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From Publishers Weekly: Three lives viewed through a kaleidoscope of memories and secret pain assume a kind of mythical dimension in Chaon's piercingly poignant tale of fate, chance and search for redemption. As he demonstrated in his short story collection Among the Missing, Chaon has a sensitive radar for the daily routines of people striving to escape the margins of poverty and establish meaningful lives. Here, a woman's unsuccessful effort to rise above the pain of giving away an illegitimate baby, and to fight against mental illness and offer love to a second child, blights all their lives. Living with his harsh and bitter mother, Norma, and his kindly grandfather in Little Bow, S.Dak., young Jonah Doyle is permanently scarred after the family's Doberman attacks and maims him. The resulting livid ridges on his face are the outward manifestations of a deeper wound that will always haunt him. After his mother's suicide, Jonah sets out to find the older brother he has never met, and in the process, brings them both to the verge of tragedy. Jonah's older sibling is Troy Timmens, a well-meaning bartender and sometime drug dealer in St. Bonaventure, Nebr., who is devoted to his six-year-old son, Loomis. The boy will play a pivotal part in Jonah's quixotic attempts to win Troy's love. Chaon structures his plot in alternating flashbacks, and the fragmentary time structure forces the reader to puzzle out the relationships and contributes to rising dramatic tension. Chaon's clarity of observation, expressed in restrained, nuanced prose, coupled with his compassion for his flawed characters, creates a heart-wrenching story of people searching for connection. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal: This first novel focuses on the disparate lives of a fragmented family as they struggle with the harsh realities of poverty, depression, and dysfunction. The story opens with Jonah, a troubled, self-involved boy in a small South Dakota town. Raised by a depressed and suicidal mother who never wanted him, he survives an attack from the family's Doberman only to be severely scarred on his face and hands. Jonah develops into a lonely and isolated man who tries to make connections with anyone willing to befriend him, only to push others away by eventually demanding more than they want to give. Driven by his need for acceptance, Jonah seeks out an older half brother who was given up for adoption at birth. Troy, a bartender and occasional marijuana dealer, has difficulties of his own: shortly after the disappearance of his wife, he is arrested and placed on probation and house arrest for drug dealing. He struggles to regain custody of his son, Loomis, a strangely intelligent and watchful boy, from his uncooperative mother-in-law and has little time for the hopeful Jonah. In what he intends as a gesture of brotherly friendship, Jonah kidnaps Loomis, meaning to take the boy to Troy. This desperate act ultimately leads to the dramatic yet real conclusion. A series of tightly interwoven flashbacks; deft handling of structure; and simple, precise language transform these characters' lives into a story that is highly readable, thought-provoking, and profoundly moving.–Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire
Authors: Elrod, P. N. / Fabian, Stephen / Caldwell, Clyde
ISBN: 1-56076-670-0
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Pages: 309
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Published: September 1993
Condition:
Price: USD $2.29
From Publishers Weekly: The third entry in TSR/Ravenloft's "open-ended series of Gothic horror tales," this is a chilling, dark fantasy again featuring powerful vampire Count Strahd Von Zarovich. Strahd relates how he conquered the realm of Barovia, and how he became a vampire to win the love of his brother's wife, Tatyana. He tells of fratricide, suicide, treachery and a horrible curse connected to his beloved Tatyana. While this volume follows Vampire of the Mists (by Christie Golden) and Knight of the Black Rose (by James Lowder), the narrative's events seem to pre-date those of Golden's story. Although certain events and characters are depicted differently in all three novels, this is not a failing, necessarily, if readers keep in mind that this book is part of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons gaming world, in which each session at the gameboard produces varying scenarios. Elrod's strong prose and excellent pacing are not diminished by being confined to the boundaries of a pre-established universe. Though this novel lacks the baroque sensuality of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire or the streetwise humor of the author's own The Vampire Files , it is an exciting and original vampire tale. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description: ...Some of the parchment pages were the color of cream, thick and substantial, made to last many, many lifetimes. Other pages were thin and desiccated, positively yellow from age, and crackled alarmingly as Van Richten turned them over. There were no ornate illuminations, no fussy borders, only lines of plain text in hard black ink. The flowing handwriting was a bit difficult to follow at first; the writer's style of calligraphy had not been in common use for three hundred years. No table of contents, but from the dates it looked to be some kind of history. He turned to the first page and read: I, Strahd, Lord of Barovia, well aware certain events of my reign have been desperately misunderstood by those who are better at garbling history than recording it, hereby set down an exact record of those events, that the truth may at last be known . . . . He caught his breath. By all the good gods, a personal journal?
