She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

A PRISONER OF BIRTH by Jeffrey Archer – If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day before, or the day after, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. But when the four prosecution witnesses are a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat, and the youngest partner in an established firm’s history, who is going to believe your side of the story? Danny is sentenced to 22 years and sent to the highest-security jail in the land, from where no inmate has ever escaped. However, Spencer Craig, Lawrence Davenport, Gerald Payne, and Toby Mortimer all underestimate Danny’s determination to seek revenge, and Beth’s relentless quest to pursue justice, which ends up with all four fighting for their lives.

MADAPPLE by Christina Meldrum – Aslaug is an unusual young woman. Her mother has brought her up in near isolation, teaching her about plants and nature and language, but not about life. Especially not how she came to have her own life, and who her father might be. When Aslaug’s mother dies unexpectedly, everything changes. For Aslaug is a suspect in her mother’s death. And the more her story unravels, the more questions unfold. About the nature of Aslaug’s birth. About what she should do next. About whether divine miracles have truly happened. And whether, when all other explanations are impossible, they might still happen this very day.

PHANTOM PREY by John Sandford – A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy suburb to find blood everywhere, no body – and her college-aged daughter missing. She’s always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch: Goths, so attracted to death. But the police can’t find the girl, alive or dead, and when a second Goth is found slashed to death, the widow truly panics. Lucas Davenport begins to investigate only reluctantly – but when a third Goth is slashed in what is now looking like a Jack the Ripper series of killings, he starts working it hard. The clues don’t seem to add up, though. And then there’s the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing: Who is she? Where does she vanish to? And why does Lucas keep getting the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here … something very bad indeed?

THE REPORT TO THE JUDICIARY by Eugene Sullivan – Former Judge Tim Quinn is assigned to investigate and compile a dossier on the newly appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court before his Senate confirmation hearing. The President realizes that the chance of establishing a legacy before his Presidency comes to an end is slim at best. So when the Chief Justice, a reasonably young and vigorous man, unexpectedly dies, the President happily appoints an interim successor to the position: the first black Chief Justice in U.S. history. But one of the most conservative justices on the court feels that the position should have been his. He is hell-bent on claiming it no matter who gets in the way … even if it means Quinn’s report will bring dishonor to the highest court in the land.

THE KING’S GOLD by Yxta Maya Murray – One look at the centuries-old document she receives from a mysterious stranger is all it takes to plunge Lola Sanchez – a brilliant bibliophile and owner of the Red Lion bookshop – into the adventure of an already adventurous lifetime. The ancient writings tell of a stolen fortune in Montezuma’s gold, and of the thief’s transformation from conquistatore to alchemist … to werewolf. Riches beyond imagining possibly await the stalwart globe-trotter who can solve the intricate riddles hidden in the artifact’s crumbling pages. But a deadly curse is buried there as well, and villainous treasure hunters who would eagerly kill for the secrets and the Aztec gold.

THE STEEL WAVE by Jeff Shaara – Gen. Dwight Eisenhower once again commands a diverse army that must find its single purpose in the destruction of Hitler’s European fortress. His primary subordinates, Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery, must prove that this unique blend of Allied armies can successfully confront the might of Adolf Hitler’s forces, who have already conquered Western Europe. On the coast of France, German commander Erwin Rommel fortifies and prepares for the coming invasion, acutely aware that he must bring all his skills to bear on a fight his side must win. But Rommel’s greatest challenge is to strike the Allies on his front, while struggling behind the lines with the growing insanity of Adolf Hitler, who thwarts the strategies Rommel knows will succeed.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

CATHEDRAL OF THE SEA by Ildefonso Falcones – This historical novel about medieval Barcelona follows the fortunes of the Estanyol family, from their peasant roots to a son, Arnau, who flees the land only to realize spectacular wealth and devastating problems. Barcelona is dominated by the construction of the city’s great pride – the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar – and by its shame, the deadly Inquisition. Arnau joins the powerful guild of stone-workers and helps to build the church with his own hands, while his best friend and adopted brother Joan studies to become a priest. When Arnau is betrayed and hauled before the Inquisitor, he finds himself face-to-face with his own brother.

CODEX 632: THE SECRET IDENTITY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS by José Rodrigues Dos Santos – When Thomas Noronha, a professor of history and an expert cryptographer, is called upon to finish an unresolved investigation involving an aged scholar who is found mysteriously dead in his hotel room, his life takes several unexpected and dramatic turns. As Thomas slowly begins to unravel the cryptograms and enigmas that shroud the old professor’s work, he finds a code that could possibly change the course of historical scholarship. In his quest to decipher it, Thomas travels around the world, immersing himself in the history of the discovery of the Americas, and the one enigma that no historian has ever been able to solve: the true identity of Christopher Columbus.

SEPULCHRE by Kate Mosse – In 1891, young Léonie Vernier and her brother Anatole arrive in Rennes-les-Bains, in southwest France, at the invitation of their widowed aunt, whose mountain estate, Domain de la Cade, is famous in the region. But it soon becomes clear that their aunt – and the Domain – are not what Léonie had imagined. The villagers claim that Isolde’s late husband died after summoning a demon from the old Visigoth sepulchre high on the mountainside. A book from the Domain’s cavernous library describes the strange tarot pack that mysteriously disappeared following the uncle’s death. But while Léonie delves deeper into the ancient mysteries of the Domain, a different evil stalks her family: one which may explain why Léonie and Anatole were invited to the sinister Domain in the first place.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? by Morgan Spurlock – Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is a jittery father-to-be with a simple question: If Bin Laden is behind 9/11 and all the ensuing worldwide chaos, then why can’t we just catch him? And furthermore, why is his message so compelling to so many people? So the intrepid Spurlock kisses his anxious wife goodbye and – armed with a complete lack of knowledge, experience or expertise – sets out to make the world safe for infantkind and find the most wanted man on earth. After boning up on his basic knowledge of Bin Laden, Islam and the global war on terror – and learning how to treat “sucking chest wounds” in a “Surviving Hostile Regions” training course – he hits the Osama trail.

THE HOST by Stephanie Meyer – Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human, but there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Unable to separate herself from her body’s desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she’s never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

MADAM PRESIDENT AND THE ADMIRAL by Carl Nelson – ”Let me play this back,” President Cass said as she scanned her advisors. “Russia and China are poised to fight over a border dispute and an oil pipeline. If war breaks out, they will need to replace that oil. They expand by taking the Spratly Islands, then take control of the mid-East oil trade route and risk a world war? China fights Russia and takes us and Taiwan on at the same time? None of it makes sense.” She took a deep breath. “I have followed China and this is out of character. This could be about oil or property, or both, but my take is it’s about something else. Something we’ve never faced before. As commander-in-chief, I will decide.”

