RECOMMEDATIONS

FLESH HOUSE by Stuart MacBride. Scotland’s largest manhunt in twenty years is ignited when body parts are discovered in a container at the Aberdeen harbor. Police suspect Kenneth Wiseman, a vicious killer who was acquitted of murder on a technicality and then disappeared. Logan MacRae seems to be the heir apparent of Ian Rankin’s John Rebus, and like Rankin, MacBride grows as a writer with each book.

A RULE AGAINST MURDER by Louise Penny. On a wedding anniversary trip to luxurious Menoir Bellechase, Chief Insp Armand Gamache finds his plans interrupted by his fellow guests-members of the wealthy Finney family who gather to unveil a memorial to their late father and inadvertently unveil old secrets that serve as a prelude to murder. Ms Penny is being heralded as the new Agatha Christie. A compelling whodunit!

BONE BY BONE by Carol O’Connell. Twenty years after his teenage younger brother mysteriously disappears in the woods of Nothern California, former Army investigator Oren Hobbs returns home. Bone by bone, someome is placing Josh’s remains on the Hobbs’s front porch, opening that old case and Oren is now trained to resolve the puzzle. O’Connell cleverly develops a memorable group of characters.

SECOND VIOLIN by John Lawton. It’s 1938 London and the order has come down to round up German and Italian aliens for placement in camps in the north. Troy detests this assignment, and then he is forced to send his own brother with the group. Meanwhile there is the murder of a rabbi. Lawton draws a wonderful picture of wartime London.

THE DEAD OF WINTER by Rennie Airth. When Rose Novak is discovered brutally murdered in a 1944 London blackout, John Madden’s old colleagues at Scotland Yard work hard to solve the case, when it is revealed she was employed at Madden’s farm. Retired from policing and now the gentleman farmer, Madden finds himself drawn into the investigation that leads abroad to the French Resistance and a cache of diamonds. Don’t miss RIVER OF DARKNESS the first in this interesting series.

LIVING WITNESS by Jane Haddam. Snow Hill, PA, is not without its maverick; she’s 91 year-old Anne Victoria Hadley. She’s both rich and hated, and when “Intelligent design” is inserted into the curriculum of the public school, she leads a coalition to sue the school board. The trial brings national attention to this small community. So former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian is brought in when Ms Hadley is found clubbed to death. J Haddam seems to get better with every book.

ALL THE COLORS OF DARKNESS by Peter Robinson. In the new Det Insp Banks mystery, the suicide death of Mark Hardcastle, set and costume designer for the local Eastvale Theatre, leads to a homicide case that places Banks into the shadowy spy world where secrets of the personal nature are fair game. Peter Robinson can always be counted upon for his expert delivery of the British police procedural.

DEVIL’S GARDEN by Ace Atkins. Ace Atkins continues his exciting fictionalized accounts of true stories with the notorious trial of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. In 1921 San Francisco, Arbuckle, then a silent screen comedy star, throws a wild party in his St Francis Hotel suite, ending in the death of sometime actress Virginia Rappe. The Hearst newspapers cry murder and pronounce Fatty guilty. On the defense, Arbuckle hires the Pinkerton detective Dashiell Hammett. The March release will reveal the answers; also trade paperbacks not to be missed-WICKED CITY and WHITE SHADOW.

A MATTER OF JUSTICE by Charles Todd. A respected businessman has been murdered on his family estate in Cambury. Rutledge, away from London, is called in by the local constabulary, and finds that the victim is universally despised by the country citizenry, but they don’t seem to have been moved to commit murder. With greatest patience and keen wit, Rutledge uncovers another case that has ties to war, but this time it’s the Boer War. Another well crafted tale.

THE DRAINING LAKE by Arnaldur Indredason. Following an earthquake, the water level of an Icelandic lake continues to fall, exposing a human skeleton, weighed down with a heavy radio device, a Russian listening instrument used for spying during the Cold War Era. These remains trigger a look back to days when Iceland played a strategic role in the political world. Were Icelanders spies for the Russians? Left- wing students were sent to Leipzig to observe and study communist ways. How all this relates to this case is Erlendur’s burden along with his personal problems-a drug addicted daughter and an estranged son. SILENCE OF THE GRAVE, 2nd in the series, won the Gold Dagger Award and is superb; in THE DRAINING LAKE, Erlendur is his own worst enemy.

WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? By Kate Atkinson. 6 year-old Joanna Mason is the sole survivor of a street attack by a stranger killing her mother, sister and baby brother. 30 years later, Joanna has married and has a successful medical practice in Edinburgh and an adorable child. When the killer is released from prison, Joanna seems to have vanished. 16 year-old nanny Reggie Chase is very concerned and does not believe that Joanna is visiting a sick aunt. Jackson Brodie will soon be on the case. GOOD NEWS, along with CASE HISTORIES and ONE GOOD TURN, have raised Atkinson to the list of Britain top mystery writers.

THE BRASS VERDICT by Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch lends a hand to LINCOLN LAWYER Mickey Haller in the Walter Elliot case inherited from lately-murdered attorney friend Jerry Vincent. Both want to find Vincent’s killer. Why Vincent was murdered seems to be the key to the Elliot case, but does it endanger Mickey’s life too? Connelly cleverly matches his two characters, Haller and Bosch, who come from different sides of the mountain.

COLD IN HAND by John Harvey. Charlie Resnick is back on the front line in a case where a dispute between rival gangs leaves a teenage girl dead. The girl’s father lays the blame on Charlie’s partner Lynn Kellogg. Lynn, meanwhile, is working a murder case that may be linked to international gunrunning and people trafficking. Both detectives must face grave danger in this new and very welcome return.

EXIT MUSIC by Ian Rankin. Just as we celebrate the return of John Harvey’s Charlie Resnick Ian Rankin exits Inspector Rebus. However, there’s no cheating in this “final” chapter. Rebus is tying up loose ends, getting ready for retirement. But he just can’t resist a new case when a dissident Russian poet turns up dead. Will Rebus’s methods solve the “accidental death” case and in doing so jeopardize his forthcoming retirement benefits? Always a pleasure! Will be greatly missed.

PEOPLE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS by Stuart Kaminsky. Welcome back yet another favorite -Chief Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, Moscow Office of Special Investigations. The hard-working cop with his unique sense of humor must travel to Siberia to solve a murder at a diamond mine. His investigations uncover international diamond smuggling involving government corruption that must be handled with kid gloves.

THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt. Here’s another intriguing Scandinavian mystery, unfortunately only published in hard back as UNSEEN and UNSPOKEN. In this story, the setting is an archaeological dig that uncovers an ancient Viking fortification. The healthy excitement of a group of university students working on the site is short-lived when a woman of their group is found dead, naked, and bled out, hanging from a tree. Insp Knutas has his hands full with this ritual killing.

BLOOD SPLIT by Asa Larsson. The arrival of the newly appointed female priest has taken aback the conservative village of Kiruna. The “old boys club” is not about to let this newcomer, with her feminist ways, disrupt their peaceful rural life. When her body is found hanging in the church, the police are not wanting for suspects. And how does this involve attorney Rebecca Matinsson, a big city lawyer, returned to the region of her birth to recover from a similar murder scene? Another Swedish gem!

ONCE WERE COPS by Ken Bruen. Topnotch writer Ken Bruen tries his hand at the Big Apple. Coming to NYC as part of an exchange program with the NYPD and Irish Guards, Michael O’Shea, a psychopath teetering on the edge is paired with Kebar, an unstable cop seeking revenge for the brutal rape of his sister. At the same time a madman is terrorizing the streets of the city with a series of murderous attacks on young women.

MIND’S EYE by Haken Nesser. Chief Inspector VanVeeteren becomes suspious of the open-and-shut case against Janek Mitter, convicted of killing his wife while drunk, when Mitter himself becomes a homicide victim. Unraveling the truth is a particular challenge to the cerebral driven cop. Following his reasoning (key to the investigation as expounded in BORKMAN’S POINT) as explained to his puzzled assistant Munster, is once again a treat.

DEATH’S HALF ACRE by Margaret Maron. North Carolina land developers are hard at work to buy up farmland for their real estate projects of subdivision housing and shopping centers. Things heat up when a county commissioner is murdered and corruption is revealed. Judge Deborah Knott and her husband Sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Bryant must stop these profitable back room deals that have become the order of the day. Award winner Maron continues to please with her timely plots.

FLIGHT OF THE HORNBILL by Eric Stone. Basing his story on the Bre-x gold fraud of 1997, Eric Stone presents a fast-paced thriller set in the oil-rich tropics of Sumatra where rumors circulate that a gold find has occurred. Stone, in his 3rd Ray Sharp novel, continues his well-written style that elicits a true love for the beauty of the country and a deep concern for the human condition.

