Bantam

The Wedding Officer: A Novel by Anthony Capella (Bantam 01 May 2007 / $22.00) - Product Description: In the sumptuous tradition of Chocolat and Captain Corelli's Mandolin, and already optioned for a major motion picture, comes a magical tale of romantic passion, culinary delight—and Italy.

Captain James Gould arrives in wartime Naples assigned to discourage marriages between British soldiers and their gorgeous Italian girlfriends. But the innocent young officer is soon distracted by an intoxicating young widow who knows her way around a kitchen...Livia Pertini is creating feasts that stun the senses with their succulence—ruby-colored San Marzana tomatoes, glistening anchovies, and delectable new potatoes encrusted with the black volcanic earth of of Campania—and James is about to learn that his heart may rank higher than his orders. For romance can be born of the sweet and spicy passions of food and love—and time spent in the kitchen can be as joyful and exciting as the banquet of life itself!

Berkley

A Killer Stitch by Maggie Sefton (Berkley 01 May 2007 / $21.95) - Book Description: The House of Lambspun has been bombarded for the holidays. Then an alpaca sheep rancher is found dead in Bellevue Canyon-and knitter and sometime-sleuth Kelly Flynn quickly puts Yuletide frivolities aside.

With the deceased's reputation for loving and leaving the ladies of Fort Connor, many women had a motive to kill him. Kelly also finds herself linked to the prime suspect, a former lover of the wealthy playboy rancher. Charged with keeping both spinner and spurned from going over the edge, Kelly will discover more than a few secrets tangled on this triad's bobbin. (see review)

In Plain Sight by C. J. Box (Berkley 01 May 2007 / $7.99) - Book Description: When wealthy matriarch Opal Scarlett vanishes, Joe Pickett is sure one of her greedy sons did her in. But when Joe becomes the victim of violent pranks, he wonders if what's happening has less to do with Opal's disappearance than with the darkest chapter of his own past. (see review)

Kiss of Death by Linda Palmer (Berkley 01 May 2007 / $7.99) - Book Description: When her best friend is arrested for the murder of her boyfriend's ex, soap writer Morgan Tyler gets into hot water for meddling. Then a veteran actor's return spells drama.

Mrs. Jeffries and the Best Laid Plans by Emily Brightwell (Berkley 01 May 2007 / $6.99) - Book Description: A friendless old miser, banker Lawrence Boyd, is found dead at home. Called to the scene, Inspector Witherspoon is lucky to have Mrs. Jeffries's help-since the list of suspects includes just about everyone Boyd's ever met.

Organize Your Corpses by Mary Jane Maffini (Berkley 01 May 2007 / $6.99) - From back of book: Charlotte Adams is a professional organizer. Nothing is out of place in her closets...but her life's a mess. So she's dumped her cheating ex-fiancé, moved back home, and started making up to-do lists--some of which include solving the occasional murder...

There's no love lost between Miss Helen "Hellfire" Henley and pretty much the whole town of Woodbridge, New York. But just because she was a terror of a teacher doesn't mean she'd make a bad client. She just inherited an old house that she wants cleaned out, and Charlotte needs the money. But the job turns into a major nightmare when Charlotte learns she can't just toss the years of accumulated junk away-she has to dig through it to find some important documents left to Miss Henley. Instead, she finds her former teacher dead under a pile of debris that plagued her, and there's no end of suspects--starting with Charlotte herself. (Includes organizing tips.) (see review)

Poisoned Petals (Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries) by Joyce and Jim Lavene (Berkley 01 May 2007 / $6.99) - Book Description: Peggy Lee is just about to deliver some endangered sunflowers to Darmus Appleby when a gas explosion blows out his door-and Peggy finds her fellow botanist dead on the kitchen floor. Two weeks later his brother dies, with an overpoweringly sweet purple hyacinth tucked in his pocket. Now Peggy must follow her nose-and some cryptic clues from an internet informant-to root out a killer before he strikes again.

The Saddlemaker's Wife by Earlene Fowler (Berkley 01 May 2007 / $7.99) - Product Description: Ruby McGavin has inherited part of a cattle ranch from her late husband, only to discover that his family is very much alive, in contrast to what he told her. Even as she is drawn to handsome saddlemaker Lucas McGavin, she learns more about her late husband's family-and wonders if she ever really knew him.

Piecing together the truth, Ruby uncovers a legacy of pain and denial that has pursued the McGavin family for too long.

