All Star Fiction (all genres) - titles with 3 or more stars from the following review sources: Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly

• Oryx and Crake
  Author: Atood, Margaret
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 26 ISBN: 03885503857
  KirkusBooklistPWLJ
  With command of her material and with her sharp wit and dark humor, Atwood projects a conceivable future of the world, a place left devastated in the wake of ecological and scientific disaster, and populated by a cast of characters who will continue to inhabit dreams long after the book is closed.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 4.29.03
• A Memory of War
  Author: Busch, Frederick
  Publisher: Norton $ 25.95 ISBN: 0393049787
  PWKirkusBooklist
  Psychologist Alexander Lescziak has a life of quiet sophistication, until a new patient declares that he is the doctor's half-brother, the product of a union between Lescziak's Jewish mother and a German prisoner of war.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 1.06.03
• Long For This World
  Author: Byers, Michael
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 039589171x
  PWLJKirkus
  Byers' award-winning debut collection, The Coast of Good Intentions, won universal praise for its mature wisdom and deeply affecting characters. Now his exhilarating first novel showcases his extraordinary gifts in the suspenseful story of a geneticist grappling with an astonishing discovery.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 4.8.03
• Persuader
  Author: Child, Lee
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385336667
  PWKirkusBooklist
  Introducing Persuader, Child's most electrifying suspense novel yet--featuring his utterly unique hero, ex-Army cop Jack Reacher. This time Reacher goes undercover to investigate the disappearance of a federal agent from a drug dealer's home.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 3.31.03
• Lost Light
  Author: Connelly, Michael
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316154601
  KirkusBooklistPWLJ
  The bestselling author of City of Bones and Chasing the Dime brings lone wolf Harry Bosch out of retirement and on a wild excursion into evil, seeking the truth about a cold case that still haunts the LAPD, movie studios--and Bosch himself.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 3.31.03
• The Master Butchers Singing Club
  Author: Erdrich, Louise
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0066209773
  KirkusBooklistPW
  A brilliant new book by one of America's most acclaimed novelists, in The Master Butchers Singing Club Erdrich creates a fictional world filled with memorable characters who grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 12.23.02
• Due Preparations for the Plague
  Author: Hospital, Janette Turner
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039305764x
  KirkusBooklistPW
  Hospital's electrifying new novel is a tightly woven web of familial and national histories, of sexual and political passions, and of individual and national complicities in the age of terrorism. She probes with astonishing acuity the murky worlds of espionage and intelligence gathering and the painful meaning of survival.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 5.29.03
• The Kite Runner
  Author: Hosseini, Khaled
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 1573222453
  Library JournalKirkusPW
  An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, takes readers from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful debut.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 5.12.03
• What I Loved
  Author: Hustvedt, Siri
  Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805071709
  PWLJBooklist
  From the author of The Enchantment of Lily Dahl comes a powerful and heartbreaking novel that chronicles the epic story of two families, two sons, and two marriages."
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 2.20.03
• Keeping Watch
  Author: King, Laurie R.
  Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801910
  KirkusLJBooklistPW
  After years of rescuing children and on the brink of retirement, Alan Carmichael decides to rescue one last teenager from an abusive parent. But, once the boy is safely hidden, Carmichael begins to doubt his decision to intervene: Has he turned a killer free to kill again?
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 2.4.03
• Shutter Island
  Author: Lehane, Dennis
  Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0688163173
  KirkusPWBooklistLJ
  The New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River and master of the new noir returns with a scorching psychological thriller set in 1954 at Ashcliffe Hospital--a federal institution for the criminally insane. As a storm threatens to strand U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner Chuck Aule, they stumble into an evil darker than any nightmare.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 4.29.03
• The Clarninet Polka
  Author: Maillard, Keith
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312308892
  KirkusBooklistLJPW
  This hard-edged, sweet-souled story of a heart's homecoming is deeply and authentically rooted in Polish-American culture. A remarkable novel from an important writer.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Music & Fiction
  Updated 1.3.03
• All Over Creation
  Author: Ozeki, Ruth L.
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670030910
  KirkusPWBooklist
  From the author of My Year of Meats comes the story of a Japanese-American prodigal daughter just trying to make sense of it all as the unceasing cycle of all creation continues around her.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 2.20.03
• Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
  Author: Packer, Z.Z.
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 1573222348
  KirkusPWLJ
  Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is the highly anticipated debut of a remarkable writer of short stories and winner of the Whiting Writers' Award and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | African American Stars
  Updated 1.16.03
• Good Faith
  Author: Smiley, Jane
  Publisher: Knopf $ 26 ISBN: 0375412174
  KirkusBooklistPW
  From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes a masterly novel about some very American seductions: money, sex, and real estate. Good Faith is an extraordinary story about ordinary people caught up in the exotic 1980s version of the American Dream, as greed and financial game-playing explode on Main Street.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 2.20.03
• Colour
  Author: Tremain, Rose
  Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux $ 25 ISBN: 0374126054
  PWKirkusBooklist
  Tremain's new novel is a saga of love and greed set during the mid-19th century gold rush in New Zealand. Newlyweds Joseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from England in search of new beginnings and prosperity. But the harsh land where they settle threatens to destroy them almost before they begin.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 5.29.03

