Gumshoe Column

The Alchemist's Pursuit by Dave Duncan (Ace 03 March 2009 / $15.00) - Product Description: Hampered by arthritis, Nostradamus is in no mood for granting favors or running about looking for trouble. But when his apprentice Alfeo's mistress asks him to investigate the murder of her beloved courtesan mentor—and promises a fortune in payment—he comes around.

It appears that someone is murdering the courtesans of Venice. All were well-known, admired for their skills—and somehow connected by a sinister event involving one of the great families of the city.

While Nostradamus attempts to use the dark arts to solve riddles which confound explanation, Alfeo finds himself led by a possibly demonic force through a maze of deceit and death. And when the master and apprentice come to the end of their intertwined paths, there may be hell to pay. (see review)

Marcelo In The Real World by Francisco Stork (Arthur A. Levine Books 01 March 2009 / $17.99) - Product Description: Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear--part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify--and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world." There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. (cont'd)

He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture he finds in a file -- a picture of a girl with half a face -- that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

Reminiscent of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" in the intensity and purity of its voice, this extraordinary novel is a love story, a legal drama, and a celebration of the music each of us hears inside.

A Plague of Poison (Templar Knight Mysteries, No. 3) by Maureen Ash (Berkley 03 March 2009 / $7.99) - Product Description: After eight years of captivity in the Holy Land, Templar Bascot de Marins escapes with injuries to both body and soul. Now on a sojourn at Lincoln castle, he stands at the crossroads of his future. But not even a man of God can foresee murder...

Just as things seem quiet at Lincoln castle, a scribe is found dead from a honeyed cake meant for the castellan. Fearing for her life, the castellan enlists the help of the shrewd and compassionate Bascot. But as death spreads beyond the castle walls, Bascot discovers that the seemingly unconnected murders are in fact the work of a lethal master of poison.

With the approach of May Day, the scent of death looms heavily around the late-spring festivities and creates a wave of panic among the townspeople. The crimes seem to have one thing in common. But without evidence the sinister culprits will escape justice...

Fatal Flip (An Interior Design Mystery) by Peg Marberg (Berkley 03 March 2009 / $7.99) - Product Description: Seville, Indiana has five traffic lights and one interior design firm--Designer jeans, cofounded by Jean Hastings and her daughter Jean Jr. Lately they're finding that the keen eyes needed for plotting color schemes and tracking down flea market treasures also come in handy for interpreting more sinister designs...

Jean is finally getting the recognition she deserves for being a designing woman, and now she's been recruited by Seville's newly formed Fast Flippers--a group dedicated to flipping houses. Their first project is to revamp a tired Victorian mansion, and Jean, with the help of family and friends, is determined to restore the painted lady to her former glory in time for the upcoming open house. The crowning design touch is to add a throw pillow embroidered with "Rest in Peace" the the newly constructed window seat. But when the pillow goes missing, a search begins and turns up not only the pillow--but also a dead Flipper. Now Sunday's open house is overshadowed by Saturday night's crime scene--and Jean won't rest until they've searched every nook and cranny for someone with designs on murder.

Love Mercy by Earlene Fowler (Berkley 03 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: After being widowed, Love Mercy Johnson has come to terms with her life in Morro Bay, California. She spends her time writing columns for a regional magazine, helping her in-laws work their ranch, and trying to move on. But her dreams of reconciliation with her long-estranged grandchildren come true when her eighteen-year- old brokenhearted granddaughter, Rett, unexpectedly shows up. Together they struggle to co-exist while confronting old resentments and painful memories. When a family crisis forges an unexpected connection between the two grieving women, they must discover if by working together, they can change their lives, and the lives of those they love, for the better.