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Basket Case
Author: Hiaasen, Carl
ISBN: 0-375-41107-0
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Pages: 317
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Published: January 2, 2002
Condition:
Price: USD $2.69
Amazon.com: Take one dead rock & roll star, his Courtney Love-type widow, the mysterious deaths of his former bandmates, and the lost tracks of a comeback album. Stir in Jack Tagger, a middle-aged investigative reporter obsessed with death since his banishment to the obit desk; a fetching young editor with a yen for our hero; and a boss looking for a reason to fire him. Put them in the hands of a master like Carl Hiaasen, who adds his trademark flourishes (who else would use a frozen lizard as a weapon?) to a creaky plot like this one, and the result is a winner. Florida is full of caper writers with journalistic credentials, and plenty of them have a deft hand with quirky characters, but no one in the genre is better than Hiaasen. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly: Hiassen gets back to his roots with this (almost) straight-ahead mystery, but doesn't skimp on the funny stuff as he follows the adventures of Jack Tagger, down-on-his-luck journalist relegated to the obit beat at a smalltown Florida daily. While researching a death notice, Jack stumbles by accident upon an actual news story: former rocker Jimmy Stoma has drowned while diving in the Bahamas, and his widow, wannabe star Cleo Rio, can't convince Jack that his death was accidental. The mystery offers Jack a way out of his job-related death fixation ("It's an occupational hazard for obituary writers memorizing the ages at which famous people have expired, and compulsively employing such trivia to track the arc of one's own life") and toward his increasingly lusty feelings for Emma, his 27-year-old editor (" `Bring whipped cream,' I tell her, `and an English saddle' "). But when things turn violent and Jack suddenly has to defend himself with a giant frozen lizard, he enlists the help of his sportswriter friend Juan Rodriguez and teenage club scene veteran Carla Candilla to try to find out why someone is killing off has-been sleaze rockers. A hilarious sendup of exotic Floridian fauna in the newspaper business, the novel offers all the same treats Hiassen's fans have come to crave. What makes this book different is its first-person, present-tense narrative style. Unlike previous capers, which were narrated in the omniscient third person, this book settles squarely in the mystery genre from whence Hiaasen's fame (Double Whammy; Tourist Season, etc.) initially sprang. Despite the absence of perennial Hiaasen favorite Skink, this should make an easy job for Knopf's sales force even easier. (Jan. 9)Forecast: A 22-city author tour, a drive-time radio tour and national print and television advertising are all in the works for Basket Case. With first serial going to Rolling Stone and a 300,000-copy first printing, this looks like another bestselling sure bet for the Florida funnyman. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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The King of Kings County
Author: Terrell, Whitney
ISBN: 0-670-03425-8
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Pages: 361
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Published: August 22, 2005
Condition:
Price: USD $2.69
From The Washington Post's Book World: Of course, if you're interested in buying real estate, you're too late (or too early). Whether we're in the final moments before a calamitous drop or merely, as Alan Greenspan put it, enduring a little "froth," the housing market is insane. I know this because I'm clinging to the shiny skin of the real estate bubble, and the view from here is breathtaking. This spring my wife and I bought a little house in Bethesda over the Internet without seeing it first. We bid $30,000 over the asking price and waived the right to inspect it. Despite this loony bit of financial irresponsibility, everybody regularly congratulates us on "getting in." A far safer investment can be found in America's steady supply of good real estate novels. It's hard to go wrong in a neighborhood that includes Richard Ford's Independence Day, Steven Millhauser's Martin Dressler, Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full and Jane Smiley's Good Faith. The latest offering to come up for sale is Whitney Terrell's The King of Kings County, which blends the history of America's suburban development with a boy's moral critique of his fast-talking father. The story opens in 1956 in Kansas City, Mo., where Alton Acheson dreams of following the path of Tom Durant, a 19th-century railroad tycoon. Part Harold Hill, part Willy Loman, Acheson pores over the details of Durant's crooked life, convinced he can create a similar real estate empire by anticipating the arrival of the federal highway system, that great river of concrete that flowed over America, creating, destroying and remaking