DEVIL'S PEAK by Deon Meyer. Former mercenary Thobela (Tiny) Mpayiphele has retired to a peaceful life, but when his 8-year-old son, his pride and joy, is shot dead at a gas station robbery, old professional ways are awakened and he takes the law into his own hands. Insp Benny Gressel, whose been struggling with alcoholism, is assigned the case. An unlikely ally for Gressel, Christine van Rooyen, a young prostitute, enters the investigation when her daughter goes missing. Complex, finely wrought characters, keen psychological insight and a compelling plot make this South African author Meyer's best work and a top crime novel of '08.

FRESH KILLS by Reggie Nadelson. Artie Cohen, the soulful Russian-born cop, keeps a loft in Red Hook (title of an earlier A Cohen mystery) and maintains extensive Old World connections in Brighton Beach. This savvy blue collar crime story concerns the murder of a little girl and Artie's 14-year-old nephew, on leave from the Florida reform school where he was sent for killing a man.

SEVERANCE PACKAGE by Duane Swiercynski. Swiercynski, after WHEELMAN and THE BLONDE, has taken the gloves off and let the blood fly where it may in the fight for survival of co-workers at Murphy, Knox & Associates. It's action packed, as techniques of the CIA, Special Forces, etc, fill these pages and the employees go down one by one to their deaths. Next for Mr C is a book starring Batman, sending him out of the realm of Big Sleep Books and into the world of comic books.

CRIMINAL PARADISE by Steven M Thomas. Robby Rivers is a likeable career criminal who makes his way as a burglar somewhat of Dortmunder quality. His loyalty to an old biker friend who's down on his luck, and short on character, could prove Robby's downfall in the seemingly perfect life he has carefully etched out for himself. An easy read, smooth debut, ending needs some work.

THE CHAMELEON'S SHADOW by Minette Walters. 26-year-old Lt Charles Acland becomes gravely injured from a terrorist bombing of his armored vehicle while stationed in Iraq. Upon returning to London life, after weeks of healing and rehab, he must deal with a tragically disfigured face, loss of an eye, and the torments of anger, grief, and guilt. This terribly vulnerable man is then beset by the police when he comes under suspicion as a serial killer. Once again M Walters spins an intricate tale featuring a war of our times character study.

A PALE HORSE, by Charles Todd. In the ruins of Yorkshire's Fountains Abbey lies the body of a man wrapped in a cloak, the face covered with a gas mask. Next to him is a book on alchemy, which belongs to the schoolmaster, a conscientious objector in the Great War. Rutledge is on hand having been sent by the War Office to check on one of their own whose war work was top secret and has gone missing. Todd never disappoints with his haunting historical whodunits.

WINTER IN MADRID by C J Sansom. C J Sansom, best known for his M Shardlake series set in Tudor England, springs forward 400 years to 1940 Spain, the beginning of the rule of Franco, after a disastrous civil war. Harry Brett, ex- public school boy and survivor of Dunkirk, is dispatched to Madrid ostensibly as a translator, but in fact to spy on a former schoolmate, Sandy Forsyth. Sandy is involved in a shady gold field development scheme that could tip the Franco regime's entrance into the war on the side of their old allies, the Nazis. This novel, while creating a masterful picture of post-Civil War Spain, is more about England as Sansom, through the eyes of Harry, exposes the ambiguities and treacheries of the past.

TURNAROUND by George Pelecanos. A 1972 teenage racial prank stirs a reaction that alters the lives of six youths. Years later, this incident still haunts the surviving men, now adults. Pelecanos takes us deep inside their lives, and two of them, will journey down the path of reconciliation. As always, a novel charged with delicate human insight and excellent sense of timing.

IN THE WOODS by Tana Woods. Summer 1984, 3 children enter the woods and do not return. The police are called and find one child Rob Ryan, wearing blood-filled sneakers, unable to recall what has happened. 20 years later, this same Rob Ryan, now a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad, and his partner and friend, Cassie Maddox, must investigate a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Nominated for this year's Edgar for best first novel, IN THE WOODS gets my vote.

THE CHINAMAN by Friedrich Glauser. Originally published in Germany in 1938, THE CHINAMAN is a European classic from the Sergeant Studer series. Sgt Studer's case unfolds in a country inn, a poor house and a horticultural college in Pfrundisberg, a Swiss village. Two murders take place, one by arsenic poisoning, the other by pistol. A true whodunit! This delightful crime story is reminiscent of Georges Simenon's Maigrets and will entertain readers who enjoy stepping back in time.

HITMAN by Parnell Hall. Forget the psychological studies, the festering family secrets, the old standard PI brought up to date, and pause to savor the word banter of a Stanley Hastings mystery. Stanley, trying to do right, rarely gets it right but is usually set straight by wife Alice. In HITMAN, Stanley is faced with the ethical problem of taking a hitman for a client. When the "hitman" is taken out, Stanley ends up in the middle of the investigation and, of course, he tries to talk his way out of it, while solving the case.

