Search this site      Mysteries of Animal Intelligence Authors: Steiger, Sherry Hansen / Steiger, Brad ISBN: 0-8125-5191-5 Pages: 208 Format: Paperback Publisher: Tor Books Published: August 15, 1995 Condition: Price: USD $1.69 Book Description: Throughout the ages, animals have played a significant role in human life. But the relationship between animals and humans is often taken for granted. For example, everyone knows that dogs can be trained to sit, stay, and roll over. But could a dog guide a blind man 2,144 miles down the Appalachian Trail--a difficult feat for a sighted person? Could a cat actually defend a sleeping infant from a deadly rattlesnake that is prepared to strike? Could a dolphin really save a person who is drowning at sea? Could a monkey communicate using English? Defying facts as we know them, these stories detail the intelligence, bravery, and skill of animals. They make us take a second look at creatures who have been viewed as being driven largely by instinct, and they begin to reveal the mysteries of animal intelligence. Damascus Gate Author: Stone, Robert ISBN: 0-395-66569-8 Pages: 512 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Published: May 14, 1998 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 Amazon.com: In his earlier novels, Robert Stone has taken us to such hot spots as Vietnam, Central America, and that ultimate sinkhole of depravity we call Hollywood. This time around, it's Jerusalem. Given Stone's gift for depicting both political and personal embroilment--indeed, for making the two inextricable--this particular city is an inspired choice. For starters, Jerusalem remains a sacred destination for Muslims, Jews, and Christians and a hotly contested one. It's also a magnet for hustlers, fanatics, and millennial dreamers, a generous assortment of whom populate the pages of Damascus Gate. As always, Stone introduces a (relatively) innocent American into the picture--a journalist named Christopher Lucas. This career skeptic prides himself on his detachment: he prefers the kind of story "that exposed depravity and duplicity on both sides of supposedly uncompromising sacred struggles. He found such stories reassuring, an affirmation of the universal human spirit." Yet Lucas, a lapsed Catholic, has journeyed to Jerusalem at least in part to recharge his devotional batteries. And as he's slowly drawn into a terrorist plot--which involves drugs, arms smuggling, and a plan to blow up the Temple Mount--Lucas sheds his detachment in a hurry. Stone's novel functions as an expert thriller, whose slow, somewhat clunky wind-up is more than compensated for by a brilliant grand finale. It is also, however, a dogged exploration of faith, in which cynics and true believers jostle for predominance. "Life was so self-conscious in Jerusalem," the author reflects, "so lived at close quarters, by competing moralizers. Every little blessing demanded immediate record." It's hard to imagine a more vivid record of these mutual blessings--and maledictions!--than Robert Stone's. From Publishers Weekly: From its sublime triumphs to its noble failures, Stone's first novel since Outerbridge Reach (1993) is a major work in every aspect, a sprawling, discordant prose symphony. In Jerusalem, which he depicts as a holy Bedlam, Stone finds the perfect setting for the spiritual agonies that have marked his most powerful writing. In that city, everyone suffers from the burden of faith, or lack of it, and everyone wants something, usually at any price. Expat American journalist Christopher Lucas wants a surer identity born Christian and Jewish, he feels rooted to neither faith as well as love and, of course, a good story. But his desire has limits, drawn by conscience, and so he serves well as the reader's proxy, a normal man surrounded by seekers of the absolute. Around Lucas swirl addled saints, addicted sinners, con men, cruel members of Hamas and even crueler Israeli security forces. All the parties have their own agendas, most of which hinge on a conspiracy among extremist Israeli Jews and American Christians to blow up the Temple Mount and usher in Armageddon. Stone's presentation of this narrative backbone can be mechanical and sometimes seems extraneous to the novel's main theme of the wages of faith. More captivating is an ancillary plot involving a drug-blasted seeker's attempts to elevate a manic-depressive Jew as a world savior; one of his pawns, Sonia Barnes, an American Sufi who's also Lucas's love interest, proves as compelling as any Stone heroine. Most extraordinary, though, is the author's passionate etching of landscapes both physical and spiritual. The book opens slowly, with a diffuse if portentous ramble through the city that intensifies through scenes of terror and moral gravity particularly in a nightmare Gaza strip inflamed by riot until Jerusalem and its people coalesce to iridescent indelibility. Bold and bracing, ambitious and inspired, Damascus Gate is, even for its flaws, an astonishment. