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Editorial Content for Garment of Shadows

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Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Author Laurie R. King dedicates her 12th novel in the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series to “those who reach across boundaries with a hand of welcome.” Read More

Teaser

 

Sherlock Holmes and his wife, Mary Russell, are separated by shocking circumstances in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds. Will Holmes and his friends be able to find the newly amnesiac Russell in time to stop a deadly African/European revolt?

Promo

Sherlock Holmes and his wife, Mary Russell, are separated by shocking circumstances in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds. Will Holmes and his friends be able to find the newly amnesiac Russell in time to stop a deadly African/European revolt?

About the Book

Laurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, comprise one of today’s most acclaimed mystery series. Now, in their newest and most thrilling adventure, the couple is separated by a shocking circumstance in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds.
 
In a strange room in Morocco, Mary Russell is trying to solve a pressing mystery: Who am I? She has awakened with shadows in her mind, blood on her hands, and soldiers pounding on the door. Out in the hivelike streets, she discovers herself strangely adept in the skills of the underworld, escaping through alleys and rooftops, picking pockets and locks. She is clothed like a man, and armed only with her wits and a scrap of paper containing a mysterious Arabic phrase. Overhead, warplanes pass ominously north.
 
Meanwhile, Holmes is pulled by two old friends and a distant relation into the growing war between France, Spain, and the Rif Revolt led by Emir Abd el-Krim --- who may be a Robin Hood or a power mad tribesman. The shadows of war are drawing over the ancient city of Fez, and Holmes badly wants the wisdom and courage of his wife, whom he’s learned, to his horror, has gone missing. As Holmes searches for her, and Russell searches for herself, each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it’s too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe.
 
With the dazzling mix of period detail and contemporary pace that is her hallmark, Laurie R. King continues the stunningly suspenseful series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”

Editorial Content for May We Be Forgiven

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

In novels like THE END OF ALICE and MUSIC FOR TORCHING, A.M. Homes hasn’t shied away from grim subjects, pedophilia and school gun violence only two of them. Her new novel returns to familiar territory --- the American suburbs --- to tell a powerful story of despair and redemption, all the while probing what she’s consistently sought to expose, in the vein worked by writers like Richard Yates and John Cheever, as the real heart of darkness at the core of suburban life. Read More

Teaser

 

Harold Silver has spent a lifetime watching his younger brother, George, acquire a wife, two kids, and a beautiful home in the suburbs of New York City. But Harry also knows George has a murderous temper, and when George loses control, the result is an act of violence so shocking that both brothers are hurled into entirely new lives in which they both must seek absolution.

Promo

Harold Silver has spent a lifetime watching his younger brother, George, acquire a wife, two kids, and a beautiful home in the suburbs of New York City. But Harry also knows George has a murderous temper, and when George loses control, the result is an act of violence so shocking that both brothers are hurled into entirely new lives in which they both must seek absolution.

About the Book

A darkly comic novel of twenty-first-century domestic life and the possibility of personal transformation

Harold Silver has spent a lifetime watching his younger brother, George, a taller, smarter, and more successful high-flying TV executive, acquire a covetable wife, two kids, and a beautiful home in the suburbs of New York City. But Harry, a historian and Nixon scholar, also knows George has a murderous temper, and when George loses control the result is an act of violence so shocking that both brothers are hurled into entirely new lives in which they both must seek absolution.

Harry finds himself suddenly playing parent to his brother’s two adolescent children, tumbling down the rabbit hole of Internet sex, dealing with aging parents who move through time like travelers on a fantastic voyage. As Harry builds a 21st-century family created by choice rather than biology, we become all the more aware of the ways in which our history, both personal and political, can become our destiny and either compel us to repeat our errors or be the catalyst for change.

MAY WE BE FORGIVEN is an unnerving, funny tale of unexpected intimacies and of how one deeply fractured family might begin to put itself back together.

Editorial Content for Clockwork Angels

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Reviewer (text)

Stephen Hubbard

"The best place to start an adventure is with a quiet, perfect life...and someone who realizes that it can't possibly be enough." Read More

Teaser

 

In a young man’s quest to follow his dreams, he is caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. He travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life.

Promo

In a young man’s quest to follow his dreams, he is caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. He travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life.