Mrs. Jeffries in the Nick of Time (Victorian Mystery) by Emily Brightwell (Berkley 03 March 2009 / $6.99) - Product Description: A two-story killer. Train enthusiast Francis Humphreys took his last breath while relatives and neighbors visited downstairs. But if everyone was downstairs, who could have stolen into Uncle Francis's study, killed him, and escaped? Mrs. Jeffries will have to lend her downstairs common sense to this upstairs murder mystery. (see review)

Oolong Dead: A Tea Shop Mystery by Laura Childs (Berkley 03 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: While riding her horse in a race through the South Carolina Lowcountry, Theodosia Browning finds her arch nemesis, Abby Davis, dead. What's more, the victim's brother is Theodosia's old flame. Who'd have guessed they'd be reunited through cold-blooded murder? Theodosia's investigation takes her from the Lowcountry thicket to the backstage maze of a darkened theater where a maestro of murder waits for the next cue. All proving that when it comes to high drama, Theodosia can give Verdi a run for his money. (see review)

Scoop! (A Vicki Hill Mystery) by Hannah Dennison (Berkley 03 March 2009 / $6.99) - Product Description: From the author of A Vicky Hill Exclusive! comes a delightful and dizzy new mystery with a sleuth like no other...

Obit writer Vicky Hill suspects foul play when she learns of a suspicious death: a champion hedge cutter, electrocuted after accidentally slicing through a power cable. Yeah, right. To get the real story Vicky's willing to suffer through bad dates and mortal danger.

The Adversary by Michael Walters (Berkley 03 March 2009 / $15.00) - Product Description: In Ulan Bataar, the head of Mongolia's largest and most powerful crime empire is finally about to get his comeuppance. But it seems that the wealthy Muunokhoi has friends in high places.

When Muunokhoi's trial begins to fall apart, Nergui, the former head of the Serious Crime team, and Doripalam, his replacement and onetime protégé, are forced to look internally to find out who in the justice system has submitted to the lure of the crime lord's power—only to realize that Muunokhoi's deadly influence is much stronger than either of them could have envisioned…

Wild Sorrow by Sandi Ault (Berkley 03 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: Tracking a wounded mountain lion, Jamaica comes across an old Indian School, where children were "Americanized" after being taken from their homes. As a snowstorm sweeps the canyon, Jamaica must take refuge in the abandoned school.

Exploring, Jamaica discovers the desecrated body of an elderly Anglo woman, frozen on the floor. This discovery, combined with the troubled history of the abandoned school, haunts Jamaica throughout the night with the howling wind.

When the FBI takes over the murder investigation she continues searching for the wounded she-lion and her cubs. As the dead of winter settles, arctic temperatures threaten the survival of the mountain lions—and Jamaica herself, as she is stalked by an unidentified killer…

Jailbait Zombie by Mario Acevedo (Eos 01 March 2009 / $14.99) - From back of book: Felix Gomez, Latino vampire detective extraordinaire, battles with zombies, gangsters, and a precocious wannabe bloodsucker in this fourth entry in the series.

The suburbs of Denver were bad enough. Now the Colorado mountains are being overrun with the undead--the kind of supernatural folk that spell trouble for Felix Gomez and his kind. To kill and army of zombies run by gangsters, the vampire detective must team up with a precocious teen with clairvoyant powers. But she demands something big in return: she wants to be undead too.

Old City Hall: A Novel by Robert Rotenberg (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 03 March 2009 / $26.00) - Product Description: Old City Hall opens with a bang, or perhaps a stab: Canada's leading radio show host, Kevin Brace, comes to the door of his luxury condominium with his hands covered in blood and tells the newspaper delivery man: "I killed her." The "her" in question is his young wife, whose body lies in the bathtub of their suite, a knife wound through the sternum.

So, if he killed her, where's the mystery? That's the question asked by the detectives plowing through what should be an openand- shut case. Even Kevin's defense attorney doesn't know what really happened, because he refuses to talk to her or to anyone else after muttering those incriminating words. With the discovery that the victim was actually a self-destructive alcoholic, and the appearance of strange fingerprints in the Brace apartment, the mystery gets more complex just as it should be getting simpler.

Robert Rotenberg claims and celebrates the city of Toronto as a character as exciting and vital as the Dickensian ensemble populating the story. Douglas Preston rejoices that Rotenberg's "Toronto settings make this most multicultural city in North America come alive." Elmore Leonard has Florida; John Lescroart, San Francisco; Robert Parker, Boston; Scott Turow, Chicago; George Pelecanos, D.C. And now, in Old City Hall, Rotenberg creates in modern-day Toronto a canvas as diverse and surprising as the city itself.

