, Sister Joan has just returned to her convent, tucked cozily into the Bodmin moor, only to find the body of a young woman dressed in a wedding gown and tucked into the closet of the recently closed school. A serial killer is on the loose, targeting virtuous Catholic girls and Sister Joan, trying to work within the confines of her vows, is out to stop the killer.
I found the Cornish setting of interest because of past acquaintance through Winston Graham's Poldark saga and Catherine Cookson's novels. Other mysteries featuring nuns as sleuths include the Sister Mary Helen series by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, the Sister Maria Teresa Dempster series by Monica Quill, and the Sister Cecile series by Winona Sullivan.