More Fiction All Stars

 

All Star Nonfiction - titles with 3 or more stars from the following review sources:
Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly

• Gulag: A History
  Author: Applebaum, Anne
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 35.00 ISBN: 0767900561
  KirkusPWBooklist
  The Gulag entered the world's historical consciousness in 1972, with the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's epic history of the Soviet camps, The Gulag Archipelago. Applebaum has undertaken a fully documented history of the Soviet camp system, from its origins in the Russian Revolution to its collapse in the era of glasnost.
  Updated 3.31.03
• The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Obsession, Perfume, and the Last Mystery of the Senses
  Author: Burr, Chandler
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375507973
  KirkusBooklistLibrary Journal
  This true story profiles a scientific genius with eerie powers of smell who uses his gifts to solve one of the body's last secrets: how the nose works.
  Suggested Reading: Nature
  Updated 12.23.02
• Coal
  Author: Freese, Barbara
  Publisher: Perseus $ 25 ISBN: 0738204005
  KirkusLJPW
  Freese takes readers on a rich and fascinating journey as she tells how a simple black rock has altered the course of history.
  Suggested Reading: Nature
  Updated 1.29.02
• Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories from a Decade Gone Mad
  Author: Holman, Virginia
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23 ISBN: 0743222857
  KirkusPWLJ
  In a dexterous portrait of madness and shadows, Pushcart Prize winner Holman recounts the dark days her family was held hostage by her mother's delusions and her country was beset with the folly of the Watergate era.
  Updated 1.3.03
• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
  Author: Larson, Erik
  Publisher: Crown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0609608444
  KirkusPWBooklist
  In a thrilling narrative showcasing his gifts as storyteller and researcher, Larson recounts the spellbinding tale of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and its devious creators. A blend of Ragtime and Silence of the Lambs, The Devil in the White City is Larson at his best.
  Suggested Reading: Holmes: Scarlet Mansions by Allen Eckert (novel) and Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America's First Serial Killer by Harold Schechter.
  Links: Chicago World's Fair - Hypertext | Interactive Guide
  Web Book | Holmes Article
  Updated 2.28.02
• Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg
  Author: McPherson, James M.
  Publisher: $ ISBN:
  BooklistKirkusLJ
  McPherson takes us on one of his Gettysburg tours, with stops at important spots. He reflects on the meaning of the battle in the hearts and minds of Americans, describes the key events of those terrible three days in July 1863, and places the struggle in the greater contexts of American and world history.
  Updated 3.13.03
• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
  Author: Nafisi, Azar
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 0375504907
  KirkusPWLJ
  Reading Lolita in Tehran is the astonishing true story of young women who met in secret each week to read and talk about forbidden Western classics--and their lives and loves--in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
  Updated 3.21.03
• Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human
  Author: Ridley, Matt
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060006781
  Library JournalBooklistPW
  Armed with extraordinary new discoveries about genes, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley turns his attention to the nature versus nurture debate to bring readers a stunning book about the roots of human behavior.
  Updated 4.29.03
• DNA: The Secret of Life
  Author: Watson, James D. with Andrew Berry
  Publisher: Knopf $ 39.95 ISBN: 0375415467
  KirkusPWBooklist
  From a renowned scientist comes the first single volume to chart the entire genetic revolution--published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the DNA breakthrough. From genetically modified food to genetically modified babies, Watson reveals a future of choices and implications of which readers dare not remain uninformed.
  Updated 3.13.03
• Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883
  Author: Winchester, Simon
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0066212855
  KirkusBooklistPWLJ
  From the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World comes an examination of the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the world's most dangerous volcano--Krakatoa.
  Updated 3.31.03