Gas City by Loren D. Estleman (Forge Books 03 March 2009 / $13.95) - Product Description: Calling upon his considerable novelistic skills, Loren D. Estleman exposes the black heart of a seemingly stable, well-run city suddenly pitched into violence and chaos. A delicate balance of forces—greed andÂ corruption, ambition and desire—run out of control in the wake of a serial killer's grisly rampage.

A power struggle—between a police chief who has looked the other way for too long, a Mafia boss who holds the city's vices in his powerful grasp, and media reporters looking for a big story—turns what has been a minor dispute into a desperate struggle for survival.

Setting this drama in a blue-collar metropolis dominated by an oil company, Estleman, with an unerring eye for telling detail and an ear for dialogue that reveals the secret desires of his characters, crafts a fascinating, deadly tapestry of love, ambition, revenge, and redemption, a stunning portrait of the human condition.

Schemers: A Nameless Detective Novel by Bill Pronzini (Forge Books 31 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: A locked room mystery that goes from stolen books to stolen lives and the hunt for a phantom stalker with a penchant for pouring acid to make his point give Nameless and his partner Jake more than enough work to earn their fees—as long as neither turns his back at the wrong moment.

Nameless wasn't supposed to come into the office on Mondays; he wasn't supposed to answer the phone.Â On this Monday, he did both.Â The call was from Barney Rivera—once a friend, now despised—at Great Western Insurance.Â Against his better judgment, Nameless agreed to meet with him.Â The investigation was relatively simple:Â a multimillionaire rare books collector had reported the theft of eight volumes, worth a half million dollars.Â From a locked library.Â To which he has the only key.Â The books were all crime fiction and suspense--a locked room mystery about mysteries.Â

This ordinary Monday brought a second oddball case. The Henderson brothers were being stalked. Someone had dug up the ashes of their late father and poured acid over them, thenÂ destroyed the headstone the same way, and left a sign warning that this was just the beginning.Â Searching for peace of mindÂ and the distraction of work, Jake Runyon is more than happy toÂ bring an end to the brothers' terror. (see review)

The Cardinal Sins by Andrew M. Greeley (Forge Books 03 March 2009 / $14.95) - Product Description: The Cardinal Sins ignited a worldwide sensation when it first appeared nearly thirty years ago. Selling more than three million copies, it launched Andrew M. Greeley's career as one of America's most popular storytellers. Back in print at last, this powerful saga of ambition, temptation, and love both spiritual and carnal is as timely and provocative as ever.

Lifelong friends and occasional rivals, Kevin Brennan and Patrick Donahue enter seminary together, but their lives soon diverge dramatically. Intellectual and independent, Kevin achieves success as a scholar but often finds himself at odds with his superiors in the Church. And his unwavering principles threaten to cut him off from those closest to him—including the former sweetheart he has never forgotten.

By contrast, the ambitious Patrick rises steadily through the Church hierarchy, only to fall prey to the temptations of lust and power. As hidden scandals and Patrick's inner demons threaten to destroy the lives of everyone around him, it's up to his oldest friend to save him from himself—and foil a conspiracy that could change the very future of the Papacy!

The Expediter (McGarvey) by David Hagberg (Forge Books 17 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: Late one balmy summer evening in Pyongyang, an important Chinese intelligence general on his way to a secret meeting with Kim Jon-Il is assassinated in plain sight of a surveillance camera. The two shooters are wearing the uniforms of North Korean police officers. Â Kim Jong-Il denies any knowledge of the shooting, but the Chinese do not believe him. As they prepare to attack, Jong-Il promises to unleash his nuclear weapons on downtown Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo, plunging the entire region into nuclear war. Â Kirk McGarvey, just off a difficult assignment that took him to Mexico City, has returned to his visiting professorship at the University of South Florida. A colonel in North Korea's intelligence service shows up in person, asking McGarvey to prove that North Korea did not authorize the hit. Â It's the most extraordinary request McGarvey has ever received. He enters a dangerous international shadow world where almost nothing is as it seems. The puzzles lead him to a mysterious Russian ex-KGB multimillionaire whose specialty is expediting assassins for hire, to Pyongyang where he finds the wedge to open up a far-reaching plot so monstrous the entire world could go up into flames, and finally back to the one nation that potentially has the most to gain by such a war.Â And the most to lose . . .