Berkley Hardcover

Tumbling Blocks by Earlene Fowler (Berkley Hardcover 01 May 2007 / $24.95) - Book Description: New in the Agatha Award-winning series! With Christmas just a few weeks away, Benni's queenly boss, Constance Sinclair, demands that she investigate the death of a local socialite. It's not long before Benni recognizes that there may be some deadly truth to Constance's suspicions. But with a famously reclusive artist about to put Benni's quilting museum on the map-and her daunting mother-in-law and her "surprise" new husband visiting-Benni's holiday is already hectic. Nevertheless, she'll need to crack the exclusive circle of suspects before one more gourmet goose gets cooked. (see review)

Berkley Trade

A Killing in Comics by Max Allan Collins (Berkley Trade 01 May 2007 / $14.00) - From back of book: Manhattan, 1948. Wonder Guy, soaring superhero, represents all that is good about postwar America. But underpaid cartoonists Harry Spiegel and Moe Shulman feel bad about publisher Donny Harrison making a killing from their creation. Then, celebrating his birthday dressed in Wonder Guy's signature caped costume, Donny suddenly collapses onto a cake knife--and discovers the super suit does not grant him the hero's invulnerability.

Glamorous Maggie Starr is America's most famous ex-striptease artist. In a way, the diva is still "stripping"--running her late husband's newpaper syndicate, distributing the Wonder Guy comic strip. Stepson Jack Starr, her V.P. and chief troubleshooter, doesn't need X-ray vision to see Donny's "accident" is murder. Together, they must find a killer among caroonists, wives, mistresses, and minions of a different sort of "syndicate"--suspects with motives that are anything but superheroic. (see review)

Busted Flush Press

Miami Purity by Vicki Hendricks (Busted Flush Press 01 May 2007 / $16.00) - Product Description: The ''modern noir masterpiece'' is now back in print! Hot and scrappy Sherri Parlay gives up her life of depravity, and with best intentions, finds a respectable job as a dry cleaner in hopes for a decent future. But nature and nurture plot against her when she meets the beautiful, tortured, and rich young Payne, who tempts her with the love and life she never thought possible. Even Brenda, Payne's domineering mother, can't keep the lovers apart when Sherri's animal passions take control. Unfortunately, Payne is not only a different kind of man from those in Sherri's past, he's worse than any on her list of sordid affairs. Twisted psychology and a pure heart lead her into the dark realm of disillusionment and crime, where she reaches into her deepest reserves for the strength to survive. This contemporary noir novel is reminiscent of James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, with a heavy dose of sexual realism that Cain might have enjoyed if his times would have allowed.

Capital Crime Press

Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues by Robert Fate (Capital Crime Press May 2007 / $14.95) - From back cover: When a Texas oil heiress goes missing and bodies begin to fall it is up to newly-licensed P.I. Kristin Van Dijk and her cantankerous partner, Otis millett, to confront dangerous Beaumont gangsters, prying Dallas cops, slick crooked lawyers, and a buxom waitress who smells like Evening in Paris. (see review)

Delta

In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard (Delta 29 May 2007 / $12.00) - Product Description: Six months after her husband's sudden death, Leonora Galloway sets off for a holiday in Paris with her daughter Penelope. At last the time has come when secrets can be shared and explanations begin...

Their journey starts with an unscheduled stop at the imposing Thiepval Memorial to the dead of the Battle of the Somme near Amiens. Amongst those commemorated is Leonora's father. The date of his death is recorded and 30th April, 1916. But Leonora wasn't born until 14th March 1917.

Penelope at once supposes a simple wartime illegitimacy as the clue to her mother's unhappy childhood and the family's sundered connections with her aristocratic heritage, about which she has always known so little.

But nothing could have prepared her, or the reader, for the extraordinary story that is about to unfold.

Gotham

Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home by Gil Reavill (Gotham 17 May 2007 / $25.00) - Book Description: A crime writer who thought he could handle anything confronts the worst of everything. Violent and unattended deaths ... suicide ... forensics ... viral pathology ... crime scene myths ... The stories behind Aftermath, Inc. are stranger than fiction, and utterly human and compelling.

Like most people, true-crime writer Gil Reavill had never actually experienced a fresh crime scene. That is, until he met Tim Reifsteck and Chris Wilson, owners of Aftermath, Inc., a company in the new field of "bioremediation." In the mid-80s, when a sea change occurred in the way biohazard clean-up was handled, no one in traditional cleaning or janitorial services would come within ten feet of a blood-spattered crime scene. Into this void stepped lifelong friends Tim and Chris, who filled a desperate need by founding their company. For the guys of Aftermath, no crime scene is too bloody to clean.