More Nonfiction Stars

First Novels

• The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time
  Author: Haddon, Mark
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385509456
  PWKirkus
  Narrated by a 15-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 4.8.03
• The Gangster We Are All Looking For
  Author: Le, Thi Diem Thuy
  Publisher: Knopf $ 18 ISBN: 0375400184
  Kirkus
  A momentous literary debut: the life of a Vietnamese family in America luminously observed through the knowing eyes of a child. The Gangster We Are All Looking For is an authentically original story of finding one's place and voice in America.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 2.23.03
• The Pearl of Kuwait
  Author: Paine, Tom
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151005184
  Booklist
  California surfer Cody "Cowboy" Carmichael's life is forever changed when he meets Private Tommy Trang at boot camp. A powerful first novel by an award-winning writer, Paine has created an enthralling, joyful, and original story with the classic ingredients of love and war.
  Suggested Reading: Gulf War I Stars | First Fiction Mystery & Debuts
  Updated 2.28.03
• The Dante Club
  Author: Pearl, Matthew
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375505296
  KirkusBooklist
  When a series of gruesome murders erupts in 1865, only Boston's literary elite realize that the style and form of the killings are derived from Dante's Inferno. Twenty-six-year-old Pearl brilliantly blends fact and fiction in this debut mystery starring Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Link: The Dante Club web site
  Updated 12.2.02
• All Honest Men: The Story of J. Willis Newton and America's Most Successful Outlaw Gang
  Author: Stanush, Claude & Michele
  Publisher: Permanent $ 28 ISBN: 1579620841
  Kirkus
  A lyrical debut novel by a father/daughter writing team based on the true-life story of J. Willis Newton, the cagey, charismatic son of a Texas sharecropper who fled the cotton fields to America's most successful bandit leader. Bridging the Old West outlaw era and the gangster world of Al Capone, the book explores the widespread twisting of the American Dream. - Publisher marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | First Fiction Mystery & Debuts
  Updated 6.2.03
• The Song Reader
  Author: Tucker, Lisa
  Publisher: Pocket/Downtown $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 0743464451
  PW
  When two sisters are left alone after the death of their mother and the disappearance of their father, Mary Beth becomes the hero of both her younger sister and their entire town. She is a "song reader." She doesn't read palms or tarot cards; she reads people's secrets and desires from the songs they can't get out of their minds.
  Suggested Reading: Music & Fiction and First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 3.17.03
• Getting Mother's Body
  Author: Parks, Suzan-Lori
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400060222
  BooklistPW
  From this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama comes an enormously accomplished and original debut novel about a down-on-their-luck black family in 1960s Texas in search of the storied jewels buried with one of their relatives.
  Suggested Reading: African American Fiction Stars and First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 5.19.03