About the Book

A remarkable collaboration that is unprecedented in its scope and realization, this exquisitely wrought novel represents an artistic project between the bestselling science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson and the multiplatinum rock band Rush. The newest album by Rush, Clockwork Angels, sets forth a story in Neil Peart’s lyrics that has been expanded by him and Anderson into this epic novel. In a young man’s quest to follow his dreams, he is caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. He travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life. The mind-bending story is complemented with rich paintings by the five-time Juno Award winner for Best Album Design, Hugh Syme.

Editorial Content for Hostage

Book

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Reviewer (text)

Judy Gigstad

Translated from the French, HOSTAGE displays the skill that garnered Elie Wiesel the Nobel Prize. Wiesel has written many works about the Holocaust, the relationships changed by those events, and the plight of acceptance for Jews on the world stage. HOSTAGE takes place in 1975 in New York; Shaltiel Geigenberg is a Jew and a professional storyteller, a common man of no importance. He is married and childless, and ekes out his livelihood relating stories to enthralled audiences; but his gift is only appreciated locally. Read More

Teaser

 

It’s 1975, and Shaltiel Feigenberg --- professional storyteller, writer and beloved husband --- has been taken hostage. His captors, an Arab and an Italian, explain that his life will be bartered for the freedom of three Palestinian prisoners. As his days of waiting commence, Shaltiel resorts to what he does best: telling stories --- to himself and to the men who hold his fate in their hands.

Promo

It’s 1975, and Shaltiel Feigenberg --- professional storyteller, writer and beloved husband --- has been taken hostage. His captors, an Arab and an Italian, explain that his life will be bartered for the freedom of three Palestinian prisoners. As his days of waiting commence, Shaltiel resorts to what he does best: telling stories --- to himself and to the men who hold his fate in their hands.

About the Book

From Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate and author of NIGHT, a charged, deeply moving novel about the legacy of the Holocaust in today’s troubled world and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It’s 1975, and Shaltiel Feigenberg --- professional storyteller, writer and beloved husband --- has been taken hostage: abducted from his home in Brooklyn, blindfolded and tied to a chair in a dark basement. His captors, an Arab and an Italian, don’t explain why the innocent Shaltiel has been chosen, just that his life will be bartered for the freedom of three Palestinian prisoners. As his days of waiting commence, Shaltiel resorts to what he does best, telling stories --- to himself and to the men who hold his fate in their hands.

With beauty and sensitivity, Wiesel builds the world of Shaltiel’s memories, haunted by the Holocaust and a Europe in the midst of radical change. A Communist brother, a childhood spent hiding from the Nazis in a cellar, the kindness of liberating Russian soldiers, the unrest of the 1960s --- these are the stories that unfold in Shaltiel’s captivity, as the outside world breathlessly follows his disappearance and the police move toward a final confrontation with his captors.

Impassioned, provocative and insistently humane, HOSTAGE is both a masterly thriller and a profoundly wise meditation on the power of memory to connect us to the past and our shared need for resolution.

Editorial Content for The Devil in Silver

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

THE DEVIL IN SILVER by Victor LaValle is a frightening novel. It is not frightening in the sense that things jump out at the poor souls who populate the book, though there is a touch of that within its pages. What makes it such an unsettling, wild night’s ride is the manner in which things slowly fall apart, and then further deteriorate once the pieces hit the ground. Read More

Teaser

 

On his first night at the New Hyde Hospital's mental ward, Pepper witnesses an impossible vision: the Devil appears in the guise of an old man with a bison's head and murderous intent. It’s no delusion --- the Devil roams the halls of New Hyde, terrorizing its patients when the sun goes down. Pepper teams with three other strangely loveable patients to try to kill the monster that's been stalking them. But can the Devil die?

Promo

On his first night at the New Hyde Hospital's mental ward, Pepper witnesses an impossible vision: the Devil appears in the guise of an old man with a bison's head and murderous intent. It’s no delusion --- the Devil roams the halls of New Hyde, terrorizing its patients when the sun goes down. Pepper teams with three other strangely loveable patients to try to kill the monster that's been stalking them. But can the Devil die?

About the Book

New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one.
 
Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He’s not mentally ill, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can’t quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he’s visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It’s no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic who’s been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group’s enforcer. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that’s stalking them. But can the Devil die?
 
