I Heard That Song Before
Mary Higgins Clark
NYT Bestseller List: #1 (04/29/07)
At the start of bestseller Clark's riveting new novel of suspense, Kay Lansing recalls her first visit as a six-year-old to the Carrington estate in Englewood, N.J., where her father worked as a landscaper. Twenty-two years later, she returns to ask the present owner, Peter Carrington, if she can use the mansion for a fund-raiser. The two fall madly in love, and after a whirlwind courtship, they marry despite the shadow of suspicion that hangs over Peter regarding the death of a neighbor's daughter two decades earlier and the drowning of his first wife four years before. After an idyllic honeymoon, the couple return to New Jersey, where a magazine article has caused the police to reopen the cases. The subsequent discovery of two bodies buried on the estate causes even Kay to doubt her husband's innocence. Clark (Two Little Girls in Blue) deftly keeps the finger of guilt pointed in many directions until the surprising conclusion. Publishers Weekly.

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Fresh Disasters
Stuart Woods
NYT Bestseller List: #3 (04/29/07)
Woods suave hero Stone Barrington takes on organized crime in his latest outing. Bumbling Herbie Fisher owes Mob boss Carmine Datilla serious money, but after Datillas thugs beat him up, he decides to take Datilla to civil court and asks Stone to represent him. The cop-turned-lawyer wants nothing to do with the case, but he is strong-armed into taking it by the law firm for which he freelances. Herbie is every bit the nightmare client Stone feared he would be, and Datilla is so powerful Stone cant even find anyone gutsy enough to deliver the court summons to him. Stone does, however, find time for romance amid the chaos when he meets and quickly beds Celia, a tall and beautiful masseuse. But even this seemingly direct liaison is not without its complications. Stone is as slick as ever, yet readers may be a bit taken aback when a major development fails to elicit much of a response from him. With an unexpected and humorous conclusion, Woods new novel will please readers looking for light escapist fare. -- Kristine Huntley (Reviewed 01-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 9, p24)
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The Land of Mango Sunsets
Dorothy Benton Frank
NYT Bestseller List: #14 (04/29/07)
Miriam Elizabeth Swansons life is one big pity party. Her husband of 20-plus years has traded her in for a newer model, her grown sons avoid her like the plague, and, likewise, her so-called society friends treat her like shes the poster girl for the Ebola virus. If all that werent bad enough, her once-deluxe Manhattan town house has been carved up into apartments because she needs the rent to make ends meet, and her mother has morphed into a pot-smoking, aging hippie down at the family homestead in the Carolina Low Country. But when a new young tenant is brutally attacked by her lover, who happens to be married to one of Miriams erstwhile friends, Miriam experiences an epiphany that transforms her from a dour, nay-saying shrew into an upbeat, understanding confidant. Shedding her emotional baggage along with, lets face it, a few pounds, Miriam learns the redemptive power of forgiveness and turns her life into a joyous celebration of family and friends. -- Carol Haggas (Reviewed 03-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 13, p62)
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Obsession
Karen Robards
NYT Bestseller List: #15 (04/29/07)
Katherine Lawrence is in real trouble. Two men have bound her and her friend with duct tape in the kitchen of her upscale Washington, D.C., townhouse. They keep asking about the location of a safe she knows nothing about, and they seem willing to kill. When Katherine regains consciousness, her neighbor, Dr. Dan Howard, is in the hospital room. Her memories are vague. She recalls that her boyfriend, Ed, a very powerful and scary man, is also her boss at the CIA. She knows that she was living at his place and that her best friend was killed in front her eyes. She knows that she is in danger but not the identities of her stalkers. When Ed calls, Katherine decides to run, but at every step of the way, good old gorgeous Dr. Dan appears. Unsure if she can trust him or even herself, she starts to believe that she is not who everyone believes she is. Robards delivers an intense romantic suspense novel that links an out-of-the-blue beginning with a dynamite ending in riveting and unexpected ways. With vibrant characters and a great plot, this is one of best-selling Robards best, and a must-read for fans of Nora Roberts and Linda Howard. -- Patty Engelmann (Reviewed 02-15-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 12, p5)
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The Quilter's Homecoming
Jennifer Chiaverini
NYT Bestseller List: #19 (04/15/07)