  More Fiction Debuts

Romance & Romantic Suspense

• The Spy's Bride
  Author: Abrams, Nita
  Publisher: Zebra $ 5.99 (paper) ISBN: 0821775618
  Booklist
  The third installment of Abrams's sweeping series set during the Napoleonic Wars about an Anglo-Jewish family who find passion and peril serving as intelligence couriers for Wellington. Updated 4.28.03
• Thin Pink LIne
  Author: Baratz-Logsted, Lauren
  Publisher: Mira $ 21.95 ISBN: 0373250304
  Kirkus
  Jane Taylor gets so blissfully caught up in the fact she's pregnant that she can't live up to the truth when, mere days later, she finds out that there's no proverbial bun in the oven. But she is only human, and what woman doesn't want the kind of attention that comes with pregnancy?
  Updated 5.9.03
• Seduced
  Author: Britton, Pamela
  Publisher: Warner $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0446611298
  Booklist
  Although they loathe one another, roguish Lucien St. Aubyn and headstrong Elizabeth Montclair are thrown together in matrimony after they are caught in a compromising position. Although she was the only woman to resist his charms, how long can Elizabeth last before she gives in?
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 2.20.03
• Iron Rose
  Author: Canham, Marsha
  Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451208153
  PW
  Following a Spanish galleon's attack on his English merchant ship, Varian St. Clare discovers that the captain of the privateer who saved him is Juliet Dante, daughter of the legendary Pirate Wolf, who Varian has been sent to find. Juliet agrees to take him to her father--but only as her hostage.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 2.10.03
• The Devil You Know
  Author: Carlyle, Liz
  Publisher: Pocket $ 6.99 ISBN: 074343787x
  Booklist
  Cast aside by her beau, Frederica d'Avillez is comforted by Bentley Rutledge, a scoundrel whose wild ways embroil the couple in a passionate romance. Soon, Frederica finds herself in need of a husband. And who better than the devil that got her into her situation?
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 4.16.03
• Summer Secrets
  Author: Freethy, Barbara
  Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451410823
  Booklist
  Bestselling author Freethy presents her most powerful contemporary novel: the story of three unique sisters, the secrets that bind them for life, and the summer that will set them free.
  Updated 5.14.03
• The Very Virile Viking
  Author: Hill, Sandra
  Publisher: Leisure $ 6.99 ISBN: 0843950641
  PW
  Strangely transported to a kingdom called "Holly Wood, " Viking warrior Magnus Ericsson meets the woman of his dreams--a modern-day winemaker who fails to recognize Magnus as her soul mate. So he must prove to her that he is a man of exceptional talents.
  Updated 2.20.03
• The Affair
  Author: Hingston, Sandy
  Publisher: Berkley $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0425189074
  Booklist
  Years after meeting gambling proprietress Christiane d'Oliveri in Paris, Irish lord Gannon Finn carries a torch for her--despite her humiliation of him. Now a respectable headmistress of an academy for girls, Christiane is about to learn a hard lesson when the rakish Gannon comes back into her life.
  Updated 3.13.03
• Getting Over Jack Wagner
  Author: Juska, Elise
  Publisher: Pocket $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 0743464672
  Kirkus
  Eliza has spent her entire life trying to find a passionate relationship and has been consistently disappointed. A child of the eighties, she assumes early in life that "rock stars" are the only answer to a "deep" boyfriend. With the help of her mother and friends, Eliza must reevaluate her aspirations for love and the very way she defines herself.
  Updated 2.10.03
• Worth Any Price
  Author: Kleypas, Lisa
  Publisher: Avon $ 7.50 (paper) ISBN: 0380811073
  PW
  Fleeing to avoid a marriage to a controlling nobleman, Charlotte is soon captured by a treacherous foe: Nick Gentry is daring, dangerous, and reputed to be the most skillful lover in England. His mission is to return her to her hated enemy. However, he shockingly offers her a very different proposal.
  Updated 12.16.02
• Beyond Sunrise
  Author: Proctor, Candice
  Publisher: Ivy $ 6.99 ISBN: 0345447182
  PW
  The bestselling author of Midnight Confessions presents this breathtaking tale of India McKnight, an independent 19th-century woman who sails to the unknown South Pacific and finds unexpected adventure--and love.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 3.31.03
• Hot Pursuit
  Author: Skye, Christina
  Publisher: Dell $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0440237599
  Booklist
  Suspense writer Taylor O'Toole's life starts to resemble one of her novels as she's thrown into the path of a stalker. Navy SEAL Jack Broussard is assigned to protect the writer, who now may be a key link to finding a missing scientist, and poses as her neighbor. When an attempt is made on Taylor's life, Jack had better watch out for his heart.
  Updated 1.25.03
Also: Gone Too Far by Suzanne Brockmann (July), Mother Road by Dorothy Garlock (June), Wish Come True: Carson Springs by Eileen Goudge (June), Lover's Lane by Jill Marie Landis (May), Changing Habits by Debbie MacOmber (May), Adventures of a Scottish Heiressby Cathy Maxwell (May), Lawless by Diana Palmer (July), A Love Noire by Erica Simone Turnipseed (July).