THE DEVIL IN SILVER brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle’s radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it’s a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons.

Editorial Content for Caravan of Thieves

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Christine M. Irvin

Lieutenant Rollie Waters has been undercover in a covert operation to trap Marines who are illegally selling arms to the enemy. He infiltrated an Afghan “caravan of thieves,” posing as one of them in an effort to catch a group of his fellow Marines who were selling government-issued rifles and ammunition to the Afghan forces. With his gift for languages, Rollie was able to blend in with the Afghans and fool his fellow Marines. Read More

Teaser

 

Working as an undercover marine, Rollie Waters is never less than two steps ahead of trouble --- a skill he learned from the con artist father who raised him, though he hasn't seen Dan in years. It develops that a lot of money from the U.S. government has gone missing, and they think Rollie’s father took it. The only way to find Dan is to trace the frail tendrils of truth scattered among Rollie’s childhood memories. To do that, he’ll have to go deep into the undercover identity of a lifetime: his own.

Promo

Working as an undercover marine, Rollie Waters is never less than two steps ahead of trouble --- a skill he learned from the con artist father who raised him, though he hasn't seen Dan in years. It develops that a lot of money from the U.S. government has gone missing, and they think Rollie’s father took it. The only way to find Dan is to trace the frail tendrils of truth scattered among Rollie’s childhood memories.

About the Book

Rollie Waters is the smartest guy in any room. Working as an undercover marine, he knows all the angles, and he's never less than two steps ahead of trouble --- a skill he learned from the con artist father who raised him, though he hasn't seen Dan in years. Like Dan, Rollie knows how to offer cheap gifts with one hand while stealing the family silver with the other. But, unlike Dan, Rollie is not a criminal.

Rollie’s childhood was a mesh of perfectly believable lies stretched so thin that he barely knows who he is. It’s only when he’s working undercover, inhabiting a false identity, that Rollie is comfortable in his own skin. The danger of deep undercover work makes use of his talents and keeps him out of trouble. Most of the time.

After he’s yanked out of his latest assignment and tossed in the brig, he’s only partly surprised when the officials in charge mention one name: Dan Waters. U.S. government money --- a lot of money --- has gone missing, and they think Rollie’s father took it. The only way to find Dan is to trace the frail tendrils of truth scattered among Rollie’s childhood memories. To do that, he’ll have to go deep into the undercover identity of a lifetime: his own.

Editorial Content for The Joy Brigade

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

Can THE JOY BRIGADE really be the ninth installment in Martin Limon’s George Sueno series? Limon and Sueno hold a special place for me as a reader of espionage fiction. The series, set primarily in South Korea, stars Sueno, an active duty military policeman. I suppose the books are classified as historical fiction, given that they take place in the middle third of so of the 20th century (though if I am old enough to remember it, how can it be history?). Read More

Teaser

 

In this pulse-racing ninth adventure in Martin Limon’s series, Sergeant George Sueño heads north of Korea's DMZ on a mission to prevent war between the Communist North and the American-allied South.

Promo

In this pulse-racing ninth adventure in Martin Limon’s series, Sergeant George Sueño heads north of Korea's DMZ on a mission to prevent war between the Communist North and the American-allied South.

About the Book

In this pulse-racing ninth adventure, Sergeant George Sueño heads north of Korea's DMZ on a mission to prevent war between the Communist North and the American-allied South.
 
Seoul, early 1970s: US Army Sergeant George Sueño is on a mission of extreme importance to the South Korean government, as well as the US Army. Kim Il-Sung has vowed to reunite North and South Korea into one country before he hands control of the government over to his son, which means North Korea is planning to cross the DMZ and overpower the American-allied South Korean government. Sueño's mission is to prevent this by sneaking into North Korea and obtaining an ancient map detailing the network of secret tunnels that run underneath the DMZ. To do so, he will have to go undercover and infiltrate the North Korean Communist inner sanctum.
 
Aware of the often dubious nature of the US Military's tactics, Sueño is skeptical about his assignment. But he has other things on his mind. The keeper of the map is Doc Yong, a former lover of Sueño's who was forced to flee South Korea the year before --- and she has a son. Before they can be happily reunited, the plan falls to pieces, and Sueño is captured. Can he rely on the enigmatic Hero Kang, his sole contact in the hostile country? Will the lovely Rhee Mi-Sook, the leader of the North Korean secret police, be too much to handle? And who are the mysterious group of women known as the Joy Brigade?