cities everywhere. "It's going to be the biggest land grab since Tom Durant stole half of Iowa for the Union Pacific," he announces, "and I'd like to run it." The only problem is that Acheson has nothing to invest except an oversupply of confidence. His plan rests on winning the financial backing of an imperial gentleman named Prudential Bowen, who single-handedly built and continues to control the city's central shopping complex and residential neighborhoods. Once he wins that break, Acheson implements a shameless scheme that involves tempting and intimidating poor farmers out of their land, acreage he knows will soar in value with the interstate's arrival. When Bowen makes it clear that he has no intention of tolerating a rival baron, Acheson switches tactics and begins a cynical program of racial fear-mongering to ignite white flight, creating bargains in town and windfalls in the county. Terrell brilliantly dramatizes the confluence of federal funding, state zoning, racial tensions, family ideals and local shenanigans that created the places in which most of us live and work. But what gives the book its moral complexity is the narrator, Acheson's son, Jack, who recalls these events with smoldering irony from a distance of 20 years. Even as a child, Jack sensed something troubling about his father's gassy enthusiasm, his slick appearance. "My father was the kind of man who, the less he knew about something, the more decisive his actions would be," Jack says. "If you looked at him from a distance, you would get the feeling he was posing for a photo shoot, an exposé on the good life, there in his starched peach shirt and his suspenders, and his hair swept back from his face." But what really bothered him was being used as a prop in his father's dubious schemes with men who saw through him. "It wasn't an easy business for a kid who was easily embarrassed. As much as I wanted to help my father, I dreaded the moments when these men smelled out our act and forced him to order drinks, then watched through slitted eyes as he acted surprised to find his wallet empty. I hated being poked and prodded like Charlie McCarthy at his side -- enough so that I began to evaporate at lunchtime, drifting off to the public tennis courts." When his long-suffering mother tells him, "There's a lot of kids who'd feel lucky to eat with their dad," Jack fires back, "We don't eat."
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Cold Mountain
Author: Frazier, Charles
ISBN: 1-4000-7782-6
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Pages: 449
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Published: November 25, 2003
Condition:
Price: USD $1.99
Amazon.com: The tale chronicles a Confederate army deserter's search for home and love in the last days of the Civil War. -This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Grand Jury
Author: Friedman, Philip
ISBN: 1-55611-456-7
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Pages: 595
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Published: May 10, 1996
Condition:
Price: USD $2.29
From Library Journal: Completing the trilogy begun with the well-received Reasonable Doubt (Donald I. Fine, 1990) and Inadmissible Evidence (Donald I. Fine, 1992), Grand Jury explores the secret workings of New York City's pretrial testing ground. An elderly Chinese couple is arrested for narcotics trafficking. One grand juror, herself part Chinese and oddly sympathetic to the pair, smells a rat. She inveigles another juror, a computer jock captivated by her beauty, into traveling with her to Asia, where love blooms. Back home, though, the local corruption squad has smelled the same rat, and the chase is on. And on and on. Having done prodigious research on these topics, Friedman lays them out in all their complexity, which makes it difficult for him to sustain the expected pace of an action thriller. But he is a strong, declarative writer, offering quick-fire dialog and appealing characters. His settings are gritty and realistic, though the sex and violence are muted by a considerate pen. Any library with a Friedman following will want to complete the set, and every collection stocking up for vacation reading should consider. Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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A Place Called Rainwater
Author: Garlock, Dorothy
ISBN: 0-446-52950-8
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Pages: 406
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Warner Books
Published: January 6, 2003
Condition:
Price: USD $2.69
