Partners' Picks:
Reviews and Recommendations
The Dog Who Knew Too Much: A Rachel Alexander and Dash
Mystery
by Carol Lea Benjamin, Walker & Co. (1997) SIGNED $21.95
Winner of the Shamus Award for Best First Novel for THIS DOG FOR HIRE, Benjamin is well on
her way to becoming even more of a household word (she writes some of the most intelligent
books on dog-training ever encountered by humans). Her second novel opens with a rather
dreamy, Zen pace in keeping with the study of t'ai chi practiced by the mysteriously dead
woman whose last days private detective Rachel Alexander is hired to investigate. But when
Rachel and Dash (her partner and pit bull) move into the dead woman's Greenwich Village
apartment, things heat up in a hurry and drive to a suspense-filled climax.
A Crime in the Neighborhood
by Suzanne Berne, Algonquin Books (1997) $17.95
There's nothing nostalgic or sepia-toned about this superbly written coming-of-age story
set in a quiet suburb of Washington, D. C. during a hot summer in the 1970s. The race
riots and Watergate scandals that are rocking the Capitol have little impact on this
neighborhood where everybody knows everyone else and few folks ever bother to lock their
doors when they go out. Ten-year-old Marsha, immobilized with a cast on her leg, passes
the sultry days on her front porch watching and recording in her journal the comings and
goings and odd behavior of the man who recently moved in next door. Then the neighborhood
and the lives of everyone in it are forever changed when the body of a young boy, raped
and murdered, is discovered in the brush behind the mall. Author's first novel.
My Ride with Gus
by Charles Carillo, Pocket Books (1997) $5.99
It's New Year's Eve, you've just busted up with your girlfriend at Windows on the World,
and there's a dead woman lying in your SoHo loft -- who you gonna call? Architect Jimmy
Gambar calls his brother Gus "Ghost" Gambuzza, after a silence of twenty years
and across the distance that separates Manhattan from Brooklyn, as measured only by a New
Yorker. You gotta read it.
Choosers of the Slain
by James H. Cobb, Berkley Publishing Group (1997) $6.99
The year is 2006 and Argentina launches an armed invasion against Antarctica, in a sneak
attack ventured to secure the seventh continent's untapped natural resources. An untried
USS Cunningham, the Navy's newest addition to its twenty-first century arsenal, is docked
in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, and her untried commander is Amanda Lee Garrett. The
ensuing blue-water battles showcase high-tech military gadgets still on the drawing boards
as well as the tenacity and bravery of the Cunningham's crew. First-rate military suspense
with convincing characters and the setting of Antarctica--with winter coming on!
A Killing in Quail County
by Jameson Cole, Harlequin (1997) $4.99
This author's first novel is a wonderful coming-of-age story set in Oklahoma in the late
1950's. A teenage boy, with the help of his pals, sets out to catch a bootlegger, solve a
murder and win the respect of his older brother.
The Case Has Altered: A Richard Jury Mystery
by Martha Grimes, Henry Holt (1997) SIGNED $24.00
Grimes fans will be pleased to hear that Richard Jury has returned to England. In this
latest tale, he investigates the accusation that Jenny Kensington, whom he has long loved,
is behind the murders of two women. The author is in top form and her touchstone crew of
eccentrics carries on with understated (!) bravura in this complex and satisfying 13th
Richard Jury novel.
Dark Ride
by Kent Harrington, St. Martin's (1997) $5.99
Harrington steps boldly into James M. Cain/Jim Thompson territory and gives us a modern
nest-of-vipers noir thriller. Former high school golden boy Jimmy Rogers has failed to
fulfill his early promise. His drift into the marginal reaches of local society
accelerates into a downward spiral fueled by adultery, kinky sex, drugs, booze - and
murder.
Skull Session
by Daniel Hecht, Viking Press (1998) $23.95
Paul Skoglund is so desperate for work that he agrees to restore his aunt's mansion in
Westchester, the scene of past family trauma. Suffering from the tics and compulsions of
Tourette's syndrome, Paul enlists the aid of his danger-loving girlfriend and invites his
young son to the project. In case any of this sounds tame, fasten your seat belt and get
ready for a 3-g ride with this brilliant and unexpectedly intellectual thriller! Author's
first novel.