THE KILLER'S WIFE by Bill Floyd. Leigh Wren has found a new life for herself and her son. It wasn't easy after all the publicity of being the wife of a convicted serial killer. Then the father of a victim begins stalking her, making wild accusations, and finally exposing her past to the community. Faced with humiliation, Leigh is presented with a new threat when a copy cat killer appears and it seems that she and her son are his target. Debut novel with a style smooth as silk.

THE EVER-RUNNING MAN by Marcia Muller. Veteran PI Sharon McCone is hired to find the "ever-running man" (so called because he's seen running from the scene of the crime), who has wreaked havoc on husband Hy's security firm. Working for Hy's company, she uncovers corrupt practices that may involve her husband and jeopardize her marriage. Meanwhile, she narrowly escapes an explosion at the SF offices. Always a professional product!

ZOO STATION by David Downing. Journalist John Russell writes for the British and American press from his longtime residence in Berlin. Now it's 1939 Germany and, although he has a German wife and 11-year-old son, Russell must carefully watch his actions as he gets involved with Soviet connections and he assists a Jewish family to leave the country. Things get complicated when both Nazi and British intelligence call on him to do a bit of spying.

DEATH OF A MURDERER by Rupert Thomson. A woman, convicted of unspeakable torture and murders committed with her psychopathic boyfriend over 35 years ago (Moors Murders 1960s), has died of natural causes while serving her prison term. Her body lies in the hospital morgue basement awaiting burial. Constable Billy Tyler has been assigned the duty of guarding the remains of this "monster," "sick killer," "devil." The impact of this unusual assignment on a very ordinary man is most remarkable. Included in everyone's Best Books of '07 list.

LOSING YOU by Nicci French. Nina Landry "knows" her daughter is missing when 15-year-old Charlie does not return from her overnight the next morning. No one-cops, Charlie's friends, Charlie's father-take her disappearance seriously. Thus begins the struggle. Nicci French (Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) once again champion the not always strong woman's efforts to prevail over what seem like insurmountable obstacles without creating the Wonder Woman effect.

THE SILVER SWAN by Benjamin Black. Award winning novelist John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black, presents once again the irascible formerly hard-drinking Dublin pathologist Quirke in another spellbinding case in which a young woman's dubious suicide sets off a string of hazards and deceptions. As in CHRISTINE FALLS, simultaneously released in trade paperback, Quirke seems unable to "let go" of his inquisitive ways when an old classmate, husband of the deceased, asks him for a suicide testimony at the coroner's inquest.

UNSPOKEN by Mari Jungstedt. In Jungstedt's second crime novel set in Gotland, Sweden, Anders Knutas searches for a missing 14-year-old girl. Explicit photographs of the girl and a stranger tie this case to the brutal murder of alcoholic photographer Heny Dahlstrom. News and interest spread throughout the country and TV journalist Johan Berg of UNSEEN fame is sent from Stockholm to cover the story. The Scandinavians are a voice to be recognized!

ZUGZWANG by Ronan Bennett. Zugzwang is a chess term that describes those endgame moves that can only lead to defeat. Chess is at the heart of the 1914 St Petersburg thriller in which respected Jewish psychoanalyst Otto Spethmann struggles to save two of his patients, one of whom aspires to the
World Chess Championship. His "moves" are vital to the survival of one and the successful treatment of the other. At the same time, Police Inspector Lychev includes the good doctor in a murder investigation
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THE WATER'S LOVELY by Ruth Rendell. WATER'S LOVELY centers on a 12-year-old childhood secret shared by two sisters still living in the family home, but now broken into apartments, upstairs for mostly homebound Mom, downstairs for the daughters, Ismay and Heather. Both sisters are on the verge of marriage. Must the chilling event of stepfather Guy's bathtub drowning be revisited? Delicious characters abound in R Rendell's novel much to the total enjoyment of her fans.

A LONG SHADOW by Charles Todd. This mother and son writing team has created
another intriguing Insp Rutledge mystery in which Rutledge himself is the
one who is hunted. An engraved cartridge casing from a bullet brings back
war memories and becomes the clue to the resolution of the case. A solid
entry to this haunting series.

HOLMES ON THE RANGE by Steve Hockensmith. Cowboy Old Red Amlingmeyer
collects clues Sherlock Holmes style to solve the murder at the Bar VR ranch
in 1890 Montana. And brother Big Red helps, in this novel of the Wild West
kind of story that brings to mind Joe Lansdale and his humorous East Texas
lore.