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

THE WHOLE TRUTH by David Baldacci – Nicolas Creel is a man on a mission. He heads up the world’s largest defense contractor, The Ares Corporation. Dick Pender is the man Creel retains to “perception manage” his company to even more riches by manipulating international conflicts. But Creel may have an even grander plan in mind. Shaw, a man with no first name and a truly unique past, has a different agenda. Reluctantly doing the bidding of a secret multi-national intelligence agency, he travels the globe to keep it safe and at peace. Willing to do anything to get back to the top of her profession, Katie James is a journalist who has just gotten the break of a lifetime: the chance to interview the sole survivor of a massacre that has left every nation stunned.

THE DISAGREEMENT by Nick Taylor – It is April 17, 1861 – the day that Virginia secedes from the Union and the 16th birthday of John Alan Muro. As the Commonwealth erupts in celebration, young Muro sees his dream of attending medical school in Philadelphia shattered by the sudden reality of war. Muro’s father, believing that the Disagreement will pass, sends his son instead to Charlottesville. Jefferson’s University of Virginia has become a haven of rogues and dilettantes, among them Muro’s roommate, Braxton Baucom III, a planter’s son who attempts to strike a resemblance to General “Stonewall” Jackson. Medical students like Muro are pressed into service at the Charlottesville General Hospital, where the inexperienced Dr. Muro saves the life of a Northern lieutenant, earning the scorn of his peers. As the war progresses, Muro takes up yet another cause: winning the affections of the beguiling Miss Lorrie Wigfall. Here, too, Muro faces a cunning adversary.

THE LOCKTENDER’S HOUSE by Steven Sherrill – Janice Witherspoon’s stagnant life is abruptly upended by the senseless death of her boyfriend thousands of miles away. Fueled by shock, she gathers her belongings from the North Carolina apartment they shared and takes to the road, intending to meet the soldier’s body on its journey back from the Iraqi desert. But something drives Janice farther and farther off course. When after a mechanical and emotional breakdown she finally comes to a stop, Janice finds herself deep in rural Pennsylvania, on the grounds of an abandoned lockhouse. Days turn to months, and then she finally lets down her guard, opening her doors to the inhabitants of her new province: Stephen Gainy, a reclusive art teacher and stone carver, and a spectral, alluring woman with a beautiful voice. But as Janice grows closer to both Stephen and the elusive minstrel, her calm gives way to a flood of terrifying blackouts, inexplicable accidents, and nightmares.

STRIKE FORCE by Dale Brown – Rebel Iranian Gen. Hesarak al-Kan Buzhazi is launching a coup that could destroy Iran’s theocratic regime, and must turn to his old nemesis, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Patrick McLanahan, for help. On presidential authority, McLanahan sends a new, top-secret fleet of XR-A9 Black Stallion spaceplanes into the fray. The strike force, capable of virtually instantaneous global reach – led by test pilot and astronaut Capt. Hunter Noble – could change the course of history in the Middle East for generations to come. But the reactivation of America’s first military space station has rekindled fears of a space arms race. And with McLanahan caught in a furious political battle with those secretly working to undermine his military initiative, it falls to Noble and his dedicated space engineers to halt a growing insurgency in Iran that threatens to erupt into a devastating worldwide jihad.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

THE FORGERY OF VENUS by James Gruber – Painter Chaz Wilmot is suddenly working with a fervor he hasn’t felt in years, but his burst of creative activity is accompanied by strange interludes: Without warning, he finds himself reliving moments from his past – not as memories, but as if they are happening all over again. Soon, it is no longer his own past he’s revisiting; he believes he can travel back to the 17th century, where he lived as the Spanish artist Diego Rodríguez de Silva Velázquez, one of the most famous painters in history. Wilmot begins to fantasize that as Velázquez, he has created a masterpiece, a stunning portrait of a nude. When the painting actually turns up, he doesn’t know if he painted it or if he imagined the whole thing.

VIEWPOINTS CRITICAL by L.E. Modesitt Jr. – This is the first story collection ever from the bestselling fantasy and science fiction writer L. E. Modesitt Jr. He began publishing as a short story writer in the SF magazines in the 1970s, mostly in Analog. Some of the earliest stories are kernels for his early SF novels, others display the wide range of his talents and interests, from satire to military adventure. This collection includes selections of stories from his entire career, as well as three new stories that have never been published before: “Black Ordermage,” set in the world of Modesitt’s bestselling Recluce series; “Beyond the Obvious Wind,” set in his Corean Chronicles universe; and “Always Outside the Lines,” which is related to the Ghosts of Columbia books.

THE SUDOKU PUZZLE MURDERS by Parnell Hall – Cora Felton, the Puzzle Lady (who actually couldn’t solve a crossword puzzle to save her life), is surprisingly good at sudoku, so it’s no problem when a Japanese publisher asks her to write a sudoku book. But when two Japanese publishers show up in Bakerhaven to vie for her services, Cora is a little confused. Which one did she actually sign with? Which one has the stunning geisha wife? And which one is about to be arrested for murder? The two men are archenemies, but would they stoop to murder? Someone is littering the town with sudoku, crossword puzzles and dead private eyes. It’s up to Cora, to solve the puzzle before the killer strikes again.

LAVINIA by Ursula K. Le Guin – In THE AENEID, Vergil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word in the poem. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills. Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner – that she will be the cause of a bitter war – and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to make her own destiny, and she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life.

HOLD TIGHT by Harlan Coben – Tia and Mike Baye never imagined they’d become the type of parents who spy on their kids. But their 16-year-old son Adam has been unusually distant lately, and after the suicide of his classmate Spencer, they can’t help but worry. They install a sophisticated spy program on Adam’s computer, and within days are jolted by a message from an unknown correspondent addressed to their son: “Just stay quiet and all safe.” Meanwhile, browsing through an online memorial for Spencer put together by his classmates, Betsy Hill is struck by a photo that appears to have been taken on the night of her son’s death … and he wasn’t alone. She thinks it is Adam Baye standing just outside the camera’s range; but when Adam goes missing, it soon becomes clear that something deep and sinister has infected their community.