The Killing Way by Tony Hays (Forge Books 31 March 2009 / $24.95) - From publicity material: It's fifth century Britain and we've got young Arthur, a war leader who is poised to try and become the High King of the isle. But there is a political landmine that could ruin his chances--a young girl is savagely murdered and the implicated culprit is Merlyn. Arthur turns to a bitter, broken-down alcoholic scribe who has the knack for noticing things that no one else sees to help him clear his beloved mentor's name. The guy would rather just drink himself to death but the puzzle gets the best of him and then we are off and running with this juicy mystery. (see review)

Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman (Harper 01 March 2009 / $7.99) - Product Description: When Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series Mann of Steel while sculling, she never expects to be hired to serve as bodyguard/babysitter to the young female lead, Selene Waites. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing "mishaps" lately. And the discovery of a corpse surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making is causing Mann's creator and Hollywood legend, Flip Tumulty, considerable distress.

Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than Tess can handle, since Selene is less naive and far more devious than she initially appears to be. But murder is an occurrence the fish-out-of-water P.I. is all too familiar with—and a grisly on-set slaying suddenly threatens to topple the wall of secrets surrounding Mann of Steel, leaving lives, dreams, and careers scattered among the ruins. (see review)

Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin (Harper 31 March 2009 / $9.99) - Product Description: When private detective Dana Cutler is hired to follow college student Charlotte Walsh, she never imagines the trail will lead to the White House. But the morning after Walsh's clandestine meeting with Christopher Farrington, President of the United States, the pretty young coed is dead—the latest victim, apparently, of a fiend dubbed "the D.C. Ripper."

A junior associate in an Oregon law firm, Brad Miller is stunned by the death row revelations of convicted serial killer Clarence Little. Though Little accepts responsibility for a string of gruesome murders, he swears he was framed for one of them: the death of a teenaged babysitter who worked for then-governor Farrington.

Suddenly nowhere in America is safe for a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer who possess terrifying evidence that suggests the unthinkable: that someone at the very highest level of government, perhaps the president himself, is a cold and brutal killer.

Notorious by Michele Martinez (Harper 01 March 2009 / $7.99) - Product Description: On the eve of a murder trial, the lawyer for a famous rapper reveals that his client wants to sing for real—to turn state's evidence and give up a much bigger fish. Then a car bomb rips the lawyer apart. Though Melanie's relationship with the murdered man had once been more than professional, she realizes she knew very little about him. Now determined to hunt down his killer, she's entering a dangerous world of terror, subterfuge, and double-cross, and heading deeper into harm's way than she's ever been. Because Melanie Vargas was the sole witness to a heinous and horrible crime with wide and frightening implications . . . and she cannot be allowed to live.

Shadow Command by Dale Brown (Harper 01 March 2009 / $9.99) - Product Description: Based on the Armstrong Space Station orbiting the earth, the Black Stallion spaceplanes of General Patrick McLanahan's Aerospace Battle Force can attack any target on the planet within hours—and its powerful network of satellites can invade any computer network as easily as making a phone call. Western-educated Russian president Leonid Zevitin, one of the ABF's most dangerous adversaries, is determined to destroy all support for the space program by using a potent combination of top-secret anti-spacecraft weaponry, fear-mongering, and a new U.S. president's own egotism.

But McLanahan and his forces will not allow the Russian aggression to stand. Sensing deep-seated treachery, the general ignores directives from the White House and Pentagon and dispatches the ABF to attack secret Russian bases in Iran—which results in a presidential order for his immediate arrest. But before they can throw Patrick McLanahan in prison, the government will have to figure out how to retrieve him from his stronghold in space. (see review)

The Grand Finale by Janet Evanovich (Harper March 2009 / $7.99) - Product Description: Berry Knudson had a talent for disaster, but when she climbed a tree to rescue a kitten, she wasn't prepared for the scrumptious hunk undressing in a nearby window, or her dive downward that smashed Jake Sawyer's pizza and won his heart! But was there room in her chaotic schedule for a risk-taking inventor with dreams? She took classes, delivered pizzas, and cared for three eccentric old ladies she rescued from the train station. But Jake thrived on a challenge, and he could be very inventive. Could he teach her there was time to make butterscotch pudding and let herself be loved? (see review)

Wonderful World: A Novel by Javier Calvo (Harper 01 March 2009 / $27.99) - Product Description: Wonderful World is the story of a son trying to make his father proud—by becoming an international criminal.