Aftermath, Inc. traces their history, introducing their clients and employees, and the cops, coroners, and detectives they encounter in their work. Gil goes on scene and works side by side with the Aftermath technicians. He tells the stories that led up to some of Aftermath's most grisly clean-up jobs, taking us on a journey through the suburban Midwest where the company is based, home to some of the quietest, calmest, most ordinary blocks in the world, which hide much darker undercurrents beneath.

The issues that the Aftermath crew members face on a daily basis range from the mundane (What's the best way to suppress the urge to regurgitate?) to the lofty (How does being exposed to death on a daily basis alter one's personal philosophy?). Reavill approaches his task with respect and compassion, taking as his mantra a line from the Roman poet Terence-- "Nothing human is foreign to me." (see review)

HarperCollins

The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins 01 May 2007 / $26.95) - Book Description: For sixty years, Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of revelations of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. Proud, grateful, and longing to be American, the Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant, gritty, soulful, and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. For sixty years they have been left alone, neglected and half-forgotten in a backwater of history. Now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end: once again the tides of history threaten to sweep them up and carry them off into the unknown.

But homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. He and his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Shemets, can't catch a break in any of their outstanding cases. Landsman's new supervisor is the love of his life—and also his worst nightmare. And in the cheap hotel where he has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under Landsman's nose. Out of habit, obligation, and a mysterious sense that it somehow offers him a shot at redeeming himself, Landsman begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy. But when word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, Landsman soon finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, hopefulness, evil, and salvation that are his heritage—and with the unfinished business of his marriage to Bina Gelbfish, the one person who understands his darkest fears.

At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.

Editor's NOTE: This book is reviewed in the June issue of our sister publication SFRevu.com by our UK Editor John Berlyne.

Llewellyn

Fit To Die: A Supper Club Mystery by J.B. Stanley (Llewellyn 01 May 2007 / $12.95) - Book Description: Welcome back to Quincy's Gap, Virginia, where James Henry and his dieting group contend with dangerous secrets, dark intrigue, and delicious praline sundaes. Six months after starting their low-carb diet, the Flab Five are feeling motivationally-challenged. A new ice cream shop has come to town, but so has the Witness to Fitness weight loss center, run by the fanatical Veronica Levitt. Maybe Veronica's "take-no-prisoners" approach is just what the group needs.

Between dieting, caring for his cranky father, and struggling with his growing affection for Lucy, James has his plate full. But when he and his fellow dieters poke around in an arson case that turns into a murder investigation, the Flab Five discover that they may have bitten off more than they can chew.

A cozy "village" mystery, Fit to Die is the second book in the warm and wonderful Supper Club Mystery series. (see review)

MIDNIGHT INK

Dead Copy: A Cauley MacKinnon Novel by Kit Frazier (MIDNIGHT INK 01 May 2007 / $13.95) - Book Description: Twenty something Cauley MacKinnon is dying to escape the obituary beat and become a real reporter for the Austin Sentinel. Her best chance at a front-page scoop disappeared when she got too close to a case and almost got killed. Cauley also managed to fall for the smoking-hot FBI agent assigned to protect her.

When Special Agent Tom Logan shows up asking for a fake obituary to make a key trial witness disappear, Cauley jumps at the chance to help. After all, shes still watching his dog Tahoe although maybe its the other way around.

Caught in the crossfire on the courthouse steps, Cauley sees the murder of the man whose death she already helped fake. Now someone is making it clear that they don't want Cauley getting any closer to the case unless she wants to wind up on the obituary page herself. (see review)

Swapping Paint: A Stock Car Racing Mystery by Jim Lavene (MIDNIGHT INK 01 May 2007 / $12.95) - Book Description: Glad Wyczhewski lives for three things: NASCAR, cold beer, and his passionate wife, Ruby. Tailing the race circuit in an RV, the newlyweds stop in Concord, North Carolina just down the road from Ruby's hometown for the Coca-Cola 600.

But the excitement of race week stalls when a driver, Ricky Sanders, is found murdered. And to everyones shock, the prime suspect is another rookie driver, Ruby's brother Bobby!