Speculative Fiction

• Fat White Vampire Blues
  Author: Fox, Andrew
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 0345463331
  Booklist
  If Dracula slept with A Confederacy of Dunces, this funny first novel about Jules, a feckless, overweight vampire would be the result. He's watched his neighborhood go to hell--and now, a new vampire is looking to drive him out. Jules must find a way to contend with life's hurdles--without getting a stake through the heart.
  Updated 4.28.03
• Lost in a Good Book
  Author: Fforde, Jasper
  Publisher: Viking Books $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670031909
  KirkusLJ
  Literary detective heroine Thursday Next returns in this follow-up to the acclaimed The Eyre Affair. To rescue the love of her life, Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe's "The Raven." Soon, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences.
  Updated 3.13.03
• The Wreck of the River of Stars
  Author: Flynn, Michael
  Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0765300990
  Kirkus
  In this magnificent stand-alone epic of the spaceways, author Flynn grows in stature. The luxury liner River of Stars was once the envy of all solar sailors, but she operates now as a tramp freighter and her crew is a motley group of misfits. When an unlikely and catastrophic engine failure strikes, the story of their doom has the inevitability and power of a Greek tragedy.
  Updated 1.10.03
• Daylight
  Author: Knox, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345457951
  PWBooklist
  Beautifully written, Daylight combines Knox's greatest gifts, her wildly imaginative storytelling and her clear eye for atmosphere and place. The vampires of this book are distinctly Knoxian, as intriguing and intelligently drawn as the angel in The Vintner's Luck.
  Updated 3.31.03
• Changing Planes: Stories
  Author: LeGuin, Ursula K.
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 22 ISBN: 0151009716
  Library JournalKirkus
  The misery of waiting for a connecting flight at an airport leads to the accidental discovery of alighting on other planes - not airplanes but planes of existence - in this humorous and poignant series of stories by National Book Award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin.
  Updated 4.24.03
• The Light Ages
  Author: MacLeod, Ian R.
  Publisher: Ace $ 23.95 ISBN: 0441010555
  PW
  In this moody work set in a fantastical Age of Industry, Robert Borrows runs away from Bracebridge, West Yorkshire, only to find that he cannot escape from the magical secrets of his past.
  Updated 4.14.03
• Ilium
  Author: Simmons, Dan
  Publisher: Eos $ 25.95 ISBN: 0380978938
  PW
  From the Hugo Award-winning author of the Hyperion Cantos comes the first book of a breathtaking new saga based on the themes of Homer's The Iliad and Shakespeare's The Tempest--a groundbreaking work from a "magnificently original" (Denver Post) writer.
  Updated 5.29.03
• The Wizard Hunters: The Fall of Ile-Rein
  Author: Wells, Martha
  Publisher: Eos $ 24.95 ISBN: 0380977885
  Kirkus
  Filled with wonder, adventure, magic, and danger, this is the first volume in an epic fantasy trilogy--the sequel to The Death of the Necromancer--from "one of the best new writers the field has to offer" (C. J. Cherryh).
  Updated 2.23.03
• Sims
  Author: Wilson, F. Paul
  Publisher: Forge $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765305518
  Kirkus
  A new science thriller, Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated, and manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims", genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human.
  Updated 2.23.03
More Speculative Fiction Stars

Inspirational Fiction

• In His Image Christ The Clone Trilogy, Book 1:
  Author: Beausigneur, James
  Publisher: Warner $ 18.95 ISBN: 0446531251
  Booklist
  Based on the actual scientific expedition to examine the Shroud of Turin, author BeauSeigneur creates a fictionalized story that links ancient DNA to the coming of the Antichrist.
  Updated 1.25.03
• Flabbergasted
  Author: Blackston, Ray
  Publisher: Revell $ 22.99 ISBN: 0800718372
  Jay's real estate lady tells him everyone in his new town finds dates at church. She never mentioned the Christians who drive worse than the pagans do.
  Updated 6.3.03
• Southern Storm
  Author: Blackstock, Terri
  Publisher: Zondervan $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 0310235936
  Police Chief Cade disappears without a trace after accidentally hitting a man with his patrol car and killing him. While the rest of the police force condemns Cade as a murderer, Blair Owens can't believe he is guilty of such a crime.
  Updated 6.3.03
• That Faith, That Trust, That Love
  Author: Ellis, Jamellah
  Publisher: Villard $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0812966562
  In this previously self-published work about broken hearts, broken spirits, and broken relationships, Ellis demonstrates how things thought to be broken can always be fixed through faith.
  Updated 6.3.03
• The Rescuer
  Author: Henderson, Dee
  Publisher: Multnomah $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 1590520734
  Paramedic Stephen O'Malley is about to run into a night he will never forget: a kidnapping, a tornado, and a race to rescue the woman he loves. This page-turning thriller is by the award-winning author of the Uncommon Heroes series and explores the topic of whether God is trustworthy to be one's deepest, closest friend.
  Updated 6.3.03
• Fallen Angels
  Author: Hickman, Patricia
  Publisher: Warner $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0446691011
  Award-winning author Hickman presents the first installment in the Millwood Hollow series about an unlikely hero and a trio of abandoned siblings struggling for survival in the South during the Great Depression.
  Updated 6.3.03
• Jerusalem's Rain
  Author: Lliteras, D.S.
  Publisher: Hampton Roads $ 19.95 ISBN: 1571743405
  Booklist
  Updated 5.14.03
• Sunrise Song
  Author: Palmer, Catherine
  Publisher: Tyndale $ 9.99 (paper) ISBN: 084237230x
  Dr. Fiona Thornton has committed her life to studying and trying to protect the elephants of Kenya. Rogan McCullough, a wealthy entrepreneur, offers Fiona generous financial support if she will allow him to bring tourists to her camp to see the elephants. Fiona balks at the idea, but when poachers threaten the beloved herd, she and Rogan must work together to protect them. In the process, both reach new depths of faith and discover an unforeseen love for each other.
  Updated 6.3.03
• Irreparable Harm
  Author: Singer, Randy D.
  Publisher: Waterbrook $ 13.99 (paper) ISBN: 1578566347
  Attorney Mitchell Taylor is torn between warring personal and professional interests when he must help his client--a young surrogate mother--and save the chid she carries without sealing the fate of others.
  Updated 6.3.03
• I'll Watch the Moon
  Author: Tatlock, Ann
  Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 0764227645
  From an award-winning novelist comes the story of Catherine Tierney, angry at a God whom she no longer believes exists, and her painful journey back to faith.
  Updated 6.3.03
Also: Cast a Road Before Me by Brandilyn Collins (May), A Case of Bad Taste by Lori Copeland (July), Passing into the Light by Sharon Ewell Foster (March), Speak to Me of Loveby Robin Lee Hatcher (Aug), The Canopy by Angela Elwell Hunt (Aug), And the Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers (May) and Firefly Blue by Jake Thoene (May).