Lucas Giraut inherits the family company from a father who never really cared enough to get to know him. This inheritance comes with a lot of unanswered questions and one archenemy: Lucas's mother, Fanny, an ambitious and ruthless entrepreneur who believes Lucas is as useless as his father, Lorenzo, an enigmatic man whose recent death—under mysterious circumstances—delights her.

Valentina Parini is a precocious and troubled seventh-grader, and the self-proclaimed Top European Expert on the Work of Stephen King. Lucas Giraut is her upstairs neighbor and her only friend. He indulges Valentina as she reveals her dark fantasies of retribution on her classmates and teachers. As Valentina struggles with growing up, Lucas endeavors to understand what he's been bequeathed by his father. Following clues found in a windowless secret apartment and in his dreams, he ends up deep in Barcelona's underworld, far from the comforts of his home, a former ducal palace in the Gothic Quarter.

Raymond Chandler meets Jonathan Lethem in this wickedly entertaining debut featuring Mark Genevich, Narcoleptic Detective

Mark Genevich is a South Boston P.I. with a little problem: he's narcoleptic, and he suffers from the most severe symptoms, including hypnogogic hallucinations. These waking dreams wreak havoc for a guy who depends on real-life clues to make his living.

Clients haven't exactly been beating down the door when Mark meets Jennifer Times—daughter of the powerful local D.A. and a contestant on American Star—who walks into his office with an outlandish story about a man who stole her fingers. He awakes from his latest hallucination alone, but on his desk is a manila envelope containing risqué photos of Jennifer. Are the pictures real, and if so, is Mark hunting a blackmailer, or worse?

Wildly imaginative and with a pitch-perfect voice, The Little Sleep is the first in a new series that casts a fresh eye on the rigors of detective work, and introduces a character who has a lot to prove—if only he can stay awake long enough to do it.

Moon Water Madness by Glynn Marsh Alam (Memento Mori Mystery 01 March 2009 / $12.95) - Product Description: In the seventh Luanne Fogarty North Florida mystery, our favorite adjunct diver finds herself in over her head when a tough, lonely little girl asks for help solving an old family mystery on an isolated island teeming with snakes, secrets, Spanish moss, and murder. (see review)

She Shoots to Conquer (Ellie Haskell Mysteries) by Dorothy Cannell (Minotaur Books 31 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: On a dark and foggy night, charming amateur sleuth Ellie Haskell, her husband Ben, and her plucky sidekick Mrs. Malloy find themselves stranded at a grand estate on the Yorkshire moors. Lord Belfrey of Mucklesfeld Manor has decided to save his crumbling establishment by offering himself as the prize on a TV reality show titled "Here Comes the Bride."Thrilled at the prospect of marrying a lord, Mrs. Malloy eagerly joins the competition. After one of the potential brides is shot during an archery contest, Ellie begins to explore the dark passageways and hidden nooks of the delightfully Gothic estate—but she may not be prepared for the secrets lurking behind closed doors. (see review)

The Season by Sarah MacLean (Orchard Books 01 March 2009 / $16.99) - Product Description: Seventeen year old Lady Alexandra is strong-willed and sharp-tongued -- in a house full of older brothers and their friends, she had to learn to hold her own. Not the best makings for an aristocratic lady in Regency London. Yet her mother still dreams of marrying Alex off to someone safe, respectable, and wealthy. But between ball gown fittings, dances, and dinner parties, Alex, along with her two best friends, Ella and Vivi, manages to get herself into what may be her biggest scrape yet.

When the Earl of Blackmoor is mysteriously killed, Alex decides to help his son, the brooding and devilishly handsome Gavin, uncover the truth. But will Alex's heart be stolen in the process? In an adventure brimming with espionage, murder, and other clandestine affairs, who could possibly have time to worry about finding a husband? Romance abounds as this year's season begins!

