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December 2008
In This Issue
The Indepence of Miss...
The Only Son
Hounded to Death
Too Close to Home
All the Colours of Darkness
Babylon Rolling
Silks
A Most Wanted Man
The Brass Verdict
A Spoonful of Poison
A Cure for All Diseases
The Casebook of Victor...
Cockroach
The Widows of Eastwick
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The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett by Colleen McCullough
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: Dec 9 2008
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1552787354
ISBN-13: 978-1552787359
Romance / Historical
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Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen's classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts, unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the backwaters of Britain. Now, master storyteller Colleen McCullough rescues Mary from her dreary fate with a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen's novel closes.

The story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the stultifying duty of caring for her insufferable mother. Though many would call a woman of Mary's age a spinster, she has blossomed into a beauty to rival that of her famed sisters. Her violet eyes and perfect figure bewitch the eligible men in the neighborhood, but though her family urges her to marry, romance and frippery hold no attraction. Instead, she is determined to set off on an adventure of her own. Fired with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mysterious Argus, she resolves to publish a book about the plight of England's poor. Plunging from one predicament into another, Mary finds herself stumbling closer to long-buried secrets, unanticipated dangers, and unlooked-for romance.
The Only Son by Stephane Audeguy
Publisher: Harcourt;
Publication Date: Aug 26 2008
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0151013292
ISBN-13: 978-0151013296
Historical Fiction
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau mentions his older brother François only two times in his classic Confessions. In The Only Son, Stéphane Audeguy resurrects Rousseau's forgotten brother in a picaresque tale that brings to life the secret world of eighteenth-century Paris. Instructed at an early age in the philosophy of libertinage by a decadent aristocrat and later apprenticed to a clock maker, François is ultimately disowned by his family and flees to Paris's underworld. There he finds work in a brothel that caters to politicians and clergy and begins his personal study of the varieties of sexual desire-to its most arcane proclivities. Audeguy uses the libertine's progress to explore the interplay between the individual and society, much in the tradition of Jean-Jacques, but with a very different emphasis. Bold, erotic, and historically fascinating, The Only Son is, in many ways, the anti-Confessions-François' own, decidedly different, portrait of human nature.
Hounded to Death  by Rita Mae Brown
book cover art

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0345490266
ISBN-13: 978-0345490261
Mystery
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"Sister" Jane Arnold, esteemed master of the Jefferson Hunt Club, has traveled to Kentucky for one of the biggest events of the season: the Mid-South Hound Show, where foxhounds, bassets, and beagles gather to strut their champion bloodline stuff. But the fun is squelched when, immediately after the competition, one of the contestants, Mo Schneider, turns up dead-facedown, stripped to the waist, and peppered with birdshot. Universally detested by his peers, Mo had no shortage of enemies, making the list of suspects as long as the line for homemade pecan pie at a church bake sale.

Two weeks later, back in Virginia, Sister is rocked when her friend the popular veterinarian Hope Rogers dies from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sister refuses to believe that Hope killed herself and vows to sniff out the truth. But before she can make real headway, a wealthy pet food manufacturer vanishes during the granddaddy of all canine exhibitions, the Virginia Hound Show. Ever reliant on her "horse sense," Sister can't help but connect the three incidents. And what she uncovers will make her blood run colder than the bodies that keep turning up in unexpected places.
Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay

Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0553805568
ISBN-13: 978-0553805567
Mystery / Thriller
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Promise Falls isn't the kind of community where a family is shot to death in their own home. But that is exactly what happened to the Langleys one sweltering summer night, and no one in this small upstate New York town is more shocked than their next-door neighbors, Jim and Ellen Cutter. They visited for the occasional barbecue and their son, Derek, was friends with the Langleys' boy, Adam; but how well did they really know their neighbors?