Mystery & Suspense

• The Discrete Charm of Charlie Monk
  Author: Ambrose, David
  Publisher: Warner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0446527963
  KirkusBooklist
  Charlie Monk is the ultimate spy. He has no conscience, no fear--and no memory. Dr. Susan Flemyng, thinks she may have found a way to give him his memory back. As the two of them embark on a series of experiments to recover Charlie's long-lost memory, they find something terrifying in the deepest recesses of his mind.
  Updated 3.13.03
• No Second Chance
  Author: Coben, Harlan
  Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525947299
  Booklist
  Both a white-knuckle thriller and a story about the loyalty of old friends and the love of a father, this is a masterpiece from a bestselling author (Tell No One, Gone for Good) who writes "suspense at it's finest."--Jeffrey Deaver.
  Updated 3.31.03
• Sensei
  Author: Donohue, John
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312288123
  PWBooklist
  When many of America's great martial artists are murdered, college professor and martial artist Connor Burke is dragged into the investigation by the NYPD. With the help of master warrior Yamashita Sensei, Burke follows a trail of clues that leads him to confront his own fear--and the ruthless killer.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 3.27.03
• With a Vengeance
  Author: Dreyer, Eileen
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312265778
  KirkusPW
  Dreyer evokes the edgy, sketchy world of crisis and trauma medical operations in this smart, provocative, page-turning thriller. She combines cutting edge suspense with characters as sharp as knives.
  Updated 3.3.03
• Spiral
  Author: Geary, Joseph
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375422234
  PWBooklist
  Somewhere along the road, writer Nick Greer lost himself in the life and rumored painting of his subject, artist Frank Spira. Moving briskly between London, New York, and Tangier, intricately plotted and deeply atmospheric, Spiral is relentlessly suspenseful from first to last.
  Updated 5.14.03
• Tropic of Night
  Author: Gruber, Michael
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060509546
  KirkusPW
  One of the most frightening and imaginative novels of suspense to arrive in decades, Tropic of Night pits an anthropologist against a powerful shaman who becomes Miami's most feared serial killer.
  Updated 1.29.03
• Haunted Ground: A Crime Novel
  Author: Hart, Erin
  Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 0743235053
  Library JournalBooklist
  This dazzling crime novel debut--already an international sensation--is from a gifted author who combines rich atmosphere with archeology, history, and extraordinary forensic detail.
  Updated 5.14.03
• Where the Truth Lies
  Author: Holmes, Rupert
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 SBN: 0679452206
  KirkusLJBooklist
  " Rupert Holmes seats you gently next to an irresistible narrator only to entangle you completely in her twisted, dark, exhilarating troubles. The ensuing thriller crosses a Dickensian world of deceit and destiny with the slipping glory of 1970s New York and Los Angeles. Every character is so alive with delicious secrets that you'll never suspect Where the Truth Lies." --Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 6.25.03
• The Business of Dying
  Author: Kernick, Simon
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312314019
  PW
  A remarkable first novel from an exciting new British talent-- "the crime debut of the year." (The Independent on Sunday, UK) Cynical and jaded, Detective Sergeant Dennis Milne earns money on the side by doing what he does best: punishing the bad guys. But this time he's been duped.
  Updated 5.6.03
• The Dogs of Riga: Kurt Wallendar
  Author: Mankell, Henning
  Publisher: New Press $ 24.95 ISBN: 1565847873
  KirkusPW
  Bringing the acclaimed series to a close, The Dogs of Riga takes Inspector Kurt Wallander to Riga, Latvia, to investigate the murder of two Eastern European criminals.
  Updated 3.31.03
• A Cruel Season for Dying
  Author: Moore, Harker
  Publisher: Penzler $ 24.94 ISBN: 0892967749
  Booklist
  In this chilling series debut, Japanese-American homicide detective James Sakura must hunt down a brutal killer stalking the streets of New York. When an eight-year-old girl becomes the next victim, Sakura must use all of his instincts to see into the heart of a monster who believes he is waging a war against God.
  Updated 5.29.03
• Lamplighter
  Author: O'Neill, Anthony
  Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743243498
  PW
  Elegantly written and ingeniously executed, The Lamplighter inhabits the pre-Freudian era and explores the dangers of the suppressed imagination. Set in 19th-century Edinburgh, it features a professor of philosophy and his assistant as they unravel a series of gruesome murders and their connection to a troubled young woman.
  Updated 3.13.03
• City of Strangers
  Author: Shannon, John
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 0786711639
  BooklistPW
  In the sixth novel of the series that the Philadelphia Inquirer calls "lean and literate" PI Jack Liffey probes the complex ethnic mix of the Persian communities in Los Angeles in a gripping tale that confronts youthful idealism with perfervid fundamentalism.
  Updated 4.7.03
• Monkeewrench
  Author: Tracy, P.J.
  Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399149783
  PW
  Haunted by their pasts, Grace McBride and the crew of her software company, Monkeewrench, create a computer game where the killer is always caught and the good guys always win. But their game becomes a nightmare when someone begins duplicating the fictional murders in real life, down to the last detail.
  Updated 3.3.03