In the tenth entry in her popular series, Chiaverini branches off from a flashback in he Christmas Quilt (2005) to take up the early adulthood of Sylvia Bergstrom Compson's beloved older cousin Elizabeth. Despite four-year-old Sylvia's efforts to keep her from leaving, Elizabeth Bergstrom marries neighbor Henry Nelson at Elm Creek Manor in Pennsylvania in 1925 and moves to southern California, where Henry has bought a cattle ranch. Predictably, plans go awry when the newlyweds find that Henry has been bilked; just as predictably, Elizabeth copes, as Bergstrom women do, even being charitable to those in greater need. The Nelsons' tale is intertwined with that of three generations of the Diaz family, original owners of the Arboles Valley land Henry thought he had bought, and in both families quilts prove to be the tangible expressions of their makers' emotions. Chiaverini's calm narrative blunts even tragedy as the death count reaches double figures, virtue is rewarded, and Bergstrom family ethics and the value of the craft of quilting are perpetuated. A reliably pleasant addition to the series, this should please its fans. -- Michele Leber (Reviewed 03-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 13, p59)
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Heartstopper
Joy Fielding
NYT Bestseller List: #29 (04/29/07)
In Fielding's latest suspense novel set in tiny Torrance, Florida, a serial killer's journal entries are interspersed with the stunned reactions of various of the town's citizens when two teenage girls go missing. Sandy Crosbie, a high-school English teacher and the mother of two teenagers, has relocated to remote Torrance from Rochester, New York, at the urging of her handsome doctor husband. But his reasons for the move soon become apparent when he leaves her for Kerri Franklin, a "Barbie clone and Internet paramour extraordinaire." Sandy, along with the rest of the town's citizens, is jolted out of her self-absorption when the body of the most popular girl in school is found buried in a shallow grave. Now it's up to exhausted, overweight Sheriff John Weber, unhappily married to the TV-addicted Pauline, to calm residents' fears and find out what happened to the pretty blonde teen. But even as he fends off the town's obnoxious mayor, intent on calling in the FBI, Sandy's daughter goes missing. Fielding crafts a suspenseful plot, with a stunner of a twist, while giving her characters a depth of humanity not frequently found in formula fiction. Exciting and unexpectedly touching reading from the talented Fielding. Joanne Wilkinson. Booklist.
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The Naming of the Dead
Ian Rankin
NYT Bestseller List: #33 (04/29/07)
Rankins U.S. publishers have been cashing in on the authors celebrity lately by reissuing his early work, originally published in the UK under a pseudonym, but now Rankin fans can get back to the really good stuff: a new John Rebus novel. Coming off what is arguably the best Rebus of all, Fleshmarket Alley (2005), Rankin faces a stern challenge, and while the new offering isn't quite among the series' elite, it's still a damn good book. It's July 2005, and Bush, Blair, and other international leaders are coming to Scotland for the G8 conference to be held outside Edinburgh. Anything but a company man, Detective Inspector Rebus finds himself relegated to the sidelines until he takes a call that lands him smack where he's not supposed to be: butting heads with conference organizers in an attempt to make sense of the apparent suicide of an attendee at a preconference dinner. The plot mushrooms out from there, of course, encompassing an ongoing serial-killer investigation and personal crises in the lives of both Rebus and his partner and protege, Siobhan Clarke. The focus on international events (including the London subway bombing) adds thematic heft to the novel but takes away a bit from the always-fascinating exploration of Rebus' melancholic heart of darkness. Still, Rankin continues to juggle his plot strains superbly and to add depth to the characterization of Clarke, whose multidimensionality nearly equals that of Rebus himself. Required reading for crime-fiction followers. -- Bill Ott (Reviewed 02-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 11, p6)
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Nineteen Minutes
Jodi Picoult
NYT Bestseller List: #2 (04/29/07)
Popular and prolific Picoult (My Sister's Keeper, and The Tenth Circle, 2006) now tackles the troubling topic of a school shooting. Picoult considers the tragedy--in 19 quick minutes, 10 are dead and 19 are wounded--from several different perspectives, including that of the shooter, a troubled boy named Peter, who was mercilessly picked on at school. The small town of Sterling is rocked by the carnage. Alex Cormier is the superior court judge planning to hear the case, but her daughter, Josie, Peter's only friend during childhood but now a member of the in crowd, was in the midst of the melee. Peter spared Josie, but killed her boyfriend. Two characters from previous Picoult novels are also involved. Charismatic detective Patrick DuCharme rushes into the school and apprehends Peter, and Jordan McAfee agrees to defend the young killer. Every bit as gripping and moving as Picoult's previous novels, Nineteen Minutes will no doubt garner considerable attention for its controversial subject and twist ending. -- Kristine Huntley (Reviewed 01-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 9, p57)

