October 26, 2006

End of Story, by Peter Abrahams (William Morrow)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover-to-Cover", April 2006)

"A creative-writing class in a maximum-security prison becomes a crucible for intrigue."

.....

False Impression, by Jeffrey Archer (St. Martin's)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover-to-Cover", April 2006)

"A murder on the eve of 9/11 sparks a globe-spanning search for—what else?—a priceless Van Gogh."

.....

One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson (Little, Brown)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", November 2006)

"Atkinson hit the jackpot again, putting her skill with complex plots to excellent use, in a literary mystery infused with her characteristic quirk and verve."

.....

Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes (Knopf)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd ("New Fiction," January/February 2006)

"Barnes sidelines his immense cleverness to pursue a more conventional but sweepingly ambitious whodunit. He transforms an obscure historical footnote...into a mesmerizing investigation of the Anglo-Saxon character."

.....

Restless, by William Boyd (Bloomsbury)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", November 2006)

"[An] espionage thriller and domestic drama by one of the very best prose stylists and storytellers in the English language."

.....

Pegasus Descending, by James Lee Burke (Simon and Schuster)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ( "Cover to Cover," July/August 2006)

"Detective Dave Robicheaux navigates New Orleans (and his newfound sobriety) while on the trail of a mysterious counterfeiter."

.....

Two Little Girls in Blue, by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster)
Reviewed by Jon Zobenica ("Dark Passage", September 2006)

"Clark has crafted a tight thriller...and her use of coincidence, near misses, investigative breaks, and criminal double crossing is nothing short of masterly—so much so that it feels a bit too schematic, as technically precise as the workings of a clock."

.....

Promise Me, by Harlan Coben (Dutton)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", June 2006)

"Entertainment agent Myron Bolitar finds himself mired in mystery after the disappearance of a teenage girl."

.....

Crime Beat, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", June 2006)

"A collection of newspaper articles from the mystery novelist's former career as a police reporter."

.....

True Confessions, by John Gregory Dunne (Thunder's Mouth Press)
Reviewed by Jon Zobenica ("Dark Passage", September 2006)

"An achievement of Robert Townean proportion...so bleak and beautiful...The book is a masterpiece."

.....

The Afghan, by Frederick Forsyth (Putnam)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", September 2006)

"A British special-forces operative tries to infiltrate al-qaeda in order to avert a terrorist attack of 9/11-like scale."

.....

When the Devil Holds the Candle, by Karin Fossum (Harcourt)
Reviewed by Jon Zobenica ("Dark Passage", September 2006)

"Combining the deadly ennui of Camus's Stranger with elements of Stephen King's Misery and Hitchcock's Psycho, this is an engagingly repulsive book."

.....

The Foreign Correspondent, by Alan Furst (Random House)
Reviewed by B. R. Myers ("A Man of Action ", June 2006)

"He has the ability to invent plots that work all on their own, which is, as Somerset Maugham once pointed out, a very rare gift indeed."

.....

What Came Before He Shot Her, by Elizabeth George (HarperCollins)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", November 2006)

"Another winner from the current master of the classic English mystery."

.....

Hand in Glove, by Robert Goddard (Delta)
Reviewed by Jon Zobenica ("Dark Passage", September 2006)

"On a sentence level, Goddard's writing is determinedly unshowy, but any author who can manage so complex an array of characters (themselves admirably complex), who builds suspense around a hidden map to buried treasure, and who casts moustache-twirling Spanish fascists in the role of uber-baddies, knows how to have a good time."

.....

The Shape Shifter , by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", June 2006)

"The discovery of a long-lost rug drags Joe Leaphorn out of retirement and into a once-closed investigation."

.....

A Death in Belmont , by Sebastian Junger (Norton)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", May 2006)

"How The Perfect Storm's author's mother came face-to-face with the Boston Strangler—and lived to tell the tale."

.....

Forgetfulness, by Ward Just (Houghton Mifflin)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", October 2006)

"[Just] trains his considerable skill on making the political personal with regard to terrorism. Written in a style both taut and reflective, this is suspense of the highest order."

.....

Damnation Street, by Andrew Klavan (Harcourt)
Reviewed by Jon Zobenica ("Dark Passage", September 2006)

"Klavan's confidently wry style keeps things punched up throughout...If having this much fun with a tale of assassination and romantic melancholy is wrong, who wants to be right? "

.....

The Mission Song, by John le Carré (Little, Brown)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", October 2006)

"From the master of the spy novel comes yet another story about an unlikely hero, this time a multilingual interpreter based in London. The subject of The Mission Song is Africa...and the author's affection for that troubled continent is palpable."