More Mystery & Suspense Stars

General & Historical Fiction

• Any Human Heart: The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart
  Author: Boyd, William
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375414932
  KirkusPW
  From the acclaimed author of Armadillo and The Blue Afternoon comes a new novel that invokes the tumult, events, and iconic faces of our time as it tells the story of Logan Mountstuart--writer, spy, and man of the world--through his intimate journals.
  Updated 11.12.02
• Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
  Author: Buchan, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670032069
  PW
  Full of humor, clever insight, and a whimsical sense of the absurd, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman is an irresistible and finely written fantasy for anyone who ever wondered what a certain age would look like from beyond the looking-glass--and who will find it ripe with promise that the best days are yet to come.
  Updated 12.23.02
• I Am Madame X
  Author: Diliberto, Gioia
  Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 0743211553
  Booklist
  Even before John Singer Sargent painted her portrait, Virginie Gautreau's reputation for promiscuity and showy self-display made her the subject of Paris gossip. Her scandalous portrait, unveiled in 1884, provides the inspiration for this debut novel--a compulsively readable immersion in Belle Epoque Paris.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 12.2.02
• Hell at the Breech
  Author: Franklin, Tom
  Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0688167411
  KirkusPWBooklist
  The award-winning author of Poachers weaves together historical fact, dark lyrical prose, and blistering action in this stunning first novel of hooded vigilantes in 1897 Alabama.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 5.29.03
• Signal & Noise
  Author: Griesemer, John
  Publisher: Picador $ 26 ISBN: 0312300824
  KirkusBooklist
  Signal & Noise is the epic page-turning story of the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable, and the men and women who are caught in its monumental tide.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 2.28.03
• Forever
  Author: Hamill, Pete
  Publisher: Little, Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316341118
  PW
  Cormac O'Connor, who arrives in New York City from Ireland in 1741, has been given the gift of immortality--but only on the condition that he never leave the island of Manhattan. Through his eyes, this magical epic follows the city's transformation from a burgeoning settlement to the thriving metropolis of the present day. But this is also Cormac's story as he explores the mysteries of time and immortality, death and loss, sex and love.
  Updated 12.23.02
• The Pursuit of Alice Thrift
  Author: Lipman, Elinor
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 0679463135
  Library JournalPW
  Poor Alice Thrift is book-smart but people-hopeless. When Ray Russo, social-climbing purveyor of carnival fudge, decides to pursue her romantically, Alice reluctantly follows. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift brings the socially tone-deaf Alice out from under the burden of her clueless and beautiful mind.
  Updated 3.13.03
• Star of the Sea
  Author: O'Connor, Joseph
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151009082
  KirkusLJ
  In this spellbinding tale of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the farther the Star of the Sea sails toward the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go. As urgently contemporary as it is historical, this gripping and compassionate novel builds with the pace of a thriller to a stunning conclusion.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 4.29.03
• The Blue Moon Circus
  Author: Raleigh, Michael
  Publisher: Sourcebooks $ 22 ISBN: 1402200153
  KirkusLJ
  The coming-of-age story of an aging renegade and the boy who finds a home under the big top. Evoking the historical intrigue of Carter Beats the Devil and the ragtag characters of O Brother Where Art Thou?, author Michael Raleigh leads an oddball circus ensemble across the recently tamed, dust-blown American West. - Publisher marketing
  Suggested Reading: Circus Fiction | Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 3.31.03
• A Ship Made of Paper
  Author: Spencer, Scott
  Publisher: 0060185341 $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060185341
  KirkusPW
  In this new work by the author of Endless Love, a passionate interracial love affair threatens to destroy two families and injure everyone close to them.
  Updated 2.4.03
• The Songs of the Kings
  Author: Unsworth, Barry
  Publisher: Talese $ 26 ISBN: 0385501145
  KirkusPW
  As the harsh wind holds the Greek fleet trapped in the straits at Aulis, frustration and political impotence turn into a desire for the blood of a young woman--blood that will appease the gods and allow the troops to set sail. High-sounding principles clash with private motives, and dark comedy ensues.
  Suggested Reading: Ancient Greece
  Updated 2.20.02
• A Palestine Affair
  Author: Wilson, Jonathan
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 23 ISBN: 0375422099
  PW
  When Mark Bloomberg, a disillusioned London painter, arrives in Palestine to take up a propaganda commission, he and his wife accidentally witness the murder of a prominent Orthodox Jew. This provocative murder--swiftly pinned on an Arab boy--becomes a test of their marriage and their ideals.
  Updated 5.12.03

Book a Trip - Travel Tales

• Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, and Journey to the Ends of the Earth
  Author: Glick, Daniel
  Publisher: Peresus $ 26 ISBN: 1586481541
  PW
  In this frank and funny memoir, a suddenly single father--and nationally known environmental reporter--takes his children on a world tour of some of the world's rare and endangered life forms while reckoning with loss, change, and the challenges of parenting.
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  Updated 5.8.03
• Stolen Figs, and Other Adventures in Calabria
  Author: Rotella, Mark
  Publisher: North Point $ 25 ISBN: 0865476276
  PWKirkus
  Rotella's Stolen Figs is a marvelous evocation of Calabria and Calabrians, whose way of life is largely untouched by the commerce that has made Tuscany and Umbria into tourist redoubts. This is a model travelogue--at once charming and wise, and full of the earthy sense of life that characterizes Calabria and its people.
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  Updated 5.9.03
• In Search of King Solomon's Mines
  Author: Shah, Tahir
  Publisher: Arcade $ 24.95 ISBN: 1559706414
  Library Journal
  A shop near the site of the temple built by King Solomon is where Shah, the author of the much-praised Trail of Feathers and Sorcerer's Apprentice, begins his journey. Intrigued by a map he finds there, he sets out to find the king's gold mines, and the clues point across the Red Sea to Ethiopia. Tahir Shah's trail takes him and his readers on a quest described as both "quixotic" (Huntsville Times) and "challenging" (Publishers Weekly).
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  Updated 4.29.03
• Dark Star Safarai: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town
  Author: Theroux, Paul
  Publisher: Houghton Miffliin $ ISBN: 0618134247
  KirkusLJ
  Widely acclaimed as one of the world's best travel writers, Theroux takes readers on the ultimate journey across the world's most complex and mysterious continent.
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  Updated 1.16.03

More Travel Tales