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Obsession
Jonathan Kellerman
NYT Bestseller List: #5 (04/29/07)
Mega-best-selling Kellerman delivers another psychological suspense tale starring shrink hero Alex Delaware. While the Delaware novels are wildly popular, this one, at least, gets by only on plot. The characters are sketchily drawn, except for Delaware's new dog, who receives far more intensive (and ridiculous) development than any human in the book. Kellerman also takes the shortcut of having his characters deliver plot details and provide background motivations in artificial dialogue that should have been left to an omniscient narrator. But Kellerman does have a strong plot going for him (once we've waded through excessive descriptions of meals and interiors). The story centers on a young woman, whom Delaware treated as a child and who returns to tell the psychologist of the deathbed confession of her aunt and adopted mother--a woman whom Alex remembers as a heroically capable mother and nurse. The recently deceased woman allegedly told her niece that she had killed someone. The crux of the mystery is whether there was a murder at all, or whether it was the medication talking, or guilt over a patient's death. Delaware and his sidekick, detective pal Milo Sturgis, follow the tangled trail to a surprising conclusion. Good story unfairly weighed down by bad dialogue and stick characterizations. Kellerman's enormous fan base, however, will overlook the novel's flaws the way we excuse our loved ones' weaknesses. Connie Fletcher. Booklist.
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For One More Day
Mitch Albom
NYT Bestseller List: #12 (04/29/07)
In this first novel from Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven author Albom, grief-stricken Charles "Chick" Benetto goes into an alcoholic tailspin when his always-attentive mother, Pauline, dies. Framed as an "as told to" story, Chick quickly narrates her funeral; his drink-fueled loss of savings, job ("sales") and family; and his descent into loneliness and isolation. After a suicide attempt, Chick encounters Pauline's ghost. Together, the two revisit Pauline's travails raising her children alone after his father abandons them: she braves the town's disapproval of her divorce and works at a beauty parlor, taking an extra job to put money aside for the children's education. Pauline cringes at the heartache Chick inflicted as a demanding child, obnoxious teen and brusque, oblivious adult chasing the will-o'-the-wisp of a baseball career. Through their story, Albom foregrounds family sanctity, maternal self-sacrifice and the destructive power of personal ambition and male self-involvement. He wields pathos as if it were a Louisville Slugger???shoveling dirt into Pauline's grave, Chick hears her spirit cry out, " 'Oh, Charley. How could you?' "???but Albom often strikes a nerve on his way to the heart. (Sept. 26) --Staff (Reviewed August 28, 2006) (Publishers Weekly, vol 253, issue 34, p30)

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Step on a Crack
James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
NYT Bestseller List: #13 (04/29/07)
Patterson and Ledwidge introduce a new hero in an exciting thriller set in the heart of Manhattan. NYPD detective Michael Bennett is concentrating on getting his family through a particularly difficult Christmas: he and his 10 adopted children are facing the loss to cancer of his brave wife, Maeve. But a major crisis calls him away: the funeral of a former First Lady at St. Patricks Cathedral goes horribly awry when men storm the church and take hundreds of attendees hostage. Michael is asked to try to reason with a sinister man named Jack. Jack releases all but the most famous people, and makes his demands: he wants several million dollars from each celebrity hostage, including the mayor, a popular comedic actor, a beloved talk show host, and a pop starlet. Once Jack starts killing, Michael realizes hes up against a truly diabolical foe. Patterson has a knack for creating genuinely likable heroes, and Michael fits the bill. As readers rapidly turn the pages to learn how the tense hostage drama plays out, they will also be sympathizing with Michael as he faces the agonizing loss of his wife. Totally gripping and downright impossible to put down, this is a promising start to a potential new series. -- Kristine Huntley (Reviewed 02-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 11, p5)