From Publishers Weekly: The Midwest in the 1920s is the setting for this romantic melodrama featuring the spunky, independent little sister of Julie Jones, the heroine of another Garlock novel, The Edge of Town. Jill Jones has recently come from Missouri to the boomtown of Rainwater, Okla., to help her ailing Aunt Justine run her hotel, a former house of ill repute. Shortly after her arrival, her flirtatious childhood friend and self-appointed protector, Thad Taylor, shows up and sweet-talks his way into a job. He is wary of the attention Jill is receiving from some of the other men in town, including Hunter Westfall, a womanizing oil tycoon, and Lloyd Madison, a creepy lawyer with "the mark of the devil" on his face and a longstanding vendetta against Justine. There are scads of supporting characters, including Radna, Justine's devoted mixed-race housekeeper, and Laura Hopper, an attractive young widow who catches Westfall's eye. Things turn grim when Thad and Jill discover the remains of a badly mutilated young woman buried in the sand. The detailed depiction of the Oklahoma oil town lends an air of authenticity, as does the colorful (if at times overdone) period slang. Garlock is most entertaining when she focuses on the love affairs percolating among the cast members, but the murder-mystery subplot feels out of place and the identity of the killer is obvious from the beginning. Overproduction may be cramping Garlock's style-her last novel, High on a Hill, came out in June of this year. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist: Garlock secures her standing as the premier writer of Americana romance with her third book featuring the Jones family and friends. Jill has traveled to the rough and tumble oil-boom town of Rainwater, Oklahoma, to help her ailing aunt by managing her hotel, the only one in town. Thad Taylor, who years earlier had saved Jill from a serial rapist (The Edge of Town [BKL Ap 15 01]) turns up, sent ahead of her brother Joe to keep an eye on her until he can arrive. When out walking, Thad and Jill find a severed arm that turns out to belong to a young woman who has been murdered and dismembered. Garlock provides top-notch, edge-of-the-seat suspense as an evil predator stalks Aunt Justine and imperils Jill and everyone connected with the hotel. "Jelly" Bryce, the FBI's most famous real-life sharpshooter, plays a role in this Prohibition-era tale of romantic suspense that features three well-developed love relationships and an authentic feel for the time. Diana Tixier Herald Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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The Midnight Hour
Author: Robards, Karen
ISBN: 0-385-31971-1
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Pages: 359
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: January 12, 1999
Condition:
Price: USD $2.49
From Publishers Weekly: For Grace Hart, single mother and Juvenile and Domestic Court Judge, it's never a problem sorting out other families' affairs, but when her own 15-year-old daughter, Jessica?recently diagnosed with diabetes and unable to come to terms with her disease?begins sneaking out at night, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and running with a fast crowd, it's a different story. Enter Detective Tony Marino, on the night that one of Jessica's sneak-outs coincides with a stalker breaking into the Hart home in suburban Ohio. Despite the fact that Grace and Tony initially antagonize each other, before long he moves in with the Harts to help defend them from the still-at-large stalker. Formulaic plotting puts a decided damper on any surprises that might be derived from the love story. The characters must convince a skeptical police force that the stalker's manifestations?messages on mirrors, stolen teddy bears, a dead hamster?are more than harmless pranks. Such material might prove credibly spooky coming from a King or a Koontz, but in the hands of Robard (The Senator's Wife) the chills are nearly nil. With its conventional characters, a frothy "angel" motif and a predictable feel-good ending, this book makes for very light suspense-reading, despite steamy romantic scenes and a plot that manages to casually involve working-parenthood, adoption, criminal teens and an ineffective justice system. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal: In this latest work from a popular romance writer, Judge Grace Hart teams up with Detective Tony Marino to stop the stalker threatening both her and her daughter. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Colder Than Ice
Author: Shayne, Maggie
ISBN: 0-7394-4724-6
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Pages: 392
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2004
Condition:
Price: USD $2.99
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Journey
Author: Steel, Danielle
ISBN: 0-385-31687-9
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Pages: 323
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: October 31, 2000
Condition:
Price: USD $2.29