A forty-two-year-old ex-cop from Chicago, Glad would rather party on the infield than get mixed up in a murder investigation. But theres no way he can hold back Ruby as stubborn as she is beautiful from trying to clear Bobby's name. High on adrenaline and exhaust fumes, Glad kicks his detective instincts into overdrive before Ruby's good intentions put them on a collision course with the killer.

MurderWillOut Mysteries

Glitter of Diamonds: A Manziuk and Ryan Mystery by N. J. Lindquist (MurderWillOut Mysteries 07 May 2007 / $24.95) - Book Description: After the local baseball team's temperamental pitcher is killed, police detectives Manziuk and Ryan scramble to stop a murderer swinging a lethal bat in this classic mystery.

NAL Hardcover

Murder With Reservations: A Dead-End Job Mystery by Elaine Viets (NAL Hardcover 01 May 2007 / $21.95) - Book Description: Helen Hawthorne has a knack for keeping a low profile. But in South Florida, it's going to get a lot harder to fly under the radar...

Working at Sybil's Full Moon Hotel in Fort Lauderdale keeps Helen safe and sane. But when a maid is found dead in a Dumpster, those days just might be over. Dead bodies mean another chance for the cops to find her. To make matters worse, her ex-husband is hot on her trail. Sadly, the cops don't seem to care much about a murdered maid-but they take notice of her coworker's shady story. If Helen doesn't manage to dodge their questions and shake off her ex, it could be checkout time. (see review)

Night Shade Books

9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Night Shade Books 15 May 2007 / $14.95) - Book Description: Sergeant Bobby Zha of the SFPD is desperate to find out who murdered him. But he also needs the answers to some other questions. Like, why is he in another man's body? Why is someone trying to kill him, again... And why is he being haunted by a nine-tailed Celestial fox? From the shell-shattered ruins of Stalingrad in 1942 to the present-day politics of San Francisco's Chinatown, 9Tail Fox is evocative of place and crystal-clear in its depiction of character. (see review)

Signet

Diagnosis Murder #8: The Last Word by Lee Goldberg (Signet 01 May 2007 / $6.99) - Book Description: When a young woman falls down a flight of stairs and is left brain dead, her family agrees to donate her organs. Dr. Jesse Travis oversees the grim task, saving several other seriously ill patients. But one of the organ recipients returns to the hospital with a complication no one could have seen coming-West Nile Virus. Soon, other patients who received organs at Community General begin dying of West Nile-related illnesses, and Jesse is suspected as being at fault...

Dr. Mark Sloan knows his friend isn't to blame-and he soon uncovers a conspiracy of greed and personal revenge that may mean the end of his career. (see review)

On The Slam: A Bridge Club Mystery by Honor Hartman (Signet 01 May 2007 / $6.99) - From back of book: Meet Emma Diamond: novice bridge player, recent widow, and the kind of person who never leaves her grocery cart sitting willy-nilly in the parking lot. And now she has a new identity: amateur dectective...

When Emma starts anew in Houston, she figures living next to her best friend of thirty-odd years seems right. Plus, it's a neighborhood gung-ho for bridge -- especially the vile homeowners' association president, a petite tyrant with insensitivity to sapre. But at her first neighborly outing, Emma finds this scathing belle choking in full sight of the bridge tables. No one grieves...until evidence points to poison.. (see review)

The Brothers Of Junior Doyle by E. K. Recknor (Signet 01 May 2007 / $5.99) - Book Description: After his father is gunned down, Paddy Doyle, Jr.'s first instinct is to hunt down those responsible. Lucky for Junior, he has a friend like Wyatt Earp to steer him away from this course of action. So instead, Junior looks into his father's past, hoping to learn something about his mother, who died when he was born. He's shocked to discover that his mother's alive, along with four brothers and a sister he never knew about. And his brothers are anything but the law-abiding kind. When he's brought into the "family business" despite his misgivings, Junior finds himself caught between the law and loyalty.

Soho Press

The Last Enemy by Grace Brophy (Soho Press 01 May 2007 / $23.00) - Book Description: Rita grew up in Brooklyn, the only child of a narcissistic Italian mother and the GI she married at the end of World War II. After her mother's death, she quits her teaching job and descends upon her poor but aristocratic relatives, the Count and Countess Casati, in Assisi. It takes a while before they realize, to their chagrin, that Rita has come to stay. When the family assembles to watch the penitentes procession in the town square during Easter Week, a Casati tradition, Rita does not join them as planned. Her corpse is later found in the family mausoleum.