THE OLD WINE SHADES by Martha Grimes. Richard Jury can use all the help he
can get in his latest case, or is it a case? Trouble is, he met a guy in a
pub and, over drinks and dinner, he wove a tale of a mother/son
disappearance (there’s a dog in it too) that kept Jury coming back night
after night. So what was Jury to do when the woman’s dead body turns up, and
the guy denies he ever told the tale? A very clever read!

DISORDERED MINDS by Minette Walters. Somehow I overlooked this Walters
masterpiece, now in paperback. So to make amends: Anthropologist Jonathan
Hughes pairs up with Bournemouth resident councillor George (female)Gardner
to reexamine the1970 Stamp case. Howard Stamp was a retarded 20-year-old who
was charged with the brutal murder of his grandmother; he later committed
suicide. As they sort out the evidence and confront the local "gentry", it
becomes apparent the murderer is still at large and living in Bournemouth.

CATCH ME WHEN I FALL by Nicci French. This male/female-writing duo always
presents a woman-in-peril. In CATCH ME, Hally Kraus, a talented and
successful businesswoman, is on a fast track to disaster. Manic/depressive,
most likely, but definitely in need of help when her life and male
relationships spin out of control. Will Charlie, her rock, be the one to
catch her? I literally could not put this book down, read it in 2 sittings.

THE DARKEST PLACE by Daniel Judson. College professor Deacon Kane has come
to Shinnecock Bay to recover from his only son’s death and put his life back
together. When a series of mysterious drownings prove not to be of the
accidental nature, Kane finds himself implicated and must struggle for
survival. Shamus winner Judson (POISONED ROSE, BONE ORCHID) combines a
frightening plot with a vast cast of memorable characters in this riveting
crime novel set in the seedy underside of the Hamptons

THE BIG BOOM by Dominic Stansberry. Edgar Award winner D Stansberry (THE
CONFESSION, THE LAST DAYS OF IL DUCE) scribes the 2nd SF" North Beach
mystery featuring Dante Mancuso, ex-cop turned PI, who still faces demon of
the past from his police career. His latest case envolving a missing
daughter becomes a homicide when her body washes up in the bay. Recommended
for fans of noir.

JACQUOT AND THE WATERMAN by Martin O’Brien. Welcome Chief Inspector Daniel
Jacquot from the sunlit city of Marseilles as he deals with this notorious
French port. In this well-drawn, strongly flavored setting, Jacquot
investigates the murders of battered beautiful female victims, whose bodies
have been dumped in the harbor. It is easy to succumb to the charm of this
newfound cop.

BORKMAN’S POINT by Hakan Nesser. A Swedish police procedural appeals to the
reader who respects the investigator who carefully fits the pieces together
to solve the crime. In Nesser’s award winning novel, our inspector must play
chess, drink wine and eat fine food, and finally weigh the evidence to crack
the case of what seems to be a series of random murders. Ah Borkman’s
Point!-that particular stage when enough pieces have been gathered to master
the puzzle. Bravo!

PURSUED by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza. In this 5th entry of the Insp Espinosa
Brazilian series, a troubled psychiatrist seeks help as he believes a
patient is stalking him. The situation worsens when the patient, a young
man, imposes himself on the doctor’s family and befriends a daughter.
Espinosa must separate the real from the imagines if he is to protect the
lives of both the patient and the members of the family. South America has
its own style too.

FULL DARK HORSE by Christopher Fowler. London’s Police Dept’s Peculiar
Crimes’ Unit is manned by Arthur Bryant with the able assistance of John May
during the Blitz of WWI. This "peculiar" twosome, unable, to serve in the
forces because of age or physical ability, face their first challenge-a
grizzly murder in the Palace Theater opening with the production of "Orpheus
in Hell". Fans of the movie "Mrs Henderson Presents" will be on familiar
ground in this sophisticated debut.

DRAMA CITY by George Pelecanos. Lorenzo Brown is a released prisoner, working as an officer for the Humane Society saving and protecting dogs of the District of Columbia. Rachael Lopez is his parole officer, doing her best to help her clients to resist old ways and start life anew. With a precise style, Pelacanos moves these two characters slowly and carefully to action that is inevitable to the climax of the novel. Will it prove fatal for either or both of these two people we have come to care for? It is our fear. Read on and you will be happily rewarded. Best of the year!