Amazon.com: It's amazing to think that Journey is Danielle Steel's 50th novel. What's even more amazing is the high standard she has maintained throughout all her books: when an author is this prolific, there is usually a falling off in inspiration, but Steel seems able to add new elements to each book that keep the level of invention fresh. Journey uses elements familiar from earlier Steel bestsellers, but manages a totally novel spin on the private problems of a very public marriage. Madeleine and Jack Hunter are one of Washington's glittering couples. Jack is the head of a TV network, while Maddy is an award-winning anchorwoman. All around, people regard them as a golden couple: he advising the president on media issues, she at the top of the tree in her profession. Needless to say, the relationship we are shown behind the closed doors of their lavish Georgetown home is far more troubled than the public could ever know. As Maddy enjoys more and more career success, Jack's resentment and desire for control grow daily, and her life becomes hell in this fracturing marriage. Steel manages, as always, to convey character in concise paragraphs: The diamond studs and her eight-carat engagement ring were her prize possessions. Not bad for a kid from a trailer park in Chattanooga, she often admitted to him, and he called her "poor white trash" when he wanted to really tease her. It was obvious that he thought calling her that was funny... When Maddy joins the president's wife in the latter's newly formed commission on violence against women, the grim stories she hears from other terrified wives start her on a journey which will help her break the cycle of fear she is living through. Steel makes this situation resonate with a strong emotional impact, and the dark marriage is painted with the kind of skill we have come to expect from her. When Bill Alexander, a high-flying scholar and diplomat, enters the narrative and realizes what is happening in Maddy's marriage, the story is taken to a powerful new level, with their growing affection treated intelligently and sympathetically. --Barry Forshaw
From Publishers Weekly: Marital abuse in its most insidious form is the focus of Steel's (The House on Hope Street, etc.) dependable page-turner, her 50th novel. To the outside world, Washington, D.C., television coanchor Maddy Hunter appears to have an enviable life. Married to her boss, former football star-cum-media mogul Jack Hunter, she's got brains, beauty, a prestigious job, a glamorous marriage and all the trappings of success. Yet MaddyAwhose current husband saved her from a physically abusive former spouseAis trapped in another relationship that's as devastating and destructive as her first. Jack doesn't hit Maddy, but he subjects her to mind games, put-downs and constant undermining; it's obvious psychological abuse to observers, though not to Maddy. Using Maddy's participation in a commission on violence against women chaired by the nation's First Lady, Steel explicates the various forms of spousal abuse, and although the text occasionally gets preachy, the desperate plight of women who remain in destructive situations is clearly delineated. Meanwhile, Maddy warily builds a friendship with Bill Alexander, a fellow committee member and former ambassador to Colombia whose wife was killed by kidnappers. Maddy's experience interacting with women like herself and the appearance of a daughter she gave up for adoption as an unwed teenager (and whom Jack forbids her to see) both have an impact. Still, it takes a life-threatening event to convince her finally to change her life and accept the gift of a good man's love. Steel has her formula down pat, and she executes her story with her usual smooth pacing. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Night Fall
Author: DeMille, Nelson
ISBN: 0-446-57663-8
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Pages: 488
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: November 22, 2004
Condition:
Price: USD $2.29
Amazon.com: John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective, assigned to the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force in the pre-millennium 90's, makes a return appearance in a thoughtful novel offering an alternative to the government's "official" position on what really happened to TWA Flight 800, which crashed off the Long Island coast in the summer of 1996. Accompanying his wife Kate to a memorial marking the five-year anniversary of the crash, Corey's curiosity is aroused by what appears to be a concerted effort by Kate's fellow federal agents to keep him--and her--from investigating a case that appears to be closed. Corey's detecting skills lead him to two witnesses to the crash, who were enjoying an adulterous interlude on the beach at the time the plane went down--and videotaping their sexual escapades while what appears to be a terrorist missile attack takes place in the background. What ratchets up the tension in this capably written thriller is what the reader knows but Corey doesn't as he heads for a showdown with those responsible for the official cover-up as the clock ticks down to the morning of September 11, 2001. DeMille's deft touch with a riddle wrapped in an enigma--what really happened to Flight 800--makes his "what if" scenario a more than plausible theory; you don't have to believe in conspiracies or government cover-ups to find his latest engrossing, entertaining, and enlightening.