That's the question Jim Cutter is asking, and the answers he's getting aren't reassuring. Albert Langley was a successful, well-respected criminal lawyer, but was he so good at getting criminals off that he was the victim of revenge-a debt his innocent family also paid in blood? From the town's criminally corrupt mayor to the tragic suicide of a talented student a decade before, Promise Falls has more than its share of secrets. And Jim Cutter, failed artist turned landscaper, need look no further than his own home and his wife Ellen's past to know that things aren't always what they seem. But not even Jim and Ellen are ready to know that their son was in the Langley house the night the family was murdered.
All the Colours of Darkness by Peter Robinson

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0771076118
ISBN-13: 978-0771076114
Mystery / Thriller
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It's the May half-term school holiday, and the first warm day of the year has drawn a few children to the River Swain for a swim. When one boy chases another off the path that runs alongside Hindswell Woods, a glimpse of orange through the trees tempts them into the shadows. Moments later, their high spirits vanish in an instant, for there, to their shock (and ghoulish fascination), they find a man in a brightly coloured shirt hanging from a branch by a rope around his neck. Alan Banks is in London with his new girlfriend when news of the kids' ghastly discovery reaches the police in Eastvale, so the case falls to Annie Cabbot. And she's mystified. Why would a successful set and costume designer, with a well-reviewed production of Othello currently playing, be in such despair that he would take his own life?
Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden

Publisher: Knopf Canada
Publication Date: Aug 5 2008
ISBN-10: 0307396819
ISBN-13: 978-0307396815
Literary Fiction
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From the author of the acclaimed debut Pretty Little Dirty comes a complex, seductive novel about race and culture, set in New Orleans.

Babylon Rolling is a glittering, gritty, unflinching novel of five families living along an Uptown block in the year before Hurricane Katrina. Told in numerous voices, it explores what happens when forces collide in the boozy, humid city that care forgot. At once an exploration of ethnicity and a portrait of a city on the edge of annihilation, Babylon Rolling is a brave and masterful novel.
Silks by Dick & Felix Francis
Publisher: Putnam
Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0718154576
ISBN-13: 978-0718154578
Literary Fiction
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Soon after London barrister Geoffrey Mason, an amateur jockey by avocation, starts receiving a series of threatening messages from a former client, Julian Trent, whose conviction for assault was overturned on appeal, Mason reluctantly accepts the defense of a jockey, Steve Mitchell, accused of the pitch-fork murder of fellow rider Scot Barlow at a steeplechase event. Mitchell and Barlow had fallen out over Barlow's sister, a vet and Mitchell's former girlfriend, who took her own life just a short while before. When unknown parties order Mason to lose the case, he must balance his professional ethics and his sense of self-preservation. The solid writing and engaging lead will carry readers along at a brisk pace, though some may find the dramatic courtroom revelation of the murderer overly theatrical.
A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre

Publisher: Viking Canada
Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0670069124
ISBN-13: 978-0670069125

A starved Russian Muslim boy is smuggled into Hamburg by night. He says his name is Issa. He has mysterious links. Annabel, a German civil rights lawyer desperate to save Issa from deportation, appeals to Tommy Brue, owner of a failing British bank. A triangle of impossible loves is born. Scenting a kill in the War on Terror, the spies of three nations converge upon the innocents. Peopled with unforgettable characters, A Most Wanted Man prickles with humour and tension until the last heart-stopping page. It is also a work of deep humanity and irresistible relevance to our times.
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly

Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Publication Date: Oct 14 2008
ISBN-10: 0316166294
ISBN-13: 978-0316166294
Legal Thriller
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Things are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent's killer may be coming for him next. Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent's killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realize their only choice is to work together. Bringing together Michael Connelly's two most popular characters, The Brass Verdict is sure to be his biggest book yet.
A Spoonful of Poison by M.C. Beaton

Publisher: St. Martins Press
Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0312349122
ISBN-13: 978-0312349127
Mystery
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Cranky but lovable sleuth Agatha Raisin's detective agency has become so successful that she wants nothing more than to take quality time for rest and relaxation. But as soon as she begins closing the agency on weekends, she remembers that when she has plenty of quality time, she doesn't know what to do with it. So it doesn't take much for the vicar of a nearby village to persuade her to help publicize the church fete---especially when the fair's organizer, George Selby, turns out to be a gorgeous widower.