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Bad Medicine Authors: Thurlo, Aimee / Thurlo, David ISBN: 0-312-86328-4 Pages: 384 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Forge Books Published: October 15, 1997 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 From Kirkus Reviews: En route to a homicide scene--Navajo rights activist Stanley Bitah has been clubbed to death--tribal police officer Ella Clah stops to check out a report of a drunk driver, only to find that Angelina Yellowhair isn't drunk but that she'd been fatally poisoned even before her car crashes. The two apparently unrelated murders are an apt image for this overstuffed novel of Anglo-Navajo conflicts, suspicions, and animosities. Was Bitah killed by one of the fellow coal miners who resented his ties to the militant Navajo Justice Church, or is the murder the work of the white-supremacist Brotherhood, or of the Fierce Ones of the Navajo reservation? It's impossible for Ella to focus on that case, because Angelina's father, influential State Senator James Yellowhair, is leaning hard on Ella and her friend, tribal medical examiner Carolyn Roanhorse, to ignore forensic evidence that Angelina had drugs in her system and shut down that investigation. While Ella's struggling to balance her caseload without losing her cool with any of the dozens of hotheaded suspects, Angelina's tissue samples disappear; her poisoned organs follow; devastating infections break out among Carolyn's patients; and suddenly the medical examiner is on the way to being discredited, fired, and burned out of her home. To top it off, Ella's hated father-in-law is sending her taunting notes from beyond the grave. Where will it all end? Like Ella's two previous cases (Death Walker, 1996, etc.), this one is too much of a good thing; trying to sort out the suspects and subplots is like wandering for hours and hours in a museum filled with fascinating exhibits. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Review: "Suspenseful and appealing; An intriguing mystery set against--and deeply rooted in--a beautifully described Rez and the people who live there." -Diana Gabaldon on Death Walker "A complex and satisfying mystery richly woven with Navajo culture and mysticism." -Tess Gerritsen on Death Walker "The authors know and love the Navajo world to the great benefit of their readers." - Carolyn Hart --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Bad Medicine Author: Thurlo, Aimee & David ISBN: 0-7653-1137-2 Pages: 352 Format: Paperback Publisher: Forge Books Published: March 31, 2005 Condition: Price: USD $3.29 From Kirkus Reviews: En route to a homicide scene--Navajo rights activist Stanley Bitah has been clubbed to death--tribal police officer Ella Clah stops to check out a report of a drunk driver, only to find that Angelina Yellowhair isn't drunk but that she'd been fatally poisoned even before her car crashes. The two apparently unrelated murders are an apt image for this overstuffed novel of Anglo-Navajo conflicts, suspicions, and animosities. Was Bitah killed by one of the fellow coal miners who resented his ties to the militant Navajo Justice Church, or is the murder the work of the white-supremacist Brotherhood, or of the Fierce Ones of the Navajo reservation? It's impossible for Ella to focus on that case, because Angelina's father, influential State Senator James Yellowhair, is leaning hard on Ella and her friend, tribal medical examiner Carolyn Roanhorse, to ignore forensic evidence that Angelina had drugs in her system and shut down that investigation. While Ella's struggling to balance her caseload without losing her cool with any of the dozens of hotheaded suspects, Angelina's tissue samples disappear; her poisoned organs follow; devastating infections break out among Carolyn's patients; and suddenly the medical examiner is on the way to being discredited, fired, and burned out of her home. To top it off, Ella's hated father-in-law is sending her taunting notes from beyond the grave. Where will it all end? Like Ella's two previous cases (Death Walker, 1996, etc.), this one is too much of a good thing; trying to sort out the suspects and subplots is like wandering for hours and hours in a museum filled with fascinating exhibits. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review: "Fans of Tony Hillerman will enjoy this thriller. Like Hillerman, the Thurlos offer insight into the Navajo culture and the conflict between the traditional and modern ways of life. An intelligent and entertaining murder mystery." The Baton Rouge Advocate on Bad Medicine: "This novel has it all: murder, sex, drugs and racial tension on the Rez."--The New Mexican on Bad Medicine "Fans of Tony Hillerman's Navajo novels will find themselves in familiar territory if they read . . . this well-written mystery." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Bad Medicine: "An exciting novel featuring one of the most interesting, multi-dimensional female detectives one could hope to meet. It is the internal struggle between the modern and the traditional, Anglo and Native American ways, which makes this novel more than just another mystery. Not only a good read, but a thought-provoking book as well." Reversible Errors Author: Turow, Scott ISBN: 0-374-28160-2 Pages: 448 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Published: October 29, 2002 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 Arthur Raven, more versed in corporate law than criminal defense, is not eager to accept the court-appointed task of handling death-row inmate "Squirrel" Gandolph's last-minute appeal of his murder conviction. Fast approaching middle age, Arthur has come to terms with the burdens and disappointments of his life, among which are a schizophrenic sister for whom he is responsible and the realization that he will probably never make an enduring connection with a woman. But when evidence surfaces that