Jane Adams
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To Have and Have Not
Author: Hemingway, Ernest
ISBN: 0-684-81898-1
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Pages: 262
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Scribner
Published: March 20, 1996
Condition:
Price: USD $2.49
Amazon.com: First things first: readers coming to To Have and Have Not after seeing the Bogart/Bacall film should be forewarned that about the only thing the two have in common is the title. The movie concerns a brave fishing-boat captain in World War II-era Martinique who aids the French Resistance, battles the Nazis, and gets the girl in the end. The novel concerns a broke fishing-boat captain who agrees to carry contraband between Cuba and Florida in order to feed his wife and daughters. Of the two, the novel is by far the darker, more complex work. The first time we meet Harry Morgan, he is sitting in a Havana bar watching a gun battle raging out in the street. After seeing a Cuban get his head blown off with a Luger, Morgan reacts with typical Hemingway understatement: "I took a quick one out of the first bottle I saw open and I couldn't tell you yet what it was. The whole thing made me feel pretty bad." Still feeling bad, Harry heads out in his boat on a charter fishing expedition for which he is later stiffed by the client. With not even enough money to fill his gas tanks, he is forced to agree to smuggle some illegal Chinese for the mysterious Mr. Sing. From there it's just a small step to carrying liquor--a disastrous run that ends when Harry loses an arm and his boat. Once Harry gets mixed up in the brewing Cuban revolution, however, even those losses seem small compared to what's at stake now: his very life. Hemingway tells most of this story in the third person, but, significantly, he brackets the whole with a section at the beginning told from Harry's perspective and a short, heart-wrenching chapter at the end narrated by his wife, Marie. In between there is adventure, danger, betrayal, and death, but this novel begins and ends with the tough and tender portrait of a man who plays the cards that are dealt him with courage and dignity, long after hope is gone. --Alix Wilber
From Library Journal: It's not often that this column gets to cite something by a truly classic author, but here it is: Hemingway's last work, written after he returned from his 1953 safari and edited by his son, Patrick, in time for this July's centennial celebration. Hemingway even stars in this "fictional memoir," running the safari camp in the absence of friend and lead hunter Pop even as hostile tribes gather to attack. But he still has time to sneak in an affair with an African girl. Along with this work, Scribner will publish three new hardcover editions of Hemingway classics: The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (ISBN 0-684-86221-2. $25), Death in the Afternoon (ISBN 0-684-85922-X. $35), and To Have and Have Not (ISBN 0-684-85923-8. $25). Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Skinny Dip
Author: Hiaasen, Carl
ISBN: 0-446-69556-4
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Pages: 355
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: June 2, 2005
Condition:
Price: USD $2.29
Amazon.com: Charles "Chaz" Perrone fancies himself a take-charge kind of guy. So when this "biologist by default" suspects that his curvaceous wife, Joey, has stumbled onto a profitable pollution scam he's running on behalf of Florida agribusiness mogul Red Hammernut, he sets out right away to solve the problem--by heaving Joey off the deck of a luxury cruise liner and into the Atlantic Ocean, far from Key West. But--whoops!--Joey, a former swimming champ, doesn't drown. Instead, as Carl Hiaasen tells in his 10th adult novel, Skinny Dip, she makes her way back to shore, thanks both to a wayward bale of Jamaican marijuana and lonerish ex-cop Mick Stranahan (Skin Tight, 1989), and then launches a bogus blackmail campaign that's guaranteed to drive her lazy, libidinous hubby into a self-protective frenzy. You've got to hand it to Hiaasen: He's perfected a formula for crisply written, satirical crime fiction that makes the best use of imaginatively repulsive villains, as well as less thoroughly venal scoundrels and victims who ultimately overcome their antagonists, all while stumping for the preservation of Florida's environment, particularly the Everglades. In Skinny Dip, we find Chaz (who'd rather be golfing than puttering around the "hot, buggy, funky-smelling and treacherous" reaches of nature) falsifying water samples to help Hammernut turn the 'Glades into "God's septic tank." That scheme, though, is endangered not just by Joey's sudden disappearance, but by the suspicions of a python-loving police detective and Chaz's own outstanding inability to tame his Viagra-enhanced tumescence. Even by assigning Chaz a baby-sitter--the hulking, hirsute, and painkiller-addicted Tool--Hammernut can't keep his pet biologist out of trouble. As Joey and Stranahan unfold their revenge plot, and Tool's conscience grows in competition with Chaz's ego, the reader can only marvel at the extent of the train wreck ahead. As much fun as Hiaasen has delivering Chaz his climactic comeuppance, what's missing from Skinny Dip is a more complex, more credible development of Mick Stranahan's character and the relationship he builds with the much younger Joey Perrone. Like Erin Grant, from Strip Tease, Joey has far more going for her than her bra-cup size; but "hero" Stranahan is of far less interest here than any of his fellow players. --J. Kingston Pierce