Agatha brings out the crowds for the fete, all right, but there's more going on than innocent village fun. Several of the offerings in the jam-tasting booth turn out to be poisoned, and the festive family event becomes the scene of two murders.
Along with her young and (much to her dismay) pretty sidekick, Toni, Agatha must uncover the truth behind the jam tampering, keep the church funds safe from theft, and expose the nasty secrets lurking in the village---all while falling for handsome George, who may have secrets of his own.
A Cure for All Diseases by Reginald Hill

Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Publication Date: Oct 7 2008
ISBN-10: 038566642X
ISBN-13: 978-0385666428
Mystery
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Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn't ready for God, others that God wasn't ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a terrorist blast in Death Comes for the Fat Man, the Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And, while Death may be the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few weeks' care under a tender nurse.

Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet seaside resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a fellow newcomer and psychologist, who is researching the benefits of alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in partnership when trouble comes to town.

Sandytown's principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort-none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate-with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all.
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd

Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Publication Date: Oct 7 2008
ISBN-10: 0701182954
ISBN-13: 978-0701182953
Literary Fiction
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"It was at Oxford that I first met Bysshe. We arrived at our college on the same day; confusing to a mere foreigner, it is called University College. I had seen him from my window and had been struck by his auburn locks."

The long-haired poet - "Mad Shelley" - and the serious-minded student from Switzerland spark each other's interest in the new philosophy of science which is overturning long-cherished beliefs. Perhaps there is no God. In which case, where is the divine spark, the soul? Can it be found in the human brain? The heart? The eyes?

Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn near Oxford. The coroner's office provides corpses - but they have often died of violence and drowning; they are damaged and putrifying. Victor moves his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted pottery and from there, makes contact with the Doomesday Men - the resurrectionists.

Victor finds that perfect specimens are hard to come by: until that Thames-side dawn when, wrapped in his greatcoat, he hears the splashing of oars and sees in the half-light the approaching boat where, slung into the stern, is the corpse of a handsome young man, one hand trailing in the water.
Cockroach by Rawi Hage

Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Publication Date: Jul 21 2008
ISBN-10: 0887842097
ISBN-13: 978-0887842092
Literary Fiction
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One of the most highly anticipated novels of the year, Cockroach is as urgent, unsettling, and brilliant as Rawi Hage's bestselling and critically acclaimed first book, De Niro's Game. The novel takes place during one month of a bitterly cold winter in Montreal's restless immigrant community, where a self-described "thief" has just tried but failed to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree in a local park. Rescued against his will, the narrator is obliged to attend sessions with a well-intentioned but naïve therapist. This sets the story in motion, leading us back to the narrator's violent childhood in a war-torn country, forward into his current life in the smoky émigré cafés where everyone has a tale, and out into the frozen night-time streets of Montreal, where the thief survives on the edge, imagining himself to be a cockroach invading the lives of the privileged, but willfully blind, citizens who surround him. Like De Niro's Game, Cockroach combines an uncompromising vision of humanity with razor-sharp portraits of society's outsiders, and a startling, poetic sensibility with bracing jolts of dark humour.
The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike
book cover art
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: Oct 21 2008
ISBN-10: 0307269604
ISBN-13: 978-0307269607
Literary Fiction
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More than three decades have passed since the events described in John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick. The three divorcées - Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie - have left town, remarried, and become widows. They cope with their grief and solitude as widows do: they travel the world, to such foreign lands as Canada, Egypt, and China, and renew old acquaintance. Why not, Sukie and Jane ask Alexandra, go back to Eastwick for the summer?

The old Rhode Island seaside town, where they indulged in wicked mischief under the influence of the diabolical Darryl Van Horne, is still magical for them. Now Darryl is gone, and their lovers of the time have aged or died, but enchantment remains in the familiar streets and scenery of the village, where they enjoyed their lusty primes as free and empowered women. And, among the local citizenry, there are still those who remember them, and wish them ill. How they cope with the lingering traces of their evil deeds, the shocks of a mysterious counterspell, and the advancing inroads of old age, form the burden on Updike's delightful, ominous sequel.

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