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Sisters
Danielle Steel
NYT Bestseller List: #20 (04/29/07)
Four stunningly beautiful Connecticut-bred sisters pursue their disparate careers in prolific Steel's (H.R.H.) latest. There's Candy, 21, a supermodel with an eating disorder, on location in Paris; Annie, 26, a RISD-grad studying painting in Florence; Tammy, at 29 an L.A. TV producer with a new hit and no life; and Sabrina, 34, a workaholic, commitment-phobic family attorney. No matter what, all meet at Mommy and Daddy's for July 4, Thanksgiving and Christmas. During one of the reunions, a disastrous car accident kills their beautiful, dutiful mother and leaves artist Annie blind. Sabrina comes up with a plan for the sisters to live ensemble in a New York brownstone, so that they might grieve and ease Annie's transition into the sightless world. The questions then become Will Candy eat? Will Sabrina commit? Will Tammy have a hit? Will Annie transition? And will Dad love again? Legions of fans expect an emphatic yes, and they won't be disappointed. But they can also expect decapitation, rape and emotional betrayal, which work like little shocks to keep pages turning. (Feb.) --Staff (Reviewed December 11, 2006) (Publishers Weekly, vol 253, issue 49, p46)

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The Double Bind
Chris Bohjalian
NYT Bestseller List: #21 (04/29/07)
The author of Midwives (1997) and Before You Know Kindness (2004) turns his attention to the plight of a 26-year-old woman grappling with the aftermath of terrible trauma. Laurel Estabrook, a caseworker at a homeless shelter, is haunted by the attack that changed her life in college. After Bobbie Crocker, a genial homeless man, dies, Laurel's boss suggests that Laurel go through his photographs and put together a gallery exhibition. As Laurel examines the images, she becomes obsessed with Bobbie's apparent connection to Daisy and Tom Buchanan and their neighbor Jay Gatsby (real characters in the world of Bohjalian's novel). She visits the Buchanans' now elderly daughter, Pamela, whom she suspects might be related to Bobbie, and quickly realizes Pamela is determined to keep her relationship to Bobbie a secret. As Laurel's investigation turns into an obsession, the novel races toward a conclusion that boasts a shocking twist. Although Laurel isn't as easy to connect to as previous Bohjalian characters, this elegantly crafted tale is well worth delving into. -- Kristine Huntley (Reviewed 12-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 8, p20)

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Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen
NYT Bestseller List: #23 (04/29/07)
Life is good for Jacob Jankowski. Hes about to graduate from veterinary school and about to bed the girl of his dreams. Then his parents are killed in a car crash, leaving him in the middle of the Great Depression with no home, no family, and no career. Almost by accident, Jacob joins the circus. There he falls in love with the beautiful performer Marlena, who is married to the circus psychotic animal trainer. He also meets the other love of his life, Rosie the elephant. This lushly romantic novel travels back in forth in time between Jacobs present day in a nursing home and his adventures in the surprisingly harsh world of 1930s circuses. The ending of both stories is a little too cheerful to be believed, but just like a circus, the magic of the story and the writing convince you to suspend your disbelief. The book is partially based on real circus stories and illustrated with historical circus photographs. -- Marta Segal (Reviewed 04-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 102, number 16, p36)