From Publishers Weekly: Hiaasen's signature mix of hilariously over-the-top villains, lovable innocents and righteous indignation at what mankind has done to his beloved Florida wilderness is all present in riotous abundance in his latest. It begins with attractive heiress Joey Perrone being tossed overboard from a cruise ship by her larcenous husband, Chaz--not for her money, which she has had the good sense to keep well away from him, but because he fears she is onto his crooked dealings with a ruthless tycoon who is poisoning the Everglades. But instead of drowning as she's supposed to, Joey stays afloat until she is rescued by moody ex-cop Mick Stranahan, a loner who has also struck out in the marriage department. Then the two together, with the unwitting aid of a suspicious cop who can't pin the attempted murder on Chaz, hatch a sadistic plot to scare that "maggot" out of what little wit he has. Even Tool, a hulking brute sent by the tycoon to keep an eye on Chaz, eventually turns against him, and much of the fun is in watching the deplorable Chaz flounder further and further in the murk, both literally and figuratively (Chaz's job, as the world's unlikeliest marine biologist, involves falsifying water pollution levels for the tycoon). Hiaasen's books are so enjoyable it's always a sad moment when they end. In this case, however, sadness is mixed with puzzlement because the book seems to end in mid-scene, with Chaz in trouble again--but is it terminal? We thought at first there were some pages missing, but Knopf says that was the ending Hiaasen intended. Odd. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
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The Eyes of the Dragon
Author: King, Stephen / Palladini, David (Illustrator)
ISBN: 0-670-81458-X
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Pages: 326
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Published: February 2, 1987
Condition:
Price: USD $2.69
Amazon.com: A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must do battle for the throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of Good to fight for what is rightfully his. This is a masterpiece of classic dragons-and-magic fantasy that only Stephen King could have written!
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Carolina Moon
Author: Roberts, Nora
ISBN: 0-399-14592-3
| Pages: 438
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Published: March 6, 2000
Condition:
Price: USD $2.49
Amazon.com: With its blend of evil killers, handsome heroes, and feisty, sensitive heroines, Nora Roberts's latest thriller meets the same standards of terror and romance that made last year's River's End a bestseller. This time, our heroine Tory Bodeen has returned to her hometown of Progress, South Carolina, to face the fearsome memories of her childhood friend Hope's death and rebuild her life in a town that once betrayed her. Struggling to balance the disturbing recollections, Tory finds comfort in the arms of Hope's older brother, Cade Lavelle. Though she sets about developing relationships with old friends and establishing her own business, Tory's worst fears come true and her past catches up to her: Tory's unique role in Hope's death makes her not only the focus of the Lavelle family's hatred, but the next choice for Hope's killer, who is still at large. With the same skills that earned her the honor of being the first Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame inductee, Roberts weaves a winning blend of mystery, terror, and romance that loyal followers and new fans will enjoy immensely. Sure to be another bestseller, Carolina Moon will keep your heart beating in triple time. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien
From Publishers Weekly: Doyenne of the bestseller lists, Roberts (River's End) may have achieved her personal best in this tense Southern gothic. As atmospheric and unsettling as a Tennessee Williams play, the story takes us into the gifted mind and troubled soul of visionary Tory Bodeen, whose childhood in Progress, S.C., was marked by her father's beatings, her mother's passivity and, when she was eight, the rape and strangulation of her best friend, Hope Lavelle. Now 26, still haunted by Hope's unsolved murder and memories of an unsettling experience in New York City, to which she fled at age 18, Tory returns to Progress after a quiet four-year stint in Charleston. Although profoundly ambivalent about her psychic ability to connect with other minds, she knows she'll never find peace until she uses her unsettling skill to find the murderer. And by opening a shop full of beautiful objects, she wants to show Progress that she's more than the bruised spawn of despicable Hannibal and Sarabeth Bodeen. She doesn't reckon on being swept off her feet by Hope's older brother, Cade, or by making an enemy and then a fine friend of Hope's twin, Faith. Nor