LORD OF LIES by David Zindell – The seventh and youngest Valeri, Valashu Elahad, noble warrior and prince of the royal house of Mesh, has sought the mythical Lightstone in a quest to stop the dreaded Dark Angel Morjin from enslaving all of Ea. With his stalwart companions, Val braved great dangers and fought many battles in their search for this elusive totem. And find the sacred object they did. But sometimes fulfilling a quest doesn’t bring serenity but instead madness untold. Now that the Lightstone has finally been found, Morjin will use all of his talents to get it back. Val’s victory in Argattha was only the beginning of a war with Morjin.

THE FINDER by Colin Harrison – Here is the story of a young, beautiful, secretive Chinese woman, Jin-Li, who gets involved in a brilliant scheme to steal valuable information from corporations in New York City. When the plan is discovered by powerful New Yorkers who stand to lose enormous sums of money, Jin-Li goes on the run. Meanwhile, her former lover, Ray Grant, a man who was out of the country for years but has recently returned, is caught up in the search for her. Ray has not been forthcoming to Jin-Li about why he left New York or what he was doing overseas, but his training and strengths will be put to the ultimate test against those who are unmerciful in their desire to regain a fortune lost. Ray is going to have to find Jin-Li, and he is going to have to find her fast.

THE ADVENTURES OF INDIANA JONES by Campbell Black, James Kahn and Rob Macgregor – With bullwhip in hand, Indiana Jones has unearthed a wealth of ancient treasures. In RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, the fearless archeologist journeys from Nepal to Cairo to the Mediterranean, dodging poisons, traps, and snakes, battling rivals old and new – all in pursuit of an ancient artifact that holds the key to dazzling, invincible power. INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM finds our intrepid hero in a remote village in India, where a mysterious old shaman tells him that his arrival has been foreseen – and that he must retrieve a stolen mystical stone. And finally, Indy must face the most challenging and personal endeavor of his life: rescue his estranged father, the eminent professor Dr. Henry Jones, from a Nazi’s lair, and recover the legendary Holy Grail. Yet INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE doesn’t mean the adventure is over.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

WHITECHAPEL GODS by S.M. Peters – Two gods; one chance for mankind. In Victorian London, the Whitechapel section is a mechanized, steam-driven hell, cut off and ruled by two mysterious, mechanical gods: Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock. Some years have passed since the Great Uprising, when humans rose up to fight against the machines, but a few brave veterans of the Uprising have formed their own Resistance – and are gathering for another attack. For now they have a secret weapon that may finally free them – or kill them all…

STAR WARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE – REVELATION by Karen Traviss – Jacen Solo’s shadow of influence has threatened many, especially those closest to him. Jaina Solo is determined to bring her brother in, but in order to track him down, she must first learn unfamiliar skills from a man she finds ruthless, repellent, and dangerous. Meanwhile, Ben Skywalker, still haunted by suspicions that Jacen killed his mother, Mara, decides he must know the truth, even if it costs him his life. And as Luke Skywalker contemplates once unthinkable strategies to dethrone his nephew, the hour of reckoning for those on both sides draws near. The galaxy becomes a battlefield where all must face their true nature and darkest secrets, and live – or die – with the consequences.

PERFECT FAMILY by Pam Lewis – Pony Carteret has always been a strong swimmer. So when she is discovered drowned at the family’s summer home on Lake Aral, Vermont, her red hair tangled in an anchor chain and her baby abandoned on shore, her family is stunned by disbelief. As the police conduct their investigation, neither sister has any information, and ultimately the police rule the drowning an accident. But William Carteret, Pony’s older brother, can’t accept the explanation that his favorite sister’s death was an accident. Determined to uncover the truth, he eventually learns the disturbing fact that a stranger had been present at the house the evening Pony died. Who was this man, what was he doing at the house, and why hasn’t he stepped forward?

WRATH OF A MAD GOD by Raymond E. Feist – The Darkwar rages upon Midkemia and Kelewan, bringing bleak days of destruction and despair. To save the future of both worlds, the powerful sorcerer Pug and select members of the secretive Conclave of Shadows must journey deep into the dangerous realm of the bloodthirsty Dasati, there to carry out an audacious mission that has little, if any, chance of succeeding. In Midkemia, young warriors Tad and Zane, and their fellow soldiers, protect the Kingdom from raiders. And Pug’s beloved wife, Miranda, finds herself a prisoner of the Dasati and, even more ominously, of Pug’s nemesis, the evil sorcerer Leso Varen.

SO HELP ME GOD by Larry D. Thompson – Miraculously awakening from a 12-year coma, television evangelist Thomas Jeremiah Luther eagerly resumes his worldwide ministry while secretly plotting to seize control of conservative Christian political power in America. When a teenage member of Luther’s congregation almost dies from an abortion, he convinces her family to file a multimillion-dollar medical malpractice case against the physician and abortion clinic. The right verdict will shut down abortion clinics all over the country and send the religious right and power brokers of all stripes flocking to his door.

THE GENIUS by Jesse Kellerman – Ethan Muller is struggling to establish his reputation as a dealer in the cutthroat world of contemporary art, when he stumbles onto a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: In a decaying New York slum, an elderly tenant named Victor Cracke has disappeared, leaving behind a staggeringly large trove of original artwork. Nobody can say anything for certain about Cracke, except that he lived in solitude for nearly 40 years, his genius hidden and unacknowledged. All that is about to change. So what if the art doesn’t belong to Ethan? He can sell it – and he does just that, mounting a wildly successful show. Buyers clamor. Critics sing. Museums are interested. Then things go to hell. Suddenly the police want to talk to him. It seems that Victor Cracke had a nasty past, and the drawings hanging in the Muller Gallery have begun to look a lot less like art and a lot more like evidence.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

LOST SOULS by Lisa Jackson – Four girls have disappeared at All Saints College in less than two years. All four were troubled, vulnerable girls with no one to care about them, no one to come looking if they disappeared. The police think they’re runaways, but Kristi Bentz senses there’s something that links them, something terrifying. All Saints has changed a lot; the stodgy Catholic college has lured edgy new professors to its campus and gained a reputation for envelope-pushing, with classes like the very popular “The Influence of Vampirism in Modern Culture and Literature,” and elaborately staged morality plays that feel more like the titillating entertainment of some underground club than religious spectacles. And there are whispers of a dark cult on campus whose members wear vials of blood around their necks and meet in secret chambers – rituals to which only the elite have access.