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The Book of Air and Shadows
Michael Gruber
NYT Bestseller List: #26 (04/29/07)
Codes 'n' classics have shown some staying power despite even the so-so prose of both the book that started the avalanche, The Da Vinci Code, and its imitators. The plot summary of The Book of Air and Shadows--ciphered seventeenth-century letters found in a rare book trigger a race to find an undiscovered Shakespeare play--might seem like yet another rubbing of the grail were it not for Gruber's intelligence and engaging style. This big bibliothriller stars a self-loathing, weightlifting intellectual-property lawyer; a timid wannabe film student; and a prickly bookbinder with a mysterious past, all marginally allied against untrustworthy scholars, Russian mobsters, and a mystery man. Though he ambitiously uses three different time lines and three points of view, Gruber deftly raises the thriller stakes and accelerates the plot while still creating convincing personal journeys for his characters. Even better, he finds time to thoughtfully explore related concepts, such as the ways movies inform our behavior and the nature of industries built to profit on creativity. All that and a tantalizing imagining of Shakespeare's personality, too. Try Ross King's Ex-Libris (2001) and Jim Nisbet's Syracuse Codex (2005) for two wildly different but related takes. -- Keir Graff (Reviewed 12-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 8, p27)

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The Watchman
Robert Crais
NYT Bestseller List: #32 (04/29/07)
*Starred Review* Larkin Barkley, a troubled L.A. woman from a wealthy family, finds herself under the protection of federal agents after emerging uninjured from a serious car accident. Something she saw warrants her death. The bad guys came close to success, probably with an assist from someone charged with her safety. Joe Pike, a former marine, LAPD officer, and mercenary, is hired to protect her on the word of his former police partner. Pike and the girl go underground after another attempt on her life leaves three would-be assassins dead. Pike then enlists his partner, private investigator Elvis Cole, to do the digging while he does the shooting. Cole targets a drug cartels money-laundering network as the source of the death squads and identifies Barkleys father as the possible link. As the plot careens forward with nail-biting suspense, the similarities between Pike and Barkley become heartbreakingly clear. What could a taciturn killing machine have in common with a spike-haired, tattoo-on-her-ass valley girl? Every adult is a product of childhood, and Pike recognizes in his charge the same chronic emotional pain fueling his own lonely life. Saving her physical being is tough, but not as tough as saving her life. Fans of the Elvis Cole series have long wished for an installment focusing on sidekick Pike, and their wish is more than granted with this stunningly emotional thriller. -- Wes Lukowsky (Reviewed 01-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 9, p24)

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Exile
Richard North Patterson

Patterson, the author of 13 previous best-selling novels, turns his focus to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in this overly long novel. The characterization is cardboard, with lawyer-hero David Wolfe cast as a golden boy of good looks and keen intelligence, whose well-planned life comes apart with the reappearance of a Palestinian woman with whom he had a passionate love affair more than a decade ago. The writing is schmaltzy and stiff, but there is probably enough in the plot to hold Patterson fans. The prime minister of Israel, while visiting the States, is blown up by a suicide bomber. Wolfe's lover, the Palestinian Hana Arif, is suspected of orchestrating the bombing. The novel delves into Wolfe's past and Hana and her husband's history in Palestine, and it involves Wolfe traveling to Israel and the West Bank. Action abounds, culminating in courtroom drama. This novel would be much more gripping, however, if Patterson kept a tighter rein on his prose; his tendency is to overexplain his characters and overwrite every scene. But those excesses haven't deterred his fans yet, and they aren't likely to do it this time, either. -- Connie Fletcher (Reviewed 10-01-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 3, p6)

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Christine Falls
Benjamin Black

Benjamin Black is really Booker Prize winner John Banville, and Christine Falls is his inaugural volume in a crime series starring Quirke, a lonely, hard-drinking Dublin pathologist. An orphan, Quirke was raised by a socially prominent Catholic judge, and his brother-in-law is Malachy Griffin, Dublin's most prominent obstetrician. Quirke is surprised and suspicious when he finds Mal in the morgue, late at night, writing a death certificate for one of Quirke's new arrivals, a young woman named Christine Falls. He performs an autopsy and learns that Mal's statements about the cause of death are patently false, prompting him to begin an investigation into what unfolds as a monstrous, transcontinental scandal orchestrated by pillars of Dublin's Catholic society. Christine Falls is deeply atmospheric. Clydesdales drag drays through the streets of 1950s Dublin, and the pubs are «fuggy with turf smoke.» Nearly all the characters are painstakingly detailed and developed--even though they're likely to be morally mysterious. But readers' advisors should take note: crime-fiction fans who favor garden-variety mysteries may find this complex and deeply ruminative novel more than they bargained for. -- Thomas Gaughan (Reviewed 12-01-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 7, p24)