could she have imagined that she would stumble on a chain of past murders seemingly linked to Hope's death. The mystery heats up as a wave of new murders sweeps Progress, but the increasingly intricate plot developments never overwhelm the human element. Roberts--again like Williams- seems disgusted only by unkindness; she treats most of her big cast with affection and compassion for their foibles. Cade doesn't yield an inch to his mother's snobbish contempt for Tory, and the complicated Tory is allowed to hate her own mother and wish her father a painful death: there are no saccharine reconciliations here. Even when a few over-the-top sex scenes and hackneyed phrasings slip in, Roberts's witty dialogue and moody descriptions soon counteract them. This is romantic drama at its best. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Omerta
Author: Puzo, Mario
ISBN: 0-375-50254-8
| Pages: 316
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Published: July 5, 2000
Condition:
Price: USD $2.49
Amazon.com: Omerta, the third novel in Mario Puzo's Mafia trilogy, is infinitely better than the third Godfather film, and most movies in fact. Besides colorful characters, it's got a knotty, gratifying, just-complex-enough plot and plenty of movie-like scenes. The newly retired Mafioso Don Raymonde Aprile attends his grandson's confirmation at St. Patrick's in New York, handing each kid a gold coin. Long shot: "Brilliant sunshine etched the image of that great cathedral into the streets around it." Medium shot: "The girls in frail cobwebby white lace dresses, the boys [with] traditional red neckties knitted at their throats to ward off the Devil." Close-up: "The first bullet hit the Don square in the forehead. The second bullet tore out his throat." More crucial than the tersely described violence is the emotional setting: a traditional, loving clan menaced by traditional vendettas. With Don Aprile hit, the family's fate lies in the strong hands of his adopted nephew from Sicily, Astorre. The Don kept his own kids sheltered from the Mafia: one son is an army officer; another is a TV exec; his daughter Nicole (the most developed character of the three) is an ace lawyer who liked to debate the Don on the death penalty. "Mercy is a vice, a pretension to powers we do not have ... an unpardonable offense to the victim," the Don maintained. Astorre, a macaroni importer and affable amateur singer, was secretly trained to carry on the Don's work. Now his job is to show no mercy. But who did the hit? Was it Kurt Cilke, the morally tormented FBI man who recently jailed most of the Mafia bosses? Or Timmona Portella, the Mob boss Cilke still wants to collar? How about Marriano Rubio, the womanizing, epicurean Peruvian diplomat who wants Nicole in bed--did he also want her papa's head? If you didn't know Puzo wrote Omerta, it would be no mystery. His marks are all over it: lean prose, a romance with the Old Country, a taste for olives in barrels, a jaunty cynicism ("You cannot send six billionaires to prison," says Cilke's boss. "Not in a democracy"), an affection for characters with flawed hearts, like Rudolfo the $1,500-an-hour sexual massage therapist, or his short-tempered client Aspinella, the one-eyed NYPD detective. The simultaneous courtship of cheery Mafia tramp Rosie by identical hit-man twins Frankie and Stace Sturzo makes you fall in love with them all--and feel a genuine pang when blood proves thicker than eros. This fitting capstone to Puzo's career is optioned for a film, and Michael Imperioli of TV's The Sopranos narrates the audiocassette version of the novel. But why wait for the movie? Omerta is a big, old-fashioned movie in its own right. --Tim Appelo
From Publishers Weekly "The dead have no friends," says one gangster to another in Puzo's final novel, as they plot to kill America's top Mafioso. But Puzo, despite his death last year at age 78, should gain many new friends for this operatic thriller, his most absorbing since The Sicilian. The slain mobster is the elderly Don Raymonde Aprile. His heirs, around whom the violent, vastly emotional narrative swirls, are his three children and one nephew. It's the nephew, Astorre Viola, who inherits the Don's legacy and transforms before his cousins' astonished eyes from a foppish playboy into a Man of Honor, as he avenges the Don's death and protects his family from those hungry for its prime possession: banks that will earn legitimate billions in the years ahead. Astorre's change is no surprise to the few aged mobsters who know that, as a youth, he was trained to be a Qualified Man, or to the fewer still who know as Astorre does not know that his real father was a great Sicilian Mafioso. Arrayed against Astorre in his pursuit of cruel justice are some of the sharpest Puzo characters ever, among them a corrupt and beautiful black New York policewoman; assassin twins; wiseguys galore, including a drug lord who seeks his own nuclear weapon; and, drawn in impressive shades of gray, a veteran FBI agent who imperils his family and his soul to destroy.
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Ransom
Author: Garwood, Julie
ISBN: 0-671-00335-6
| Pages: 486
Format: Hardcover
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