Crucified by Michael Slade (Severn House 01 March 2009 / $15.95) - Product Description: Meet Wyatt Rook lawyer, historian, detective...Germany: a bulldozer on a construction site uncovers the remains of a Second World War bomber and so begins a treacherous international journey from the crucifixionof Jesus at Golgotha to modern archaeological discoveries. Lawyer/historian Wyatt Rook and Liz Hannah must solve a series of whodunitsto unravel the Judas puzzle. Blocking them at every turn isthe Legionary of Christ, a crusader backed by a secret inquisition that will stop at nothing to make sure the Judas puzzle remains unsolved.

Danger in a Red Dress by Christina Dodd (Signet 03 March 2009 / $7.99) - Product Description: Home care nurse Hannah Grey is dedicated to her patient, an aging widow still tainted by the financial scandal her late husband perpetrated. She makes Hannah promise that upon her death, she'll right the family's wrongs, and gives Hannah her offshore account's access codes.

But Carrick Manly will do anything to discover where his family's fortunes lie— including kill his own mother. Fearing for her life, and desperate not to betray the widow, Hannah flees. And when Carrick's half-brother, Gabriel, tracks her down in Houston, Hannah must trust her own instincts—and her heart—to survive.

Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun (Ghost Hunter Mysteries, No. 3) by Victoria Laurie (Signet 03 March 2009 / $6.99) - Product Description: A demonic guest terrorizes a haunted hotel

When ghost hunter and medium M.J. Holliday appears on a television show called Haunted Possessions, she encounters an evil knife that releases a demon. Now all hell has broken loose in the haunted hotel where M.J. is staying—and it's up to her to give the uninvited guest an early checkout. (see review)

Hounding the Pavement (Ellie Engleman, Dog Walker Mysteries, No. 1) by Judi McCoy (Signet 03 March 2009 / $6.99) - Product Description: Meet Ellie Engleman, psychic dog-walker. The newest dog-walker on Manhattan's Upper East Side has a talent—she can hear what her canine clientele is thinking. So when a dog's owner turns up dead, Ellie must bone up on her sleuthing—and perk up her ears to find a killer.

The First Apostle by James Becker (Signet 03 March 2009 / $7.99) - Product Description: An ancient inscription... a dangerous secret… An explosive debut thriller!

Chris Bronson is devastated when his best friend's wife— the woman he was secretly in love with—dies in a tragic accident. But when Bronson heads to Italy to console his friend, he finds the evidence of a break-in—and a strange Latin inscription on a stone above the fireplace.

To decipher the stone Bronson enlists the help of his ex-wife, an antiques expert, sending them on a treacherous path of clues across Europe leading to a truth so dangerous it could destroy the very foundations of the Christian faith…

Murder in the Latin Quarter (Aimee Leduc Investigation) by Cara Black (Soho Crime 01 March 2009 / $24.00) - Product Description: A Haitian woman arrives at the office of Leduc Detective and announces that she is Aimée's sister, her father's illegitimate daughter. Aimée is thrilled. A virtual orphan since her mother's disappearance and her father's death, she has always wanted a sister. Her partner, René, is wary of this stranger, but Aimée embraces her and soon finds herself involved in murky Haitian politics leading to murder. The setting is the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank of the Seine, in the old university district of Paris.< (see review)

Murder in the Rue de Paradis (An Aimee Leduc Investigation, Vol. 8) by Cara Black (Soho Crime 01 March 2009 / $13.00) - Product Description: As Aimée is about to find happiness at last, Yves, her fiancé of a single night, is killed. Was the murderer a woman in a chador? Or a homosexual trick? Finding out who cut her lover's throat involves Aimée in Kurdish and Turkish politics as she tries to track down his contacts above and beneath the streets of Paris.

Quiver by Peter Leonard (St. Martin's 03 March 2009 / $7.99) - Product Description: Kate McCall's husband has been killed by her son, Luke, in a tragic bow-hunting accident. While Kate struggles with her loss and Luke's surly guilt, her first love, Jack, an ex-con, comes back to Detroit, looking for redemption. Even though his past—in the form of his former "colleagues"— trails close behind…

Now, Jack must convince his partners in crime that he really did lose the heist money—and find a way to win Kate's trust. But Jack's return to civil society sets into motion a series of events culminating in dangerous seduction, extortion, and a high-risk confrontation with a gang of killers who don't believe in second chances…and are dead-set at getting even. No matter what the cost.