Editorial Content for The Lincoln Conspiracy

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

Washington, DC Metropolitan Police detective Temple McFadden is on his way to the B&O Railroad station where he plans to meet with a Negro friend Augustus and another friend, this one of more questionable honor, named Pint. The country is still reeling from the recent assassination of President Lincoln, and the streets are teeming with soldiers drunk on victory. Passions run high, the hangover from a long, bloody war and the freeing of slaves in the South. Danger lurks everywhere in the chaotic aftermath. Read More

Teaser

 

In the late spring of 1865, as Washington mourns the death of Lincoln, Detective Temple McFadden witnesses a murder at the B&O Railroad Station --- and then makes an even more staggering discovery. On his slain friend's body he finds two diaries: one that clearly belongs to Mary Todd Lincoln and one that he learns was penned by John Wilkes Booth. Together, these documents reveal the true depth and reach of the conspiracy behind the assassination.

Promo

In the late spring of 1865, as Washington mourns the death of Lincoln, Detective Temple McFadden witnesses a murder at the B&O Railroad Station --- and then makes an even more staggering discovery. On his slain friend's body he finds two diaries: one that clearly belongs to Mary Todd Lincoln and one that he learns was penned by John Wilkes Booth. Together, these documents reveal the true depth and reach of the conspiracy behind the assassination.

About the Book

A nation shattered by its president’s murder
Two diaries that reveal the true scope of an American conspiracy
A detective determined to bring the truth to light, no matter what it costs him
 
From award-winning journalist Timothy L. O’Brien comes a gripping historical thriller that poses a provocative question: What if the plot to assassinate President Lincoln was wider and more sinister than we ever imagined?
 
In late spring of 1865, as America mourns the death of its leader, Washington, D.C., police detective Temple McFadden makes a startling discovery. Strapped to the body of a dead man at the B&O Railroad station are two diaries, two documents that together reveal the true depth of the Lincoln conspiracy. Securing the diaries will put Temple’s life in jeopardy --- and will endanger the fragile peace of a nation still torn by war.
 
Temple’s quest to bring the conspirators to justice takes him on a perilous journey through the gaslit streets of the Civil War–era capital, into bawdy houses and back alleys where ruthless enemies await him in every shadowed corner. Aided by an underground network of friends --- and by his wife, Fiona, a nurse who possesses a formidable arsenal of medicinal potions --- Temple must stay one step ahead of Lafayette Baker, head of the Union Army’s spy service. Along the way, he’ll run from or rely on Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s fearsome secretary of war; the legendary Scottish spymaster Allan Pinkerton; abolitionist Sojourner Truth; the photographer Alexander Gardner; and many others.
 
Bristling with twists and building to a climax that will leave readers gasping, THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY offers a riveting new account of what truly motivated the assassination of one of America’s most beloved presidents --- and who participated in the plot to derail the train of liberty that Lincoln set in motion.

Editorial Content for The People of Forever Are Not Afraid

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

Armies find new soldiers amongst the young. In many countries, teenagers enter service right out of high school. Still growing --- physically, emotionally and intellectually --- they guard borders, defend against attack and go to war. Young men in the armed forces or at war is a theme that has been explored by many great authors. Read More

Teaser

 

Yael, Avishag and Lea grow up together in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain.

Promo

Yael, Avishag and Lea grow up together in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain.

About the Book

Yael, Avishag and Lea grow up together in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain. Yael trains marksmen and flirts with boys. Avishag stands guard, watching refugees throw themselves at barbed-wire fences. Lea, posted at a checkpoint, imagines the stories behind the familiar faces that pass by her day after day. They gossip about boys and whisper of an ever more violent world just beyond view. They drill, constantly, for a moment that may never come. They live inside that single, intense second just before danger erupts.

In a relentlessly energetic voice marked by caustic humor and fierce intelligence, Shani Boianjiu creates a heightened reality that recalls our most celebrated chroniclers of war and the military, while capturing that unique time in a young woman's life when a single moment can change everything.

Which of the following television shows do you watch? Please check all that apply.

October 5, 2012, 77 voters