THE TORMENTS OF OTHERS by Val McDermid. Dr Tony Hill and Det Chief Insp Carol Jordan of BBC TV fame return in this polished account of their new case involving a vicious murder of a prostitute. Carol has just resumed her position in Bradfield, not fully recovered from the sexual assault sustained in the line of duty (THE LAST TEMPTATION), and facing the test of her ability to face the challenges her career. Her best yet!

HARD TRUTH by Nevada Barr. Anna Pigeon's latest assignment takes her to Rocky Mountain National Park, where three girls have disappeared during a religious retreat. When two of the girls reappear, little light is shone on the situation and Anna must cope with a religious cult that protects its secrets and harbors the girls far from Anna's reach.

HITLER'S PEACE by Philip Kerr. It's 1943,the eve of the Big Three Conference in Teheran. FDR enlists the expertise of professor of philosophy and author Willard A Mayer, an OSS operative who was raised on the continent. His task is to investigate the alleged Russian atrocities against Polish officers at Katyn Forest. Meanwhile, Himmler, also preparing for the Teheran Conference, has Operation Long Jump, a plan to assassinate Stalin on the table, while Hitler himself, proposes a meeting with the Big Three to explain his plan for peace. Kerr, once again, successfully creates the Berlin noir setting.

BROKEN PREY by John Sanford. There's a new killer loose whose MO resembles those of serial killers locked up "safely" in the Minnesota Security Hospital. Lucas Davenport and his team must move quickly to stop the killing and any possible schooling by those already incarcerated. John Sanford continues to surprise and satisfy in this the 16th of the best-selling Prey novels.

THE RIGHT MADNESS by James Crumley. Ex-army officer CW Sughrue, that tough and cynical, but goodhearted soul, can't refuse Will Kinderich, when he is asked to recover the Doctor's stolen psychoanalysis patient files. This eleventh novel takes you tripping through hard-boiled pages scented with alcohol, drugs, and sex, and delivers that poetic touch that has earned Crumley his distinctive reputation.

DEAD OF NIGHT by Randy Wayne White. When Doc Ford checks out a friend's reclusive biologist brother, he interrupts his brutal beating/questioning by a Russian duo, female (brains), male (brawn). This gifted scientist has naively been drawn into a nightmare of biological warfare. His research could provide fuel for terrorist strikes. Randy White takes a giant step in this engrossing techno-style mystery.

MARK'S REVIEWS
Ace Atkins, WICKED CITY. After Atkins’s masterful 1950s reconstruction of real-life Tampa in WHITE SHADOW, he moves north to 1950s Phenix City, Alabama, the fleshpot near Fort Benning and Columbus, Georgia, immortalized in THE PHENIX CITY STORY. Everyday citizens place their heads on the chopping block when they stand up to the corrupt law enforcement forces protecting the city’s gambling and prostitution. Capone-era Chicago seems like “good government city” in comparison, and Atkins allows us to track the national guardsmen imposing martial law on this hellhole.

Loren D Estleman, GAS CITY. Estleman’s series of novels about the history of Detroit was a unique if unappreciated collection of memorable writing. In GAS CITY, he examines an unspecified mid-western industrial city in which the peace is maintained through the Mafia’s ownership of the forever-in-office police chief. When that elected official’s wife dies, he decides to reassume his responsibilities (or proclaim his death wish) and all the pieces of GAS CITY’S civilization-governance, journalism, religion, organized crime-start toppling over. Also a serial killer’s loose.

S J Rozan, THE SHANGHAI MOON. MOON reflects the return of the NYC PI’s Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, who join in the hunt for a priceless lost piece of jewelry that disappeared from wartime Shanghai. They encounter the story of the exiled Shanghai Jews who had fled Nazi-controlled Europe, and the life of the wealthy Chinese in Shanghai, first under the Japanese occupation and then, confronted by Mao’s armies. Rozan’s equally interested in the family dynamics of today’s NYC Chinese and Orthodox Jews.

Domenic Stansberry, THE ANCIENT RAIN. Stansberry’s Dante Mancuso is the great PI of the streets of Italian San Francisco (in the tradition of Greenleaf, Wilcox, and Dunne). RAIN, however, is all about the era of the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Hearst kidnappings as the post 9/11 feds attempt to rejuvenate a 30-year-old bank robbery case. Stanberry’s take on ‘70s radicals is dark: a crowd including a philandering defense lawyer, a very rich power broker’s Jane-like wife (perhaps some editorial redacting here), and a guerilla theater director, complete with Sandanista boyfriend.