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Burning Bright
Tracy Chavalier

Chevalier made a considerable popular and critical splash with her 2000 novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, based on seventeenth-century Dutch painter Vermeer's model for his painting of that name. It was a precise, elegant evocation of Renaissance Delft, and readers who expect the same kind of atmospheric reconstruction of place in her new novel will not be disappointed; eighteenth-century London, from its shadier neighborhoods to its more elegant areas, arises from these pages in all its cacophony. But where the previous novel moved speedily, this one bogs down in plot inertia. The premise: a family of very modest means moves to the British capital from the countryside; the father of the family, a chair maker, has impressed circus impresario Philip Astley, during his tour of the counties, with his abilities and consequently received an invitation to come to London to join the circus as builder of all sorts of things. This family tale settles for the most part on the shoulders of the two youngest children, a boy and a girl, and a girl they befriend, who introduces them to the byways of the great metropolis. A neighbor of the new-to-the-city family is the famous real-life poet William Blake, but his role in the story never seems to gel. Regardless of its drawbacks, expect considerable demand. -- Brad Hooper (Reviewed 12-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 8, p4)

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Simply Magic
Mary Balogh

Susanna Osbourne is enjoying a perfectly lovely holiday in the countryside until she meets the wealthy nobleman Peter Edgeworth. Despite Susannas best efforts to let Peter know she has no interest whatsoever in him, the viscount, who is visiting a friend at a neighboring estate, insists on flirting with her. Peters persistent charm gradually melts Susannas icy reserve, and the two end up sharing one wonderfully romantic afternoon together. But then Susanna disappears, forcing Peter to solve the mystery of her past if he is to have any chance at all of a life with her. New York Times best-selling Balogh continues her superb Simply romance series featuring four teachers from Miss Martin's School for Girls with another exquisitely crafted Regency historical that brilliantly blends deliciously clever writing, subtly nuanced characters, and simmering sensuality into a simply sublime romance. -- John Charles (Reviewed 02-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 11, p37)

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What the Dead Know
Laura Lippman

*Starred Review* Edgar-winner Lippman, author of the Tess Monaghan mystery series (No Good Deeds, etc.), shows she's as good as Peter Abrahams and other A-list thriller writers with this outstanding stand-alone. A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery???the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall???after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. As soon as the mystery woman drops that bombshell, she clams up, placing the new lead detective, Kevin Infante, in a bind, as he struggles to gain her trust while exploring the odd holes in her story. Deftly moving between past and present, Lippman presents the last day both sisters, Sunny and Heather, were seen alive from a variety of perspectives. Subtle clues point to the surprising but plausible solution of the crime and the identity of the mystery woman. Lippman, who has also won Shamus, Agatha, Anthony and Nero Wolfe awards, should gain many new fans with this superb effort. 9-city author tour. (Mar.) --Staff (Reviewed January 22, 2007) (Publishers Weekly, vol 254, issue 4, p156)

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Plum Lovin'
Janet Evanovich

A perfect Valentines Day bonbon, a dreamy comma in the numbered series that features Stephanie Plum of Trenton, bounty hunter and gal from the Burg. A few years ago at Christmas, Diesel appeared in Stephanies apartment. Hes back, still blond, disheveled, and now hiding matchmaker Annie Hart. Stephanie is looking for Annie because shes wanted on assault. Diesel wants Stephanie to do the matchmaking in Annies place and then he will hand her over so Stephanie can collect the bond. Is Diesel an angel? He does have a few interesting abilities, and he doesnt seem bothered by walls and doors. There is a hint of sweet magic as this odd couple bring together a butcher and a barista, a woman with too many kids and pets and a lonely veterinarian, and even Lula, Stephanies plus-sized colleague, and Tank (longtime readers will know the silent Tank as Rangers second in command). Evanovich keeps the language light and sweet and the action nonstop, filling a few plot holes in the main series and finally getting Stephanies sister, Valerie, married to the ill-named Albert Kloughn on Valentines Day. Adorable. -- GraceAnne DeCandido (Reviewed 12-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 8, p5)