IMPLIED SPACES by Walter Jon Williams – Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself. Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmesssa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

BLOOD TIES by Pamela Freeman – A thousand years ago, the Eleven Domains were invaded and the original inhabitants forced on the road as Travelers, belonging nowhere, welcomed by no-one. Now the Domains are governed with an iron fist by the Warlords, but there are wilder elements to the landscape which cannot be controlled and which may prove their undoing. Some are spirits of place, of water and air and fire and earth. Some are greater than these. And some are human. As the stories of a village girl, a safeguarder’s apprentice and an enchanter unfold, along with the stories of those whose lives they touch, it becomes clear that they are bound together in ways that not even a stonecaster could foresee – bound by their past, their future, and their blood.

THE DEAD PLACE by Stephen Booth – “This killing will be a model of perfection. An accomplishment to be proud of. And it could be tonight or maybe next week. But it will be soon. I promise.” The anonymous phone calls indicate a disturbed mind with an unnatural passion for death. Cooper and Fry are hoping against hope that the caller is just a harmless crank having some sick fun. But the clues woven through his disturbing messages point to the possibility of an all-too-real crime … especially when a woman vanishes from an office parking garage. But it’s the mystery surrounding an unidentified female corpse left exposed in the woods for over a year that really has the detectives worried. Whoever she might have been, the dead woman is linked to the mystery caller, whose description of his twisted death rituals matches the bizarre manner in which the body was found.

THE HOUSES OF TIME by Jamil Nasir – David Grant has a singular talent: He can affect the course of his dreams. Quite by chance, he discovers the existence of the Trans-Humanist Institute and their lucid dreaming lessons. He discovers that under the tutelage of Dr. Thotmoses he has more control over his dreams. However, his talent soon runs away with him and he visits dreamplaces while awake. The waking world and the dreaming world collide. Grant ends up sedated in a hellish mental institution … but escapes through his lucid dreams, which he is beginning to control – though the control is far from perfect. Grant discovers, to his horror, that Dr. Thotmoses belongs to the Caucasus Synod Western Orthodox Church, and that they have been grooming him because of his fantastic dreaming talents.

COMPULSION by Jonathan Kellerman – A tipsy young woman seeking aid on a desolate highway disappears into the inky black night. A retired schoolteacher is stabbed to death in broad daylight. Two women are butchered after closing time in a small-town beauty parlor. These and other bizarre acts of cruelty and psychopathology are linked only by the killer’s use of luxury vehicles and a baffling lack of motive. The ultimate whodunits, these crimes demand the attention of LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his collaborator on the crime beat, psychologist Alex Delaware. What begins with a solitary bloodstain in a stolen sedan quickly spirals outward in odd and unexpected directions, leading Delaware and Sturgis from the well-heeled center of L.A. society to its desperate edges; across the paths of commodities brokers and transvestite hookers; and as far away as New York City, where the search thaws out a long-cold case and exposes a grotesque homicidal crusade.

BLIND FALL by Christopher Rice – John Houck became a Marine to become a hero. But his life changed when he failed to notice an explosive device that ended up maiming the captain of his Force Recon Company, a respected Marine who nearly sacrificed himself to save John’s life. Home from Iraq, John pays a visit to his former captain, only to discover the captain has been gruesomely murdered. John pursues a strange man he sees running from the scene, but he discovers that Alex Martin is not the murderer. Alex is, in fact, the former captain’s secret male lover and the killer’s intended next victim. When it becomes clear that local law enforcement has direct connections to the murder itself, John realizes that to repay his debt of honor, he must teach Alex Martin how to protect himself, even if that means teaching Alex to kill.

M by Jon J. Muth – Behind every great suspense thriller lurks the shadow of M. In Fritz Lang’s first sound film from 1931, Peter Lorre delivers a haunting performance as a serial killer – a whistling pedophile hunted by the police and brought to trial by the forces of the Berlin underworld. In 1990, a young painter, Jon J. Muth, continued his rise in the comic book industry by adapting the story of M into a four-issue comic book miniseries. Muth’s photorealistic illustrations paved the way for the acceptance of painted comics, influencing a generation of artists who followed him. Long out of print, these four issues are collected together for the first time as a hardcover graphic novel.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED: THE FIRST LAW – BOOK TWO by Joe Abercrombie – Superior Glokta has a problem. How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, when your allies can by no means be trusted, and your predecessor vanished without a trace? It’s enough to make a torturer want to run if he could even walk without a stick. Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem: He commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world.

THE ALIBI MAN by Tami Hoag – The Palm Beach elite go to great lengths to protect their own – and their own no longer includes Elena Estes. Once upon a time a child of wealth and privilege, Elena turned her back on that life. Betrayed and disillusioned by those closest to her, she chose the life of an undercover cop, the hunt for justice her own personal passion. Then a tragic, haunting mistake ended her career. Now Elena exists on the fringes of her old life, but a shocking event is about to draw her back into the painful vortex she’s fought so hard to leave behind.

THE ACCIDENT MAN by Tom Cain – For a certain sum of money, Samuel Carver will arrange a death. A ruptured gas line, an automobile crash, a fall from a window; anything can look like an accident. But when Carver is to carry out a job in a tunnel in Paris, and when the job goes wrong for him, and when he is pursued by the very forces that hired him, Carver must execute his most daring feat yet. THE ACCIDENT MAN races above and below the streets of Paris, across Europe, and through storms at sea.

THE ELYSIUM COMMISSION by L.E. Modesitt – A brilliant scientist on the planet Devanta has created a small universe contiguous to ours, and a utopian city on one of the planets. But a utopia for whom? Blaine Donne is a retired military special operative now devoted to problem-solving for hire. He investigates a series of seemingly unrelated mysteries that arise with the arrival of a woman with unlimited resources who has neither a present nor a past. The more he investigates, the more questions arise, including the role of the two heiresses who are more – and less – than they seem, and the more Donne is pushed inexorably toward an explosive solution and a regional interstellar war.

TWISTED by Andrea Kane – Former FBI Special Agent Sloane Burbank trains law enforcement and private organizations in crisis resolution. But when one of her closest childhood friends mysteriously disappears, and the woman’s devastated parents beg for her help, Sloane takes the case, even though her ex-lover Derek Parker is the FBI agent in charge. Parker has no time to spare for a year-old case he sees as a dead end. He’s pursuing the leader of a Chinese gang and trying to solve a series of grisly murders in Chinatown. But as more women disappear and others turn up brutally murdered, Derek’s priorities shift, and he and Sloane come to the sickening realization that these random crimes are linked to the same crazed killer.