Patient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel by Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin's Griffin 03 March 2009 / $14.95) - Product Description: When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills... and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills.Â And that's both a good, and a bad thing.Â It's good because he's a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can't handle. This rapid response group is called the Department of Military Sciences or the DMS for short. It's bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance....Â Â (see review)

A Tight Lie by Don Dahler (St. Martin's Minotaur 17 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: Huck Doyle is a professional golfer, a PGA "middler" who just manages to hold onto his tour card as he plays the small tournaments on the circuit. He also happens to be the son of a disgraced LAPD cop, a law school grad without a license to practice, and a registered private investigator. When Joniel Baker, a high profile baseball player, claims that he's been wrongly accused of murder, he asks his friend Doyle to get involved, to fly under the radar and find out things that the police can't—or won't.

Broken Wing by Thomas Lakeman (St. Martin's Minotaur 17 March 2009 / $25.95) - Product Description: Mike Yeager, an FBI agent with a gift for profiling, is no angel, yet somehow the Bureau has always found a way to forgive him his mistakes. Now, even though he's in disgrace, there's a job that only he can do. In New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a couple was kidnapped; the husband---a spy---was tortured and killed, and now the wife is in danger.

Normally the Bureau might ask Yeager to lead a rescue mission, but this time, they want him to pose as a fallen agent---a broken wing---infiltrate the group responsible, and wait to see what he can learn. The kidnappers are thought to be working for Emelio Barca, one of the most powerful crime bosses in New Orleans, and the target of Mike's past botched case.

Mike sees this opportunity as his last chance, even though it's bound to wreck his renewed relationship with fellow agent Peggy Weaver, maybe for good. He's gone undercover once before in his career, and that time his mistakes led to Barca's escape and the maiming of Mike's first partner. This time he vows Barca won't get away. One way or another, Yeager's career will come full circle in the Big Easy, the city where it all began. (see review)

In a Gilded Cage (Molly Murphy Mysteries) by Rhys Bowen (St. Martin's Minotaur 17 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: Irish immigrant Molly Murphy and her New York City P.I. business are in the midst of a sweeping influenza epidemic and a fight for women's suffrage that lands her in jail. Her betrothed, Police Captain Daniel Sullivan,Â finds her, but he hardly has time toÂ bail her out, whatÂ with Chinese gangsÂ battling for control of a thriving opium trade. The only consolation Molly can take from her vexing afternoon in the clink is that it made her some new friends among the Vassar suffragists---and brought her a pair of new cases.

For the first, Emily Boswell is convinced her miserly uncle stole her inheritance and wants Molly to uncover the truth behind her parents' lives and deaths. Second, Emily'sÂ college roommate Fanny Poindexter wants Molly to find proof of her husband's philandering so that she can leave him without one red cent. But when Fanny dies and her husband claims she's a victim of the epidemic,Â it's more than Molly'sÂ conscience can take.

Rhys Bowen's Agatha and Anthony Award--winning historical series continues to breathe life into the past with its wit and charm and its complete sense of early-twentieth-century New York, which makes In a Gilded CageÂ her most accomplished mystery yet. (see review)

Out at Night (A Grace Descanso Novel) by Susan Arnout Smith (St. Martin's Minotaur 03 March 2009 / $25.95) - Product Description: It's the dead of night, and Professor Thaddeus Bartholomew is frantically crawling through a field to stay alive. With mere moments to act, heÂ has only enough time to type out a text message—a name—before his stalker overcomes him. Later he's found with a hole in his chest, shot with a crossbow, and burned to death.

Meanwhile, San Diego crime scene tech Grace Descanso has gone on vacation with her daughter, but the FBI feels far from guilty about interrupting them after her name turns up on the professor's phone. Grace knows vaguely who he is, but can't imagine why his dying act would involve her in any way—not that it matters. The FBI won't let her walk away; she can either join the investigation or become a suspect in it. Soon, political leaders and extremists will converge at the world's largest agricultural conference, and all signs indicate that Bartholomew's brutal murder in a field of genetically modified soy is just the beginning of something much larger than one man's death.