Alessandro Cenni, a commissario in the State Police of Umbria, and a handsome bachelor whose twin brother is about to become a bishop, must penetrate the secrets of the Casati family and their circle if he is to discover who killed Rita and why. But he is blocked by their powerful right-wing connections, and by a superior who prefers to arrest a scapegoat rather than risk political suicide. Aided by a loyal staff in his quest for that rarity-justice-he still must acknowledge that no one can defeat the last enemy, death itself.

Zoo Station by David Downing (Soho Press 01 May 2007 / $23.00) - Book Description: By 1939, Anglo-American journalist John Russell has spent over a decade in Berlin, where his son lives with his mother. He writes human-interest pieces for British and American papers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported. But as World War II approaches, he faces having to leave his son as well as his girlfriend of several years, a beautiful German starlet.

When an acquaintance from his old communist days approaches him to do some work for the Soviets, Russell is reluctant, but he is unable to resist the offer. He becomes involved in other dangerous activities, helping a Jewish family and a determined young American reporter. When the British and the Nazis notice his involvement with the Soviets, Russell is dragged into the murky world of warring intelligence services.

(see review)

Spectra

BSI: Starside: Death Sentence (Bsi: Starside) by Roger Macbride Allen (Spectra 29 May 2007 / $6.99) - Book Description: They are the elite agents of interstellar investigation and their duty is to preserve and protect humanity throughout the galaxy. They are the men and women of the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) and their case files are literally out of this world.

It was just a simple courier job, but it ended in disaster. More than six months after BSI agent Jamie Mendez's predecessor was sent out on a mission, his ship has been found, the twenty-five-year-old agent inside dead—of old age. The urgent message he sacrificed his life to deliver has survived in the form of a highly encrypted datafile. The encryption has kept the sensitive information safe from alien code-breakers—so far. But with the decryption key lost, the file is just as useless to BSI. Now agents Mendez and Hannah Wolfson must travel off-world in the ill-fated ship on a desperate mission to discover what happened to one of their own . . . and to search for the key to a secret that could set off an interstellar, interspecies war—one that may end with humanity's extinction. (see review)

St. Martin

Only the Cat Knows by Marian Babson (St. Martin 29 May 2007 / $22.95) - Book Description: Vanessa has been rushed to hospital, having been found unconscious at the foot of the stairs. Was it an accident or something else? Now, smiling weakly, suffering from a head injury that has left her with complete amnesia about the fall, the events leading up to it, and even the people closest to her, here she is, back in their midst. Or is she?

In fact, the real Vanessa is still in a coma and her devoted twin brother Vance, superbly disguised as a woman, has taken her place! At the home of the reclusive millionaire who maintained Vanessa, Vance joins the self-absorbed retinue, determined to discover whether one of them had attempted to kill his sister.

There is an unsavory roué who claims to be Vanessa's lover and assorted women who declare themselves her best friends. Others keep silent but seem to be waiting for Vance to put a foot wrong.

Actually, Vance can handle all those. Only one thing really worries him: Gloriana, Vanessa's beautiful Angora cat who regards her "mistress" with a dark suspicion. If the cat can't be won over, then the whole deadly charade will fall apart.

Only the Cat Knows is Babson's latest in a long line of wonderful mysteries offering her special mix of mayhem, murder, and cats! (see review)

St. Martin's Minotaur

A Death in the Venetian Quarter: A Fools' Guild Mystery by Alan Gordon (St. Martin's Minotaur 01 May 2007 / $13.95) - From back of book: In 1203, the ships of the Fourth Crusade, instead of traveling to the Holy Land, show up outside the walls of Constantinople and besiege the city. Within the walls, the jester couple Theophilos and Viola, agents of the Fools' Guild (and working under the names Feste and Aglaia), are on a mission to avert catastrophe.

With disaster looming, the death of one silk merchant in the city's Venetian Quarter seems insignificant. The merchant, however, was not what he appeared to be and, if Constantinople is to have any hope of surviving the armies massed outside its gates, Feste must quickly uncover what forces were at work when the merchant lost his life.

A Fatal Grace: A Three Pines Mystery by Louise Penny (St. Martin's Minotaur 15 May 2007 / $23.95) - From publicity material: A Fatal Grace centers around CC de Poitiers, a compulsively neat, cruel woman who dominates her meek husband and overweight daughter. She has developed her own way of life in which serenity is all important: ugly emotions are to be buried leaving the surface unruffled.