THE NIGHT FOLLOWING by Morag Joss – Driving along a winding country road, the wife of a doctor fails to see 61-year-old Ruth Mitchell riding her bicycle. She hits her, killing her instantly. And drives away. The hit-and-run driver is never found. But the doctor’s wife, horrified by what she has done, begins to unravel. Soon she turns her attention to Ruth’s bereaved husband, a man staggering sleeplessly through each night, as unhinged by grief as the killer is by guilt. Arthur Mitchell does not realize at first that someone has begun watching him through his windows, worrying over his disheveled appearance, his increasingly chaotic home. And when at last she steps through his doorway, he is ready to believe that, for reasons beyond his understanding, his wife has somehow been returned to him.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE GAME’S AFOOT edited by David Stuart Davies – In 20 new adventures, the celebrated detective, along with his friend and biographer Dr. Watson, investigate a variety of baffling mysteries that will delight fans of the famous sleuth. Striding through the foggy gas lit streets of London, Holmes tackles such cases as the puzzle of the Green Skull, the secret of the Brown Box, the conundrum of the Dragon of Lea Lane, as well as coming face to face once again with the Sussex Vampire. We also learn what really happened at the Reichenbach Falls when Holmes had his fateful encounter with Professor Moriarty. David Stuart Davies, Denis O. Smith, Mark Valentine, Matthew Booth, M.J. Elliott and the other talented writers who have contributed to this collection have followed closely in the footsteps of Arthur Conan Doyle.

AIRMAN by Eoin Colfer – Conor Broekhart was born to fly. In the 1890s, Conor and his family live off the Irish coast, where he spends his days studying the science of flight with his tutor and exploring the castle with the king’s daughter, Princess Isabella. But the boy’s idyllic life changes forever the day he discovers a conspiracy to overthrow the king. When Conor tries to expose the plot, he is branded a traitor and thrown into jail on the prison island of Little Saltee. There, he has to fight for his life as he and the other prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in inhumane conditions. There is only one way to escape Little Saltee, and that is to fly. So he passes the solitary months by scratching drawings of flying machines into the prison walls. Eventually the day comes when Conor must find the courage to trust his revolutionary designs and take to the skies.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

THE FIRST PATIENT by Michael Palmer – Gabe Singleton is a country doctor and his friend Andrew Stoddard has gone from war hero to President of the United States. One day, Marine One lands on Gabe’s Wyoming ranch, and President Stoddard delivers a disturbing revelation and a startling request. His personal physician has suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, and he desperately needs Gabe to take the man’s place. It is not until he is ensconced in the White House medical office that Gabe realizes there is strong evidence that the President is going insane. Facing a crisis of conscience, Gabe uncovers increasing evidence that his friend’s condition may not be due to natural causes.

THE NEW WEIRD edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer – This avant-garde anthology that presents and defines the New Weird – a hip, stylistic fiction that evokes the gritty exuberance of pulp novels and dime-store comic books – creates a new literature assembling an array of talent, including contributions from visionaries Michael Moorcock and China Miéville, modern icon Clive Barker, and audacious new talents Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, and Sarah Monette. An essential snapshot of a vibrant movement in popular fiction, this anthology also features critical writings from authors, theorists, and international editors, as well as witty selections from online debates.

THE OUTLAW DEMON WAILS by Kim Harrison – To save the lives of her friends, Rachel did the unthinkable: She willingly trafficked in forbidden demon magic. And now her sins are coming home to haunt her. As Rachel searches for the truth behind a terrifying murder, an even greater menace threatens, for the demon Algaliarept will stop at nothing to claim her, and the discovery of a shocking family secret throws Rachel’s entire life into question. If she is ever to live free, Rachel must first walk willingly into the demonic ever-after in search of long-lost ancient knowledge.

GOODBYE SISTER DISCO by James Patrick Hunt – Police detective Lt. George Hastings is back at work with the FBI on a new case: Cordelia Penmark, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, has been kidnapped and her boyfriend callously executed outside of a posh holiday party for his law firm. The target and the ransom demand indicate that the crime is politically motivated, but the investigators are stumped. Wary because of bad blood among members of the woman’s family, and suspicious of the kidnappers’ intentions, Hastings knows that there’s more than simple politics in play.

ANOTHER THING TO FALL by Laura Lippman – A TV crew has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since its arrival on location in Baltimore: bad press, union threats and small, costly on-set “accidents” that have wreaked havoc with its shooting schedule. As a result, its creator, Flip Tumulty, is worried for the safety of his young female lead, Selene Waites, and asks private investigator Tess Monaghan to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. Tumulty’s concern may be well-founded. Not long ago a Baltimore man was discovered dead in his own home, surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making.

THE SINAI SECRET by Gregg Loomis – A scientist in Amsterdam – murdered. Another scientist in Atlanta – murdered, and his journal stolen. At first, Lang Reilly seemed to be the only connection: Both scientists worked for his foundation. But when someone took a shot at Lang to scare him away, it only made him more determined to find the truth. Lang’s search will lead him along a twisted trail to Brussels, Cairo, Vienna, Tel Aviv … and deep into the secrets of the past. With the balance of power in the Middle East at risk, Lang has to stay alive long enough to find the answer to a mystery that has puzzled historians for centuries.

THE UNDEAD KAMA SUTRA by Mario Acevedo – Felix Gomez returned from the war in Iraq a changed man: once a soldier, now forever a vampire. So the undead underworld put his skills to work as a private detective, specializing in the sordid, the sexy, and the supernatural. After surviving aliens, nymphomaniacs and X-rated bloodsuckers, it’s high time for a vacation. Now the aliens are back in a fiendish conspiracy with the U.S. government, and only Felix stands between them and the Earth women they covet. But when an army hit man attacks Felix and the bodacious vampire sexpert, Carmen, not even the astonishing erotic powers of the Kama Sutra for the Undead may be able to save them.

THE STARS DOWN UNDER by Sandra McDonald – Chief Terry Myell and Lt. Comm. Jodenny Scott have been assigned to duty on the planet Fortune, away from the huge ships that carry colonists from the wreckage of polluted Earth to clean new worlds across the galaxy. But there’s another way besides spaceships to travel from world to world. A group within Team Space is exploring the Wondjina Spheres, a set of ancient alien artifacts that link places and times. Now those spheres have shut down and Team Space thinks that Terry and Jodenny are part of the key to make them work again. They can volunteer, or be “volunteered.” As a result, they will be tested to their limits and beyond.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

THE ANCIENT by R.A. Salvatore – Searching for his long-lost father, Bransen Garibond is tricked into journeying across the Gulf of Corona to the wild lands of Vanguard, where he is pressed into service in a desperate war against the brutal Samhaist, Ancient Badden. On an Alpinadoran lake, just below Ancient Badden’s magical ice castle, several societies, caught in the web of their own conflicts, are oblivious to Ancient Badden’s devastating plans to destroy them.