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Dear John
Nicholas Sparks

John Tyree is on the fast track to nowhere. At 20 he has no real relationship with his strange and dispassionate father, no attachments to anyone else, and no job, so after breaking up with his girlfriend, he decides to join the army. Military life does alter him, yet he remains disconnected. While home visiting his father in Wilmington, North Carolina, however, he meets Savannah Curtis, a college coed who is everything he is not. A warm, morally straight-ahead woman with a commitment to special education, she captures John's heart and he hers. In the short time they spend together, he opens up to Savannah and true love develops as they plan for a future. Then September 11 changes everything. John feels that it is his duty to renew his commitment to the army, while Savannah wants him home with her. The good soldier now lives in dread of receiving a "Dear John" letter. Sparks, a perennially popular novelist whose name is synonymous with romance and bittersweet endings and whose work translates so readily to movies, lives up to his reputation with his latest novel, a tribute to courageous and self-sacrificing soldiers.

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SUITE FRANÇAISE
Irène Némirovsky

*Starred Review* Nemirovsky, a young Russian Jewish emigre, became a celebrated novelist in Paris at age 26 in 1929. She wrote eight more novels; then, even though she was certain that she wouldnt survive Germanys occupation of France, she embarked on a grandly symphonic, courageous, and scathing work about Frances collaboration with the Nazis. She completed two of five planned movements before she was sent to Auschwitz, a heart-wrenching story meticulously documented in a supplemental section. As for Nemirovskys masterpiece, it begins with the tumultuous Storm in June, in which diverse Parisians frantically evacuate Paris during the June 1940 German invasion. Nemirovskys gift for combining the panoramic with the intimate, high emotion with stinging wit, is reminiscent of Turgenev, Babel, and Berberova. Acutely sensitive to class differences, and mordantly scornful of hypocrisy, she orchestrates a veritable carnival of cowardice, lies, larceny, and murder as a panicked populace drops all pretense of civilization. The second movement, Dolce, evokes the eye of the storm in the village of Bussy, where German officers are billeted in French homes, and life and love resume. Suite Francaise is a magnificent novel of the insidious devastation of occupation, and Nemirovsky is brilliant and heroic, summoning up profound empathy for all, including regretful German soldiers. Everything about this transcendent novel is miraculous. -- Donna Seaman (Reviewed 04-01-2006) (Booklist, vol 102, number 15, p20)

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The Spellman Files
Lisa Lutz

Fans of Janet Evanovichs Stephanie Plum series will enjoy this clever debut (the first in a series) featuring Izzy Spellman, an irrepressible 28-year-old sleuth who works for her parents San Francisco PI firm. Members of the dysfunctional and relentlessly nosy Spellman clan include Izzys 14-year-old sister, Rae, who engages in recreational surveillance (a fancy term for tailing people just for kicks), and her uncle Ray, a cancer survivor and recovering health-food addict who regularly disappears on liquor-drenched Lost Weekends. Scenes showcasing the relationships among the various Spellmans are often laugh-out-loud funny. (The novels prologue is an amusing example of the boundaries--or lack thereof--between Izzy and her mom and dad). Alas, bit after comic bit does not a mystery novel make, and only toward the end does Lutz pick up the narrative pace. Addicted to Get Smart reruns and forever attracted to the wrong kind of men, Izzy Spellman is definitely an appealing heroine; all this series needs to become a smashing success is a more generous dose of story and suspense. -- Allison Block (Reviewed 01-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 9, p64)

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The Boleyn Inheritance
Philippa Gregory

Just when we think we have heard the last of the Boleyns, after The Other Boleyn Girl (2002), Gregory resurrects the ill-fated family in the persona of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford. After her damning testimony results in the execution of both her husband and her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn, Jane continues her ruthless scheming as she serves as lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's reviled Bavarian-born fourth wife, and naive, doomed sixth wife, Catherine Howard. Narrated in turn by this trio of intriguing women, this tale of court politics and treachery unfolds from three equally compelling points of view. -- Margaret Flanagan (Reviewed 10-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 4, p28)