Lucky You
by Carl Hiassen, Knopf (1997) SIGNED $24.00
Welcome to Grange, Florida: home of the Road-Stain Jesus, the Weeping Madonna and the
Stigmata Man! Hiassen tackles roadside miracles as well as the Florida Lottery and the
journalism biz in his latest satirical romp through the dark side of the Sunshine State. A
jackpot of $28 million is split by two ticket-holders; one, a kindly veterinarian's
assistant and the second by a psychopathic redneck and his buddy who want the entire prize
to start their own militia before NATO troops invade North America. Guess who wins?
A Gathering of Saints
by Christopher Hyde, Pocket Books (1997) $6.99
It's hardly news that the espionage genre has fallen on hard times of late, but readers in
search of intelligent offerings will be delighted by this new paperback, set during the
London Blitz of WW II. Hyde, who (under a pseudonym) wrote last year's knockout WATCH ME,
knows how to keep the action moving as a serial killer imposes a layer of fear on a
population already paralyzed by Hitler's Luftwaffe. Upping the ante for Detective
Inspector Black of Scotland Yard is the unavoidable suspicion that the killer knows --
ahead of time -- where the Germans are going to bomb.
A Certain Justice : An Adam Dalgliesh Mystery
by P. D. James, Knopf (1997) SIGNED $25.00
In P. D. James' first new novel in over two years, Adam Dalgliesh takes us into the
labyrinthine milieu of The Law. When distinguished criminal lawyer Venetia Aldridge
defends a young man for the brutal murder of his aunt, the case is simply another
opportunity to demonstrate her genius for advocacy in the courtroom. But when Venetia is
found dead in chambers, blood-soaked, bewigged and done in with a paper knife, Commander
Dalgliesh and his team must unravel the hidden passions and unruly secret lives of her
colleagues, family and lover. James constructs a complete world peopled with an
exceptionally convincing cast of characters in this brilliantly plotted novel.
Except the Dying
by Maureen Jennings, St. Martin's (1997) $23.95
Even if you're not a fan of period mysteries, we're betting that you just might be swayed
by Jennings' assured and colorful first novel, set in the economically depressed Toronto
of 1895. She has created a colorful, almost Dickensian cast of characters led by a
likeable hero, Police Inspector William Murdoch, who, coming out of a two-year period of
mourning for his dead sweetheart, fights his crushing loneliness by enrolling in a dance
class and practicing his waltz steps late at night in his shabby rented room. When the
naked body of a pregnant serving girl is discovered in a snow-covered street, Murdoch's
weeklong search for answers takes him from the drawing rooms and private clubs of the
elite to the miserable hovels of streetwalkers and immigrants.
O Sacred Head
by Nicholas Kilmer, Henry Holt & Co. (1997) $23.00
The third -- and best -- in the series featuring Cambridge, Massachusetts art expert Fred
Taylor, is that rare book that will please fans of both tough guys and art mysteries, as
the cops call on Fred to identify and perhaps explain a lurid but possibly valuable
painting that figured unpleasantly in a particularly grisly murder. Kilmer, himself an art
dealer, knows his art and his mean streets, but best of all he knows where the two
collide, complete with forgers, smugglers, unscrupulous collectors and the dealers who
feed their habits at any cost. The first two books in the series, HARMONY IN FLESH AND
BLACK and MAN WITH A SQUIRREL, are also outstanding.
Caught in a Rundown: A Novel Introducing Jewel Averick and
Dee Sweet
by Lisa Saxton, Scribner (1997) SIGNED $21.00
"The bases are loaded with humor and suspense when Jewel and Dee, the wives of two
major-league baseball players, team up to locate the legendary Two-Mile McLemore, a star
from the old Negro Leagues who disappeared without a trace after a brief but meteoric
career. The two women could not have less in common--Jewel is beautiful, selfish and
capricious, but proud of her African-American heritage; Dee is a white-bread former prom
queen lost in her husband's shadow. Clues laced with baseball lore, mysterious bad guys
also looking for McLemore, and a few home truths have Saxton hitting this one into the
stands."
A Brother's Blood
by Michael C. White, Harperperennial (1997) $13.00
Life holds no surprises for 60-year-old Libby Peletier, who runs the local beer'n'bait in
this small Maine logging town -- when she is not bailing her younger brother out of the
drunk tank. The last exciting thing that happened here was WWII, when German POWs were
brought in to cut timber, and one escaped, only to drown in the icy waters of Socatean
Bay. Now that the Berlin Wall is down, the dead man’s brother has come to Maine to
ask questions and, it seems, stir up increasingly uncomfortable memories. With its remote
setting and elegiac echoes of the past, this exquisitely written first novel may remind
readers of Snow Falling on Cedars.