STANDARD OF HONOR by Jack Whyte – In 1187, one of the few survivors of the Battle of Hattin, young Scots Templar Alexander Sinclair, escapes into the desert despite his wounds. Sinclair has learned about the execution of the surviving Templars after the battle, so when he is rescued, he says nothing of his own standing among the Order of the Temple. Sinclair is one of the Inner Sanctum of the Order-a member of the ancient Brotherhood of Sion, a secret society within the secret society.

DEATH’S HEAD by David Gunn – Sven Tveskoeg, an ex-sergeant demoted for insubordination and sentenced to death, is a vicious killer with a stubborn streak of loyalty. Sven possesses a fierce if untutored intelligence and a genetic makeup that is 98.2 percent human and 1.8 percent … something else. Perhaps that “something else” explains how quickly he heals from even the worst injuries or how he can communicate telepathically with the ferox, fearsome alien savages whose natural fighting abilities regularly outperform the advanced technology of their human enemies.

CHRIST THE LORD: THE ROAD TO CANA by Anne Rice – Rice’s second book of Christ begins during his last winter before his baptism in the Jordan and concludes with the miracle at Cana. Legends of a virgin birth have long surrounded Jesus – or Yeshua – yet for decades, he has lived as one among many who come to the synagogue on the Sabbath. All who know and love him find themselves waiting for some sign of the path he will eventually take. And at last we see him emerge from his baptism to confront his destiny – and the Devil.

ENEMY COMBATANT by Ed Gaffney – In the trial of the decade, attorney Tom Carpenter was just a spectator. Until, to his own astonishment, Tom finds himself thrust into a case primed to explode. The whole world thinks Tom’s new client is guilty of the worst act of terrorism since 9/11 – except for one shadowy figure, who feeds Tom astounding inside information. The only way to survive – and the only hope for justice – is for Tom to crack a terrifying conspiracy so vast and so powerful that anyone who believes it has already been marked to die …

FIRES RISING by Michael Laimo – The church waits in darkness. It looks abandoned, forgotten. It has no congregation, but it is not empty. Under its floor, in a pit dug long ago, lies a wooden crate that was never meant to be unearthed. But the church is finally being renovated and workmen have found the pit. Father Pilazzo is overseeing the renovation of the old church. His dream is to see it restored to its former glory. But his dream is becoming a nightmare. He’s begun to see horrific visions, unholy images of death and warnings of terrors to come. And within the church, forgotten men fight to survive against impossible demons.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

DELICATE CHAOS by Jeff Buick – As the vice-president of a Washington, D.C., bank, Leona Hewitt knows her new position will have greater responsibilities. She doesn’t know they may cost her life. Her boss made it pretty clear that he expects her to approve a particular conversion for one of their largest corporate clients, no matter how questionable it may seem to her. Both the head of the bank and the head of the corporation have a lot to lose if this doesn’t go through … and they’re not about to let anything or anyone get in their way. As Leona races to stay one step ahead of the killer on her trail, the only man who can help keep her alive is fighting for his own life halfway around the world.

THE POTENTIAL HAZARDS OF HESTER DAY by Mercedes Helnwein – Hester Louise Day: high school graduate, almost-wife, would-be mother, soon to be wanted for kidnapping a 10-year-old with a comb-over. Apprehensive about spending the rest of her existence in a void of nothingness in Nowheresville, Fla., where she currently lives with her painfully intrusive family, she decides to tip her life over into any kind of surrealism she can lay her hands on.

ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE ARCTIC EVENT by James H. Cobb – On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, researchers discover the wreckage of a mysterious World War II-era aircraft, a discovery that forces the Russian Federation into a shocking admission. The unmarked plane is a Soviet strategic bomber that disappeared with its crew more than 50 years ago while carrying two metric tons of weaponized anthrax. Desperate to prevent a political and diplomatic firestorm, the U.S. president dispatches a Covert-One team led by Lt. Col. Jon Smith to the crash site. But others have reached the frigid, windswept island first, including an international arms dealer and his crew of vicious mercenaries.

THE ARCHIMEDES CODEX: HOW A MEDIEVAL PRAYER BOOK IS REVEALING THE TRUE GENIUS OF ANTIQUITY’S GREATEST SCIENTIST by Reviel Netz and William Noel – At a Christie’s auction in 1998, a battered medieval manuscript sold for $2 million to an anonymous bidder. The manuscript was a palimpsest – a book made from an earlier codex whose script had been scraped off and the pages used again. Behind the script of the 13th-century monk’s prayer book, the palimpsest revealed the faint writing of a much older, 10th-century manuscript: the earliest surviving manuscript by Archimedes, the greatest mathematician of antiquity.

WHAT THE DEAD KNOW by Laura Lippman – Thirty years ago, the two Bethany sisters, ages 11 and 15, disappeared from a Baltimore shopping mall. They never returned, their bodies were never found, and only painful questions remain. Now, decades later, in the aftermath of a rush-hour hit-and-run accident, a clearly disoriented woman is claiming to be the younger Bethany sister. Not a shred of evidence supports her story, and every lead she reluctantly offers takes the police to another dead end: a dying, incoherent man; a razed house; a missing grave. But there is something she knows about that terrible day …

WAKING BRIGID by Francis Clark – Young Brigid Rourke is a beautiful Irish nun. Driven by the ravages of the famine, Brigid’s family chose to give the girl up to the service of the Church to ensure her survival. But in order to do that, she had to reject her people’s pagan ways. Brigid’s resolve is tested when a prominent Savannah citizen is cruelly murdered behind a locked and bolted door in an insane asylum. The last words of the man chilled the blood of all who heard him, and the fact that he was murdered while he was alone in the cell defies all logical reason. What follows is nothing less than an amazing clash between the forces of good and evil-dedicated white magicians versus the entrenched devil worshippers – for the soul of a city.