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The Alexandria Link
Steve Berry

Berry, author of several big-selling high-concept thrillers, including The Templar Legacy (2006) and The Third Secret (2005), is back with another paranoid fantasy for fans who like their heroes to face unimaginable dangers in a variety of glamorous locations. Berry's hero, Cotton Malone (recently retired from the Department of Justice's Magellan Billet, which specializes in extra-sensitive international investigations), has reinvented himself as a seller of rare books in Copenhagen. Trouble, of course, finds him even in Denmark--first in the person of his ex-wife, who bears the news that their son has been kidnapped. Then the kidnappers convince Malone of their seriousness by torching his bookstore. The central conflict here comes from the fact that what the kidnappers want--«the Alexandria link,» the key to locating the remains of the vanished library of Alexandria--is the one thing Malone, who knows the whereabouts of the link, cannot give them. So, with the conflict firmly established, and the villains showing their mettle, the plot is off and running across the globe, the story driven by a series of short chapters, each acting as a little time bomb. Trite characters and a formulaic plot (drawing, yet again, on The Da Vinci Code) get in the way, but Berry does make intriguing use of ancient history, and the action certainly zooms along. Fun reading if you keep moving and don't take time to digest. -- Connie Fletcher (Reviewed 11-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 6, p4)

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Dry Ice
Stephen White

*Starred Review* Contemporary cerebral thrillers don't get much better than bestseller White's 15th novel, which deftly combines complex characterization and intricate plotting. Both established fans and those just now discovering the author's gifts will be turning pages late into the night. ( Publishers Weekly)

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Cross
James Patterson

Pattersons departure from the nursery-rhyme titles in his latest Alex Cross yarn is a tip-off that the focus this time is not so much on the case as on the man. For the first time in Pattersons 13-year-old series, we relive the day in 1993 when Cross wife, Maria, was murdered. Alex was a young gun with the D.C. police then, and Maria was a social worker in the poorest and most dangerous section of the city before she became the victim of a drive-by shooting. Cut to the present, and Alex--who has been with the FBI for some time, become a successful crime writer, and started to lose a bit of that dragon slayer touch--decides to devote more time to his three kids, much to the delight of Nana Mama, Alexs nonagenarian three-in-one grandmother, nanny, and guiding light. Alex is nothing if not loyal, so when his former partner John Sampson asks him to help track down a sicko who is serially raping Georgetown coeds, Alex cannot say no. Little does he know, however, that the search for the rapist will have ties to Marias death. That her killer was never found is a constant source of frustration for Alex, and this case offers a chance to finally put Marias memory to rest. Even as the story whips by with incredible speed, Patterson manages to pack it full of suspense, emotion, and a resolution that, while perfectly satisfying, carries the authors trademark teaser hinting at the more that surely will come. -- Mary Frances Wilkens (Reviewed 10-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 4, p6)

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Natural Born Charmer
Susan Elizabeth Phillips

After her ex-boyfriend Monty insists that she is the only person he ever loved, Blue Bailey packs up everything she has (which isnt much) and moves from Seattle to Colorado to be with him. But once Blue arrives, she discovers Monty has found love again with a younger, blonder new girlfriend. With few job options and practically no money, Blue thought she might be stuck in Colorado for a long time, until Dean Robillard drives through on his way to Tennessee. The last person Blue wants to ask for a favor is a way-too-gorgeous-for-his-own-good stranger who annoys her to no end. And who turns out to be the quarterback for the Chicago Stars. But Dean is Blues only ticket out, even if it means she is stuck with him all the way to Tennessee. RITA Award-winner Phillips creates yet another classic romance in her loosely connected Chicago Stars series with this splendidly satisfying tale of love, family, and redemption. Generously seasoned with plenty of tart humor and snappy dialogue, and graced with a delightfully amusing pair of protagonists trying desperately not to fall in love, Natural Born Charmer is simply irresistible. -- John Charles (Reviewed 12-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 103, number 8, p5) (Sequel to Match Me if You Can)

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