Katie Estill, DAHLIA’S GONE. This is a beautifully written novel set in the Ozarks in the aftermath of the mysterious murder of a teenage girl, found dead in bed in her pajamas. But her stepbrother was downstairs watching television-very loud television-and she’d been stabbed 21 times. It’s also the story of that family’s next store neighbor (a mile away) who agreed to “babysit” the teenagers a bit, a woman married to a hydrologist who discovers cavefish and bats in the nearby river caves. Dahlia is unforgettable.

David Fulmer, THE BLUE DOOR. Fulmer has provided us with wonderful musical historical mysteries. Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton in Storyville, the early radio days in Atlanta. BLUE DOOR’S an African American Eddy and the Cruisers story set in 1962 Philadelphia. Johnny Pope disappeared 3 years before and ex-boxer PI Eddie Ceno wants to find out what happened. There’s also Johnny’s sister, the beautiful vocalist who survived the tragedy. Fulmer’s characters always remind us of the classic American detectives.

Robert Crais, CHASING DARKNESS. Crais’s Elvis Cole is facing the same problem that Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch recently had to address: did they make a mistake that inadvertently left a killer free to take additional victims? In Elvis’s case, a lame lowlife is found-a suicide-by Laurel Canyon firefighters. With his corpse is a book of memories of seven serial killings. Carol Starkey, Crais’s bomb tech expert, has joined LAPD homicide in time to help Cole, a good thing since she’s one of the most “out there” characters in contemporary fiction.

Stella Rimington, ILLEGAL ACTION. This is a unque pleasure, an espionage series with a female lead character (authored by the only female director general of MI 5, who, in the 1st of these 3 spy stories, graciously thanked her ghost writer). We all should be grateful, because all 3 are especially well-written. ACTION is about an assassination threat to a London-based Russian oligarch, and Liz Carlyle is undercover as an art enthusiast devoted to the world of a modernist called “Pashko.”

David Downing, SILESIAN STATION. An excellent companion to Furst’s THE SPIES OF WARSAW (and all of Furst’s works). SILESIAN also seems a good successor to Kerr’s Berlin detective stories (3 reprinted in BERLIN NOIR). In the second of Downing’s compelling series about prewar British journalist John Russell in Berlin, he is witness to the run-up to the invasion of Poland, investigating alleged atrocities provoking the Nazis. Very good writing, characters to care about, and occasional dark humor.

Barbara Cleverly, THE TOMB OF ZEUS. This is the 1st of Cleverly’s second series; the first featured Scotland Yard’s Joe Sandilards in mostly 1920s India. Apart from her consistently stylish and witty story telling, Cleverly is a master (mistress) in providing genuine surprises both in her narrative and in the development of her characters; she’s one of the most imaginative mystery writers of all time. Laetitia Talbot is a twentysomething archaeologist just arrived in 1920s Crete to hunt for that tomb. Letty’s going to learn a lot about the mythology and current character of Crete, but, as you can imagine, not safely.

Jason Goodwin, THE SNAKE STONE. This is the second in the richly detailed new series about Yashim, a eunuch in 1839 Istanbul, who is influential in the sultan’s court. A Frenchman who may have been with Byron at Missinglonghi has arrived in town with plans to discover antiquities. Trade people keep turning up dead. Yashim must draw upon his friendship with the West Indian-born valide, mother of the dying sultan, in order to solve the crimes.

James Patrick Hunt, GOODBYE SISTER DISCO. The George Hastings series is the best new police procedural debut in some time (a worthy successor to the 87th Precinct), and it takes place in St Louis. A software billionaire heiress is kidnapped and her date murdered at a Christmas party in Ladue. How can the St Louis police and the FBI save her life?

Mary Ann Tirone Smith and Jere Smith, DIRTY WATER. Tirone Smith, the author of the Poppy Rice FBI series, and her blogger son, have written a truly heartwarmingly beautiful mystery which should be read by two separate market segments-Oprah readers and baseball fans. A month-old baby has been left in the Red Sox dugout at Fenway Park and the baby’s mother’s been murdered. We learn that the baseball players, the Boston police and actually the whole city of Boston have big caring hearts. The homicide turns out to have something to do with both baseball and justice, and rarely have I read a mystery so deserving of reading by the entire fiction-loving Red Sox nation.

Sara Gran, DOPE. Josephine Flannigan is asked to find a Barnard dropout in
1950 Manhattan, because of her own experience as a drug addict, thief, and
prostitute. DOPE is an early candidate for the best mystery of 2006, because
Gran delivers pitch-perfect characters in a world of drifters and losers.
Her 1950 cityscape matches my late 50s memories, while her dialogue brought
Jo’s people just out of the shadows for quick glimpses. Jo herself has the
integrity of one of Lisa McLendon’s best "heroines."