THE LABRADOR PACT by Matt Haig – The Hunters are your typical family, with typical concerns – work, money, love, the trials of adolescence – with one difference: They are protected by a highly determined dog, their black Labrador, Prince. Prince views it as his sacred duty to defend his family and to guard its integrity. But what is he to do when the family’s worst enemies are themselves? As Prince uses every canine resource to keep the Hunter clan together, he finds himself confounded by the odd behavior of the humans he loves. To save the family, Prince must betray the ancient Pact of the Labradors – a decision that may cost him everything.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

VICTORY CONDITIONS by Elizabeth Moon – Commander Kylara Vatta is back – locked and loaded and ready to win the fight against the marauding forces of ruthless space pirate Gammis Turek. For Ky, it’s not just about liberating the star systems subjugated by Turek and defending the rest of the galaxy’s freedom. There’s also a score to be settled and payback to be meted out for the obliteration of the Vatta Transport dynasty … and the slaughter of Ky’s family. But the enemy have their own escalation efforts under way – including the placement of covert agents among the allies with whom Ky and the surviving Vattas are collaborating in the war effort.

OFF ARMAGEDDON REEF by David Weber – Humanity pushed its way to the stars – and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out. Earth and her colonies are now smoldering ruins, and the few survivors have fled to distant, Earth-like Safehold, to try to rebuild. But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they’ve built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever. 800 years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens.

THE EYE OF JADE by Diane Wei Liang – Present day, Beijing. Mei Wang is a modern, independent woman. Her short career with China’s prestigious Ministry for Public Security has given her intimate insight into the complicated and arbitrary world of Beijing’s law enforcement. But it is her intuition, curiosity, and her uncanny knack for listening to things said – and unsaid – that make Mei Beijing’s first successful female private investigator. Mei is no stranger to the dark side of China. She was six years old when she last saw her father behind the wire fence of one of Mao’s remote labor camps. Perhaps as a result, Mei eschews the power plays and cultural mores – guanxi – her sister and mother live by … for better and for worse.

UNLEASHED by Kristopher Reisz – Daniel Morning seems perfect. Then Daniel meets Misty. She’s smoky, rebellious, tender … and much more. She decides to let him into her pack of outcasts – and in on their little secret: She and her friends have learned to shapeshift, and have been prowling the night as wolves. Daniel soon falls in love with the primal sensation of shifting, just as he’s falling in love with Misty. The freedom to follow his most basic instincts is like nothing he’s ever felt. But Daniel will slowly come to realize that such freedom comes at a price.

DARKHOUSE by Alex Barclay – One year has passed since a kidnapping drama exploded into violence on a New York street. And for NYPD detective Joe Lucchesi, the memory of that terrible moment is still alive. Joe’s wife, Anna, has brought him and their teenage son to Ireland, hoping to repair their fragile marriage – and cut the cord between Joe and the job. But when the girlfriend of their son vanishes, Joe begins to suspect that the crime may have its roots in his old life – and that someone has followed him all the way there. An outsider in Ireland, Joe watches with rising apprehension as local cops try to solve the disappearance – and then reacts with fury when his son becomes the leading suspect.

SHAPESHIFTER by J.F. Gonzalez – Mark Wiseman has been living with the curse for years. He thought he had it under control. He thought he had kept it secret from everybody. Until Bernard Roberts, a powerful, influential man, came into his life. Bernard knows about the curse that runs through Mark’s veins. He knows how Mark’s parents were killed eight years ago. He knows Mark was officially cleared in their deaths, but is holding the card that could cast Mark as a serious suspect in their murders. And if Mark wants Bernard to keep these things secret he must do what Bernard tells him. He must use his curse to kill. For Mark is a Shapeshifter, a werewolf, who must yield to the primal instinct buried deep within him on every lunar cycle …

PEBBLE IN THE SKY by Isaac Asimov – One moment Joseph Schwartz is a happily retired tailor in Chicago, 1949. The next he’s a helpless stranger on Earth during the heyday of the first Galactic Empire. Earth, as he soon learns, is a backwater, just a pebble in the sky, despised by all the other 200 million planets of the Empire because its people dare to claim it’s the original home of man. And Earth is poor, with great areas of radioactivity ruining much of its soil – so poor that everyone is sentenced to death at the age of 60. Joseph Schwartz is 62. This is young Isaac Asimov’s first novel, full of wonders and ideas, the book that launched the novels of the Galactic Empire, culminating in the FOUNDATION series. This is Golden Age SF at its finest, now reissued in hardcover.

FANGLAND by John Marks – In a marvelously horrifying turn, John Marks – a former 60 MINUTES producer – sinks his satirical teeth into 21st-century media. In Fangland, Evangeline Harker is an employee of the legendary TV news magazine THE HOUR. Sent on assignment to Transylvania, she delivers more than a story when mysterious e-mails, coffins, and a creepy guy named Torgu descend on the New York office. Now in trade paperback, this darkly funny tale will appeal to vampire and horror aficionados as well as anyone who’s fed up with what passes for “news” today.

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar!

SAINT-GERMAIN: MEMOIRS by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro – Saint-Germain is one of the genre’s most memorable vampires. In this collection, follow the dark immortal from ancient Greece to the present as the tales of his timeless life are recounted. Also included is a brief essay by the author about her world-renowned vampire, with an introduction by Sharon A. Russell.

DEATH COMES FOR THE FAT MAN by Reginald Hill – Barreling his way into an investigation of possible terrorist activities, Superintendent Andy Dalziel is caught in the blast of a huge explosion at a video shop — and only “Fat Andy’s” considerable bulk prevents his colleague, Chief Inspector Peter Pascoe, from suffering a similar fate. Now Dalziel lies on a hospital bed barely clinging to life, while Pascoe remains determined to find those responsible. But the truth is not always cut-and-dried, and sometimes those who are sworn to terror’s destruction are even more dangerous than the foe they wish to annihilate.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS: ONE GRUMP’S SEARCH FOR THE HAPPIEST PLACES IN THE WORLD by Eric Weiner – Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor and part twisted self-help guide, the book takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author’s case, moments of “un-unhappiness.” The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in all that cash?Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, N.C. so damn happy?

THE DEAD OF SUMMER by Camilla Way – “Admit how your pulse quickens when you see those headlines: murder spree of schoolgirl loner; boy, 13, rapes classmate; child, 10, stabs pensioner.” So says narrator Anita Naidu, and she should know. At 13, Anita was the sole witness to London’s notorious cave murders of 1986, which left three children dead. Told seven years later to the police psychologist who interviewed her at the time of the killings, Anita’s story reveals the savagery of the schoolyard one chilling detail at a time until the truth of what actually happened reveals itself with startling ferocity. Set against the bustling, tourist-packed streets of historic Greenwich, this novel examines sinister events that happen, quite literally, right below the surface.