It is Christmastime in Three Pines, and snow covers the charming town. But when the whole town gathers at a frozen lake for the annual curling match, CC is mysteriously killed, the apparent victim of an electrical accident. Inspector Gamache is called in to investigate, and he must use his deductive talents, compassion, and ability to blend seamlessly into small town life, to find the killer lurking in picturesque Three Pines.

City of Fire by Robert Ellis (St. Martin's Minotaur 29 May 2007 / $24.95) - Book Description: When a vibrant young woman is found in bed by her hotshot businessman husband, carved from belly to throat with a very sharp knife, the elite Robbery-Homicide division of the LAPD responds in full force. Best-case scenario for lead Detective Lena Gamble: Nikki Brant's husband killed her, case closed, and on to the next crime scene before the ravenous Hollywood media can get their lurid tabloid machinery up and running.

Unfortunately for Lena, though, she knows that best-case scenarios only happen in the movies. The murder is the first in a series of brutal crimes against beautiful women thought to be perpetrated by the same man, a killer dubbed Romeo in the press. It's the case of a lifetime, and promises to either elevate Lena to the upper echelons of a publicity-hungry department in need of heroes, or bring about a very public and painful fall from grace. Lena has been in the public eye before, on the night her rock-star brother was gunned down on a dark street in Hollywood---an unsolved murder so grisly she's never recovered. She knows the score when the press and the LAPD collide.

As the investigation plays out and a massive forest fire blankets the city with acrid smoke, a cloud of conspiracy descends on Lena's investigation, and she knows she'll have to grind this one out . . . because Nikki Brant's death just breathed new life into more than one closed case . . . because the web of conspiracy is spun more intricately than she can possibly imagine . . . and because Lena knows there's only one rock solid rule to murder in L.A.: The bigger the spectacle, the deeper the horror.

Dead Boyfriends by David Housewright (St. Martin's Minotaur 01 May 2007 / $23.95) - From publicity material: Right up until they put him in jail, McKenzie thought the cops were kidding. After all, he did them a favor by stopping a rookie cop from roughing up a distraught woman at a murder scene. Next thing he knows, he's reliving nightmares he thought he had left far behind him -- and vowing payback. And if that means sticking his nose into a crime investigation, so be it.

What appears to be a straightforward case of a cheating boyfriend, his alcoholic girlfriend and an opportune baseball bat proves far more complicated. As Mac digs deeper, he soon realizes that the truth of this sordid crime maay be as hard to find -- and as hard to live with -- as the justice he seeks.

Gun Shy: A Novel by Ben Rehder (St. Martin's Minotaur 15 May 2007 / $24.95) - Book Description: The National Weapons Alliance rally in support of every American's right to bear arms is meant to garner huge publicity. And the host of the event is none other than the NWA's newest spokesman, handsome country superstar Mitch Campbell.

What nobody suspects is that the Stetson-wearing, gun-toting, bull-riding Campbell is a fraud. He¹s really Norman Kleinschmidt, a pill-popping, snowboarding, former rock-and-roller from Vermont. To Campbell¹s dismay, someone from his past is about to make that secret a big, big problem.

Meanwhile, when an illegal immigrant is killed in a questionable hunting accident just days before the rally, local game warden John Marlin starts to poke around. It¹s not long before an astonishing series of events threatens to bring down the very carefully marketed Mitch Campbell, and maybe the NWA along with him. (see review)

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (St. Martin's Minotaur 29 May 2007 / $24.95) - Book Description: Long a celebrated crime writer in Britain, Ann Cleeves' fame went international when she won the coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger for this amazing suspense novel, Raven Black. Like Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse or Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks, Cleeves' new detective, Inspector Jimmy Perez, is a very private and perceptive man whose bailiwick is a remote hamlet in the Shetland Islands.

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a splash of color on the frozen ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbor, Catherine Ross.

The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man---loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when detective Jimmy Perez and his colleagues from the mainland insist on opening out the investigation, a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbors nervously lock their doors, while a killer lives on in their midst.

Ann Cleeves is sure to dazzle U.S. mystery readers with this unforgettable series debut. (see review)

Sanctuary Hill: A Bay Tanner Mystery (Bay Tanner Mysteries) by Kathryn R. Wall (St. Martin's Minotaur 01 May 2007 / $23.95) - Book Description: Towering live oaks guard old secrets and powerful forces that even the spirited Bay Tanner can't control. . . . A freak summer storm has Bay Tanner, sometime private investigator, cooped up with her ailing father at his antebellum mansion near Hilton Head. Desperate for a distraction, Bay recovers a cooler bobbing along on the incoming tide. What she discovers inside will plunge her into a world of ancient magic where the power of the "root" has held sway since the days of the slave row. Suddenly, mysterious people and strange incidents, including a near-fatal accident, force her to realize that she may have unleashed something she can neither understand nor escape.