might exonerate his client, he rises to the occasion with a quiet determination to see justice done. Facing a formidable prosecuting attorney and her former lover, the policeman whose testimony convinced Judge Gillian Sullivan to find Squirrel guilty, Arthur's persistence not only wins his client a temporary reprieve from execution but also endears him to Sullivan, who has fallen on hard times since Squirrel's trial--fresh out of prison herself for taking bribes, she is a most unlikely candidate for Arthur's affections. Scott Turow's masterful characterization of complex and multidimensional people catalyzed by events into searching reexamination of their own motives and ambitions is matched by the intricacies of his plot, which itself is well served by his insider's knowledge of the criminal justice system and his extraordinary understanding of the vagaries of the human heart. The prose is luminescent, the narrative compelling, and the moral implications of Arthur's personal and professional choices beautifully articulated. This is a tour de force for a novelist writing at the top of his game. --Jane Adams From Publishers Weekly: The sixth novel from bestseller Turow is a big book about little people in big trouble, involving the death penalty (one of the author's real-life legal specialties), procedural foul-ups and a cast of characters who exemplify the adage about good intentions paving the road to hell. Arthur Raven (a middle-aged, undistinguished lawyer taking care of a schizophrenic sister in a suburb of Chicago) lands a career-making case: the 11th-hour appeal of a quasi-retarded death row inmate, Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph (accused of triple homicide a decade earlier), on new testimony by a terminally ill convict. Muriel Wynn, an ambitious prosecutor, and Larry Starczek, the detective who originally worked the case, are Raven's adversaries. Plot thickener: Wynn and Starczek are engaged in a longstanding, tortuous, off-again, on-again affair (both being unhappily married) that predates the crime, and which may have indirectly influenced the course of the original investigation. Arthur pulls in the original presiding judge from the case, Gillian Sullivan, just emerging from her own prison stretch for bribery (which masks an even darker secret) to assist him on the case, which leads to another tortuous affair on the defense's side. On top of this (Turow is well known for his many-layered narratives) is the dynamic among the criminals themselves: the dying con may be covering up for his wayward nephew, further muddying the legal waters. The first part of the book, which flips back and forth between the original investigation (1991) and the new trial (2001), is structurally the most demanding, but it is vital to the way in which Turow makes Rommy's case (as well as Arthur's and Muriel's). No character in this novel is entirely likable; all seek to undo some past wrong, with results that get progressively worse. Turow fans should not be disappointed; nor should his publisher. Fire Lover A True Story Author: Wambaugh, Joseph ISBN: 0-06-009527-X Pages: 352 Format: Hardcover Publisher: William Morrow Published: April 30, 2002 Condition: Price: USD $2.29 From Publishers Weekly: Returning to print after a six-year hiatus, former LAPD detective sergeant and bestselling author Wambaugh (The Onion Field, etc.) focuses on firefighters rather than his usual police beat. It's a surprising switch, but Wambaugh's regular readers will not be disappointed, since sparks fly throughout this potent probe into the life of arson investigator John Leonard Orr. Fascinated by fires in his L.A. childhood, Orr learned fire fighting in the air force. An eccentric loner with few friends and a womanizer with a string of failed marriages, he was rejected by the LAPD and LAFD. In 1974 he joined the Glendale Fire Department, where his gun-toting, crime-crusading capers earned him the label "cop wanna-be" from both police and firemen. Rising in the ranks, Orr became well-known as an arson sleuth. He had a sixth sense for tracking pyros, but there was one serial arsonist, responsible for the deaths of four, who remained elusive. In 1990, during the worst fire in Glendale's history, some noted that Orr's behavior "seemed very peculiar." That same year, Orr was appointed fire captain and began writing a "fact-based novel" about a serial arsonist who turns out to be a firefighter and in it Orr revealed certain facts about the unsolved arson case that he couldn't have known through his work. Was Orr the serial arsonist? Wambaugh recreates these events for a suspenseful, adrenaline-rush account of what one profiler dubbed "probably the most prolific American arsonist" of the 20th century. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: A tale of two men a respected fire chief and a prolific arsonist who turned out to be one and the same. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Rainbow in the Mist Author: Whitney, Phyllis A. ISBN: 0-385-24954-3 Pages: 309 Format: Hardcover Publisher: DoubleDay Published: February 21, 1989 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 From Publishers Weekly: Like many of Whitney's ( Poinciana ) 32 previous novels, this romantic mystery features smooth plotting, skillful foreshadowing and a determined, inquisitive young heroine in danger. Long Island-based clairvoyant Christy Loren has used her psychic talent to locate the bodies of missing persons. When her work becomes enervating and perilous, Christy seeks refuge at her Aunt Nona's home in the tranquil Virginia countryside. There, however, she warily starts investigating a double mystery: the death of Rose Vaughn and the disappearance of Deirdre Mitchell, a childlike, dreamy woman fascinated by mysticism. Sensing that Deirdre encountered someone evil, Christy is suspicous of both forbiddingly aloof Victor Birdcall and Eve Corey, who seems curiously evasive. Aided by her mother, a famed channeler of spirits, and Deirdre's attractive husband, Christy keeps sleuthing, even after envisioning her own death. Whitney piles on the suspense by prefacing each chapter with ominous first-person observations from the unnamed culprit. The chilling effect is marred, however, by the glib, unrewarding conclusion. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club dual main selection. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: Christy Loren has inherited psychic powers from her mother, a renowned psychic. Haunted by the images of murder victims she has helped to find, she flees to her aunt in Virginia, only to find that here, too, her powers are needed to solve a possible murder and the disappearance of a strange young woman. Fearing the evil she senses, and attracted to the husband of the missing woman, Christy only reluctantly investigates. In solving the puzzle, she comes to terms with her gift. The somewhat disjointed narrative spoils an otherwise standard Whitney romance. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections. Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.     The Moonstone Author: Collins, Wilkie ISBN: 1-56619-092-4 Pages: 472 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Barnes Noble Published: March 1993 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 From Barnes & Noble: One of the first English detective novels, this mystery involves the disappearance of a valuable diamond, originally stolen from a Hindu idol, given to a young woman on her eighteenth birthday, and then stolen again. A classic of 19th-century literature. From the Publisher: A fabulous yellow diamond--an ancient talisman which had been looted from the holy Hindu city of Somnauth--becomes the dangerous inheritance of Rachel Verinder. And when the Moonstone disappears, what seems like a simple case turns into a masterpiece of detection and suspense. Synopsis: A fabulous yellow diamond--an ancient talisman which had been looted from the holy Hindu city of Somnauth--becomes the dangerous inheritance of Rachel Verinder. And when the Moonstone disappears, what seems like a simple case turns into a masterpiece of detection and suspense. Never Send Flowers Author: Gardner, John ISBN: 0-399-13809-9 Pages: 286 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Putnam Adult Published: May 31, 1993 Condition: Price: USD $2.29 From Publishers Weekly: This sketchy detective story requires a knowledge of James Bond movies rather than Ian Fleming novels, which may explain why it reads like a rough draft for a screenplay. In Gardner's 12th 007 book (after Death Is Forever ), the ageless agent from Her Majesty's Secret Service is sent to Switzerland to investigate the murder of MI5 operative Laura March. Teaming up with Swiss agent Flica von Gruss, he discovers that March's brother was a serial killer and that her ex-lover was legendary English actor David Dragonpol, now retired and living in a fairy-tale castle on the Rhine. Dragonpol's sister, Maeve Horton, proves to be the link between March's death and four recent assassinations; a Bleeding Heart rose bred by Horton appeared at the funeral of each of the victims, March included. Bond and von Gruss pursue the case to Dragonpol's castle in Germany, where the usual fiendish plot is uncovered and ultimately resolved in the traditional Bond manner. This light, entertaining read doesn't pretend to be anything more than another episode in what has turned into a never-ending adventure. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews: Like Pentagon dinosaurs laboring to adapt to a new world order by finding telltale traces of the old in every dark shadow, Gardner's reincarnation of James Bond examines a string of serial killings and finds a freelance terrorist just as dangerous as his old adversaries from SMERSH and SPECTRE. Bond's called in when MI5 agent Laura March is killed at Interlaken. Going through the things in her hotel room, he and Flicka Von Gr?sse, his leggy opposite number from Swiss Intelligence, find a disturbing letter from Laura to her late brother, a serial beheader of blonds, and fax a copy back to M. While they're coupling in Bond's room, the letter itself is stolen, and M, citing the ``grave moral scandal'' (so much for updating Bond's morality), ostensibly removes Bond from duty. Back in England for Laura's funeral, Bond notices a bizarre floral tribute--a red-tipped white rose--linking Laura's death to four other recent assassinations, and to the flower's only breeder: Maeve Horton, sister of Laura's onetime fianc‚, distinguished actor David Dragonpol. There follow the requisite scenes of tourist-trap mayhem--at Schloss Drache, Dragonpol's Alpine aerie, atop the roof of the Duomo in Milan, and at EuroDisney, where the murderer has planned one last, ultra-high-profile strike--but Gardner's lack of conviction reduces everything to retro-fluff. Bond really isn't cut out for the work of tracking down serial killers, even the ones whose targets include Yasir Arafat and Kiri Te Kanawa. As Gardner struggles to update the perils his superstar hero faces, Bond himself remains the biggest anachronism of all. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. While Other People Sleep Author: Muller, Marcia ISBN: 0-89296-650-5 Pages: 344 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Mysterious Press Published: July 1998 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 Amazon.com: In the old days, Sharon McCone was a scrappy, idealistic investigator working out of a rambling old San Francisco Victorian that housed the All Souls legal collective. In the 1990s, All Souls is a conventionally successful law firm, and McCone is on her own. These days her profile is a lot higher, thanks to a People magazine article, and her digs, both personal and professional, are decidedly more upscale. But the price of fame is higher than she knows; somewhere there's a woman with Sharon's face, Sharon's name, and a supply of Sharon's business cards. The impersonator isn't just drumming up business on her own--she's sleeping with McCone's clients and then stealing from them, destroying the agency's reputation, and threatening Sharon's family and friends as well as her livelihood. The mystery woman may even have found a way to screw up Sharon's relationship with Hy Ripinsky, her long-time lover. What's certain is that she knows the most intimate details of McCone's private as well as public life, and that wherever Sharon goes, her impersonator has somehow managed to get there first. What seemed at first like an innocent case of heroine-worship turns decidedly deadly, especially since McCone has no clue as to the mystery woman's motives, plans, or identity. Marcia Muller almost single-handedly invented the genre of female P.I.'s, and she's in top form here, capitalizing on McCone's vulnerabilities as well as her strengths in a tightly plotted mystery with a dramatic climax, strong characters, and solid characterization. In prior installments, both Muller and McCone had started to lose their edge a bit, but fans of longstanding will be delighted by this engrossing adventure. --Jane Adams From Publishers Weekly: That's when Sharon McCone, ace San Francisco PI, grapples with nightmares in this gripping 19th outing in 20 years (following Both Ends of the Night, 1997). Someone is impersonating Sharon, wearing her name-tag at parties, sleeping with unsuitable men, committing crimes of which the detective can be accused, erasing her phone messages, using her credit cards, even breaking into her apartment, mistreating her cat and opening a bottle of her favorite wine. The imitator seems to want to become the PI, but why? McCone's mood isn't helped when one of her assistants, Ted Smalley, starts acting weirdly, and her lover, Hy Ripinsky, seems to be pinned down in a mysterious kidnapping in Latin America and is out of touch for far too long. McCone has to work hard to stay afloat under fearful pressure, and only the loyal teamwork of her crew and her determination to run her nemesis to earth brings a hard-won release. Her new flying skills are put to good use in a nail-biting climax as her doppelg?nger steals her and Ripinsky's cherished Citabria plane . As always, Muller's straightforward, no-nonsense writing and fully dimensioned characterizations lend credibility and color to her deftly plotted tale. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Paper Doll Author: Parker, Robert B. ISBN: 0-399-13818-8 Pages: 223 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Putnam Adult Published: May 31, 1993 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 From Publishers Weekly: Spenser fans will delight in the Boston PI's latest adventure, after Pastime and Double Deuce , as Parker, restraining a penchant for arch characterization, returns his attention to plotting. Spenser is hired by Boston Brahmin Loudon Tripp to find the murderer of his conventionally impeccable wife, Olivia Nelson, whom the police consider a victim of random urban violence. After consulting with the police detective assigned to the case, a gay man whose lover is dying of AIDS, Spenser travels to Olivia's hometown in South Carolina, where his questions land him in jail, uncharged, and at the mercy of some Northern thugs. Rescued at the last minute by Boston police Lt. Quirk, the burly detective soon finds himself taken into the confidence of a sleazy but powerful Massachusetts senator. The case builds on a nicely woven mix of false identity, self-delusion and, unexpectedly, the powerful attachment of two old Southern gentlemen, one black and one white. Spenser's lover, the elegant psychiatrist Susan, and his pal Hawk stay pretty much in the background as the tough-but-sensitive PI hews mainly to the mystery at hand. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Roses Are Red Author: Patterson, James ISBN: 0-316-69325-1 Pages: 400 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Little Brown and Company Published: November 20, 2000 Condition: Price: USD $2.99 Amazon.com: Roses Are Red, James Patterson's sixth Alex Cross thriller, opens with the District of Columbia detective attempting to mend his nearly unraveled family. The year-long kidnapping of one's intended (1999's Pop Goes the Weasel) will do that to a relationship. Christine, the kidnappee, is amenable with one reasonable condition: that her family's horizon remain uncluttered by homicidal maniacs. How unfortunate, then, that the joyous christening of their newborn son is rudely interrupted by the FBI bearing news of several heinous murders requiring the attention of detective (and doctor of psychology) Cross. "Three-year-old boy, the father, a nanny," Kyle said one more time before he left the party. He was about to go through the door in the sun porch when he turned to me and said, "You're the right person for this. They murdered a family, Alex." As soon as Kyle was gone, I went looking for Christine. My heart sank. She had taken Alex and left without saying good-bye, without a single word. Which leaves Cross free to hunt the Mastermind, the barbarous brains behind a widening series of bank robberies in which employees or their family members are held hostage and, when instructions aren't followed to the finest iota, slaughtered. Given the cases' glaring and unfathomable inhumanity, Cross's long- time DCPD partner (the wonderful giant, John Sampson) gives way to the warm, attractive, and fiercely intelligent FBI Agent Betsey Cavalierre. The longer and harder Cross and Cavalierre remain on his trail, the bolder and more brutal--and shiveringly close to home--the Mastermind's strikes become. And, thanks mostly to lightning-short paragraphs and a point of view that rappels from the first-person Cross to the third-person Mastermind, the tale progresses at hot-trot speed to a bona fide doozy of a denouement. It'll be over before you know it, so sit back, hold your breath, and enjoy the show. And stay tuned for the next one. --Michael Hudson From Publishers Weekly: Alex Cross is back and that alone will have this novel crowning bestseller lists, a feat Patterson's books have achieved often of late, both his Cross (Pop Goes the Weasel) and non-Cross (Cradle and All) thrillers. Patterson won an Edgar for his first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, but he hasn't won one since. One reason is that his prose, though sturdy as a trusted rowboat, is just as wooden; another is that his plotting here detailing Washington, D.C., homicide detective Cross's pursuit of a crazed but crafty homicidal criminal known as the Mastermind is about as sophisticated as that of a Frank and Joe Hardy tale. So why are the Cross novels so popular? In part because Patterson constructs them out of short, simple sentences, paragraphs and chapters that practically define the brisk, fun, E-Z read, and in part because, here and elsewhere, he engages in the smart and unusual tactic of alternating third- and first-person (from Cross's POV) narrative. Mostly, though, readers adore them because Cross is such a lovable hero, a family-oriented African-American whose compassion warmly balances the icy cruelty of Patterson's villains and their sometimes graphically depicted crimes (as is the case here). In the new novel, Cross suffers lady problems as his old love, who's in terror of Cross's job, leaves him, and he fumbles toward a new romance with an FBI agent; he also suffers personal trauma as his beloved daughter develops a brain tumor. That's back-burner action, though. The main focus here is, first, on a series of shocking Mastermind-engineered bank robbery/kidnappings involving wanton killings and, second, on the hunt to ID the Mastermind a hunt both absorbing and annoying for its several (rather smelly) red herrings, and concluding with a revelation that screams sequel. While there's nothing subtle in this novel, every blatant element is packaged for maximum effect: roses may be red, but Patterson's newest is green all the way. U.K. and translation rights, Arthur Pine Associates. The Beach House Authors: Patterson, James / Jonge, Peter De ISBN: 0-316-96968-0 Pages: 464 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Published: June 10, 2002 Condition: Price: USD $2.99 Amazon.com: James Patterson and Peter de Jonge's The Beach House opens with the death of a handsome townie on Memorial Day weekend in the Hamptons, where being a single-digit millionaire is laughable and being poor is unthinkable. Peter Mullen is a high school dropout who parks cars at the private bashes of the superwealthy Barry and Campion Neubauer. When Peter is found dead on the beach, the Neubauers and their friends insist that he drowned, but his brother Jack, a law student who saw Peter's body, knows he was beaten to death. As Jack uncovers evidence of his brother's secret life, he begins to realize that the very rich are indeed different from the rest of us. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and Jack's patiently plotted payback for Peter's death is one that the Hamptons will not soon forget. There are no big surprises in The Beach House, but it's vintage Patterson, with plenty of action, villains with hearts blacker than obsidian, and a working-class hero who pulls himself up by the bootstraps. Patterson and de Jonge previously coauthored the inspirational golf romance Miracle on the 17th Green, but this new game of money, mayhem, and murder clearly suits them to a tee. --Barrie Trinkle From Publishers Weekly: atterson's second coauthored novel of the year (after the current bestseller 2nd Chance, written with Andrew Gross) is a relatively rare stand-alone for this immensely popular writer. Unlike some of Patterson's stand-alones, however, including the most recent, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, this doesn't move Patterson into new territory: it's a