.....

The Man Who Smiled, by Henning Mankell (New Press)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", October 2006)

"The cantankerous and depressive (but still, somehow, tremendously appealing) Swedish Inspector Kurt Wallander is contacted by an old acquaintance who wants Wallander's help in looking into the suspicious death of his father. When the acquaintance is himself murdered, Wallander comes out of a self-imposed retirement to solve both cases."

.....

Fiddlers, by Ed McBain (Harcourt)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover-to-Cover", April 2006)

"In the fifty-fifth (and final) book in the late McBain's 87th Precinct series, the shooting of a blind violinist launches a manhunt for a serial killer."

.....

Eye Contact, by Cammie McGovern (Viking)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", June 2006)

"An autistic boy is the only witness to a murder."

.....

Fortunate Son, by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", May 2006)

"The lives of a privileged white boy and a sickly black boy converge and diverge unexpectedly in this novel from the creator of the Easy Rawlins mysteries."

.....

Fear of the Dark, by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", October 2006)

"Fans of Mosley's Easy Rawlins stories will find in this new series all of the author's usual strengths: a dark glimpse at the pervasive racism of 1950s America, relaxed prose with moments of tight brilliance, and dialogue that makes you feel like you're living the story firsthand."

.....

City of Tiny Lights, by Patrick Neate (Riverhead)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover-to-Cover", April 2006)

"A Ugandan-Indian detective (and former Afghan mujahid) searches for a missing Russian prostitute in contemporary London."

.....

Havana Black, by Leonardo Padura (Bitter Lemon Press)
Reviewed by Jon Zobenica ("Dark Passage", September 2006)

"A revelation...this is simply a lush, frank, captivating murder mystery."

.....

The Poe Shadow, by Matthew Pearl (Random House)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", June 2006)

"A literary thriller from the author of The Dante Club probes the mysterious circumstances of Edgar Allan Poe's death."

.....

The Night Gardener, by George Pelecanos (Little, Brown)
Reviewed by Jon Zobenica ("Dark Passage", September 2006)

"Pelecanos manages...to evoke Chandler himself, without being at all retro or self-conscious about it. A host of supporting characters...help flesh out this deeply human tale, which doesn't shy from the unexpected discoveries and laudably unsatisfying resolutions of all great noir."

.....

Nighlife, by Thomas Perry (Random House)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover-to-Cover", April 2006)

"A Portland, Oregon, homicide detective hunts a female serial killer who changes identities as casually as she dispatches her victims."

.....

Brandenburg Gate, by Henry Porter (Grove/Atlantic)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover-to-Cover", April 2006)

"In the last days of divided Berlin, a Stasi-agent-turned-art-scholar runs from his cloak-and-dagger past, fending off entreaties from British intelligence and the CIA."

.....

The Interpretation of Murder, by Jed Rubenfeld (Holt)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", September 2006)

"Sigmund Freud tours New York in 1909 and turns his analytical powers to solving high-society crimes. Although the plot is fictional, the author...drew extensively on Freud's letters and published works in writing his dialogue."

.....

Dirty Blonde, by Lisa Scottoline (HarperCollins)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover-to-Cover", April 2006)

"A federal judge finds her secret sex life infringing on her caseload."

.....

The Ruins, by Scott Smith (Knopf)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ( "Cover to Cover," July/August 2006)

"Two vacationing American couples find terror in an old Mayan settlement, in the second novel from the author of A Simple Plan."

.....

The Devil's Feather, by Minette Walters (Knopf)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ( "Cover to Cover," July/August 2006)

"A foreign correspondent tracks a serial killer from Sierra Leone to Iraq to the U.K."

.....

Hollywood Station , by Joseph Wambaugh (Little Brown)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", December 2006)

"Wambaugh, one of the originators—if not the originator—of the modern police novel, returns after a long hiatus to the fictionalized inner workings of the LAPD. Here he tracks a series of seemingly unrelated stories in the jurisdiction of L.A.'s Hollywood Station, and offers all the characteristic Wambaugh magic: unlikable and conflicted characters we grow to love; a perfect mix of good guys and bad (and a confusion, sometimes, about which are which); and small vignettes that tie together seamlessly by the end."

.....

Scene of the Crime: Photographs from the LAPD Archive, by Tim Wride, James Ellroy, William J. Bratton (Harry N. Abrams)
Reviewed by Jon Zobenica ("Dark Passage", September 2006)

"An inescapably gruesome book...many of the scenes involve crimes of passion, and it's partly the quotidian settings that make these photos so disturbing."

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