Meanwhile, her investigation into the simple case of a runaway wife turns deadly. The police are eager to nail the wealthy, prominent husband for murder, but Bay's instincts tell her there's more to the story. Sheriff's Sergeant Red Tanner, her late husband's brother, warns her off the case, but Bay's never been good at taking orders. Soon she's working full-time to defend her client, who may not be as innocent as Bay would like to believe.

Time and again, every trail leads back to a mystical commune in the tangled backwoods of Beaufort County and to one of its leaders, a charismatic woman who believes in the real and malevolent power of the old ways. To find a killer, Bay must travel to the heart of this woman's world--and not everyone will escape the spell of Sanctuary Hill. (see review)

Saturnalia: A Marcus Didius Falco Novel by Lindsey Davis (St. Martin's Minotaur 15 May 2007 / $23.95) - From book flap: It's A.D. 76 during the reign of Vespasian and the Roman holiday of Saturnalia has begun. The days are short; the nights are for wild parties. But not for Marcus Didius Falco. Falco is an informer by trade--his job is to uncover unwelcome truths and deal with sensitive situations, frequently at the behest of the imperial government. And just such a case has arisen. A general has captured a famous enemy of Rome, and brings her home to adorn his eventual Triumph as a ritual sacrifice. But everything goes wrong from there--first she acquires a mysterious illness, then a young man is horrendously murdered and she escapes form house arrest.

Marcus Didius Falco, hired to find her and return her to custody before Saturnalia is over, is pitted against his old rival, the Chief Spy Anacrites. The two of them are in a race against time to find the fugitive before the public learns of the situation, making the government look stupid. Falco, however, has other priorities. Helena's brother Justinus has also vanished, perhaps fatally involved once more the the great lost love of his youth.

Against the riotous backdrop of the season of misrule, the search seems impossible and only Falco seems to notice that some dark agency is bringing death to the city strees....

SPQR X: A Point of Law by John Maddox Roberts (St. Martin's Minotaur 01 May 2007 / $14.95) - Book Description: Decius Caecilius Metellus is moving up in the world. He's won some money and glory fighting pirates in the Mediterranean and expects a speedy election to the office of praetor.

That all changes when a man he's never seen before publicly accuses him of corruption. Decius and his powerful family of Rome's leading politicians scramble to prepare a defense. However, the day of the trial they are greeted with a strange surprise on the steps of the courthouse: the corpse of the man who made the accusation. Now Decius is up against a much more serious charge of murder. It may cost him his chance to run for office, but not if he can help it.

Roberts once again masterfully sets Decius and his adventures against the background of this famed and crumbling Republic, enriching his story with historical detail and the immortal personalities of the day. (see review)

The Big Boom by Domenic Stansberry (St. Martin's Minotaur 01 May 2007 / $13.95) - Book Description: Set in San Francisco before the high-tech markets went bust, The Big Boom features Dante Mancuso, an obsessive private investigator who works the streets of his hometown where he's known by his nose and his nickname: The Pelican.

Settling in and hoping to settle down, his peace is shattered when an old North Beach family asks him to find their daughter---one of Dante's former sweethearts. Though the case alienates his longtime lover Marilyn Visconte, Dante has no choice but to plunge into the shadows of the dot-com revolution.

A tightrope of a novel and a perfect modern example of classic noir, The Big Boom is a taut story about familial duplicity, personal greed, and the desperate pull of love in many forms.

The Cruel Stars of the Night: A Mystery by Kjell Eriksson (St. Martin's Minotaur 01 May 2007 / $23.95) - Book Description: When The Princess of Burundi was published last year by Thomas Dunne Books, American critics hailed Kjell Eriksson as Sweden's Ed McBain, and they compared him to Henning Mankell. Now The Cruel Stars of the Night, the next in this internationally acclaimed crime series, unveils a spellbinding new tale again featuring police inspector Ann Lindell.

The Cruel Stars of the Night opens one snowy day when thirty-five-year-old Laura Hindersten goes to the police to report that her father, a local professor, is missing. Inspector Ann Lindell and her colleagues can find no motive for the man's disappearance. And when the corpses of two elderly men do turn up, neither of the dead men is the missing academic.