slick, vastly enjoyable yet far-fetched thriller i.e., typical Patterson. Its hero is a Columbia University law student, Jack Mullen, who's out to avenge the death of his younger brother, Peter, found dead on the Amagansett, L.I., property of the immensely wealthy Neubauer family, a few miles from Jack and Peter's Montauk home. The cops say Peter drowned; a glance at the corpse tells Jack that his brother was beaten to death. The rest of the novel traces Jack's efforts, with the help of a female private eye/love interest, plus his elderly grandfather and a band of Montauk locals, to prove that Peter was murdered and that billionaire Barry Neubauer played a role in his demise. Arrayed against Jack are a tough cop, high-placed lawyers and a sadistic killer all owned by Neubauer money. Jack's diggings lead to evidence not only of Peter's murder but of its part in a coverup involving sexual scandal and blackmail; to get the justice that's denied them, Jack and his friends take the law into their own hands, kidnapping Neubauer and his cohorts and trying them in a kangaroo court whose proceedings they broadcast on TV. Smooth as a vanilla milk shake and no more sophisticated, written in 113 short chapters that won't tax anyone's attention span, this is smart, market-savvy, populist entertainment. (On sale June 10) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Close to Home Author: Robinson, Peter ISBN: 0-06-019878-8 Pages: 400 Format: Hardcover Publisher: William Morrow Published: February 4, 2003 Condition: Price: USD $2.69 Amazon.com: Having already shown, in 1999's In a Dry Season, that he can plumb historical homicide for gripping modern drama, Peter Robinson goes further in Close to Home, telling parallel stories about teenage boys lost in a grownup world, decades apart. The first is Graham Marshall, a childhood pal of Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, who vanished mysteriously in 1965, the supposed victim of a pedophile. Hearing that Graham's bones have finally been unearthed, Banks quits his vacation in Greece and heads to his hometown of Petersborough, England, hoping to assist the investigation--and, perhaps, assuage his guilt over his friend's fate. Meanwhile, Banks's colleague and ex-lover, Annie Cabbot, is busy probing the recent disappearance of 15-year-old Luke Armitage, the sensitive, brainy son of a rock star who committed suicide during Luke's infancy. After Cabbot catches hell for interrupting what may or may not have been a legitimate ransom payment for Luke's return, she seeks Banks's advice, drawing these two plot lines neatly together. As this intense and intricately crafted puzzler develops, blending fiction with a bit of fact (the Kray brothers, who ran a criminal ring in London's East End during the mid-20th century, play off-camera roles here), Robinson explores Banks's troubled relationship with his parents, especially his working-class father, who "had never approved of his choice of career." He also raises doubts about a famed copper who'd originally tackled the Marshall case, involves Banks romantically with a damaged detective whose investigative diligence threatens her safety, and shows Cabbot as someone better and stronger than merely Banks's protégé. Working with themes of lost youth and the dark secrets hidden in small towns, Robinson delivers in this 13th Banks novel a police procedural of remarkable human depth. --J. Kingston Pierce From Publishers Weekly: In this 12th novel to feature Det. Chief Insp. Alan Banks, the brooding Yorkshire policeman is called back to England from holiday when someone discovers the remains of his old childhood friend Graham Marshall, who disappeared from their hometown in 1965. It's a journey back to Banks's own past and the provincial town of Peterborough, where he assists Michelle Hart, a local detective, on the case. He's also advising his colleague (and former lover) Annie Cabbot as she investigates the more recent disappearance of another teenager: Luke Armitage, the introverted, intellectual son of a British rock star who committed suicide when Luke was a baby. Like P.D. James, Robinson works on a large, intricately detailed canvas (sometimes too detailed-even the minor figures get at least a thumbnail sketch). The plot is richly complex, with lots of forensic science, a fair bit of English criminal history (the Kray brothers, legendary '60s-era London East End gangsters, make an appearance) and some internecine police department feuds. There's a fair amount of action and lots of suspense; someone doesn't want Hart or Banks to pursue the decades-old case, and Cabbot has her hands full with a plethora of unsavory suspects in the Armitage case. Along the way, Robinson probes more abstract ideas: the illusory nature of nostalgia; the dark, secret lives of small towns; middle age; and the oft-lamented challenges of going home again. This satisfying and subtle police procedural has a little bit of everything. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. McNally's Caper Author: Sanders, Lawrence ISBN: 0-399-13919-2 Pages: 319 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Putnam Adult Published: January 26, 1994 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 Book Description: In a popular series of books, P.I. Archy McNally, witty and raffish, tells how he solves crimes among the rich and famous in tony Palm Beach. In this bestseller, his father, an insurance executive, assigns the debonair detective to work undercover to identify the thief who has pilfered the Forsythe family's priceless first edition of Poe. The bon mots come thick and fast as the plot thickens. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. McNally's Trial Author: Sanders, Lawrence ISBN: 0-399-14006-9 Pages: 309 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Putnam Adult Published: 1999 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 From Publishers Weekly: Suggesting a morally bankrupt, sun-tanned Bertie Wooster, Archy McNally sleuths among Florida's well-heeled Palm Beach set in this lightweight crime series from the author of the Deadly Sins and Commandments thrillers. Archy, an occasional investigator for his stuffy lawyer father, here agrees to look into the sudden "uptick" in business that is worrying a pretty exec at the exclusive Whitcomb Funeral Homes. Too many people are dying, observes the woman, and being shipped up north in coffins. In between boozing, lying to his girlfriend and delivering sub-Wodehouse patter that lacks both wit and an anchoring value system, Archy and his gormless pal Binky Watrous investigate the likable old couple who own the funeral homes and their son and his wife, whose swinging lifestyle makes Archy's look tame. The trick of insinuating character eludes Sanders, who, if a woman dissembles or a doctor is stoned to the gills, hits us over the head with the facts. While an occasional few of Archy's quips are funny, Sanders's dialogue is mostly as stiff as the story's corpses. Literary Guild selection. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: Affluent private investigator Archie McNally cracks yet another case in this newest addition to the author's best-selling series. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.     Juice Author: Campbell, R. Wright ISBN: 0-671-66624-X Pages: 270 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Poseidon Pr Published: March 1989 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 From Publishers Weekly: Armed with a salable blurb from Elmore Leonard, the publisher is touting this as Campbell's ( In La-La Land We Trust ) breakout novel, and that may be true. Written in a terse, cinematic Leonardian style, the book has all the right ingredients. In a crime clean-up headed by an ambitious special prosecutor, L.A. detective "Panama" Heath goes out on an illegal limb to help Billy Ray, the feckless husband of Heath's old flame Lisa. Billy is in big trouble with big-time loan shark Puffy Pachoulo, who's planning to move in on the Porsche dealership of the Doohan brothers. Pachoulo is using the "respectable" lawyer/wheeler-dealer Al Nadeau to close the trap on the Doohans, while Nadeau's cocaine-addicted wife, Helena, is having an affair with special prosecutor Fitzsimmons. Pachoulo's humiliation of small-time bookie Benny Checks is almost a gruesome sidebar until Benny's wife turns nemesis in a bloody climax. The gritty milieu and lowdown characters are almost all believably sleazy, and if he isn't as funny as Leonard, Campbell's plot is as snappy and complicated as the master's. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. We'll Meet Again Author: Clark, Mary Higgins ISBN: 0-684-83597-5 Pages: 320 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Simon & Schuster Published: April 20, 1999 Condition: Price: USD $2.29 Amazon.com: We'll Meet Again is filled with the ingredients that Mary Higgins Clark devotees will devour: fast-paced suspense, double-crossing villains, romantic intrigue, and a resounding showdown at the end. Harder to swallow is the excessive use of theatricals whenever the author describes a satanic like HMO, and its legion of evil doctors. The darkest knight of all is Peter Black, whose eyes "were cold, angry, menacing--certainly not the eyes of a healer." Still, melodrama aside, Higgins Clark still knows how to spin a good yarn. Her heroine in We'll Meet Again is an investigative reporter named Fran Simmons, who is not unlike the bright, resourceful Dr. Susan Chandler in You Belong to Me. Fran has just been hired to work on a popular new TV show called True Crime. Coincidentally, her very first assignment involves an ex-pupil from her old high school, the posh Cranden Academy in Greenwich, Connecticut. Molly Lasch had been incarcerated in her mid-20s, accused of pulverizing her husband's head with a Remington bronze sculpture. The murder of this community doctor, and chief executive officer of a local HMO, stunned Greenwich. For half a decade Molly claimed to have no memory of the event, but now out on parole, slivers of memory trickle back--and Molly informs the press that someone else was in the house at the time of her husband's murder. Few people believe her--even less so when a key witness from the original trial is stabbed to death and evidence links Molly to the scene of the crime. It's up to the ever vigilant Fran to investigate what the police won't--and she unearths some very dark and extremely dirty secrets that will further shock the quiet community. --Naomi Gesinger From Library Journal: Having served 15 years for a crime she thinks college chum Frances committed, Julia is out for blood. Literary Guild main selection. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Decider Author: Francis, Dick ISBN: 0-399-13871-4 Pages: 318 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Putnam Adult Published: February 1, 1993 Condition: Price: USD $2.29