Robert B Parker, SEA CHANGE. Paradise (Marblehead-like) Police Chief Jesse
Stone is the star of the Parker continuing series that’s almost never over
the top. Rather, a full set of suburban North Shore personalities are worth
getting to know, and Stone’s ever present confidence and self-regard can be
appreciated. One "sea change" is the tide that interrupts Paradise’s regatta
week, by bringing in the corpse of a blonde visitor. Stone has a hard time
however interesting the yachting community in this diversion from their
holidaying.

Michael Baron, THE MOURNING SEXTON. Bankruptcy lawyer David Hirsch is an
ex-felon seeking redemption, keeping up his synagogue’s minyan (like Paddy
Chayefsky’s 10th MAN), and launching a wrongful death suit concerning a 3
year-old automobile accident. Michael Kahn (Baron) always had a gift for the
flavor of legal practice; here he addresses some matters of St Louis
interest, such as the reputation of the early St Louis County circuit court,
and the architectural basis for the Civil Courts Building.

Steve Berry, THE TEMPLAR LEGACY. Deep in the Languedoc area of France is an
abbey of Templars, and there is ferment over the transition in its
leadership (with lots of reference to the attack on the Templars by France’s
Philip the Fair and by the Inquisition). Also, holy Templar books seen to be
coming on the auction market, leading to conflicts in Copenhagen.

Rebecca Pawel, THE SUMMER SNOW. Carlos Tejada, in 1945, accompanied by Elena
and Tonio, is sent from his mountain-based Civil Guard assignment to unravel
the homicide of his great aunt in Granada and associated disputes over the
family’s inheritances. The wonderful Elena never has been accepted by the
Tejada family, so internecine conflict hardly was resolved with that death.

David Hewson, THE SACRED CUT. Rome police officers Costa and Peroni discover
the corpse left by a serial killer with a Vitruvian cut (an individual
within a squared circle) on her back on the floor of the Pantheon. With that
incredibly rare Roman snow drifting in. Then, all of a sudden, the FBI is
all over them, right there in their own sovereign nation. Excellent writing,
and the opportunity to tour Rome.

Sue Grafton, S IS FOR SILENCE. Kinsey Milhone’s new case is a small town
trollop, lost now for 34 years. Her abandoned daughter wants resolution to
regain some self-esteem. Grafton then has the opportunity to brilliantly
sketch small town southern California life of the 1950s. The town bad girl,
regularly beat up by her husband, nevertheless has had an amazing impact on
her neighbors, even as Kinsey meets them 34 years later.

David Baldacci, THE CAMEL CLUB. Since ABSOLUTE POWER, in which an outsider
holds the President and the Secret Service accountable, Baddacci has
presented lots of imaginative story telling in his series of best sellers.
THE CAMEL CLUB remixes these same ingredients on an appropriately broad
canvas. It seems that some very alternative Washingtonians meet weekly to
review conspiracy theories. So, one evening their Roosevelt Island campsite
is invaded by two killers and their top intelligence agency victim.

Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, DOUBLE HOMICIDE. This best selling couple
offers two stand-alone novel police procedurals-set respectively in Santa Fe
and Boston. Away from their home California turf, the Kellermans can be a
little out of sorts; a Boston cop laments that "we serve and protect in the
land of pretentious eggheads," in which a college basketball star dies at a
nightclub. It is a gay art gallery magnate who bites the Santa Fe dirt.

Brian Freemantle, THE HOLMES FACTOR. This is the second of this series (by
the author of the brilliant Charlie Muffin espionage entertainments and the
remarkable Danlov procedurals), features Sherlock, Sebastian, and Mycroft
Holmes and Dr Watson, as the try to serve a 1915 England on thee brink of
World War 1.Sebastian travels to Moscow (Sidney Reillyland), where he must
deal with the Okhrana and where he meets my cousin Alexander Kerensky (it’s
always upsetting when family members turn out to be historical figures).

Michael Koryta, SORROW’S ANTHEM. What’s amazing about the talent of this new
young writer of PI stories (this is Lincoln Perry‘s second outing) is not
just how well he contributes to the genre (introspective 1st person
commentary, characters who evolve powerfully as the reader gets to know
them), but how penetratingly he explores the lives of a working class
neighborhood (much as Sue Grafton does). SORROW’S ANTHEM is the sirens
heading into an accident scene; Perry’s boyhood friend is back in deep
trouble and Perry owes him-big time.