Unexpectedly, the police get help from one of the professor's colleagues, who believes there is an astonishing link between the murders and the disappearance of Professor Hindersten. But as the pressure on Lindell increases dramatically, she is shocked to discover that the killer has many more diabolical schemes in store.

Combining heart-pounding suspense with brilliant psychological insight, The Cruel Stars of the Night moves like a comet as it approaches the cliff-hanging climax. It is sure to win Kjell Eriksson a whole new galaxy of American fans. (see review)

The Silent Assassin (A Dr. Alexandra Blake Novel) by Lori Andrews (St. Martin's Minotaur 15 May 2007 / $23.95) - From back of book: Geneticist Dr. Alexandra Blake investigates a brutal murder that may have long-buried connections to the Vietnam War in the explosive follow-up to Sequence.

In this second novel, Alex is assigned the delicate task of managing the return of several skulls that American servicemen took home from Vietnam. Even the president is involved, and the actual exchange will take place at a White House ceremony. Alex understands the ceremony's importance--her father was killed in Vietnam--but compared to her top-secret research, the skulls seem insignificant. When another case that the staff of the AFIP is working on develops a connection to Vietnam, suddenly Alex and her colleagues are on the trail of a killer.

The Takedown by Patrick Quinlan (St. Martin's Minotaur 29 May 2007 / $21.95) - Book Description: It's Christmas Eve in Brooklyn and sexy real estate exec Dot Racine is dead. Once upon a time, she was the first runner-up in the Miss Ohio pageant. Now, Dot's bullet-riddled body is in the trunk of Dick Miller's car. Miller – an A-list handsome ex-con, and Dot's former lover and employee, has no idea how the body got there. All he knows is he will do nearly anything to make it to go away. Dot's other former lover, freelance cocaine trafficker and murderer Nestor Garcia, is on the run from the cartels. He's interested in Dot's keys to safe deposit boxes in the Bahamas with more than a million dollars tucked away inside. Cool Breeze is a survivor and a warrior. Sex and deception are her weapons of choice. Breeze plans to let all Dot's lovers and business partners kill each other off. After they're dead, Breeze will walk away with the money. Nothing will happen as planned.

The Water Lily Cross: An English Garden Mystery (English Garden Mysteries) by Anthony Eglin (St. Martin's Minotaur 01 May 2007 / $23.95) - Book Description: Lawrence Kingston is asked to search for a botanist friend who has gone missing. With nothing but a scrap of paper with a bewildering cryptic message, he begins to investigate. He discovers that his friend was experimenting with aquatic plants and has stumbled on a horticultural breakthrough with staggering implications, one that could ultimately generate billions of dollars in revenue: a giant form of Amazonian water lily capable of desalinating water. Convinced that influential people are involved in the disappearance, he pursues more leads, but circumstances beyond his control plunge him deeper into jeopardy and a corporate world of ruthless, greedy men who are not to be stopped. Kingston presses on, knowing that his missing friends lifeand his ownboth hang by a very slender thread.

Yesterday's Fatal by Jan Brogan (St. Martin's Minotaur 01 May 2007 / $24.95) - Book Description: Rhode Island reporter Hallie Ahern needs her next story to land on the front page if she wants to keep her job. The new execs at the Morning Chronicle are cutting back the staff, and Hallie, the newest member of the investigative team, could be one of the first to go.

A one-car accident, even one that resulted in the death of a young mother of three, normally wouldn't be front-page material. But because Hallie witnessed it while coming home late on a rainy spring night, she can't get it out of her mind. With a little luck and a lot of digging, Hallie's good instincts put her on the trail of a much bigger story. And to get it, she'll to have to take some risks, but this time the stakes couldn't be any higher or more deadly.

A breakneck ride through Providence's crime world and a powerful look at Hallie's daily struggle with gambling addiction, Yesterday's Fatal will have readers holding on tight. (see review)

Tor

The Thrall: Touch of Madness (Book 2) by C. T. Adams (Tor 29 May 2007 / $6.99) - Book Description: any means necessary to force her to bow to their demands.

And--possibly worst of all--her boyfriend Tom's werewolf pack is trying to break them up so Tom can mate with a werewolf to ensure the survival of his pack.

Now Kate must fight for Tom--and fight for her very survival in this brand new paranormal romance from the unbeatable, bestselling team of C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp.

Return to Index