AN ABSOLUTE GENTLEMAN by R.M. Kinder – Meet Arthur Blume: charming guy, small-town college English professor, struggling writer, and occasional murderer. In this chilling debut novel, acclaimed author R.M. Kinder draws on her firsthand experience of dating a convicted murderer to brilliantly channel the voice of a polite, even sympathetic man who just happens to be a serial killer. It opens in a prison cell, where Arthur Blume is hard at work writing an account of his life–one stained in places with abuse and cruelty, but also characterized by everyday banality. Only as the plot unravels do the chinks in Arthur’s armor of normality begin to surface, and the monster beneath the pleasant façade appears as Arthur closes in on his next victim.

CITY OF GLORY by Beverly Swerling – Poised between the Manhattan woods and the sea that is her gateway to the world, the city of 1812 is vibrant but raw. Patrick Turner, dashing war hero and brilliant surgeon, loses his hand to a British shell, retreats to private life, and hopes to make his fortune in the China trade. To succeed he must run the British blockade; if he fails, he will lose not only a livelihood, but the beautiful Manon, daughter of a Huguenot jeweler who will not accept a pauper as a son-in-law. When stories of a lost treasure and a mysterious diamond draw him into a treacherous maze of deceit and double-cross, and the British set Washington ablaze, Joyful realizes that more than his personal future is at stake.

LET ME IN by John Ajvide Lindqvist – It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last – revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day. But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door – a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night …

Buy it at Amazon.

Who’s Marvel Comics got on tap to spotlight in this October’s ESSENTIAL edition? Could it be … Satan?

Nope. It’s THE SON OF SATAN. Pulling a rabbit out of the obscure hat, Marvel will collect the exploits of Daimon Hellstrom and his sister Satana in ESSENTIAL HORROR: VOL. 1. Why it’s not called ESSENTIAL SON OF SATAN is a little beyond me, since Marvel Comics generally don’t sit side by side on store shelves with LEFT BEHIND novels. Seems like the title would be more scandalous decades ago when the comic series began, when rock ‘n’ roll was still considered evil.

But I digress. ESSENTIAL HORROR is promised to feature “exorcists, cyclists, nihilsts and ice demons,” to reveal to secrets of ancient Atlantis and to guest-star the Human Torch, the Thing and, yep, Spider-Man. The anthology collects the first eight issues of SON OF SATAN, along with GHOST RIDER #1-2; MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #12-24; MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #14; MARVEL TEAM-UP #32, 80-81; VAMPIRE TALES #2-3; THE HAUNT OF HORROR #2, 4-5; and MARVEL PREMIERE #27. Look for it just before Halloween, natch.

Buy it at Amazon.
Discuss it in our forums.

Home to such imprints at The Black Library (”Read till you bleed”) and Black Flame (”Tough fiction for a tough planet”), the none-more-black BL Publishing has announced its fall 2006 release schedule of cult fiction, heavy on original tie-in novels for the WARHAMMER fantasy games and various New Line Cinema horror franchises.

Between October and December, the WARHAMMER novels include DAWN OF WAR: TEMPEST by C.S. Goto, THE CORRUPTED by Robert Earl (October), a TALES FROM THE DARK MILLENNIUM anthology featuring Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill (November), ORCSLAYER by Nathan Long, GOTREK & FELIX: THE SECOND OMNIBUS by William King, MARK OF CHAOS by Anthony Reynolds, THE ARMOUR OF CONTEMPT by Dan Abnett, HIS LAST COMMAND (also by Abnett) and DEATH’S LEGACY by Sandy Mitchell.

In early 2007, the WARHAMMER worlds continue with DEATH WORLD by Steve Lyons, THE SOUL DRINKERS OMNIBUS by Ben Counter and WITCH KILLER by C.L. Werner.

On the New Line side of things, Halloween sees the publication of RIPPED FROM A DREAM: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET OMNIBUS, collecting three Freddy Krueger novels (SUFFER THE CHILDREN, DREAM SPAWN and PROTÉGÉ) in one specially priced volume, and Alex S. Johnson’s FINAL DESTINATION: WIPEOUT hits in January of next year.

Other fall titles of interest include I AM THE LAW: THE JUDGE DREDD OMNIBUS, due in November and containing the novels DREDD VS. DEATH, BAD MOON RISING and BLACK ATLANTIC, and December’s SLÁINE: THE EXILE, a new, Conan-style sword-and-sorcery offering from Steven Savile.

BOOKGASM has a few Black Flame reviews coming soon for you, include new Jason Voorhees books. For more information on any of the forthcoming titles or to pre-order, just click any of the links above. Go on, we dare you.

The GRAPHIC CLASSICS line of illustrated literature first burst onto the comics scene in 2001 with a volume dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe. It sold out, as did the revised second edition, so June will see the release of the third edition of GRAPHIC CLASSICS: EDGAR ALLAN POE.

With 40 new pages not seen in the previous volumes, this POE features new comics adaptations of “King Pest,” “The Premature Burial,” “The Imp of the Perverse” and a 10-artist tag-team treatment of “The Raven.” Artists for this edition include Anton Emdin, Marcel de Jong, Joe Ollmann, Lance Tooks, Michael Manning, J.B. Bonivert, Mary Fleener and many more.

It’s up for pre-order, and you can preview four pages after the jump.

Buy it at Amazon.

Read more »

Next year, the intrepid rights hunters at Hard Case Crime will put David Goodis back into print with THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN, which has never been published since it first came out in paperback in 1955.

Editor Charles Ardai said the acquistion wasn’t easy. “Today the book is only available from dealers who usually charge between $50 and $150 for a copy! Then we went hunting for the Goodis Estate, which wasn’t easy to track down for a variety of reasons. But to make a long story short, after months of work we were finally able to find them and persuade them to let us publish this long-lost Goodis novel.”

Goodis is perhaps best known as the author of DARK PASSAGE, which became the classic film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, which was adapted for the screen by Francois Truffaut. His other novels include THE MOON IN THE GUTTER, NIGHTFALL and THE BLONDE ON THE STREET CORNER.

In other Hard Case news, the winner of its “Paint My Dame!” cover contest with FHM magazine has been announced. The winner was Gigi Valiant, whose painted form will adorn Hard Case’s December title, THE PEDDLER. You can see Gigi – both in the flesh and on the canvas – after the jump.

Read more »

There’s something wrong with the world when a third book in Dean Koontz’s ODD THOMAS series is announced before a third book i