A gripping sequel to her heart-racing series debut, The Timer Game, Susan Arnout Smith's Out at Night entangles Grace inÂ a sweeping conspiracy that hits her dangerously close to home. (see review)

The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer (St. Martin's Minotaur 03 March 2009 / $24.95) - Product Description: Milo Weaver used to be a "tourist" for the CIA—an undercover agent with no home, no identity—but he's since retired from the field to become a middle-level manager at the CIA's New York headquarters. He's acquired a wife, a daughter, and a brownstone in Brooklyn, and he's tried to leave his old life of secrets and lies behind. However, when the arrest of a long-sought-after assassin sets off an investigation into one of Milo's oldest colleagues and exposes new layers of intrigue in his old cases, he has no choice but to go back undercover and find out who's holding the strings once and for all.

In The Tourist, Olen Steinhauer---twice nominated for an Edgar Award---tackles an intricate story of betrayal and manipulation, loyalty and risk in an utterly compelling novel that is both thoroughly modern and yet also reminiscent of the espionage genre's luminaries: Len Deighton, Graham Greene, and John LeCarré.

In this dramatic new novel following the bestselling The Dark Tide, a drive-by shooting rocks the posh suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut, and an innocent bystander is left dead.

Detective Ty Hauck plunges into what seems like a vicious case of retribution and follows the trail to a sinister gambling scheme at an upstate casino. Until Annie Fletcher, a young restaurateur in the midst of rebuilding her life, witnesses something she shouldn't have—and immediately runs to him with what she knows. Suddenly, Hauck is pulled into a rising storm far greater than it first appeared—a storm wide enough to encompass corruption inside Greenwich's circle of wealthy and powerful citizens. And punishing enough to consume Hauck's own family, and tear brothers apart forever . . . if it doesn't kill them first.

Don't Look Twice is a gripping story of profiteering on an international scale and an emotionally resonant domestic thriller from one of the hottest new talents in suspense fiction.

Pain Killers: A Novel by Jerry Stahl (William Morrow 01 March 2009 / $24.99) - Product Description: From the acclaimed and controversial author of Permanent Midnight comes one of the most vividly subversive, savagely funny, and explosive novels yet unleashed in our tender century. Pain Killers is a violent and mind-wrenching masterpiece in the gonzo noir style that has earned Jerry Stahl his legion of avid fans.

Down-and-out ex-cop and not-quite-reformed addict Manny Rupert accepts a job going undercover to find out if an old man locked up in a California prison is who he claims to be: the despicable—and allegedly dead—Josef Mengele, aka the Angel of Death. What if, instead of drowning thirty years ago, the sadistic legend whose Auschwitz crimes still horrify faked his own death and is now locked up in San Quentin, ranting and bitter about being denied the adulation he craves for his contribution to keeping the Master Race pure—if no longer masterful?

After accidentally reuniting with ex-wife and love of his life, Tina, at San Quentin—they first met at the crime scene where Tina murdered her first husband with Drano-laced Lucky Charms—Manny spends a bad night imbibing boxed wine and questionable World War One morphine, hunched over a trove of photos showing live genital dissections that plant him in the middle of a conspiracy involving genocide, drugs, eugenics, human experiments, and America's secret history of collusion with German believers in Nordic superiority.

Manny's quest sends him careening from one extreme of apocalypse-adjacent reality to the other: from SS-inked Jewish shotcallers to meth-crazed virgin hookers, from Mexican gangbangers to Big Pharma-financed prison research to an animal shelter that gasses more than stray dogs and cats . . .

Pain Killers captures one man's struggle against a perverse and demented scheme of global proportions, in a literary tour de force as outrageous, compelling, and dangerous as history itself. Not for the faint of heart, the novel hurtles readers into a disturbing, original, and alarmingly real world filled with some of the kinkiest sex, most horrific violence, and screaming wit ever found on the page—proving yet again that Stahl is, as The New Yorker described him, "a better-than-Burroughs virtuoso."